Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Dec. 21, 1961, edition 1 / Page 2
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-—— EDITORIALS Never Forget That There Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man ------:-And He May Be Wrong Smiley Sees Only Part of the Problem A Doctor David Smiley, whose naige i^ poetically fitting, is charged primarily with teaching history to the students of Wake Forest College. On Sunday, however, Smiley was grinning forth from the amusement sec tion of the Raleigh News and Observer. Smileys’ particular part of the amusement section was a full-paged advertisement for his forthcoming novel on Cassius M. Clay, ibut secondarily he bit a few licks on the ignorance and poverty of the South. This teacher’s article offers nothing new to readers of this Raleigh Gazet'te, but is simply another in a continuing series of de nunciations of . the South which have deco rated the pages of this journal for much too many years. Smiley re-informs us that everyother sec tion of the nation is superior to the South— morally, economically and, of course, intel lectually if we are fools enough to swallow his hokum. This hysterical history teacher from Wake Forest uses words from the unlamented Cas sius M. Clay to deplore slavery as an in stitution, which one might have hoped to be a settled issue. After which he moves on to the major premise of his preachment, which we had rather expected from the op ening sentence. , He tells us, “An important aspect of the new philosophy would be to recognize the negro as Southern also, and to admit him to the good life of the section.” And this, after his first 1500 words in which: he asserted there is nothing good about life in this amoral valley of vanity and ignorance called the South. Doctor Smiley ignores with typical intel lectual license the fact that the rehabilita tion of the South was retarded not alone by Southern cupidity dnd our slavery to “Il lusion.” Jhere Were such minor things as payment of the greatest war indemnity ever levied against a defeated people in tfee his tory of the world. For more than 75 years every pound of freight coming to or leav ing the South paid a 35 per cent war indem ity freight tax. For 10 years after the end of the Civil War a federal “msurrectibn tax” was levied against every square foot of land in the South. Shades of Japan and Ger many today. For the same period the South was the stalking ground for such predatory wildlife as the Wall Street banker, the rail tycoons and more recently the electric power trusts. The .bleeding of the South — negro and white, for generations by this process had nothing to do with segregation or integra tion. Smiley, with the psychosomatic blindness of the professional bleeding heart, tells us, “If accepted as human beings and accorded the rights and opportunities of citizenship, the great majority of Southern negroes would vote and think like other Southerners.” What others? Jonathan Daniels, Ralph McGill, Harry Golden(hurst), Hodding Carter, Da vid Smiley ? Paradoxically, the Smileys among us do not want the negro to be accepted as others — they demand for negroes a super-citizen ship that comes from the mumbo-jumboland of theo-socialisrrl. They want the negro to be “given”, and jhey refuse to wait for the negro to earn his position. That considerable, and respected percent age of Southern negroes who have earned citizenship enjoy it fully — more fully than anywhere else in the world, including such citadels of cynicism as New York City! No where on this planet today do so many negroes enjoy so many “rights” as in the Southern United States. More negroes from the 10 million in the South attend college than from all the 200 million negroes of Africa. Negroes in the Southern United States own, more homes and automobiles than all the other neferoes in the world.' Southern negroes are safer in their , homes, in the courts and on -their jobs than any other negroes anywhere in the world today. To suddenly by prayer or, % federal fist turn over the total political'and economic ap paratus of several hundred Southern coun ties to negroes who have hot earned the right, and who have not learned the differ cdcc ' between freedom End license would be - to create county-sized Congoes allover tit} Sontljte Shattered Image The shattered image of India Prim*; Min ister Nehru now lies before the’ world, and 1 'for so little cause. \ \ Heir to the^ peacefulness of Ghandi, this era’s most eloquent spokesman for the mid dle ground” and,defender of the uncommitted nations, Nehru now stands naked before the world aS both a coward and a man of little honor. • f . ' ' V V* The pitiful bleat from New Delhi when Cub an rebels debarked from the United States to attempt to retake their own land, the no ble refusal to bargain over principles all are now revealed as empty mouthings from a two-faced opportunist. Not since Russia's rape of Finland and occupation of Esthonia and Latvia has there been anything on the international scene to compare with India’s cowardly greed. Even if the tiny bits of land that Nehru’s forces have “won” belonged to major pow ers India’s act would be morally indefensible. But the grabbing of $uch tiny pockets of land and people that belong to a second or third class power is not only illegal and immoral but is craven as well. Now is die time when a final decision must determine the future of the United Nations. If the United Nations do not act against In dia as they did against North Korea then the UN is simply a cat’s paw for the big nations and a mockery for the little. There was much more justification for the unification by force of Korea, than there is for the gobbling np of such tiny morsels as these Nehru’s brave soldidrs have “won" •this week. The Congoese have much more right to The Farm Problem Happily, the farm problem in the United States has nothing, in common with the farm problem in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Here, every year there is. need for fewer hands to till the soil, and in Rus sia they have had to trim back their in dustrialization in order to release more man power for the fields. 'Here we are overfed and still have moun tainous. surpluses of practically every food stuff. In Russia the food supply is better now than it has been but it is still far from adequate when compared to ours. Less than 10 per cent of our population produces far more food than we can eat, even with increased snacks between meals. In Russia more than half of their population cannot meet the demand fot foods and fibers. Our agriculture program costs us nearly nine billion dollars per year at the federal govenment level and more millions at the state and county levels. . Some farm leaders and many political leaders insist that the farm economy would be far better off if every kind of governmen tal control and subsidy were immediately stopped. , We insist that this is a suicidal path to travel. A farmer cannot control with any degree of certainty and timing his produc tion. He must prepare, plant, cultivate and harvest whatever nature has permitted to ripen for the harvest. An automobile or steel plant can be “pro grammed” for production years in advance, and that program can be followed daily and with amazing accuracy. With such a small percentage of our pop ulation feeding the rest of us, it is exceed ingly dangerous to toy with unfettered pro duction and market place prices. When 50 per cent of our nation were farmers, there was a very slight chance of all qf them being wiped out financially in a given year, but with less than 10 per cent it is possible that all could be knocked off the farm with one disaster in the form of drought or flood. We must keep surphises^or run the risk of starvation from a single bad crop year. JONES JOURNAL JACK RIDER, Publisher Published Every Thursday by The Lenoir County News Company, Inc-. - 403 ~ West Vemon Ave., Kinston, N. 0* Phone JA 3* 2375. EnteredasSecond Class Matter May 5,1949, at the Post Office at Trenton; North Carolina, under the Act of March 3, 1879. By Mail in First Zone — $3.00 Per Year' Sabacriptioh Rates Payable in Advance, oecona ljsss & ostsffc raid at,ircDtOQ> rt, c,. their own 'brutal forms of civil war than In dia has jo steal a possession of four and a excuse for them being kept any kmger in The Congo and the “police action” of Korea was an empty gesture. The UN is an attempt at wprld govern ment, but tie laws must be enforced against the big and little, against the weak, and the powerful or they are nothing. half centuries from a sovereign UN fortes are not sent to expel from these Portugese colonies t PtRSOHAl PARAGRAPHS BY fi v . JACK RhDER _; • • Not more than six months have passed, I’m sure, since I was writing my last'Christ pias column. But my memory to the con trary notwithstanding, the calendar, my kids, and the general atmosphere declare it is Christmas Time. . . ;- > And in that spirit, I want to extend my most sincere wish to both my readers that they have a happy Christmas and a merry New. Year . . . This is the season when the annual debate takes flace on the proper way to observe Christmas. Some souls declare that Christ mas is far too commercialized today, and that we spend too much time on having a good time and too little time in contemplating that the occasion is the celebration of the Birth day of Jesus Christ. I belong to that group who believe that Christ wouldn’t object to people having a good time; but a good time in reason, and with temperance, whether at the gi^t counter, the bar or the table. One can spend himself poor trying to outdo his ability in the gift depart ment, he can drink himself more stupid by over-bending his elbow, or he can bloat him self beyond any reasonable limits by stuffing himself with too much rich foods. But all of these things can, and do take place at times other than Christmas. Per haps, they happen a little mort?' at Christmas than at other times of the year, but Dec ember certainly does not monopolize the un wise use of money, wine or food. I suspect that even the most sanctimonious among us would have an extremely hard time celebrating the Birth of Christ without money, drink or food. I personally may be broke but I have established a good line of credit with my grocer so I don’t plan to spend my Christmas holiday• fasting. As I have mentioned on several other Christmases; exchanging gifts is not un Christian. Selling gifts makes'the merchant happy, giving makes the donor feel good all but the most dyspeptic are gladdened on receiving a gift. The fact that the buyer of after July 4th to get all "his Christmas bills paid up is beside the point.. Another opinion of mine that may not be popular nor prevalent is that parents should cherish the legend of Santa Claus for bach of their children just as long as they pos sibility can. They will be “grown” suddenly, away from the world of fancy and tossed into the cold sea of reality. I don't believe that helling them fairy tales will make them psychotic, not nearly so frequently ?s tear ing away all their happy illusions too quick the gift may have to sweat ly.
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Dec. 21, 1961, edition 1
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