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J a*f
President ' Kennedy and his economic
theorists mayliave Opened a Pandora's Box
with their irisiitance upon a tax cut, because
they have pyt^into focus and at the highest
level the .feeling of till of us who labor
through the long night to get enough money
to pay the exhorbitant taxes of this era.
But as with other issues of this variety it
has come largely to the attention of the
President and his advisors that there is still
a smattering of intelligence Kin congress and
this legislative logic has risen to meet the
demands for a tax cut with the assumption
that the only way to cut taxes is by cutting
expenditures.
Nothing that has happened to the tyran
nical bureaucracy beside the Potomac since
Andrew Jackson cleaned the stables with
his spoils system has sent such a shock
wave through Washington. Monumental coir
lections of men and women dedicated to
wasting the taxpayers' money literally cover
the Washington, Virginia, and Maryland
landscape. T' d
A Word For TV
t
Nearly all who take up a typewriter for
public writing agree on one thing: The cul
tural poverty of television. We would , like
to lift one small voice against thi» journ
alistic belaboring of TV.
Culture is a difficult word to define. To One
it may-be the cutting of excitingly different
paper dolls; to another the sculptoring of a
massive statue! In the culture of communi
cations it may range from the pie-in-the
face of Skelton to the involuted nuances of
an' O'Neil drama.
Culture ranges from the tofs sand castles
to a Da Vinci masterpiece.
Culture does not have to be unpopular, or
something reserved for the pseudo-intellec
Not one in five of these is concerned with
basic national welfare, and the amount of
money and man-hours of labor that are
poured down the drainof socialistic experi
mentation is too' great' and too disgusting
to tabulate in a small journal of this size.
Each of these,, however, is an instrument
of congress, and one of the most pitiful
bleats to come from the congress is the
repeated plea for the executive to cut spend
ing. ' vvKife
Now comes to the fore that small per cent
of congress who knew that the executive
never has had the ability to spend one, penny,
that was not first approved by the afore
mentioned congress.
This is a headying wine that has so be
latedly been discovered by so many men and
women in congress, Taken in reasonable
doses, it might even balance the national,
.budget, reduce that national debt, clean the
civil service stables of Washington and re
turn this country to the paths of constitu
tional law which served it so well for so
long.
ed upon TV it would hardly provide “cul
ture" for a full month's programming.:
At its best — as entertainment or enlight
ment — TV takes it places beside all the
other media of communication. In the theater
in the past five years ope can count on the
fingers of one hand the lasting contributions
and the same can be applied to writing,
poetry, painting and architecture and all
the lesser fields of cultural endeavor.
The first test of the journalistic culture
bug is: Does the public like it ? If the public
does like it, then it cannot be cultural in
their minds.
This is an obsessive ignorance that would
the kit* of
news room waft*
_ as: "First place
written by an habitual
capitalistic fluffery
JBparHeel'of; the
Week), “First place for editorial on business
ethics by a young man Who cheated his
way through the crip course of Carolina
journalism,” “First place for weekly column
on the' am % a baldheaded long hair in
the men’s room". 'J/ ' ’ ? :
Bu* enough of such recognition. Our
meager circulation cannot give the accolades
this Jioriored representative of the'Hrade dC
Suffice it to say that in a world tortured
•feit:uncertainty ---ill science, in religion, in
politics; it is wholesome to have at least
one constant light shining in the bright win
dow of • North Carolina.
When all else has bowed to the pressures
of time and technology we peasants of the.
east can look west toward Raleigh, content
.in the knowledge that the “Old Reliable” is
today as it ever was: Without peer among
the nation’s metropolitan press. It Started,
at the bottom and has remained there with
a consistency that is remarkable in these
shifting times.
Note To Goldberg
A news release from the Woman’s College
of the University of North Carolina informs
us. that Supreme Court Judge Arthur Gold
berg is to make three speeches on that
school’s campus in October. The topics bf
his speeches will be “Rights Under the
Constitutionand will include “Rights of
TTte#eeple|- “Rights pf the; States’** and
“Rights of the Nation.”
Unfortunately bur schedule will not per
mit our attendance to either of these learn
ed discourses, but this early we’d suggest
that Goldberg and all| the other’s who eat
the taxpayers bread in Washington would
serve their country better- if they put more
etnphasis on "Responsibilities Under The
Constitution" and stopped this platitudinous
lip-service to “rights.”
This mjsh-mash of sentiment and absurdity
that comes out of Washington has. confused
many to the point where they believe that
rights are automatic, rather than earned;
that liberty is a divine dispensation, rather
than a hard-earned and difficult to keep
political commodity..
The very easiest form of government is
a dictatorship — whether it is that of the
absolute monarchy or of * the faceless oli
garchy. All decisions are left to the mighty,
and those below only have to obey.
The roost difficult of all forms of govern
ment is a republic, because it imposes upon
each of its citizens not only the rights of
liberty'but the terrible responsibility of
participating in those decisions which either
extend or end liberty.
The. supreme Court in its recent history
has been too much concerned with the pro
tection of rights agd, top little concerned
with the imposition Of responsibilities.
Currently the judicial mood is that the
negro minority can do no wrong; that it can
ignore the law, elect to obey or disobey with
impunity those laws which it feels are good
or bad. Ibis is not a basis for protecting
liberty, but is the next egg of anarchy. And
the paradox of our judiciary today is that
it sanctions anarchy despite its responsibility
questions on subjects that the newsman is
no more qualified to speak upon than the
questioner. 1 suppose because neWs does
consist of such a; wide range of items it is
logical for the non-newsman to expect the
newsman to know'something about all the
items that get in the news. This is far
from true. ■ v-\- •
One of the questions I hear most fre- ’
quently at present is: “What chance do the
Republicans have in 1964 to elect a governor,
in North Carolina?" ! read the papers, study
the election returns and have no crystal ball,
but my semi-educated guess is that the Re
publicans have a pretty good chance. In fact
the best chance thef have had in this cen
tory-* W.
m
Next year will undoubtedly see Kennedy
seeking another four years in the White
House and no presidept since Hoover has
been held in lower esteem in North Caro
lina than John F. Kennedy. A very large
part of this low esteem has come from the
brutal handling the Kennedys have given
the South in the negro problem. But there
are many factors that have weighed against
Kennedy in addition to this major issue.
The deficit, the tax burden, the Cuban
bungling, the appearance of too many Ken
nedys at high official levels in Washington,
and still the religious'issue burns brightly
in some windows, especially with Catholics
in the speaker’s chair in the house and as
majority leader in the senate.
And prosperity, too, is something that has
caught up with Kennedy. This is a bitter
paradox for tfie politician to swallow, but it
is true that each year, a growing number of
Democrats have gotten rich enough to begin
feeling {ike Republicans. ?
.More than 63 per cent of the people in
the nation now are homeowners, and this
automatically makes them more aware of
tax problems, because in addition to the
usual federal and state income taxes which
we all have to pay the homeowner is con
fronted with such additional taxes as real
and personal property taxes, special school
district taxes, special fire district taxes,
special sewer district taxes and it is the
total of all these taxes that has caused a
majority of us in this most prosperous time
to begin to loudly insist upon redactions in
both taxes and in government spending.
All of this accumulated fury that will be
vented on the Kennedy Clan next year will
also scorch the shirt tails of hip camp fol
lowers such as Terry Sanford* And the
likelihood is that the Republican candidate
for governor will be running against the
Democrat who gets the Sanford backing in
North Carolina. I sayfhis not because North
Carolina is so “liberal" as it is painted by
some of our soothsayers, but because the
conservative 'elements of North Carolina pol
itics' do not'have the good sense to get to
gether and back a single candidate as the
“gliberals" do.
Three able , conservatives in 1960: Lake,
Larldns and Seawell, either far better equip
ed philosophically and intellectually^ to gov
ernor North Carolina than Sanford, were all
consumed in a bitter first primary which
permitted the “gliberals” the luxury of sell
ing tjieir bby twice in.such' a brief period.
But hi th£ face of this and with one of the
weakest candidates the Republicans ever
tossed in a race Sanford came nearer to
being defeated than any I
date to this century. •
■ ■'/—. .
Sanford won, 735,248
but four years earlier,
med Kyle Hayes 76
dition to thr ass~J:~
will hurt » *