Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Aug. 6, 1964, edition 1 / Page 2
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Never Forget That These Editorials Are tte Opinion Of One Man This paper has fostmolove for Jimmy Hoffa and the other thieves who have looted the men they purport to represent and through them the public as a whole. But there are some serious questions that need to be answered before. Hoffa is sent off to a long, if deserved term. •s Is Hoffa any more guilty of thievery than the executives . of several major companies who conspired to control the prices of elec trical generating--'and^; transmission equip ment? Is Hoffa any more reprehensible morally than James M. Landis, who wrote; the se curities and exchange act and who served four different presidents in high capacities and still failed to file an income tax for seven years ? Is Hoffa any more greedy than Bobby Baker, who parlayed his associations in the senate into a considerable fortune? Is Hoffa any more interested in accumu lating a fortune than President Lyndon Johnson, who has risen from a penniless school teacher to a multi-millionaire in 25 years although never holding 1 a job that paid more than $35,000 a year — before taxes — until President Kennedy was assassinat ed? Is Hoffa any more dictatorial than Bobby Kennedy who spent more than five million of the taxpayers’ dollars in his personal vendetta with Hoffa? Admitting' that excusing one rascal his crimes because another avoided punishtnent dor his is no way to implement justice, we cannot avoid the conclusion that justice will seriously miscarry if Hoffa is sent to pris on for a long term for crimes no more seri ous than those for which men such as th? electric company executives and Landis tjrew such pats on the wrist as 30-day jail terms. Right now both of our major political par ties are giving a lot of thought to the par ticular subject of Unity. This, is the sincere hope of one citizen that neither party is able to find Unity. And we doubt that either will. Unity except in time of war is perhaps the worst thing that could happen to a people such as ours. Conformity is for J>ee hives and socialists states. Unity is not for men with brains and minds - of their own. ■ Political unity is only another name for dictatorship. Unity is the thing Russia and Cuba have. The recent past has seen American poli tics drift nearer and nearer to the pitfall of unity. In national campaigns there has not been a cry for real change; only a promise to do the same thing better, or worse. litre has been no desire to change the / play, only the actors. There is every evidence now that the people of the country are far ahead of their “leaders" and that a majority of us really do want a change. In three m<Jre short months we will know if this is right or if the majority of us favor an all-powerful, all-meddlesome, all-every thing federal government. - / The average voter—us included—is tired of hearing about issues of "grave national importance,” and haying heard this bleat so much from the podium pounders w/e hope that it will not be overworked in; the months just ahead. Because it is a certainty, that whether this turn against federal power takes place in November 1964 or not it ultimately will come. We. only hope that we don’t have to wait another four years for it to take place. \ Political War? There are strawsjn the political wind that indicate an acceleration of American activity in Vietnam between now and the November presidential election. For nearly three .years now the American effort in that pint-sized country has largely and trillion! of done. Coming from this sionary efforts—both have been empty indeed to a wars are unimaginably insignific pared to those we so-called civilized whites hatfe, engaged in so frequently and so re cently. Obviously the best thing for the African and the best thing for the world would be for the outside world to leave them to their own unrefined forms of savagery, so that they Could lapse back into the .simple ways they have followed since long ■ before ' the dawn of history. But the world Will not leave these savages to their own devices. Politics abhors a va cuum ; especially a vacuuhS that contains great natural resources. So The Congo and assorted other islands of savage simplicity must submit to one kind or another of out side control. This is a very simple piece of political logic, but one that apparently never oc curred to the makers ofAmercian foreign policy who presided pver and hastened the exit of the Belgians from this troubled sub-contirtent called The Congo. Why we pay such homage to the “status quo” in some' instances of colonnialism and so bitterly oppose others is a question badly in need of an answer in the halls of our American government. The estimated tourist expenditure in North Carolina last year was more than $476 mil lion dollars, with more than $286 millioij. of that coming from out of the state. If our state were not so backward in: providing such attractions as racing and other sports i of that nature the income would be much higher. Florida Finances its government from taxes paid on racing, cigarets, whisky and entertainment. ' ' ber One foreign-policy issue Of the current presidential campaign. The Democrats beat the Republicans over the head and at the polls in I960 with the Cuba situation and since the mess in Cuba can now ^correctly be called a “bipartisan failure” it is necessary to find a purely Democratic fiasco if much mileage is to be gotten insofar as campaign oratory is con cerned. The Democrats, confronted with a first class fiasco in the comic-opera war in Viet Nam, recognize that they are vulnerable and that they need a “victory” over there and preferably before the voting sheep march to the polls in November. The past weekend’s shooting match be tween an American and several North Viet-. namese vessels is a prelude to more events, and- the additional v5,000 American boys re cently sent to that area has- boosted our force there beyond the 36,000-mark. With the military farces now assigned there by our country there is ample grounds to soon expect a “victory,” especially when one considers that the whole country is less than half the size of North Carolina. And there will be a few hundred more empty "hearts in American Homes, whose sons have been sacrificed in this political war. V JONES JOUBNi i;;. , JACK RIDER, Publisher Published Every Thursday by The Lenoir County News Company, Inc., 403 West Vernon Ave., Kinston, N. C, Phone JA 3 2375. Entered ajf; Second Class Matter May 5, 1949, at th« Pdst Office at Trenton, North Carolina, under the Act of March 3, 1879. By Mail in First Zone — $3.00 Per Year. Subscription Rates Payable in Advance. Sect Already the social security tax is gobbling up nearly 7 per cent'of the gross national income and with the “benefits’’ now about to be voted into law it wjU run finally to more than 11 per cent of each pay check. It would be simpler if the congressmen were really interested in helping out the needy to vote the public at large the same kind of retirement program they have for which they contribute no parr of their salary. This would remove from the hard-pressed small businessman the need to keep records withhold money and siidp it off to be wasted in Washington. -7! Few of us would, object to helping the needy if there were some assurance that the money taken from us was really all go ing to the needy, rather than being gobbled up by the vast bureaucracy that inhabits the marble jungles of Washington. At present the/social security administra tion despite an all-time high-employment is not collecting enough mone'y to make its plan actuariaily sound. In brief the billions bejng collected are not enough to "cover the billions in “benefits" that a “promising con gress” has passed out and continues to pass out. Sound estimates say that as much, as a 15 per cent social security tax will ulti- ! mately be necessary sinjply to fund existing “benefits” and each election year congress men reach deeper into your pocket and-mine and pass out more “benefits.” Social security vanishes when the money collected in the name of social security is used for general operating expenses of the government. A much simpler system would be to collect the social security tax and" de posit it in a private institution where ,it could draw interest and be there to the credit of the person who pays it in. There are altogether too many millions of abusive instances in which people pay and pay and pay social security tax and never get the first benefit except a $250 burial payment to their estate. Each person ought to be. assured that either he or his estate would get back every penny that had been paid in by himself and his employer for him. But the smart boys who dreamed this. tax would have no part simple and equitable plan. The person who pays the tax, trom ms first job until his death at 64 — before draw ing a single retirement check — is' robbed. There is no other way to describe it. And each time congress turns on its free heart edness with your money and mine they add another few hundred thousand “windfall” cases to the social security burden. People who pay in foe a few months at the mam mum rate and then turn around and draw the maximum benefit for decades. This ^windfall” clause is stuck in to make the dose more palatable to those who are being added to the taxable list. \ ~ told that the people who need would never engage in security plan. So what: of system our country .. to be founded upon. That each individual has the right to save his money pr splurge his money and I can see
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Aug. 6, 1964, edition 1
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