EDITORIALS
Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man
- - .- -And He May Be Wrong
English Courage
An act of magnificient courage last
week by George Brown, Minister of Ec
onomic Affairs in the new British La
bor government ought to be engraved
deeply in the minds and actions of union
leaders on this side of the Atlantic.
Brown is a product of British trade
unionism, and this government is the
culmination of trade unionism power in
that tight little isle. But in a meeting
last week he told his fellow workers:
"We all know what happens when
wages go up faster than production, and
we all know, if we are honest with our
selves, why wages ■go up faster than pro
duction."
There are just three ways to avoid
the abyss of runaway inflation in any ec
onomy: The Russian method of com
pletely controlled wages and prices, the
‘‘Laissez Faire” method when manage
ment slows down production to that
point where a pool of unemployment
forces workers to become more interest
ed in finding a job than in what the job
pays, and finally the method toward
”Mch free societies are groping, in
which labor and management try to find
an area of mutual respect in which
they each restrain themselves for the
good of the entire people.
The industrial society of man is just
over two hundred years old and collec
tive bargaining less than half as old.
The calculated brutalities of unbridled
capitalism brought the union movement
into being. Today the calculated cunning
of union leaders has forced this question
to be of vital concern to everyone.
As our industrial base has grown
smaller, with an ever increasing per
centage of qut national production merg
ed into few corporate structures the
power of unions has grown in the same
ratio.
And now we have the super-powerful
union and the super-big industry.
And with the emergence of such colossi
there inevitably comes the danger of
a wedding of the two, which in the final
analysis could be much more danger
ous than either if left alone. •
Minister Brown’s words have a timely,
as well as courageous message for those
who will hear.
No Surprise
There was surely no surprise involved
in the decision of the supreme court
upholding these things called civil rights
laws. Even the blindest person in Am
erica could not avoid knowing the tem
perament of these nine sociologists who
call themselves judges.
But the entire mess is ridiculous in
practice because what person of reas
oning intelligence wants to force an
other person to cook for him?
What person would want to sleep,
shop or eat in a place where he knows
his presence is unwanted?
Forcing a barber to use a straight
razor around one’s, face or making an
angry cook serve one food is risky to
say the frightening least.
No good, or bad cook would need
much imagination Jo keep such forced
feeding from becoming habit forming.
A dip of the salt tax, or of the tabasco
sauce would make a can of sardines and
a box of soda crackers taste mighty good,
to any roving civil rights missionary.
Then there is the nf&tter of price. New
York restaurants have for yeafs kept
out any riff raff they didn’t want —
white, black, blue or pink — by having
two prices.
Efforts of the federal government to
enforce equality are impossible and, of
course, the pine nitwits on the supreme
court know this but in order to keep the
negro vote happy, and voting for the
right people, such gnawed-clean bones
have to be thrown in their direction
from time to time.
None but the sorriest element of negro
society, or white society wants to. impose
itself on anyone; so what government
is doing in such an instance is m
itself even more ridiculous in an .<
to placate the implacable. 4J
/ Laati
ingly
gov
it would be an .
mistake to assume 4hat . they are com
pletely happy with the program as it is.
Considerable effort is being made to
correct some of the deficiencies of a
system that has served the tobacco farm
er well. Whether this effort will result
id a switch from acreage to poundage
quotas or modifications of the acreage'
system remains to be .seen.
We all know that production has not
been kept in line with use of tobacco in
recent years so We have to admit that
the present system has failed in this
first instance.
We are told, too, that .quality has suf
fered because of the crowding of more
and more tobacco on less and. less acres
of land, so. in the two most basic areas
— quantity and quality the present sys
tem is a failure.
Sbme suggest that acreage allocations
are all right if a limit were placed on
the number of plants per acre that could
be planted. They say this would be more
fair to the good farmer and to the farm
er who is lucky enough to have superior
tobacco lands.
Their argument is that a flat pound
age quota could possible penalize this
good farmer with the excellent tobacco
land. ,
We do not pretend to be expert
enough to know exactly what would be
best, but we do know, without preten
sion, that something must be done or
the tobaeco program will be dropped by
congress — no matter what per cent
of tobacco farmers vote for it.
Lay Off McNamara
Assorted wounded constituencies are
screaming and plotting against Defense
Secretary McNamara, but such scalping
parties are sharpening their tomahawks
for the wrong man.
Every offended congressman knows
without doubt that McNamara would not
have touched such sacred cows as the
Army Reserves and the National Guard
without first dropping a little hint within
earshot of Lyndon Johnson, who is the
land of felloW who likes to know what’s
going on around, the old ranch house.
The same is true with the closing of
surplus military bases. No person with
jthe political disposition of President
Johnson is going to have men working
Under him doing things of major politi
cal significance unless he agrees.
So all of these lobbyists who are get
ting ready to burn McNamara at the
congressional stake had better take ju
dicial note of the fact that they’re only
going to get to the defense secretary
over the clever and formidable defenses
of his boss, the president.
If this reasonable approach aimed at
economy in the military is carried for
ward with determination there is a
strong likelihood that Johnson may come
up with a balanced budget before his
term of office expires.
We surely hope so.
There are now new ways to say the
things that need to be said about sensi
ble revelry at this particular season of
the year. We trust that those who read
this page already know what common
sense and moderation both mean. And
we trust that they will put into practice
this knowledge. Beating the public over
the head with fierce phrases may be
the current method, but we support
the belief that those who won’t aren’t
and those who will are, and by the time
you decipher Jhat phrase the. holidays
be over and you’ll be suffering noth
ing worse than a syntactical headache,
wMch may be no worse than the usual
holiday hangover.
JONES JOURNAL'
JACK RIDER. niM.nwn
Published eVery Thursday by The Lenoir
County news Company, Inc., 40* West
Vernon Ayr., Kinston, N. C., phone ja s
237». Entered as Second Class matter May
8. 1949, AT THE POST OFFICE AT TRENTON,
north Carolina, unoer the act op Ranch 9,
1979. BY mail IN Pinst ZONE—93.00 Per
Year, subscription Rates payable in advance.
Second class posted* paid at Trenton, n. c.
This is the season of greatest happi
ness for the majority of ns, and I use
this personal method of hoping for each
of you who read it nothing but? joy and
happiness in this Christmas season.
And I wish you to enjoy yourself in
the way that will make you most hap
py; providing, of course, that your own
search for happiness dees not make
somebody else unhappy. . >
Too, whether you are a Christian or
not, you should not have the lesson lost
on you that Christmas is a cSlebration
of the Birth of Christ. And whether one
is Christian or heathen;'none can 'deny
the gentle warmth of the philosophies
of Christ which have been banded down
to us.
If all the philosophies ever spoken, or
written were forgotten or ignored the
perfect world could be possible if ev
eryone were to practice the simplest
philosophy of Christ, which is the very
heart of the religion founded in his
name: “Do Unto Others As You Would
Have Them Do Unto You.”
The churches could be turned to more
useful purposes and preachers could
leave their pulpits if this creed were
practiced by us all. But man is a victim
of his inherent instincts. Too many of
his acts are still rooted in the savage
lust for what he wants, to the peril of
all who get in his way.
Christ knew the weaknesses of man,
so his is a philosophy of both gentleness
and forgivenesses. Each person must
read bis own meaning into thfe teach
ings of Christ, and it'is most un-CHrist
ian for one person to attempt to force
his own interpretation down another’s
conscience.
But if Christ’s teachings did point up
the virtue of forgiveness they also ac
cented the nature of responsibility, and
to me, none of the cowardly things done
today in his name can be found among
his teachings. Christ had to be a man
of unbelievable courage before he could
be anything else. He faced the mobs,
the governments and the passionate
fears of his own people without flinch
ing and died in a most cruel fashion,
still able to ask forgiveness for his mur
derers.
So his courage had to come before his
compassion and he never backed down
in the face of even the ultimate enemy.
That is why my own picture of Jesus
Christ does not include any image of
weakness before one’s enemies, whether
they be personal or spiritual. And since
each, of us has the right, and the duty
to interpret Christ and histeachings
in our own heart; that is the image of
Christ I prefer, and actually the only
one I can tolerate.
High crimes and unspeakable heresies
have been and still are being committed
in the name of The Nazarene, but his
is still a simple creed that even the most
backward savage can understand. Per
haps the basic reason so many savages
in both the green and asphalt jungles
do, not understand this message is be*
pause it becomes so complicated jn the
mouths of those who try to twist it to
personal or sectarian ends.
_is_ v
In this happy season memorializing the
Birth of Christ none of us <*an make a
more lasting contribution to his own
peace of mind and to the ultimate peace
of the world than to adopt in practice
and in principle the brief, beautiful ad
vice he gave to "Do Unto Others As
You Would Have Them Do Unto You.”
With this creed each person will
Pier New Year.' , ~ T -TTl ^