EDITORIALS
Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man
And He May Be Wrong
Presbyterian Prattle
The f*reshytemn Synod of North
Carolina at its 152nd session this year
passed a long-winded resolution calling
for repeal of the so-called speaker-ban
law. We doubt that many of the 150,000
members of The Synod have taken the
time to read this prattle from their
preachers.
Among its vacuities is the stated de
sire to fight Marxian communism by
supporting its right on the campus of
state and church-supported schools. This
is like fighting snakes by incubating
snake eggs.
Supporting its perversion The Synod
points with pride to a speech on the
Davidson campus by an atheist, and the
Synod elders confirm their general ig
norance by declaring, “There is no way
to teach the truth without exposing the
mind to falsehood.” (Jesus said, “The
truth shall make ye free.”)
And finally this utter absurdity: “The
prime and most compelling reason for
our opposition to the Speaker Ban Law
is that it constitutes politicial interfer
ence in the affairs and responsibilities
of duly appointed trustees for our state
institutions of higher learning.”
This is what one might expect from
a collection of preachers and their pious
“Amen Charlies.” All they want, the
congregation, or the taxpayers to do
is put up the money and then keep
their damned mouth shut about the
way the “annointed” and the “appoint
ed” spend the money and use or abuse
the facilities provided by the ever-bleed
ing congregation or taxpayer.
These convened Presbyterians have
missed the entire point of this long
winded dialogue: The General Assembly
has not banned the teaching of Marxian
communism. The General Assembly has
not ordered that tender young minds
could no longer be exposed to academic
falsehood.
The General Assembly has only acted
to correct the known imbalance of these
academic liars; and this was done only
after these academicians refused to
heed repeated warnings.
Compounding Absurdity
This week a news release from the
Social Security folks says, “If you are
the widow of a man who worked under
social security and you would qualify
for monthly widow’s benefits at the
age 62 you may now have benefits
started as early as age 60.”
Apparently the bureaucrats in the
“SS” office have not been reading the
papers lately. Congress months ago
passed a bill eliminating each and every
discrimination of every kind because of
sex. •• .
Yet they are still discriminating
against, men, by firstly not allowing
them any survivor benefits and by
denying men the right to begin draw
ing benefits at ages earlier than 65.
Finally, and worst the entire “SS”
apparatus grossly discriminates against
single people of every sex, because for
the same payments married people have
tremendous benefits for children. The
single person pays for benefits he or
8h€ cannot possibly have, and in addi
tiorl to this must also pay much heavier
income taxes.
“Equal Justice Under Law” is chiseled
in marble over one of the palaces in
Washington, but if there were “Equal
Justice Under Law” each persons would
pay exactly' the same fate of tax; yet
some people pay no income tax on
their income, others pay a little and
still others have to pay as much as 91
per cent of certain segments of their
income.
Equal Justice is- an absurd- dream;
nearly as ridiculous as exact and equal
rights for women, or negroes, or Bap
tists or Jews or goats or cats. Justice is
possible, however; but when it is put on
the basis of equality it becomes a mock
ery- _ „•- , -s
Fining a millionaire $100 for drunken
driving is hardly equal to fining a $50
per, week truck driver $100 for drunken
driving. *
The egalitarian concept is hateful,
dangerous, and, of course, impossible.
ive
the current sins of omission of
_,j of North Carolina officials is
the ordinal sin of cowardice.
In addition to having been taken to
the legislative woodshed because of
their leftwing abuses of their sacred
“Academic Freedom” they have also
been sent packing by the student coun
id of the unit at Chapel Hill.
Somewhere along fraternity row a
student, who also happened to be presi
dent of all 12,000 of the bodies in the
Chapel ffill school, took a young lady
to his room, after dark,'after hours, af
ter something.
This young man was taken to task
for his violation of the rules, as well as
the state law; and he was asked to re
sign his commission by both the stu
dent council and the school’s adult offic
ials He thumbed his executive nose at
both, but not before the student council
had told the adult officials to mind their
own business and to stop interfering
. with activities of students.
A Chapel Hill newspaper, critizing
this young man for not turning in his
badge, has this to say, “The issue was
unfortunately clouded when the Urn
, versity administration, realizing the sig
nificance of the situation, issued an ulti
matum to Dickson to resign. This usurp
ing of student authority was subse
quently rescinded by the administration.
And isn’t this exactly the same situ
ation that exists between the adminis
tration and the legislature; except that
the legislature’s patience finally ran out
and it stood up and told its “children
what kind of wood makes shingles. It’s
a pity that the school officials cannot
find similar courage and take this stub
born student to the woodshed, along
with the whole student council if they
keep on acting ugly in front of com
pany.
Congressional
Hypocrisy
This year a large majority of both
i houses of congress voted to turn each
s and every fact and function of govern
ment in over 100 Southern counties to
i illiterates.
i To permit illiterates to hold every
! elective and constitutional office, to levy,
i collect and spend, to conduct the courts,
i police the streets and byways; these are
the least of possibilities for many coun
ties ' under this so-called voting rights
bill which Martin King and Lyndon
Johnson blackmailed through congress.
But when these same high-principled
legislators had an opportunity to turn
Washington, D. C. over to similar tender
mercies it chickened out. Nearly 60 per
cent of the nation’s capital is negro,
and almost 90 per cent of the school
; population is negro. But who runs Wash
ington, D. C.?
Not its citizens. Each year with a bit
of the bitterest hypocrisy the affairs of
this major city are turned over to a
committee from the house of represen
tatives, generally composed of South
erners from “safe districts” who can
do the things that must be done to rule
the world’s largest negro city.
But the negroes of Washington are
not overwhelmingly illiterate as their
brothers and sisters too frequently are
across the South. Also the Washington
negro cannot qualify as a “have-not”
since thanks to the generosity of this
same free-spending congress — Wash
ingtonians enjoy the highest per capita
income in the nation.
So here we see the two ugly sides
of this congressional face: In the first
instance these two-faced lawmakers
climb upon their humanitarian charger
and declare loudly enough-for every
negro, voter in ‘their home district - to
’ hear that negroes must have the right
to vote whether they can read the bal
lot or not.
And then on another day these same
bigots turn their back suddenly on what s
supposedly is the world’s most literate,
most cultured, most highly paid group
of negroes by telling them that the
. things their illiterate cousins can do in
Alabama; they cannot do in Washington,
D. C. .
—--—
jack rider
Four years and a traction ago I heard
Dallas Herring, chairman of the State
Board of Education, say that an alarm
ing number of schools in the state were
guilty of falsifying their attendance
records in order to establish a ptipil
load that would cause such schools to
be allocated more teachers than their
actual enrollment entitled them.
Herring said a great deal of effort was
being exerted to correct this method of
stealing on the part of principals; whose
salary is based upon their teaching cer
tificate and experience plus an addi
tional $5 per month for each teacher in
their school. Each principal who could
boost ,his school’s enrollment by 30
pupils .could add $5 per month to his
pay check.
This year in the northeastern part of
the state a principal was found guilty of
this kind of stealing. He was Slapped on
the wrist and the school board imme
diately hired him back to steal some
more. This is a sad, sad, commentary
on “quality education.” That the disease
was known more than four years ago
and has not yet been cured. And Herr
ing is still chairman of the board and
some principals are still stealing.
This'indirectly smears the honest prin
cipals, who are in the majority and it
makes a mockery of the system which
, permits it to continue and even abets it
by keeping such convicted principals on
the public payroll. It causes one weary
taxpayer such as myself to wonder what
overall per cent of the school tax dol
lar is being collected and spent for
children who are not in class. It’s rather
like the old system of voting tombstones.
It does seem to me, however, that
this malpractice could be easily healed
if the top administrators in the school
system really wanted to put dn end to
it. Counting pupils who are not in class,
and who may in some instances not
even exist surely is a detectable crime.
Or more simply the salary system
could be changed; thus eliminating the
temptation of the thievish principal to
steal. Actually there is no good reason
for paying a principal with 40 teachers
more than one who has 20 teachers, be
cause often, I’m sure, running a small
er school is more difficult than running
a larger school.
On top all of this hanky-panky from
the top side of school affairs we are
confronted — at least statistically by
the story that we still have an amazing
high per cent of illiterates in our state
even after more than a half-century of
free public schools, and supposed com
pulsory school attendance laws.
Big Daddy Rabbit Johnson is setting
up “rehabilitation centers” for malin
gerers who deliberately flunk mental
tests when called up by the draft boards.
Which takes us back to Earl Bell’s ques
tion about: HoW can you rehabilitate
somebody who’s never been “habilitat
ed.”
But education has gotten to be such
a sacred cow that nobody is willing to
question any expenditure, or even any
malpractice of those who become “edu
cators.” Lenoir County at present is
sweating blood, trying to pay for addi
tional classrooms in four schools and
there are more than 20 empty class
rooms in other schools. The racial inte
gration ghost has scared all educators
so badly .they don’t know whether to
fish or cut bait.
And while I’m griping I might as well
mention again that in the midst of all
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
jonesjournalT
•JACK RIDER. puiLiiHn
Published every Thursday by the Lenoir
Coftnty News Company, Int., 403 West
Verndn Ave., Kinston, N. C. 28501, Phone
TA 3-237o. Entered as Second Class Matter
May 5, 1949, at Post Office at Trenton,
North Carolina, under the Act of March 3,
1879. By mail in first zone — $3.00 per year
plus 3 per cent N. C. Sales Tax. Subscription
rates payablejn advance. Second class post
age paid at Trenton, N. C.