Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man
- —■— -And He May Be Wrong
What CAN Be Done?
In a “free society” what really CAN
be done about ^trikes of key groups?
If “free men” are denied the right
to quit the work they surely are no
longer free.
There is sorfle archaeological evidence
to support the premise that other high
ly developed civilizations foundered on
hostile shores not totally unlike this that
threatens our complex society today.
In the sense of mechanical technology
we have no evidence that any society
ever reached--t^e-Tofty heights we now
occupy, but there is plenty of evidence
to support the fact that numerous cul
tures have existed that equalled, or per
haps surpassed the present insofar as
the loose term “civilization” is concern
ed. " *,' i*
The glories of Greece, the grandeur
of Rome, the enigma of Egypt are fairly
familiar to the average high schqol
student. Less familiar, but perhaps even
greater than these story book Medi
terannean dynasties are the incompara
ble sprawl of the Saracen culture, the
»
Mogul Empire of India, the China of
Marco Polo and the almost forgotten
grandeurs that left architectual splen
dors in dozens of hidden jungles through
out Southeast Asia.
And more recently we have known of
Napoleon’s France, Victoria’s Britain
and Bismarck’s Imperial Germany.
Military defeat .ended some of these,
but far more died from internal rot
than from external attack.
And the central virus that rotted a'
majority of these previous great empires
was the Antoinettean philosophy of
“Letting the mob eat cake.” The Rom
an Caesars gave their mob the circus.
The Saracen world foundered on an
exalted sensuality that makes some of
our-.current high jinks look about like
a Sunday School picnic by comparison.
So in the final analysis the ckjggh of
great powers is a built-in safety-valve
that protects lesser people from dom
inance for too long by any nation, that
climbs to the top of the power dung
heap.
Lanier's In Trouble
North Carolina Insurance Commission
er Edwin Lanier has surely made one
big mistake and if his statement of last
week is correct he has made several
more mistakes that have cost the farm
ers of our general area a great deal of
money. v ■ v
Last week in what he called a pre
liminary report, Lanier said' $139,884.20
had been' stolen by insurance agents, in
surance adjusters and farmers in “East
ern North Carolina.”
He said this had been going on since
1963. ,
Lanier’s first mistake is in throwing
such a blanket indictment over every
agent and adjustor
Lanier knew enough
penny about
he also had
to know who had been involved in this
hail insurance banditry.
And if it has been going on since 1963
Lanier is guilty of not having protected
the public by prosecuting these thieves
much earlier ,and now that he is suf
ficiently concerned to issue such a blan
ket charge he also ought to be gentle
man enough to protect the honest farm
ers, agents and adjusters by calling
names and having indictments issued
against those believed to be guilty.
Rumors around this section are ten
cents a dozen. This is all Lanier’s
The honest people who are
cloud of suspicion generated
ought to demand that he tah
he surely hast to ultimately
is to get specific and nut
jail.
__,
__a nopefal gleam
in the eye of North Carolina Republi
cans. He and his supporters know they
Jiave a very-long row to hoe in electing
a Republican to a statewide office in
North Carolina. The tHck has not been
turned in this century.
But Shallcross is a very determined
man, and he has some excellent tools
to work with in his effort to dislodge
the state’s junior senator.
Shallcross is 46, hardworking and bet
ter than any Republican in this genera
tion he seems to grasp the fact that the
plurality that has kept North Carolina
in the Democratic Party lives here in.
Eastern North Carolina, and he says
he intends to exert a large part of his
effort in this end of the state that Re
publicans have very largely ignored in
the recent pest Jordan will be 70 in
September, 76 at the end of his term if
he is elected.
Heartened by John East’s showing
against Walter Jones in the first con
gressional district* inspired by the bumbl
ing in Viet Nam; the gnawing cancer of
inflation and excited by the almost pious
services Jordan has rendered to Presi
dent Johnson in the Bobby Baker white
wash job, Shallcross is working early,
working hard and he says now in July
that he intends to play with every card
in the 'deck to unseat Jordan, since con:
gress is the key to the myraid abuses of!
our economy, our constitution and oar
basic freedoms.
B. Everett better pack his bag and
think up some good answers to a lot
of bad questions he’ll be asked between
now and November by Shallcross.
Tke Eternal Question
The eternal question of civilization is:
Can we afford it?
Since societies of men began there
has always been an urge to-keep up
with the next-door cave dweller, and this
applies at every level' of society.
Families, churches, counties, states
and national government are spurred on
by this same keeping-up-with-the-Joneses
philosophy. ''
T AIIAtlt Pniinlir in tinnr snJJAwinrr mm
acute attack of this social disease. Hos
pitals, airports, water pollution, schools,
streets, colleges, and recreation are all
in heed of huge chunks of what the tax
payer has less and less of these days.
“Progress,” and the construction trad
es, and the users of each of these facili
ties make very strong cases for each. In
the minds of many nearly all of these
mentioned here come in the “must” cate
gory. - - .
We agree. We do need a better hos
pital and all of these other things, but
can we afford them?
Federal programs now take close to half
of the average person's income ...
and we have all but /lost any contipl
over the rubberstamp congress which
each year levies more and more heavily
on our income.
Over local projects we do still have
total control, and so, many of us feel
that if we can’t control the federal bite
we can at least lessen or keep under
reasonable control the slice of our in
come' that is'taken for city, and county
projects. >
But this can be a “robbing Peter to
pay Paul” attitude, which might cause
the most needM projects to be aband
oned. '
In the months just ahead Lenoif Coun
tians aye going to be asked to decide
the future of the county for a long,
long, time. So far no workable financial
program has been offered by our of
ficials in answer to that question: Can
we afford it?
There, are many remarkable statistics
pouring from the bureaus along .the
Potomac, and it is amazing how little
attention the public pays to the glaring
discrepancies that exist in the so-called
“fair” expenditure of tax monies. -
Among the most belabored branches
of government is the welfare agency. It
has the thankless job of taking care of
people nobody else wants to take care
of. The people who labor in this vine
yard try to do a good job, but the odds
are against them and the illogic of na
tional policy is unbelievable.
Consider: In the nation as a whole 123
persons out of 1,000 over 65 draw a wel
fare check in the category of old age
assistance. But in Louisiana the rate is
490 persons — or just a tiny fraction
less than half of all past 6S getting a
welfare check. Put this beside the Dis
trict of Columbia where the rate is only
34, Virginia where the rate is 44 or
Maryland where the rate is 39. Can any
statistician, sociologist, politician or ma
gician explain such a wide variation? I
doubt it.Vi
In rich Texas the rate is 280 per thous
and. In destitute West Virginia the rate
is 84. In oil rich Oklahoma the rate is
321. North Carolina’s rate is 129. . . al
most four times that of Washington,
D. C. and one fourth that of Louisiana.
And if you think this situation only, in
volves the aged poor take a further look.
The national rate for aid to the blind
is 81 per thousand for people over 18.
In Maryland the rate is only 20 and
in Mississippi the rate is 230. Why are
there three times as many blind reci
pients in Mississippi as in the nation at
large and 11 time as many as in Mary
land? North Carolina’s rate in this cate
gory is 178, while Sister State Virginia’s
rate is just, 44 per thousand.
Aid to the permanently and totally
disabled averaged 4.7 persons per thous
and between the ages of 18 and 64 in
the nation. But Mississippi’s’ rate is 14.7
and in Texas the rate is only 1.
The national rate for dependent chil
dren is 42 per thousand for all children
under 18. But in West Virginia that
rate is 140 and in Texas the rate is only
Thorn ic nn lnm’nMl __i*_0__
nation
ava>
these variations, but there is even less
for the way the-money is thrown around.
Take a look further at the variations.
The national average monthly payment
for old age assistance is $77.94. Yet the
average check in Oklahoma is $95.20
and the average check in Mississippi is
$39.38. North Carolina’s average is
$61.67.
The totally disabled nationally average
$78.62 per month. Again Oklahomans
get $110.48 while Mississipians get $43.
47. North Carolinians average in this
category $70.34.
The average check per family for de
pendent children in the nation is $182.41.
In Washington, D. C. the average
$J.55.40. In Mississippi $39.34
North Carolina* $99.89.
The aiverage per child in th^
is $33.10 per month. In Oklahoma
$34.70, in Mississippi $9.87, in North
Carolina $24.15. Does poverty and need
vary so greatly just across state lines?
The dependent child in Washington City
gets $32.66 and over the river in Vir
ginia'the average is $25.49.
Then you can take these sa&e cate
gories of federal aid and break them
down within states as between coun
ties and you wind up with equally un
explainable variations. The wily thing
that is uniform— state by state an!
county by county — is the tax rate and
the people getting the most from these
and other federal programs pay no more
federal tax than those who get much,
much less. Equity does not exist in the
system. The rule is that of
whim, not logic, not need,