Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Jan. 12, 1967, edition 1 / Page 2
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TS#4?Sf: mjM 'And dh don’t see any signs of a mmmrn . - , i m UMaM&i ho BteST EDITORIALS Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man -And He May Be Wrong Regulating The Regulators This week an understandably concern ed friend asked, “Who regulates the regulators?” and then explained that he was specifically wondering about who controlled the official bureaus that are charged by law with controlling the pub lic utilities and insurance companies. In theory the governor picks the members of the utilities commission, but in practice this vitally important commis sion is controlled far more by the rich utilities than it is by the governor. In theory the voters of the state elect the insurance commissioner and he, in theory, runs the insurance department, but in practice the rich insurance com panies have far more to do with running the insurance department than the noble voter or the elected commissioner. We have recently learned from a Fed eral Power Commission ruling that Caro lina Power & Light Company has been systematically over-charging all the com munities that purchase power from it for distribution in their own systems. But we have not yet learned how this same power company goes about milking the millions it serves who do not have the protection of a municipal electrical distribution system. The figure has to be monstrous in size and design. We are also slowly learning to what extent the insurance companies have been permitted to prey upon the people of North Carolina; and we are sure that the identical abuses existed in every other state in the union. We have seen our insurance depart ment sit stupidly by and watch year after year while a multi-million dollar fraud was worked upon the people who purchased hail insurance. We all have had numerous personal experiences with the endless abuses the public is forced to suffer under our state’s compulsory liability insurance laws on motor vehicles. Both of these situations should be major issues in the 1968 governor’s race in North Carolina, but we doubt that they will since the utilities and, insurance companies are among the major contri-' butors to all sides in every political campaign of any considerable signifi cance. The Asian Triangle Public and official sentiment in the United States now seems to be divided into three unequal parts on the issue of our involvement un Southeast Asia. The smallest part of this domestic triangle, which possesses the loudest voice and the cultivated propagandizing of the liberal news media, would have us suddenly surrender on any terms and leave imperialism free to walk across the land as it did in Abyssinia and Manchuria and Austria and Czechoslova kia during the fatal thirties. The next largest segment of this do mestic triangle, which possesses control of our government, favors a continua n policy now be prose only stated objective war to and end by ne the na that majority of us who want to win the war and get it over with at the earliest possible moment. So we have the “Doves” the “Setting Hens” and the “Hawks”. We of the “Hawk” feather are pictur ed in the socialist press as atomic dis integrators who want to push Hie panic button of nuclear world war. Nothing could be further from the truth. All this particular “Hawk" desires is that we use the non-nuclear arsenal that, we maintain at such monstrous cost do the very simple military chores can be done without nuclear would quickly end the war. include Both the beasts of forbidden one special Eve was the gentle perkw<f» ,wu« tempted that original Adam to taste the forbidden fruit. And an assortment of “Eves” had a hand in the fall of Har lem’s cast aside “Adam”. And ever since that original Adam there has been many among us who be lieve that the laws are made for some one else, and when they are caught they offer the excuse that other’s, too, have broken the law. The Negro has had a difficult time finding his place in the American sun and principal among the obstacles he has' had to over come is the arrogant, lech erous swindlers who have ordained them selves as their leaders. Every,community has its “Kjngfish”, whose principal occupation is swindling the people he claims to protect. Most tragically a vast majority of these thieves have hidden beneath the cleric’s cloth. . There are parallels in history. 'Hie long ages of Roman Catholic lechery and thievery that erupted in the Reformation and the entire Protestant movement were the hugest instance of religious politicians debasing their calling as they robbed the people, spiritually and ma terially. And finally, the saddest commentary on the Adam Clayton Powells in our midst today is not them as individuals — no matter what degree of crimiriality they stoop to; but is the laughing accep tance of such a thug for so long in such high position, The worst mark in the Powell Affair doesn’t go to the representative fromU Harlem, but goes indelibly against iuAi 434 colleagues in the United Statist House of Representatives. Statistical Static Among the definitions of “static” is “atmospheric electricity which interferes with sending and receiving wireless messages”. The message being sent to North Carolinians by an assortment of “wire less” editors is being badly distorted by statistical static on public school educa tion. North Carolina is held up to rich dis dain for being “42nd” in the union in rank of teacher pay and 44th in expendi ture per pupil. It seems ridiculous to even have to offer corrections and explanations to such absurd “charges”. To proclaim Cali fornia as the model for public school education simply because it spends the most for individual teacher pay and the most for each pupil enrolled is to ignore common sense, and practical experience. And the absurdity is confirmed when we realize that New York State ranks sedond in this spending spree. Apparently our educators, and some of our educated editors assume that quan tity and quality are synonyms. Another'set of “learned” statisticians this week reminds us that North Caro lina ranks 44th in per capita income, and that is also supposed to be another great calamity. Here .again, what idiot would exchange the living conditions of North Carolina’s poverty-stricken $2,041 per capita living for New York’s Asphalt Jungles and the lush $3,278 per capita income its bee-hive inhabitants “enjoy”? To assume that the cost of living is identical in every corner of this wild add wide land is to assume further ab surdity. ■ This statistical syndrome is just one more of the specific signs of the social disease our nation suffers, and a princi pal symptom of which is instant equality a minimum of exertion. - Dropping millions of tons of bombs in the swamps of South Viet Nam and — 1 ■ ' ' ' " .■'-* One day this week I asked County Commissioner Luby Edwards if the hos pital board of trustees had let the coun ty board of commissioners in on their thinking about a site for the much-need ed hospital that is now in the planning stages. Luby said, no, except generally, that the feeling was that it had to be located somewhere in the tangent bounded on the south by Highway US 70 and an the northeast by the Green ville Highway. And having said this Edwards went on to put himself on record with what’I feel to be the most intelligent sugges tion I have yet heard on this vitally im portant subject. Luby said he was in favor of building the new hospital right where the old one is . . . and before I could explode into disbelief he put my hostile fires out and converted me to his cause . . . and he was very ably second ed by Lit Mallard, who threw in. a few wise‘suggestions of his own to supple ment this excellent idea-of Edwards’. As those who keep up with local hos pital affairs may recall, I wasted the better part of two years in an effort to persuade officials NOT to build the hos pital on its present site. But as hap pens with too many such propositions we were both wrong. I was wrong about the utter inadequacy of the site, and the people then fixing hospital policy were totally wrong about hospital design. There’s where Edwards’ idea steps into the breech. Very simple. Build a high-rise hospital with built-in parking. Buy the additional triangle of land to the immediate east of the hospital, build the new facility on that corner where the McCoy home did stand. Build it high enough to provide the desired space, and so that it would be expanded. Close that short block of Mitchell Street and elim inate the hazardous tangle at Warren, Mitchell and Heritage streets. Water, sewer and accessibility to the majority of the people in the county would all be included in such a sensible approach. The nursing home and school would still be close, the Health Depart ment’s building, the offices of doctors and dentists would still be convenient and no new land would have to be pur chased except the small triangle just east of the present property, which could be bought for a fraction of what the more than 50 acres being talked about could be purchased any where around Kinston. With the four-lane improvement of Vernon Avenue, widening of Heritage Street up to the hospital site would not be prohibitively expensive. The existing hospital plant could be put to numerous excellent uses. For extended care, nurs ing home, isolation treatment, venereal clinics, pre-natal clinics and an expand ed school of nursing. Added to all these positive things is the fact that a high rise hospital can be built for less money than one that is spread out over a great acreage. The ground floors in addition to pro viding parking at the first several levels could include space for pharmacies and office space for doctors. This latter no tion was violently opposed by Mallard, who declared that doctors ought not to be permitted to have an office on the same block with a hospital. He has some good personal reasons for this, but they don’t make as much sense as - Mallard’s thinking. Think about this from the standpoint of service and-economy and see if you can find any logical reasons why it is not the best suggestion yet made on this subject. in every corner of the land. To. pay a North Carolina teacher the same pay as a California or New York teacher would be to grossly underpay the California and New York teacher since their costs of living, are
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Jan. 12, 1967, edition 1
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