THE JONES COUNTY
NUMBER 11
TRENTON, N. C„ .THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1967
VOLUME XIX
Mrs. Rom Mallard Welcomes ACWW President from India
Madame Aroti Dutt (left), president of the
Associated Country Women of the World,
converses with Mrs. Rom Mallard, Trenton.
The visitor from Calcutta, India, was in North
Carolina to address a meeting of the ACWW
— held recently in Hillsboro, N. C. The AC
WW is an international organization of farm
women — dedicated to improving the social
and economic standards of farm people
throughout the world. Mrs. Mallard is a mem
ber of the Women's Advisory Committee of
the N. C. Farm Bureau — one of the farm
organizations sponsoring Madame Duff's visit
to North Carolina.
Jones 4-H'ers Win Superior Camp
Awards During Week at Reidsville
The Jones^ County 4-H Camp
delegation returned home Satur
day, June 24, after a very en
joyable week of encampment at
Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Camp near
ReidsviUe.
No other activity in the 4-H
Club program contributes more
to the all-time objective of 4-H
club work — “4-H Trains Rural
Youth in the art of living,” than
does the well-organized and pro
perly conducted 4-H club camp.
The well-planned program pro
vides for the economic, social,
spiritual and physical growth
and development of all 4-H
members attending.
The 4-H camp is the Gateway
to: adventure, growth and in
spiration. Every 4-H member
should have the opportunity to
go to camp.
During the week two Jones
4-H delegates received superior
camping awards. These awards
went to Gregory Strayhom of
the Murphytown 4-H Club and
Fletcher Barber Jr. of the Balem
Hill 4-H Club.
Also an award for the best boy
in handicraft went to Gregory
Strayhorn. Herbert Brown of
the Riverside 4-H Club received
a certificate for swimming. Oth
er 4^H’ers attending were Louis
Quinn, Archie Perry, Shelton
Becton and Bernard Barber.
The delegation was under the
supervision of Farm Agent
Fletcher Barber.
OVERNITE TRUCK
WRECKED NEAR TRENTON
An Overnite truck driven by
Vardell Mishue of Garner, route
1, was wrecked 1 mile west of
Trenton last Friday at an esti
mated loss of $4,000. Mishue
blamed failure of steering mech
anism as he was attempting to
pass a car driven by Robert Al
len Williams of 206 Tower Hill
Road, Kinston, N. C. as cause of
accident. He struck the rear of
Forestry Students
Attend Training
School at Kinston
More than 100 fore try stu
dents are attending a forest fire
control training school at Kin
ston this week sponsored and
conducted by the North Carolina
Department of Conservation and
Development’s Division of Fores
try.
The training school is being
conducted by Division of Fores
try personnel at the agency’s
Stallings Field training facility.
Students participating in the
training session are from North
Carolina State University, Clem
son University and Wayne Coun
ty Technical Institute.
The students will receive in
struction in the following sub
jects: fire behavior, fire wea
ther, hazard and risk determina
tion, fire tactics, fire damage
measurements and others.
Jack Stickley
Republican Club
Dinner Speaker
John L. (Jack) Stickley of
Charlotte, N. C. will speak in
Kinston at the Fairfield Recrea
tion Center, Friday, July 14th at
7 P.M., sponsored by the Lenoir
County Young Republican Club,
rickets are on sale from YRC
members, by calling JA 3-3816
or 523-2524, or at the door Fri
day night, at $2.00 per plate.
Stickley has been mentioned
as Republican gubernatorial can
didate and is expected to official
ly throw his hat in the ring soon.
Williams car, inflicting approxi
mately $300 damage. No charges
ivere made.
Free Men Must Watch and Criticize Their Government
By Jack Rider
The only people who enjoy the lux
ury of not worrying about their gov
ernment are people who live under
one of the many kinds of dictatorship.
One of the constant responsibilities
of free men is to watch and criticize
their government.
Americans are among God’s freest
people because a major part of their
time is spent in this indoor and out
door sport of giving government hell.
From township constable to presi
dent, every servant of the American
public operates under this same cyni
cal aura of suspicion on the part of
those whose bread they eat.
This is an American characteristic
that shocks some non-Americans and
frightens others. It even bothers some
Americans; especially those who hold
public offices.
Carried to a paranoid extreme this
evil suspicion of all who hold public
office is a corroding thing; more to
the suspector than to the suspected.
But-this tight rein that Americans
keep on their “servants” is directly
responsible for two things: First that
Americans enjoy more true liberties
than any people on the face of the
globe, and are also, in spite of their
frequent complaints to the contrary,
the world’s best governed people.
Those who quote Thomas Jeffer
son, of course, deny this, since to
them “The Best Government is the
Government that Governs least.” But
is it'really?
Would we exchange the government
of an Australian aborigine — who is
governed only by the elements for the
slings and arrows of this outrageous
government we now suffer? Few
would, for if they did-even here in
over-governed America they have the
opportunity.
True, today’s Thoreau cannot pitch
his tent beside Walden Pond, because
it has been made into a tourist trap,
of a sort. But there are millions of
acres of open space where the Modern
Thoreau could sit in quiet contempla
tion; oveseeing the miracles of na
ture and ignoring the material pres
sures of civilization.
But if there were no government
to build roads, or streets, or canals, or
bridges, or airports, or to subsidize
railroads ... no government to build
Schools, hospitals, libraries, parks;
how far would we be from Australian
aborigine?
For this service — for these many
services we pay a heavy price. But
the price is in money, and money
without these other things that most
of us take for granted would be more
of a curse than blessing.
I will be 50 years old if I make it
until August 4th. So a half century
has passed since 1 began squawling.
What would the world be like for me,
and my children if all that govern
ment has done in these 50 years had
not been done?
Most missed 1 suspect would be
roads, because even in my younger
years I can recall when a good road
was the exception rather than the
rule, and when many farmers made
a living just draping Model T’s out
of mudholes which the farmers plow
ed and watered every night.
Without government, aviation would
still be a toy, not far removed from
what Wilbur and Orville Wright flew
down at Kitty Hawk 64 years ago.
There is hardly a direction one can
look toward or a trade one can work
in that has not been vitally changed
by the interplay of governmental acti
, vities in these '50 years.
From the most mundane to the
most exalted callings these changes
have come about as the end product
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of free men, seeking a better way of
life, at a profit, and in spite of the
“confounded interference of govern
ment”. Actually very little of this for
ward progress would have been possi
ble without the “meddling of govern
ment”.
And a paradox of this vociferous
anti-government attitude is that those
who squawl the loudest have generally
prospered most under this “govern
ment meddling”. But philosophically
this, too, is perhaps as it should be,
since they not only have profitted
most, but also having prospered, they
have more to lose, and this gives them
an incentive that less successful peo
ple lack.
The American system is still the
most violent revolutionary political
force in the world today. The United
States is the only major country that
has to maintain immigration quotas,
and unlike those planned paradises un
der one form or another of state so
cialism, the United States citizen is
free to leave anytime he wishes.
There is no wall either literal or
spiritual around the comings and go
ings of Americans. The only thing
that limits their venture is money or
time or both; certainly the govern
ment offers little control of this kind.
But there is a limit even to the good
things available to this American so
ciety. The demarkation line between
being a have and a have-not nation is
veyy fine, and no society can survive
for long when the truly productive
citizen is overloaded with the best in
tentions of doing things, through gov
ernment for people that they can and
should do for themselves.
Lincoln’s principle that, “Government
should do only those, things for the
people that the people cannot do for
themselves.” is the best guide for gov
ernment policy ever conceived.
Today too many have decided on too
many governmental projects of the
kind in which people will not, rather
than cannot.
Wiping out poverty, for instance, is
not the job of government. This is a
totally individual thing. Many people
are better off in every happy index
with very little than others are with a
great deal more; so money is not an
absolute index to poverty.
Some of the most poverty stricken
people are those who have a great
deal of wealth, but lack the ability to
share and enjoy what they have.
Government is also moving far be
yond the rational in an almost psy
chopathic effort to “educate” every
mother’s son, when unhappily there
are a great many who cannot absorb
education and even more who will not.
But after all of the excesses and
shortcomings of government such as
ours are weighed against each other
one has to admit in the final analysis
that the power to change; either for
more or for less government still re
mains completely with us cynical, su
spicious, griping voters.
Already a majority of us own homes,
and feel the blow of property tax as
well as income tax and all the count
less other taxes that gnaw away at
one’s pay check.
But whether the free-spenders or
the tight-wads are elected the services
of government will have to continue,
and likely expand; since in the com
plexly interdependent world of today
there is no other path that people
will willingly take.
The job of every one of us cynical
citizens, and especially those of us who
hold public office is to “Get The Most
of The Best for The Least Money”,
and come to think of it, this is a
pretty good system for personal as
well as public spending.
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