EDITORIALS
Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man
-———-: And He May Be Wrong
More for Schools?
The Lenoir County School System
which is already far and away the most
expensive school system in this gen
eral area wants a king-sized! boost in its
budget for the coming school year in
sofar as county funds are concerned.
This year from county funds the sys
tem is spending $798,677.45. For the
coming school year it is asking $1,213,
263.05. An increase of $425,585.60 which
comes out at something like a 53 per
cent increase.
This is one budgetary request that
should have the very closest study by
the board of county commissioners.
Last year the Lenoir County School
System spent $488.46 per pupil, compar
ed to $452.76 in the Kinston School
System, $449.11 in the Jones County
System, $452.76 in' the Craven County
System, $423.72 in the Pitt County Sys
tem, $452.74 in the Greene County Sys
tem and $433.07 in the Wayne County
System.
This also does not take into consid
eration that the $449.11 spent in the
Kinston system included the special 2}
cent school tax levied against all real
and personal property in the Kinston
Graded School District.
The proliferation of all school sys
tems is a financial scandal that the pub
lic has next to no understanding of and
the extravagant expansion of the Lenoir
County system is one of the very worst
examples of this fiscal lunacy.
—WHen such a subject is brought up at
"the local lewd the stock answer is and
has.been that the extravagant difference
between the expenditures tor the Lenoir
County schools and the Kinston schools
l« transportation for pupils. A
But this excuse doesn’t wash since
the Craven, Greene, Pitt and Wayne
county systems also haul their pupil:
to and from school and they make ou1
witli far less money than the Lemon
Counity system.
It is considered sacriligious in manj
circles to question any expenditure foi
education at any level but it is long
past the time when the taxpayers amc
most especially those who allocate tht
taxpayers’ money began understanding
that quantity education has nothing ir
common with quality education.
School officials who are concerned
with academic affairs as well as fiscal
affairs might also benefit from a briei
contemplation of this truism.
Tobacco
Gotterdammerung
There must be furious lightning and
terrifying thunder in that corner oi
Valhalla, where the Tobacco Kings wail
out eternity: R. J. Reynolds Tobaccc
Company is dropping tobaeeo from-its
name. In an unprecedented act of total
cowardice, when the tobacco empire is
under its worst attack in this era the
world’s biggest maker of dgarets has
chickened out, and with chicfeem chow
mem among other things. It attempts
feebly to explain its abject cowardice in
full page ads which whine away that
14 per cent of the gross business oi
that hUlioohdollar giant is now in ‘non
tobacco” products. Old Man Did;
Rn-noldn mnat bo spiltdi lug ami .iipilillmg
tobacco juice ell over God’s half acre
Silent Blessings
Among the expenses born by the tax
payers, either through the direct med
ium of taxation or the indirect costs
of donations to medical establishments
is tin assortment of silent blessings that
most of us are not aware of and none of
us fully appreciates.
In the 20-yetir period from 1949
through 1968 consider some of the dram
atic victories in the battle against dis
ease as reported for North Carolina by
the state board of health:
Diptheria cases fell frpm 950/to none.
Measles dropped from 17,330 to 324
cases. Polio dropped from 229 cases to
one, and' in that 20-year period a peak
for polio was hit in 1950 when 756 cas
es were reported. /
Another child - killer, streptococcal
pharyngitis which preludes scarlet feyer
fell from 1,838 cases to 772 with tne
peak being reached in 1954 with 2,687
cases;
Whooping cough which killed a tot of
small children and frightened/ many
more young parents into early graves
fell from 1,398 cases in ’49 to 53 cases
last year and reached its peak with
3,352 cases in ’50.
Tuberculosis, the terrible wjhite
plague at the turn of the century, fell
in North Carolina from 3,402 cases in
’49 to 1,247 cases last year.
These are only a few of the areas
in which communicable diseases have
been brought more nearly under con
trol, and is so short a period. Equally
dramatic changes in the area of all of
medicine have been experienced in this
brief pair of decades.
Anothr 20 years will quite likely see
other terrors of the medical world
brought under control.
Of course, there is as yet nothing on
the medical horizon that tends to offer
eternal life to anyone. Not even heart
transplants when1 they have been prov
en more successful can accomplish that.
Putting new motors on an old chassis
works for a period but after a while
that old foody is just completely worn
out and time inevitably will take its toll.
But the child killers and the terrible
communicable diseases are now under
a measure of control no one dared
dream possible a generation ago.
No Comment Needed
to feel that
The figures speak for themselves and
editorial comment is meaningless, so we
tender that Gonorrhea case reports fell
from 16,173 in North Carolina in 1949
to just 8,583 in 1962, but since that year
reported gonorrhea cases have risen’ to
15,026 in Not-So-Fair Tar Heelia.
On People Counting
Some interesting guess-work is being
done even before the 1970 census is
tabulated. Interesting bits of this spec
ulation include:. Grade school enroll
ment is dropping and will continue to
drop. People talking about building a
lot of elegant new grade school builds
mgs riright -take passing note of this- and
spend more time improving the teach
ing being done rather than, exerting most
of their effort into the expensive art of
edifice erecting.
I’m quite sure I join every other
American in great pride over the al
most unbelievable efforts that have been
made so far in the exploration of space
and in the most recent trip of three
brave, resourceful Americans to the
moon. But I’m also very sure that I
join a great many Americans in wonder
ing whether a disproportionate amount
of money is not now being spent in
this effort.
I suspect that there were many
/subjects of Ferdinand and! Isabella
in 15th century Spain 'who would
have questioned their wisdom in spon
soring the exploration of what was then
outer space by an Italian sailor named
Christopher Columbus.
History now confirms that the tiny
investment Spain made in those cour
ages voyages of Columbus paid the Span
insh Empire the biggest dividend of any
of any investment Spain ever made and
elevated Spain to the highest rank
among world powers.
But that was almost 500 years ago
and most of us can see little comparison
between the voyages of Columbus and
the voyages of our 20th century astro
nauts. But there are many.
Now to a majority of us there appears
to be very little to be gained from
putting a man, or a thousand men, on
the moon. But whether the moon is
made of gold, green cheese or cheap
rock! there is one tremendous dividend
we Americans have already unconscious
ly been receiving from this effort: That
dividend is technological. Miniaturiza
tion' has opened new doors for nearly
every field of engineering that touches
our daily lives. Making smaller and more
powerful and more dependable things
that we use everyday in business and
in our homes.
But the biggest dividend is a combi
nation of the philosophical and techno
logical. . . and it should offer us the
greatest consolation for both the imme
diate and distant future of our nation,
and the world. And that is the certain
knowledge we have as a result of the
fantastic success of this space explora
tion that nearly every problem of man
kind — except the basic moral problems
— can be solved when the weight of
brains and resources are devoted to
such problems.
We hear a great deal about water and
air pollution, and they are major prob
lems, but the amount of money and
manpower and brain power that have
been devoted to these basic problems
is a trifle. . .and I feel sure that amaz
ing strides will be made in this area in
the immediate future and much of this
comes as a direct spin off of . the re
search that has been done n the space
program. —
lftMijnmg is anotner promem mi au toe
world. . . but new materials, new meth
ods and new viewpoints bom in the
space program are very likely to bring
about a red: revolution in the entire
building industry, arid ibis is also an
expectation that lies very near to band.
Even such mundane things as garbage
disposal which may seem remote, in
deed, from apace exploration, may be
given a big helping band from some