Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / July 10, 1969, edition 1 / Page 2
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'Maybe it’s psychological but I feel better already! EDITORIALS Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man __. _1_ And He May Be Wrong The 'Missing Link Without modem transportation pro gress is impossible. The history of man’s progress runs parallel to transportation. It has since the beginning of time, and it still does. Transportation is the real key to the unbelievable success story of the Unit ed States. It is not the existance of na tural resources, nor raiw materials. Many countries have far more natural resourc es than the United States and many others have as much or more arable land for the production of the foods and fibers a civilized society demands. But no nation has such a transportation sys tem. It is not the availability of intelligent, hardworking men and1 women. There are --- -imany lands that have more eager and The American I excellent workers per square mile than the United States can boast. But it is the ability developed to a finer degree in the United States than anywhere else in the world to bring all of these things together and to dis tribute them quickly and, economically that has made America great Today there are terrible pressures on this transportation system, and many very well informed people believe that nothing less than a transportation revo lution win keep this arterial system of the American body politic in good! work ing order. ationi case of.,* ’ pressure nearing the r of money jecuons oi great quantities of imagina the short hauls, leaving railroads and airlines to do the long-distance tnn^ moving of people and produce. Hundreds of billions of the taxpayer^ dollars have been spent in recent yean trying, to keep roads and streets it tempo with the accelerated production and speeds of motor vehicles. W< arel further behind today than tion are necessary to repair the damagi this arterial system is already sufferinj and the total collapse it is threatenec by today. ' Without doubt the single most neglect ed facet of American transportatior is the railroad. Capable of moving mor< pounds, more miles, more quickly, mor< safely and more cheaply than all othei systems the railroad is not being usee to a fraction of its .potential. And in a time when petroleum fired methods of transportation are under di rect scutiny because of their heavy con tribution to the pollution of our environ ment the steam engine and electric train offer a,sudden and enormous po tential for relief, in this area. - - - One train can move as much freight into a metropolitan area as a thousand trucks; as many people as a thousand cars. On some not very distant d$j it may very well become necessary tc limit truck and automobile traffic tc We who live here In Hurricane Alley have very good reason to be moat re spectful of these terrible ladies who sometimes slam into us with winds of 130 miles an hour. : ,‘v> But tjitngs could be worse. We could live in Tornado Territory. A recent is sue of “Weatherwise,” the magazine of meteorologists, surveys the tornado toll of 1968 and mcludep a study of wind velocities in1 the most terrible df nature’s phenomenon. Of course, we are not exempt from. tornadoes in this section, since these deadly twisters dip down in North Carolina, too, but not with toe frequency of other sections of toe nation. In 1968 there were seven tornadoes reported in North Carolina. Oklahoma had1 58, Texas had 149 and Florida was hit by 56. The nation had 656, making it a pretty bad year, but not So bad as ’67 when the record was set with ©12. Last year these terrible twisters killed 133 people, 75 of these being killed in two Arkansas storms. No wind velocity instruments are built to measure the speed of tornadoes, and if there were any built it is unlikely that they would survive being hit by one. So scientists use a rather elaborate but sensible formula for making accur ate estimates of the wind yelocity in a tornado, and using this formula and an assortment of evidence 458 miles per hour is given as the top speed of one of the worst of these killer storms. Fortunately toe width of these killers is very narrow, nothing compared to the width of a hurricane, but what they lack ^n size they much more than make up in intensity. The storm with the es timated 458 mile per hour winds was only 250 feet wide where it hit the ground. , ■<r So if you see a dark funnel shaped cloud) headed your way don’t be too proud to see how fast you can jEind a ditch and how flat you can lay in it. ■ of the death rattle of either trucks s or cars ... far from it, tout simply to , keep pace and: some measure of faith ' with the 'auto industry is a monstrous job. But looking to the not-so-distant fu ture and posing the inevitable transport , problems of 1999 beside those of 1969 , one cannot escape the conclusion that , something big and! something immediate must be done. Either the travelling habits will be changed by private initiative and gov ernmental imagination watered by mon ey from both areas or those same habits of travel will have to be changed by law. and to inhibit the flow of people or goods in a free society is unthinkable politically and suicidal economically. So the arteries of commerce and pleas ure must be kept open and no phase of transportation offers so many solu tions so quickly as the revitalization of railroads. And if this must be done by taxpaid subsidy it will' still cost a very thin fraction, of,what it is now costing to keep falling, behind with our streets and highways. To use a North Carolina example: Running dean, fast traips every hour frwri to Morehe&d City a fraction of I PERSONAL " PARAGRAPHS BY JACK RIDER This is always my moat difficult week of the year. The week I work two weeks so I cai| “rest” one week. Which is a long-winded way of saying that nekt week (the week of this edition you are now reading) The Rider dan is headed for the beautiful Banks of The Bogue. Which makes it necessary to print two papers this week, which makes everything a trifle dated and perhaps a little contrived, so if there is any major1 news item left out, or great af fairs that needs editorial comment you’ll just have to Wait until I get back .be hind the typewriter on July 14. One of the things always just a bit more than exasperating to an egotist such as myself is how well the world keeps running without me being involv ed. We all know this but we hate like hell to confess it. But getting away for a week is good for the soul even if it ‘does scar the ego a little. Relaxing away from news papers, television, radios, teletypes and most of all telephones. Next to the automobile the telephone is the worst Frankenstein Monster loose on society today and like the automobile the phone is a wonderful gadget when you need it and an ogre when you don’t want to be bothered. In my business, fortunately, I get phone calls at all hours and for all possible reasons. To ask questions, to give news, to cuss me frequently and ' once in a while a word of praise. But most of us have the habit of believing that everybody else is convenient to the telephone at the same instant we are. / Any modem home designer who doesn’t put a phone in the toilet is no friend of mankind, and within reach of the tub or shower, too, since it’s surpris ing how many urgent phone calls coin cide with one’s ablutions. And down by The Bogue the lapping; of the waves, the rustle of the breeze in the silver poplars, the cry of the gulls and* when the wind comes from the right quarter, the gentle roar of the surf pounding the long white sandy strand between Bogue and Beaufort In lets; these are the sounds that relax and lull one into an easy euphoria. If you’re passing down that way next week. Drop in. We may have a little drap of that elixir that makes distances shorter and conversation smoother and at least once every day we have some thing on the burner that smells won dorflll unit tontas Of course there is the noise of out board motors, screaming novices on wa ter ski, occasional roar of Marine heli copters and the furious snarl of jets from Cherry Point. But these are the passing sounds. ..
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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July 10, 1969, edition 1
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