Fridiy, Decemj^r 22, 1967

We Have Simply Run

Out Of Time

Greenville Board of Education, in our judge- grown more critical. It has now reached the point menL has made the correct move in pushing ahead where the Greenville School District simply has run with plans to construct the new Aycoc Junior High out of time for postponing the project any longer. ScZol in spite of the fact it will cost more tnan The initial low bids for tee facility, which

the 1 4 million budgeted in earlier planning. came to three-quarters of a million dollars above

With its instructions teat plans be revised to tee budgeted figure, made it necessary that plans hrinv the cost within the neighborhood of $1.76 be revised. It pointed up clearly that those responsi-milli^n the Board of Education signified its inten- ble for planning of the structure had been pipe-tinn to VO ahead with the project on a less elaborate dreaming where costs were concerned. Either in-u ter in initial bW tentionally or otherwise, the Board of Education

After architects and school officials have made had not been confronted with the fact that the plans

necessary revisions in plans and specifications, they and specifications which it approved were far be-will be resubmitted to the Board of Education for yond what could be realistically expected for the , amount of money budgeted for the project.

Greenville has long needed the junior high Wfth revision of the plans, Greenville School

school facility which the plans would provide. For District should be able to move fomard with mini-one reason or another, tee project has been put muni additional delay to construct this new fac^ off and delayed several times over a period of years. It obviously will not be the plush school initially During those years the need for the junior high has planned, but care teould be taken to see that it is * ^ adequate to meet the distnct s needs.

It is also important, as the Greenville School

Calmly Details 'Grader Story

District takes subsequent steps to meet other building needs, that more realism be used in budgeting and planning than was shown in the junior high project up until a few days ago.

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES

Reflector Raleigh Bureau

RALEIGH Rarely in memory of veteran Raleigh reporters has a state official or even the most zealous political candidate felt it necessary to issue a statement of five and a half single - spaced pages in length for almost any reason.

But Eston Y. Brickhouse, the states purchasing officer, did so this week in all deliberation and his custom a r y Eastern North Carolina calmness.

Brickhouse is a soft-spoken, deliberate man and this set a precedent in wordage coming from his division of Purchase and Contract, or almost any other office.

WrXIAM

SUlREa

His reason a recurring controversy about competitive bidding on the purchase of motor graders for the State Highway Commission, political overtones and shadowy hints of favoritism. Brickhouse commented verbally for several days, then decided to issue his lengthy statem e n t which he labelled simply facts.

Presents Details He said that because of some misunderstandings about methods and procedures in connection with proposals for bids on motor graders, he wanted to show in detail each step taken to guarantee that taxpayers are receiving the best quality product for the least price, also guaranteeing competitive bidding.

The controversy aboui motor graders and this amount-newed because only one bid that of North Carolina Equipment Co., of Raleigh in the amount of approximately $1.5 million was received.

The Brickhouse statement 4ealt with these points;

A statutory standardization committee of six mem

bers appointed by the governor naming names of the members which the legislature gave responsibility for establishing standard specifications for state contracts plus names of members of a live member advisory council on setting standards.

-Work of this committee and advisory council dur i n g the past year, noting that representatives of at least seven manufacturers of heavy duty road graders appeared at hearings to present suggestions about specifications.

Specifications were adopted by the standardization>com-mittee in July, 1967, and proposals were sent to and bids requested from 27 different firms.

Adds Obtervations

Then Brickhouse added observations and comment about the fact that only one bid was submitted for 101 motor graders and this amount ed to $2,228 more per unit than the same firms successful bid in 1966.

He attributed the price increase to increased labor ar.d material costs and improvements on the engine and cab. Actually, he said, the bid price reflects a discount o! 47 per cent from published list prices which is considered highly competitive and most favorable in terms of normal market pricing.

Ck>nld Have Bid Brickhouse contended that severl other equipment firms could have bid but elect eld not or refused to do so and that they have not made clear why they took this position.

He said it is understood that distributors in other states have bid competitively on almost Identical specifications. Two firms want to bid only on an old model machine and another, he said, has indicated a production backlog precludes bidding on large orders at this time.

The fact remains, however, that they do manufacture machines which can meet the specifications and which they could have bid in fair and open competition, had they wished to do so, Brickhouse added.

In essence, Brickhouse says the other firms or most of them could have bid had they wanted to.

Barometers Point To Retail Sales Growth

If traffic, shoppers loaded with packages, the bustle in stores and memory of past years are barometers of business, Greenvilles retail sales for 1967 should end the year continuing the steady gain they have shown in earlier months.

For the first three quarters of 1967, Greenvilles retail sales showed a gain of $2.26 million to $55.5 million for the first nine months. This represented a gain of 4.3 per cent which compared favorably with the percentage gains of several other comparable cities in this part of the state. Closest to Greenville in percentage gain for the nine months was Wilson with 4.1 per cent. Kinston had a 3.9 per cent gain, Goldsboro a 2.1 per cent gain and New Bern a 1.7 per cent gain in retail sales. , r

Both Greenville and Pitt County have shown By HAL DUYLr gains in retail sales during the month of 1967 for which official figures are available. It continues a trend of several years which indicates a continued economic growth in the county. In the case of Greenville, the increase in retail sales suggests not only better economic conditions locally, but that Greenville is drawing additional retail dollars from a broader area than in previous years.

Ending the year on an upward economic nat-tern points hooefully to another good year for this section in 1968.

* Loving Santa Dreains

On Earth, My Birthday

EDITORS NOTEthe following column, written a number of years ago, is reprinted at the request of a number of readers.

Court Avoids

ntangiemen

By BARRY SCHWEID

WASHINGTON (AP) - It came as no surprise this week when the Supreme Court refused to stand in the way of Capt Dale E. Neyds court-martial.

However active the court may be in other areas, it is anything but eager to joust with the military or to give its views on the Vietnam war.

A hearing for Noyd, charged with refusing to help train pilots for Vietnam duty, almost inevitable would ave involved the 34-year-old officers claim that the country is engaged in a war of aggression.

And this, clearly, is a thicket the court does not want to get tangled in.

From the earliest days the

court either has turned aside those who challenged war actions by the president and Congress or ruled against the challengers.

Its been no different with the Vietnam war.

On four separate occasions this term and last, draft resisters and soldiers who regard the war as illegal failed in their quest for hearings.

And although the court will decide before June in the law authorizing the jailing of draft card burners is constitutional, the ruling need not pass on the legality of the war.

This reluctance appears to disturb at least two justices, William 0. Douglas and Potter Stewart.

Stewart, a highly pr.igma-(Continued On Page 5)

It was Christmas Day in heaven.

God sat upon His eternal throne far above the fleecy clouds and watched the pilgrim souls come into His everlasting kingdom from the vast fields of space.

They came from dominion within mankinds ken aiV dominions beyond that kind. And a soft clamor rose from them, and it had the sound of a wind with mahy voices.

God looked out at the great void-star colliding with star, a comets tail brushing out an old world here, creating a new world thereand pondered His celestial traffic pro

blem.

He was feeling in a philosophical mood. He reached down among the mass of pilgrim souls plodding toward the gold door of heaven. He lifted one np in His mighty hand. It was a human soul.

Why, heres one from earth, He said, musingly. Look at it. So much of fluff about itand so little character. So little of performance wrapped up in such great pretense.

God turned and spoke to One who stood at His rig^ht side; So many like it crowd up from that little mudball earth I sent uou down to save, My Son. And all crying for divine mercy the mercy they do so little in life to win. Shall I extend it to them?

And then answered Him the

Other Editors Saying oily Sprig Of Plastic

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By FOY H. DUNCAN Dec. 22, 1927

Mr. and Mrs. George Woodward, Mrs. V. E. Stanton and Zeb Whitehurst, spent yesterday in Raleigh, where they met Charles Woodward, and Van Stanton, University students, who will spend the holidays here with their parents.

William J. Evans, student at the University of N. C., passed through Greenville to spend the holidays with his mother, Mrs. Sophia McLaw-horn.

Bennett Moseley has returned for the Christmas holidays from Augusta Military Academy, Fort Defiance, Va.

Miss Elizabeth Gaskins has returned from High Point, to spend the holidays with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Gaskins.

Albion Dunn, Jr. is at home from school to spend the Christmas holidays with his parents.

John Hassell, Jr., is at home for Christmas from Duke University.

N. H. Fulford, Jr., V S. Navy, is spending the holidays with relatives.

Miss Evelyn Hart, who has been attending N.C.C.W. at Greensboro, is spending the holidays with relatives here.

Norman J. Winslow, attending school at Earlham College, Indiana, and Miss Effie Mae Winslow, attending school at Agnes Scptt College, Atlanta, Ga. are at home for the holidays.'

Building New Home

The new home of Mr. Sam T. Carson, now under construction in Chatham Circle is nearing completion, rie hopes to move from Pitt Street to his new home soon.

Numbers of homes have decorated evergreen trees in their front yards, members of the Womans Club stated today.. . . . The effect is entrancing. It causes the human heart to thrill to the spirit of the dayChristmas the greatest of all the year. Everybody that can should light up their homes with multi-colored lights and help us in our effort to intensify the beauty of the city during the holiday season.

(From ABOUT TOWN)

Public

Irorum

To the editor,

I would like to urge your paper to encourage Dr. Leo Jenkins to run for Governor. He has meant so much to our state.

Dr. Jenkins would make an excellent Governor.

Lets all encourage him to i-un. We need dynamic leadership.

Bobby Simpson Newton Grove

(Christian Science Monitor)

The people who would replace natural products by plastics have been going too far. We cant get used to such a thing as plastic mistletoe.

Plastic substitutes for leather are useful. Theres not enought leather in the world to make seat coverings for all the automobiles rolling off the assembly lines.

Plastic substitutes for fur look good. And can help to diminish the slaughter of wild creatures which are threatened, by the thoughtlessness of mankind, with extinction. As for plastic flowers, each to his own taste. They don't have much odor.

Plastic toys now are plentifully on the Christmas market. Fortunately, they are made of tougher stuff titan

those early models which came apart at babys first blow. Dolls have plastic hair and plastic hands; its a wonder they dont cry plastic tears.

Even Christmas trees can be artificial, of course, Made of aluminum or plastic, they can be used over and over again, year after year, like some 1967 auto license plates. And some even manage to look like real Christmas trees.

But plastic mistletoe?? Granted that the real berries sometimes fall off when one tries to nail it strategically over the doorway. Granted that it is a woodland parasite, growing on trees and bushes. But who would feel iomantic standing under a sprig of polyethylene?

GOP

|Ranks Dividec.

By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK

WASHINGTON - Tlie deepening Republican con- cern over the close relationship between President Johnson and Senator Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois came to a head in aG^rivate meeting K in Dirksens Capitol Hill of-I fice two weeks ago.

Present were Dirksen, the leader in the Senate, and other members of the joint Republican leadership, both House and Senate. They were there to discuss the forthcoming meeting of the top-level Republican coordinating committee, on Dec. 11 in Washington.

Dirksen proposed a strong resolution on Vietnam, putting the party solidly behind President Johnsons conduct of the war. The nation must stay as united as possible, said Dirksen. The meeting of the coordinating committee would give the Republicans a chance to show their solidarity with the embattled Democrat in the White House.

This triggered a storm of dissent. Representative GeraM Ford of Michigan, the House leader, and Representative Melvin Laird of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Republican Conference, argued that, with the Presidential election less than a year away, the Republican party had to develop its own position on Vietnam -and not blindly fall into every step taken by Mr. Johnson.

Laird, Ford, and other Republicans present ueed strong language to try and convince Dirksen that to offer such a resolution at the Dec. 11 meeting would split the coordinating committee. These dissenters knew that President Elienhower had left for his winter vacation in Palm Springs and would not be at the meeting. They knew further that if the General had planned to be there Dirksen would have carried file day with the certainty of Eisenhowers help.

Dirksen finally surrendered, and the coordinating committee meeting never did take up a formal resolution on Vietnam.

The incident reveals much of what is going on behind the scenes at the highest levels of the Republican party ^ today. It demonstrates how deeply concerned, even embittered, most Republican leaders are over the bonds of friendship, based partly on mutual political advantage, that join Dirksen and the President.

For example, the basis of Lairds much-criticized statement last week that the Republican Governors couldnt share leadership of the Re-

i A vrM publican National Convention But they stretched Yw with Dirksen isn't

upon a cross of wood and )u,on. What Laird

voice that most men have most yearned to hear;

Yes, Father, forgive them.

But why, My Son? There are those more deserving. Because I promised it to them in Your name.

But I have sent You to many universes beyond this earth larger, more important realms of matter, said God. Why does Your love always return to these lost prisoners of earth? Were they so kind to You?

AL

BOYLE

Many did not recognize

It I

me, Father, but I told them that if they did they would be forever free.

drove a spear into Your side, My Son. And You want to reward them?

Forgive them. Father. They knew not what they did.

The Lord shook His great head, and said:

My Son, You think too much about that single mudball in the clouds. Your duty is not one satellite or a single star. Your obligation is the sky. And Jesus replied;

But today it is My birthday on earth, Father, and the earth is as beautiful as the morning. He held ot| His hand in mute appeal. And God put the small frightened human soul within that hand. And His Son set down that (Continued On Page S)

was trying to say was that no platform committee could work under a two-headed boss. If the Governors wanted to control the Platform Committee, they should use their muscle to get the whole chairmanship. The chairman has unique powers to reflect hs personal views in the plat-his personal views in the plat-Wnat this hints is that some Republicans think there is still the barest chance that Dirksen might not win the Platform Committee chaif-mi:p^hip. Although the chairman is officially recommended by the Committee on Arrangements long before fnc Convention meets, there is no final decision until the chair-(Contlnned On Page 5)

Devaluation Via Price Of Gold

By ELMER ROESSNER A campaign has begun in this country for devaluation of the dollar by raising the price of gold from $35 to $50 an ounce, Uncle Sam is being pictured as a simpleton for sticking to the current price, but so far he has not been cartooned as carrying a cross of gold or of wearing a crown of gold thorns.

The campaign may grow. Those who could profit from devaluation surely will be willing to contribute to a fund to hire publicists and propagandists.

It may be wise, therefore, to look at such a devaluation, a devaluation of 42.86 per cent compared with Britains 14.2 per cent:

All long-term indebtedness would be reduced. Short-term debts would not be affected because it would take time to adjust the economy to 70-cent dolan. But in due time, gov

ernment, corporation and private debts would be easier to pay off with cheaper, more abundant dollars.

Business Fever There would be a flush of business with cheaper dollars. |Thats what happened when the dollar was devalued in 19-34, but the rise was not enougii to pull the country out of depression.

I

ELMER

ROESSNER

The U. S. could sell more with our production paid for in cheaper dollars, we could sell at lower prices abroad, at least for a while.

Other Western nations would be forced into a round of devaluation to retain markets threatened by our greater competition.

All imports would cost more, at least until foreign nations also devalued currencies again.

There would be less of the so-called export of jobs. American corporations that have been having components and goods manufactured in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and other low-wage areas would find their savings reduced.

The value of real estate and stocks would be automatically increased, though prices of nonconvertible bonds and debentures would be (reduced. Windfall For Our Economic Enemies

The nations, such as France, and gold speculators

throughout the world who have been conducting the attack on the dollar would reap huge fortunes. The gold they have been buying for $35 an ounce could then be sold for $50 an ounce, making a 42.86 per cent profit in a short time.

Prices in America would rise. In Uruguay, after a 15 per cent devaluation, prices rose as much as 70 per cent. In Britain, many prices have risen after its 14.3 per cent devaluation.

Witi rises in prices, labor would demand corresponding rises in wages or more, ven-tually wiping out our advantage In foreign trade. More labor unrest, more strikes would be likely.

With rises in prices, the value of all life insurance would be cut. So would the purchasing power of all fixed incomes, such as in pensions and annuities.