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Grcavillc. N.C.Tuesday. August 7, 1173

Sad Impact Of New Efficiency

THE WAY IT LOOKS AT THIS POINT IN TIME!

It has to be the passing of an era of swts when a old post office is closed down in this time of nrodern transportation.

The Pacttdus Post Office will close Aug. 31 and postmistress, Sandra Gray, says it has been re for 132 years.

The post office is located in Satterthwaitesstore ^*^re it has bei fa* 45 years. Thirty-eight of those yosrs it was operated by Cecil Satterthwaite.

The post office has been open for six hours a day ond served 250 customers. But is has reportedly been losing money. Now its patrons will be served by rural route carriers and a post office which goes back to pre-Civil War days is to be no more.

Perhaps it speaks well for the new postal service that in the name of efficiency the Pactolus Post

Spotty Record In Bond Votes

By BILL NOBLITT

RALEIGH Despite a spcrtty track record for local sdMol band votes over the past sevo-al years, Tar Heel voters have given their okay to more than $100 million in local school construction funds.

But still, state officials said, citizens believe local school bonds have been widely unfavorable.

Notwithstanding what a lot of people think, weve had a number of local bond issues to pass, the state's number one expert on bond votes said.

Dr. J. L. (Jet) Pierce is director of the division of school planning on the staff of the state superintendent of schools.

He is a veritable fountain of information on school bonds.

Taking the year 1969 through the present. North Carolinas track record shows 25 local bond issues ai^ved, 17 defeated.

But 1969 was the year of the big turndown, largely due to local hassles over integration, and more lost than woneight turned down; seven approved.

Eliminating 1969 from the count, the picture improves to a count or 18 approvals statewide to nine losses from 1970 until now.

4 This Year

So far this year, there have beoi fiHu local bond votes with one, Harnett Countys $7 million proposal, defeated; three passed: Union County for $11.7 million; Ginton Schools for $2.3 million; Yancey County for $1.5 million.

Also affecting the overall track record. Dr. Pierce feels, is the fact that in some cases, notably Transylvania schools and Stokes County, voters came back to approve bond proposals first rejected at the polls.

Stokes in fact, turned down $2.5 million in 1971; came back in 1972 and approved $5 million.

But in two counties. Wake and Durahm. voters have twice rejected bond issues during this period.

While simple statistics can tell one side of the story, Dr. Pierce sees a number of other factors in whether a local vote will pass.

The school finance picture is a rapidly changing one, and has changed considerably in the past three years. There was a time when communities depended on two IMimary swirces: the annual ad valorem tax and local bond referendums, Dr. Pierce said.

Focus Shifts But now, he said, a larger percentage of construction money is coming from, federal revenue sharing funds and from local one-cent sales tax which a majority of counties levies.

Also affecting local

decisions, he believes, is a new state law which prohibits a school district bond vote when the unit is smaller than the county in which it is located. Any bond vote now must be countywide and the money split among the districts by boards of county commissioners.

The upcoming statewide bond vote for $300 million to be committed to local school construction purposes will also have its affect on local votes. Dr. Pierce believes.

Finally, some local votes have failed because the campaign for approval was not well enough organized.

The state department of public instruction provides advice in this area as well as assisting local officials in drawing up the bond packages.

You give me the local Democratic and Republican executive committees, the county commissioners and the school board to back-a local vote, and well win, Dr. Pierce said, characterizing the leadership required.

Promotion Leader Ordinarily the board of education or the county commission, or both, will set up a committee of some sort to promote the porposal. Typically, a community leader vitally interested in education will head up the campaign.

Then, you line up the support of the local teachers associations, the Parent-Teachers Association, and call on the N. C. Congress of PTA and the NCEA for backing.

Then, some community leader is tabbed to organize and raise financing; not a whole lot of money is raised since this is not a big expense requiring widespread advertising and so on, he said.

No public money can be used for promotional pur-p(^es. Promotion generally is first the responsibility of the board of education, and sometimes members of the county commission push it. While $15 million in local bonds have been passed already this year, at least two more votes, involving $10 million, are being seriously studied in Currituck County and in the Kinston-Lenoir County schools.

The Daily Reflector

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Office is being eliminateti. To us, though, it is regrettable^at there is not room in the far flung postal system for a tiny post (rffice to serve a rural community. No doubt Pactolus was a losing proposition, but at the same time perhaps service should be put above all else in delivering the mail. The postal service has been limited a little more by the elimination of this rural post office.

Municipal Elections Reminder Is Soundect .

Lest we forge^hat this is a municipal election year, Mrs. Myra Cain, chairwoman of the city board of elections has reminded that filing time is coming up.

Municipal elections were moved from May to Oct. 9 this year and the filing period for prospective council members and mayor is from Aug. 17 until Sept. 14.

The fees will also be higher this year with council candidates paying $25 and mayoral candidates paying $50.

Members of the council had a longer than usual term this time because the election date was moved. The voters will get their chance at them in the fall, though, and another political season is rapidly approaching.

Predict Hanoi

%

Views

By HAL BOYLE NEW YORK (AP) Jumping to conclusions:

What the Watergate affair has proved to most of us is sorqething we probably really

By J.j. KILPTRICK

Will Try Again Keeping Opinions Alive

By ROWLAND EVANS and ROBERT NOVAK

WASHINGTON - Field reports from Vietnam warn that Communist forces, confident that U. S. bombers will never reappear in Indochina after Aug. 15 and hopeful that vital U. S. supplies will dry up, are sure to challenge Watergate-paralyzed Washington with a general offensive.

Both written reports and departed officials passing through Washington agree that Hanois new offensive is a question not of if but of when, Itcouldcome in mid-October or perhaps not until spring or even later. But all observers believe the refitted North Vietnamese legions will strike from new bases in South Vietnam to attempt the conquest of the entire country.

Present combat readiness of North Veitnamese troops, worn out only six months ago, is a byproduct of the peace agreements negotiated in Paris. But the enhanced prospect of a Communist offensive soon stems from Hanois reading that the' mood in Washington today will prevent President Nixon from helping the South Vietnamese.

The overriding new development in South Vietnam since the ceasefire is the development of a Communist-controlled nation in the wilderness (widely called the Third Vietnam). Secure behind those borders in the mountainous northwest, the North Vietnamese army has licked its wounds and prepared for battle.

To give the impression that the so-called Provisional Revolutionary Government really has its own country, Hanoi has been trucking civilians from North Vietnam (recently including truckloads of single women). Hanois optimum wish is for refugees to flow out of Saigon-controlled areas into the Third Vietnam.

Tliat has not and surely will hot happen. Despite continuing corruption, the people of South Vietnam have made their choice for President Nguyen Van Thieus government. Skeptical old Vietnam hands in the U. S. Foreign Service, returned to Vietnam for temporary duty following the peace agreement, were amazed that the provailing public attitude had shifted from

neutrality to a bread-and-butter preference for the Saigon regime. That is confirmed by a secret public opinion survey conducted by U. S. officials in the populous Mekong River delta.

The threat from the Third Vietnam, therefore, is not political but military. With the Americanized South Vietnamese army (ARVN) neither equipped nor trained for guerrilla raids into the new base area, the Communists have safely rebuilt their army. Intelligence sources now evaluate North Vietnamese forces as at least their size when the massive spring 1972 offensive was launched. In terms of tanks, heavy artillery and antiaircraft rockets, they are considerably superior.

What has so far inhibited a new offensive is the Hanoi politburos difficulty in reading the intentions of the inscrutable Americans. Amazed at Mr. Nixons resumption of bombing twice in 1972, Hanoi has feared, his response to any new aggression.

But experts believe that Hanoi now views Mr. Nixon, politically crippled by Watergate, as unable to resume bombing anywhere in Indochina after the Aug. 15 statutory deadline. With that inhibition gone, there is only one thing for the Communists to do with their refitted army: use it.

That same realization on is ' dawning on South Vietnamese ol^icials. When we reported from Vietnam last April, several ARVN generals confided to us they could not stop a new general offensive without the U. S. B-52 bombers that halted the Communists at the gates of key cities a year ago. Now, according to new reports from Vietnam, that attitude has changed. ARVN generals know they must rely on less artillery and infinitely less air support and are prepared to make the best of it.

ARVN has fought best with its back to the wall and escape routes blockedas in the 1972 siege of An Loc. Now, with massive American support ruled out, the entire army has its back to the wall.

Consequently, the most skeptical U. S. observers believe ARVN can stop a general offensive, if the necessary lifeline of U. S. su[^lies is not chcdced off.

Strength . For Today

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE A distinguished theologian was once asked by a couple which he knew very well to talk with their little boy about some religious questions which the boy had raised. Accordingly, the boy came to the theologians study one day and the two began their talk. F(h* openera the boy asked, Uncle Ed, what are we here for, anyway?

The theologian was surprised at how directly the boy had gone to the heart of a vitally important religious matter. We are here to grow

souls, the theologian replied to the lad, and thoi was led into a discussion of the matta* which later led to his writing an important book on the purpose of life. His ultimate conclusion was that we are to prepare ourselves to take our place in the eternal spiritual world when everything human and material has passed away.

If we can look at life in this manner it is not hard for us to take whatev life gives, be it happiness or sorrow sickness or health, riches or povty.

By Earl Doaglass

The mail brings a sad letter from William F. Buckley, Jr., writing in his capaicty as editor of National Review. Because every subscriber to ational Review has eceived such letters in the past, and becuase it is out of character for Bill to be sad for long, the letter impels no sense of impending doom. But it does prompt a few observations.

Why dont conservatives tend to their wounded? Why does the business community, in the matter at hand, exhibit so little sense of business or community? And to extend the lines of inquiry generally, why is it that magazines of opinion, whether liberal or con

servative, have such difficulty in surviving?

That was the purpose of Bills letter: survival. His fortnightly magazine, bravely launched in 1955, has been sinking ever since. In 1971 it lost $315,000. Last year it lost $317,000. My distinguished friend makes the point, in his cheerful way, that the loss in 72 was not really worse than the loss in 71, if proper account is given to inflation; but one is reminded of Nixons efforts to demonstrate that his deficits wouldnt be so large if only everyone were working. The losses are horrendous.

Thus the letter to subscribers. The editor is appealing for pledges of $300,000

Other Editors Say It Can Be Done

(Henderson Dispatch)

If enough people want to enough, the Federal budget can be balanced. It can be done without any higher taxes. It can be done without sacrificing any vital Federal service. Whats more, it can be done in the next budget (the current one is too far gone).

Preposterous, you say? Certainly not. It is only a matter of sound financing, something which Washington has not been accustomed to in a generation, except for a very few years.

Senator Helms has introduced a bill in the Senate which would require that the government spend no more than it takes in for any one fiscal year. The senator has challenged a colossal problem. Its colossal because Congress and the administration has allowed it to become that. Between the two branches of government, fiscal sanity can be restored to the Federal esablishment.

A gentleman from the Washington scene was in the office the ^ other day. He said there is a growing consciousness on Capitol Hill that the ridiculous habit of deficit and borrowing a year after year must be ended. Thats one of the most encouraging reports we have heard from the seat of power in many a day. The wonder is as to whether the honorables will follow through or ignore the dictates of conscience.

One hopeful sign is that more and more Americans are becoming fed up and disgusted with fiscal irresponsibility in the house of the mighty. If there shall be enough of that, those in control will sense the threat to their political future and will act accordingly and sensibly.

Trouble now and all along has been and is that citizens generally are too callous and indifferent about affairs of their government. When and if they are sufficiently concerned, results will be had. The dollar will strengthen abroad, foreign trade can be balanced, people will have greater confidence in Congress and the administration, and the nation will have made a new start toward monetary integrity.

The Helms proposal is pr(^r. It is long overdue. But it will be a steep hill to dumb. There will be obstacles to overcome. The ascent is possible and the obstades can be tossed aside. Where there is a will there is a way. It is a question of whether there is enough will among those who can accomplish these objectives. It is possible. One wonders if it is probable.

to keep his magazine afloat another year. I believe he will get it, partly because Bill is Bill, and partly because improbably enterprises often are sustained by faith. Credo quod habes, as Erasmus once remarked to Thomas More, et habes. Believe that you have it, and you have it.

Yet these annual fundraising appeals, quite literally touching as they are, cannot provide a solid answer to the problems that afflict National Review. The same problems, one may be certain, also afflict such liberal journals as New Republic. You dont cure these ills with contributions ; you cure them with advertising. And advertising that beautiful profitable, lovely, indispensable advertising is what they have not got.

Well, they have some advertising. National Review had about 250 pages of paid advertising (as distinguished from house ads) in 1972, and will do maybe 7 to 10 percent better this year. New Republic had 241 pages, which unhappily was down from the 329 pages the year before. Compared to the linage in such magazines as Fortune, The New Yorker, Playboy and Harpers, this is not even minor-league stuff. The opinion magazines are not even in the ballpark.

One is minded to wonder why this is so. One answer is that it is not worth the time and trouble to an advertising agency to place, say, $10,000 worth of advertising in National Review for the $1,500 commission thus produced. The same time and trouble could be exerted more profitably elsewhere. Another explanation, L am told, is that some advertisers are wary of being identified with the editorial views of a medium; the tenuous line of reasoning is that if a distiller of gin advertises in National Review, which thinks well of Rhodesia, blacks will stop drinking gin. Still a third explanation is that advertising agencies are run by liberals, who just naturally hate National Review, and therefore practice a policy of

knew all alongthat you can confuse any issue if you put enough lawyers on the witness stand.

Any year is wasted in which you dont at least once smell a lilac bush in bloom after a light rain. It is the cleanest, clearest scent on earth.

If you think it is more fun to tickle a skinny girl than a fat girl, that shows one thing about youyouve never tickled a fat girl.

When it comes to shopping, men divide into two classes: ^ those who like to buy new r shoes, and those who hate the ^ thought of giving up their old ones.

What is a fatalist, father? ^ Im glad you asked me that, ^ son. A fatalist is a husband who ^ lets his mother-in-law pick out ^ the neckties he wears. ^

Future generals spend their ^ youth refighting yesterdays ^ wars. And, unless they are ex- ^ ceptionally able, when they ma- ^ ture and reach command, they ^ tend to fight their own new > wars the same old way. ^

What is the most frightening thing that can happen to any-^ one? 'The most frightening thing I can imagine happening to me would be to look into the bathroom mirror some morning ^ and see the rear end of a spi- ' der climbing into my nose. * Whats your favorite fear?

The big advantage of color television is that it offers you a ^ fresh and harmless way to,,-show your distaste. If a com-,, mercial or program comes on , the screen that you dont like^ you can get revenge by twisting.* a dial and make everybodys face turn blue. How often do you get a chance like that in real life?

Single young secretaries have^ become the transients of the (Continued on page 5)

40 Years Ago Today

By GWYN COGHILL August 7,1933 There will be a singing contest tonight at Gormans Warehouse from 7:45 to 9:00, and admission is only 25cents. Music will be furnished by Shanes Rhythm twelve piece orchestra.

Playing at the State Theatre tonight is The Story of Temple Drake starring Jack LaRue. Also featured is W. C. Fields in Fatal Galss of Beer.

Several members of the faculty of Greenville City Schools went to Raleigh yesterday to attend the annual meeting of the North Carolina Education Association. One of the highlights of the session was an address by Dr. William John Cooper, the United States Commissioner of Education.

Farm Real Estate Values Soar

By JOHN CUNNIFF AP Business Analyst NEW YORK (AP) When you spoke of rich farmland in days gone by it was understood that you were speaking of the soils fecundity. Today its" possible somebody will think youre talking about [ice.

In the latest comixlation by the Department of Agriculture, farm real estate values were up 13 per cent for the year, bringing the nse during the past six years to about 50 per cent In some areas the increase is consido'ably more, actually exceeding the much publicized rise of suburban land prices. Since March 1967 the price of farm real estate in Nevada, for examfde. Das exceeded 150 per cit 1

The increases are more bad news for housewives, since the higher purchase prices will be reflected at the retail level. Conversely, higher food ixrices is wie major reason why land prices are bid up.

The farmer receives the news with mixed emotions. A retiring farmer may get prices beyond what he would have imagined a few years ago. But a young buyer will fnd himself at a ctunpetitive disadvantage.

Hie major factor behind the rise, in the view of some agriculture authorities, is the sharp rise in commodity prices. With soybean prices double what they were a year ago, one farm financier forecasts soybean land to rise 30 to 50 per cent this year.

Acreage prices, near or at

record highs, run from a minimum of about $150 for wheatlands to $250-$300 for Alabama soybean land to $500-$550 for Mississippi Delta cotton-soybean land to $1,JM)0 for Illinois cornland.

The average value of all farmlands rose $28 last year to $247 an acre, and the total value of farmland and buildings climbed $28.2 billion to a record high (rf $258.7 billion. And increases are expected to continue.

Some larger increases are expected to^ result from norifarm factors, such as housing demand and investors efforts to seek hedges againt inflation. . That, at least, has been the IKittem of the past

New England farmland, which is generally inferior to

that of the Cornbelt, the Delta, and the Northern and Southern Plains, has risen close to 100 per cent since 1967, to a great extent because of housing and recreation.

Other areas in which prices averaged 100 per cent above those of six years ago include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Gewgia. In Nevada, where prices have risen most sharply since 1967, the gain last year was 18 per cent

In the Cornbelt and in California, where prices already are high, the increases both over the six-year and one-year periods were comparatively modest, rising 12 and 29 per cent for Illinois, and 2 and 15 per cent for California.

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