Newspaper Page Text
E good
venin VF
By Quimby Melton
Good Evening attended chapel
services at Griffin High Friday
morning and witnessed one of
the most impressive programs
he has ever seen. The program
was put on by members of the
R.O.T.C. unit, who are members
of the speech class.
It would take a much better
writer than Good Evening to
convey to his readers the sin
cerity of the young student-sol
dier-actors; of the simple but
beautiful setting for the pageant;
and for the rapt attention given
by the large audience.
The pageant Friday morning
was an answer to those who be
lieve love for our country Is not
felt by our youth; and a posi
tive demonstration that they
stand ready to defend the basic
principles of true Americanism.
Twenty-two fine young men,
in their R.O.T.C. uniforms took
part, all performing his part
well. We wish that program cou
ld be reproduced by T.V. on a
nation-wide program.
— + —
The other day we wrote of a
friend calling and asking us to
quote a poem by Frank L. Stan
ton, Georgia’s first Poet Laur
eat. Wanting to correctly quote
It got a copy of a little booklet
published when Mr. Stanton was
named Poet Laureat, and be
came so intrested in it that we
spent quite a while studying it.
(The poem he wanted was the
one about the roses being sweet
in spite of the thorns.)
Here’s another Stanton gem.
“Keep on lookin' for the bright,
bright skies,
“Keep on hopin’ that the sun will
rise;
“Keep on singin’ when the whole
world sighs —
“And you’ll get there in the mor
nin’ ”
“Keep on sowin' when you’ve
miss’d the crops,
“Keep on dancin’ when the fid
dle stops,
“Keep on faithful till the cur
tain drops —
“And you’ll get there in the
mornin’ ”
“Keep on trustin’ in the cause
of Right,
“Keep on lookin’ to the dawn of
light,
“Keep on fightin’ till you’ve won
the fight —
“And you’ll get there in the
mornin’ ”
This ingeresting booklet inclu
des many of Stanton’s most lov
ed poems, discusses him as the
author of such songs as “Mighty
Lak’ A Rose," “Just-A-Wearing
For you,” and “Sweet Little Wo
man of Mine.”
This booklet also tells how Mr.
Stanton had a philosophy of life
that was often revealed in the
short paragraphs he wrote for
his column “Just From Georgia”
published in the Atlanta Consti
tution. Here are just a few of
these paragraphs we have sel
ected from the many.
“Satan wuz a’ angel in hea
ven, but lak the res’ of us, he
couldn’t stan’ prosperity.”
‘‘Sometimes, after you’ve se
arched the hills for Happiness
you discover her in the humble
valley, trainin’ a vine to blos
som at a cabin door.”
“It wouldn’t be such a cold
world if we’d make bondfires
of the old stumbling blocks, and
warm up to Happiness.”
“I have never wanted the
earth for the sole reason that it
would be too big for me to tote
around.”
"Old Trouble don’t have a
chance when Joy is the band
master and strikes up a lively
tune.”
“Let’s everybody go to hea
ven, and make hell feel lone
some.”
“To some folks Christmas me
ans moonshine one day, an’
Lord have mercy next mornin’ ”
"Think of the long hours de
voted to crossword puzzles by
people who can’t spare a second
to read a danger sign at a rail
road crossin’ ”,
“Next to runnin’ for office,
chasing rainbows affords the
best exercise.”
"You can’t escape Trouble, but
you kin whistle a jig tune an’
make him fergit what he came
far.”
“Don’t ever be afread dat
dar’s a lion in de way; es dey
is ketch ’im an sell ’lm ter a
clrus."
House Hunting
BLOXWICH, England (UPD—
Police in Bloxwich are house
hunting. The house they’re
hunting was stolen.
The unoccupied building at 24
Kempthorne Ave. disappeared
shortly after town inspectors
checked it as a fire hazard.
“The whole thing’s gone,”
said police. “Roof, walls, bath,
kitchen sink, the lot.”
It would take six men six
hours to dismantle it, police
said. They suspect scrap
dealers.
■
B
1B K w
Quiet Moment
QUIET MOMENT between clashes along the border and an Israeli soldier looks
out over the Jordan Valley. Scene includes the shelled-out Allenby Bridge and its
replacement crossing the Jordan River.
Commie Shell Hits
Tear Gas Cannisters
By EUGENE V. RISHER
SAIGON (UPD—A Commu
nist shell blew up among tear
gas cannisters at Khe Sanh
today and the acrid fumes
wafted through bunkers where
U.S. Marines had sought refuge
from the heaviest artillery
attack on the base in two
weeks.
US. spokesman said the shell
was one of 300 mortar and
Four Injured
In Wreck Here
Early Today
Four Negroes were injured this
morning when their cars collid
ed on West Poplar street near
Hammond drive, police said.
One of the cars jumped two
ditches and overturned once, a
report said.
The injured were treated at
the Griffin-Spalding County Hos
pital.
Drivers of the cars were Sam
uel F. Miller, 20, of 676 South
Eighth street, Griffin, and K. D.
Fisher, 24, of 514 North Sixth st
reet, Griffin.
Miller suffered neck injuries.
James Goodman, 21, of 220 Day
street, suffered lacerations to his
forehead and abrasions to his
right hand. Vedie Murphy, 20,
of 218 Rock Alley suffered back
injuries and Bobby Jean Las
ter, 19, of 677 South Ninth street
suffered head abrasions. All of
the Injured were passengers in
the car driven by Miller.
Fisher was charged with driv
ing in a dangerous and reckless
manner, speeding, passing on
a double yellow line, collision
and drunk. Miller was charged
with failure to have his vehicle
under control, speeding, collis
ion and driving without a licen
se. Damage was estimated at
S9OO.
Clyde Carswell of Acworth,
Ga., suffered multiple lacera
tion to his arm and leg in an ac
cident in Monroe County on U.
8. 23-Georgia 42 at the Towa
liga River bridge.
Cars involved were driven by
George Hill Colvin, 26, of Atlan
ta and Stanley Enrico Lacorte,
38, of Apopka, Fla. Damage was
estimated at $1,350.
Colvin was charged with driv
ing too fast for conditions.
DAILY NEWS
Daily Since 1872 Griffin, Ga., 30223, Sat. and Sun., March 9 -10,1968 Vol. 96 No. 59
Weather:
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN
AREA—Partly cloudy today
and Sunday with warm after
noons and mild nights.
LOCAL WEATHER— Max
imum today 70, minimum today
50, maximum Friday 69, min
imum Friday 40. Sunrise Sunday
6:59 a.m., sunset Sunday 6:44
p.m.
rocket rounds that slammed
into the Marine outpost eight
miles south of the Demilitarized
Zone (DMZ) between North and
South Vietnam. It was the
heaviest shelling since Feb. 25.
UPI correspondent Nat Gib
son reported from Khe Sanh
that the Leathernecks in
bunkers near the exploding tear
gas cannisters had to don gas
masks, but there were no
serious injuries.
Civilian Casualties
In a special announcement
today the U.S. mission said
Communist guerrillas have
killed 5,831 civilians since the
beginning of the year and
abducted another 2,783. Spokes
men said thp fate of another
3,332 civilians reported missing
was not known.
The mission also said it had
received “new reports of
Prison Skeletons
Called ‘Stunt’
STAR CITY, Ark. (UPD—A
grand jury investigating alleged
brutality and unreported deaths
in the Arkansas prison system
said Flrday the exhumating of
three skeletons was "publicity
stunt” hatched by the superin
tendent of prisons.
The jury recommended that
beatings with a leather strap be
reinstituted as a means of
convict punishment and that the
electric chair be reinstalled as
the instrument of death for
prisoners facing execution.
The Lincoln Ctounty grand
jury said the skeletons un
earthed Jan. 29 in a Cummins
prison farm pasture, two of
which were without heads, had 1
actually been buried in an old
prison cemetery.
All for News Media
The skeletons were dug up
“fore benefit of news
med, u r camera and crew
operaio’; at the instigation of
Prison Superintendent Thomas
O. Murton, the grand jury said.
Murton was fired Thursday
by the State Penitentiary
Commission and replaced by
Victor Urban, a close friend
that Murton brought into the
Arkansas prison system.
“It is the unanimous decision
of this grand jury that this
5-STAR WEEKEND EDITION
GRIFFIN
Criminal Code Okayed;
Assembly Plods To End
Communist executions of men,
women and children” during the
25-day battle for Hue, the old
Vietnamese imperial capital
north of Saigon.
New mass graves have been
discovered, the spokesmen said,
and the evidence indicated at
least 485 civilians were executed
during the guerrilla occupation
of parts of Hue last month.
Casualties throughout the
base from the attack were
described by the U.S. spokes
men as light.
Khe Sanh Surrounded
Khe Sanh, with a garrison of
6,000 U.S. Marines and a few
Army and South Vietnamese
troops, is surrounded by an
estimated 16,000 North Vietna
mese soldiers.
whole episode was designed as
a publicity stunt for the
personal benefit of Mr. Thomas
O. Murton abetted and aided by
Dr. Edwin Barron, former
prison physician, with the
consent of Mr. 0.8. Scott, Gov.
Rockefeller’s prison affairs
aide, at the expense of the state
of Arkansas.
No More Digging
“We recommend there be no
more digging at the prison
cemetery,” the grand jury said.
“It is the recommendation of
this jury that Mr. Murton be
replaced immediately. He has
displayed a more sincere desire
for publicity for personal gain
than for operating the Arkansas
state prisons."
Murton had banished the
strap as a means of punishment
at Cummins an d Arkansas’
second prison farm, Tucker,
and had the electric chair at
Tucker disassembled.
The grand jury returned no
indictments in the case.
Rockefeller and Correction
Board Chairman John Haley at
news conference in Little Rock
reported that Murton was
dismissed for what amounted to
insubordination and for lacking
the administrative ability to
handle the job of prison
superintendent.
Both Houses
Adjourn At 11:07
By DON PHILLIPS
ATLANTA (UPD—The 1968
Georgia legislature went into
history after a plodding last
day session which consumed
14 hours and had the House
threatening to adjourn without
the Senate, which playfully
dragged out closing festivities.
The end came at 11:07 p.m.
Friday, some six hours after
the earlier agreed upon quitting
time. House Speaker George L.
Smith and Lt. Gov. George T.
Smith crashed down their gav
els simultaneously to end the
40-day session.
In a last flurry of activity,
serious, angry and lighthearted,
the Senate alone acted on more
than 100 bills.
Among the last to gain pass
age were a new criminal code,
Pardon and Parole Board re
forms ad a bill calling for a
constitutional revision commis
sion.
The House wound up its busi
ness before 5 p.m. —the time
both houses had agreed to ad
journ. But when the hour pass
ed, the Senat had forsaken its
state business for monkey busi
ness.
Early in the evening, several
senators cavorted in Roman
togas with laurel wreaths in
their hair. Gifts were passed
out by Sen. Culver Kidd (Cul
verus Kiddus Maximus”) who
was aided by a fetching, scan
tily-atired bunny girl from the
Playboy Club.
Things were not so jovial in
the House, where members
waited for the Senate to act on
important measures. At one
point, representatives were
tempted to close out the session
without the Senate.
Gov. Lester Maddox told leg
islators in his farewell address,
“Sometimes some of the
things I want—they don’t come
through. Sometimes some of
the things you want, we’re not
able to get them all.”
Revision Os
Draft Out
This Year
WASHINGTON (UPD — De
spite pleas from more than 70
congressmen, a key House
committee chairman has ruled
out congressional revision of the
draft system this year.
L. Mendel Rivers, D-S.C.,
chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, said Fri
day his panel would not reopen
the draft issue because Pres
ident Johnson already has
authority to deal with what
draft critics believe are inequi
ties in the system.
“We don’t intend to hold any
hearings on the draft this
session,” Rivers said. "All they
need to do is administer the bill
the way Congress intended.”
Without hearings, there can be
no change in the law.
Country Parson
IS*' Ql
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Mm
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3., ■ ■ JJM
“What religion teaches
changes your life — or is
meaningless.”
In fact, few of Maddox’s leg
islative programs were passed.
In the final analysis, Maddox
succeeded in getting passage of
only one of the measures he
specifically asked, and that was
expansion of the State Game
and Fish Commission from 10
to 13 members.
Included in the huge new
criminal code was a measure
designed to force an end to
roadside clip joints where
many • unwary tourists have
been fleeced.
The legislature ignored Mad
dox’s appeal to make participa
tion in a riot a felony. It was
classified a misdemeanor.
The Legislature approved a
new way of electing a governor
in a case where no candidate
receives a majority of the
votes. The bill would provide
for a runoff election three
weeks after the general elec
tion.
The constitutional revision
commission, which would pre
sent a new version of the
state’s much-amended constitu
tion to the General Assembly in
1970, would include six mem
bers each from the House and
Senate, as well as six appoint
ed by the governor.
The Pardon and Parole Board
legislation allows legislators
and other state employes who
are attorneys to appear before
the board in clemency hear
ings, requires the board to keep
records of its correspondence,
and requires the board ot abide
strictly by its published rules.
Other bills passed include a
measure to provide a statewide
public defender system for in
digents. Fulton County is the
only one with such legal aid at
the present time.
The legislature also approved
a retirement system for judges
and solicitors, and abolished the
title of “emeritus” for court of
ficials who retire after June 30,
1968.
Also passed was a "point
system” for traffic offenses
which would authorize up to a
year’s suspension of the license
of anyone accumulating 18
points within an 18-month peri
od. Points would be given in
accordance with the seriousness
of the violation.
News was also made by the
measures that failed. Among
them were:
—Salary increases for consti
tutional officers to $25,000 a
year and providing SBOO per
year Increase.
—A branch banking bill to al
low establishment of outlets in
unincorporated areas.
—An annual appropriations
bill which would put into law
what the legislature, in effect
does now, by making state ap
propriations on an annual rath
er than a biennial basis.
—A bill requiring the legisla
ture to meet for 60 calendar
days rather than the present 40
or 45.
Senate Okays New Rights Bill
With Open Housing
By STEVEN GERSTEL
WASHINGTON (UPD—After
seven weeks of agonizing
debate, the Senate has agreed
on a sweeping civil rights bill
outlawing housing discrimina
tion in over two-thirds of the
nation’s dwellings, curbing riot
weapons and broadening federal
guarantees against racial vi
olence.
The Senate locked up the
package by an overwhelming
vote of 61 to 19 Friday, bringing
to an end session-long debate,
negotiation, compromise and
voting on the vigorously disput
ed bill.
A final vote—expected to be a
mere formality—was anticipat
ed Monday, sending the bill to
an uncertain future in the
Speaker Smith Says
Session ‘Smooth’
ATLANTA (UPD—The lack
of “arm twisting” in the 1968
Georgia General Assembly
made it the smoothest running
legislature in 24 years, accord
ing to House Speaker George L.
Smith.
In Smith’s own realm, where
things do not run smoothly as
a matter of course, he saw un
usual tranquility.
“They’ve been able to vote
bills on their merits and not be
cause of arm twisting,” Smith
said Friday in the closing hours
of the 195th meeting of the leg
islative body.
The speaker termed the ses
sion, “40 constructive days”.
Smith’s greatest pride was
passage of an appropriations
bill that many members say
does not call out for a tax in
crease.
“And at the same time,” he
said, “we provided something
for education, the mentally re
tarded and the prison system.”
Another member of the
House, Majority Whip Charles
M. Jones also had praise for
the session. “It’s the busiest of
the eight years I’ve been here,”
he said.
Jones agreed with Smith that
the best feature was passage of
the appropriations bill, which
Gov. Lester Maddox signed Fri
day.
“I feel it provides a greater
percentage increase to all de
partments of state govern
ment,” Jones said, “and at the
same time it’s a bill that’s fis
cally responsible because we
have not appropriated all the
anticipated income.”
Jones, of Hinesville predicted
that the major issue in the Ge
eral Assembly next year will be
Implementing what he called a
“realistic and equitable tax pro
gram.”
Harrow Runs
Over Boy, 9
A nine-year-old Griffin boy
was in good condition today at
the Griffin-Spalding County Hos
pital after being run over by a
cutting harrow on his grandfa
ther’s farm on North Hill street
extension.
Johnny Bennett, Jr., son of
Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Bennett,
Sr. of North Hill street exten
sion, suffered multiple broken
bones including his collar
bone, knee ana ribs Thursday.
He also suffered lacerations and
bruises.
The tractor pulling the harrow
was being operated by his grand
father, Y. Z. Allen.
Edward Corrow, Johnny’s un-
House.
Only Obstacle
Tlie only possible obstacle to
final Senate approval was the
unlikely prospect of a renewed
southern filibuster. Indications
were that the outnumbered
Dixie rebels and a few
conservative cohorts were ready
to accept defeat.
Senate Democratic Leader
Mike Mansfield scheduled other
legislation for Monday—a clear
indication that he had received
some sign from the southerners
there would be no more oratory.
The house passed similar
open housing legislation in 1966,
but the body lost many of its
liberal freshmen members in
the 1966 election. The 1966 open
housing bill died in the Senate
last year.
Monoxide Gas
Kills 21 In
Mine Tragedy
Ely JACK PAYTON
BELLE ISLE, La. (UPD—A
small makeshift elevator fami
lies prayed would lift their men
to safety became a hearse
today for 21 salt miners who
perished in a fire 1,200 feet
underground.
The rescuers, whose hopes
soared—then plummeted—dur
ing 60 tense hours, were to pull
up the bodies of the miners who
died of carbon monoxide
poisoning in a fire that swept
one of the world’s largest mines
Tuesday night.
The huge mine, with its dull
white walls and cathedral
ceilings, Friday surrendered the
bodies of the victims of
Louisiana’s worst mine disaster.
The bodies were found Friday
by the sixth and seventh rescue
teams to brave the intense heat
and carbon monoxide 1,200 feet
below the isolated coastal
surface.
The discovery of the bodies
brought screams of anguish and
uncontrolled tears from the
scores of relatives huddled
together at the Cargill dock, 16
miles away from the company’s
Belle Isle mine.
“We have tragic news,”
Cargill spokesman Evan Wil
liams told the wives, sisters,
parents, cousins and children of
the miners.
The death announcement end
ed the tension of nearly 60
hours of waiting, worrying,
praying and quiet tears on the
cold Cargill pier. Cots and
playpens had been set up in the
company warehouse.
cle, said it was “a wonder he
was not killed” when the 900-
pound harrow passed over his
body.
Corrow said the boy was run
ning along behind the harrow
and somehow got in front of
it. He apparently slipped and
fell.
The noise of the tractor pre
vented his grandfather from
hearing him as he approached
the tractor and equipment, Cor
row said.
Corrow said both sections of
the harrow passed over John
ny’s body.
He was taken to the Griffin-
Spalding County Hospital where
he is being treated.
Section
Open Housing Provision
The measure the Senate
settled on Friday includes an
open housing provision covering
about 44.6 million dwellings, 68
per cent of the nation's total:
anti-riot measures; and federal
protection for Negroes and civil
rights workers against racial
violence.
The open housing provision
was considered so sweeping that
southerners felt it could never
pass and its backers rated it
wishful thinking when debate
opened Jan. 17.
The bipartisan coalition that
moved the package to approval
and within one vote of passage
was so strong in the final stages
that tho last two attempts to
cripple the open housing provi
sion were crushed.