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VENIN VF
By Quimby Melton
Saturday, June 14, is National
Flag Day, coming one day be
fore National Father’s Day.
A great combination — The
Flag for Loyalty; Father for
Love.
June 14th is the anniversary
of the date in 1777 when the Con
tinental Congress approved the
Stars and Stripes as the official
flag of the young nation. There
have been various arrangements
of the “Stars and Stripes’’ flag
but the colors, Red, White and
Blue, and alternating stripes of
Red and White have not been
changed: the chief change
through the years has been to
add a star to the field of blue,
each time a new state has been
admitted to the union. Today
there are 50 stars.
Each of the stars is named for
one of the states, the fourth star
being Georgia’s star, since Ge
orgia was the fourth colony to
ratify the Constitution of the Un
ited States.
— + —
There have been many stories
of the first flag but the one that
is most generally accepted is
that a widow, Betsy Ross, made
the first flag. The legend is that
a committee made up of Gener
al George Washington, Robert
Morris, and Col. George Ross,
an uncle of Betsy Ross, went to
her home in Philadelphia and
asked her to make a flag that
would comply with the specifi
cations approved by the Congr
ess. She agreed to make the flag.
Mrs. Ross was a seamstress and
a skilled upholsterer. The house
in which she operated her shop,
on Arch Street, is now a nation
al shrine and credited with be
ing the birthplace of our flag.
A replica of the first Stars and
Stripes is draped over a chair
in the very room where Betsy
Ross is said to have designed
the flag.
The legend of Betsy Ross also
tells that the widow told Gen
eral Washington and his compa
nions that she thought it would
be best to make the stars five —
pointed in keeping with the Fr
ench style, rattier than the En
glish style, six-pointed. Her sug
gestion was followed.
The story of why the stars
were five-pointed rather than
six-pointed is said to have been
first told nearly a hundred ye
ars later, in 1870, by a grandson
of Mrs. Ross.
- + -
There have been some who
have claimed the story of Betsy
Ross to be without foundation.
For instance four years after
the date the flag was designed
' one of the signers of the Declar
ation of Independence claimed
he was the designer. He w a s
Francis Hopkinson, of New
1 Jersey, who had designed the
seals for the State Department
and the Treasurer Board, as
well as a flag for toe Navy - cl "
i aiming that he designed the fir
st national flag he asked Con
gress to pay him for his servic
es. This Congress refused to do.
I No less a historian than Dr.
Dumas Malone, of Columbia
University, says “This talented
man (Hopkinson) designed the
, American flag. (There are sev
eral people living in Griffin who
remember Dr. Dumas Malone,
having attended Emory Col
lege, at Oxford, when he also
' was a student there. He receiv
ed his A.B. degree from Emory
in 1910.)
There also are stories saying
* the design of the first flag re
sembled the coat-of-arms of
Washington’s family. An Eng
lishman, Martin Tupper, wrote
1 a play in 1870 in which this was
told.
But whether the flag was de
signed to resemble Washington’s
i coat-of-arms, and whether Bet
sy Ross or Francis Hopkinson,
or someone else designed it, the
Stars and Stripes is the flag of
these United States of America.
" It stands for the glorious his
tory cf our nation, with the de
votion, the sacrifice, and the
heroism of many; and as an
emblem of hope for our future.
Let’s all work together to
make it the emblem of "one na
tion under God" and the guaran
tee of liberty, freedom and jus
tice to all.
Weather:
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN
AREA — Partly cloudy and
| warm Friday with chance of as
-1 ternoon thundershowers.
LOCAL WEATHER — Esti
mated high today 87, low today
67, high yesterday 87, low yes
terday 87, low yesterday 67,
sunrise tomorrow 6:28, sunset
tomorrom 8:49.
208 Registered:
190 Os Them Vote
MURRAYVILLE, Ga. (UPI)
— Voters of this small northern
Hall County community take
their citizenship duties serious
ly.
Murrayville -has 208 regis
tered voters and 190 of them
turned out Wednesday to vote
in an incorporation referendum.
The unofficial results showed
81 voxed to incorporate, 104 vot
ed against and five ballots were
voided.
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Ways and Means Chairman Quimby Melton Jr. and
House Speaker George L. Smith talk as General
Hearing June 23 Or 24
On Pike School Suit
ATLANTA (UPI) — Hearings
on two suits brought by Ne
groes angry about the alleged
rapid reduction in the number
of Negro teachers were set
Wednesday by U. S. District
Judge Newell Edenfield.
Edenfield set June 23 or 24
for the hearing in a case in
which a Pike County Negro was
not rehired, and June 23 for a
suit by two Gainesville Negro
teachers charging they were un
fairly dismissed by city school
officials.
The Pke County suit grew
from the county school board’s
failure to rehire veteran Negro
Principal D. F. Glover of Pike
County Consolidated School at
Concord.
The school board, acting on
the recommendation of School
Supt. Harold Daniel, announced
April 23 that Glover would not
receive a new contract after 19
years in the county system.
The announcement sparked
more than a month of demon
strations and marches by Negro
students who boycotted classes
for the remainder of the school
year.
Edenfield took under advise
ment a motion by Glover’s at
torney, Peter Rindskoph of At
lanta, that the suit be made a
class action that would have a
sweeping effect over the whole
state.
But Edenfield told the attor
ney, “You’ve got a popgun and
Police Seize
Liquor Cache
A 25-year-old Griffin man was
arrested yesterday and charged
with possessing and transport
ing tax-paid whisky, police said.
Jimmy Olin Morris, 25, of Rou
te Two, Griffin, posted SI,OOO
bond and was released from the
Spalding County jail.
He was arrested after he had
turned his car off the North Ex
pressway onto Hammond drive.
An officer said the car was
carrying cases and two
quarts of tax-paid whisky. The
car was a 1966 model.
GRIFFIN
DAILY #NEWS
Daily Since 1872 Griffin, Ga., 30223, Thursday, June 12, 1969 Vol. 96 No. 138
Maddox Tax Hike Plea
In Serious Trouble
you’re trying to kill an army
with it.”
The Southern Christian Lead
ership Conference has said it
hopes to make Pike County an
example to the South of how
Negroes intend to stand up to
the loss of black educators due
to discrimination.
Edenfield said U. S. District
Judge Albert J. Henderson
tfould hear the Gainesville case
in Gainesville. Edenfield will
to i- MimbV
b?!*
TINY TIME PILLS seem to have gotten out of hand, but these actually are fiber
glass-reinforced plastic tanks used in underground storage by major U. S. oil com
panies. The tanks replace metal ones which reportedly rust in highly corrosive soiL
(United Press International Photo)
Assembly met in special session today.
hear the Pike County suits in
Atlanta.
Attorneys for the two Gaines
ville teachers contend their cli
ents were denied renewed con
tracts on racial grounds. But
William B. Gunter, represent
ing the Gainesville school
board, said Wednesday in Eden
field’s chambers that a de
crease in the number of city
school students was the cause.
He said about 300 city school
students this fall would be
transferred back to the county
system and there was a corre
sponding need to dismiss sever
al teachers, some of them
white.
The Georgia Teachers and
Education Association, led by
executive secretary H. E. Tate,
has charged that more than 200
Negro teachers have lost their
jobs in 30 Georgia school sys
tems in the last five years.
Legislators
Jovial As
Session Opens
By TOM GREENE
ATLANTA (UPD-Gov. Les
ter Maddox’s House floor lead
ers introduced the governor’s
tax program into the legislature
within minutes after it con
vened, in special session today,
but the program’s future was
in serious doubt.
There were no surprises in
the eight bills dropped into the
hopper.
Both houses convened at 10
a.m. to hear Maddox’s plea to
raise the sales tax, revise the
income tax, increase grants to
cities and counties, to amend
the appropriations act and to
make changes in the Minimum
Foundation Program for Edu
cation.
Legislators were in a jovial,
circus-like mood despite being
called back in the summer for
an unpopular cause. Many had
expressed disgust that they
were being brought back to
hear a program they had
turned down during the regular
session.
In the Senate, there was a
memorial service for Sen. Dan
Maclntyre, who died on Easter
Sunday. His replacement, Earl
Patton, of Atlanta, was sworn
in.
The House Ways and Means
Committee was to begin hear
ings on Maddox’s tax bills
shortly after the governor ad
dressed a joint session.
Maddox admitted his propos
als “might not guarantee the
people of this state a reduction
in current ad valorem taxes”
despite the warnings of House
Speaker George L. Smith and
others that such a guarantee
was a must to win votes for the
controversial proposed sll6 mil
lion tax increases.
In a speech prepared for de
livery to the special session he
called to raise taxes, Maddox
revealed one new point of his
program that some felt could
actually lead to increased prop
erty taxes for school support.
“We are here because spiral
ing ad valorem taxes make it
imperative that we provide re
lief for overburdened property
owners,” among other reasons,
Maddox said. “Property owners
are fed up, and many of them
have a right to be.
Point of Revolt
“They are at the point of re
volting,” he said, and though
his proposals might not guaran
tee a property tax break, “fail
ure to make these funds avail
able will guarantee all owners
of real property that these ad
ditional tens of millions of dol
lars will be added onto their ad
valorem tax bills.”
The governor proposed rais
ing the state sales tax from 3
to 4 per cent to raise slOl mil
lion for schools and cities and
counties.
He would also raise sls mil-
Continued on page two
McCalmon
Resigns
Rec Post
Mayor O. M. Snider, Jr. an
nounced today the resignation
of Grady McCalmon, recreation
director of the City of Griffin, ef
fective July 15. He will become
recreation director for the Oity
of Rome and Floyd County.
Mayor Snider stated that Mr.
McCalmon has done an “out
standing job as recreation dir
ector for Griffin since assuming
the duties Dec. 1, 1964, and it
is with the deepest regret that
the Board of City Commission
ers accepts his resignation.”
City Manager Jack Langford
said Assistant Director Larry
Neil will be named acting dir
ector of recreation immediately
so he can work the remainder
of the time directly with Mr.
McCalmon.
W 'MIR
B Mil ®
HORROR OF WAR is mirrored on face of this
mother holding her child 10 miles south of Tam Ky,
South Vietnam, during the 101st Airborne’s Opera
tion Lamar Plain.
Rats Attack
Infant Twins
HIGH POINT, N. C. (UPI)—-
Rats described as “wharf-type”
attacked infant twins in their
bed early Wednesday, mutilat
ing the right foot of one of the
two-month-old girls.
Physicians at High Point
Memorial Hospital said the
babies would recover if infec
tion could be prevented.
Dinetta and Anita Floyd,
daughters of Mr. and Mrs.
Alvester Floyd, were bitten as
they slept in a
four-room duplex apartment.
A portion of Dinetta’s right
foot was mutilated and Anita
suffered several small puncture
wounds.
Mrs. Floyd said she checked
on the twins about 3:15 a.m.
Wednesday and found them all
right. When she returned to
their room at about 5:45 a.m.,
she found the covers over them
soaked with blood.
Dr. V. D. McFall said
Dinetta’s foot could be restored
through skin grafting.
The duplex contained holes
which were used by “wharf
type rats.” City authorities
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moved the Floyds and their two
other children out of the duplex
and into a housing project
Wednesday.
Country Parson
— —
w
X rHMI
“Each generation solves
some problems that the next
one wouldn't necessarily need
to solve again.”
Copyright 1969, by Frank A. Clark