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VENIN VJ -
By Quimby Melton
Weekend Notes:
It had all the angles of a Perry
Mason mystery; except in the
Mason stories the scene is
usually somewhere in Califor
nia. This time it was right here
in Georgia— Concord, Pike
County — mighty dose to
Griffin.
A banker and his family were
kidnapped, taken to a motel in
Cobb County and held hostages
for 30 hours. Hie kidnappers, it
is reported planned to have the
banker return to Concord, while
his family was held under guard
in the motel, open the vault and
hand over all the cash it held.
But the would-be bank rob
bers failed to take into con
sideration that the bank did not
open on a Wednesday — and the
vault would be “time locked”
until Thursday. Then added to
the mystery was the report the
kidnapper allowed the Presi
dent of the bank to return home
to meet an auditor who was due
that day for a routine checkup.
Somehow the FBI, the GBI and
other law enforcement officers
got wind of the entire plan, sent
agents to the motel and got
rooms on either side of the one
the kidnapper had chosen as the
hideout. The kidnapper walked
out on the porch in front of his
room as an officer watchout
saw him notified the others and
the kidnapper was killed and
two officers wounded. The kid
napper lived long enough to be
taken to a hospital and there
identified himself and confessed
to having pulled at least one
kidnapping-robbery in another
state.
Spalding County’s 1971-1972
tax digest is up nearly $5-
Million. Net digest nearly |79-
Million.
City of Griffin adopted budget
of over {5-Million. Announced
no increase in tax rate, but said
an increase of 10 or 11 percent in
electric power rates was ne
cessary to meet rising cost of
power the city must buy.
Governor Carter proclaimed
the week “Georgia Hosiery
Week” and Griffin joined in
observing the occasion. Hosiery
Mills here are an important
part of our overall economic
picture.
President Nixon told a news
conference that the wage-price
program to follow the present
freeze “will have teeth in it”
and he planned to restrain
wages and prices “in major
industries.”
Justice Hugo Blade, 85, wrote
President Nixon resigning from
the U. S. Supreme Court after 34
years. He wrote from the Hospi
tal where he has been a patient
for sometime.
Hurricane Edith brought
“heavy weather” to many
areas with flash floods. Hardest
hit was Chester and Morristown
in Pennsylvania. Fourteen were
reported drowned or missing.
South Vietnam demonstrators
hurled fire bombs and rocks at a
church building where U. S.
Senator George McGovern was
meeting with an anti-govern
ment group. The next night 15
persons were killed and 468
iijured in terrorist bombing of a
night club in Saigon.
Tap Bennett Jr., former
Griffinite, was confirmed by the
U. S. Senate as one of the assis
tant delegates to the United Na
tions.
IljA S’!
“It’s surprising how honestly
most people will respond if they
know you trust them.”
Citizens panel
calls for cut
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CRIMEA—Soviet Communist Party Chairman Leonid Brenzhnev points out items of interest on
the Crimean penninsula to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt (c) during an outing on the
Black Sea. The two leaders began talks on Berlin and other matters. The man at right is
unidentified. (UPI).
Spalding would be
in sliced up unit
The 28th senatorial district
which includes Spalding at the
present would be sliced up
considerably under a commit
tee recommended reapportion
ment plan.
The 28th also includes Pike,
Lamar, Butts and Monroe
Counties at present and is
represented by Sen. Robert
Smalley of Griffin.
Under the committee re
commended plan, the district
into which Spalding would be
placed would include Henry, a
portion of Clayton and a portion
of Fayette Counties.
Pike, Lamar and Butts would
go into the 17th district with Up
son, Talbot, the eastern half of
Harris, the northern half of
Marion, the west half of Craw
ford, Taylor and Jasper Coun
ties.
Sen. Smalley said that on the
map tiie district looks like some
school children drew the shape
of an alligator and came up with
tiie district.
He said he opposed the
proposal, authored by Sen.
Stanley Smith of Ft Valley.
iLawmakers tackle remap Friday
By TOM GREENE
ATLANTA (UPI) — Georgia
legislators tackle the herculean
task of attempting to reappor
tion congressional and state
House and Senate districts Fri
day but the issues may well
end up in the federal courts.
The special session of the
General Assembly, called by
Gov. Jimmy Carter primarily
for reapportionment, gets un
derway at 10 a.m. Friday.
But Carter also has included
the potentially controversial is
sue of billboard control legisla
tion and “local bills of an emer
gency nature only” in the call.
The governor has said he
hopes the extraordinary session
will last no more than one
week. But most legislators pre
dict it will continue for a mini
mum of two weeks, and possi
bly much longer, depending
upon how tangled the reappor
tionment issue becomes.
The session will represent the
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
Sen. Smalley believes that
political implications figured
heavily in the proposal. It was
designed to keep some of the
South Georgia senators from
losing their districts, he
believes. Sen. Smalley sees the
hand of the Lt. Gov. Lester
Maddox forces in the Senate at
work in the plan.
He said his biggest objection
is that the proposal crosses too
many county lines. This tends to
break up continuity, Sen.
Smalley said.
The portions of Clayton and
Fayette Counties which would
be put in the district with Spald
ing are not clearly defined, the
senator said. He said the plan
amply draws a line through the
divided counties.
Upson-Pike-Lamar Rep. J. R.
Smith of Barnesville was quoted
in the Thomaston Times as say
ing that the change is the
culmination of efforts to bring
tiie Pike-Upson- Lamar group
ing of House Counties in to the
same Senatorial District.
Rep. Smith predicted the pro
posal would pass.
third time in nine years the leg
islators have been forced to re
district themselves, and the sec
ond congressional reapportion
ment in seven years. The
redistricting was made neces
sary by the new 1970 federal
census figures, to meet the
“one-man, one - vote” mandate
of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Carter will address a joint
session of the legislators at
12:30 p.m. Friday.
U.S. Rep. Wilbur Mills, D-
Ark., mentioned as a possible
presidential candidate next
year, also tentatively is sched
uled to address a joint session
on Friday, Oct. 1, if they still
are in session.
Senate and House committees
have been at work all summer
drawing up recommended re
districting proposals, which will
be introduced Friday.
The House Reapportionment
Committee has recommended
that that body be cut from 195
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Monday, September 20, 1971
Man slain
in yard
Police said a Griffin man died
instantly when he was shot
through the heart in the yard of
his home on South Ninth street
early yesterday afternoon.
Another man is being held in
connection with the shooting.
Jerry King, 30, of 422 South
Ninth street was pronounced
dead on arrival at the Griffin-
Spalding Hospital about 1:45
p.m. Officers said he had been
shot once in the heart with a .22
caliber pistol. They said the
footing happened in the yard
of his home.
Willie Ponder, 33, of 1305
Lincoln road was arrested in
connection with the shooting.
This morning a warrant
charging him with murder was
taken by Mrs. Birsiloa Barnes
of Williamson, mother of the
victim.
In addition to his mother,
survivors include his father,
William King, of Griffin; step
father, Charles Barnes of
Williamson; two sisters, Mrs.
Gladys Turnipseed of Griffin
and Mrs. Mary Jones of
Brooklyn, N.Y.; brother,
Alonza King of Griffin.
Funeral plans will be an
nounced by McDowell United
Funeral Home.
to 180 members —a recom
mendation that has stirred
some revolt, principally from
rural legislators.
House members close to pow
erful Speaker George L. Smith,
who is known to favor reducing
lhe size, have predicted confi
dently the committee plan will
pass. But last minute horse
trading continues, and there
will be a strong push to
continue with 195 members.
The last cut in the size of the
House was in 1967, when it was
reduced from 205 members.
A proposed Senate reappor
tionment plan also has come
under strong fire, including
criticism from the chairman of
the Senate Reapportionment
Committee, Sen. Frank Eldridge
of Waycross.
Legislators have threatened to
challenge both plans in federal
court, if they pass as recom
mended by the committees.
There also have been threats
ATLANTA (UPI)—A citizens
committee urged the Georgia
Legislature today to make a
drastic cut in its size at the
special session starting Friday
so as to cut “the shackles on
legislative effectiveness.”
The Citizens Committee on
the Georgia General Assembly
submitted a package of legisla
tive reform proposals to the
1970 legislature but said so far
only “piecemeal” action has
been taken on them.
One of the most radical plans
was to reduce the size of the
House from 195 to 150 members
and the Senate from 56 to 50.
“A reduction in the size is
crucial to unlocking the
shackles on legislative effective
ness,” the committee said. “The
Citizens Committee reiterates
its conviction that the General
Assembly must act in conjunc
tion with reapportionment to
decrease its membership.”
Legislative committees have
drawn up plans which would
cut the size of the House to
180 members while the Senate
would remain the same. But
rural lawmakers have served
notice they intend to fight the
planned House reduction.
The committee said 19 of its
113 recommendations had been
fully implemented, 57 partially
adopted and 37 had received no
action at all.
Frisbee creates problems
By TOM HORTON
Copley News Service
The final and complete
collapse of America was not
caused, as everyone predicted,
by pitting the whites against
the blacks, the rich against the
poor, or the old against the
young. The country finally fell
apart because the Frisbee
players couldn’t get along with
the non-Frisbee players.
First hint that it was really
the Frisbee which posed the
greatest threat to the security
of the United States came in the
middle ’6os. A woman at a
Daughters of the American
Revolution picnic in Pasadena,
Calif., beat a Japanese gar
dener to death with her tennis
shoes, claiming he had
something to do with the DAR
being attacked by unidentified
flying objects.
By the late ’6os, as the
number of Frisbee players
grew to alarming proportions,
there was open warfare in
to take the proposed congres
sional plan into federal court,
including from the Atlanta
branch of the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of
Colored People. Blacks contend
the sth District in Atlanta was
drawn to virtually assure
against the possibility of elect
ing a Negro congressman.
As adopted by the Sen
ate Congressional Reapportion
ment Committee, the proposed
sth District would contain 35
per cent Negroes.
Carter included the billboard
legislation in the call because
the federal Department of
Transportation said Georgia
would lose up to 111 million in
highway funds unless state laws
are made to conform with fed
eral regulations.
The proposed billboard legis
lation came under heavy fire
during hearings by a joint com
mittee during the summer, but
the committee on Thursday
Vol. 99 No. 223
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DETROIT—The many years of history Chief Red Fox has seen and participated in during his 101
years of life from the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn when he was seven to being an author of
Indian history are recorded in his lined, weathered face. (UPI)
parks and playgrounds.
People who went to the park
to picnic were outraged by
Frisbees landing in their potato
salad. People who went to the
park to read were unable to
lose themselves in a good book
because they kept listening for
the sound of bare feet bearing
down on them. People who
went to the park to lie in the sun
and sleep had trouble doing so
with a Frisbee stuck in each
ear.
Even other players couldn’t
live with the Frisbee players.
The baseball players were
frustrated by strange-looking
people racing through the
outfield, chasing blue darters
that turned out to be Frisbees.
Badminton and volleyball
players hated Frisbee players
because every time they bent
over to pick up a badminton or
a volley ball, they got whacked
in the bull’s-eye by a Frisbee.
By the end of the ’6os, most
parks in America were unsafe
for anyone except a Frisbee
player or a turtle. Non-Frisbee
players who still dared to
venture into a park in the
summer wore helmets or hid
behind trees. Children were put
under picnic tables for
protection.
By the dawning of the '7os.
the Frisbee players had taken
the beaches and gone into the
streets.
People who went to the beach
in the summer of ’7O were less
worried about sunburn and
more concerned about Frisbee
backbite. Fights were no longer
started by bullies kicking sand
in the faces of weaklings, but
somebody’s Frisbee kicking
somebody’s girl friend in all the
wrong places.
Fewer people drowned at the
beach in 1970 than were
decapitated by a Frisbee or
crushed by a 300-pound Frisbee
player in flight. Swimmers
forgot about the undertow and
worried about the overhead
traffic.
voted heavily to submit a bill
adopting the minimal federal
requirements. The committee
action, by a vote of 21 to 4,
may have helped smooth the
way for passage of the mea
sure.
Georgia’s first reapportion
ment in modern times came in
1962, following the Baker vs.
Carr decision of the U.S. Su
preme Court. The federal dis
trict court in Atlanta or
dered one house of the General
Assembly reapportioned accord
ing to population in the state,
and the Senate was revamped
in special session called by then
Gov. Ernest Vandiver that year.
In 1964, the Supreme Court
ruled that representation in
both Houses of state legisla
tures must be based on popula
tion, and the House was re
aligned in regular session that
year.
The General Assembly, under
federal court order, also reap-
Inside Tip
Falcons
See Page 6
Even in the streets, people
weren’t safe from Frisbees.
Motorists who once smiled and
slowed down to let small boys
playing baseball get out of the
street, would curse and step on
the accelerator at the sight of
two hippies in the street
playing Frisbee.
Antagonism of non-Frisbee
players toward Frisbee players
grew in proportion to the
number of Frisbees, which
soon became thicker than
mosquitoes. Adding to the ill
feeling was the non-Frisbee
player’s inability to react in
kind.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY
85, low today 63, high yesterday
84, low yesterday 60. Sunrise
tomorrow 7:28, sunset
tomorrow 7:32.
portioned the state’s 10 con
gressional districts in 1964. The
battle over changing the con
gressional districts became so
heated, it resulted in then Rep.
Denmark Groover of Macon
pulling the House clock off the
wall to keep the General As
sembly from adjourning at mid
night without acting.
(Groover, incidentally, later
declined to seek reelection and
moved to Gray, Ga. But he ran
for and was elected to a House
seat in a special election earlier
this year, and will be back for
another reapportionment ses
sion.)
The federal courts ordered
further redistricting of both the
House and Senate, which was
done in 1967, when the House
membership was cut but two
more members added to the
Senate, bringing it to 56.
Some more minor adjust
ments in House and Senate dis
tricts were made in 1968.