Newspaper Page Text
3arkson Trngress-^rgus
J. D. Jones Publisher
(1908 1955)
Doyle Jones Jr. Editor and Publisher
(1955-1975)
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MRS. MARTHA G. JONES PUBLISHER
VINCENT JONES EDITOR
Published every Thursday at-129 South Mulberry Street, Jackson,
Georgia 30233 by The Progress-Argus Printing Cos., Inc. Second Class
Postage paid at Jackson, Georgia 30233.
Address notice of undeliverawe copies and otner correspondence
to The Jackson Progress-Argus, P.O. Box 249, Jackson, Georgia 30233.
One Year, in Georgia $6.24
Six Months, in Georgia $3.91
Editorials
Establishing Priorities
The school, the church and the
home are the backbone of this
nation. No person in his right mind
would attempt to argue with such
an assertion. But in the allocation
of critically-short fuel supplies, one
has to take a hard look at the fourth
cornerstone of this country’s
greatness-the jobs which support
the other three basic institutions.
Without sufficient income,
school taxes will go unpaid, the
collection plates will return to the
altar embarrassingly empty and
the home will fall apart in a welter
of unpaid, and unpayable, bills.
Schools can operate in the
month of June if they have to, or on
Saturdays, until lost time has been
made up. People can worship in
their home if they have to, listen to
television or radio sermons, or
spend time in prayer for a
cessation of the terrible winter that
has chilled us all physically and
economically.
But the industrial worker can’t
earn his wages at any place other
than his plant. Having his children
in school or going to church on
Sunday isn’t going to help pay his
utility, grocery or drug bill next
month. Only the operation of his
plant, which has been shut so that
schools and churches may
operate-even on reduced sche
dules-can provide the income that
will enable him to properly support
his family and other institutions he
cherishes.
Reducing, or cutting off,
industrial payrolls has a snowball
effect on the economic life of the
entire community. Retail sales
drop, established merchants are
hard hit and the marginal
operations may face bankruptcy,
and the ability of the proprietors to
support both the church and the
school in their accustomed fashion
is seriously hampered.
Here Come the Big Foots
The Big Foot boys, advocates
of the 14-foot wide mobile homes
being transported on Georgia’s
12-foot highway, are with us again,
trying to browbeat Georgia
legislators into believing that the
third grade arithmetic lesson they
learned was all wrong.
Surely you can put two 14-foot
homes on a 24-foot Georgia high
way without knocking down mail
boxes, fence posts or some unfortu
nate pedestrian, or causing undue
hazard to an oncoming motorist.
And, too, Georgia needs the
A Scout Is Loyal, Brave ...
The Boys Scouts of America
are observing their 67th anniver
sary this month and if ever an
organization were deserving of our
support and congratulations, this
one is.
Scouting is an idealistic
movement that believes, by
precept and example, a boy can
become brave and honorable and
truthful and useful as well. It has
transformed many a potential
Advance Subscription Rates, Tax Included:
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OFFICIAL ORGAN
BUTTS COUNTY AND
CITY OF JACKSON
One Year, Out-of-State ...$7.28
Six Months, Out-of-State $4.16
There is nothing local officials
can do about re-establishing
priorities of service to gas
customers. These decisions were
made by managers of the gas lines,
certainly out of deference to the
schools and churches, and possibly
out of the legal question of their
right to close one or both, had they
so chosen.
Most industrial gas customers
are on an interruptible basis, that
is, if supplies are not adequate they
face a gas cut off which
necessitates the closing of their
plants. Some industries have a
stand-by, or alternate, source of
fuel but many cannot afford the
cost of two heating systems.
There are more than six weeks
of winter officially left on the
calendar. We may yet see worse
conditions, if not this winter, then
in others to come.
It is high time some serious
thought were given to the
establishment of priorities for
continued service when supplies
are scarce and everyone cannot be
served. We have seen laundries
closed, but not bars or movie
houses.
Everyone agrees that gas service
must be continued to homes and to
retail businesses, even if the latter
are forced to cut back their hours of
operation, to hospitals, profes
sional offices and essential
governmental agencies at all,
levels. But, beyond that, there is
room for argument.
No one was prepared for this
current emergency, no one really
knows how to cope with it now and
no one knows just when it will end.
It just seems here that industry
is getting the short end of the stick
and that, as a result, our schools,
homes and churches will all have to
suffer as a consequence.
industrial jobs tms bill would
create as the mobile home industry
flourishes here once again. Round
and round they go, the mobile home
lobbyists and their arguments
make about as much sense as those
you read.
Georgia doesn’t need industrial
jobs if the result is going to be
increased hazards on our highways
which, heaven knows, are hazard
ous enough now. The Big Foot bill
deserves the big kick that we
believe Georgia legislators will
give it.
delinquent into youthful service
and into an adulthood where only
the noblest and best virtues of life
were practiced.
So give a Scout a salute this
week if you see one. And a word or
a handshake from you might be all
that is needed to inspire him to be
true to his Scout oath. Tell him you
know he stands for the very best of
American boyhood. Which he does.
THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1977.
The Last
Straw
BY
VINCENT JONES
It is going to take an old
timer with a very sharp
memory who is most adept
with words to convince any of
the moderns that there was
ever a worse winter in the
history of Butts County than
the one we are now shivering
through.
Our astute weather statis
tician, Johnny Smolka, will
provide us with all the grisly
details on the lows for the
month of January (there
weren’t any highs) but
neither figures nor words can
adequately portray the
misery, inconvenience and
disruption of our lives the
bitter weather has caused.
Clouding the memory of
the oldsters is the poorly
heated homes, the Tom and
Jerry transportation, and
recollections of the creaky
farm wagon threading its
way along the frozen stubble
or the ice-sheathed roads.
Life was more primitive
then, people lived closer to
the earth and a bitter winter
found the earth a frozen and
unyielding companion.
The modernist, by con
trast, lives in a tighter house,
has no livestock or farm
animals to care for, has all
kinds of entertainment avail
able to make tolerable his
frosty evenings, and com
plains when he has to cut the
furnace down to 55 degrees
upon retiring.
If the severe cold has done
nothing else perhaps it has
made many of us more self
reliant. One can safely
assume there has been more
blue smoke curling from the
County’s chimneys than at
anytime within the last 30
years.
The wood scramblers are
everywhere, combing yards
for the latest windfall,
searching basements,
garages or beneath houses
for kindling material and
often are faced with the
frustrating, and humbling,
experience of trying to start
the evening fire with wet
wood.
Wood supplies, carefully
stacked in the fall and
considered sufficient for the
average winter, have been
exhausted and the green oak,
hickory or pine will not burn
with the fervor of the
seasoned wood.
Lightwood, or lightard as
we know it, the hard, pitchy
mass of resin from the pine,
is an excellent fire starter,
although it smokes badly and
too much of it will surely
ignite the chimney’s soot and
result in a burn out which
sounds like a hundred roman
candles being fired at once
and can be dangerous on dry
or windy days.
Fire wood dealers are
enjoying a banner season, as
are those who handle
plumbing supplies, as water
pipes cannot stand much of
the near-zero weather we
have been plagued with.
Electric space heaters
have long been gone, with
dealers trying frantically to
replenish their stock, and
even the old Perfection
kerosene stoves we used 40
years ago to warm the dining
room on special occasions
are back in demand. When
ordering a wick for one,
however, it’s best to talk to a
mature clerk as a youngster
would not likely have the
faintest notion of what
your needs are.
Perhaps there are some
valuable lessons to be
learned from our present
adversity, if we but ponder
them. Certainly, there has
developed a community
awareness, the realization
that we are all in this
together, that we either stay
warm together or freeze
together.
And, too, there seems to be
a generai toughening of the
moral fiber, a feeling that
this is bad but we can stand
it, or even more, and that we
will still come out of it all
right in the end. And that the
experience of enduring it
might just make us a
stronger people.
Then, there is always the
comfort that the calendar is
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| A Stroll Down
Memory Lane I
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News of 10 Years Ago
The Jackson 4-H Club
planted over 225 dogwood
trees around the school and
hospital as part of the “Make
Georgia Beautiful” month
long program.
The storage and utility
room of the new Harold
Me Michael home on Wesley
Drive was damaged by fire
on Thursday night.
Harold Standard has re
turned home after a Red
Carpet tour to Arizona as a
winner of the Goodyear Soil
Conservation Award.
Many new mercury vapor
lights have been added in
Jackson recently, according
to Supt. J. H. Rooks of the
Jackson Water and Light
Department.
Rev. Ray Dunahoo reports
that $878.74 has been collect
ed to date in the County’s
March of Dimes campaign.
Ralph Carr, Jr. bagged a
doe with his car on the
Covington highway last Fri
day when the deer ran into
the auto, inflicting $l4O
damage and one broken deer
neck.
Deaths duing the week:
Mrs. James D. Williams, 66.
News of 20 Years Ago
The Betty Crocker Home
maker of Tomorrow in
Jackson High School is
Natalie Lang, daughter of
Principal and Mrs. N. F.
Lang.
Jackson residents endors
ed parking meters in a straw
vote on the question Tuesday
by a 158-144 vote. Earlier, a
straw vote showed a 58-58 tie.
Named officers of Butts
County’s first Junior 4-H
Council were Linda Turner,
president; Darrell Thomp
son. boy’s vice president;
Janie Ridgeway, girl’s vice
president; Judy Weaver,
secretary and treasurer and
Julie Watkins, reporter.
State Senator Bailey Wood
ward will leave Thursday
with a group of legislators for
an inspection trip of Jekyll
Island, off the Georgia coast.
Rev. Ralph Goodwin,
pastor of the Jackson
Nazarene Church, killed a 5
foot 11 inch coachwhip while
hunting during Tuesday’s
warm spell.
The County Line W.M.S.
met Thursday at the home of
Mrs. Palmer Sims with Mrs.
Charles Sims as co-hostess.
News of 30 Years Ago
Workers at Jackson Box &
Lumber Company have
voted 33-9 to reject a plan to
affiliate with the United
Construction Workers union.
Officers of Towaliga Bap
tist Church will meet Sunday
to consider completion of the
church building and the
calling of a pastor.
James E. Cornell, Jr. will
head the 1947 American Red
Cross drive in Butts County.
The Pomona Products
Company is now signing
contracts with local farmers
to grow pimiento pepper for
the 1947 canning season. The
Company will pay $60.00 per
ton for both No. 1 and No. 2
grades.
Mrs. C. L. Redman, Sr.,
wife of former State Senator
C. L. Redman, is serving as a
hostess of the Georgia
now on our side. Spring
draws nearer with every
passing day and, though the
winter has been long,
disrupting and miserable,
the end of the struggle may
not be too distant.
And that’s a warming
thought when the tempera
ture outside registers eight
degrees.
General Assembly.
Mr. and Mrs. E. W. O’Neal
observed their golden wed
ding anniversary Sunday at
the home of their son, E. W.
O’Neal, Jr., in Atlanta.
Deaths during the week:
Ernest Metzger; Prof. H. M.
Linkous, 64; George Erskine
Rice; Mrs. J. T. Barnett,
87.
News of 40 Years Ago
W. O. Moore, of Cork, has
killed one of the largest hogs
ever grown in this section. It
weighed 1,040 pounds.
The Progress-Argus, es
tablished in 1873, is one of the
few Georgia weeklies over 50
years old, according to The
American Press. The Darien
Gazette, established in 1817 is
the state’s oldest weekly. The
Monroe Advertiser, in For
syth, is the fifth oldest
weekly, dating from 1854.
Hostesses for the U.D.C.
meeting on Thursday will be
Mrs. L. H. Hurt, Mrs. J. H.
McKibben, Mrs. John E.
Lane, Mrs. Forrest Rossey,
Mrs. W. W. Jamerson and
Mrs. E. H. Pace.
The sale of hunting and
fishing licenses in Butts
County to date has already
brought in SIOO for the 1936-37
season, as compared to only
$57 for the entire 1935 season.
The Jonesboro Production
Credit Association, which in
1936 loaned $182,170 to
farmers in seven counties,
met in Jonesboro on Tuesday
and re-elected Captain E. S.
Settle, of Jackson, as
president.
Bert Carmichael, Jr., of
Jackson, has been elected
treasurer of Beta XI, a
professional pharmacy fra
ternity at the University of
Georgia.
News of 50 Years Ago
The Board of County
Commissioners have named
Messrs. D. W. Brooks and B.
R. McClendon to continue as
special dry law enforcement
officers.
By July 1, 1927, the
population of the United
States will exceed 118
million.
One parcel of land was
sold this week, 112 acres in
the 552nd district going at
public sale for SSOO.
Butts County produced
6,883 bales of cotton in 1926,
up considerably over the
4,674 grown in drought
ridden 1925.
A Junior League was
formed at the Jenkinsburg
Methodist Church with
Louise Hooten, president;
Wesley Bankston, vice presi
dent; Anna Frank Wood
ward, secretary and Billie
Childs, treasurer.
Hostesses for the Thursday
meeting of the U.D.C. will be
Mesdames W. E. Watkins,
Eva Mae Smith, R. I. Knox,
Walter Moore, S. S. Cope
land, R. W. Mays, Miss Ina
McMichael and Miss Zula
Belle Hill.
Deaths during the week:
Riley W. Lindsey, 95, of
Chouteau, Oklahoma. During
Civil War, he saw service
with Quantrell’s Raiders. He
was the son of Parham
Lindsey and Polly Wise
Lindsey, who were among
the very first settlers of Butts
County.
High blood pressure is silent.
It usually has no symptoms
and its victims often don’t
know they have it. Once
detected it can usually be
effectively treated and con
trolled. Undetected, it can lead
to heart attack and stroke. See
your doctor for a check up. And
give to the Heart Campaign.
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
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Georgians interested in
wildlife and humane groups
are joining forces to urge the
Georgia Legislature to ban
one of the grisliest practices
still existing in the civilized
country - trapping with steel
jaw leghold traps. A bill to
ban this trap has been
introduced in the Georgia
Legislature by Senator Floyd
Hudgins of Columbus.
You may ask, what is so
bad about the leghold trap? It
is not an instrument of death;
it is an instrument of torture!
Deceptively simple in
appearance, it looks like an
old-fashioned coin purse with
the cloth ripped off. The jaws
rest against a powerful
spring, cocked by a small
triggering device called a
pan. When an animal steps
on the pan, the spring is
released and the jaws slam
together on his leg or paw
like two dull butcher knives.
Any movement results in a
cutting, tearing and sawing
of flesh and bone. The more
he struggles, the worse his
pain. Many animals will
chew off their own paws or
legs to escape, only to die
later an agonizing death
from loss of blood, shock, or
gangrene.
Occasionally an animal
lives for as long as three
weeks in such a trap. Finally
he will die of exposure,
hunger, thirst or is clubbed to
death by the trapper. The
proposed legislation would
ban the use of the steel jaw
leghold trap except for
agricultural purposes by a
person to protect his live
stock, poultry or other fowl
or domesticated animals
from varmints. It would also
require that the trap be
For the last 10 days I have
tried to put into writing my
own thoughts on our Presi
dent’s pardon given to the
draft resisters-deserters dur
ing the Vietnam conflict. Try
as I may I could not find the
words to express my total
Those who ran are now applauded,
Their reticence to serve rewarded.
Their Pardon’s without sense or reason
It glorifies the crime of treason!
We served; we fought; we agonized;
Yet we never compromised.
We served in time of national need
While others ran and disagreed.
We served with pride,
Was wounded, some died.
Markers show where we’ve been lain;
Our sacrifices have been in vain!
No pardon will restore our lives,
Transform our widows to our wives.
WE’RE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE
Don’t Smoke
American Heart Association (J)
ruth at random
By Ruth Bryant
DEEP FREEZE
My water is all cut off
’Till a pipe under the house
Is mended!
My heat now is in two rooms
Where my bedroom and kitchen
Are vended!
My family and friends are “for me”
While bringing water to my house
Is not ended!
My faith in the Lord is strong
and with mercy and peace
Is blended!
stamped with the owner’s
name and be checked at least
once every 24 hours during
daylight hours.
The trap is indiscriminate.
Besides the fur-bearing
animals it is legal to trap in
Georgia, it also catches and
mutilates birds, household
pets, hunting dogs, and other
wildlife, including endanger
ed species. It has been known
to catch a child in its steel
jaws. Two out of every three
animals caught by the
leghold trap are considered
“trash” by the trapers and,
since they have no commer
cial value, are thrown away.
Many Georgia hunters can
describe the experience of
trying to free a pain-crazed
bird dog with a torn or
broken leg. Fox and coon
hunting dogs are frequent
victims of the leghold trap,
and often bleed to death,
have to be destroyed, or are
crippled for the rest of their
lives.
Such cruelty is unneces
sary. Other, more humane
traps are available, and
research is being conducted
to perfect existing “instant
kill” traps.
With the passage of the
restriction on leghold traps,
the approximately 550 fur
trappers in Georgia could
still pursue their trade, using
more humane traps'. Farm
ers could still protect their
property from undesirable
animals. Hunters could loose
their dogs without fear of leg
injuries. And family pets
would be safe from unneces
sary suffering and mutila
tion.
Sara June McDavid
The Atlanta Humane Society
feelings. Then a poem
appeared, written by an
anonymous soldier, which to
me says it all. It’s enclosed
and I wish you would reprint
it.
Frank Hearn