Newspaper Page Text
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J. D. Jones r Publisher
(1908 19551
Doyle Jones Jr. - Editor and Publisher
(1955-1975)
MRS. MARTHA G. JONES PUBLISHER
VINCENT JONES EDITOR
OFFICIAL ORGAN BUTTS COUNTY AND CITY OF JACKSON
Published every Thursday at-129 South Mulberry Street, Jackson,
Georgia 30233 by The Progress-Argus Printing.Co., Inc. Second Class
Postage paid at Jackson, Georgia 30233.
i f
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Editorials
Spring's Lost Promise
The sting of Spring has lashed
the nation from the Mohawk Valley
to the St. John’s River. From the
San Gabriel Mountains to the
Poconos, the land has been lanced
by piercing winds, drenched by
torrential rains, whipsawed by
dervish storms and scarred by the
frightening nightmare of the
tornado.
Undaunted by the tears of the
aggrieved, there is no indication
that Spring’s rampage has suc
cumbed yet to the calmer, more
gentle ways that often characterize
the season.
When she goes on the war path,
Spring can be the most devastating
of our seasons. Tomadic winds can
blast airplanes from the skies,
obliterate the physical landmarks
of a community and wreak havoc
and destruction like no other
Is Registration Necessary?
President Carter, no stranger
to controversy and no avoider of it,
has proposed another measure that
will result in considerable flap
before it is finally resolved.
Ho has proposed the elimina
tion of registration requirements
for voting in federal elections. Any
potential voter could cast a ballot
in such an election by showing up at
the polls and providing proper
identification, such as driver’s
license, and proof of residence.
The change would not affect
state, county, or local elections
where rules of pre-registration
would continue to apply, at least for
the present.
Although obviously designed to
get better participation in the
election process, the suggestion
seems to be fraught with dangers
that would outweigh any increase
in voter turnout.
The potentials for fraud are too
numerous, and visible, to even cite.
With no registration lists, voters
could cast ballots in several
precincts without being contested,
as there would be no way to
challenge their right to vote, if they
Peace Is More
Whatever became of those
tremendous windfalls that all
Americans were going to share in,
once we got out of World War 11, the
Korean conflict and the Vietnam
mess?
* Georgia Senator Sam Nunn is
talking sense when he charged
recently that “it costs more to
wage peace than war.”
Part of the culprit has been the
wild proliferation in personnel
costs of the armed services.
Admiral Rickover, in testifying
before Chm’n. Nunn’s Senate
'Armed Service manpower commit
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
mtcuTioN fwrtrt im*
ffMfmtg! NNASUSTAINING
MEMBER-1977
natural phenomenon.
Rivers balloon from their
banks and explode over the
surrounding countryside, inundat
ing houses, fields and people and
afterwards polar blasts freeze the
homeless and the heartsick with
wintry winds that carry remnants
of the season’s last snow.
It has been that kind of Spring
this year. The season has been
feisty, mean, ornery, and down
right tragic. Perhaps one might
expect the transition from a woeful
winter to Spring to be marked by
excesses of the type that have been
experienced.
But soon, father time will take
his toll, the sun will once again
warm the earth’s surface, and a
miserable Spring will melt into the
languor of summer. Let us all hope
that summer will behave in a more
gentlemanly and dignified manner.
met the meager voting require
ments.
One also might legitimately
question the right of any voter, or
any potential voter, to cast a ballot
in any election, federal or not, who
does not have enough concern for
good government and enough
get-up-and-go to make the trip to
city hall, or the county courthouse,
and establish a right to vote in any
and all elections.
President Carter seems to be
abandoning his clarion pre-election
call for “why not the best” and
substituting in its place one he
must feel has more popular appeal
entitled “why not the least.”
Good citizenship does, and
should, demand some outward
manifestation of our faitn in this
country and our belief in its
ultimate greatness.
A citizen who cares so little about
his country as to not make the
effort to pre-register his right to
vote is adopting an “I don’t care”
attitude.
And we don’t care to be
governed by such people. And
neither, we believe, do the majority
of our fellow citizens.
Costly
tee, proposed a 50 per cent
reduction in the number of
generals and admirals.
During the height of World War
11, Rickover pointed out, there was
one flag officer for each 6,000 men
of lower ranks, while today the
ratio is one to each 1,785 men.
There are too many fat cats in
the military establishment. Our
defense budget would be helped
considerably by the mandatory
retirement of half of them and our
fighting capacity would not be
damaged one whit.
THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA
The Last
Straw
BY
VINCENT JONES
At times the world gets
rather heavy for our adults,
who always try to carry all of
its burdens on their shoul
ders, while failing to grasp
the wisdom of the young, who
seem to know that fretting
and worrying never solved
many problems.
So, with Spring already
sprung, perhaps it is time for
us to remember that the joys
and pleasures we shared
many decades ago still thrill
today the hearts of the young,
and that time’s erosive
passage has changed only the
form, but not the basics.
And so we remember... Our
first dance, held in a barn,
with cornstarch making
tolerable the concrete floor,
and Japanese lanterns cast
ing eerie light patterns on the
nervous young dancers, with
their uncertain feet...
The early driving lessons
when Mom and not the State
Patrol taught you how to
maneuver a car and how
adept we were in the back
yard with the big machine
and how narrow the highway
became when we met our
first real car while under the
steering wheel...
The senior play that had a
romantic scene calling for a
kiss and how my neighbor,
who was my gal-pal but not a
sweetheart, and I really
played the scene to the hilt,
both in the auditorium and at
the local theater, probably to
the mortification of our
parents and school officials,
neither of whom felt we
should be so well versed in
the osculatory art at that
tender age...
The track meets in which
our team competed very
well, in spite of its meager
equipment consisting of one
discus, one shot put, home
made hurdles and an aged
and dangerous bamboo pole..
The warm nights spent
roller skating in our giant
outdoor rink, with the paved
streets and sidewalks our
floor, and the moon, stars
and an occasional street light
our only illumination...
The rare treat of a date for
a movie in a neighboring
town, complete with ice
cream soda, and the airy ride
in a rumble seat or an open
convertible that seemed
terribly daring at the time...
The enthusiastic fans who
followed the basketball team
everywhere and how they
almost mobbed us when we
beat Griffin in the tourna
ment and were rewarded by
the principal with a day off
from school for displaying
such winning form...
The difficulty in selecting
the right college to attend,
and the trip made with three
others in an open Model-T to
Presbyterian College and the
huge hill across the river
near the college that chal
lenged the auto’s horsepower
and how we all hated to
drown just when life was
beginning to open up for us...
The Spring the school
entered its first tennis match
and found two of us with two
worn practice balls and two
racquets, one of which went
plunk when a ball hit a
weakened string across its
mid-section...
The notes we would pass in
class, not so much out of
romantic attachments as to
frustrate the teachers who
were confounded by the
snickers and the devilish
grins without knowing the
cause...
The day a chemical
experiment went awry and
the lab became filled with
green and yellow smoke
which brought out the local
fire department to the delight
of the student body who got
an unexpected one-hour
recess...
Does our youth today do
some of the same things, face
some of the same challenges,
know some of the same joys?
Of course they do. And they
will do all right, too, with our
support. For, after all, we
survived, didn’t we?
I } Tv.
i 1 1 I
A Stroll Down
Memory Lane
News of 10 Years Ago
Rev. Andy Holston and his
family will be honored at a
special service at the
Jackson Methodist Church.
The Holstons will leave soon
on a four-year missionary
tour of Brazil.
Donald Montgomery has
been named to head the 1967
crusade of the American
Cancer Society in Butts
County.
A Flovilla airman, A-3C
David Elliott, has made an
8.000 mile trip to spend his
leave with his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Harold Elliott.
Airman Elliott is stationed in
Taiwan.
Sgt. Clarence A. Whitehead
has. been awarded post
humously the Military Merit
Medal and the Gallantry
Cross with Palm by the
Republic of Viet Nam.
The International Choir of
Brazil will appear at the
Jackson Elementary School,
thanks to Dr. Roy Goff who
made the arrangements.
Miss Ginnilu Etheredge,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G.
N. Etheredge, will play with
the Emory at Oxford band at
an open house next Sunday.
Deaths during the week:
Mrs. Bertha Carmichael
Dempsey, 82; Mrs. A. H.
Pope. 91; Allen Perry Evans,
60, Miss Pearl Lee Dunn, 75;
James Herbert Williams, 62;
Malcolm Ainsworth, 70.
News of 20 Years Ago
y. Vandals entered both the
Jackson High School and the
Jackson Youth Center on
Saturday night, but received
very little loot for their
trouble.
J. C. Williamson, Jackson
Higji science teacher, reports
that Scott Coleman, Bill
Garland, Grady Jackson and
Charles Rooks will represent
the school at the State
Science fair this week.
Butts Countians have con
tributed $1,575.00 on the
quota of $2,009.00, Red Cross
Chairman Pliny Weaver
reported on Monday.
Among those appearing in
the senior play, “Here Comes
Charlie” on Friday night will
be Nancy Carter, Bruce
Chambers, Natalie Lang,
Lamar McMichael, Peggie
Moore, Martha Mays, Nancy
Singley, Ann Moore, Lola
Caldwell and Rose Grant.
State Senator Bailey Wood
ward reports that the Stark
Post Road from Land’s
Crossing to Pickett’s Store
will be resurfaced this
month. Sen. Woodward says
he has also been promised
three miles of paving for the
City of Jenkinsburg and two
miles for the City of Jackson.
Butts County’s quota for
the current Easter Seals
campaign is S4OO, according
to Mrs. Gladys Wilson,
chairman.
Deaths during the week: A.
Lawrence Maddox, 75.
News of 30 Years Ago
With Senator B. H. Hodges
as chairman and Mrs. W. M.
Redman as cochairman,
Butts County quickly raised
its quota of S3OO for the
Jefferson Day dinner for
Democrats in Atlanta.
Butts County voters have
approved a $150,000 bond
issue for school improve
ment, the vote being 488 for
and 263 against the bond
issue.
Miss Jane Collins, daugh
ter of Mr. anj Mrs. T. J.
Collins, was honored at North
Georgia Coriege’s Honors
Day program.
A meeting has been called
for Monday to reactivate
Company A, 121st Infantry,
Georgia National Guard.
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1977
Harry Ball has been named
captain and Ezra M. Mc-
Cord, first lieutenant.
S. W. Causey, principal,
and O. L. Parker, athletic
director, will represent Butts
County at the GEA meeting
in Savannah.
Butts County’s draft board
has gone out of existence.
Serving on the Board at
various times were Walter
Wilson, clerk; and members
C. L. Redman, J. H. Turner,
W. J. Bankston, P. H.
Weaver, E. R. Edwards. J.
D. Pope served as appeal
agent and Drs. O. B. Howell,
B. F. Aiken and R. L.
Hammond as medical exam
iners.
News of 40 Years Ago
A total of 49 Butts County
farmers are buying their
farms under the Resettle
ment Administration pro
gram, according to F. C.
Hearn, supervisor.
The Central Georgia Elec
tric Membership Corpora
tion, a project to provide
electrical energy to rural
sections of 12 middle Georgia
counties, has applied for a
charter and begun a survey
of potential customers.
The ice and frost reported
here on Monday morning,
April 12th, is believed to be a
record for this section.
Plans are underway for a
Memorial Day program on
April 26th to honor the
County’s three living Con
federate veterans, R. Van
Smith, J. S. Gregory and F.
M. Thaxton.
Leslie Pinnell has acquired
the market in the A&P Food
Store and will operate it in
the future.
Robert G. Mays, son of Mr.
and Mrs. J. B. Mays, has
been named to the Dean’s
List at the University of'
Georgia for the winter
quarter.
News of 50 Years Ago
Threatt Moore, Jr., son of
Mr. and Mrs. J. Threatt
Moore, was declared winner
of the Sixth District Ora
torical contest.
A one cent reduction in the
price of gasoline and kero
sene has gone into effect,
bringing gas at the retail
level to 23 cents a gallon.
Sara Carter has been
named winner of the U.D.C.
essay contest in the Jackson
public schools. Susanna
Foster and Otis Ball received
honorable mention.
Competing for Jackson
High in the District track
meet will be Robert Whit
aker, Leslie Pinnell, Victor
Wilson, Otis Ball, Frank
Harper, Warren McMichael,
Herald Henderson, Robert
Dempsey, Robert Franklin,
Marshall Evans and Wilmer
Greer.
A house on the Indian
Springs highway owned by A.
M. Watkins, Sr. and occupied
by the family of Lee Hardy
was destroyed by fire
Friday.
Mrs. L. H. Hurt enter
tained about 75 boys and girls
at an enjoyable Easter egg
hunt Thursday afternoon
complimentary to Miss Mar
garet Hurt and Master Levi
Hurt.
Editor s Quote Book
Indifference is the invin
cible giant of the world.
Ouida
Editor s Quote Book
Enthusiasm is at the bot
tom of all progress. With it
there is accomplishment.
Without it there are only
altbis Henry Ford
Bf Btwd
Well, April 15th is almost
here again! Every year,
Income Tax Forms are
getting more complicated
and I am getting more senile.
The funniest fact of all is that
every time Uncle Sam
“simplifies” the forms, they
become harder for me to
understand!
People have been paying
taxes for eons, or so I’m told,
but I feel that those of us who
don’t make SIOO,OOO a year or
more should not have to pay
taxes. And what really irks
me, is the fact that most
people pay 26 cents in stamps
just to file the darned
returns. Can you imagine
how much the Post Office
must make at tax time?
I wish I were a relative of
the man who founded H&R
Block, Mr. Tax or some of
those equivalent companies.
Why, they make a mint each
tax season because poor folks
like me are just too
tin. headed to understand
‘Whatsoever
JGp Things’
|TH By Donald G. Wildmon
A FOUR LETTER WORD
Occasionally one comes across a story that speaks so
loudly. There are as many stories as there are people, but
they don’t all come to the public’s notice. One did recently. I
will let the person tell it in his own words.
“Having suffered a traumatic experience in childhood, I
have always had an abhorrence of funerals and dead
people.” the writer said. “When my dad died I flew back East
for the services. As I viewed his cold, lifeless body in the
casket, I felt nothing. That inanimate figure bore no
relationship to the Pop who had always been so
happy-go-lucky and full of life.
“His strengths were also his weaknesses. His carefree,
devil-may-care attitude made life a constant struggle for
Mom. Pop was a traveling salesman but he was much better
at traveling than he was at selling. In death, as in life, he left
stacks of unpaid bills.
“When the moment came to close the casket, my heart
dropped as I saw Mom lean over and kiss him. Surely she
didn’t expect me to do that! Then I heard her whisper in his
ear as she had done countless times before, when he had left
for trips: ‘Bye, Pops. I’ll be seeing you.’ She was sending him
off on his final journey -with the promise that she would join
him.”
The writer concluded with these words; “That gesture was
a lifetime of education for me. It told me more about
Mother’s love for Dad than anything I had witnessed in all
my years at home. I would not have missed it for the world.”
There are a lot of folks in this old world who carry signs
and shout slogans of love. They get the headlines. And many
times few of them know little of what they shout. There are
others who practice day in and day out what the signs and
shouts say.
Love causes a person to do many things, nearly all good.
Perhaps those who wish to have “trial marriages” could
learn something from tne mother and wife mentioned above.
Seems as though many of the modern folk have forgotten the
“for better or for worse” in the marriage vows.
We have made a terrible mistake in judgment in our
country. It is either the elite of society or the rags of the
radicals who get the spotlight when love and marriage are
mentioned. Perhaps it would help a little to shine a flashlight
on people like Mom. For it is that type person who keeps our
country together. Those who stick it out through thick and
thin. Those who take seriously the vows they take. Those who
go on living and loving day in and day out without anybody
shouting any “hoorahs” for them. Yes, it is the people whose
love is genuine enough to carry them over the rough parts
that we are indebted to.
Love is a four letter word -and it covers a multitude of
sins and shortcomings.
ruth at random
By Ruth Bryant
DOGWOOD IN BLOOM
Like stars along the millcy way
That light a path across the sky.
Like windows in cathedrals tall
That brighten vaulted arches high!
Like portraits of mere mortal men
With trembling hands and hoary hair
As bending low on twisted knees
v They raise their shaky arms in prayer!
Like sentinels of elegance
That make the landscape quite complete
Like bits of beauty sent from heaven
Are dogwood trees on every street!
the “Guvermint’s” tax ideas.
We are often told that the
rich folks never pay I
have figured out why -- they
can afford accountants to
help them hide their income.
If and when I inherit a
million or two, I plan to
become the most charitable
person in these parts. When I
get done giving away those
greenbacks, the feds will owe
me!
The only thing worse than
having to fill out Income Tax
forms is the fear of the audit.
From April 15 of each year
on, I have this terrible fear
that I will be one of those
unlucky folks who is audited.
IRS incites as much fear in
me as does the dentist, a big
dog or a cemetery late at
night. Maybe while Jimmy is
in Washington, he’ll sign a
bill stating that all Georgians
are exempt from filing
income tax. Personally, I
think that alone would get
him reelected!