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3a xkzan Trcgrcss-^rgus J. D. Jones Publisher U9OB 1955) 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 Cos., Inc. Second Class Postage paid at Jackson, Georgia 30233. Address notice of undeliverable copies and other correspondence to The Jackson Progress-Argus, P.O. Box 249, Jackson, Georgia 30233. NATIONAL NEWSPAPER OCIMIQN jEE frttfrmEn NN A SUSTAINING AKV a MEMBER-1977 One Y’ear, in Georgia $6.24 Six Months, in Georgia $3.91 Editorials The Last Good Evening The City of Griffin, the State of Georgia and the nation can ill afford the loss experienced recently in the death of Quimby Melton, Sr., long time editor of the Griffin Daily News and a master builder of progress for his adopted community. Purchasing the News in 1925, he built it through the depression, war, recession and prosperity into one of the model small-town daily newspapers in America. Since World War ll’s end, he has been ably assisted by his son, Quimby Melton, Jr., on whose shoulders soon fell the mantle of leadership occasioned by his mother’s and then his father’s lengthy period of declining health. That the younger has succeeded so brilliantly is but a living testament to the teaching ability of the elder. For years the front page of the News sparkled with the wit and wisdom of its publisher as distilled into a front page column, entitled Good Evening. Every day for a third of a century, Quimby Melton, Sr. said good evening to the News’ readers with this column which was always filled with thought provoking observations on life on both the Winning Is Nice If losing builds character, then most of us should have enough of that quality to last several lifetimes. Certainly there are lessons to be learned from any loss—respect for the winner, a more intensive self examination, the knowledge that one has done his best and should be proud of that, regardless of his rank at the finish line. But it is nice to win, too. The Progress-Argus staff found that out last Friday when it was named the winner in the Community Service competition in the Georgia Better Newspaper Contests, sponsored by the Georgia Press Association. Oddly enough, the paper won with its very first entry. Of all the awards given at the press Emotion Versus Intellect Perhaps there is no issue facing the American public today that lends itself to emotional outbursts more than that of the question of capital punishment and its value as a deterrent to crime. Bring up the subject and you w ill hear immediately of the torn, desecrated body of a 12-year-old girl, or the mass murder of six members of a happy family. The other side of the coin will bring forth arguments about the stench of burning flesh as the electric chair fries a murderer, or the horrors of a hangman’s noose that slipped. The apologist for capital crimes can excuse any crime, no matter how terrible, as but a natural outgrowth of a society that has left some of its members jobless, hungry, and economically Advance Subscription Rates, Tax Included: TELEPHONE 775-3107 One Year, Out-of-State $7.28 Six Months. Out-of-State $4.16 local and national scenes. The late publisher was a craftsman with words and could turn a phrase with the best of them. But more often than not, his columns did not depend on cleverness to catch the reader’s eye, but rather they displayed openly a genuineness of character and a Christian concern that made him care for his fellow man and what was happening to him. He believed firmly that a newspaper should not only mirror the happenings of a community but that it should exert a positive role of leadership in helping a town shape its own destiny. His accomplishments as a journalist and as a Christian molder of men’s characters tower, in retrospect, like a sturdy oak beside some of the spindly saplings of today. But he has left a son who has amply demonstrated an ability to fill his giant shoes. Quimby, Jr., upon his father’s death, wrote a beautiful tribute to his father under the Good Evening head. He said it would be the last Good Evening column the Griffin Daily News would ever print. For that, and for the loss of its original author, our lives will all be poorer. convention, the Community Ser vice award is one of the most valued. For, unlike others that recognize individual achieve ments, this award signifies superior service to a community by the entire staff, its correspondents and those volunteers who provide the tips, stories and pictures that make a newspaper readable and interesting. And so this is an award that belongs to the entire community, for many of its members played a vital role in helping produce a newspaper that was deemed worthy of being so honored. The staff, therefore, gladly shares with all of you the thrill of having your hometown paper so signally honored. and culturally deprived. Watching four very knowledge able, and experienced, panel members discuss the subject for two hours on a recent TV program bears out the contention that it is a subject more given to emotional than intellectual solutions. Both proponents, and opponents, of capital punishment yielded to blatant emotionalism to prove their points. Is capital punishment a deterrent to capital crimes? Does society have the right to demand retribution for crimes committed against its members, even to the taking of a human life? Those are the questions that remain unanswered and it would seem that intellect, rather than emotion, can best provide the answers. THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARCUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1977 The Last Straw BY VINCENT JONES Someone once defined memory as the place where our youth goes after its death. Be that as it may, the faculty for instant recall is one of man’s most keenly honed senses and it takes so very little to bring back the past in acute detail. Last week, notice was carried in this paper and other papers that on July 22, 1934. John Dillinger was shot and killed by a number of federal agents in Chicago. The item had little import on that half of the nation’s population who didn’t know who John Dillinger was, although in 1934 he was the country’s number one bank robber and killer and headed the newly-formed F.8.1.’s want list. But for the writer, and several of his friends, the story must have conjured up a whole data bank of memories. For we were in Chicago at the time and watched the same movie, "Manhattan Melodrama” that Dillinger saw before he stepped out into a hail of lead. Not at the same theater, but at one about eight blocks away. The movie as we recall starred Clarke Gable, Wil liam Powell and Myrna Loy and was an enthralling down-to-earth drama about tw o brothers, one a criminal, the other a prosecuting attorney. It all began when the late Dr. R. A. Franklin and Dad got their heads together and decided that the ladies and the children should go to Chicago to take in the Chicago Exposition, or the Century of Progress as it was called. After much debating and weeks of planning, the entourage set sail in two 1933 vintage, square-top autos that were minus air condi tioning (unheard of at the time 1 and subject to numer ous tire and engine malfunc tions. Doyle, w ho had just turned eighteen, and Robert Frank lin were to be the chief drivers, given occasional relief by Martha Franklin and Mrs. C. B. Palmer, who was the wife of a CCC officer at the Jackson camp. Hiram and the w riter were in charge of the devilment and good time section, while Mother and Mrs. Franklin provided the necessary coaching and back seat advisory corps. A stop at Mammoth Cave on the way up gave the young folks a thrill and the mothers a scare until we all appeared from the depths of the earth to be greeted with 95-degree heat and a • pean of thanksgiving that we had been spared. As luck would have it, we ran smack dab into the worst heat wave that Indiana and Illinois had experienced in ages. Over 100-degree tem peratures blistered the faces of the drivers and handker chiefs and scarves were suspended from sun visors in a futile attempt to hold out the sun. Thunderclouds boiled on the distant horizon and lightning zigzagged terror into the hearts of the mothers, who had never seen such a pyrotechnic display in so open a plain. Chicago opened its homes to visitors to the Exposition, as hotel and motel chains as we know them today were non-existent. We stayed in a modest home owned by a Miss Wood who did her best to keep us cool despite the sweltering heat. Riding to the Exposition on Chicago’s elavated was quite an experience and one the mothers never looked for ward to. The huge ferris wheel, countless rides, edu cational exhibits including one bv Sally Rand and her fans which the menfolk attended, all left a group of Georgia ruralites dumb struck and starry eyed. Coming from the theater on our last night in Chicago, A Stroll Down Memory Lane | NEWS OF 10 YEARS AGO The Van Deventer Little League All-Stars won the Fourth District champion ship with a 3 to 2 victory over Griffin Friday night on the Griffin diamond. Eva Watson is displaying Japanese Yard Long beans that are actually a yard long. Billy Turner, all-Southern Conference defensive half back while at Furman University, has joined the U. S. Army as a 2nd Lieutenant. Susan Parker has won the “Monkey's Uncle” Hunt sponsored by WKEU, Griffin, by finding a stuffed monkey with about SIOO worth of prizes. Among the Jackson B&PW Club members returning from the national convention in New York are Mrs. Annadawn Edwards, Club delegate; members, Miss Dorothy Thomas, Mrs. Gladys Wilson, Mrs. Ger trude Wright, Mrs. Helen Spencer, Mrs. Jane Powell and non-members, N. A. Powell and Miss Eloise Beauchamp. Martin Ridgeway was the only Butts County 4-H Club member attending the 4-H Wildlife Camp at Camp Washega. Deaths during the week: Mrs. Miller Ogletree, 63; Mrs. Estelle Carmichael MaLaier, 94. NEWS OF 20 YEARS AGO City Pharmacy will for mally open its new store to the public on August 2-3, with a grand opening sale. The Butts County Board of Education announces the election of Mrs. J. W. Proctor to teach junior and senior English and Miss Etta Lee Branham, Home Economics. Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Carmichael entertained Thursday evening at their country home on Briarcliff Road in honor of Mrs. Charles Mitchell, of San Diego. Calif., who is visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Victor Carmichael. Grady Jackson, Jr. and Scott Coleman will represent Butts County at the Teen-Age Traffic Safety Conference at Middle Georgia College in Cochran. Linda Harrison will pre sent her Butts County championship Cotton and Its Uses Project, junior division, at Rock Eagle’s 4-H Club Center. A former pastor, the Rev. W. C. Bowen, will conduct revival services at Stark Methodist Church. NEWS OF 30 YEARS AGO Miss Georgie Watkins told Kiwanians Tuesday night how extension work is carried on in Rochester, N. Y. by Cornell University. Harvey J. Kennedy, mayor of Barnesville, has been appointed Superior Court Judge of the Flint Circuit by Gov. M E. Thompson. The Jackson Exchange Club, which received its charter on July 24th, will meet Thursday night at the Buchanan Hotel. A total of 26 applicants stood the Civil Service test for a rural route carrier at the Jackson post office. James Hilley, a student at the Henry W. Grady School of we were met with special editions of the newspapers hailing the death of the much-sought-after Dillinger. It was the kind of trip, and experience, that every boy not-quite-15 should have at least once. Journalism at the University of Georgia, is spending his internship this summer on the Milledgeville Union-Re corder. Edwin Williams and James Biles are representing the Butts County Future Farm ers of American chapter at the state FFA camp on Jackson Lake. Deaths during the week; Joel H. Harrison, 67; Miss Emma Lou Childs. NEWS OF 40 YEARS AGO Miss Myrtie Lee McGoo gan has been elected Butts County Home Demonstration agent. M. O. McCord has been named superintendent of the Central Georgia Electric Membership Corporation. An interesting paper on "The Indians of Georgia” prepared by Eugene M. Mitchell, father of Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone With the Wind" was given at the Butts County Historical and Archaeological Society Friday night. On Monday evening Mr. and Mrs. M. L. Powell complimented their guests, Misses Vonice Rich and Ruth Colvin of Jesup, with an enjoyable dance at Indian Springs. George E. Mallet, presi dent of the Butts County Game and Fish Conservation Club, announces the receipt of 40 quail from the state to be stocked on Butts County farms. W. M. Meredith of Worth ville reported the first open cotton boll on July 31st. Deaths during the week; Mrs. Bertha McClure Smith, NKWS OF 50 YEARS AGO A school term for 1927-28 of seven and one half months was fixed by the Butts County Board of Education at its monthly meeting. This is two weeks longer than the present term of seven months. Boys and girls enrolled in the County's agricultural clubs held their annual picnic Friday at Indian Springs. Dr. R. A. Franklin, member of the Georgia House of Representatives, has introduced a bill which would provide $31,000 for additions and improvements at the state property at Indian Springs. Miss Juanita White, of Tifton. has been elected as head of the expression department in the Jackson public schools. Quantities of bright garden flowers and lovely music will add beauty and enjoyment to the prom party with which Miss Ruth Maddox will entertain on Friday evening at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Maddox, Jr., on West Third Street. Milton Compton will enter tain about thirty-five guests at a watermelon cutting Thursday evening at his home on Third Street. Japanese lanterns will de corate the porches and lawns. Mrs. H. R. Slaton and Miss Sara Slaton will assist Mrs. Compton. have a nice weekend... ...be inconsistent •V£. fT] ‘Whatsoever Things’ By Donald E. Wildmon PROGRESS! ISN’T IT A WONDERFUL THING! Progress! Isn’t it a wonderful thing! For instance, abortion was once illegal except for exceptional cases. But now—now we have progressed! In more and more of our states abortion—for any reason at all — is not only legal but encouraged! An abortion on an embryo of eight months is quite legal and accepted now, and most expecting women who do so have an abortion simply because they don’t want the child! Maybe in the future >f the mother decides shortly after the baby is born that she doesn’t want it—the wrong sex, deformed, wrong color hair, ears too red—she can simply send it to an incinerator to be burned. And if you think that progress isn’t getting closer, just give us time. Closer and closer we are coming to Hitler’s master race. We are building what we fought to destroy. Progress! Isn’t it a wonderful thing! Or, again, see the progress in another area—freedom of expression. Our progress has legalized pornography on the newsstand and in the movie-while outlawing prayer and Bible reading in public schools! Isn’t progress simply wonderful! See it still on another front—this wonderful thing we call progress. It has made the criminal socially respectable and the Christian socially rejectable. We coddle the criminal and condemn the Christian. Progress! Isn’t it simply wonderful! There is also scientific progress. Man splits the atom! And the first thing he does with his new knowledge is to make a bomb to kill his fellowman. Progress! It is so fantastic it is killing us! We used to judge the rightness or the wrongness of a deed by a Higher Power. Now we put it up to popular vote—“everybody does it.” Progress is simply great! We build sprawling cities of architectural beauty—mag nificent things! But we do not bother to learn our neighbor’s name. Isn’t progress simply grand! We used to rest one day in seven—most of us. A few who absolutely had to worked. Now that seventh day can hardly be distinguished from the other six. More and more businesses are opening to “serve” the people. What we did call greed is now called service. Oh, this thing called progress is simply the most! There is still other evidence of our progress. We feel sorry for the dope addict. We protect him, defend him, provide him with some juice for his habit. And we chastise the total abstainer for being non-social. Progress! How do we manage to get so much of it! We raise our prices so we can cut them when we put our products on sale. We run the speedometer mileage indicator to sell the car. What we once called unethical business practices we .now call good business procedures. Isn’t progress simply and truly wonderful In the Church folks used to have to give evidence that they should be admitted. Now the Church officials won’t let them out. Progress! How great it is! Progress is getting to be so great and grand that one wonders how long we will be able to stand it. A forest fire Starting one is a crime. The penalties for starting a forest fire range from a fine to imprisonment. Or both. ESS A Public Service of This Newspaper & The Advertising Council ruth at random By Ruth Bryant THEN AND NOW I used to think when I was young And never ill at ease It seemed I had a rabbit foot So always I could please! But now that I am . getting old My rabbit foot has gone And though I can’t please everyone I still must linger on! And now I pray for strength and love To please my precious Lord As earnestly I seek His will And read His Holy Word!