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4 ■4r The Summerville News, Thursday. July 9, 19G4 She S’ltmnwruille ■Ninis DAVID T. ESPY EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Entered at Post Office at Summerville, Georgia, as Second Class Mail Matter yfHu \<Afe Wifel?l MEMBER ' The News Publishing Company will not be responsible for errors in advertising beyond cost of the advertisement Classified advertising rate 3c per word, minimum 75c. Card of Thanks, Memoriams, etc., same as classified advertising. Display rates furnished upon request. SUBSCRIPTION RATE Congratulations, Menlo It, is generally recognized over Chattooga County that when Menlo people tackle a task, they go all out. The Independence Day celebration Satur day they held was no exception. The event was well-planned, well-exe cuted and well-attended. The decorations and program were superb and the food was delicious. Christians and Politics Start working now to nominate good men in the September primaries or quit worrying about what laws will be enacted and what laws enforced next January. Study the background of those offering for public office. Study the record of those who have been privileged to serve. Get commitments as to where the candidates stand on the issues of the day. Get into politics. It isn’t necessary to announce for office. But there is the duty of a Christian and a good citizen to support those who do offer. Support means more than a vote. It involves enlistment of II ords Never Harm? The familiar lines, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me,'' are only half true. Words can be as destructive as any power known to man. These poison ar rows of gossip and slander are formed with innocent locking little things called words. Their force can break the spirit of the strong, sow discord amond brethren and set nation against nation. For these reasons, man is held strictly accountable to God for every idle word. "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give ac count thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shall be justified, and by thy words thou shall be condemned.” (Matt. 12:36-37). Gossip, even without malice, is like shooting a rifle without taking particular aim. What seems only harmless fun may strike into the very lieart of some innocent and unsuspecting victim. Words “which 1 really didn't mean" may turn out the light of happiness in some home. If gossip without malice is this evil, think what will ful slander is by comparison. Idle talk usually is positively hurtful to someone or to some good cause. Even when The Minister Speaks . . . By HI V KOBI KT I KANKI IN Pastor, Summerville First Baptist Church In Matthew 5:13. Jesus said. "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be; salted it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be castout. and to be trodden under foot of men " Jesus has just fin ished giving his disciples the Beattitudes These Beattitudes give the description of the kingdom man. merciful, hum ble. gentle, desiring righteous ness and so fort li The spirit of all the united qualities com mended in the Beattitudes is the salt of the earth. These keep humanity fresh and liv ing, preserve it from corrup-: tion. and add to it the savour which secures for men their true and enduring eniovment of life Salt is one of those super-1 fluities which a French wit de fined as "things that are very necessary " From the begin- ; ning of history men have placed a high value upon it and have sought it in caves and by the seashore A bag of salt among barbarous tribes was worth more than a man The Jews prized it especially be cause they lived in a climate where it was difficult to keep food, and because their religion laid particular emphasis upon cleanliness. Salt was also used in their sacrifices No offering of < akes or vegetables was ever - -a upon the altar saltless Ti • Romans also praised salt a- a necessity of human life If Published Every Thursday by the News Publishing Co. The Summerville Newt la the Official Organ Os Chattooga County Address All Mail to THE SUMMERVILLE NEWS P. O. Box 310 Summerville, Georgia IN COUNTY. $2 58 PER YEAR point of view, then, it was a great compliment for the dis ciples to be spoken of as salt. Their master had shown great confidence in them and had placed a high value upon them But our Lord was not just paying a compliment, he was giving a greater and more powerful call to duty. Salt exists for a purpose, and so do Christians. Salt is used as a preservative, for allaying cor ruption It is used on dead ani mals to stop the effects of the climate upon the matter. So; the presence of the Christian man or woman in his or her own circle of friends is to be preservative. His presence should allay corruption, main tain life, ward off decay and spiritual death, and uphold a standard of right Jesus is saying, in effect. Human so ciety. without My influence, is rotting away and disinte grating; and you. faithful handful, who have partially apprehended the meaning of My mission, and have caught something of the spirit of My life, you are to be rubbed into that mass to sweeten it. to arrest decomposition, to stay corruption, to give flavour to its insipidness, and to save it from falling to pieces of its own wickedness Ye are the salt of the earth." But. salt gives relish to what would otherwise be tasteless or unpleasant. Christ's people are the relishing element in the world, which prevent it from being loathsome altogether to the Lord Abraham's nephew. Lot. was one savour in the plain that made Sodom and Gomorrah so long endurable There was not much salt in Lot. but a little. A king once asked his three daughters how much they loved him The first one replied that she loved him better than silver. The king was very pleased The second replied that she loved him better than gold Again the king beamed proudly. The HERMAN BUFFINGTON ADVERTISING MANAGER NATIONAL EDITORIAL OUTSIDE COUNTY, $3 61 PER YEAR The folks who made it possible, and there were a lot of them, are to be congratulated and commended. We are sure no finer tri bute to our nation, regardless of size, was held anywhere. And we join hundreds of others who hope this will indeed become an annual event in Menlo. other votes and it invites financial con tributions from those who can help. It is commentary on our times when the selfish lobbies through campaign con tributions own many public officials before they ever take the oath of office. Those citizens interested only in the public wel fare have done too little to have a voice of influence. Some men are dedicated to a public ca reer with nothing more than the public in terest as their motive. Their number is few because only a few give them any encour agement. —The Christian Index this is not true, Solomon offers this lucid comment: "In all labor there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.” (Proverbs 14:23). No higher compliment was ever paid Jesus than this: “. . . neither was. guile found in his mouth." (I Peter 2:22) In spite of these and many other pas sages of scripture condemning it, gossip is probably the most universally practiced of Satan’s varied black arts. Try this on your friends. Join a company of three of more people. You don’t have to choose those regarded as bad people. Listen to what they are saying. The chances are two to one that in five minutes something unkind, and probably untrue as well, will be said about somebody. The tongue can also be usefully em ployed. "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pitchers of silver.” Contrasting wise and evil speakings, Solomon observed: "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health." (Prov. 12:18) God gave us two eyes with which to see. Grant us wisdom to look and listen before we speak, so that our words may be well spoken. third and youngest said that she loved him better than salt. The king was highly indignant that his youngest daughter loved him no more than that and was quite loud in expres sion of his discontent. His cook heard his raving and i served him his breakfast the next morning without any salt The meal was so flat that the king could not enjoy it. When he learned that nothing had been salted, he saw the force of his daughter s remark. She loved him so much that nothing was good without him. Salt adds savour to what otherwise would be tasteless. The Christian adds flavor to the world tor God. Salt does its work silently, inconspicuously, and gradually. Jesus also described his foi lowers as "light " Light can be seen and that is one side of the Christian's life, the side that most of us like But there is an humble kind of work that all of us have to do. We can never be the light of the world except on condition of being the salt of the earth We must live the humble example and then ray out into the darkness. Bible J erse To Study • “Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 1 To whom was the above advice given” 2 By whom was it written? ■ 3 What was the young man's chosen occupation? 4 Where may this verse be found? ANSWERS TO BIBLE VFRSE: 1 To young Timothy. 2 By Paul the great Apostle. 3 He was a young minister 4 II Timothy 2:3. A Prize-Winning Weekly Newspaper SELF-IMPOSED HANDICAP t1 /jr c n g I /rxi • i the ILL ® DROP OUT J -The Georgia A LEGISLETTER C 1 W By GLENN McCULLOUGH Executive Manager The eight-weeks-long special session of the General Assem bly which ended last week has written an Election Code that should aid in the conduct of honest elections, but the work it devoted to a new Constitu tion appears to have gone down the drain. Unless, that is, Governor Carl E. Sanders is successful in a planned appeal to the U. S. Su preme Court to reverse the order of three Federal judges sitting in Atlanta. Last week they handed down a final ruling that the new Constitu tion cannot be submitted to the voters in the November 3 general election. The order was based on the court’s contention that the Constitution is invalid on two grounds: First, the 1868 Con stitution provides that a new constitution may be written only by a convention called by a two-thirds vote of House and Senate and elected on a basis of population. Second, that it is being proposed by a House that is Illegally constituted be cause it is malapportioned. However, the court ruled that individual amendments to the 1945 Constitution may be sub mitted to the people in Novem ber. ♦ * ♦ Late in the afternoon of June 24 the three-judge Federal panel handed down an order making permanent a tempo rary order issued June 19 re quiring that the House be re apportioned strictly on the basis of population as required in a U. S. Supreme Court ruling of June 15. The panel is com posed of Judges Elbert Tuttle. Griffin B. Bell and Lewis R. Morgan. The only boon granted the state, following a personal ap peal by Governor Carl E. Sanders, was that reapportion ment of the House may be de layed until the regular session of the General Assembly which meets in January. 1965. This means that candidates for the House—of whom more than 100 already have been re nominated—will run from their present counties this year. However, they will serve for only the 45 days of the 1965 session. And the court limited their powers at that time to conducting regular business and passing a redistricting act. There is some talk among members of the House of peti tioning the Governor to call another special session this year to reapportion—and get it over with. Rep. Mackie Simpson of Wheeler County is circulating a petition to this end. but it would require the signature of three-fifths of the members.! Governor Sanders has said he | will not call another special j session voluntarily. Rep. Denmark Groover of Bibb County. ' representing I House members, appeared be fore the court at the June 24 hearing and pleaded with the three judges to let the people ■ vote on the Constitution in I November But they refused to I reverse an earlier decision. • * * Before the court's final deci-; sion. some House members had ' hoped that Governor Sanders might be allowed to appoint a constitutional convention which would approve the Con stitution in much the same form as it was passed by the House and Senate late on June 23. But the judges held the convention delegates must be elected. Apparently there is not sufficient time for this pro cedure. Rural House members are anxious to have the Constitu tion approved in its present I form because it carries certain i By Glenn McCulloug concessions to rural counties which might not be obtained from a convention elected by popular vote. Among these is a permanent guarantee of $9,- 300,000 annually to the coun ties in road funds. Cities would get the same amount. Despite sharp differences be tween the House and Senate on many aspects of the Consti tution, their conferees were able to obtain agreement on the afternoon before the court met. The Senate yielded on most controversial points. Nevertheless, the Senate ap proved the document 40 to 13 and the House followed a few minutes later with an affirma tive vote of 152 to 16. Complying with the court’s order, the Constitution pro vides for a House of from 162 to 216 members, elected on a basis of population. It also pro vides four-year terms for both House and Senate members, election of the state school su perintendent, retention of the “face your accuser” law and the annual road grant. The Election Code sets up a State Elections Board with broad powers, provides a single date for both Democratic and Republican primaries, and a cut-off date of 50 days before the primaries and general elec tions for the registration of voters. Notes From 20 Years Ago Mr. John L. Pollock, 85, died at his home in Lyerly Monday afternoon. July 3. He was a prominent citizen of that com munity and had been active in the affairs of Chattooga county, having been chairman of the County Board of Educa tion. . . Seaman First Class Merle J. Jones has been commended for meritorious conduct aboard a battleship in a fight with Jap anese forces in the Solomons. Four-H club members in Chattooga county will take part in a state-wide plan to establish a college scholarship loan fund honoring the former Senator Hoke Smith. County Agent O. P. Dawson announced this week. News has been received by Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Snoots of the death of their son. Capt. William F. Snoots. The first Lyerly casualty in World War 11. Capt. Snoots was killed in action in the New Guinea area on June 12th. . . In the Georgia State Demo cratic Primary, held Tuesday. July 4. Col. Henderson Lanham was elected as solicitor-general of the Rome judicial circuit: Tom A. Cook was elected with out opposition as state senator of the 42nd district: and H Grady Ramey defeated his two opponents and was chosen as county representative to the Georgia general assembly. J. Ralph Rosser. Lanham's opponent, carried Walker and Chattooga counties, but Lan ham piled up an overwhelming majority in Floyd County. . . In the race for representative . . M M. Allen polled 417 votes. H. Grady Ramey 1.176 and Will H Stephenson 540. Pvt Harry Parris, of the Bat tey General hospital, is spend ing a few weeks with his mother. Mrs. Emma Parris. Miss Helen Owings spent the week-end rtith relatives in j Sensing the News By THURMAN SENSING Executive Vice President Southern States Industrial Council PLANNERS OF INSURRECTION Nothing in the American ex perience has prepared the na tion for the invasion of the State of Mississippi now in pro gress by youths trained and or- ■ ganized by the National Coun cil of Churches and the Stu dent Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Indeed the average Ameri-i can, planning a peaceful sum- I mer vacation, can hardly im agine what is involved in this extraordinary combined opera- I tion to push through revolu tionary changes in the cus-| toms of one state. Few church men, certainly, understand that the NCC is devoting its personnel and finances to the invasion or that it is working hand-in-glove with SNCC. an । organization that is insurrec-; tionary in character and in filtrated by communists. Whatever opinion the vast reasonable majority of the American people may hold re garding the wisdom of Missis sippi’s social arrangements, they surely are disapproving of the use of the worst type of radical extremism to force through change. If it is social change that the American people desire, there are plenty of peaceful means of achieving it in this republic— ways of bringing it about gradually without a social ex plosion. The principal means embodied in our U. S. Consti tution is the amendment pro cess. But those who desire rad ical change are afraid to at tempt to use the amendment process, for they fear that change is wanted only by a tiny radical group, not by the great body of the American people. Another legitimate instru ment of change in our society is the system of states. They amount to 50 laboratories. Their utility lies in the fact that each traditionally has had its own special approach to the problems of popular govern ment, allowing for progress geared to the special charac teristics and needs of its peo ple. Now the liberal intelligent sia, concentrated in a few’ crowded, hectic metropolitan centers, are determined that everyone must live the same way and have precisely the Same system of state govern ment. This desire already is productive of ill-will among the American people. If this weren’t bad enough, the states have to reckon with militant extremists who aren’t satisfied with the slow but reg ular processes of the law and social custom. They are de- Chickamauga and Chatta nooga. Misses Margaret Scoggins, June Self and Katherine Erwin were in Rome shopping last Saturday. Lt. Sam W. Favor, of Sum merville. Ga., and Camp Koh ler. Cal. and Lt. Aurelia Jane Hughes, A.N.C., were married June 5 at 6:30 p. m. in Hayes, Kan. at the home of Rev. John Thorn, Presbyterian minister. . Cpl. James E. Adams, of Camp Bowie, Texas, is spend ing a 10-day furlough with his mother, Mrs. V. T. Adams. The invasion news reel pic tures showing allied soldiers leaving the barges and being dropped in their tracks by German gunfire, brings back tightness to my throat when the radio announced D-Day . . . The heartbreaks of the rela tives of these fallen heroes should not happen again. The peace this time should be made secure ... by Katharin A. Henry. Mr. and Mrs. Eli Stephenson are spending a few days with their son, Joe. who is in school at Dahlonega. Ga. The Georgia white demo cratic primary will be held next Tuesday. July 4. Mr. Henry McWhorter, chairman of the Chattooga County demo cratic executive committee, an nounces that in Chattooga County, the polls will open at 7 a. m next Tuesday and will close at 6 p. in There are three candidates in the race for the seat of Representative in the General Assembly. These candidates are M. M* Allen. Summerville; H. Grady Ramey. Trion: and Will R Stephenson. Summerville. Great opportunities come to all. but many do not know they have met them. —Albert Eli2ah Dunning termined to launch a mass ag itation movement against a state or a community, such as Mississippi and St. Augustine, Fla., in order to turn the estab lished order upside down. They care not in the least how they torment a community, disrupt its economic life, turn its churches into centers of strife, and blacken its image around the nation. These militant rad icals are so morally insensitive that they do not care that peo ple are injured, that peaceful people are inflamed, or that so cial warfare inundates a com munity or state. To find a parallel to the in vasions of Mississippi or St. Augustine one has to look back to the 1930's when Nazism was spreading across Germany, when radicals were meeting in beer halls, and when the Hit ler Youth were being trained to Ilie Offices... The Candidates. Attention, all candidates subject to the Sept. 9 Democratic primary: If you haven’t yet turned in your biographical sketch and platform (briefly, please) to The News for this series of articles, please do so within the next two weeks. Here is your opportunity to get some “free advertising,” so don’t let it pass. Be sure your qualifications are listed along side those of your opponent. TAX RECEIVER Most folks have trouble distinguishing the difference be tween the duties of the tax collector and those of the tax receiver. Actually, “tax receiver” is a misnomer. It should be “tax return receiver"—he receives returns, not taxes. On the other hand, the “tax collector” receives taxes or collects them. The tax receiver is busiest the first part of the year on the tax records and the tax collector is busiest the latter part of the year. Here is how it works: Between Jan. 1 and April 1 each year, each property owner must list with the tax receiver his property and his intention of paying tax on same This is called “filing a tax return”. The tax receiver uses a separate sheet of paper for each property owner. On the sheet is listed the name of the property owner, his address, the location (by district, number and sec tion) of the real estate, the number and types of automobiles, trucks, furniture, cows and tractors and the “fair market value” of each. The law requires that the receiver administer this oath to all persons making a tax return: “I do solemnly swear that I have carefully read (or have heard read) and have duly con sidered the questions propounded in the foregoing tax list, and that the value placed by me on the property returned, as shown by said list, is the true market value thereof; and I further swear that I returned, for the purpose of being taxed thereon, every species of property that I own in my own right, or have control of, either as agent, executor, administrator, or otherwise; and that in making said return, for the purpose of being taxed thereon, I have not attempted, either by transferring my property to another or by any other means, to evade the laws governing taxation in this state. I do further swear that in making said return I have done so by estimating the true worth and value of every species of property contained therein.” After the return filing deadline of April 1 arrives, the tax receiver has 10 days in which to put all the sheets in alpha betical order by district. He then turns the books containing these sheets of returns over to the Board of Tax Assessors. The assessors go over the returns, making adjustments where they think necessary. Usually, they are finished within a few weeks and the books are back in the hands of the tax receiver. He must then deduct from the gross evaluations the home stead exemption and personal exemption and figure out the net figure on which the property owner will be taxed. The total net tax digest (evaluation basis on which the taxes will be levied) is then figured for each district and finally for the county. This information is then transferred to another book and names are placed in alphabetical order by district. Three copies of this book (or books) is made—one for the tax collector, one for the ordinary and one for the State Revenue Commissioner. The Revenue Commissioner must inspect the book and if all is not found in order the book is returned for further work. (The current receiver has never had his books returned.) The next step is for the county commissioner and Board of Education. After seeing what the tax digest is, they set the tax rates. This is usually done in July or August. The tax collector gets to work after that figuring up how much each person’s tax will be, billing him, receiving the tax payment and “collecting”. The tax receiver must list all defaulters, the amount of their taxes and the double taxes assessed against them. He must in clude this in his digest. He also must “publish at the door of the courthouse” for 30 days lists of all the defaulters and the amount of their double taxes. Just as the tax collector, the tax receiver also is under bond. It must be equal to one-fourth of the amount of the state tax supposed to be due from the county for the year. Here is the tax receiver’s oath: “I swear that I will truly and faithfully perform the duties of receiver of returns of taxable property, or of persons or things specially taxed in the county to which I am appointed, as requirel of me by the laws, and will not receive any return but on oath or affirmation, and will before receiving returns carefully examine each, and will to the best of my ability carry out the requirements made upon me by the tax laws. So help me God.” The tax receiver is currently on a fee basis, but beginning Jan. 1, 1965, he will go a $7,000 a year salary. Fees paid him are on the same basis as those paid the tax collector with the exception that the receiver gets no fees on the school part. He doesn’t figure these taxes. They are done by the tax collector. School taxes amount to about one-third of the total which means that the receiver, under the fee system, earns about one-third as much as the tax collector. The fee basis graduates from six per cent on all net digests up to and including $6,000 down to l 3 <i per cent on all over $76,000. The entire scale appeared in last week's News in the story on the tax collector. RAY VANPELT Ray Van Pelt. tax receiver of Chattooga County for the past 16 years, is the only candidate for the post this year. Mr. Van Pelt is a native of Carroll County and a graduate of Lyerly High School. He served in the U. S. Army two and one half years, seeing duty with the Infantry in the European theatre. Mr. Van Pelt received the Purple Heart medal for in juries which resulted in the amputation of his left hand. After the war. he operated a service station on the Dry Valley Road for several years. He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion. Masons and New Hope South Baptist Church. The Van Pelts live on the Bolling Road. Mrs. Van Pelt is the former Katherine Reed, a Chattooga Countian, and they have two daughters, Kathy 16 and Lynn 12. Mr. Van Pelt said this week. "I appreciate the confidence shown me in the past and w’ill continue trying to serve the public to the best of my ability.” invade communities and de stroy law and order and social peace. The same type of be havior is manifest in America this summer as hard-eyed leftists recruit confused youths to send them into communities as a spearhead of insurrection ary social revolution. This is the kind of behavior and social attack for which the United States is ill-prepared. Cities and states are prepared to defend established rights in the courts. But they aren't fa miliar with the use of the “bu rn a n wave tactic” against places of business and com munity facilities. This revolu tionary device is remarkably similar to what the Chinese communists advise in the way of political action. The waves of demonstrators are used to topple the property rights of merchants, motel owners and other businessmen.