The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1951-03-23
IT Taxes
ALL KINDS
By DAVE WEST

| It's cnaracCerlSClc cry is nereS
let mel" It's never anything very
difficult that the omnipotent one
wants to do. But his manner inn
plies that no one else can do it,
no one else can put key in a
lock, open window, study a map
for information, or do any other
such simple thing, with half the
assurance of its being done prop
erly.
There are probably many little
anecdotes that illustrate the abb
surdities this fellows egomania
leads him into. One that we're fond
of is about the farmer who suf-
fered from the let-me affection so
seriously that he did most of his
hired mans work while showing
nm how to do it right" One day
The farmer came into the yard
and found the hired man with a
wheelbarrow upended, an oil can
i in his hand, about to oil the wheel.
/ "Give me that oil cant" the old
codger roared. "What do you
know about machinery"
We don't have to deplore it as
often as people must who have let
ham vaudevillians and advertising
sign-hangers into their parlors by
buying a television set; yet isn't
! it remarkable how far the me-
f, chanical apparatus for receiving
television programs has jumped
ahead of the programs televised ?
Just an occasional moocher's look
see can tell anybody that. A good
television set is capable of bring
ing into the parlor a clear picture
! of whatever's televised. Television
show producers are, apparently,
cont mt to put on shows that
would look better garbled. The
mechanical end is so good, the
production end so bad, that televi-
sion seems to US like putting a
magic lantern show on in a mil
lion dollar theatre.
Probably it's been long enough
now to tell it safely. At the Lions
Club meeting in Manteo a couple
of weeks ago the Camden and
Manteo Lions were given an ex-
cellent talk on highway safety and
shown film illustrating many
things the speaker brought out in
his talk. We were deeply i'm
pressed. AS we drove out of the
well-lighted parking space behind
the Hotel Fort Raleigh into the
swirl of cars leaving the meeting,
we took elaborate pains to come
to a complete stop and look both
ways before turning west onto the
street. We drove along slowly
we'll inside the center of the
street on our own side, con-
centrating on the frightening sta
tistics we had just heard. Sud
| denly, just after we passed Archie
Burrus' store, everything went
black, except for one little red
tail light just ahead. Frantically
switching on our headlights, we
followed the car at a sedate pace
out of town and all the way around
the turn to the airport; the car
pulled off the road to the left and
stopped beside a house; Patrol
man Rogers was safely home
from the Lions meeting-in spite
of the dim-wits loose on the road!
The people of this nation have
not insisted that those who wish
to offer themselves as candidates
for public office should have any
special degree of intelligence. (If
you are too tired to check the con-
stitution to find out this is so, a
glance at any days front page
stories from our governmental
centers will offer sufficient proof
We haven't had our national Of
fee of Education prepare set of
tests to be administered to office
seekers to sound out their intel
lectual qualifications for the Of
fees they desire to fill.
Now there is talk-nearing the
actuality stage-of setting up a
series of national tests to be given
to boys upon their graduation
from high school. The boys who
rank well in the tests are to be
allowed deferment from military
service; those who score below a
specified standard are to be in
Quoted. Nothing has been said in
connection with these tests, so far
as we know, which would make
allowance for a very bright boy
who happened to hold the old
fashioned idea that serving in the
uniform of his country in a time
of it's danger was the patriotic
thing for him to do.
Does this testing for deferment
idea chill your blood? Dawgonnit
it ought to, if you'll permit us to
be old-fashioned enough to say so.
Nobody pretends that's a demo-
cratic way of determining which
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