The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 6, 1962 Page: 2 of 16
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THE CANADIAN RECORD, Canadian. Hemphill County, Texas
THURSDAY, SEPT. 6, 1962
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e77 know better in f63
Ha'
fUCH has been made during the past few
days of the fpct that U. S. wheat growers
came within a few percentage points of vot-
ing out marketing quotas on next year's wheat
crop.
Certainly the farm price support program
had its narrowest squeak in last week's na-
tional farm referendum . . . but the fact re-
mains that more than two thirds of the wheat
growers still voted in favor of marketing
quotas.
While the number of farmers who are dis-
enchanted with the administrative program of
high price supports with rigid controls has
obviously increased, and a trend may be in-
dicated, it is also obvious that more than two-
thirds of them still favor the program, or at
least are unwilling to relinquish it . . . and a
two-thirds majority is still viewed in political
circles as a highly respectable number.
Next year's referendum will be a better in-
dicator. If there really is an appreciable
groundswell of protest among the wheat grow-
ers against the support program, quotas will
certainly be knocked out (and high support
prices along with them) because only a frac-
tion more than one-third of the farmers voting
can do the job, and this year's vote was close
to that fraction.
But don't bet on it . . . the trend might
swing the other way. A lot of people like to
make a show of independence when they can
do it without personal risk . . . but it takes
real conviction to be independent when it's
going to cost you money personally. There is
at least a faint possibility that many of the
"agin'ers" in this year's referendum were as-
serting their independence in the secure faith
that their fellow voters would save them from
themselves by the customary safe margin. If
this was the case, they must have been shaken
up by the close margin in the voting . . . and
they won't be anxious to take a chance next
year.
Anyway, the 1963 referendum should tell the
story.
We'll give up our subsidy
TOR WHATEVER it is worth, we'd like to
place this newspaper on record, once more,
as being wholeheartedly in favor of doing
away with the "free-in-county" postal subsidy
for American newspapers.
As one of the beneficiaries of this "gift" of
the government, we feel qualified to speak
out on this subject.
This is the provision of postal regulations
which permits newspapers (and other publica-
tions qualifying for postal "second class"
mail rates) to be distributed through the mails
free of charge in the county in which they are
published.
We are not trying to kick Santa Claus in
the teeth, either, when we say that we'd prefer
to pay reasonable postal rates for the privilege
of mailing weekly copies of The Canadian
Record to subscribers in Hemphill county . . .
although this would affect more than half of
our mail circulation.
We don't want to appear ungrateful . . . but
this little newspaper subsidy is far from an
unmixed blessing.
It has been used frequently, for example, as
a political club against press demands for
postal reforms to whip the annual post office
deficit . . . and as a political red herring to
distract attention from more serious abuses of
postal privilege. It is too often cited as positive
proof that the American press itself is con-
tributing a major share of the postal deficit.
And it isn't worth it.
Newspaper use of the free-in-county privi-
lege is vastly exagerrated, in any event. News-
papers published in towns which have city
delivery can't take advantage of it; daily
newspapers, which depend largely on carrier
boys for distribution because the mails are
newspaper
CONTESTS
THE CANADIAN RECORD
Canadian (Hemphill County) Texaa
BEN EZZELL Editor
NANCY EZZELL .... Editor of Woman's Pages
TED ROGERS Foreman
Entered as second clasi, matter December 20,
1945, at the Postoffice at Canadian, Texas,
under the Act of March 3, 1879. Published each
Thursday afternoon at Canadian, Texas, by
Ben R. and Nancy M. Ezzell.
S/bu*
too slow, don't take advantage of it; and even
in the case of small newspapers such as our
own, a substantial portion of our in-county
distribution is outside postal channels and
we'd cheerfully pay for all in-county mailing
which is handled by the post office.
At the same time, we'd like to see fair and
reasonable rates applied to all other classes
of mail.
Dire prophecies that such postal reforms
would put many small publications out of
business are so much poppycock. Publications
which can't absorb the increased costs will
simply pass them on to their subscribers. Of
course, if a publication is in such little de-
mand from the cash customers that they
won't pay the necessary amount to get it de-
livered by mail, then it may be in trouble
. . . but if any publication is depending on
the postal subsidy to keep it in business, then
we doubt if it will be either missed or
mourned.
The howling joker in this whole affair is
that the free-in-county mailing privilege was
never intended as a subsidy for newspapers in
the first place . . . but as a subsidy for the
people, so that postal costs would not inter-
fere with the citizen's right to know.
If it was ever necessary for that purpose, it
is needed no longer. Let's get rid of this politi-
cal albatross which has been hung around
publishers' necks for too many years, and put
the postal deficit in its proper perspective.
Eagle or hen ?
—From the Loma Linda (California) Beacon—
ANE OF the many things which has made
v this country great has been the self-re-
liant way we handled our local problems. We
are in a better position to know what's going
on, and can control local affairs more effi-
ciently than bureaucrats in far off Washing-
ton, D. C.
But, since we have been unwilling to accept
all of our responsibilities, here's what we have
allowed to happen:
During the past three decades, the Federal
government, a one-time obedient servant of
the people, has grown into a giant. This giant
is fast becoming the master of its creators.
Bureaus, departments, agencies and commis-
sions are slowly and surely imprisoning the
American people. Whether we admit it or not,
this giant was created through our own irre-
sponsible apathy and ignorance. We seem to
have transformed the symbol of our govern-
ment from an eagle into a mother hen.
Theoretically a trial Jury is supposed to neither know nor
consider anything at all regarding a case under its considera-
tion beyond the testimony heard in the courtroom Itself dur-
ing the course of a trial. . . and that only in the terms of ref-
erence covered by the judge's charge to the jury.
A Hemphill County jury almost got its decision reversed in a
recent damage suit trial when jurors resorted to a Webster's
Dictionary to look un the pronunciation of a word used in the
iudge's charge. If iurors had been using the dictionary to ob-
tain a definition of the word, instead of merely trying to settle
an argument about pronunciation, the case might have been
tossed out and a new trial ordered. And when the Court of
Anneals reviews the record, which it will, the verdict might
still be tossed out. Stranger things have happened in Texas
courts of law.
The word which was bothering the jurors, incidentally, was
"preponderance" .... as in "preponderance of evidence" ... a
favorite courtroom expression. And a good argument might be
made right here, based on the evidence at hand in this case,
for the use of plain and simple Enallsh by both attorneys and
judges in presenting facts to juries.
Jurors are, after all, plain citizens . . . not trained in law.
In fact, it would be next to impossible to get a lawyer on a
jury. Yet juries are often handed charges and instructions
from judges written in legal terminology which is the equiva-
lent of ancient Greek to the average person, and asked to de-
liver a fair and impartial verdict based on the charge.
If juries sometimes arrive at unexpected and illogical ver-
dicts, it is more likely that the blame rests with the Jurist . . .
not the jurors.
• • *
What causes highway accidents? It isn't often easy to put
the finger on the exact cause of a crash, because often the
evidence is destroyed by the very violence of the accident. But
in the case of a crash a few days ago near Panhandle, in which
four persons died needlessly, it was easy to trace the chain of
events leading up to the tragedy from the comments of sur-
vivors.
The first act in the tragedy of errors occurred when two cars
were stopped on the four-lane highway because the driver of
one vehicle wanted to ask the driver of the following car to
press the dimmer switch to her headlights.
If you've ever had the experience of driving the highways at
night when a closely-following driver insists on leaving head-
lights on "bright," you know how annoying this can be. But
don't stop on a busy highway to talk it over. This was the
first act in the tragedy.
The second was detailed in the statement of the truck driver
who crashed into the rear of the second car. "I just looked up
from lighting my pipe and there they were," the driver was
quoted by newsmen at the scene.
We can well believe him. Lighting a pipe frequently con-
sumes several seconds. We've even observed dedicated pipe
smokers who devote half a minute to this ritual. And the flare
of a match in a darkened cab . . . especially when it is half
a pipe's length from the nose ... can effectively blind the
sharpest eyes. A speeding vehicle can travel a long way be-
yond the range of its headlights in a few seconds.
Yes, we can well understand that truck driver's surprise
when he looked up from lighting his pipe and found two cars
squarely in front of him. After all, he'd probably driven that
route before without finding any cars stopped at that spot.
ínMjngs
ANCE upon a time, there was a hillbilly who
** was embarrassed because his wife made
moonshine . . . but he loved her still.
i
♦
1'
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Ezzell, Ben. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 36, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 6, 1962, newspaper, September 6, 1962; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth184125/m1/2/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hemphill County Library.