WATAUGA DEMOCRAT An Independent Weekly Newspaper Brtahlished in 1888 and published far 45 years by the late Robert C. Rivers, Sr. EVERY THURSDAY . SUBSCRIPTION RATES IN WATAUGA COUNTY One Year : 4160 Six (Months 1.00 Four Months .75 OUTSIDE WATAUGA COUNTY One] Year $2.00 Six Months 1.50 Four Month* 1.00 NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS In Requesting change o( address, it is important to mention the OLD. as well as the NEW address R. RIVBRS, Jr. - Publisher Cards of Thanks, Resolutions oi Respect, Obituaries, etc., are charged for at the regular adver tising rates. Entered at the postoffice ai Boone, N. C., as second class mail matter, under the act of Congress of March 3, 1879. "The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the vary first obJecUve should be to keep that right, and were It left to me to gedde whether we should have a govern ment without newspapers, or newspa pers without government, I should not nasttate a moment to choose the lav tar. But I should mean that every man should receive these paper* and be capable of reading them."? Thomaa Jefferson THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1947 GOLDEN GLEAMS Life is not measured by the time we live. ? Crabbe Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old age a regret. ? Disraeli The measure of a man's life is the well-spending of it, and not the length. ? Plutarch I count life just a stuff to try the soul's strength on. ? Robert Browning Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dujt thou art, to dust returneth, Was not spoken of the soul. ? Longfellow JULY 4, 1776 "We hold these truths to be self-evident: ? that all men are created equal; that they arc en dowed by their Creator with cer tain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Thit, to secure these Rights, gov ernments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Govern ed." ? Declaration of Indepen dence. JULY 4TH GLORIOUS ANNIVERSARY Independence Day means much to the United States and other struggling nations as well. In 1947, with power politics the way of most of tha world, it is im portant that the significance of the day be impressed throughout our country and the world. On July 4th, 1776, tv/elve colonies, all the original thirteen except New York, through their representatives in the Continental Congress, approved of the Decla ration. Two committees had been appointed by the Congress on June 10th to draw up a Declara tion and articles of confederation. These committees were ap pointed after a motion by Richard Henry Lee, which was seconed by1 John Adams on June 7th. Ac ction on the motion was deferred unitil July 1st and it was passed July 2nd. The committees were th{n appointed and the Declara tion was approved but was sign ed, on that day only by John ? Hancock as President of the Con gress. It was not until August 2nd that 53 members of the Congress sigped the Declaration. This Declaration led to the first war of the young country which finally gained its freedom fiom Great Britain. That Declaration was not long ago, as time is measured in history, only 171 years. But in that brief time, this free nation has become the leader foil most nations of the world. We have fought half a dozen wars in the effort to maintain freedom and the security of our country Th^is far, we have never lost a war with a foreign country, and toaay we are striving (to keep ourselves prepared for any new threat to our security. The Fourth of July reminds the people of Watauga county that th^y have much of which to be pr6und. In a world of imperfect m