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Che ^Hxghlzui&s ^nrunian
Published every Thursday by the FrankHn Press
At Franklin, North Carolina
VOL. LX111 Number Forty nine
WEIMAR JONE8 * EdlUr-Publlshet
NATIONAL ?DITORIAI ? i
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Wealth And Progress
TO anyone interested in the South-1-or interested,
* for that matter, in the trends in present-day
America ? an article by Louis Bromfield in the
November issue of The Atlantic Monthly will prove
stimulating.
Mr. Bromfield, who might be termed the novel
ist of American farm life, points out that all the old
% American frontiers are gone, but adds that there
is a new frontier ? the South. Accordingly, he cap
tions his article, "Go South, Young Man!"
North Carolinians will be .particularly interested
in his praise of this state's progress:
Of all the Southern states, and for that matter all
the forty -eight, in* state has shown more progress within
the past generation than North Carolina. The progress
is not alone economic. Few states bftve made so rapid
an industrial development, and no Southern state has
advanced with such speed toward the achievement of
the vital Indus trial -agricultural balance so important
to the stabilised prosperity of stny region. It was mot so
long ago that the same poverty and shabbhMM which
has largely characterised the Deep South since defeat
was almost everywhere in evidence in North Carolina.
Today the shabby look has largely gone. The farms ap
pear prosperous and well cared for in most areas, and
the shabby cabin slums on the fringes of the towns are
on their way out. The University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill has become one of the most vigorous cul
tural centers of the nation.
Mr. Bromfield then proceeds to assign a reason
for North Carolina's advances:
It is, I think, indisputably true that culture, social
advance, and civilization tai general are to a large ex
tent tied to economics, to living standards, and to pro
ductivity. So are ignorance, prejudice, and intolerance.
That is a thesis we are hearing on every hand
today ; prosperity, if we can just have enough of
it, will cure all our ills.
The trouble with the churches, we are told,
is poverty.
The trouble wifh our citizenship, is, primarily,
poverty.
And especially is this idea advanced about edu
cation. If we pay high enough salaries, the best
teachers will automatically be attracted to the
school room. If we can only have federal aid, the
schools will automatically turn out thinking men
and wbmen who will lead wholesome lives and be
good citizens. Anl, most often heard : Educate
people, and they'll make more money.
From that argument, it is but a step to the
opposite, but closely related, argument : Educate
people so that they can make more money ; t'hat is
to say, the purpose of education is to enable
people to make more money. That argument,
though not put quite that crudely, is being ad
vanced by responsible persons in the educational
world today.
Intuitively, the average man knows there is
something wrong with this line of reasoning. But
exactly where is it wrong?
Babies And Bills
One of the strangest cases to come before an
American court, perhaps, was that of an eight
months old baby in Pittsburgh the other day.
The mother told the court She was unable to
pay a $40 bill she owed a baby sitting company,
and so she left the baby with them.
Which recalls the story told of a father of an
infant born in a hospital in another state. Unable
to pay the hospital bill in full, he attempted to
arrange for installment payment of the balance.
But he was told by the hospital's business mana
ger that the mother and infant could not leave
the hospital until the bill was paid in full.
The father disappeared, and some days later the
hospital received a message from him, in a dis
tant city:
" I hope", he said, "you'll get along fine raising
that child of mine".
POETRY CORNER
Conducted by
EDITH DEADER1CK ERSKINE
WeevervlUe, N. C.
SpuuiurgJ by Asktrili* Brum lU. Kalwuai Ltngwt v/ Amtr hum
NORTH CAROLINA
I know a very ancient spit of land.
An old, old sea heaves heary waves upon It;
An old, old wind leaps wildly from far skies
To sculpture (ossll'd sand In dunes upon it.
Of late came man, the savage red-skin first;
Then bold, seafaring wights whose early hope
To found a nation In the wilderness
Was brought to an untimely end. Their fate
Was never known, but others came? again
And yet again, till now the burgeoning land
Fulfills the vision of the pioneers.
Vet man was not content to tread the sand
Nor sail the sea: He made him fragile wings
And soaring from that same stark, storied strand
Proclaimed him lord of all the elements ?
The conqueror of water, earth and air.
I know a very ancient fertile plain.
Its lields are white with cotton in the Fall
And ripe tobacco crowds tall slatted barns.
In lofty spiring towers of rugged stone
The sons and daughters of a sturdy race
Explore the endless reaches of the mind
And seek with keen adventurous hardihood
To meet the challenge of. their troubled times.
1 know a very ancient range of hills.
Along their pine-crowned crests the soughing wind
Is never still. They march to serried ranks
Away and yet away until the eye
Of the beholder faints and cannot reach
That last blue smoky line against the sky.
Immutable and ageless, awful, grand,
They still the ravaged, tortured human soul
And lill it with a deep serenity.
Your ancient spit of land along the sea,
Your very ancient, rich and fertile plain,
Your old, old range of far-flung, wind-swept hills .
Are folded In my heart, North Carolina!
MRS. F. B. LEWIS
La Porte, Ind.
LETTERS
CAN BE OVERCOME
Dear Mr. Jones:
I was interested In your editorial some weeks back regard
ing the Illiteracy In Macon County. Does the county have free
textbooks? If not, that would help. However, work needs to
be done on the parents of the children. I am sorry to say
that ever since I can remember there has been a strong
tendency on the part of the parents to keep children out
of school on the slightest excuse? to help pull fodder, gather
i ty-ops, slight Illnesses find colds.
I went to school here and I know.
Is there no way to enforce ihelr attendance by rigid ap
plication of the law? A truant officer' who would call alter
a child is out and require a doctor's certificate in case the
parents claim the child Is sick?
The matter is so vital I can't help, but think about it, and
know there is sqme way to overcome it.
Sincerely yours.
HELEN HILL NORRIS
Horse Cove and Atlanta,
November 20, 1948.
ILLITERACY AND THE SCHOOLS
. Dear Mr. Jones:
Could It be possible, that In our consideration ol Illiter
acy In Macon County, we are misdirecting our attention,
when we place the blame either on the children, or their
parents? ;,| . 'I J%i itflt
Public elucation has not always been our privilege; our
history is studded with references to the struggle of Jthe
under-privileged to have education included as a necessary
social development. The affluent have always had their pri
vate schools, and the public school only came Into existence
with the use of the franchise by large masses of the under
privileged.
I sense a tendency on the part of some of those people
who have expressed an opinion on this problem, to recom
mend that the police power of the state be brought to bear,
and the truant officer be encouraged to "do his duty." I
wonder just what kind of education Is associated . with an
undue use of police power.
A use of this power does not Impress me as a reason
able argument.
Why, for Instance, is It possible for fifty or sixty child
ren to enter f.he first grade and only five or six graduate
from high school? Are those who do not achieve the satis
faction of a high school diploma to be written off as failures
who are stupid, dull and unintelligent? Or have the schools
been designed for the few who can attune themselves to
the memorization of the printed page? I wonder.
Is it possible that the people have become disillusioned
with our secondary schools, and are refusing to bring pres
sure on those citizens who have failed to conform by send
ing their children to school?
There are several families in Highlands who have with
drawn their children from the public schools, and entered
them tn private Institutions. I do not know that these child
ren are assured of "better education" by this move on the
part of their parents. I do know, however, that these parents
did not dislocate their family lives for the satisfaction of
decreasing their bank account.
My feeling is that large groups of our Macon Couny citi
zens have become ? dissatisfied with the entire program of
secondary education as they see it reflected in their child
ren. These citizens are vaguely aware that the state board
of education, and the departments of education in the uni
versities and colleges have assumed responsibility for the
education of their children, and have left them only the
privilege of paying the taxes necessary to the upkeep of the
schools.
It may also be that both citizens with children In schools
and those who have failed to enter their children In school,
have lost confidence In educational leadership, the Utter group
having taken the line of least resistance.
Returning to a previous pofcnt. It appears to me that a
business which loses nine-tenths of Its capital every twelve
years would soon be in bankruptcy. However, the school rec
ords show that from the first grade through the graduating
class in high school, approximately that percentage Is lost,
at feast In some locations.
Possibly what Macon County needs, andl this goes for
many other communities in this great land of ours, is a re
appraisal of education. Such a reappraisal should be under
taken by the citizens of the community without the aid of
the state department of education, or the assistance of the
department of education of the unlvertltUs and colleges.
Education did not begin with thU array of ?up?r-*trueture;
thM? appenduw teem to iuvt Men acquired over the yeari..
It seemi possible to me that groups of citizens, gathered
together under local leadership, and Macon County has Its
share, might begin the study of education In the county. They
might explore the curriculum of the county schools with a
vlaw to discovering whether it realiy stimulates citizenship
or merely aids the students in accumulating the necessary
credits for graduation from high school. They might be In
terested in the study of local educational leadership, for the
purpose of discovering whether this leadership Is prepared to
pilot the next generation in our complicated society.
Education Is due for a re-appraisal. That appraU&i* wilt
not be made in the universities and colleges, or by the pro
fessors of education. It will have to be made by the people,
or fall to be made, If they reject the challenge.
It seems unreasonable to believe that j eople enjoy a state
of illiteracy To scourge people in ihis i light seems doubly
unreasonable. It may be that they are more realistic than
we appreciate. It may be that they hive seen the futility
of our educational methods, and have de -ided to give thosp
methods no further aid and comfort. I wonder.
JACK H. WILCOX
Highlands and Knoxvill.e, Tenn.,
November 20, 1948.
? Others' Opinions ?
FARMING, THfiN AND NOW
Within recent years there has been an Industrial and
economic revolution down-on and up-on the farm. The argu
ment over "price supports" has been settled in the affirma
tive by the Republican and Democratic parties. Farmers will
get up to $2,000,000,000 In the fiscal year ending next June.
The "old farm isn't what it usterwas," with cotton. w>(fat,
oats, eggs, tobacco, corn, rice, chickens, butter-fat, milk, po
tatoes, hogs, soybeans, etc., receiving goveyament support.
There's a reason! Innumerable reasons! Perhaps you re
member when hundreds of European agricultural scientists
came to Washington several years ago and congregated at
the Hughes electrical farm a few oniles away in Virginia.
Every electrical device of that per|6d was at work? on the
Hughes farm; In the sheds where the cows were milked; in the
chicken coop; the comfortable home? and even electric wires
were strung in all directions to illuminate the broad acres.
Electif^ed farms are everywhere today. Farm machinery
has revolutionized millions of acres, lifting the load of! the
farmers' backs. Look around! Turn off the gas on your
automobile? stop, and behold with amazement the triumph in
ag^culture? a pretty word that broke' into farm society, and
progressed so rapidly that politicians, and the political parties,
put up big money to back the new-fangled notions that
promoted farming to Class A ns a top American industry.
In short, electricity, good highways, automobiles and trac
tors led the way and a thousand new methods and improve
ments lilted the load off the farmer's back. If you have any
doubts about all this, get out tfito the country and beho)^'
the modern new buildings on your farm; watch the w"h*
go-round; listen to the radio, and if you need to talk to a
folks hundreds of miles away, thfre is a phone handy bjl|jpr
In short; Farm products are A'hat all people depend ioi\?
and must have. That's why federal support for farm pticeS"
will continue.
?Marion (S. C.) Star
LEGAL ADVERTISING
ADMINISTRATOR'S NOTICE
Having qualified as adminis
trator of Robert P. Sanders, de
ceased, late of Macon County,
N. C., this is to 'notify all per
wns having claims against the
estate of said deceased to ex
hibit them to the undersigned
on or before the 19 day of
November> 1949 or this notice
will be plead in bar of their re
covery. All persons Indebted to
?id estate will please make im
mediate settlement.
This 19 day of November, 1948.
EDMOND SANDERS
Administratci
N25? 5tp ? ltc ? D30
STATE OP NORTH CAROLINA,
COUNTY OP MACON.
MACON COUNTY, Plaintiff.
vs.
SALLY LEDFORD and
husband MACK LEDFORD,
ED GUY and wife
GUY, and IKE GUY,
Defendants.
NOTICE OF SALE
Under and by virtue of a de
cree of the Superior Court of
Macon County entered in the
above entitled action on the
8 day of November, 1948, the
undersigned Commissioner will
on the 10 day of December,
1948, at 12 o'clock, noon, at
tha Courthouse door In Macon
County, North Carolina, sell to
the highest bidder for cash the
fallowing described real estate:
Beglaning at a poplar at
the spring and runs S 88 W
38 poles to a large white oak;,
then S 2 W 18 poles to a.
stake in the old Angel line;
then N 88 E 36 poles to a
chestnut; then 18 poles to
the beginning, containing 18
acres, more or less; being
the land conveyed to Anna
Guy by Rhoda Thomas in
deed doted October 28, 1930,
and registered in the office
of the Register of Deeds for
Macon County, in Book U-4
of Deeds, page 474.
This, the 9 day of November,
1948.
R. S. JONES
Commissioner.
N18 ? 4tc? JJ ? D9
EXECUTRIX NOTICE
v Having qualified as executrix
of J. E. Calloway, deceased, late
Macon County, N. C., this Is to
notify all persons having claims
against the estate of said de
ceased to exhibit them to the
undersigned on or before th*
26 day of October, 1949 or thte
notice will be plead Ln bar ol
their recovery. All persons in
debted to said estate will please
make Immediate settlement.
This 26 day of October, 1043.
JULIA E. CALLOWAY
Executrix
028 -- 6tp ? D2
12 FILL GLASSES
IN THIS SIX-BOTTLE CARTON!
?You Can't Buy
a Better Value
VALUE ax? NOW ONLY
TRuSS* /~V p0
W25'i
\< t KINKK < OI.A AT \N\ I'UK I!!
Bottled by: Pep?l-Cola Bottling Co. ot Bryson City
Under appointment from Pepel-Cola Company, N. Y.
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