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VOL. LXVII
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press
? At Franklin, North Carolina
Telephone 24
Entered at Post Office, Franklin, N. C., as second class matter.
WEIMAR JONES Editor
BOB S. SLOAN Business Manager
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Number 17
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APRIL 24, 1952
Immoral And Foolish
The Defense department announced lasl week
that the enlistments of about 125.000 members of
the armed forces have been extended for nine
months.
These men arc not draftees, who had no choice
about entering ihe service: these are volunteers,
men who entered the service for specific periods of
time. Xow thev are told they must serve nine
months longer than they agreed.
Their enlistments were in the nature of contracts
with the government. The men agreed to do certain
things, for a specific period of time ; and it was
understood that the government would do certain
things, such as provide shelter, food, clothing, and
pay, during that period, and at the end of the pe
riod release them. The fact that the government's
obligation may not actually have been put on paper
in no way lessens its moral responsibility ; if a con
tract was not implied, why was a specific period of
time written into the enlistment?
The Defense department gives no explanation for
the necessity to extend these enlistments. While it
would seem to the layman that the draft could
have been so operated as to provide replacements
for these volunteers when their terms of enlist
ment expired, most fair-minded persons will assume
that the department has good reasons for its ac
tion.
But the point is not whether there are reasons.
The point is that the Defense department seems to
assume it is quite all right, if there are good rea
sons for doing it, for the department to welsh on
its bargain.
This incident, alone, might have little signifi
cance; but it is not alone. It is one in a long series
of similar incidents.
Other current examples are the government's ac
tions in the steel crisis. First of all, the President
seizes the steel mills to prevent a strike. And the
point here is not the disputed one as to whether
Mr. Truman had the authority to take this action;
the point is ,that, when he was asked if he consid
ered the Constitution gives him the "inherent" auth
ority to so act, his reply was not that it did or did
not give him the authority, but that he proposes to
act for what he considers the best interests of the
country.
Then Commerce Secretary Sawyer, pnder whose
department the .seized mills are being operated, is
sues a threat to the owners: Reach an agreement
with the workers, or I will decide myself on the pay
raise to he given them. In substance: "I'll use your
money to pay your workers what I think they
should be paid." The question of what was right or
even what was legal apparently never occurred to
Mr. Sawyer : he was grasping for an expedient, and
was willing to use the power of the federal govern
ment to make it stick.
Few Americans will shed tears over the plight
of the steel mill owners. In other years they were
as hard as the product that came from their mills;
the human beings in their employ were simply an
other raw material, to be bought at the lowest
market price and exploited to the utmost. And evert
today all indications are they are prosperous.
But because a man is powerful or rich or even in
the wrong does not rob him of the right to justice
and to have his cause adjudicated by law. Injustice
is injustice ? even if it be the devil himself who is
wronged.
These are only the latest in a long series of inci
' dents that mark a trend to substitute expediency
for honesty; the judghient of one man, or of a
A Lift For Today
ir He is not far from every one of us. For in him we live,
and move and have our being:.? Acts. 17: 27, 28.
SEARCHING FOR GOD through the high-powered telescope
of philosophy, we remember he was found two thousand years
ago In work. "Cleave the wood and thou shalt find me, lift the
?tone and there am I."
O God, lift np our hearts, we beseech Thee, to a joyous con
fidence in Thy Presence. Guidfe us when we cannot see the
way.
(Furnished by Tht Raleigh Times)
group of men, in executive office for a rule by law ;
and power for right.
It is a trend, unfortunately, that is not confined
to one party, nor to the national government. The
same -kind of thing, in less marked degree, may be
seen in North Carolina, in Macon County.
It is an effort, in this extremely difficult period,
to find ways that are easy, regardless of their
Tightness.
It comes from the short-sighted and foolish belief
that we can find workable solutions for our prob
lems by compromising on basic principles.
A Healthy Interest
If anybody thought there is a lack of interest
among Macon County persons in their schools and
in how they shall be run, they got the answer last
week. When the filing deadline came Saturday at 6
an even dozen persons had filed for the five
places 011 the county board of education.
That is a healthv sign, it is proof of keen inter
est when busy men and women volunteer to take
the time to do a job that pays virtually nothing. It
is fine that there are enough of them that the
voters are given a wide choice.
It is noteworthy that the candidates come from
almost every section of the country, and represent
a wide variety of interests and backgrounds.
And it is encouraging, it seems to us. that two of
the 12 candidates are women? the second time, so
far as we can recall, that a woman has entered the
Democratic primary for this important office. Be
cause, if there is any office a woman is preeminently
fitted for, it is this one; .schools deal primarily with
children, and surely women, as a rule, know and
understand children better than men.
No Court Term
This newspaper does not pretend to have a com
prehensive knowledge of the courts and their work
ings. It does not know all the ins and outs or all
the whys of the cancellation of the April term of
Macon superior court. And it is not inclined to
point the finger of blame at any agency or indi
vidual.
But it respectfully suggests that this term of
court should have been held ; that with all the reg
ular and special superior court judges North Caro
lina has, surely some provision could have been
made; that there was a suggestion, in the way the
situation developed, of the high-handed "let 'em
wait" attitude that is* rather common today among
some officials.
When a county has only three terms of court a
year, then those terms should be held. On the civil
side, no litigant should be required to wait more
than four months to have justice done; on the
criminal side, it is generally conceded that the
swiftness of punishment is even more important
than it's severity ? and there was nothing swift
about what happened here last week.
And Another Thing . . .
Then there was the man who boasted that he
was the boss at his house, and always did a good
job of it ? when he was away from home.
And the father who set out to tell his teen-age
daughter exactly what she, should and should not
do ? and ended up wondering if he really was "ante
diluvian", as she said.
And the woman who always set out to do "just
a little shopping", but never got home with a cent,
no matter how much she started out with.
And the child who learned with surprise, upon
growing up, that his parents were not half as mor
onic as they seemed when he was younger.
And the business man who was .so sure he knew
all the answers he had to go broke to find out he
didn't.
And the employe who never felt he got paid for
Ivhat he did until he ended up getting paid for ex
actly what he did ? nothing.
I
Our American Civilization
Calling any civilization "backward" that is not
exactly like our own..
Carefully choosing a scenic area for a vacation
tour ; hurrying along so fast there is no opportun
ity to enjoy the scenery.
Assuming, half a century ago, that it was wicked
to question any statement that came from the pul
pit ; assuming, today, that it is stupid to question
any dogma that comes from the laboratory.
Newspaper Shop Talk
Mostly About Us
? Staff Photo by J. P. Brady
The various steps in publication of a weekly newspaper have been explained ? in words and
pictures ? in this space in previous issues of The Press. The photo above shows the final step ?
getting the paper ready to go in the mail. Seven persons are required for thjs operation, five of
whom are pictured above.
In the background John R. Dean (back to camera) and Bob .Sloan are shown feeding the
printed sheets, as they come from the newspaper press, into the folder. This machine will cut
and fold 12 pages in a single operation.
Next the name labels must be stamped on .the front pages, and J. P. Brady is shown operat
ing the mailing machine, while David H. (Zory) Sutton (left) "jogs" (straightens) the labeled
papers and wraps them in bund'les for the various post offices to which they go.
The Press goes to readers in more than 40 states, and most of these distant subscribers are
"single wraps". That is, since there is only one susbcriber in a town, each of these papers has to
be wrapped individually, and Tom Hunnicutt (center) is shown wrapping singles. Note the open
mail bag in front of him.
Hilltop Town
Bill Sharpe in The State Magazine
Franklin, county seat of Ma
con, sits neatly on top of a
large hill. We do not recall
any other town in North Caro
lina with such a positive moun
tain setting. On all sides, it is
rimmed by a bold line of close
in mountains, the Cowees, the
Nantahalas and the Blue Ridge.
Prom some places in town, such
as atop the Skyway hotel, you
get a 360-degree circle of vision
without any nearby obstruc
tions. Even the meanest cotteges
in Franklin have a million-dol
lar view.
The very narrow and very
rugged Cullasaja gorge pours its
traffic over U. S. 64 directly
onto the floor of the broad
Little Tennessee valley, and you
travel along on this for a short
while until you hit the city
limits of Franklin, when you
start up a steep, abrupt hill. In
asmuch as Franklin has so
many hills, this one is locally
called Town Hill, and feeds di
rectly down Franklin's main
street.
It Is one of the small towns
of North Carolina which had a
substantial growth in the last
ten years in terms of percen
tage, going from about 1,300 to
1,900 population.
Macon's prosperity is soundly
based upon a revolution in agri
culture. For some years before
the green pastures program was
started in the state, Macon had
such a plan, and the county
has turned heartily to dairying,
beef cattle and poultry. The
value of its hatching egg indus
try alone is estimated now to
be about $1 million a year in
cash income. I am told that, for
some unexplained reason, this
area of North Carolina pro
duces the most hatchable poul
try eggs of any section.
? ? ?
Weimar Jones, editor of The
Franklin Press, was musing
about how outlanders think of
all mountains west of Asheville
as being "The Smokies". Hardly
any of them can identify the
lordly Nantahalas or the Co
wees or other ranges of our
west.
Until I was out of high school,
I never had heard of even the
Smokies. We could see a thin
line of mountains from near
Forsyth, and we were told they
were the Blue Ridges. They
didn't teach us much about
North Carolina in the schools
then, and what little they
taught didn't include the Smok
ies. Of course, in the western
counties, kids knew of the
mountains to their west. They
always called them The Big
Smokies.
Weimar called my attention
to another lowland idea ? that
all places west of Asheville are
just "in the mountains" and
are about equal in altitude.
He pointed out that High
lands is as much higher than
Franklin as Franklin is higher
than Charlotte. i
? * *
Highlands in winter is a ghost
village. This Macon resort has a
permanent population of about
550, but Ed Potts, president of
the Chamber of Commerce,
tells me that in summer the
township population Jumps to
10,000. That is almost incredi
ble, but it may be true. There
are 650 town water connections
and it is said that over half
of the .residents have their own
wells.
Hptels and motor courts have
a capacity for about 1,200 per
sons. Strangely enough, this is
one resort town without any
tourist homes.
The most of the summer pop
ulation lives in cottages. Hun
dreds of homes are scattered
in hidden-away coves and swal
lowed in the deep, forested hill
side, and a few of these cot
tages are available for rent for
part of the season each year.
Highlands is little known to
North Carolinians and little
patronized by them. The bulk of
the business comes from Florida,
Georgia, and South Carolina,
although there is some emigra
tion from New York, Pennsyl
vania, and New Jersey.
The day we landed in High
lands one commercial hotel and
one motor court were open,
and a handful of visitors, prob
ably commercial men, were at
each. The weather was ex
tremely mild, which was a sur
prise in view of Highlands'
average altitude of around 4,
100 feet, making it the highest
incorporated town in North
Carolina, or perhaps eastern
America. Potts said this was a
"typical" winter day in High
lands, and when some disbelief
was expressed, he added, "Oh,
yes, we have some cold weath
er up here occasionally."
"How cold?"
Oh, sometimes down to 20
degrees below zero," he admit
ted. However, he said, cold
snaps, like those throughout
North Carolina, rarely lasted
more than a day or so. He add
ed that the kids rarely got to
ice skate more than a week at
a time.
The town is well supplied
with ice skating water, several
small lakes being quite acces
sible.
There has been little develop
ment in the way of resort ac
commodations in Highlands for
some years, with the exception
of the building of a few motor
courts. The country club is add
ing some cottage space, this
year.
in wimer lime, nigniauus nas
one eating place, the tiny High
lander Restaurant. I got a very
good supper there, but you
have to have a hair-splitting
schedule to take advantage of
this place. It closes promptly
at 7 p. m., and, probably for
the very good reason that the
owner likes to sleep late in the
mornings, opens again at 9 a.
m.
Highlands, like a lot of other
small North Carolina commun
ities, is a producer of youths
for growing urban centers. Potts
said that a high percentage of
its high school graduates went
to college, but that "not two
out of a hundi*ed" ever return
ed to Highlands to settle down
and make a living. They scat
ter over the face of the earth
wherever opportunity beckons.
The prettiest setting we have
seen for a gift shop in North
Carolina is occupied by the
| Country Mouse, a little shop in
a very attractive building, hard
on the shores of the city lake,
which is a lovely body of water
one mile west of Highlands.
Business
Making \
News
? By BOB SLOAN
Here and There In Franklin
business growth. Lee Woods is
becoming a big property owner
on Palmer street. In addition
to the construction of four ad
ditional cabins at his motor
court there, he has purchased
the George Mashburn house
which Joined his property and
Is remodeling it. Grover Jami
son, Jeweler, which has been
located In the same place for
more than 40 years has moved.
The new location Is across the
street In the Burrell building
in the location formerly occu
pied by Martin Electric Com
pany. Have heard but haven't
verified it that Mr. Jamison
plans to put up a new building
on the old site.
Several people in the tourist
business report a fine business
this past week-end. It's funny
how we get quite a lot of reve
nue from the tourist business
although we don't really half ?
try. In a way we ought to be
ashamed, 'cause something for
Continued on Page Three ?
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward through
the files of The Press)
50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
If you didn't see the total
eclipse of the moon last night
it was because you were not
on the opposite side of the
world looking for it.
The Press is informed that
there is a gold mine within
three miles of Franklin from
which samples have been care
fully assayed and found good,
and that it will be looked after
in the near future.
"Uncle" Eli Arrington enter
tained a crowd in front of the
post office Wednesday evening
with his matchless oratory.
~25 YEARS AGO
Last Saturday morning the
thermometers in Franklin reg
istered from 20 to 24. Wayah
Bald had a coating of snow.
Leaves on small poplar trees
were killed.
Mr. W. H. Coe, of York, S. C.,
was here two or three days
last week consulting with busi
nessmen of the town relative
to the establishment here of a
handle factory.
10 YEARS AGO
The Franklin All-Stars met
this week and elected Ray
Swanson, manager and W. C.
Newton, assistant manager of
the team.
E. N. Evans, of Franklin,
Route 2, has resigned as war
den of Wayah Bald tower to
take a position as weaver in
structor at St. John's School at
Waynesville.