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Entered at Post Office. Franklin, N. C.. as aeoond daaa matter
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Preaa
Franklin, N. C. Telephone 24
>NE8 Editor
'AN Business Manager
J. P. BRADY ? *
i
I BETTY LOU POUTS . . . Ofllce Manager
i P. CABE Mechanical Superintendent
FRANK A STARRETTE Shop Superintendent
DAVID H SUTTON Steraotyper
CHARLES E WHTTTINOTON Pressman
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Outbid? Macon County Insidk Macon County
Year $3 00 One Year . . $2.30
Biz Months 1.78 Six Months 1.78
Three Months 100 Three Months 1J0
FEBRUARY 25, 1954
A Letter To The Editor
Dear Mr. Jones:
On the editorial page of your Press dated Jan. 7, 1954, I cast
my eyes upon three huge letters, WHY (an editorial on "why
the newspapers keep on talking about McCarthy and Mc
Carthyism" ... You state that Senator McCarthy and McCarthy
Ism are spearheads that threaten American freedom.
The Communists who read this writing like this, in my opin
ion, would have every reason to smile smugly to themselves.
They will realize that they have succeeded in "brainwashing"
some of our newspapermen to the extent of forgetting the main
objectives that Joe McCarthy and his bipartisan fellow sen
ators were and are trying to reach. McCarthy's original pur
pose was to expose Communists in any and all places that
they happen to be. He has not altered his course.
Joe McCarthy is the -Communists' number one enemy. The
very word you used, "McCarthyism", is a device which origi
nated May 3, 1950 by Owen Lattimore before a senate commit
tee. The next day the Daily Worker (number one Communist
paper in the United States) had it splashed all over the front
page. Whether Lattimore got the idea from the Daily Worker
or vice versa it is not known but one thing is sure and cer
tain I have never heard of any 140,000 casualties being caused
by McCarthyism. I wonder if the same could be said for T.ru
mani&m. I would say McCarthy's actions have probably saved
at least 140,000 at the present time to say nothing of lives
saved in the years to come.
I think the immunity idea, which has been advanced by At
torney General Brownell, would not be a threat to freedom
but would be a spearhead to preserve our freedom and na
tional security. The Fifth Amendment, when originated, was
to protect our freedom and now it seems to be protecting spies
and traitors holding back valuable information vitally needed
to break up these Communist rings in our government.
How In the world you consider it a threat to our freedom
to have a man state whether he is or not a Communist or is
operating in any other corrupt organization is beyond me?
I think you will agree that no law was ever perfect. Actually
only the fundamentals of any law is perfect, this is true in our
whole government. This not only solves your stated problems
? on mobs but furthermore it will protect our security and per
sonal freedom. To my way of thinking this is what McCarthy
-stands for and I think you should more closely examine the
true facts before again stating that our freedom is endangered
by "McCarthyism".
Abraham Lincoln once said, "Let the facts be known and the
world will be saved". I am wondering if you will print this and
give the readers of your fine paper a chance to make up their
own minds as to the true facts. I might also suggest that you
procure for yourself Bill Jenner's sub-committee findings of
interlocking subversion in governmental departments. I will tae^
glad to furnish you with a copy.
Patriotically yours, f
Kokomo. Indiana. W. J. DARNELL.
The Editor's Reply
Dear Mr. Darnell:
We are always glad to receive and publish letters dealing
with public questions. Yours is no exception.
Because I am in complete agreement with your thought that
the people can be trusted to make wise decisions, if and when
they are given ALL the facts, I should like to point out one
fact your letter did not:
Senator McCarthy, who has concentrated on the State De
partment, has exposed not one Communist in the State De
partment. That is not a typographical error; "not one" Is
correct.
In fact, so far as X have been able to learn, he has exposed
not one Communist in any department of the government.
Such Communists as have been exposed have been exposed
by others than McCarthy. <It is worth noting that every "se
curity risk" is not a Communist. Many persons who are not
even suspected ot Communism or any other kind of disloyalty
are security risks, so considered because they talk too much,
or drink too much, or are susceptible to blackmail because of
past personal misconduct, i
Senator McCarthy has done a lot of things, but exposing
Communists is not one of them.
One thing he has done is to dig up old cases and old facts,
published long before ? if they were facts rather than mere
hearsay ? and grab the headlines with screams of "Look what
I have found!"
The thing he has done most often and most consistently,
though, U to make wild charges? charges that still are un
Typical mi the charge, four yean ago, that the State De
205 "card-carrying Communists"
He later revised the figure downward. But to date be kaaat
proved the existence of one.
Also typical was his charge that General George C. Marshall,
then Secretary of Defense, had "consistently advanced the de
signs of Soviet Russia since 1942". In explanation, McCarthy
asked the question: "How are we to account for our present
situation unless we believe that men higfy in this government
are concerting to deliver us to disaster?"
It is hardly necessary to say that that one remains ap
proved!
If you will go back through the newspaper files for the past
three years, you will find similar charge after similar charge,
but you will look in vain, in the newspapers or in government
records, for evidence that McCarthy proved his charges.
Yet can you recall a single instance where he has retracted
such a charge? You can judge for yourself the honesty and
fairness of that attitude.
How the term "mccarthyism" originated, it seems to me, U
of little Importance. What is important is what it Is and where
it is leading.
Probably the best way to find out what It is is to ask the
people who defend it. Almost invariably, they will preface
their defense with some such statement as this:
"Maybe McCarthy's methods are wrong, but . .
That Is to say, his methods are wrong, but the situation is
so serious we must resort to any methods, no piatter how bad.
Which is just another way of saying:
"I am afraid. I am afraid our traditional ideas of justice and
fair play and our American system, of government are too
weak to stand up in the same world with Communism."
Which Is still another way of saying:
"I am afraid Communism has something that makes it
stronger than Americanism. So, in order to defeat Commun
ism, we had better adopt the very methods that make us hate
Communism."
McCarthyism is fear ? a fear inflamed by McCarthy, and
others of his ilk, by the big lie.
Every jgaod citizen should recognize the danger from spies
and -traitors.
But every good citizen also should recognize the even great
er danger of hysterical fear.
A case in point, it seems to me, is the inference in your
letter that the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution should
be repealed because "now it seems to be protecting spies and
traitors".
The idea back of that amendment, and back of other safe
guards written into our laws, was that it is "better ten guilty
escape than that one innocent man suffer".
In our pfear, aren't we moving toward the opposite attitude ?
that it is better ten innocent men suffer than that one guilty
escape?
And isn't that trend only one of many similar symptoms?
And don't they all add up to the conclusion that the fear
we call mccarthyism is leading us to do, and to permit to be
done, a lot of foolish things that constitute a far greater
threat to freedom than all the Russian spies?
Sincerely,
Chapel Hill, N. C.
WEIMAR JONES.
Others' Opinions
HONOR DECLINED
(Bristol, Va., Herald-Courier)
A Frepch publisher says American magazines are far more
sexy and pornographic than French magazines. And being a
Frenchman, he probably thought he was paying American
magazines a high compliment.
WHAT IS A YANKEE?
t ? (Chicago Daily Tribune)
Foreigners call all Americans Yankees.
Southerners say that Yankees are Northerners.
Northerners say Yankees are from the New England states.
People there say it's the Vermonters who are Yankees.
And Vermonters say a Yankee is just someone who eats pie
for breakfast.
VOICE FROM THE GRAVE
(St. Louis Post- Dispatch)
In the .Mary Martin-Charles Boyer play, "Kind Sir," one
character makes a significant remark. Washington, D. C., is
referred to as "Washington, first in war, first in peace, and
last in the American League." Time was when St. Louis would
have risen as one man to give the correct version of that old
saying: "St. Louis, first in shoes, first in booze, and last in
the American League," Time being what it Is, we check it up
to the City of Baltimore for appropriate action.
HISTORICAL NOTE
(Raleigh News and Observer)
Congressional Committees have not always been Investigat
ing Communists. Once they were enthusiastically investigat
ing Southerners.
In his "Tar Heel Editor" Josephus Daniels spoke of that In
connection with Colonel William L. Saunders, politician, scholar
and soldier. Colonel Saunders was a Confederate veteran. He
edited The Colonial Record of North Carolina. He was Secre
tary of 8tate of North Carolina from 1879 to 1881. Also, ac
cording to Mr. Daniels, he was "the dean of the State ad
ministration and of the Democratic Party 1b North Carolina"
and "the reputed head of the Km Klax Klan ihrtfg Recon
struction Mr. Daniels added:
When the State retained to normal government by Ma
people, he and other patriotic men who had aaed the
Klan as California ns used the Vigilantes when govern
ment did not furnish protection, dissolved the Ila?
However, Congress investigated and was obtaining mash
testimony until Colonel Saunders was called. Then he
locked the wheels by refusing to testify on the Con
stitutional ground that no mah could be forced to In
criminate himself.
Some historians have thought that Colonel Saunders of
North Carolina was the first American to invoke this Con
stitutional right before Congressional committees. That Is an
Interesting historical item In these times.
DR. ODUM'S THREE NEW SOUTHS
(Greensboro Daily News)
The South is many Souths; it is the Old South and the New
South; It is the Southeast and the Southwest, though you
might have some trouble fitting Texas into the Southwest, or
into anything else, for that matter; and the. South is many
more things. But anyway you slice it, it's still the South.
Dr. Howard W. Odum of Chapel Hill slice* the New South
three ways:
1. The South from the end of The War to about 1900, or
Henry Grady's South, which despite fits of laziness, indiffer
ence and despair, pulled itself up by Its bootstraps and furn
ished its people something more than a hole for burial pur
poses;
2 The South from 1900 to 1932, or from the turn of the cen
tury to the new deal. In this era the South built economic
foundations but didn't have much to show fon it, except the
unenviable designation of the nation's "Economic Problem
No. 1"; *
3. The South from about 1932 to 1952, or from new deal to
mid-century. In this period the South has been cashing in on
its three M's ? Men, Materials and Markets ? and its hard work
and productivity. The South has begun to acquire capital, ap
preciate the benefits of research, diversify in both industry
and agriculture, and welcome wealth and culture as long-lost
friends. It is becoming industrialized and is taking industry
away from other sections of the country. In general, however,
Southern industry has tended to turn raw materials into only
semi-finished forms ? thus we tend to make textiles rather
than evening dresses, tables rather than typewriters ? and so
have lost the higher wages and profits that more skilled in
dustry would bring in.
If we have had three New Souths, what will the Fourth
South, which is now emerging, be?
We'd like to hear what Howard W. Odum and Rupert B.
Vance at Chapel Hill, Calvin B. Hoover and B. U. Ratchford at
Duke think about this, even if they aren't professional prog
nosticators.
Our guess would be that the South is moving into another
phase, like an automatic-gear-changing automobile; that its
industrialization will continue, bringing with it more diversi
fication, capital, wealth and culture; that our industries will
become more complicated, bringing higher wages and more
profits; that our markets will expand; and that the new phase
in industrialization will put more stress on what Dr. Ratch
ford calls the "housekeeping" services, such as research engi
neering, finance, personnel, marketing, advertising and de
signing.
But we'd like to hear what the experts think.
Little Bits ___
Concerning Lights And Dogs
J. P. Brady
The new four-way traffic
light system installed by the
Town of Franklin several weeks
ago is still inoperative ? in fact
the system is really snafuing
things for the lowly motorist.
Take, for example, the traffic
jam around the courthouse this
past Saturday.
Believe it or not, but things
were even worse than usual
and, of all things, the unlight
ed traffic lights were respon
sible for a^constant jam of cars
that would make a canned sar
dine feel like he was romping
through a 10-acre field with
sneakers on.
What was the trouble? Just
this ? poor harassed drivers were
unable to tell If the lights were
working. Result: about a half
minute pause at each light to
see if it was going to do any
thing.
Now a half-minute pause on
Main Street is like taking a
vacation, especially on Satur
day, when every vehicle capable
? and some incapable ? of moti
vation descends upon Franklin.
So, there they were, pausing
under the traffic signals, brows
knitted in wonder and frusta
tlon, while long lines of traffic
piled up behind.
Shucks, time was when any
capable driver could negotiate
the block from the postofflce
to the courthouse in a minute
or so. But not this past Sat
urday; by the clock it took this
writer 15 minutes to bridge the
short trip. Then, of course, once
at the courthouse, finding a
parking place proved to be im
possible.
So what did we <lo? Around
the block we went, back to the
postoffice, consumed another 20
minutes from that point to the
courthouse amid a booming din
of honking horns and four-tot
ter words from anguished
drivers, paused from force of
habit to see if the lights were
working, failed to find a park
ing place, and just plain out
and-out gave up and went
home.
Please, Mr. Aldermen, won't
you get someone to hook in
the juice on those traffic lights.
* ? *
Franklin's amiable chiroprac
tor, Dr. O. R. McSween, always
seems beseiged with problems of
same sort. The most recent is
the theft of his two prize Beagle
pups; or at least he says they
are prize hounds. (Having hunt
ed with the good doctor and
his ^'prizes", however, we are
inclined to pV?dict that his
noble animals would shy away
from squirrel's tall adorning an
auto radio anterma).
Anyway A "Doc" rt&s been most
upset o vet the loss Y>f his an
imals jfnd\ he evetv ^oughed up
enougN^jnoft?y*o run an ad in
this newspaper offering a re
ward for their return. We don't
like to admit it. but he failed to
get results ? but that is beside
the point.
Last Friday night, while this
reporter was pounding this
typewriter into submission, the
phone rang.
"Hello", we say in our charac
teristic nazal drawl.
It's "Doc": "Brady", he begins,
"I want to run another ad in
the paper ? about my dogs."
Since ads are our bread and
butter we pledged our immedi
ate attention.
"Whatta ya wanta say?"
Here was his ad:
WILL THE PERSON WHO
STOLE MY DOGS PLEASE
OOME BACK AGAIN AND
STEAL SOME MORE. OUR FE
MALE HAD A LITTER OF NINE
TONIGHT.
Bye Now!
News Making
As It Looks
To A Maconite
? Br BOB SLOAN
There should be some special
award or medal made to pre
sent to Secretary of the Army
Stevens (or his firm stand
against the un-American ways
of Senator McCarthy. In this
day when so many have cowed
before the slander slinging sen
ator from Wisconsin, it is In
deed heart warming to see on*
In public life who has the eow
age to stand against McCarthy.
I am writing this on Monday
and I hope that my faith m
Mr. Stevens Is borne out whea
he appears before the Mc
Carthy Committee TMday.
This hearing will be more tm.
keeping with American Jwattes
since it will be a public Bear
ing and will be before the faM
committee. Often times Mc
Carthy has conducted hearingi
at which he was the sole
representative of the committee
and these hearings were beM
in secret. How would yoa illos
to be subject to such a
trial? u, .
Local dairy farmers wiM prob
ably soon feel the effects of tha
administration's change in fans
policy. A representative of on*
of the chief purchasers of milk
on a wholesale scale recently
told local fanners that the price
would probably be cut 50 cents
on the hundred weight. He im
plied that this reduction was
brought about by the recent am
nouncement that price support
on milk would be reduced from ^
90 per cent of parity to 75 per
cent of parity. The local dairy
man will be hurt because the
government is still paying price
supports based on 90 per cent of
parity on corn, wheat, soybeans
and other ingredients that go
to make up dairy feed. He is
selling a commodity that is
based on 75 per cent price sup- v
port and buying ingredients
that have a 90 per cent price
support. To me, that seems
a rather hodge-podge for an
administration that was sup
posed to be so business like.
? ? *
One of the chief weapons of
the Lennon forces in the Scott -
Lennon senatorial race may be
a television program showing
pictures of the new road which
runs by Kerr Scott's farm at
Haw Creek. Well that is alright,
but I don't think they should
Continued On Pace Three ?
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward through
the files of The rroas)
56 YEARS AGO THIS WKK
Mr. Furman Jarrett has gono
to Waynesville to establish
headquarters in the insurance
business. He will read The Press
weekly while there.
We hear it rumored that
there are two or three blockade
stills within a short distance of
Franklin. The proprietors are
liable to get into trouble.
The squirrels up towards Tri
mont were very much amused
yesterday aforenoon. Dr. Smith
and Dr. Rogers went up there
squirrel hunting. The doctors
came back. The squirrels re
sumed business at the old stand
as usual.
25 TEARS AGO
The finding of a skull just
beneath the top of the ground
in the garden of Pine Tree Inn
at Franklin has created no lit
tle conjecture here as to the
identity of the man who met
his death. The Pine Tree Inn
is now owned by S. A. Munday
and was originally built a num
ber of years before the Civil
War by the late Jesse Siler.
The trains back in and the
cars back out. It's about time
for Franklin to have a forward
motion of some kind.
Some want the cannery can
ned, but the cannery can can
more canned goods than can by
canned by five hundred fam
ilies canning by the home can
ning metho<J
The sheriff has his seal on
the door of the Farmers Feder
ation. We do not know what the
outcome will be.
10 YEARS AGO
Mrs. I. B. Sou ther land, of
Winston -Salem has accepted
the position of case worker with j
the Macon County Department
of Public Welfare to succeed
Elmer Crawford.
Dr. J. L. Stokes, II, preached
his farewell sermon to his con
gregation at the Franklin Meth
odist Church last Sunday morn
ing. Dr. Stokes and his family
are leaving for ElUn.