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Entered at Post Office, Franklin, N. C.. as second class matter
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press
Franklin, N. C. Telephone 24
WKDiAR JONES Editor
BOB 8. SLOAN . . Business Manager
J. P. BRADY News Editor
MRS. ALLEN SILER Society Editor and Office Manager
MBS. MARION BR Y SON . . Proofreader
CARL P. OABE .... Mechanical Superintendent
FRANK A. OTARRETTE Shop Superintendent
DAYID K. SUTTON Commercial Printer
O. E. CRAWFORD ... Stereotyper
SUBSCRIPTION KATES
Outbid?. Macon County
One Yew *3.00
Six Months I"
Three Uomtia 100
Imoxdc Macon Countt
On? Tear .... %2M
Six Months 1.7i
Three Months 1.00
FEBRUARY 9, 195C
Politics Is YOUR Business
It's time tor some talk about politics.
The primarv election is less than four months
away, and it's time, we think, for some considera
tion of candidates.
Locally, we elect a surveyor and representative
and nominate members of the county board of ed
ucation this year. Who are they to be? If we don't
start giving thought to that question soon enough,
we may not get the best men for the jobs.
That is not to suggest that the incumbents, if
they should stand for reelection, are not qualified. It
is to suggest that the voters should have some
choice as between candidates ? preferably, some
choice as between a number of A-l candidates.
The surveyor's post, of course, has ceased to
have the importance it once had. Not so with the
representative in the General Assembly and the
members of the board of education.
For representative, the ideal tiling would be to
elect a voting man who would be available to go
back to the Legislature a number of times, assum
ing his record warranted his reelection. It takes
a man most of his first term to learn his way
around in the Assembly; besides, influence in that
"body is based on committee assignments, and com
mittee assignments are based on seniority ? on
how long the man has been there. Hence the more
often we send a man back, the more influence Ma
con County will have in the Legislature: and the
opposite is equally true.
Under the new law, enacted by Rep. G. L. Houk
two years ago, the board of education is made up
of three persons, instead of five. If we are to have
a good county, we must have good schools; and
the kind of people we have on the school board
largely determines the kind of schools we have.
If it is t rue that politics is for the politicians
today, it is because you and I have tended to ab
dicate our rights and responsibilities as citizens.
Politics is our business. It's high time we looked
after that business. /;
Mrs. F. S. Johnston
It has been a long, long time since Mrs. F. S.
Johnston came here as a bride. But not too long
for her infhience still to he felt in Macon County.
When she came to make her home in the moun
tain hamlet Franklin was then, she brought with
her trait" and talents this community needed ;
she used them nnstintinglv for the enrichment of
the life of people here.
Her outstanding contribution, perhaps, was her
high standard of excellence, especially in the field
of music. She was never content with anything
less than what she considered the best; and in
the marvelous manner in which human influence
spreads ? like the unending waves from a pebble
dropped in a lake - her insistence upon excellence
still is at work here, even among members of a
generation that never knew her.
Good Politics, Too
Faced with a huge deficit, the Post Office De
partment proposes to increase postage rates. That
may prove necessary. We'd suggest, though, that
first the Department try eliminating the expense
of all these issues of special stamps.
We don't pretend to know how much that re
form would save in dollars; but we do know it
would save a lot in frayed tempers, on the part
of us run-of-the-mill stamp lickers. For it's got to
the point you almost have to use a magnifying
glass to decide whether you are using a U. S. 3
cent |>ostage s t a i n ] > or one of these bonus stamps
so many of the stores are giving now.
On second thought, we recommend elimination
of these special issues of postage stamps as a
smart political move for the Eisenhower adminis
tration, as well as a way to balance the postal
budget.
Well. Governor Hodges has announced what
everybody knew already ? that he is going to run
for reelection. Xow when President Eisenhower
does likewise, we can all go on about our business.
? Letters
Industry And Education
Pear Weimar:
i
As usual. I thoroughly enjoyed your editorial page of 26 Jan.
As usual I admired the sincerity of your feeling and the
straight forward manner of expression. And as usual I felt
that your conclusions were founded more in emotional intu
ition than in fact. Now usually x go along with your conclu
sions because I have more respect for your intuition than my
own. But occasionally you write about something that I know
something about. Then the conflict between your obvious in
tegrity and known fact make for real frustration.
For example, let's take your editorial titled "Old Error, New
Twist" wherein you belittle industry's need for nearby educa
tional facilities. This brought on a particularly severe attack
of frustration.
During the past eighteen months, five of us have had the
opportunity to work with top management in five of the
country's leading industries. Within each industry we've been
privileged to talk with all of the various members of the man
agement team from chairman or president down to the as
sistant superintendent level ? including men like Mr. Clarence
Randall of Inland Steel, Roy Ingersoll of Borg-Warner, Mc
Caffrey of International Harvester, and P. D. Gavlin of Motor
ola. Almost without exception all of these managers believe
that the biggest problem in industry and the biggest problem
in management, is people. You state that industry builds prod
ucts and that education builds people. You'd be surprised,
Weimar, for since your generation and mine went to school,
industry has long since recognized that people build products.
So the first problem in building a product is the people who
are going to do the job. And you can measure an industry by
the people who make it up. If you can get the right kind of
people, the products come almost automatically.
You state that "except for vocational and technical train
ing. education has nothing to do with making money."' ? You
don't learn to handle people, you don't gain a sense of fair
play and the ability to recognize individual human needs, you
don't learn to put together a group of highly individualized
talents and come up with an efficient cooperative team by
learning a trade. The necessity for building the team runs all
the way from foreman to president and the broader your edu
cation, from Shakespeare to calculus, the greater your chance
for making the team work, and incidentally qualifying for pres
ident. No, Weimar, successful industrial leaders are not nar
row, grasping, petty masters of a trade forever plotting a
Scrooge like scheme for exploiting the poor consumer. Mostly
they are big men with interests, education, and a breadth of
curiosity greater than yours and mine.
Beyond the need for wide experience and education in in
dustry's. top leaders is industry's chronically acute need for an
ever higher level of training among all the people in industry.
Have you ever observed all the ramifications involved in the
operation of the modern industrial enterprise? The scientists,
the engineers, the economists, the accountants, the lawyers,
the psychologists, the industrial engineers, the marketing ex
perts, the training directors, etc., all people requiring college
training. And going further down the line, the automaton
that daily reduces the need for direct labor and greatly in
. I
creases the need for people who can understand and operate
the automatic machines that reduce the costs to you and me.
If you have seen all this you can readily understand why In
dustry seeks a location with nearby educational facilities.
People and the training of people is their biggest problem.
The limitations on what they can accomplish are the limita
tions of people.
Now you may argue that these skills are not really a product
of education. If you do, then you rule out nearly everything
taught in our greatest universities, including literature, philos
ophy, and teaching itself, for they are all needed in modern
industry.
No, Weimar, let's don't scoff at industry's seeking educational
facilities, let's be thankful for their recognizing the need.
NEVILLE SLOAN, Jr.
44 Fir Street,
Park Forest, 111.
Others' Opinions
Yes, Isn't It?
(Yuma, Colo., Pioneer)
It's nice for children to have pets until the pets have chil
dren.
Time To Begin
(Colorado Transcript)
The time to begin to form character in a child is the day
its great- grandmother is born.
Students, Not Editors, On Trial
(Smithfield Herald)
Are Co -Editors Louis Kraar and Ed Yoder of the Daily Tar
Heel, UNC campus newspaper, fit to hold their editorial posi
tions? That is a question which will be answered in a recall
election scheduled by Student Government at Chapel Hill. But
it is not the greater question which will be answered by that
election. The greater question is whether UNC students have a
proper understanding of democracy ? in particular, a proper
understanding of the part which freedom of the press plays
in democracy.
The petition for a recall election was prompted not by any
immoral conduct of the student editors, nor by any display of
incompetence on their part. The "wrongdoing" of these young
editors is that they expressed opinions which were not popular.
For one thing, they have stood for integration. But even that
position was not enough to set off the movement for a recall
election. What really fired up the critics of the co-editors was
their editorial criticism of the appointment of Jim Tatum as
coach of football at the University:
One of the Daily Tar Heel editors ( Yoder i has declared:
The real motive of the petitioners, I would say, is that they
want everybody to think the way they do . . . The important
effect of an editorial is not the agreement it receives but the
thought it receives."
This is a point so often missed by many Americans. The
opinion is all too prevalent that newspapers should only reflect
majority opinion. If this had been the function of American
newspapers since the founding of the republic, the free pro
gressive America we are so proud of today would not exist. For
the trail of freedom and progress always is blazed by pioneers
who are not content to seek safety in a conformity with ma
jority opinion.
It is to the credit of Coach Jim Tatum that he does not go
along with his admirers who would silence the UNC editors. He
has sought to put a stop to the recall movement, declaring
that the editors have a right to their opinions.
f
Editor Yoder, striking back at student critics, noted that
the UNC campus "has always had as much freedom of ex
pression and dissent as a college campus needs to stay alive."
The hope is that such a statement can be made after the
recall election.
SOME STARTLING STATEMENTS
TODAY'S CRISIS IN AMERICAN EDUCATION
(EDITORS NOTE: Below
are hisli points of a recent
address by Rear Admiral H.
G. Rii.kover to the Thomas
Alva Edison Foundation, Inc.
Admiral Rickover was in
charge of the building of the
atomic submarine, "Nautilus",
one of several assignments he
has ha<l that brought him
into contact with the need
for trained young scientists.
The address was summarized
bv William II. Stringer in The
Christian Science Monitor. )
On the engineering side some
experts believe the United
States is not even graduating
enough trained people to sus
tain, to fertilize, its present rate
of technical expansion beyond
the year 1970. To maintain
present living standards in the
face of rapid population growth
industry must produce 10 years
from now 40 per cent more
than it does today.
The United States has used
up in minerals and fuels since
1914 more than the entire world
consumed In all of history be
fore 1914. A s'milar growth in
consumption simply cannot oc
cur in the next 30 years "un
less we mak? profound changes
in technology." This requires
mote and more laboratory and
engineering skill.
It i.s well known that the So
viet Union is going to pasr the
Uniteu in scientifje and
engineering education unless
something is done. The United
States today has i about 800,000
engineers, the U.S.S.R. 650,000.
Tii -tween 19>0 and 1960 the So
viet Li.ion will have graduated
1,?U0.000 engineers and natural
scientists. the United States
500.000 :>s presently programed.
The Soviet engineers will be as
expert in their fields as the
Americans are. The Russians
at educating as mam; women
' as men in the professions; far
I fewer American women enter
! the great professions.
i Perhaps the most insidious
I weakness a nation can have is
i the belief . . . that it can do
i everything better than other
, people. We are subjected to this
i kind of propaganda in various
. media, such as the slick ad
vertisements of our maga
zines. . .
The present-day American
school pupil has a school year
twice as long as the pupil of
1870, and nine times as much
per pupil is spent on education.
The question is whether he Is
adequately trained for the de
mands of today's society.
Too many graduates consider
their degree merely as a ticket
to a job and a pass for se
curity. "This desire for security
in terms of money rather than
in opportunity for self-im
provement is hard to under
stand in a society whfere secur
ity is so readily available."
The United States Is spending
about 2 "2 per cent of its na
tional income on education. In
contrast, It spends more than
1 per cent 011 recreation in 1951
the amount spent for advertis
ing was $199 for every family
in the United States, but the
amount spent for primary and
secondary education was only
$152 per household. The na
tional outlay for educating citi
zens Is substantially less than
the outlay for educating cus
tomers.
Industry, which already has
made special contributions of
scholarships, could help still
more by contributing directly to
education ? say a percentage of
gross sales ? and by loaning
physicists and engineers for
one-year teaching periods to
schools and universities (more
"people's capitalism").
It is more important to have
better teachers than better
school buildings. The main, the
fundamental problem is that
teachers' salaries are desperate
ly low ? hence do not attract*
enough highly qualified men
and women. "It will profit as
very little to spend millions of
dollars on scholarships and
then place the students under
incompetent teachers." Niggard
ly teaching salaries ? to those
upon whom we depend to trans
mit our culture and our civiliza
tion commit a fraud on our
children.
To maintain ;he present pu
pil-teacher ratio in the face of
heavy population growth, the
elementary and high schools
will have t6 enlarge their teach
ing staffs by 500,000 in the next
10 years, yet there is already
a present shortage of 140,000
qualified teachers. To make up
the slack and prepare for the
future, actually ' more than
half the college graduates dur
ing the next 10 years will have
to enter the teaching profes
sion:"
Moreover, the school year
should be lengthened. The pres
ent American school year is
based on an agricultural econ
omy where children had to help
on the farm. Students in Eu
rope, including the Soviet Un
ion. attend school six days a
week instead of five, and their
vacation period is about two
thirds of ours.
VIEWS
By
BOB SLOAN
Franklin Is a town endowed
with a beautiful natural set
ting, and that makes it the
more shameful that we are not
an outstandingly pretty town.
In fact, while the words,
"Franklin, North Carolina",
could be words that made peo
ple think of one of the most
attractive communities that
they have ever visited, they in
stead bring memories of a dirty,
unplanned, careless town. But
the ruiul communities of Ma
con County have shown us a
way to make our community
worthy of the surrounding
countryside ? the Rural Com
munity Development Program.
Franklin could be divided in
to sections, East Franklin, Geor
gia Road, Harrison Avenue,
Bonny Crest, etc., with all sec
tions competing against each
other to make their part of
town the most attractive. I be
lieve that we would get some
amazing results. It would be
fine, if the Chamber of Com
ment would tackie the job and
find out what would happen.
Revlon, Inc., counted record
proiits of $3,500,000 for this past
year. Yet. some people wonder
ed if the expensive $64,000
Question ^Television program
paid off. Inland Steel, Repub
lic Steel, and Pittsburgh Steel
all had record years this past
year. Bethlehem Steel had, per
haps, the most impressive profit
record, w.th a profit of $180
millions vs. $132 million for 1954.
Business conditions have been
so favo/able for the large in
dustries that even the large
railroads, long considered one
of the sick cows of our econ
omy, had an outstanding prof
it year. The Association of
American Railroads estimated
that overall profits for Class
1 roads for 1955 may hit $915
million, the highest year on
record. The New York Central
proiits of $52 million were 400
per cent higher than the pre
vious year.
Only a year ago President
Eisenhower. the Republican
party and a fefti conservative
members of the Democratic
party said that our tax struc
ture was such that it was stif
ling to the development of
growth in the large industries.
Changes in our tax laws were
made to lighten the burden on
these big concerns. At the same
time, a bill, to raise the amount
granted for basic exemption
for each dependent a taxpayer
(See Back Page, 1st Section)
Do You
Remember?
(Looking ixarkwarU through
the rHrs of Tlie Press)
50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
John French, of Whittier, and
Contesska, of Birdtown, two
Chorokee Indians, were in town
Thursday.
Mr. N. H. Parrish has the
frame for a new building up
on Iotla Street, just beyond
George Oliver's house. It is said
that it is to be used for a store
house.
Messrs. Frank and Claud Con
ley, of'Almond, N. C., were here
Friday and Saturday.
25 YEARS AGO
Mrs. Belle Bingham, the ior
mer Miss Belle Waldroop, and
small child are here from the
West, visiting relatives and
friends.
Mrs. Ethel Mundav Rhea and
Mrs. Boyce Munday have re
turned to their home in Ten
nessee. after spending several
days visiting relatives.
Major S. A Harris left Mon
day for Moultrie, Ga., to' visit
his family, as well as to take a
fishing trip.
10 YEARS AGO
Capt. Jack H. Potts returned
home Friday, after 4'/2 years of
army service, one year of which
was spent in Panama, and one
year in the Philippines. ? High
lands item.
Miss Gladys Hannah, who is
employed in Washington, D. C.,
has been home to visit with her
parents. Mr. and Mrs. Fred
Hannah, at their home on
Franklin, Route 1.
George Moore, who has been
working on a defense project at
Cedar Point, Md., is spending a
few days with his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Alex Moore, kt their
home on Iotla Street.