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entered at Post Office, Franklin, N. C., as second class matter
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press
fltautfclln, N. C. Telephone 24
NKAti J ON Kb Editor
BS SLOAN . , Business Manager
P BRADY . . News Editor
rn hLLEN SILER Society Editor and Office Manager
a MARION BRYSON . . . Proofreader
* JP CABE . . ... Mechanical Superintendent
: A. STARRETTE Shop Superintendent
ti SUTTON Commercial Printer
C. -CRAWFORD ... Stereotyper
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Ov/tside Macon County Inside Macon County
W *3 00
?k mu^ .f ? ... i.T3
IWm Muaths 1-00
One Year*- $2-50
Six Months l.TO
Three Months i-0?
MARCH 8. 1956
. . . But Disappointed
Tim: Eisenhower second term announcement
was hardly a surprise. The build-up, to prepare
pcof>k for it, had been too consistent and too ob
vious to permit of great surprise.
Bui while Mr. Eisenhower surprised few, he dis
appointed many.
Ii> view of his health ? and of his reputation for
soauii judgment ? a lot of people had credited the
General with better sense.
Noi does the quick explanation of admirers ?
"he *vas under such terrific pressure" ? relieve the
disappointment. For if he succumbed to pressure,
<m this point, what about future pressures, on other
poixlb 'f
Symptomatic
"No man is l>orn with innate ability superior to
thai of any other man."
So spake Mr. Armand (iariepy, lecturer and
high powered salesman from Iiarre, Mass., address
ing j club meeting in Asheville the other day.
And no doubt main of the club members, because
of Mr. ( lariepy's exalted position, accepted his
wonts urtquestioningly ? as so much gospel.
"Von believe in God, don't you?" demanded the
speaker. "Well, do you think Cod gave two per
rent <#l the people extraordinary brain power and
Ihc other 98 per cent lousy minds?"
What h e was saying, by indirection, was that
thai would seem unjust; that God is just; there
fort i ! shouldn't be that way; therefore it isn't.
lie failed, though, to carry his argument to its
logical conclusion ? to a comparison of bodies. He
didn't, because everybody knows God gives about
two per tent of us extraordinary physical power _
ami the other 98 per cent mediocre to "lousy"
bodies.
Mi ( iariepy 's doctrine is that everybody can
succeed, given the right environment and the right
attitude. That's good doctrine.
But, iieing a salesman and not a philosopher, he
?rants to make it more convincing; so he adds that
ere y body literally is created equal. That is, he savs
wfijt lie wants to say ? and no doubt, bv this time,
his convinced even himself.
Si'vh nonsense is worth noting solely because' it
is symptomatic. It is illustrative of an intellectual
H*U'<e that appears to be sweeping the country;
and more .people seem to be putting things
him! part-before. They pic.k out- a conviction first ?
something they want to believe: then they look for
fad-, and argument s to bolster it ? meanwhile,
shutting their eyes and minds to any fact,
any i. . that gets in the way.
A Lot Of Fun, Though
I'Ywi.n Murphy comes word that that county's
iicwijrt ' r. The Cherokee Scout, has a new pub
, Mr. (ieorjfe X. Hunch tie formerly was with
tlie daily papers in Spartanburg, S. ('.
Iin;rv come to the weekly paper in Franklin,
after -daily experience, we have an inkling of some
??! tli adjustments that mav lie ahead of the
Mm 4?i'' publisher.
We could tell him. f'rinsi ance, that he won't
witti: till ahottt noon Thursday. as we thought
we'll do; then, when the paper was out, y-o fishing.
Ile\ much more likely to work fit) hours ('scusin'
Sun lay *) than 4u.
We could tell him he won't be the editor alone.
He'll be the business manager (and that means
not only the difficult problem of paying bills, but
the sometimes even more difficult and always more
embarrassing one of collecting 'em). He'll also be
the personnel manager, maybe the advertising man
ager, certainly the public relations man, and, un
less he's lucky, sometimes the janitor and book
keeper. (Of the two, we personally prefer the jan
iting.)
We could tell him that, if one thing goes wrong
some week, everything will. If you're running late
already, that's the week the press will choose to
break down ? on the final press run. That's the
week, too, when the man who told you, last Fri
day, he'd have a page ad will tell you, right at
the deadline, he's decided to run a want ad instead
(what to do with all that yawning page space?).
It'll be the week, too, that you get the wrong in
itials in front of the name of the man who has
thought all the time you were gunning for him ;
those wrong initials are proof. And, unless you're
unusually lucky, Mr. Bunch, it'll be the week the
biggest story of the year breaks minutes after
you've put the week's issue in the post office.
We could tell Mr. Bunch all these things. But
we won't.
Instead, we welcome him to Western North Car
olina ? and to the weekly newspaper business. It's
a whale of a lot of fun !
Others' Opinions
This Uneasy World
(Windsor, Colo., Beacon)
As a ready counter-blow against surprise attack, air force
planes carrying live atomic bombs are being kept in the air,
it was revealed last week. The risk of accidental detonation
of one of these bombs is virtually non-existent, General
Twining told a Washington audience.
However, that is not altogether reassuring. The danger of
unwittingly entrusting a bomb-laden plane to some intelligent
but morally irresponsible youth like John Gilbert Graham is
virtually non-existent, too, but we know that there are such
people who might conceivably trigger a bomb "by accident"
just to see what would happen.
And we know also that there is an occasional off-beat
"patriot", perhaps in the air force as well as in civilian life,
who might be tempted to take off on a one-man crusade
against whatever nation he regarded as this country's worst
enemy.
Maybe in the course of time we'll get used to the idea of
having these devastating weapons flying around above us.
Right now, though, they add substantially to the tensions of
the atomic age.
To Meet In Laughter
(Greensboro Daily News)
If the spirit of fun and festival ever dies in New Orleans,
it will hardly survive elsewhere. This year it was threatened.
Mardi Gras is a colorful and romantic American celebration.
New Orleans citizens cast care to the winds and throng the
streets to parade and watch parades as one costumed crew
after another proceeds down wide Canal Street and into the
narrow and picturesque streets of the French Quarter. Staidest
citizens all through the year become sheiks, rabbits, lions,
clowns, tramps, gypsies and even gorillas for Mardi Gras.
Everybody laughs and has fun. Much of the spontaneous
gaiety centers about the famous Zulu parade, led by a Negro
Zulu King and shared by gaily-costumed New Orleans Negroes.
But this year an objection was registered. The field secre
tary of the NAACP called the Zulu parade "disgusting" and
asked that Negro leaders either "tone it up" or call it off.
In our genuine concern for the seriousness of the integra
tion problem, aren't we running the danger of stifling a val
uable part of our cultural heritage? Why can't there be laugh
ter as well as laws, fun as well as furor?
Already Uncle Remus has almost dropped into obscurity, his
character considered "Uncle Tom-ish" by Negro intellectuals,
his dialect unintelligible to present-day children. The genial
humor of his tales is lost.
Some years ago the Saturday Evening Post discontinued the
popular Octavus Roy Cohen stories about Florian Slappey and
other Birmingham Negro characters. The magazine had receiv
ed protests against such "undignified" treatment of Negroes.
The old-time minstrel 'show has practically disappeared, a
victim of the "let's not be funny about race."
But isn't there still a place in our civilization for good
natured humor? In ou-r frenzied determination to be fair,
or in our equally frenzied determination to be unfair, let's
preserve rather than disown that gay sense of humor charac
terizing so many Negro friends we have known from childhood,
that infectious laughter that has cheered numerous days, that
light approach to often serious problems. If we can meet in
laughter, we are not so likely to part in anger.
As the Zulu King in New Orleans said to the NAACP: "It's
not disgusting It's a lot of fun."
I can see the distant horizons, because I stand on vthe shoul
ders of giants. ? Sir Isaac Newton.
With macon X
COUNTY GROWING J
SO WILL MORE
Business
V opportunities >
So, too, will other, less tangible opportunities, as Macon high
school students competing in the essay contest on "Macon Coun
ty ? My Home, My Future" will discover for themselves. And as
they study the situation here at home, they'll find that Macon
County is just like any other place, in one respect; (or whether
it's a chance to earn a living or to have ? good life, there are
opportunities everywhere for the self-starters, for those with
ideas, ambition, energy ? and training.
Poetry
Editor
EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE
Weavervllle, North Carolina
.RADIO SPEAKS
I have a little radio
And it's my very own.
It seems to be so mournful
With TV in my home.
I heard it whisper softly,
Just the other day,
"Please give me one more chance
To talk and sing and play."
I guess the other radios
Feel the same as mine ?
So out of place and lonely
And so very far behind.
I hope their day will come again
When they can sing and play,
But I'm sure I'd miss the TV set.
Do you think they're here to stay?
/Burnsville, N. C.
MRS. H. C. PARSLEY
STRICTLY
PERSONAL
By WEIMAR JOVKS
"When in the world IS East
er?" I asked myself the other
day.
Planning a trip out of town
the Easter week-end, I needed
to know the date I would be
away.
Here at The Press we have
calendars on every wall of every
room, and I consulted one after
another; I wouldn't have be
lieved it, but not one of them
indicates which Sunday is East
er! How the calendar makers
expect ordinary folks to know
when this never-falls-on-the
same-date holiday is, I can't
guess.
Then I remembered the old
saying, taught me by my sister
when I was a small boy: "East
er is the first Sunday, after the
first full moon, after the 21st
of March". Quite a round-about
way to find out; but a sure one.
So again I went to the cal
endars, and- was surprised to
find how many of them no
longer show the phases of the
moon.
"What ignoramuses are mak
ing calendars today?" I grumb
led to myself. "The idea of
leaving off the times when the
moon is new, full, etc.!"
Then I realized the reason:
It's the result of the rapid ur
banization of America. For who,
in a city, gives a hang about
whether the moon, is full or at
the three-quarters? And I re
membered once hearing some
one say that, during an entire
year in New York City, he didn't
recall even seeing the moon.
"Well, if that's the case". I con
tinued talking to myself, "I'm
even sorrier than I've always
been for people who have to live
in cities. Never to see the
moon! never to be thrilled by
the beauty of a stretch of
landscape eerily lit by brilliant
moonlight!"
After all, though, I continued
thinking, there's no particular
reason why people who live in
a city should even be conscious
of such things as moonlight
and weather. People fall in love,
even in the dark of the moon;
and city folks don't have to
worry about the effects of
weather on crops, much less
whether to plant in the dark
or the light of the moon. Why,
these days, what with central
heating and air conditioning.
they hardly know whether it's
hot or cold.
Well, I finally found a calen
dar made fdr the countryman,
and using the "first-after-the
first-after" formula, calculated
when Easter will be.
Having gone through all this
rigamarole to find out what
any good calendar ought to
have told me at a glance, I got
to wondering why the time of
Easter varies, instead of its fall
ing on a fixed date like Christ
mas. if other people are as
ignorant, as I was, maybe they'll
be interested in what I learned:
The time for the observance
of Easter was set at a Council
of Christian Churches, at Nicea
in Asia Minor (modern Turkey),
in the year 325. And the reason
the time is fixed as it is: Pil
grims of that day and region,
traveling to the great Easter
celebrations, needed moonlight
to speed them on their way.
Hence "the first Sunday after
the first full moon".
Under the arrangement, the
time of Easter may vary as
much as 35 days; it may come
as early as March 22, or as late
as April 25.
This year the moon becomes
full on Monday March 26 (five
days after the 21st of March),
and the following Sunday falls
on April 1.
* ? ?
I often am struck by how
many people here have the gift
of being able to say a thing
well, and in a few words.
The latest illustrations of that
were comments on inflation;
the fact the dollar doesn't buy
as much as It once did.
I've heard a lot of talk about
inflation ? as who hasn't! I've
read a lot about it; I've even
waded through some discussions
by noted economists.
But no economist, has describ
ed the effects of inflation more
aptly than a couple of Macon
County citizens.
Under inflation, comments R.
S. 'i Dick i Jones:
"You work harder, to earn
more money ? that won't go
as far."
And the Rev. R. H. Holden
puts it this way:
"It's got so it's a short dis
tance between 'take in' and
'give out':"
VIEWS I
By '
BOB SLOAN I
Segregation, individual rights,
and President Eisenhower's can
didacy for re-election are three
topics which have been discuss
ed at great length. I would like
to add a short comment on
each.
One of the best statements
on the problem of segregation
was made by a Loulsianlan,
Judge J. Skelly Wright. Judge
Wright, in the U. S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, joined two
other fellow Loulsianlans, in
ruling that Louisiana's segrega
tion laws are unconstitutional
and that the schools of the city
of New Orleans must be deseg
regated "with all deliberate
speed."
In rendering his decision.
Judge Wright said: "The prob
lem of changing a people's
morals, particularly those with
an emotional overlay, is not to
be taken lightly. It is a prob
lem which will require the ut
most patience, understanding,
generosity and forebearance,
and from all of us, of whatever
race. But the magnitude of the
problem may not nullify the
principle. And that principle is
that we are, all of us, free-born
Americans, with a right to make
our way unfettered by sanctions
imposed by man because of the
work of God."
Americanism and the individ
ual right of free choice are to
most of us practically insepa
rable; yet in Alabama there is
occuring one of the greatest
suppressions of this right that
I can recall being carried out
by a governing body. In Mont
gomery, the Negroes are told
that they can't refuse to ride
the city buses, and are arrest
ed for it. Maybe they don't like
the service?
Up until Dwight Eisenhower
declared himself a candidate
for reelection to the office of
President of the United States
no one could say that he owed
the country anything. In fact,
in view of long- service as a
military leader and his past
three years as president, one
might or might not contend
that we were indebted to him.
But, now he owes the country
one thing. Due to the condition
of his health he owes it to the
country to see that he has a
suitable replacement for the
job.
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward tbr?ugt>
the files of The Press i
50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Capt. and Mrs. William E.
McDowell celebrated their Gol
den Wedding anniversary with
a reception at their home in
Franklin Monday afternoon,
March 5. Seventy-two guests
were present.
Mr. G. H. Dalrymple has
commenced the erection of a
new dwelling on Iotla Street,
between the Presbyterian manse
and the Franklin High School
building, on a lot purchased
from Mr. Sam L. Kelly.
Mrs. M. E.. Addington and
children recently returned from
Florida. After spending a few
days in Cherokee County, they
arrived home Friday evening.
25 YEARS AGO
Miss Rose Rogers, who has
been in New York and Atlanta,
Ga., for the past two years, is
here for an extended visit to
her aunt, Mrs. Gus Leach.
Miss Nettie Hurst was in
Asheville last week for several
days as the guest of Miss Amy
Carter ahd Mr. and Mrs. Earl
Hurst.
Mrs. D. G. Stewart is spend
ing th*s week in Asheville visit
ing her daughter, Virginia, and
Mr. and Mrs. T. T. Hall.
10 YEARS AGO
Emera W. Renshaw has been
appointed, supervisor of the
Nantahala National Fore't with
headquarters in Franklin. He
will succeed E A. Schilling. The
new supervisor is a westerner
and comes to Franklin from
Houston, Tex.
R. E. McKelvey, of Enterprise,
Ala., has been appointed man
ager of the Western Carolina
Telephone Company, succeeding
J. R. Hughey.
Pvt Wayne Hicks has return
ed to duty at Camp Pickett Va..
after a two weeks' furlough here
with his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Lawrence Hicks. ? Highlands
item.