(Eta Iflnroklht Ifyttss
?it t JUattfttmtt
Entered at Poet Office, Pranklln. N. C , u second class matter
Published erery Thursday by The Franklin Press
Franklin, N. C. Telephone 24
WHHAR JONES
..... 1 Editor
BOB S. SLOAN Adrertlslng Manager
J. P. BRADY News Editor-Photographer
MBS. ALLEN SILER Society Editor Office Manager
MBS MARION BRTSON Proofreader
nm p. CABE Operator-Machinist
FRANK A. STARRETTE Compositor
O. B. CRAWFORD Stereotype*
CHARLES B. WHTTTINOTON . Pressman
DAVID H. SUTTON Commercial Printer
I
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Outbids Macon Countt
One Year *300
Six Months 1-73
Three Months .... 100
Two Tears 5.23
Three Years .... 7.50
Inside Macon Countt
One Year $2.50
SI* Months
Three Months .... 100
Two Years
Three Years ? M
Who's Being Fooled?
A dispatch from Washington quotes Admiral
Lewis L. Strauss, chairman of the Atomic, Energy
Commission, as saying it is now possible to set off
a great nuclear blast with "maximum effect in the
immediate area of the target" but "with minimum
widespread fall-out hazards".
What is the purpose of that statement? Is it to
give reassurance to Americans? or is it to convince
the leaders in the Kremlin that we have found
means to set off a blast in Russian territory with
out at the same time destroying Europe?
The question is pertinent since virtually every
admission of the great hazards from atomic energy
has had to be forced out of the AEC ; it has a rec
ord of failure to inform the American public even
on matters that obviously need not be kept secret
for security reasons.
And it is underlined by the consideration that
not one fact was cited to su,pport the statement ;
and by the added comment, "there won't be any
further comment or amplification".
It is the same old line : "Mother know.s best ;
children must not ask questions."
Well, on a matter of life and death, both to this
nation and to civilization, it is high time their
government stopped treating American citizens like
children.
John Edwin Potts
J. E. Potts served the Town of Highlands, either
as a member of the Board of Commissioners or as
town clerk, for IK years.
That was only one phase of his many-sided life.
But that single statistic speaks eloquently of Mr.
Potts' devotion to his community, and of his com
munity's respect and confidence.
Men like Ed Potts rarely become famous. But it
is men like him, rather than the few who win fame,
who give character and stability to America.
Welcome
The Press will welcome the proposed radio sta
tion for Franklin.
That statement is no mere polite gesture. In fact,
before someone, asking how .we can welcome an
advertising competitor, questions our sincerity, we
hasten to say that not only do we believe in compe
tition ; we do not believe a radio station in Frank
lin will seriously threaten the existence of The
Franklin Press. We do not, for several reasons:
In the first place, this newspaper already has
competitors for advertising, many of them ? the
motion picture theatres, the sijjn boards, the school
annuals and newspapers, the county fair catalogue,
and almost every worth-while cause that seeks to
raise money l>y selling advertising space, whether
on a school staf,re curtaimor in a cook book.
Second, in advertising, experience has proved
there is no substitute for the printed word and pic
ture; no other advertising medium offers the same
permanence. That is especially true of the home
county weekly newspaper, because it stays on the
living room table, ready-to hand for reference, for
rarely less than a week ; some times longer.
Finally, our observation is that the more people
are selling advertising, the more advertising-con
scious business men become, and thus the more ad
vertising there is. What happened, decades ago, in
the daily field illustrates the point. When radio
'first became popular, the faces of most newspaper
publishers got longer and longer ; how disturbed
they were is illustrated by the action of an ostrich
like North Carolina publisher who gave strict
GREAT DISSENTER AGREES
Oliver wenpell holme*. known as tws
*r?4r otm?MTmm. sat for 29 vcaits m i
Twe 6UPREME COURT OF TXa UNITED STATER '
sun at k6*b*q mm me *ajck<tvi*j9&t,
of *9 cAees. jueti ce houmu developed 7 ,
THE AMERICAN I PEAL OF JUSTICE TO I1B
MKJWEET fcTANOARD, ALWAYS FttfMTINtf OH
TWE WOE OF INDIVIDUAL PREEt***
OF THOUGHT AMP ?PRE**?OH
MOLM? EAlO- AK77 THXW3
FOQ THOSe WHO A&fEE WITH L*> BUT
Fzeecxx* for TNf thou&tt wt aw**.
n ?
ALMOST KILLED ?
TWICE IN CIVIL WAR
Holmes' first near-mo*?tal wouho was at Balls
BLUFF WHERE A BULLET MISSED MIS HEART BV HALF
AM INCH. THE SECOND kX ANT1ETAM WHERE HE WAS
SHOT THROUGH THE NECK AND LEFT FOR DEAD gy TMg
BATTLEFIELD.
Oliver wendell holmes diep
tN 1935 AT THE AJE OF 94.
orders that even the word "radio" should never ap
pear anywhere in his paper! Well, what happened i
Not only is there no record of a radio station's
ever driving a newspaper out of business ; the
amount of advertising- in American newspapers to
day is the greatest in history !
This newspaper seyeral times has considered
establishing a radio station here, to be operated in
connection with the paper. Each time, the decision
has been "no". And the major reason was not the
problems of operating a radio station in a small
town ; the major reason was we consider a monop
oly in communications, and thus in the dissemina
tion of information and the exchange of ideas, both
dangerous and wrong. We wanted no such monop
oly.
For nearly eleven years, the present manage
ment of The Press has sought ? not without suc
cess, we hope ? to keep the people of this county
informed about their local affairs and to stimulate
them to do their own thinking. There is no such
thing, though, as people's being too well informed
or doing too much thinking. So we always have
had the welcome mat out for any medium that
would help with the job.
We predict that at the rate we are going, we will, in a rel
atively short time, have an annual drive for every known dis
ease, meantime continuing to pay taxes for the support of a
benevolent government with its many health and welfare
services.
? Englewood (Colo.) Press
Others' Opinions
(Opinions expressed In this space are not necessarily those
of The Press. Editorials selected for reprinting here, In fact, ,
are chosen with a view to presenting a variety of viewpoints.
They are, that Is, Just what the caption says ? OTHERS*
Opinions.)
West's Leadership Weak
(New York Herald Tribune)
It may well turn into a tragedy of historic proportions that
in none of the capitals of the big powers of the Western
world is there a government with the vision to see and the
energy to act ? that the leadership of the West Is In the
hands of preoccupied and harried men in London, of weak
and distracted men in Paris, of a very old man in Bonn, and
of a sick man in Washington.
I
'Mistaken Identity
(High Point Enterprise)
Two men with Identical names ? one a clergyman and the
other a businessman lived In the same city. The clergyman
died at about the same time as the businessman left on a
business trip to Arizona. On reaching his destination the
businessman sent his wife a telegram telling of his safe ar
rival. Unfortunately, the message was delivered to the clergy
man's widow. It was with understandable astonishment that
she read: "Arrived safely ? heat terrific,"
i
Henhouse Society
(A. M. Guhl, In Scientific American) *
During the last 30 years the social organization and be
havior of chickens has Interested many Investigators, and Its
study has produced a great deal of fascinating Information.
The main theme of the investigation has been the trait of
dominance, or bossism.
It was a Norwegian psychologist who discovered the "peck
order" among chickens. He found that in any flock, one hen
usually dominated all the others; she could peck any with
out being pecked in -return. Second came a hen which pecked
all but the top hen, and the rest were arranged in a descend
ing hierarchy ending in a hapless hen which was pecked by
all and could peck none.
Roosters have their own peck order, so a breeding flock
usually has two hierarchies, one for each sex.
Once the peck order has been determined, pecking begins
to decline. However, a chicken's memory is short, and hens
that have been separated for two weeks or more will fight
the battle for dominance all over again when they are
brought together.
If a strange bird enters the flock, it has to fight each of
the residents to establish its status.
STRICTLY
PERSONAL
By WEIMAR JONES
This is a great and wonder
ful country; there are few of
us who aren't proud to be
Americans. Yet, if we are hon
est with ourselves, we must
? confess there are a lot of things
about our boasted "American
way" that are pretty cock-eyed.
And you don't have to dig in
to American foreign policy or
re-hash the segregation issue to
find them. There are plenty of
examples much closer home.
A good illustration is the oc
cupation of Gus Summers. A
winter resident of Palm Beach,
Fla., Mr. Summers summers
(no pun intended) in High
lands. His business ? an entirely
legitimate and honorable busi
ness, one that must bring joy
to thousands of youthful hearts
? is the manufacture of Indian
torn toms and tommyhawks. He
sells them wholesale.
And where does this Caucas
ian maker of "old Indian relics"
(my phrase, not his) have his
best market? You guessed it ?
at Cherokee, the home of the
Indians!
* * ?
And you'd think we'd pay a
higher price for an article that
takes more work to produce
and that's harder to get. But
often we don't.
Take that favorite of mine,
country buttermilk.
For real, honest-to-goodness
country buttermilk, nothing but
the cream off the whole milk
is used. Then the cream has to
be "turned"; then churned, and
the butter ? all but the golden
flecks that refuse to "gather" ?
taken out.
Furthermore, you can buy
bottled whole milk In any groc
ery store, but country butter
milk Is something hard to come
by.
Yet whole milk retails for 25
cents a quart, while the going
price of country buttermilk is
10 cents!
# * ?
Then there's our attitude to
ward "free enterprise". Most
Americans are its vociferous ad
vocates; and since we, here in
this region, are such individual
ists, we probably place an even
higher premium on "free enter
prise" than people elsewhere in
this country.
Yet when the retail prices of
restaurant coffee,, haircuts, and
tire re-treading went up here,
they went up by general agree
ment among the retailers offer
ing those services. In each case,
in fact, the increase was an
nounced in a joint public state
ment.
This is not to say the in
creases were not justified ? they
probably were. It is not to sug
gest there was anything mor
ally wrong with the agreements.
I am not well enough versed In
the law even to be sure these
agreements were in violation of
the law against combinations in
restraint of trade.
But when everybody in a cer
tain line of business raises
Continued On ?age Eleven ?
TWO GIANT TASKS:
Preserving American Freedom And Preserving The Human Species
The Saturday Review
(EDITORS NOTE: This
is reprinted from The Saturday
Review by special permission
from the editors.)
By HARRISON BROWN
Governor Harold Stassen, who
has been given the job by the
President of furthering disarma
ment, said in London recently
that about one year remained be
fore "the secret of making the
hydrogen bomb" spread around
the world. According to The New
York Times, Governor Stassen
contended that "if the secret,
which is believed to be held only
by the United States, the Soviet
Union, and Britain, is gradually
? acquired by other countries before
an international disarmament
treaty can be attained the world
will be increasingly in danger as
this knowledge spreads."
The implication here ? and it is
of profound significance ? is that
H-bombs may be far easier to
manufacture than the public has
thus far been given reason to
suppose.
Until now the public has been
led to believe that atomic bombs
are required to "trigger" the ex
plosions of H-bombs. This would
mean that no nation would be
able to manufacture H-bombs un
less it first created a highly de
veloped atomic-energy technology,
resting on a fairly high level of
industrialization. Clearly, on this
basis it would be quite a while
before industrially undeveloped
countries could produce H-bombs.
And even a relatively highly de
veloped industrial country such as
Japan would probably require sev
eral years to make an H-bomb
starting from her present level
of atomic technology.
But now Governor Stassen states
that a "secret" of some sort will
be spread around the world within
the course of another year and
this worries him. (Most of us,
including Governor Stassen, are
already worried cbnsiderably about
H-bombs in the hands of the pres
ent owners.) Is it possible that
what worries him is that H-bombs
are easy to make ? possibly even
easier to make than A-bombs? Is
it possible, based on the implica
tions of Stassen's remarks, that
a way has been found to bypass
entirely the atomic-bomb develop
ment requirement? In this case
nations whlclf possess only a mod
est degree of technological sophist
ication may be able to manu
facture H-bombs for themselves.
In our time we have been witness
to the ease with which madmen
could acquire control of govern
ments and wage war. Now we can
contemplate the prospect of a
weapon powerful enough to kill
a billion human beings in the
hands of such men.
In any case the American people
have a right to know what the
facts are. Certainly, and quite
apart from the Soviet Union, the
fact of H-bombs in the possession
of certain nations and in the midst
of international anarchy affects
the entire world picture.
We have before us today the
gigantic task of preserving free
dom and of preserving the human
species. In approaching that dual
task, we are confronted by world
anarchy, by strong totalitarian
powers, and by horrible weapons
of destruction. It would appear
axiomatic under these circum
stances that the single overwhelm
ing issue in the coming election
should be our foreign policy ? in
cluding the question of what to
do about H-bombs.
Complete secrecy can lead to
complete insecurity. Naturally, the
Government should not disclose
the intricate technical details con
cerning the design and construc
tion of atomic or hydrogen bombs.
But it seems axiomatic that the
American people should be "told
enough about modern develop
ments in military technology that
affect our vulnerability. Again and
again our Government has solicit
ed the approval of the American
people, yet the people themselves
have an appallingly small amount
of information concerning the big
gest issue of all.
We have not been told how
destructive H-bombs explosions
really can be. We have not been
told whether these bombs are easy
or difficult to make. We have not
been told how easy or difficult
they are to deliver. We have been
told practically nothing concerning
our vulnerability to ordinary air
attack, let alone to the approach
ing intercontinental missiles. Yet
we hear of internal struggles be
tween the armed services concern
ing these matters, and we are
supposed to decide^ on the basis
of the most meager information
imaginable, who is right and who
is wrong.
There ought to be something
of a political explosion in this
country over the fact that the
leaders of the Soviet Union are
probably far better informed con
cerning both American military
strength and weakness than the
American people themselves.
VIEWS
B J
BOB SLOAN
This past Monday members
of the state Legislature met to
begin consideration of the pub
lic school Integration-segrega
tion problem. At least, It has
been announced, that all sides
of the picture would be consid
ered. In actuality, the legisla
ture is being called together to
put their stamp of approval
somewhat of a rubber stamp,
In this case, I think, on a pro
gram drawn up by the adminis
tration of Governor Luther
Hodges.
One thing about this program
has seemed a little funny to me.
Despite the fact that the pro
gram was discussed and drawn
up at private meetings with
state troopers standing guard
outside, there has been no criti
cism from the press of such
meetings.
Previous to this, when a sub
committee of the state legisla
ture wanted to meet in private
to discuss matters pertaining to
the state budget, the news
papers could hardly find enough
newsprint on which to print all
the terrible things the editors
felt would befall us as a result
of meeting behind closed doors.
Consistency thou art a jewel:
or in this case should we use
the word inconsistency instead.
I will always believe that had
North Carolina and other
Southern states carried out the
idea, first mentioned, but later
deserted by Governor Luther
Hodges, of allowing each school
district to determine whether it
wanted to have segregated or
integrated schools we would
have had a workable solution
to the problem. In nearly all
Southern states a few school
districts would have voted to
integrate. I feel that a slow
gradual process of individual
school district self determina
tion was what the Court had in
mind when they did not put a
limit on the time required to
carry its first decision into ef
fect. Had there been a self-de
termining district policy at the
first I think the Supreme Court
would have judged it sufficient.
We of the South, goaded the
Supreme Court into a more
stern stand, I feel. I, for one,
was critical of the fact that
the court was generous and
gave us time. Now I feel that
we have ill used the time and
that we should have been grate
ful for it rather than critical.
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward through
the files of The Press)
50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Dr. C. D. Baird, of Ashevllle,
arrived Saturday to spend a
month's vacation with relatives
here. He is practicing dentistry
with Dr. Smathers of Ashevllle.
Rains have continued to fall
daily through another week,
and farm work has been very
much hindered. A heavy rain
fall occurred Monday evening
after five o'clock, accompanied
by heavy wind that prostrated
growing corn crops, doing much
damage.
Want Ad: Wanted; 25 house
and bridge carpenters. Wages
from $2.00 to $2.50 per day.
25 YEARS AGO
With kinsmen present, some
of them from distant points,
the annual reunion of the
Crawford family was held at
the Black Place Sunday, July 12.
Lester Gilliard and his Choco
late Boy3 orchestra, will play
for a dance on the roof garden
of the Scott-Griffin Hotel Fri
day night, July 24. Dancing will
be from 9 to 1.
10 YEARS AGO
Ensign Alex Moore, Jr., is on
terminal leave, after 3 y2 years
in Naval aviation and has ar
rived for a visit with his par
ents, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Moore.
Mrs. A. L. McLean, of Ashe
vllle, is spending several days
visiting her brothers, A. L. and
W. L. Ramsey and their fam
ilies at their homes, Franklin,
Route 3.
Col. and Mrs. W. H. Nollman
and daughter, Miss Katherine
Nollman, of Sebrlng, Fla., and
Ashevllle, are at "Sprlngdale",
their summer cottage on Chest
nut Street. ? Highlands Item.