Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / May 30, 1957, edition 1 / Page 2
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.(lit* Jfirvtnklin tyrts* ait it (Dir Migiilaniig Jftatxminit Second class mall privileges authorized at Franklin, N. C. PuDllabed every Thursday by The Franklin Press Telephone 34 BOB B. SLOAN . . AdT?rtliln? Hunger J. P. BRADY News Edltor-PhotographsT BOLFB NULL Reporter MRS ALLEN aTT lpp Society Editor Office Manager ICRS MARION BRTSON Proofreader fjiy. p. riwt Operator-Machinist PRANK A. STARRETTE Compositor CHARLES E. WHTTT1NOTON O. E. CRAWFORD Stersotypsr DAVID H SUTTON Commercial Printer SUBSCRIPTION RATES Otrrans Macon Countt Inside Macon Countt One Tear $3 JO One Year . Six Months ..... 1.79 Six Months Three Months .... 100 Three Months Two Yean .... 5.25 Two Years Three Years 7.50 Three Years 1.78 1.00 4.25 6.00 MAT S?, 1957 Simple Issue This General Assembly has refused to reappor tion its membership, as required by the constitu tion its members are sworn to support. The legislators seek to excuse themselves by say ing the method of apportionment of house and sen ate seats, as set up in the state constitution, is "unrealistic". But they likewise have refused to do anything about that ? they have refused to submit to the people any one of several proposed constitu tional changes in the method. They will neither obey the constitution as it is nor allow the people to vote on changing it ! The details of reapportionment may be compli cated ; the issue is not. It is a simple question of elementary honesty and fairness. And the dog-in the-manger attitude of this Assembly has made it crystal-clear who is perpetuating the dishonesty and unfairness. The people of North Carolina are basically hon est, and they believe in fairness. And the people are not fools. What has happened this year makes it certain they will speak. Reapportionment was never so sure. It will come ? probably in 1959. Still Good Manners North Carolina law, points out a recent story in The Asheville Citizen, does not require a motorist, when he meets a funeral procession, to come to a stop. Well, our feeling is, he ought to stop, law or no law. We think respect for the dead, and for the be reaved, still is good manners. And we think good manners still are important. We think he ought to stop, even after reading the arguments against his stopping, advanced by Sgt. E. W. Jones, of the State Highway Patrol, in The Citizen story. Sgt. Jones argues that, when a motorist stops for a funeral cortege to pass, he is endangering his own life and that of those behind him; one or more cars behind are likely to crash into him when he stops. Are they, unless they are traveling too fast, or are following too closely? (And if and when they are, the patrol is not doing its job.) He argues, too, that funeral processions should move at a smart clip, so a motorist approaching from behind the procession won't crash into it. Again, is such an accident likely if the motorist is driving at a safe speed and not following too close ly? We don't think the patrolman's argument holds water. We doubt, in fact, if the patrolman believes his own arguments. Because if he did, what about the dangers created every time the patrol stops traffic for drivers' license inspections or stops on the highway to make an arrest? If stopping on the highway is all that dangerous, then the patrol it self is a major offender. What Sgt. Jones' argument seems to add up to is that people ought not to die. That is the one point on which we find ourselves in agreement with him. Trouble About . . . Only trouble about our Macon County youth is, it keeps on winning so many distinctions a body runs oiit of words. "We're proud of you", a true and apt express ion, is perfect ? until it has been used a score or more times. "Congratulations" also is a good word, but it, too, gets "old'' after a while. The same is true of the similar term, "felicitations". And what other words are there? So it .seems to us the thing Macon County needs worst right now is a brand new word ? one that will combine the ideas of "we're proud of you" and "congratulations" and "good luck". All this is prompted, of course, by the latest in a long string of firsts by Macon County young people, the district win by Macon F. F. A. boys. For if we say "congratulations" now, what'll we say when these youngsters bring home the state championship ? again? A new word? We're starting to work right now to try to coin one, because it's our guess we'll need it. Sure And Great What is this community's future? When people sink their dollars in Franklin, they're betting its future is sure and great. The latest to do that is Mr. J. C. Jacobs, with the opening of his junior de partment store. Such faith, incidentally, is a bigger asset to Franklin even than the new business en terprise. Others' Opinions I (Opinions ad In this iptu an not naceaaarlly them at Tha Preaa. Bdltoriala selected for reprinting here. In fact. I ara ohoam with a Ttew to preatnttnc a variety t viewpoint*. Th?T are. that la. }uat what tha caption aaja ? OTBXBV Oplnloaa.) Serene Interlude (Greensboro Daily News) Grandmother is a great institution, especially when she In vites the younger children for a visit, extended if possible. Mary, 4, had her small suitcase packed before lunch; Flo, 2, knew something was afoot, as she saw bags being hauled through the door and folks putting on coats. She clung to Grandmother's legs until she was picked off the floor and made a part of the moving action. When Grandmother's car was ready to go, neither child would glance from the backseat at Mother or Daddy, much less give them a kiss. "Go to Grandmother's," said Flo with a two-year-old solid determina tion. When they were gone, the house was strangely quiet. No screeching over toys. No flragerpaintlng on the newly painted doors. No milk spilled In the strlngbeans. No torturing of Easter ducks. No playing In warm tar on the edge of the street. No falling out of beds at night. When Jane came home from school she noticed it too. "It's so quiet around here," she said at supper. It was quiet. It was peaceful. It was serene. And five days have elapsed, and nobody has missed Mary and Flo yet. The Ku Klux In England (N. Y. Herald Tribune) Although Great Britain has always been notable for Its lack of racial prejudice, the Influx of Negro Immigrants from the British West Indies has brought with It resentment for economic reasons. The newcomers are competing with old time residents for the Jobs which are available. And, somehow, over a distance of 4,000 miles, members of the Ku Klux Klan In Texas have managed to take advantage of the situation to establish branches of their organization in at least seven towns, peddling not only their anti-Negro doctrine but anti Semitic and anti-Catholic prejudices as well. According to Home Secretary R. A. Butler, the movement thus far is on a very small scale and Is being kept under con stant official surveillance. But it is, indeed, unfortunate that this particular form of American bigotry should take root in England. It is bad enough that Intelligent Americans have to apologize for Its existence here without having to bear a na tional responsibility for its sudden appearance in a foreign country. Much as we want to sell merchandise to Britain, the K. K. K. is one export we should certainly eliminate. HOMES WITHOUT BOOKS MORE AMERICANS ARE NOT READING THAN EVER BEFORE The Charlotte News One of America's most cher ished rights Is the right not to read. It alao Is a vigorously exer cised right. A recent poll sug gests that more Americans are not reading than ever before. Perhaps this Is because it takes so little time and effort not to read. At any rate, Gallup pollsters In surveys over an eight-year period have never found more than a fifth of the adult popu lation with book marks In use. This establishes another "first" for America. The U. 8. popula tion has a lower percentage of book readers than any other major English-speaking nation. The statistics are interesting in a discouraging sort of way. They show, for example, that three times as many English men as Americans are reading books at any given time. But the meaning of the statistics Is more pointed and more chal lenging to the American tax payer who has proudly erased the little red schoolhouses from the face of the nation. The meaning Is supplied by UNC Chancellor Robert B. House who In 30 years In Tar Heel education has become something of a surveyor of reading habits himself. "I have been Intimately ac quainted with many homes in North Carolina," he said In a recent speech, "as well as with many schools, because I have traveled repeatedly from one end of the state to the other ? churches, schools, clubs, civic organizations. What strikes me is the absence of books from the living rooms of the major ity of homes, or, equally dis concerting, the manifest looks of the books which I do see re vealing that they have not been used. "The majority of students who get into academic difficul ties get there because they are not habituated in reading. I firmly believe that until the homes become more literary the schools will not become more so. I think the chief call In rais ing the intellectual atmosphere of our state and nation is in the matter of the enjoyment and use of books in the home so as to encourage more habit uation of them in the schools. I do not believe that colleges and universities can advance very far In general unless these weak spots are strengthened in the home and school." Family reading, the chancel lor is saying, ought to be a family obligation to the future of the children. He is right. But books can be fun, too, and they are a sure antidote to pla cidity. complacency and the stultifying kind of peace of mind. -And Touche' To You, Too, Sir!" bi -iy, .Dramas ?f Oar Times : J [DUEL IN THE SUM. >1 ? - (IAg-(K3ii STRICTLY Personal There are few things that bring more pleasure to most of us than to receive a compli ment. If someone tells us we look nice, or that we've told a story well, or that we have made an exceptionally good job of a task, most of us are so pleased we go around all the rest of the day, grinning? at least Inside. Yet how few of us know how to accept a compliment grac iously! What do most of us do? We either low-rate what the com pliment-giver has said with such a remark as "it was noth ing ? nothing at all"; or we make the one who paid the compliment out a liar by hur rying to declare "oh, I didn't do that well at all"; or we just stand first on one foot and then the other, and giggle. Someone has gone out of his way to give us pleasure; yet VIEWS ? By BOB SLOAN Proof of the Inadequacy of our town water supply was cer tainly brought to light last week when the failure of a pump at one of the town's wells threatened to temporarily shut down the Franklin Hosiery Plant. The excellent Job done by town officials and employes In getting the pump motor repair ed does not alter the fact that we are certainly operating without any water reserve if the stoppage of a well, which produces 27 to 30 gallons of water a minute, for a day could cause the shut-down of our largest Industry. Franklin's unsatisfactory water supply was one of the considera tions in the minds of Burlington officials which caused them to as sign recently ordered machinery to another plant, rather than Franklin. Water was not the sole deciding factor, but if we had had an adequate water supply, there would have been a better chance for the Franklin plant to get this increased expansion. To add to the seriousness of the problem, we would like to point out that this has occur red, not in a dry time, but when the rainfall has been, at least, normal. Already one won ders what will happen in Aug ust If we have a real dry spell. If Franklin wants to grow and attract more Industry, the first step will be to obtain an ade quate water supply Judging by the performance record of the well system through the past ten years, It would seem that wells won't do the Job, and prove less adequate each year. With this In mind, shouldn't town officials begin to take whatever steps are necessary to obtain a filter plant and a stream-fed water supply? not a word of thanks for that pleasure. Why Is it so hard for most of us to say the appropriate thing, the natural thing, the thing, if we are at all grate ful, we feel? Why dont we just say two simple little words: "Thank you!"? ? ? * I was commenting, in this space last week, on the- way we in Macon County have come to know each other, and thus to understand each other, and thus to work together for the common good. To illustrate the contrast of today and ten or fifteen years ago, I described the way, when several schools were consolidated at Cullasaja, children from the different lo calities kept to themselves at first. One who was a teacher at Cullasaja those first years as sures me that Just didn't hap pen; children from one com munity played with those from another, without constraint, I am told. Well, if there was no group isolationism, it was be cause somebody at the Culla saja school did a fine job in human relations ? another illu stration of how fortunate this county has been in its teach ers. The progress at Cullasaja was cited, of course, simply as an By WEIMAR JONES example of what has been hap pening all over Macon County. And the point of the piece re mains true: By getting ac quainted, we have come to ap preciate each other, and to co operate. If that hadn't hap pened, the progress that has been made would have been Impossible. ? ? ? THE WOMAN'S ANGLE ? Franklin woman's comment on the one-hour parking limit on Main Street, overheard Thursday as she read last week's Issue of - The Press: "Who can ever be sure of getting out of a doctor's or a dentist's office In 60 minutes? And who ever heard of finish ing at a beauty parlor in an hour? It would be men who'd make such a rule!" * ? ? We who live In Macon County think this is a good place to live; In fact, we know It Is. Well, it seems it always has been; or so this story, told me a few days ago, Indicates: Back In the old days, a man here got in trouble with the law. The judge gave him a choice: Go to jail or leave the state. He left the state. But in two weeks he was (See Back Page, 1st Section) DO YOU REMEMBER? LooUni Backward Through the Flea of The Frew 63 TEARS AGO TEDS WEEK (1892) "I have come to the conclusion we don't brag enough about Western North Carolina. Yet, I would like to whisper In some of the peoples' ears: 'Railroads Is what Is making the West.' It would be better for every man in Macon County to give half his worth than go without a railroad." ? from, a let ter from a Macon County man visiting In Omaha, Neb. Mr. C. B. Mallonee has built a fine new residence three miles from town on the Nantahala Road. We have been Informed that if Macon County will guaran tee a reasonable subscription for the purpose, Dr. Lucas will take the matter in hand and aid liberally himself and cee that a narrow-gauge railroad be put through from Franklin to Tallulah Falls as early as practicable. Now, what has Macon County to say of this? 25 YEARS AGO (1932) With nearly 2,000 persons present, the Macon County quar terly singing convention was held Sunday. The crowd was one of the largest seen In Franklin In recent months. Participants also came from Swain, Jackson, and Haywood Counties. Paul Potts, junior partner of the J. K. Potts Casket and Furniture Manufacturing Company, Is building a nice, five room house on Bldwell Street. Three wild Canadian geese are making their homes In Franklin this summer. They have their abode In the bottoms below Mrs. Will Sloan, on the water of Lake Emory and the Tennessee River. These are very large geese and It Is a mys tery why they stopped In Franklin for the summer. As a rule, geese go north In the summer. Anyways, It Is hoped that on fanatic will get to shooting at them. 10 YEARS AGO Diplomas will be awarded by County Supt. Guy L. Houk Thursday night to the five graduates of Highlands High School. They are Reglna Burnette, William Lewis, Conley Owens, Allle Sue Price, and Evelyn Phillips. Marshals will be Arnold Keener and Victory Wood, and ushers will be Edna Norton and Dollle Wilson. ? ' Mrs. Grace Tatham spent last week end with her parents here. ? West's Mill Item.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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May 30, 1957, edition 1
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