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Freedom, The Cold War
Someone has said that "freedom is not inherited,
but must be won anew by each generation".
Nobody would contradict that sentiment. Yet,
in today's world, the idea has an obsolete sound.
How many Americans today are devoting any ef
fort whatever to winning freedom anew?
Dr. Robert M. Hutchins, in fact, in the piece at
the bottom of this page, suggests that many Amer
icans no longer even want to be free.
Is that true? And if so, why is it true?
To get an answer to the first question, all you
have to do is to ask .a group of people what things
they value most. Nine out of ten will list, first of
all, security. Most of them will put peace second.
Far down the list ? -if they even think to mention
it at all ? they'll put personal freedom.
Why most of us have come to relegate personal
freedom to an incidental place in our list of ob
jectives would be hard to say. But there is an al
armingly large body of evidence that these things
are true:
1. The longer the United States competes with
Soviet Russia, the more we become like that na
tion. The latest illustration is the wide spread de
mand that we make our schools "as good as" ? that
is, like ? the Russian schools.
2. The only really important difference now is the
personal freedom Americans enjoy.
' 3. The traditional American freedoms are being
whittled away. They are being whittled away by
bigness, with it pressure for conformity. They are
being whittled away by big government itself ? by
Congressional committees that convict a defendant
without jury trial or any other safeguards of the
rights of a defendant; by the executive depart
ment's dictatorial bureacracy, which is beyond
the reach of the voter; and by the courts them
selves. While judicial decisions have zig-zagged,
the trend of the courts, faced by the exigencies of
a cold war, has been to narrow individual freedoms,
particularly those of speech and thought.
4. Our personal freedoms will continue to be
whittled away unless there is resistance to the
whittling process.
5. We are becoming accustomed to accept the
whittling. When a freedom is taken away, we soon
grow used to doing without it. And what we have
never known, we do not miss.
The perfect illustration of the latter is the draft.
One of the things that drove Europeans to Amer
ica was compulsory military service. Here, they set
up a government where a man was free to choose
whether, in peacetime, he would or would not serve
in the armed forces. And even in wartime, the
Union draft in the GO'S provoked riots in New York
Gty.
But we have compulsory military service today;
we pot it by the back door. Congress, presumably
reflecting public sentiment, has consistently refus
ed to approve it as a permanent, peacetime policy.
Yet, as one crisis has succeeded another, we have
today a generation of young men who cannot re
member when there was any choice; as long as
they have lived, we have had compulsory military
service.
Is it any wonder it never occurs to them to pro
test? never occurs to them, even, to wonder if per
haps they should have the freedom of choice in
this matter? Never having known that freedom,
they do not miss it.
If, as our military and political leaders tell us,
the cold war may last 50 or 100 years, how much
freedom will the generation of 2057 remember?
And how much freedom, never having known it,
will they even want?
NATIONAL GUARD HERITAGE
THE
ClTlZEH-MLlTlk"
GUARDIAN OF OUR
LIBERTIES,
Letters
They're Coming Back Again
Dear Editor:
Please ease back in your chair and let me tell you a tale
of a high mountain, beautiful waterfalls, ruby mining, fishing,
and property hunting.
One day last March, my husband said to me, "Figure up
the miles to the mountains, and we will spend our vacation
in them." So, I consulted my trusty Rand McNally Road Atlas
(we have been in all 49 states, except Alaska, up in Canada,
and down in Old Mexico) and came up with 600 miles (more
or less).
I sent to Franklin's Chamber of Commerce for some litera
ture and, in due time, we received some very Interesting in
formation on Franklin and Maoon County and a list of lodg
ings. The description of "River Rock Inn", on the Highlands
road, owned by Mr. and Mrs. G. O. Watkins, decided us to
send for reservations. We were, accepted. Then, we subscribed
to The Press for three months. (One can learn a lot about
a town through its newspaper.) We looked forward to every
Saturday and then read it thoroughly. At last the day came
when we set foot in Franklin at 12 noon. We had a very good
dinner at The Normandie Restaurant and then we proceeded
to "River Rock Inn". We were warmly greeted, and then
for two happy weeks we roamed in and around Franklin;
everyone so friendly and so many interesting places to see.
We drove to the tip-top of Wayah Bald ? and the beautiful
valleys below were breathtaking!
The waterfalls along the Highlands road were visited several
times (I love a waterfall). One day we went fishing in a beau,
tiful lake (with required license) and another day we went
ruby mining (Oh! my aching back!); but so much fun and
good snapshots. We took long rides over the country roads,
through the mountains and lovely valley farm lands (I'm a
Hoosier gal!)
The time came for us to say our good-byes to all the friend
ly folks and so ? ? ,
We came, we saw, we decided THAT WE WILL BE BACK!!
We remain, respectfully,
MR. AND MRS. GEORGE BREWER
St. Petersburg 13, Fla.
Carrying The Torch
(Sylva Herald)
Weimar Jones, editor, and Bob Sloan, publisher, of The
Franklin Press, deserve the everlasting gratitude of the citi
zens of Western North Carolina for printing their editorial,
"50,000 Voters Deceived" in their issue of July 3.
To write an editorial that will cause wide comment and pos
Did you ever stop to wonder:
What ts Macon County.
I have, many times; and the
other flay, I tried to put It
down on paper. I decided Ma.
con County 1& many things:
It's high mountains and green
valleys. It's two towns and lots
of country. It's' farm land and
pastured hills, mines and tim
ber. It's trout fishing and 'coon
hunting. It's churches and
schools and country stores. It's
fine scenery and cold water.
It's long stretches of secondary
roads, winding down along a
stream, or up over a long hill . . .
It's all of these ? and more.
But most of all " PEOPLE.
What kind of i <le?
All kinds of people ? like
everywhere else.
But not exactly like every
where else, either. Because,
while we have our share of
crime and ignorance and shift
lessness, we have more than our
share of some other things.
For there's no place under the
sun, it seems to me, where
there are so many people who,
though they are not famous
and never will be, are, never
theless, great. And fame and
greatness aren't the same
things at all.
They're all about us . . . these
people who possess the elements
of greatness/ There's one or
more in every Macon County
community.
Take that man who has little
or no formal schooling, and
who started with NO money.
sibljr a challenge within the circulation area of the paper is
reason for the editor to feel that he has accomplis"hed some
thing.
But to write an editorial that not only causes comment and
interest area-and state-wide but also gets into national publi
cations proves that the editor has laid down the bars to a
subject of deep concern to the citizens of our democratic
form of government.
Editor Jones has done just that. He has jolted the press of
Western North Carolina hard. His charges, which are unchal
lenged and 100 per cent true, have not only knocked the small
papers back on their hlndlegs, so to speak, but are causing
the large dallies, particularly in the 12th Congressional Dis
trict, to sweat it out.
Jones has really carried the torch in this thing, "The Peo
ple Have A Right To Know," and there is little doubt but that
he and Bob Sloan will be vindicated in their stand for what
is to them, and should be to all editors, a "PRINCIPAL."
Trees Vs. Wires
(Chapel Hill Weekly)
Much has been said and written about the ugliness of bill
boards along the highways.
Another robber of beauty along the highways may be more
necessary but should demand a solution: the utility poles and
wires. This monstrosity is even more of an eye-sore in towns.
The wires strung along on poles are far from pretty. When
the trees are cut and, even worse, mutilated, to permit the
stringing up<of the wires we have a piercing freak to behold.
What can be done about It?
The utility companies say it costs about ten times as much
to place wires underground as to string them on poles. To
many people such an extra cost might well be prohibitive.
If the poles and the wires are to remain, must they be a
negative aspect of our culture? Certainly much can be done
to improve the looks of the utility poles. Some residential areas
have poles that are almost beautiful.
An even less expensive solution Is to incorporate the utility
poles and wires in the landscaping of an area. Thus only rel
atively low trees should be found under the wires. Then, the
higher trees can be planted farther back in the yards. When
that is done, the eye is taken from the wires to the beautiful
trees below them. The crepe myrtle has-been used successful
ly In landscaping of this type, as have dogwood, maple and
other small trees.
There need be no more trees with mutilated shapes. The
utility poles and the wires need hardly be seen.
Stop Speaking
(Frederick, Colo., Farmer & Miner)
If we could but see ourselves as others se? us, we'd never
speak to them again.
'INTERCHANGEABLE MAN
Is Today's Society Producing Men Who Do Not Even Want To Be Free?
< (EDITOR'S NOTE: Dr. Hutch
ins, former president of the
University of Chicago, now
heads the Fund for the Republic,
a foundation which is seeking
answers to the question: How
to make freedoyi work in to
day's complicated society? The
following is excerpted from a
recent adress Dr. Hutchins made
to the Cleveland, Ohio, City
Club.)
I think It fair to say that the
American Is seldom much Inter
ested In freedom and justice for
other people, including other
Americans. The Bill of Rights
often appears to concern only
those who can make some per
sonal use of It.
Editors, publishers, and broad
casters are interested In the First
Amendment (guaranteeing free
dom of religion, speech, and the
press) because under this banner
they may be able to extort more
news from the Defense Depart
ment and send reporters to China.
I sympathize with these ambitions,
but I cannot fall to note that
with some honorable exceptions
editors, publishers, and broad
casters have not been much inter
ested in other amendments, or
even in those parts of the First
Amendment which do not mention
them. They have customarily con
demned those who plead the Fifth
Amendment (providing, among
other things, that no person may
be compelled to be a witness
against himself), and have de
precated the suggestion that a
(air trial might require the elim
ination of cameras from the court
room.
Eccentric sects like Jehovah's
Witnesses are Interested in the
freedom of religion, but they are
not much interested in the free
dom of the press or any of the
rest of the Bill of Rights.
Communists and other people
likely to be Investigated by Con
gress are Interested In the Fifth
Amendment, but not In the free
dom of the press, or freedom of
religion, or any other amendment.
Criminals are interested In the
Sixth Amendment (which seeks to
assure a fair trial), but not In
freedom of the press, or freedom
of religion ... *
Extreme states' rlghters are In
terested in the Tenth Amendment
(reserving powers not delegated
to the federal government to the
states or to the people), but not
in the First, Fifth, or Sixth.
People who are not or who do
not expect to be publishers, mem
bers of eccentric sects, commu
nists, criminals, or extreme states'
rlghters are not much likely to be
Interested In civil liberties. In
fact, doubt has been expressed In
the highest quarters that the Bill
of Rights could be adopted to
day.
? ? ?
Jefferson placed his hopes for
the free society on education,
self-employment, and local govern
ment. As to the first of these, in
last month's "Foreign Affairs"
Robert Oppenheimer correctly
calls the American educational
system a half-empty mockery. As
to the second, 75 per cent of U3
now work for others. And. as to
the third, anybody who seriously
advanced, the idea today that local
government was a training ground
for civic virtue would be Instant
ly committed to an institution
for the feeble-minded.
The Bill of Rights was designed
to protect the citizen against the
government, against the organized
majority. But government Is not
what It was in the pre-lndustrlal
age. or even In the Industrial age
before the world was polarized.
The bureaucratic society Is one
in which the citizen is remote
from the center of power and
largely helpless In dealing with it.
It Is a society characterized by the
absence of personal responsibility
. . . The gravest decisions can be
taken without anybody's knowing
how it all happened. Foreign
policy Is the obvious case. Forces
that may be let loose at any mom
ent without any participation by
the citizen are so enormous and
so destructive that all he can do
is to try to forget them.
Since the adoption of the Con
stitution, centers of private pow
er have sprung up that are as
bureaucrat|zed as the government
and that are as influential . .
In the lives of the citizens . . .
Clark Kerr has asked how the
union member, who was to obtain
freedom and justice through the
union, may now obtain freedom
and justice in it.
The remorseless tendency of an
Industrial system. In which every
thing depends on smooth cooper
ation within large groups, appears
to be to produce men who are
not free In any real sense, and
who may not even want to be
free. We may say that the aim of
Industrialization Is to get rid of
men altogether, except as cus
tomers, and in the meantime to
make them Interchangeable parts
of the Industrial machine. This
has certain advantages in the
field of civil liberties, as they have
been traditionally understood.
Who cares about th* race, creed,
color, or politics of an inter
changeable part? . . . The indus
trialization of the South may do
more to end racial discrimination
there than all the legislation and
preaching of the last 50 years.
But the Interchangeable man Is
not a man. Since he Is not. free
dom and Justice are of little inter
est to him. His aim must be to
achieve peace, security .and suc
cess by being Interchangeable, that
Is, through conformity, through
being as much like any other in
terchangeable part as possible.
Robert M. // at chins
Somehow, though, he has wrest
ed a good living from a hilly
farm, or has made the best of
the limited business opportun
ities that came his way. He's
lived reasonably well; he's pro
vided for his family; be's edu
cated his children. And, along
with all those, he's found the
time ? taken the time ? to be
a good citizen.
And now what he owns is
paid for; that way, he has a
freedom, an independence,
many a captain of finance, deli
cately balancing his millions of
assets against his millions of
liabilities, never knows.
How many of us, with the
same equipment and opportun
ities, could have done half so
well? Yet ? and that Is one of
the marks of true greatness ? it
never occurs to him that he has
done anything noteworthy. In
stead, he is the soul of mod
esty, quite conscious of his lim
itations.
Or take that woman who has
reared a big family ? a tremen,
dous job, if she had nothing
else to do. And she had plenty
else to do. She kept her garden,
she milked the cows, maybe,
she tended her chickens. All
summer long she canned and
preserved and froze, against
the coming winter. Her work
was never done.
But somehow she found the
time to educate herself in the
process? found time to read, to
go to the community meetings,
to take an inexpensive trip oc
casionally. She found time, too,
to be a good neighbor; to wait
on the sick, to be a tower of
strength in time of death, to
take jjart in her church, her
P.-T. A., her home demonstra
tion club. All her life she's done
enough work to make her a
drudge . . . but she has refused
to become a drudge.
And she, too, never thinks of
herself as unusual, as having
done any more than she should
have done.
Or take that person, man or
woman, who, sometime In the
days of youth, was fired by a
dream. Some day he would be
a great preacher or physician
or teacher or business man or
farmer. And so, he worked and
sacrificed and sought ways to
make that dream come true.
But somewhere along the way,
there was an aged father or
an Invalid mother, or maybe an
old aunt, that somebody had
to support and care for ? and he
or she happened to be that
somebody. Oftener still, there
were younger brothers and sis
ters who must have their
chance.
And so, with never a com
plaint, that man or that wom
an took the hard road; and,
with the passing of the years,
the dream passed, too. Cheer
fully, with never a thought of
self, he or she became a step
ping stone for others.
We read In books, about cour
age and character; about de
termination and energy; about
self-sacrifice and heroism.
But you don't have to go to
books to find those; they are
all about us.
And you don't have to go to
books to find out about the
great. They are all about us,
too.
CAPITOL ANNEX
What Shall It Be?
GREENSBORO DAILY NEWS
Two definite conclusions ap
pear to have been reached by
a subcommittee of the Commis
sion on Reorganization of State
Government at its recent Ral
eigh hearing: (1) A new legis
lative building is urgently need
ed and (2) the present State
Capitol and its grounds should
not be altered in any way, cer
tainly In external appearances.
In both these conclusions the
Dally News concurs.
There did not appear among
the witnesses at the hearing
complete agreement upon the
architecture of the new struc.
ture.
State Sen. Edwin Lanier of
Chapel Hill said he hoped the
committee will recommend a
new legislative building that
will harmonize architecturally
with the capltol and other state
buildings. He opposed any "mod
ernistic" touches in the design
of the new structure.
Did we detect a possible note
of dissent, though, In declara
tion from James Byrnes, assis
tant director of the State Art
Museum, that the present capi
tal is an architectural gem be
cause it was built by forward
looking people and that the
proposed structure be designed
by ^ top architect? Certainly
the people of the state would
expect and the Legislature
would insist upon meeting of
that last condition.
The likelihood of variance,
however, was further indicated
by assertion of William James,
president of the North Carolina
chapter of the American Insti
tute of Architects, that the suc
cess of a legislative building
would depend on the architect
selected to design it.
Who or what, under standards
of the movement, is a forward
looking architect? How far
apart are the Doric State Capi
tol and the state fair's celebrat
ed?make It notorious if you
wish, "cow palace"?
There are months now In
which to speak up. We'd go
along with conformity and har
mony around Capitol Square.
But If we're to have an archl
tectural argument, why, go to It,
boys and girls. Sic 'em; we can't
thlnlk of anything that would
do more to relieve the July las
situde or make for midsummer
reading that would rise above
the tedium of dispatches from
trouble spots throughout the
world.
BRIEFLY SPEAKING
WRIGHT BROTHERS
Airplane pioneers, Wilbur and
Orville Wright, a taciturn duo,
hated to make speeches. Once, at
a luncheon, they were scheduled
to speak before a group of in
ventors. The toastmaster called
on Wilbur.
"There must be some mistake,"
stammered Wilbur. "Orville is the
one who does the talking."
The toastmaster turned to Or
ville. The lattter stood up and
said: "Wilbur just made the
speech."
? Coronet
, UNCLE ALEX'S
SAYIN'S
Teachin' a passel of younguns
in school is sorta like buildin'
a house ? you caint do no good
'less there's a solid foundation
to start with.
They's two things they ain't
no use worryin' about. You can't
change the weather, a-tall; and
after a man or woman's past
40, you can't change them,
much.
The feller that's always re
ferrin' things to his conscience
generally's got a conscience that
ain't very sharp.
The man that says hard work
never killed nobody generally
wants the other feller to prove
It.
A lot o' modern parents seem
to think they've done their duty
to their children if they born
'em and feed 'em. It's because
of them kind o' parents that the
rest of us have to shell out for
community chests and sich like.
DO YOU REMEMBER?
Looking Backward Through the Files of The Press
65 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(1893) '
What is the correct answer to this problem? If 1 y2 hens
lay 1 y2 eggs in V/, days, how many eggs will six hens law in
seven days?
We are sorry to learn that two or three of Mr. L. Holbrook's
children, of Smith's Bridge, have typhoid fever.
That $150 road machine that belongs to our town council
has stood in the street near Mr. I. J. Ash's residence ever
since last fall, taking all kinds of weather. The wheels are
sinking into the ground and rotting, and the machine is being
greatly injured by the weather.
25 YEARS AGO
(1933)
News came from Washington last week that the abandon
ment of the Tallulah Falls Railway had been recommended
to the Interstate Commerce Commission by J. S. Prltchard,
an examiner, but the report has served to intensify the fight
against abandonment.
U. 8. Senator Walter F. George, of Georgia, and Mrs. George
were guests of Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Redden at their home in
Highlands last Wednesday.
10 YEARS AGO
J. Ward Long recently was appointed district deputy gov
ernor of Lions International.
A movement to employ ''a really top.notch man" to give
instruction In physical education at the Franklin school nine
months in the year, and to direct an Integrated program of
recreation during the three summer months is under way
here.