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WElMAli JOKES
Editorial Page Editor
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What Police Are For
That >hake-up last week in Franklin's police de
partment presumably was prompted by a desire
for greater police efficiency. The effort of the town
board to obtain greater efficiency prompts this sug
gestion : ^
We hire and pay policemen to protect lives and
property, with first emphasis, of course, on lives.
The greatest danger to life in Franklin is the
speeding automobile ; and speeding may be observ
ed on Franklin streets every hour of the day and
night. Until and unless the police department pro
tects the public from speeders, it is failing to do
the primary thing it is paid to do.
Under False Colors?
The 1959 session of the North Carolina Genera!
Assembly is well in the past, but the laws it made
remain with us in the present ? and will temain
with us for at least two years in the future.
One of its most extraordinary enactments was
the law giving' the State Milk Commission author
ity to fix retail milk prices ? the .prices you and I
pay when we go to the grocery store.
This is not legislation for the protection of the
farmer ? the commission already had authority to
regulate the wholesale prices paid the man who
produces milk. And certainly it is not legislation
for the protection of the consumer; it's avowed
purpose is to .prevent price-cutting wars ? -that is,
to keep competition from lowering the prices the
consumer pays. .y
It i.s legislation for the .protection of the big milk
distributors.
It is 1>ase<l oil the philosophy that you must pro
tect big 'business in order to protect those who
benefit from big business.
ft is the same philosophy that prompted a tax
gift of millions, in 19 57, to the corporations, be
cause the corporate tax was considered unjust ;
but that left undisturbed a double-taxation that is
far more unjust, a state income tax on even that
part of a man's income he already has paid Uncle
Sam as federal income tax. (Nobody has defended
that double taxation except on the grounds that
"the state needs the money". So, sometimes, does
the hold-up man ! )
Tt is the same philosophy . that dictated, in- the
1959 session, the imposition of a withholding tax
fin individuals, but left most' corporations exempt
from that law.
Scores ni" other similar enactments have been
made by North Carolina Legislatures in recent
years.
Now. it mav be that tlijs program of. protecting
big business so' the individual' mav riot suffer is the
the best p|an tor getting what we want.
The point is that, for a hundred vears, that has
been good Republican doctrine. And in North Caro
lina we're getting all this Republican legislation
enacted by a Legislature that always is overwhelm
ingly Democratic!
Why A Courthouse?
In all the discussion of Macon County's court
house problem, little seems to have been said about
a rather pertinent question: How big a courthouse
do we need?
? '
That question leads to another : What' is a court
house for? That is, what purposes is it supposed
to serve?
Well, there should be room in a courthouse for
the offices of such county officials as the clerk of
the court, tbe register of deeds, and the county ac
countant. (Generally speaking, it is more conven
ient and efficient for the sheriff's department to
be housed under or over the jail.)
Second, and milch more important, it should,
provide ample space, that is fire proof and effi
ciently arranged, for county records.
Finally, there should be a place for the holding
of courts.
Those three are the only thing?, it i-t really nec
"'1
essary for a courthouse to do.
In one respect, the .purposes a courthouse is sup
posed to serve have changed. For there was a time,
here and in other towns, when the courtroom was
supposed to serve for all public meetings, enter
tainments, plays, etc. Today, in most places, a
courtroom is rarely used for such events, the rea
son being that a courtroom, by its very nature, is
not suitable as an auditorium. Most towns now
have auditoriums for public meetings, etc.; and
even in Franklin, though it lacks? but badly needs
? an auditorium, meetings today rarely are held
in the courtroom when anv other place is avail
able. ' . -
There's been another change in customs. At one
time. Sessions of superior court provided some
thing in the nature of public entertainment ? court
was a spectacle that drew most of the male popu
lation. That no longer is true; today few peo.ple
ordinarily go to court unless they have business
there. And so a big courtroom is no longer neces
sary?the present one, in the present courthouse,
rarely is more than half filled.
Along with a courtroom, of course, there is need
for some auxiliary space ? a grand jury room, a
jury room, a room for the presiding judge; and
possibly some other office space.
The need for space is likely to grow for only
one purpose. Records will continue to be filed, and
there should be plenty of room not just for today's
records, but for those that will accumulate as the
years and decades pass.
Bouquet
Our best bow to the Franklin Jaycees for initat
ing a series of square dances at the Slagle Memorial
Building.
Too often, there is substance to visitors' coin
plaint that "there is nothing to do in Franklin",
This gives them something to do.
And it is a desirable kind of entertainment. For
it is something not to be found everywhere, and
it is something thoroughly indigenous to this
mountain area.
Children Need Responsibility
(Stanley News & Press) ?
+he young folks won't like us for the suggestions we are
going to make, but we will make them just the same.
It seems that boys and girls are not taught to work as
much around the home as they used to be, and are not given
as much responsibility for household chores as they were
formerly.
Fathers expend their energies at work all day, seeking to
supply the money to satisfy the budgeted needs. He either
mows the yard after work or hires it done.
Mothers work hard doing the dishes, cooking, cleaning and
making beds.
Children ? some of them well into their teens ? wander about,
bored with life and wtshing for something exciting to happen.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with having children
help with the work in and around the home. They learn
useful skills. They relieve their parents Of some of the ttme
consuming drudgery, and they find they have less time In
which to feel bored.
Tills idea of allowing young Johnnie and Susie to go their
merry ways, free of all home responsibilities, may be advo
cated by some? but we're against it.
LETTERS
Lower Phone Rates
Dear Mr. Jones:
In the June 4 edition of The Franklin Press you published
an editorial entitled "Lower Phone Rates" in which you sug
gested that Western Carolina Telephone Company devote a
part of the savings in labor costs made possible by the dial
conversion of the Franklin exchange to a reduction of tele
phone rates. You possibly assumed that the dial system re
placed ail operators utilized on the manual system. As you
know, all toll and information service for Franklin and High
lands was handled by the Franklin operators, along with local
service for Franklin. Coincidental with the dial conversion
of the Franklin exchange, toll and information service for
Franklin and Highlands was transferred to Sylva. Actually,
the number of operators replaced by reason of the dial con
version at Franklin were only those required to provide local
service on a manual basis. A minute and unmeasurable sav
ings might be obtained and attributed to the consolidation
of the toll center at Sylva. The maxium reduction in opera
tors' wages that can be realized by reason of the dial conver
sion will not exceed $25,000.00 annually, and the annual in
crease in two expense items alone ? maintenance and depreci
ation? will practically offset that savings. If you will consider
further the requirements for earnings on the company's ap
/
(Dcomnccticut mutual un insuhanck co.
Little Fella
His friends didn't wait for him. He wants to go up to his
room and be by himself. Soon he'll feel better. Don't question
him. He's trying to act like a man. Let him.
proximate additional Investment In the amount of $250,000.00
In the Franklin exchange, you will realize that your exchange
was not converted to dial operation (or economic reasons.
The primary purpose of any dial conversion today Is to
provide more efficient local exchange service and to prepare
for future subscriber Direct Distance Dialing. The tremendous
investment required to provide this modern and more effi
cient service, and the continuing increase in other operational
expenses, more than offset the savings realized by a reduc
tion In the number of operators.
We are sure that you would be among the last to deny our
company, or any other utility, a reasonable return on its In
vestment. Most state regulatory bodies in recent years, in
cluding the North Carolina Utilities Commission, have granted
rate Increases to telephone companies calculated to produce
rates of return on net Investment ranging from 6>/j% to 7%.
For the year 1958 Western Carolina Telephone Company
earned less than 8% on average net investment, and we can
assure you that the dial conversion of the Franklin exchange
will not Improve our earnings position.
THOMAS H. SAWYER,
Vice President,
Western Carolina Telephone Company.
Weavervllle, N. C.
Build A New One
Editor, The Press:
As I ride from Highlands to Franklin, I see fine modern
houses going up and many new homes that are already built.
I always think of the difference in today and twenty-five
years ago. There's no doubt Macon County is progressing and
will continue to do so. Then are we, the people of Macon
County, content to stand by and watch the old courthouse
crumble and fall? We hear people gripe about high taxes and
these people would think nothing of spending from ten to
twenty-five dollars on a fishing trip or a big picnic party.
We taxpayers do or should have the right to know where
our tax money Is spent and how It is spent. As for myself,
I would like to see the old courthouse torn down and a new,
modern one built In a different location, far away from the
noise and bustle of Main Street.
By being a carpenter for several years, I have learned
something about the cost of the repair work to an old build
ing. And what is there there to repair to? Nothing but crumb
ling brick.
If other counties, both In our neighboring states and in
our own state, can have modern jails and courthouses, then
why can't we?
HERMAN WILSON
Highlands.
DO YOU REMEMBER?
Looking Backward Through the Files ol The Press
>RE8S.
65 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(1894)
Sheriff C. T. Roane came over from his home at Aquone
Monday.
Supt. L. H. Garland conducted his annual examination for
teachers' licenses for the public schools last Thursday and
Friday. There were about 50 applicants examined, of whom
six were colored.
Transylvania county has voted to issue $60,000 in bonds to
build a railroad from Brevard to Asheville or Hendersonville.
35 YEARS AGO
(1924)
At a meeting held at the courthouse July 12, it was decided
to organize the Macon County Telephone Company, to- be
capitalized at $25,000.
A party of engineers is preparing to start the survey for
a hard surfaced road from Tallulah Falls, Ga., to the North
Carolina line.
Mr. Fred Corbin, of Cullasaja, and Miss Addie Crawford, of
Cartoogechaye, were married at Clayton, Ga., last Wednesday.
15 YEARS AGO
(1944)
Miss Dorothy Reid, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Reid,
of Franklin, became the bride of Ensign George Tessier, son
of Mrs. Reby Tessier, of Franklin, in a ceremony July 10 at
the Methodist Church.
On this week's Red Cross surgical dressings roll of honor
are Miss Merrily Brooks, Miss Daisy Caldwell, Mrs. E. J. Car
penter, Mrs. W. W. McConnell, Miss Edna Jamison, Miss Mary
Frances Page, Mrs. Frank Higdon, Mrs. J. E. S. Thorpe, Miss
Peggie Ann Rimmer, Mrs. R. M. Rimmer, Miss Olive Leighton,
Miss Ruth Angel, and Mrs. Zeb Angel.
5 YEARS AGO
. (1954)
The annual Macon County Farm Tour will not be held this
year. Instead, the Agricultural Council is planning a day
long Farm-Home Field Day at Franklin High School.
'RIGHT 77/ /.AY; TO DO' j
Compromise Suggested On Reapportionment
SMITHFIELD HERALD '
Most Eastern North Carolina
legislators in the 1959 session of
the General Assembly were op
posed to legislative reapportion
ment. They feared that under re
apportionment the agricultural
East and the sparsely populated
counties would lose representation
to the urban areas of the state.
Representative Itlmous Valen
tine, Jr. of Nash County was an
exceptional member of the 1959
Legislature. He voted for reap
portionment. When a reporter
asked him why, he replied, "It is
just the right thing to do, and I
think it is our responsibility under
the Constitution."
Of course reapportionment is
"the right thing to do." And of
course the State Constitution
does charge the Legislature with
responsibility for changing legis
lative representation according to
population shifts.
Still, legislature after legislature
has refused to vote for reap
portionment. The Constitution
has been repeatedly disobeyed.
The legislators have rejected
moves toward adoption of a new
system of apportionment. 1
Refusal to reapportion means
continued domination of the Legis
lature by the small counties, the
ones that aren't heavily populated.
The legislators from small rural
counties may consider such domi
nation a good thing. But the urban
counties understandably regard it
as a form of "tyranny." The ur
banites increasingly feel they are
the victims of "taxation without
representation." And it may be re
called that our forebears fought
a revolution over that kind of
tyranny.
The Charlotte Observer, publish
ed in the largest city in North
Carolina, doesn't like the idea of
"a wholesale citizens' rebellion in
the urban areas against paying
taxes to Raleigh." Such a rebellion
"would be out of character with
the North Carolina tradition," the
Observer says. But the Observer
warns that a rebellion "is a pos
sibility, Indeed a probability, if
(1) the Legislature persists in its
flagrant disobedience of the con
?stitutional mandate to redistrict i
the Senate, and <2> no compro- i
mise plan is worked out."
The Observer suggests a com- 1
promise:
"One way to remove this fear '
(ultimate domination by the big
counties) would be to make one 1
house represent the county unit '
of government. It would have 100
members, one from each county.
The other house would reflect 1
population without any reference '
to county lines.
"Under the system, the small
counties would control one house.
The urban counties would control
the other . . .'1
Whether this compromise is the
best solution to the reapportion
ment controversy may be debat
able. But what is not debatable i
on any moral grounds is this: The 1
Legislature should either obey the ,
Constitution or take steps to
change it.
The do-nothing policy of recent
legislatures has had neither moral
nor legal justification. <
STRICTLY
PERSONAL ,
By WEIMAR JONBS
There's something in the Bible
about a soft answer turning away
wrath.
Most of us, of course, don't
really believe It'll work, as proved
by the fact we so rarely apply
this bit of shrewd psychology
that's as old as Proverbs.
I suspect the trouble U. we've
always thought of it as an in
junction to us. to *i*e the soft
answer, as the be3t defense
against the other fellow's wrath.
Well, when you've had the ex
perience I had the other day.
you'll know that this technique
works. For I had it applied in
reverse. I rot the soft answer, and
what happened to my wrath was
. . . well, let me tell you the story.
First, though, I'd better be
honest enough to admit something.
I like people, and I usually can
get along with them. But when
I have to deal with an impersonal
mechanism. I feel helpless. Take
a thing like the dial telephone.
You can't reason with it, you
can't bawl it out, you can't ask
it a question, you can't even get
results by giving it a soft answer.
And when it comes at you with
a "this is a recorded message".
I slam up the receiver in some
thing just a shade short of good
humor.
So when I have trouble, nowa
days, with the phone system. I
probably am not the reasonable
human being I try to be when
dealing with other human beings.
Well, the other day I had oc
casion to make a long distance
telephone call. Following the tele
phone book instructions, I lifted
the receiver, listened for the buzz,
and dialed "O" for operator.
X heard the phone at the other
end of the line ring, and ring, and
ring. But nothing happened.
I repeated the process. Still
nothing happened.
I repeated it again, and again
got the same no-result.
Annoyed. I took out my watch
to see just how long it was going
to take, and then held on. At
the end of seven minutes by the
watch, the Sylva operator came
on the line.
Here, at last, was somebody I
could complain to. So I explodedr
I told her I'd been waiting 15
minutes ( It had been nearer/ 10 '
I wanted to know if she'd had :?
nice vacation. I wondered out loud
what would have happened if this
had been an emergency call for
a doctor. And I said a lot of
other things that, to me, sounded
good at the time.
Well. sir. that operator couldn't
have been nicer. She spoke as
pleasantly as if she were sayins
"Good Evening". Irritation is con
tagious. but she evidently had
built up an Immunity. She nevei
raised her voice. She was courtesy
itself. She apologized ? and hei
voice said even more convincingly
than her words that she really
was sorry I'd had to wait.
Then she added the clincher lr
this miraculous psycholoslca
technique. She suggested I wrlM
to the telephone company, explain
ing "we're Just worked to death"
Then what happened?
You've guessed it already. The
same thing that always happen.'
when the turn-the-other cheel
philosophy is put to work.
It was I, then, who was apolo
getic. For she not only had mad<
me ashamed: she had won m:
sympthy. I found myself think
ing of her troubles instead of m:
minor ones.
Was my wrath turned away?
Heck! it was evaporated! t
It Takes Courage
It takes courage:
To live according to your con
victions ? to be what you are and
not pretend to be what you are
not;
To say "No" firmly when "No"
should be said, though all others
around you say "Yes";
To live simply and honestly
within your means, and not richly
and dishonestly on the means of
others ;
To refuse to follow a practice
that is wrong, even though it is
"shrewd business" and customary
in the trade;
To stay at home evenings an>
improve yourself when your con
rades are out having a good time
To remain in honest povert
while others grow rich by dubiou
methods which you could easil
copy;
To refrain from gossip whe
others about you delight in it, an
to defend an absent person wh
is being abused'
But it always pays!
! '
? Author unknfcw
IN SPACE AGE
Kids Know Nothing Of Hants I
BOB RIVERS in Watauga Democrat!
Has been said that "all houses
wherein men have lived and died
are haunted houses." . . . Which
could well be, and which reminds
that in the space age, the tales
of hants and hanted houses have
been forgotten. . . . Fact is, a
good hant tale was passed on by
word of mouth for generations
untold, to scare the wits out of
the youngsters, and to provide
some meat for entertaining the
brats in the daytime, when one
was sure he could contain one of
the grim stories without being
scared come nightfall ... So
somewhere along the way, these
WANTED PAY
FOR DIALING
When dial phones were installed
in the Capitol in 1930, Senator
Carter Glass tried to push through
a resolution to ban dials. Said
he: "I object to being trans
formed into one of the employes
of the telephone company without
compensation". ? Reader's Digest.
who were in the know about th
hants and the houses they mad
untenable, have gone away witl
out passing on the word. . .
Used to be our colored friend
along with some of the whit
folks we knew, had tales galoi
of the hanted houses, where folt
couldn't live without hearing tl
booming steps of the old masU
a? he went about the place ra
tling a great chain, and moanir
and groaning in his never-enjU.'
torment.
The youngsters today, so far i
we know, are not ever afraid <
a church at night, when all
quiet, can maybe pass a graveyai
on foot in the dead hours withoi
whistling loud and clear to ket
?up waning juvenile courage. . .
They have never heard our o
colored friend, Aunt Addie Grime
who still resides here, tell of tl
"old woman with horns on hi
head;" they missed Venie Grime
tales of the goblins: and we:
never exposed to stories of tl
queer creatures who dwelt und
footbridges, and spirited tl
youngsters away to make han
out of them. ... A lad of todi
knows little of witches, and <
tho rrroat Jiontc nf tVin ohnn/l/\n.
?>v B.vuu ?luxw ut vilv auaiiuvjiK
[louses and Of the spots wlie
folks had died in violence and
the bloody creature which carrii
its head under its arm. . . . At
they've never heard about tl
sheeted ghost which rises fro
a certain grave on moonlig
nights. . . . They said there w
some doubt that the man w
dead when they lowered th? bo
. . . If they knew all these tal?
the kids would come home earlit
'cause they'd be scared to st;
out. . . . And you can alwa
tell a man who believes In tl
ghosts and the goblins ? he nev
says "haunt." . . . Always "han
. . . and he's the one who's hea
all the choicest tales from (1
shadowy realms of the depafb
spirits.
IT'S THING THEY
USE FOR TV
It was Junior's birthday a
the mailman brought him a bo
as a present from Aunt Ali<
"What is it?" he asked glooml
That's what they call a boc
dear.'' his mother explained. "I
ivhat they make a movie out
Tor television." ? American M
:ury.
*