North Carolina Newspapers

I HE NEWS-RECORD PRICE A YEAR MADISON COUNTY RECORD Established June 28, 1901. FRENCH BROAD NEWS Established May 16, 1907. Consolidated November 2, 1911 The PROGRESSIVE FARMER THE NEWS-RECORD QO OC BOTH A YEAR FOR $L.LO MARSHALL, N. C, FRIDAY' FEBRUARY 1, 1929 1800 VOL. XXI Yrwin: THE ONLY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN MADISON COUNTY PLEMMONST PLANS CO. (30MSSI0NERS TO MIMSE HAL RECEIPTS ' i :rr A rYri?i?n 1 11V LAUliliU RESIGNATION OF GEORGE BROUGHT ABOUT CHANGE 1 SEN A T OR SAYS FIVE RALEIGH, Jan. 29. Senator Ira (Plemmons, of Madison County, will introduce a bill to increase the board of county commissioners of his coun ty from three td live members, he an nounced here tonight. Senator Plem mons is of the opinion that "this !s the only Way to save money and pro tect the interests of the tax payers." He has not yet decided who he will name in the bill that he is preparing. "It appears to me that many thou.v 'ands of dollars will be saved to tho tax payers of Madison county if I should introduce and have passed a bill appointing two new commission ers for the county," he said tonight in discussing the matter. "Since Mr. W. L. George found it necessary to resign and a new com missioner was appointed to fill the vacancy, the condition has completely changed and the will of the voters has been thwarted. It appears to me that the board as now constituted is a tool 01 tne ring ana is Keeping in ,,,., nY.:ntaA tho fnllnw- X 11U1 OUUJ pi 111 V HV i. w v ' its employ and spending the tax pay errf money for very questionable service." "I cannot see any other way protect the interests of our tax pay ers for the next two rcar, c::ccpt lo appoint two new county commission ers, which will cost the tax payers a great deal less for the salaries than is being wasted 'by the new board since Mr. George resigned.'" "I am thinking about introducing this bill in about ten days and will be glad to hear from as many of the people in Madison county as pos sible." The present board is composed of T. A. Silver, Claud Wilds and John Ammons. Asheville Citizen. CONCERNING A COUNTY HOSPITAL BILL The house elections .committee Tuesday voted to give an unfavor able report to the bill of Representa tive Hutchins, Republican of Madison, to repeal the city election for the of fice of chief of police of Marshall and allow the aldermen of the town to appoint the officer. OPPOSITION TO HUTCHINS' BILLS IN RALEIGH The Asheville port from the re- Citizen's legislature ing: Madison county held the spotlight in the committee halls today when Representative J. H. Hutchins' bill to abolish the county's sixty special pro, niDition orncers, name a two years a- o by N. EL, MPevit,j member of the ouie from Madison at that time, was reported 'unfavorably. i Dr. Hutchiris prevented information in an effort to' show tht the, prohk Dition omctra were appoiniea . Dy oar: McDevitt in an attempt! to form the nucleus of a political organization to control the' county. He charged that tnese omcers naa.not laxen steps u suppress liquor handling and offered affidavits from the sheriff and clerk of court to prove his point. McDEVITT PRESENT Mr. McDevitt was present at the committee meeting and told the com mittee that he was named in a peti tion signed by 24 township Demo cratic executive committeemen to represent Madison county at this ses sion. He brought with him eleven Madison county citizens, four of whom were prohibition agents under the bill and all backed him in his statements. The .committee, which was composed at the sitting today, entirely of Democrats, voted five to four to return the bill unfavorably. The minority group, however, is pre-' paring a minority report and the biL is slated to come up on the floor of the House where it is anticipated that a lively fight will follow. ' Those who appeared to back Mr. McDevitt in his stand were G. C. Redmon, Enoch Rector, T. A. Silver, Jim Rice, Jim Payne, Fred Holcombe, Morgan Ramsey, John Merrill, Floyd Henderson, Fred Roberts, and Gar Ponder. t: EXPENDITURES " iWATNESVILLE. N. C, Jan. 21 The fallowing is information obtained from;the office of the Haywodo Coun ty Auditor. In ten days Haywood County Hos- pitaiwill have a certified auditor of rheDfike Foundation Company m Waynesville to audit the books for the fjit hospital year. The follow ing Stajtement as to financial status of the hospital was obtained from the Chairman of Hospital Board and bears his signature (Rufus Tiler) : Operating Expenses of Hos pital ?19,299j)0 Reoeiyed from patients 17,970.00 AccQUits on books .. 3,131.00 Estimated Duke Endow- ' rrient aid to be paid after the audit SOth, 1928 - $14,672.56 Balance left over from i. 1927 7,745.38 Keeeinta maid in ud to Jan. 26, 1929 - 21,456.05 Subtracting Balance of 1927 - 7,745.38 Net Cash Receipts 13,710.67 Expected Duke Aid to ex ceed - z.iwu.uu Receipts since June 30, 1928 - 15,710.27 Signed: W. H. NO LAND, County Auditor. IRA PLEMMONS WRITES ABOUT HOSPITAL Patients admitted Mjtjor operations . Minor operations Deaths ... Surgical deaths . t j Signed: 2,000.00 .620 148 244 13 3 RUFUS TILER, Chm. ' Hosp. Board. The following is a statement from the County Auditor, W. H. Noland, bearing his signature: Hospital cost since June The location of Haywood County hospital is very fortunate. It com mands a good view of surrounding countrv. is located in approximately the geographic center of Haywood County, and is well away from city noise and smoke nuisance. It is not i. U J.n,.nJ k,r !P1WU UU18 IB BUUUL U1C smile m any position to be endangered by P hospitals and usuany the h.gh water. t is Jy eble , ice fa of tPhe poorest charcter uu all Hie peupic ui tuc iuuiuj v av COUnt of the good roads. The above requirements would of necessity be the paramount issues in selecting a location for Madison County s proposed hospilil. livery , ., , .-, i i .j u true uulii in uucuurs uu uuidco. hospital site must be approved by L passes it seems the cost increases Jan. 25, 1929. News-Record : For some time I have been think ing about the proposed Hospital e- lection and what it would mean to Madison County. I have tried to make very careful inquiry from the Representatives of the different counties that nave a hospital of the kind proposed for our county. In every case the same thing very nearly has been said to me, and that is that it is breaking the county up to maintain it. The cost of hos pital bills is about the same as in serv- poorest character or cer tainly not as good as would be had in larger hospitals. This seems to be for the reasons that specialists cannot afford to be kept in the ordi nary County hospital. That being true both in doctors and nurses. As Representative W. S. Rankin of the Duke Foundation Co. before the com pany will donate any funds. The necessary requirements must be fulfilled. R. C. Holt of Wake County reports an income of $200 a month from a flock of 1,000 leghorn hens. By Jack V. ioyee The taxpayers at a near date ere to vote whether oik mot' a County Hos pital shall be built. This is an inter esting question which should be faced by the citizens of Madison County without bias, without prejudice. This we are told is to be a county hospital. The taxpayers are being asked to take upon themselves a bond issue which will raise their tr.xes maybe only a little. Some citizens feel their tares are as high as they can stand now. In talking to several people from differ ent parts of the county J. find a mighty few people who are against a hospital, but I also find a host against the proposed bond issue. Wny .' Be cause they know nothing about the facts and I don t blame them at all We are being kept ignorant of the facts, and when we dare ask ques tions' about the proposed hospital, we are snubbed and accused of trying to stir up confusion. Only a few days ago a taxpayer dared to assert his rights by asking: Where is the hospital to be built A prominent citizen of the city of Marshall standing by said, "There you go trying to stir up confusion. Let's get the hospital and then de cide where to build it later." This citizen is one of the promoters of the hospital, as I understand, and I am no prophet nor son of a prophet, but if that is the spirit and view held by the promoters, I predict an overwhel ming defeat of the Hospital Bond Issue election, and it will verily be a victory for the people. But if the people are publicly in formed about the matter, told some thing, where it is to be built, and shown definitely it is to their advan tage, I believe my fellow citizens of Madison County are progressive e nough to carry it We citizens of this county are not going bind a higher rate of taxes on ourselves blindly, but are willing to take hold of some thing that will benefit us. In the petition presented to the Commissioners asking them to call an election, I believe one clause was that this hospital waa to be built in the corporate limits of the city of Mar shall. Tell us where you are going to build it in Marshall. Why not build it somewhere away from the shieks of the locomotive or the dangers of the ravages of the mighty river. one citizen was heard to say the other day: "if they build the hospital in Marshall, if she was to get sick she would rather die at home as to go to Marshall and be in danger of dy ing from the sickness or being killed by the noise of trains or beino- drown ed by the French Broad River. I am not committing myself by this article for or against the hospital, fit am only asking for information. I M AWn - aMnH -.A4- . 1L. citizenship of the county, not big e nough to be notice: ; my vote only Mlimfai nwtm VAt wiA . 11 ma A A wui viva nil. iiiy. ucbiviu any election, but I am interested in Mrdison -county and its citizens. - Let's kaowi where yon are going to build the hospitaL then - left, c'ecide whether we want it or not (-) -(- -)- (-) ()- -) (-) (-) (-) (-) -(-) (-) THE WORK OF THE DEMONSTRATION AGENTS (Editorial by H. L. STORY) We see that Senator Plemmons has introduced into the leg islature a bill to abolish the offices of Farm and Home Demonstra tion agents in Madison County. What will be the fate of the bill remains to be seen. It may never pass the committee, or it may pass the legislature and become a law abolishing these offices in Madison County. We believe we understand Senator Plemmons in this matter he has nothing .personal against the present in cumbents, rather likes them personally, pot is not in sympathy ; with the existence of these offices, not only in Madison ; County,- -fbtft'llJftnerjt.-'.. He aptf ttio,se vWfr jrittnAij take-fhe etaai that while the county pays a part of -the ssihrfy 6f these offfcers, I I I I T A' I Sod ia'tlM' aewrlrom ot,eom. the other parts of the salary are borne by the state and nation as a whole, which means that the people pay the expense alter all. As we see it, that is true, and if we do not have these agents in Madison County, we people in Madison are helping to pay the sal aries of similar agents in other counties and states and are getting Y nc direct benefit. But if we have these agents in Madison Coun ' ty, we get the benefit of having other counties and states help pay the salaries. Granting for the sake of argument that these offices are worth to the county, what they cost, a county would be much in its own light not to have the direct benefit when, in a sense, it I must bear the larger portion of the expense whether it has these -I officers or not. What we mean is this: suppose every county in w the United States had these offices at an expense of $6000 a year, and suppose every county was bearing one-third the expense, the state one-third and the nation one-third. If property values in I every county were the same and the tax rate the same, the cost to X every county would be the same as if the people in every county 1 voted a special tax to raise $6000 to run these offices. Then sup I pose that under the system of the state, nation and county, pay ing one-third each, one county should decide to abolish these of fices. That county would save $2000, but it would still be pay ing $4000 to help support these offices in other counties. In this hypothetical case, the one county without these offices, would still be indirectly benefitted by observing improved methods in adjoin ing counties, but the benefits would not be commensurate with the possible benefit which would result from having the offices filled in the county. All this argument is based on the assumption that the offices are worth to a county in general what they cost. If they are not, then we say that they should be abolished not only in Madison County, but in every county in the United States. Certainly they should not exist only for the puipose of giving somebody a job. Such was not the purpose or intention in cre ating these offices. They were intended and created with a view to helping our farmers, to give them new ideas and improved methods of farming, to improve' living conditions in and about the home; in other words, to make people, especially in the rural dis tricts, more prosr-crous and happy. If they are succeeding in do ing this, or show promise of accomplishing these results, they should be retained. Are they? WHAT ARE THE FACTS? Frankly the facts are hard to get Ask any number of peo ple and some will tell you one thing and some another. Some people in Madison County will declare that the office of Farm Demonstration Agent in Madison County is worth many times what it costs the county, the state, and nation as a whole. Among these are some of the best business men of the county, including bankers, merchants, professional men, and others. The bankers have no interest except to see the'farmers prosper, knowing that the more prosperous the farmers, the better their banking busi ness, the better the mercantile business, the professional business, and every other business. Some of these business and profession al men have farms and some of them will declare that their farms are better money producers because of the direct benefit derived by the county having its farm demonstration agent. Praises come not only from business and professional men, but they i:cme from some of the more prosperous farmers in the remote parts of the county. A number of farmers in Madison County will declare today- that they have learned directly or indirectly from the farm demonstration agent things that mean dollars to them every year, when their part of the expense of retaining the demonstrator is negligible. If the office were abolished, they would consider themselves-idjrectly damaged. On the other hand, 1th ere are many people in Madison Coun ty who would ckiHt fhaV. tftft office of farm demonstration agent is not worth a nkkeL. jfW e'-jare ot discussing-the', office of Home T1 -Demonstration' hr,vtfor."Hhe reason that Madison' County has flrv en w'thnt thlt cffiee.for, a number of yearavantil eerttly)- I I I Ind we understand that Senator Plemmons is among the num ber. Whether Senator Plemmons owns a farm or not we are not f!ke to say. We do know he is a business man in his home town, owning a mercantile business, a hotel business, and perhaps other .interests. Whether he personally had any business in which the farm demonstration agent could have helped if asked, we do not Know. But personal matters of this kind should not figure when ijt comes to legislating for a county or state. And we are sure Senator Plemmons is too broad-minded to be influenced in legis lating by his own personal or private interests. But he may be Conscientiously even against his own personal interests and those f the county at large, if he is moved by a portion of the facts and Aot by all the facts, which we admit are hard to get. For instance, Mr. Plemmons is openly and above board opposed to this office. The people of the county know it, for he has made his position i known through the columns of this paper 4nore than once. Con Kl no people who agree with hW'ton this question will ' flock to htm- and lasd thi. eaaualgjivent." '. Al'iew!. M ihOMt'Oli the other side may have the courage to speak their minds, but the average person would prefer to keep out of argument, hence keep silent on the subject, which silence he may consider consent. We cannot deny the fact, however, that Senator Plemmons was elected by the people of the County, the people knowing how he stood on this question. That may seem conclusive, but it may or may not be. The one BIG IDEA in Senator Plemmons' pre primary publicity was that TAXES HERE AND THERE are too high and should be reduced. That is a popular stand to take, for none of us specially love to pay taxes, and the average person would agree to support a man who promised to reduce taxes before ever stopping to consider whether the reduction of taxes would . be beneficial or not. Money properly spent is not an expense but an investment. Some people would kick like a mule if forced by tax to pay a dime even if it could be shown that the expendi ture of the dime would benefit them a dollar's worth. Lots of people are prejudiced against anything called TAXES. The point we are trying to make is that Senator Plemmons election may have been partly due to his stand on the questtion of farm demonstration agent, or he may have been elected by an equally large majority if he had been openly in favor of the farm demonstration agent, and at the same time had promised relief from burdensome taxes in other ways. But even admitting that the majority of the people of the county would vote against the office of farm demonstration agent. Would that fact alone prove that the office should be abolished? This writer submits in silence to the vote of the majority, but he refuses absolutely to believe that the majority is always right. Majorities are often wrong for the reason that they are misin formed, are not in possession of all the facts, have not weighed the facts on each side carefully and arrived at an unbiased con clusion. But we have to submit whether right or wrong. To use Biblical illustrations, the majority was opposed to Children of Israel entering the promised land of Canaan. Only two of the twelve were in favor of it, but who would dare say that the two were not right and the ten wrong? The mob', the majority, cruci fied Christ, but who would say they were right? Even in our own day, assemblies will reverse themselves after hearing the other side. This writer has often found that he was wrong after hearing the other side. We have Kiibwn many men who would oppose bitterly an improvement in a 'town,' -but 'after the improve ment had been made, its opponent would become its strongest supporter. The point we make is that the result of the recent election does not prove that the office of farm demonstration rgcrit rh-vTM bs abolished. . i If you are a farmer, and if you have tried conscientiously and persistently to get some benefit from the farm demonstration agent, both by reading his articles in this paper and by calling at his office and discussing your problems with hiin, and by inviting him out to your farm to look over your irltUatrbn, we say that if you have done all this and have had no benefit, we 'believe you have a right to a kick. But if you ''have not cone these things, how could you expect to be beneftttfed? The sun shines for your benefit, but you have the prtviWj'e"')f hiding in a cave if you wish, where you could die for want -1of sunshine. Mr. Brintnall is a splendid writer, and if he did not do any thing but write and the people would" read his articles, some of our most intelligent citizens believe that-just that alone would be worth more than his cost to the county. ' His articles are conceded to be among the best. Here is what Mr. F. H. Jeter, Agricultural -.Editor of the State Collegesys of hf-Writing: Both Mr. Brig-ham and! I, and -others connected with agricvl i. Mural work of - the State, have atadied year column a number of time. I tell yoM frankly, I think it k on the bt in the State nd I believe U ia one ef the Mat valaahk. - Ton have a good a celanaa, take h week after week, as there' is YabUahed ta North Carolina. .-. -a .-.t , I I I I t ire' :' T'- .'ui. ..it' l-oa for the maintenance, the upkeep grows and the tax payers groan. The very small amount that we would receive from the Duke foun dation is negligible when it comes to building and maintenance cost as compared with what is to follow af ter the hospital is built and equipped. Some people are always ready to ac cept anything that appears to be giv en to them, but lots of times it is bet ter not to accept gifts, especially if the gift will cost more to maintain than the services derived, and that is exactly what I think will happen in the event we should vote more bond's on us to meet the condition" under which we could get the gift in this instance. For these reasons and many more I see how we would not be benefitted to vote more bonds on our people. Heaven knows that we are now burdened with taxation to the very point of ruin. We have the very best hospitals within thirty min utes of the place where this hospital is to be built. In 30 minutes any patient can be at either hospital in Asheville where the very best medi cal skill can be had and not cost any more than it would in a County hos pital in Marshall. Our doctors are nice gentlemen and good in their pro fession, but have, had y& ttttle boa- , , .jriteterience. 'vThey might be Just as good as can be found nywhere and then again they might not I am convinced that in the -end oar county will have to sell their interest in the proposed hospital should the folk vote to POND and build it, too, I think I know who would be the buy er. I have no fuss to pick with the fel low who sees things different to what I do but I do feel that some special interests are to be served' by the pro posed Hospital. I do not think, I know who is going to do the paying over the sum given, and that is the tax payes of Madison County. I must advise the tax payers to register and see to it that every man and woman who does not want, to be. taxed more go to the polls and vote against the hospital measure. Some say, why, your part will only be a few cents a year. That may be true, but the few cents per year on so many things has raised the taxes to where they are now, almost to the point where none of us can pay them, and if we do we have not a cent to go to the benefit of our fam ilies. I am here in Raleigh doing all I can to lighten the load of taxation on my people, and I believe it will be accomplished. If I succeed, then why will more be put on to overcome or at least add some to whatever might be taken off by whatever leg islation may be passed at this ses sion of the General Assembly. I was almost discouraged when I saw that an eleciton had been called for the purpose of further bonding Madison L-ounty. i cannot believe that the thinking people who are now groan ing under the buraen of taxation will go and further vote bonds, which ' means just another morteasre on their I homes. Too, when at the most the difference in time to get to a good I hospital will not mean more than 30 I minutes to Asheville, and not make j any difference in time, since we have j at Marshall a splendid hospital that is giving satisfactory service ani' at no cost whatever to the tax payer3. We have exactly the same doctors . now giving their services in the hos pital that is now at Marshall, that we , would have if we should Bond and , . I build a new one. The new place might be a bit finer ibut the patient would not get well ' perhaps a minute soner, and the cost - ' would be very nearly the same, if , anything, would perhaps be higher in the new Bonded one. 1 ' I Lei me urge the tax payers to I think long and carefully before you . jvote more bonds on yourselves. We have lots of just such little taxes t aaaeo on until we are now over-bur- "f doned, and in debt that we can never pay, that is those of us that live now; I am studying every means that I t can think of to reduce., the tax bar den, so as not to cripple the very -necessary tilings that we must have, and-1 believe next year yosr taxes-1 -,; Will be less. -; ; , ; y i Again let ma. urge the voter-to register1 and " .tote.. aninat. Bnri. i IBOND3. -BONDS, -arj-we ; not' now It vHrten4 aMTi!ywktt irU!- " V " ' . - i . 't ' . v '.'. ;