- ?- THE WAYNESVILLE MOUNTAINEER -==^ County Farm Land Higher Than Average In Nation 'Special to The Mountaineer' NEW YORK ? Acre for acre, farms in Haywood County com mand higher prices than do those in most other parts of the nation. This is one of several encourag ing aspects of the local farm prob lem revealed in the Census Bu reau's new Census of Agriculture. The results of the survey are being i.??ued in preliminary form for each of the 3.067 counties in the United States. It is the first thorough study of the kind since 1950 It shows that the average value of farms 'land plus buildings only) in Haywood County is $233.34 an acre, an increase over the 1950 figure. $152.73 and acre. Thiais more than farmers can get kfMheir property in most parts of t43puntry. The average price is $807 an acre. The local figure is better, also than that for the Southern States as a whole, $76.40 an acre. I In terms of total dollars per farm, values also rose locally since the last census. The average value in the county, excluding machinery and equipment but including land and buildings, has climbed to $12, 940 per farm, according to the cur rent census. It "had been $9,201 per farm in 1950. The downward drift of agricul tural prices, which has become a matter of major concern to the entire nation, has meant an overall decline in net farm income. Its effect, according to the Agri culture Department, has been somewhat cushioned by the fact that there has been a large drop in farm population. The farm in come. therefore, on a per capita basis, has declined to a smaller degree. Some measure of relief is ex pected through enactment by Con gress of the President's soil bank plan, which contemplates the re tirement of roughly ten percent of farm land now planted to crops. This would mean, according to the census data, the retirement of up to 1,996 acres in Haywood County where there were 19,961 acres normally planted to crops. A postwar shortage of rice in the Par East has increased wheat con sumption there. Robert Tharp Is Taking Course In Stone Settina Robert F. Tharp, Jr.. left Friday for a special course in jewelry re pair, diamond and stone setting, at Bowman Technical School, Lan caster, Fa. The course will take from four to six weeks, Tharp said. The watchmaker has been here for the past four years, and is associated with Kurt Cans. He is a graduate of the Southern College of Watchmaking. Memphis, and worked in \\adosboro, and Rock Hill befire coming to Waynes ville. A native of Brevard, he plans to become a specialist in the jewel ry repair, and mounting of pre cious stones, as we I las watchmak ing. Familiar Site NEW BRITAIN, Conn (API When Raymond K Begley, ac companied his son. Ray, Jr, into the latter's classroom at Central Junior High School, he thought a desk in the center of the third row looked familiar. Lifting the lid, he found his ow7n" "Initials RKB where he'd carved them 25 years ago. GE Executive Tells Club Importance Of Modernized Community Relations Plan ?'Both a company and communi ty have responsibilities," J. T Bailey, general manager of tlie Outdoor Lighting Department of General Electric Company, Hen dersonville, told Rotarians here Friday, as he talked on "Commun ity Relations at General Electric." Bailey said that until about ten years ago General Electric con fined its thinking relative to man agement functions, primarily to four basic areas ? engineering, manufacturing, marketing and fi nance. "In the past ten years, however, we have added a fifth area w hich is proving to be equally important ?Employee and Plant Community Relations. It is our feeling that before one can have good com munity relations, one must first have good employee relations Each employee is an ambassador of his company either good or bad ?? and his neighbors tend to j believe hint rather than others with wl oirt they come in contact." ] he said. I Continuing. Bailey pointed out. "More and more in recent years, | we have concerned ourselves with i what our neighbors think beyond j our plant walls. I "In th past, many major com- I panics felt secure in the knowl- ? edge that, measured against ae- < cepted standards, they ranked high 1 as good employers Wages compar- i eU favorably with comparable jobs i in local industry. Working condi- , tions generally rated in the same , top group. Employee benefit pro- i grams were well established and were the forerunners of today's i practices. i "Our company had always be lieved in practicing good citizen ship and in accepting a citizen's i responsibility in all of the cities where our plants were located Local management and employees were encouraged to take part in . all worthy community activities In spite of all these efforts, some thing was lacking. "Beyond these accepted activi ties in which we were >. ngaged we realized that we had to assume and accept responsibility by doing our part in encouraging businessmen, the clergy, educators, and other segments of the community to be come more familiar with our prob lems in serving and retaining our customers and in providing maxi mum work for our employess and, ii'fter paying all of our bills, to earn a fair profit for our share owners. "We realize that we must get our community neighbors to: 11 > understand that a profitable busi ness is good for our community neighbors; (2) benefits resulting Iroin a profitable industry cannot last unless the citizens understand the system whith makes these benefits possible; <3> fully ap preciate that good paying jobs de pend upon the success of local businesses, including General Elec tric. "It was obvious," Bailey said, "that we must prepare a carefullv planned community relations pro gram. It was necessary to realize that ouv employees in our vari ous communities are a product of the environment and climate in each community In which we oper ate. "In assessing community respon sibilities, there is one most im portant fact that must be clearly understood ? that both the com pany and the community have re sponsibilities. Neither can hope for even a degree of advantage at the other's disadvantage. There must be 'give' as well as 'take' We also believe that each of our communities, in which we oper ate plants, has a right to know who we are and what we are do ing there. We need good commun ity-wide understanding and ap proval of our activities. "At the time of our move to Hendersonville, the Employee and Plant Community Relations sec tion set up headquarters there prior to the move of the personnel. Orientation meetings were held with all now employees, discuss ing our philosophies and manage ment in the areas of wages, work ing conditions, job security, and personnel practices. We develop ed a community mailing list w jiich started uith all members of the Chamber of Commcice and to this we added thought leaders in the community. Information letters, reporting on our progress, were mailed to these people. Copies of our plant publications are still mailed to these people, "We have encouraged our man agement representatives to take part in civic activities, and they an- now engaged fn some 150 dif ferent activities around town "Oil .November 5tlt we will hold an Open House at which time we will invite the entire community to visit us at our plant and to learn of our aims and objectives. "We must realize that harmony in our working relations does not just happen ? it is the end result of positive efforts to produce it ? because there are too many factors inherent in our working environ ment which tend to produce the opposite result. "We need enough foresight and understanding to put our best ef forts forward and enough faith in our people and our neighbors to know that the seeds that we sow with them will one day blossom into strong trees and bear fruit which will nourish us as we go about the iob of building success ful business," he concluded. The new turnpike bridge over the Delaware River near Edgely. Pa., required 20,204 tons of steel and 25,000 barrels of cement. d\ i L-i : i. i i{uun oquiun MINERAL OIL . . 98c $1.75 lludnut CREME SHAMPOO . . . SJ.10 $1.25 Nestle JjjAIR SPRAY . . 89c Regular $1.00 Woodbury CREME C AC DEODORANT ... J\J IF IT'S A COKE OR A I'lLL YOU NEED ? SEE US! ' DAN'S DRUG STORE S. A. Dantzler 1 R. L. McKiltrick 1 I K LI R T (? A \ S ? 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