Page 2 KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD. KINGS MOUNTAIN. N. C. Thursday. February 29. 1968 Established 1889 The Kings Mountain Herald Ji CtroliiM j I AmcUTI A wopljy newspaper devutecl to the promotion of the general welfare and published for the enlightenment, entertainment and benefit of the citizens of Kings Mountain and its vicinity, published every Thursday by the Herald Publishing House, Entered as .second cla.ss matter at the post office at Kings Mountain, N. C., 28086 under Act of Congress of March 3, 1873. EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Martin Harmon Editor-Publisher Miss Elizabeth Stewart Circulation Manager and Society Editor Joe Cornwell Sports Editor .Miss Linda Hardin Clerk MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT Fred Bell Dave Weathers, Supt, *'.411en Myers Paul Jackson Douglas Houser Rocky Martin Steve Martin Roger Brown •On leave with the United States Army SUBSCRIPTION RATES PAYABLE IN ADVANCE — BY MAIL ANYWHERE ONE YEAR... .$3.50 SIX MONTHS... $2.00 THREE MONTHS... .$1.25 PLUS NORTH CAROLINA SALES TAX TELEPHONE NUMBER — 739-5441 TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE Go throiKjh, go through the gaten: i/re/Mre ye the vmy of the i>eoptc; cast up, cast up the high- lean; gather out the stone,<; life up a standard for the people. Isaiah 62:10. Is Limit Good? The new social security law amend ments adopted by Congress in 1967 raises from !S1500 to $1680 the amount of total earnings a social security beneficiary may have in a calendar year without any of his benefits being withheld. Of course, a social security recipient who was able and willing to work, for self or others wont’s be, nor has been, penal ized tor whatever earnings he may re- reivc. Now a person receiving benefits be cause he is disabled will not be penalized. But are the limits good business? Most folk, accustomed to a lifetime of labor, may continue to carp, as do the more youthful, about “blue Monday”. But few find it easy to retire grace fully. They find they are surfeited quick ly on fruition of those beautiful dreams when work demanded they be deferred. Fishing isn’t as inviting. Everyone isn’t available anytime for a golf game. Even travel to distant lands and exotic spas does not prove as enticing, in fact, as in the brochures. Most folk get a social security card at 16, are in full-time employment by 18- 21. Retirement at 65 spells 44 to 47 years of active work. It’s hard to change the habit pat terns for most. Congress would do well to drop the unlimited earnings provision to 65 for all, or up the limit to $2280. The idea of earning $1200 more dol lars (up to $2880) and sacrificing $600 for over-earnings of social security re cipients is rather stupid per se in other wise insulting. District Shorted The 27th judicial district, created by the General Assembly to implement in December the new courts arrangement, was shorted by the General Assembly in its allocation of judges. Five judges will prove undoubtedly insufficient to handle the case load (criminal cases, domestic relations cases, and civil cases up to $5000) for the three- county Cleveland - Gaston - Lincoln dis trict. Even with a two-yedr trial period in some districts, there are still reserva tions in some circles as to how the sys tem, approved in theory, will work in fact. There is general agreement about two improvements; 1) No longer will magistrates find it necessary to find a defendant guilty in order to collect the malcreant’s fee and therefore eat. The magistrate will bo paid a salary, based on case load. Fee basis justice will be out. 2) The buffer court of appeals will lift the heavy burden on the seven-mem ber State Supreme Court. But the 27th district will require more jurists. The population of the three counties totals approximately 250,000 person.-;. Hearty congratulations to Eddie Floyd (the Herald inadvertently report ed his name Eddie Lee) for finishing among 200 finalists iij the Western North Carolina scholastic ait award contest. State Slates Set Items: 2) Beginning with the top spot of governor, where Jick Stickley and U. S. Representative Jim Gardner are wooing the voters, there are numerous other GOP primaries. Three Republicans seek the honor of challenging U. S. Senator Sam J. Ervin, the incumbent Democrat. Dr. Earl Ruth, the onetime Kings Moun tain recreation director, who was finally successful in changing his registration from “D” to “R”, suddenly found him self no shoo-in to oppose his former Uni versity of North Carolina confrere Voit Gilmore for U. S. Representative, but with the immediate chore winning over two other Republicans. One suggested Dr. Ruth should have worked as an In dian in GOP ranks before vying for Chief. The phrase “wooing the voters” well applies in the Stickley-Gardner doings. Not only are they seeking votes from Repuiblicans, but are quietly (Stickley) or brashly (Gardner) suggesting tired- of-it-all Democrats and Independents move over to the Republican ranks. (Many Democrats have received invita tions from Mr. Gardner to contribute $100 to his campaign.) The distaff side is tough. Travel Boom MARTIN'S MEDICINE Ingredients: bits of news, wisdom, humor, and comments Directions: Take weekly if possible, but avoid overdosage. By MARTIN HARMON An I-eouldn’t-have-missed-lt at' titude produced a quite interest' ing convocation at Chapel Hill over the weekend, as the Dally Tar Heel invited stall members of prior years to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the paper's founding—by Charles Baskervillc and Walter (Pete) Murphy—for the purpose of making money to buy uniforms for the poorly clad football team. m-m At noon on Friday, the secretary of the state elections board closed the tloor on would-be candidates for state, con gressional district, and judicial district offices. One would-be candidate didn’t quite rneet the deadline. He arrived with his filing tee at 12:01, was told, “I’m sorry.” The line-up is distinctive and con siderable digging in the archives of the state’s political historv will ——— • to find a year in which another Niieri there were 1) as many didates for these office.s, and 2) as many Republican primaries. I Jimmy Wallace, a Cliapel Hill travel agent and former staff member, 'and journalism Profes sion Walter Spearman, editog ’29, were hosts at a party FTida'y i evening and Jimmy told me that j 65 of the 75 Tar Heel years were represented by one or more staf fers. Dr. Phillips Russell, editor '03, who cubbed on the Charlotte Observer, looked and talked just as he did when he was purveying 30 y’ears ago to me and others the prime three rules of good writing: cle'arness, clearness, clearness. m-m LAST RITES FOR THE LAW SO THIS IS NEW YORK By NORTH CALLABAN The most frightening airplay 1 trip I ever took, outside of thos* I in the Army in World Wat H was from Jacksonville, Florida I to New York in 1942. It was on an Eastern Airlines plane and ' the pilot was Dick Merrill. It was balmy, fall Florida weather when we took off at 1 a.m. and I had just settled back for a nap, wtien it seemed we had struck a moun tain. But it was c»ily a big air pocket and the plane pulled out of it. Then a storm arose alKivc the Carolinas and the plane would drop a hundred f€>et at a time, then bounce and right it self. Nearly every passenger was ill, some were in the aisles pray ing. It really seemed that we would never weather that temp est, and finally we put down in Charleston, S. C. for the night. Next day the weather was just as rough, and when we landed in New York, most of the pas^^^ gers vowed they would never again. It’s always a pleasure to renew acquaintance and compare notes with friends and to make new friends, more especially if they’re either former or present opera tives in the newspapering craft II question the designation "pro fession”). m-m p There will be Democrats vs. Re publican contests for all state offices in November, including the eight elective positions unofficially labeled the “coun cil of state”. Principal last-minute surprise in the Democratic field was the late filing for lieutenant - governor nomination of Mrs. James M. Harper, former president of the state Federation of Women’s Clubs, wife and aide-de-camp to her husband, publisher of the Southport Pilot. Pat Tayor, the early-announced can didate, had punctured the trial balloons of three major Democratic threats in the persons of Ike Belk, Skipper Bowles and Clifton Blue, meantime side-tracking yet another major thereat, Voit Gilmore, to Congressional candidacy. This newspaper has been teased in the past for closing a political resume with the bromide "it’s be interesting to watch.” In Anno Domini 1968, the phrase ain’t a bromide. First memory test came as I entered the Carolina Inn lobby. The nice-looking gentleman ap proached with, “You don’t re member me but I'm ..." I beat him to the draw: “You’re Rolfe Neill.” Rolfe grew up in Moores- ville, was a Tar Heel editor, worked at the Charlotte Obser ver, is now suburban editor of the New York Daily News. Rolfe’s wife Rosemary, native to Clinton, was a parishioner of the Rev. Aubrey Quackenbush, form er Baptist minister here. My con frere, Frank Holeman, who claim ed his UNC diploma from Gover nor Clyde Hoey immediately after me, is the News’ assistant to the executive editor, commutes between Falls Church, Va., and the Big City. m-m Dinner was with the Neills, Bob Morrison, newspaperman. Viewpoints of Other Editors THE COMFORT CAN GET EXPENSIVE Men, they are sneaking NEIGHBORHOOD SLIDING j Today’s adults who cheer at I the sound of the approaching up onj snowplow with its chemical- us. I spreader are yesterday’s children I who never had it so good for For years we have been start-] sliding. Before the days of snow ing, half in awe and half in hor-l tires and snow rernoval techni- ror, at the annual pronounce-! ques that render icy roads Into ments from afar proclaiming ■ dry. bare highways, cars were what women must wear to be in left home. Dad took the bus or style this year. Men were much too clever to fall for that. Oh, we paid the ladies’ bills which wasn’t so clev er. But did we let ourselves get caught in that fashion rat race? Not on your life. Occasionally, some smart pro moter made a good thing out of onetime Newton I lizard shoes or coats with no Ed Yoder, Tar I laps. But you had to put on your made do with shank’s mare. In the meantime, the children hied themselves to the neighborhood hill. 10 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK Items of news about Kings mountain area people and events taken from the 1957 files of the Kings Mountain Herald. Dick Meri'ill, now 73 and in re tirement as chief pilot of Elastern Airlines, wa.s honored here last week at « luncheon of the Sales Executive Club. A.s Arthur God frey, the master of ceremonies, pointed out, Merrill has spt'nt about five years of his life in the sky, or 41,709 hours and ele ven minutes. Some of his 'worst ones must have Iteen that flight I was on. His flving time in cludes a rescue hop to the Lincoln Ellsworth Antarctic expedition in 1935, pioner crossings of the Atlantic in ig.Tf) and 1937 and 33 vears of routine and exciting ex periences as a pilot. Merrill is probably best known for his flight across the Atlantic in a single-engine plane in 1936 with Harry Richmond, the entertainer. (They returned within three 1 weeks, after two forced landings, making the first round-trip cross- Heel co-editor '56 former Rhodes- scholar, Charlotte Observerman, and now' of the Greensboro Daily News, and Walt Dear, publisher of the Henderson, Ky., Gleaner- Beacon. Ed, like many of the name, is native to Catawba coun ty. Bob, I thought, was teaching ioumalism at the University of South Carolina. “Oh, no,” he re- loined, “I have much better scenery in my classes. I teach at Winthrop." He’s also with a Charlotte investment firm spe- cKlizing in risk capital financin'?. Walt Dear succeeds me as cham Dion of the early bird arrivals tor functions at Chapel Hill. My wrife and I arrived a day early three years ago. For the Tar Heel party, Walt arrived one week early, returned to Hender son, then made the schedule. Walt is son-in-law of the late grandfather’s old suit before youi really looked out of style. Andi Then began the laying down of the traditional rules. The long est, steepest section down the middle was reserved for the big gest kids while the smaller ones used the sides. The trek back up was made in the gutter so that feet digging in to climb, would not mess up the hill’s smoothness. If the neighborhood were lucky. Annual fund campaign for thej ing by air. 40.000 ping pong balls American Red Cross will get un- ] were stuffed into hollow sections derway this week, Chairman Paul ■ of the wing and tail of the piano Walker said Wednesday. Goal of! to give it more buoyancy in case the campaign is $5625. | of a landing on water. This did not occur, but it has been said that Richmond became almost uncontrollably fearful during tltq flight. Merrill did crash aln a year later, hut survived! fc-els he has a charmed life- even that could be put right with! jta hill would slope away from a little cutting and sewing by a: Uj* gun prolonging its slide- good tailor. 1 ability. Nevertheless, the best But somewhere along the line Icarefully patched ev^ Compact school patrons will petition the county board of edu cation Monday asking for an election on whether to abolish the so-called split term schedule, j Charlie Carpenter, former| sports editor of the Kings Moun tain Herald, has been name