Che Cticroftee Scout
Tke Official Organ of MwrpJay and Cbcrokec Co??
ty. North Carolina. *
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
C. W. BAILEY Editor-Manager
MRS. C. W. BAILEY Associate Edilo*
B. W. Sipo Associate Editor
Entered in the postoffice at Murphy, North Caro
lin, as second class mail matter under Act of March
3. 1879.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
One Year
Eight Months
Six Months
Payable Strictly in Advance
Legal advertisements, want ads. reading notices,
obituaries, cards of thanks, etc., 5c per line each
insertion, payable in advance. Display and contract
rates furnished on request.
All communications must be signed by the writer,
otherwise they will not be accepted for publication.
Name of the writer will not be published unless so
specified, but we must have the name of the author
as evidence of good faith.
VALUE OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES RECOGNIZED
$1.50
l.UU
.75
AFTER the church and the school, the free public j
library is the most effective influence for pood l
n America. The moral, mental and material bene- j
rits to be derived from a carefully selected collec- j
ion of pood books, free for the use of all the peo- ;
->le. cannot be over estimated. No community can
ifford to be without a library. ? Theodore Roose- i
velt.
The opening of a free public library is a most im
portant event in any town. There is no way in which j
i community can more benefit itself than in the
establishment of a library which shall be free to
all citizens. ? William McKinley.
The system of free public libraries now being
established in this count! y is the most important
development of modern times. The library is a
center from which radiates an ever widening in
fluence for the enlightenment, the uplift, the ad
vancement of the community. ? William Jennings
Bryan.
Promote as an object of primary importance, in
stitutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. ?
Washington's Farewell Address.
The same wire policy and intent which open the
doors of our free schools to our young, also sug
gests the completion of the plan thus entered upon
by placing books in the hands of those who in our
schools have been taught to read. ? Grover Cleve
land,
Public libaries are necessary ' for the education
and betterment of the people. ? Sir James Barrie.
The importance of the public library can hardly
be exaggerated. ? George Bernard Shaw.
The library is essential to America's chief busi
ness, which is the rearing, training and develop
ng of the citizens of our nation. ? Sarah I.. Arnold,
dean of Simmons College.
The free public library is distinctly an American
nstitution. No country in the world has opened up
.ranches ar.d democratized the use of books and
eading rooms for circulation and research as have
we . . . The free public library is one of America's
contributions to municipal administration. ? Fred
eric C. Howe, writer on municipal government.
A library is not a luxury but one of the neces
saries of life. ? Henry Ward Beecher.
Every man cannot select his environment or en
,oy the advantage of personally meeting the acutest
linds of his day. Fortunately, however, many of
. ;|ese great men have committed the reasons for
heir own deductions to books. The inestimable
blessing of libraries is that they give everyone the
\ opportunity of getting in touch with these ideas. ?
.Vilfred T. Grenfell.
/
It is hard for me to speak of the value of libraries
in terms which would not seem exaggeiated. Books
lave been my delight these thirty years, and from
hem I hav? received incalcuable benefits. ? Sir
vVilliam Osier.
The New Jersey man who seized a giant locomo
tive when the Pennsylvania Railway failed to pay
i $32,000 damage suit which he had won, is perhaps
a fellow with a "suppressed emotion" ? caused by
his parent's failure to give him a train for Xmas
when a boy.
Earl Carrol back on Broadway, and under the
terms of his parole of "no parties or drinking" for
?ight months ? will now have the oportunity to ob
serve for the first time just what gosh-all-boobs
;he boobs on Broadway always have been.
Levine, first trans- Atlantic air passenger, home
rgain at last, announces he will build S1500 flivver
T>lanes. If true it would seem every year is going
to be a grass-hopper year from now on.
two bobbed-hair girls on the Fall-Sinclair
1 "modern" haircuts like we saw on a local
week, there was little chance for defense
to pull the wool over their eyes.
, since that London typist swam the English
rl there is at least one stenographer in the
with a clean neck.
THE ROAD SITUATION
HE HOPES of Clay and Cherokee Counties for
an oil treatment surface on No. 28, between
Hayesville and Murphy, have gone blooey again,
and the general road situation with reference to
both counties doesn't look as though we'll be travel
:n*i ctiuitg on iiowery oeas ol ease" lor quite a
while yet.
In a meeting at Hayesville of the citizens of
Clay, Mr. Stikeleather, Mr. Walker and a delegation
from Cherokee, after an explanation by Mr. Stike
'tather of the difficulties under which he was labor
ing, the meeting unanimously retracted the resolu
tions adopted at a former meeting.
.Mr. Stikeleather stated that Clay was some thirty
thousand dollars overdrawn according to pro rata,
and Cherokee was over in the red column by more
than one hundred thousand. With the funds that
would be available by January the first, he said, the j
greater portion of this overdraft would be wiped j
out, Clay perhaps completely and Cherokee some
thirtv or forty thousand short.
.
With this situation, he stated, funds for the two
j counties of necessity had to he limited. He stated j
I he could not do anything this winter to No. 28.
' other than maintain it so that it would be passable.
I With reference to the road to Tennessee, he stat- j
ed lifter the meeting that the project would be let
to contract for grading in December, and in all 1
probability just to the extent of the fifty thousand
dollars donated by the county. He said the state
h?d no place to draw funds fiom, but if any could
be found for supplementing the county donation he
would certainly do it.
He said that some of the big counties where there
were surpluses were asking him why he was spend
ing their money down in Cherokee and* Clay, and
other financially unfortunate counties, when they
needed it on their own roads. He said that he was
doing all he could for Cherokee and Clay, and it
would give him no greater pleasure than to be
able to do more. After doing all he cold, and then
[ for a meeting to unjustly criticize him, he said he
j felt like the visitor who announced alonp about :
I supper time, that he was going home.
And as near as we can give it this is the story he J
told: The visitor said to his host: "Well I'm going
home. If they haven't got supper done when 1 get
there, I'm going to raise h 1. If they have got
! it done, I'll be d d if I eat a bite."
? A * * *
So much for that! Mr. Stikeleather also made a
statement vith reference to Cherokee county not
i asking: fo funds to be expended on No. 28 that we
| could not let go unchallenged.
At a meeting of both Cherokee and Clay County (
citizens in Murphy, sponsored by the Murphy Lions |
Club, at which members of the Road Commissions j
of both counties were present, Mr. Stikeleather was
I asked to give us a better road to Hayesville, and |
1 stated at the time that it was his intention to give
thi3 road ar. oil coating surface and put it in condi
tion to stand traffic this winter.
On other occasions, letters have been written by
citizens, and by word of mouth, he has been asked
to do this. Also, the Commissioners of Cherokee 1
County have donated to the State some six hundred (
' dollars (a small sum, we will admit, but money just j
' thi same, and we hope more will be available in the j
I futuie) for use in betterment work on Patterson
hill ? and this is certainly on No. 28. We felt th<
statement an injustice not only to people of this
county, but to those citizens of Clay county who
have to use this road in order to get to their rail
road point.
The problems and fortunes of the two counties
are so interwoven that co-operation with one an
( ther is a vital necessity, and it has been and will
? c ontinue to be the policy of this paper to suppress
factionalism and strife, especially among the peoples
f of which it has its being. These lines are written
I and uttered in the most sincerest friendly attitude
toward .Mr. Stikeleather, and we are glad to carry
elsewhere in these columns a retraction of that
statement, and accept it in the spirit in which it
was given.
mm
Mr. Stikeleather has his problems, and we have !
cur problems. A meeting like that held at Hayes- !
v-lle luesday, and the discussion gone into in the!
, spirit manifested by both Mr. Stikeleather and the j
j people, is certainly not without its fruits. The meet- !
j ing, we believe, brought about a better understand- '
1 irifc of those problems and the spirit of co-operation !
was again renewed.
F!VF HAYS AT LEAST
THE AMERICAN Federation of Labor favors a
five-day week, giving the worker two days out
* of seven. Russia's Government, exercising all pow
- ers, establishes a seven-hour work-day, a* long step
from the serf slavery of old Russia. Those who j
start the five-day week, want men to have one day i
in which to spend what they earn in five day*.
Spending is as important to the country as earning,
they say. i
The value to workers of a seven-hour day, or five
day week, depends on what they do with the extri j
day or hour of freedom. If they read and think
more, they will go ahead. If not, they will stay in
the same place, but in any case, the greater leisure
will improve their health. That will make a better
next generation, inclined to thought.
Robert A. Milikan, brilliant scientist of Californ
ia Institute of Technology, tells students that science
"will free human "slaves," meaning, presumably,
that science will free men from hard labor. Pray
that it may not happen too soon. Free men today
from the necessity that drives them, and i?9 in 100
would become worthless. If you doubt it, contem
[ plate those that inherit wealth, in so-called society, j
That distant booming you hear these days is not
the Mexican revolution ? but presidential candi
dates limbering up the Big Berthas for the 1928
free-for-all.
When Bill Hinch told Sam Purdy's wife to shut
her mouth and keep it shut, she did. Bill is a *i~n
tist.
Stranger in town last week "did not choose to
run" while crossing the street. One less Republican
vote in 1928, or was it a Democrat.
It has taken more than five years to prove it, but
the nation now knows that Harry Sinclair har no
Teapot Dome.
Inasmuch as there seems nothing to interfere,
why doesn't the King of Italy go over and play
with the little King of Roumania?
Whether or not it is announced in their plaforms,
almost every politician is particularly interested in
forestry. The log-rolling department, at least.
The fellow who said the automobile was ruining
the younger generation, really meant ? the young
er generation is ruining the automobile. Yeh, all
of them.
France wants to talk about that war debt again, i
Just like Mark Twain's weather, "everybody talks]
and talks but nobobdy does anything."
Geese are flying South early, indicating a severe ?
winter. Who knows. It may be propaganda fram- |
e<l up with the geese by coal barons.
It is reported President Coolidge is "waisting
away" with a new electric vibrator at the White j
White House
William H. Clune, railroad engineer dies at Los
Angeles, leaving a foitune of $20,000,000. He made
the money in moving pictures.
Maine voters refusal to give up the direct pri
mary system of nomination is one time when we all
hope, "As Maine goes, so goes the nation."
When jumping from an airplane with a parachute
one is supposed to count ten before pulling the
string. It is said theie are few "Dempsey-Tunney"
counts on record.
Poor innocent ginger-ale and cracked ice now
come under prohibition's ban, the idea being a great
deal like the father who makes the whole family go
to bed because he is sleepy.
DR. FRANK CRANE SAYS
SOME SCIENTIFIC TALK IS BUNK
ND now comes along an astronomer of the
Yerkes Observatory, near Chicago, and says
that there is probahly going to be an explosion of
the sun which will doom the earth and its inhabi
tants to extinction and may happen any minute, al
though again it may not happen for a million years
Another astronomer out in Berkeley, California,
says that the universe is 104 quardrillion miles in
diameter. One hundred ninety-four quardrillions is
all there is ? there isn't any more.
Ordinarily statments like this leave us dumb and
awestricken. We accept them as true because we
have no way of contradicting them.
They are like the statements that used to be
made about theology, when they argued whether
one million or ten angels could stand on the point
of a pin. Nobody knew anything about it anyhow
and so the declarers were safe.
We read somewhere in our youth of a story of a
man who professed to know everything. Ask h:m
how many fishes there were in the river and he
could tell you to the last minnow. There were ex
actly seventeen million and ninety-six. He also
knew the number of nails that went into the bridge
and the number of stars in the heavens and the
number of hairs on your head and could tell you
the number exactly in a minute's notice. This was
all right because nobody could dispute it, but it was
simply a bold V.iuff.
If you say there are nine trillion blades of grass
on the lawn nobody is going to take the trouble to
count them. Your statement goes unchallenged.
| A :ot of this scientific data is pure bluff intended
to awe the common man and it succeeds pretty well.
We have passed the age when people are stricken
dumb by theological dictum, but we are in' the zone
j now where people are bludgeoned by scientific data.
I Science has done some wonderful things. It pr~
i diets an eclipse of the moon to the minute and teiis
us how electricity will act and all sorts of things,
but that is no reason why scientists should lay back
their ears and talk lightly about things that are
manifestly pure guesses.
The sun may explode tomorrow and again it may
not. One man's guess is as good as another's. We
I have made some progress in finding out about earth
quakes and we have elaborate theories as to how
they occur, but just when an earthquake is going
tc hit us we know as well as the scientists. '
The best things we can do is to run along and
' sell our papers and if the works blow up we are
[ as well off as anybody and no worse.
<'<ii>?richt Hfifi
or so.
' ' -
\y Arthur BriiU^
MONKEY SUPERMAN.
115 RATTLESNAKES.
HER QUIVERING FLESH.
INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE.
' Professor Voronoff has made old
men seem younger with the help of
monkey glands, has made science
take him seriously.
Now he proposes to create sup
ermen, such as Nietsche dreamed
of, by using animal glands on
yo-ing children of exceptional tal
ent. He believes that he will create
genius such as earth never saw in
the children of children thus treat
ed. The old-fashioned will believe
that if monkeys could help create
finer men. Nature and wise Provi
dence would have called on the
monkeys long ago.
Also a race of supermen is just
what the world does NOT want.
Tall men like short women, thin
women admire fat men, genius
marries mediocrity, all proof that
Nature wants us to march along
side by side about even, not a few
far ahead of the others, or riding
on the backs of inferiors.
Those that run risks today will
have contributed to absolute safe
flying in the future. Lindbergh
says flying overland with a good
pilot and machine is safer now
than automobiling.
Better machines will soon make
ocean flights as simple and safe
as a flight over the English Chan
nel, for which Northcliffe, a few
years ago, offered a $50,000 prize.
Moving pictures show Lionel
Barrymorc holding the red-hot
branding iron, Aileen Pringle pro
viding the snow-white shoulder
and quivering flesh to which the
"red-hot" iron will be applied.
Thousands, shuddering at this
branding, will hardly realize that
such torture would have been con
sidered natural a few years ago.
Men were skinned alive, impaltd
on sharp shafts and left dying for
hours. ? At the time of Henry the
Second, a workman was branded
on the cheek with a hot iron, if
without permission he left his par
ish to find work in another.
Those Fenry the Second work
men may comfort united coal mine
?workers of America, forfiidden hv
court injunction to interfere with
the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Cor
poration's open shop.
That injunction and others like
it will do a pood deal to make
unions powerless. Hut it isn't as
bad as being branded for going
out of your parish to look for
work. \Ve do improve, although
slowly.
Near Riverton, Wyoming, Ted
Lee killed 115 rattlesnakes with a
shovel.
Rattlesnakes rely entirely on
poison and conceit, which makes
it easy to destroy them. So with
those that pervert truth in history,
religion, or otherwise. They rely
on a poison which is not reliable,
and are disposed of easily.
A British lady doctor, Dorothy
Cochrane Logan, swims the Eng
lish Channel in 13 hours and 10
minutes, cutting Gertrude Ederle's
record by 1 hour, 24 minutes. This
does not mean eclipsing the
Kderle achievement. It all de
pends on wind, tide and waves, as
you know if you have sailed across
that rough, mean and choppy
stretch of water.
Similarly the man who dies with
a "big name" and millions has not
necessarily beaten the record of
I some poor devil ending in the Pot
i ter s field. ALL depends on t lie
: kind of sailing each had on life's
i -.vater.
? D
In Los Angeles last week. Max
I S. Hayes, farmer-labor candidate
for Vice-President in 1920, told the
American Federation of Labor it
ought to start a labor party in
1928.
J President Green, of the Federa
tion, knows that failure is no loikI
advertisement, and will not advise
a step that would mean a miserably
j V-oor showing and hurt the prestige
of organized labor. Union men
know that one of two candidates
will win the 1928 election, and they
will reserve the right to vote for
the one they consider the better
man.
Every year there are born ?n
Germany 15,000 pairs of twins,
sets of triplets. And a springing
of quadruplets. Xo nation has so
many.
This human fertility is more
portant to Germany tJ.nn any or
her factories. The i ... v alt 1 lS
human intelligence a.id i "d"stry,
and the world's mothers c*cate
real wealth.
/