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The Transylvania Times
' Published Every Thursday by
TIMES PUBLISHING COMPANY
Brevard, N. C.
~ ■ ~
THE NEWS THE TIMES
Estab. 1896 Estab. 1931
Consolidated 1932
Entered as second class matter, October 29,
1931, at the Post Office in Brevard, N. C.,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
ED M. ANDERSON_Publisher
HENRY HENDERSON_Ass’t. Publisher
MISS ALMA TROWBRIDGE_Associate
IRA B. ARMFIELD_Business Manager
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, PER YEAR
In the County, $1.50 Out of the County,$2,00
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1943
A Community Problem
Far from encouraging is the news that
absenteeism resulting from illness, non
industrial accidents, and personal reasons
caused a loss of 39,400,000 man-days in
January of this year.
These figures, from the records of the
National Industrial Conference Board, in
dicate that if absenteeism continues at this
rate, almost half a billion man-days will
be lost during this vital production year.
Absenteeism has always been with us to
some extent and probably always will be.
It is high-lighted and emphasized now be
cause the war effort requires the presence
of every man and woman on the job every
hour of his or her working day.
Every hour of production loss is serious.
Late deliveries or short orders may be the
difference between life and death to our
armed forces. The issue is so important
that everything possible must be done to
cut down this disastrous time loss.
Industry has bent every effort to combat
the absentee problem through greatly ex
panded facilities for the protection and
welfare of workers. But industry cannot
do the job alone.
Some communities to which thousands
of new war workers have been attracted
have been short of housing. Some have had
insufficient transportation facilities. There
are many cases in which retail stores,
laundries, beauty parlors, banks and res
taurants have not become geared to the
needs of shift workers. In some cases rec
reation and entertainment facilities are
inadequate or ill-timed.
Many communities that have had to ab
sorb thousands of war workers almost
overnight have not as yet caught up with
the many miscellaneous demands made
upon them for food, shelter, clothing, pro
fessional services, and entertainment —
and herein lie several of the causes of ab
senteeism.
While the practice of absenteeism will
never be entirely eliminated, great im
provements can be realized if the ordinary
needs of war workers can be taken care
of without the necessity for time off for
the purpose.
New Speed Limit
'Gov. J. M. Broughton has acted wisely
;in setting the speed limit in North Caro
lina at 35 miles per hour, which is the same
as the federal wartime limit.
His action, made possible by the war
time emergency powers placed in his
hands by the General Assembly of 1943,
repeals the 60-mile-per-hour limit and any
one violating the 35-mile limit can now be
arrested, tried and convicted for the viola
tion of a law just as if the Legislature had
passed on it.
The 35-mile-per-hour limit is designed
primarily to conserve rubber and with the
coming of hot weather, it is imperative
that all motorists drive slowly if they ex
pect their old tires to last through the
summer.
A Great Victory!
With lighting speed on land and in the
air and employing every type of warfare
known to man, American, British and
French forces blasted their way over the
mountains and captured Tunis and Bizerte,
the last strongholds of the Axis in North
Africa.
For the Germans, it was a blitz in re
verse. They fought stubbornly, but they
could not match the gigantic assaults of
our own boys and of all the allied forces.
We anticipated such a victory some
time this month, but we did not dream that
it would come with such startling rapidity.
It was a historic triumph, a sensational
victory that has now set the stage for the
long-planned invasion of Europe. Surely
the inevitable day approaches. Believing
that his men would hold out for a long
time in Africa and that his subs would
check large-scale continent-invasion plans,
Hitler is said to have gotten everything all
set for third-summer knock-out blows in
Russia. Now he may have to revamp his
schedule.
The scene of allied action will no doubt
move at once to the isles of the Mediter
ranean, to Sicily and Sardinia, which must
be occupied before the European offensive
gets underway. And then the Allies will
probably strike in at least four different
directions.
In the battle of Africa, American sol
diers and American equipment played a
large part in bringing about a speedy vic
tory. Of course the British first and eighth
armies which had chased Rommel across
the desert, also played a big part, but
Americans were there to deliver the final
blows.
Writing from the front lines, Ernie Pyle
wired, “It was a war of such intensity as
Americans on this side of the ocean had
not known before. It was a battle without
letup. It was a war of drenching artillery
and hidden mines and wall* of machine
to throw battalion after battalion onto an
It was an exhausting, cruel, last-ditch kind
of war and those who went through it
seriously doubt that war could be any
worse than those two weeks of mountain
fighting.
“The Germans battled savagely and des
perately from hill to hill until the big break
came. Then there were times when we had
to throw batallion after batallion onto an
already pulverized hill before we could
finally take it,” and then he warned, “Our
casualties will surely run high.”
For their heroic achievement, though,
we are profoundly grateful, just as the
French inhabitants of Tunis and Bizerte
were when the Americans and British
moved into these Nazi-held cities.
Let’s Demand It!
While our armed forces were “striking”
in North Africa to win the greatest allied
victory of the war, many coal miners in
this nation were striking in defiance of
President Roosevelt and their own 15-day
truce, and their big boss, John L. Lewis,
was snubbing the War Labor Board which
was seeking to settle the labor dispute.
What a paradox! What a calamity! Day
and night, without a letup for two weeks
our own men, under the stars and stripes,
surged through mines, under heavy artil
lery and machine-gun fire, faced death and
died by the thousands in order that De
mocracy might live, in order that labor
unions might operate under a Democratic
system of government.
Showing their appreciations back home,
in the safety and comfort of their homes,
nestled beneath beautiful mountains the
miners refused to work under those same
stars and stripes, just because their boss
is demanding that they be paid at least
$2 more per day.
The average miner is already making
an average of $200 per month, while the
average soldier makes only $50. The miner
can sleep peacefully and safely in his own
home, wrhile the soldier boy, many of
wrhom are the sons of miners, sleep fitful
ly on hillsides, in mudholes, perhaps hun
gry, scared and thousands of miles aw^ay
from their loved ones.
What a picture! And yet it is a true
picture! What a disgrace! The Senate has
passed a no-strike lawr, but the House has
not made it a law. Let’s demand it! Let’s
demand that every person work or else
fight!
Tourist Outlook
From Waynesville, Brevard and other
mountain resort towns come encouraging
reports concerning the outlook for tourist
traffic in Western North Carolina this
summer. Florida resorts, which annually
send thousands of visitors to Carolina in
the summer, predict that this will be a
better year for this section than last.
The peace and quietude of Western
North Carolina, unspoiled for the most
part by war camps or industries, offer all
the advantages of a haven from the war
and the heat of summer for those seeking
restoration of their minds and bodies in
vacations before going back to tackle the
problems of wartime existence anew.
(The Newsworld)
THE OLD HOME TOWNBy STANLEY
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News Behind
the News I
By PaulMallon
WASHINGTON, May 12 —The
great peace which filled the pub
lic statements of warring execu
tive officials caused none of those
involved to file off their finger
nails. They are all still ready for
scratching.
The peace treaty effective be
tween Rubber-Maker-Jeffers and
War-Maker Patterson is attributed
—significantly enough— to Ferdi
nand Eberstadt, the New Yorker
who left the War Production
Board in the Nelson row and then
was unable to get his promised
position in the army.
Senators have direct informa
tion that Eberstadt brought Jeffers
and Patterson together at lunch
eon and. under his benign auspi
ces, both threw their arms around
each other and agreed to take a
trip around the country to see if
their conflicting claims for ma
chinery could not be worked out
amicably.
The strange identity of the
peacemaker, a man who had been
fired by Mr. Nelson, has encour
aged a wide variety of speculation.
The most natural deduction was
that Mr. Nelson’s ancient enemies
were again on the loose, and this
speculation was in nowise dimin
ished when Nelson immediately
thereafter appointed Arthur
Whiteside as director of a new
office of civilian requirements.
Mr. Nelson indignantly denied
he was trimming Mr. Jeffers, but
most of the newspapers thought
otherwise, and not without justi
fication, as Whiteside was appar
ently given control of everything
in rubber except production.
Therefore, while the dove of
peace was seen in the headlines,
he has been constantly flitting
from shoulder to shoulder losing
feathers as he goes.
The Robertson-Forand pay-as
you-go-tax plan passed the house
as a compromise, and on the sur
face it was one. Mr. Robertson is
a Virginia Democrat, more demo
cratic than new dealish. Mr. For
and is a Rhode Island new dealer,
and strictly labor.
Their bill, which the house pass
ed, is about seven-tenths of the
Ruml plan. It would lift $7,000,
000,000 of the $10,000,000,000 bur
den from 1942 personal income
taxes and put a pay-as-you-go sys
tem in operation after July 1.
But essentially, in basic theory,
it is the CIO way of doing the
job. It makes Mr. Robertson angry
to say so (but not Mr. Forand).
The original theory of a 19 per
cent withholding tax (now made
20 percent) was proposed by
Democratic Senator Bennett Clark
of Missouri, and the CIO took it
up along with a demand for dis
crimination in relieving the bur
den on various incomes. All are
not treated alike. The CIO no
doubt will hail the result as a
victory.
The Republicans put it tnrougn
when they were unable to get
their Ruml plan. In doing so, they
merely corrected a strategic error
committed two months ago.
They could have done the same
thing then, but chose to send the
proposal back to the house ways
and means committee, hoping the
Ruml plan would finally emerge.
Their idea now is that the senate
will have a chance to iron the
matter out and it will.
The Robertson-Forand plan,
however, is indisputably the most
complicated tax suggestion ever
enacted by a congress. Most tax
payers will require a lawyer to
find out to what they are entitled.
Growing losses suffered by our
flying fortresses in daylight bomb
ings on Germany are proof enough
that the Nazis have developed new
methods of defending themselves
against our best weapon.
The developments are in tactics
rather than in counter weapons.
They martial groups of six or
seven attackers against outside
planes in our formation and also
look sharply for stragglers.
Some of the growth of losses on
the last few raids can be attribut
ed to the facts that our formations
were not closely maintained.
It is too much to assume off
hand, therefore, that these losses
will cause us to drop daylight
raiding, as the British did—or that
even the loss of 30 RAF bombers
in the Dortmund raid means di
minution of our main current at
tack on Germany.
The British rate of losses in
night raids has lately run about
one in 20. and if 600 planes were
involved in the Dortmund attack,
the loss of "30 planes would not
be extraordinarily significant.
The Bon Peninsula to which the
Nazis might choose to retire from
Tunis, is somewhat like Bataan,
mountainous, with good beaches,
and no ports. But there is one ex
ception — no Corregidor Fortress
to back it up. Hitler’s do-or-die
hordes might choose to die there.
But certainly the end should
The Staff
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To ^
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WOMEN AT WORK
The women of Brevard and
Transylvania county are certainly
doing their part to help win the
war. We haven’t seen any of them
driving trucks, ambulances o r
taxis, but they’re replacing men
in business and industry and doing
all kinds of men’s jobs. At the
extract plant at Rosman we under
stand two husky girls are even
loading large barrels on trucks.
In the future this column plans
to tell you about many of these
women who are doing man-size
jobs and we’re starting off this
week with one of Brevard’s hard
est working and one of the most
versatile women in town — Mrs.
Rowena Summey.
MRS. ROWENA SUMMEY
Mrs. Summey has the distino
tion of being Brevard’s only $l-a
year woman.” As assistant secre
tary of the Brevard Federal Sav
ings and Loan association, she re
ceives a salary of $1.00-a-year and
believe-you-us, during the fishing
season or Red Cross drive periods
she really earns that $1 because
Secretary Jerry Jerome just can’t
stay in the office all of the time!
But this is only a small job for
Mrs. Summey. She is manager of
the Wilkins Insurance agency and
devotes her time to this work in
the mornings. In the afternoons
she works at the telephone office
as an operator. At her fine home
here on Probart street, she keeps
several roomers.
In addition to all that, Mrs. Sum
mey is one of the best gardeners
in Brevard. As Mrs. Jimmie Duck
worth says, “you should really see
her backyard.” Mrs. Summey also
finds time to take an active part
in the Presbyterian church, does
Red Cross work, plays bridge and
collects stamps as a hobby.
I To Mrs. Summey this column
gladly takes off its hat!
come sooner than at Bataan, and
betting is heavy here that the
Tunisian situation will be cleaned
up within a month at most.
PREACHER TURNS TO
BICYCLE
Except in Bermuda, in ordinary
peacetimes, riding a bicycle is not
regarded as being a dignified thing
for a business or profession man
to do, but now it’s a patriotic,
dignified and popular mode of
transportation for young and old.
Brevard’s latest bicyclist is Rev.
B. W. Thomason, pastor of the
First Baptist church. Being unable
to obtain enough gasoline from the
rationing board to make all of his
rounds visiting the sick and at
tending to other pastoral duties in
the “field,” Mr. Thomason sold
his car and bought a bike, a
streamlined, light, wartime model
from Carl McCrary.
“I’ve made 23 calls on this bike
during the past two days,” the
popular pastor told this columnist
the other day. “Of course I can’t
very well ride it to neighboring
towns to visit our sick people in
hospitals there, but I couldn’t get
gasoline for that purpose and this
bike serves my needs around
here,” he explained.
“And besides, riding a bicycle
is good exercise and the dignity
part doesn’t worry me at all.”
FIREMEN TOO ANXIOUS
The epidemic of fires in town
last week could have easily re
sulted in at least one fatal acci
dent. Brevard’s volunteer firemen
have been doing an excellent job
and have made an outstanding
record, and perhaps it is their
enthusiasm that has caused some
—Turn To Page Thirteen
CORN’S TAXI
Prompt Service
Day and Night
Careful Drivers
Phone 466
Moving. Get our rates
Hale Siniard
I [^VICTORY
Before Doing Your Spring Cleaning
Be Sure Your—
FQgyiCTOKY
BUY
'bonds
STAMPS
First Aid Kit
IS COMPLETE
Here is a list of First Aid supplies that should be in every house
hold medicine cabinet to enable you to cope with any injury or
discomfort that may occur at this busy season:
Fever Thermometer
★ Cotton
★ Gauze
★ Scissors
★ Mineral Oil
★ Iodine
★ Adhesive Tape
★ Liniments
★ Aromatic Spirits of Ammonia
if Epsom Salts
if Milk of Magnesia
if Bicarbonate of Soda
★ Aspirin
★ Boric Acid
★ A Burn Ointment
Be ready for an emergency. Our stock is complete.
Long’s Drug Store
FQpyiCTORY
i "BUY
UNITBD
| ITATII
^ WAR
ifBONDS
W A HD
I\SUMPS
Prescription Druggists
Phone 85
Brevard N. C.
FQByiCTORY
BUY
UNITED
STATES
WAR
raONDS
AND
STAMPS