PAGE FOUR
uirHLANDS MACONIAN
THfi fRANKLIN PRESS AND THE HIGHL^
THURSDAY
aitii
^x^hlnnits ^^txunxnn
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press
At Franklin, North Carolina
Telephone No. 24
VOL, LI ^ Number 38
BLACKBURN W. JOHNSON EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
Entered at the Post Office, Franklin, N. C., as second class matter
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Maconian is independent in its policies .and is glad to print both
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legibly on only one side of the paper and shooild be of reasonable
length. The editor reserves the right to rej'cct letters which are
too long, are of small general interest or which would violate
the sensibilities of our readers.
Straw Polls Misleading
J^EPUBLICANS are making much of the outcome of various straw
polls conducted during the pasit year on presidential prospects,
and even some Democra,ts,' taking the pseudo ballots .at their face
value, have been misled into believing that maybe Mr. Roosevelt’s
hold on the electorate is slipping.
In .a cool .analysis of the state-.by-state returns of the major straw
polls which already 'have been completed one will find, however,
little evidence to support the conclusions that have been drawn by
those who have conducted these polls. Republicans who scan these
returns critically will find only disappointment, and doubting Demo
crats will discover a tonic for their waning spirits.
Writing in the August 8th issue of The Nation, Paul W. Ward
riddles with holes of doubt the straw vote put out by Dr. Gallup’s
Institute of Public Opinion, th'6 Literary Digest poll completed last
Ja,nuary and the Farm Journal poll which was started in July.
“Though all have ibeen represented otherwise,” comments Mr. Ward,
“none of the three (polls) offers much support to the Landan cause.
In the most reliable of them all, the Digest poll, nearly 2,000,000
votes were cast, and 62,6 per cenl^ of them were cast in disapproval
of the New Deal, which carried only 12 states in this test. But
the question on the ballot was so badly phrased .as to open the way
for many different deductions, and the voters were ,not given .a
chance to vote for or against Roosevelt, who unquestionably is more
popular than the New Deal.
“The other two polls may be quickly dismissed, especially the
Farm Journal poll. It is taken not by mail but by solicitors., and
^licitors are notoriously inclined to lead the voters, especially when
they are employed by the type of firm that piubhshes this magazine.
The firm is owned by Joseph N. Pew, Jr., oil man and prominent
Liberty Leaguer, who bought the Farm Journal out of receivership
last October. A 25-cents-a-year magazine claiming a circulation of
about 1,250,000, it reads like a campaign pamphlet from the Repub
lican National Committee, x x x x x x
may .add for the benefit of those who don’t believe in figures
yet do believe in Dr. Gallup’s polls, that the latest gave Roosevelt
an edge of 2,000,000 in the popular vote but found Landon a six-vote
lead in the electoral college. It achieved this result by giving Lan
don the benefit of the doubt wherever possible. It conceded to
Roosevelt 24 states with a total of 229 electoral votes and to Landon
15 states with a total of 99 votes. Then it proceeded to parcel out
14 doubtful states, giving 11 with a total of 173 voters to Landon
and three with a total of 30 votes to Roosevelt. Among the do,ubt-
ful states it gave to Landon was Montana. Two weeks after the
poll was piubUshed Montana held its primary elections. New Deal
candidates won the Democratic contest. The total vote for .both
parties was 67 per cent Democratic in the case of the governorship
and 74 per cent in that of the senatorship. ,If the disparity between
the poll and the Mo.ntana vote holds throughout the poll—^^and
primary returns in other states warrant a belief that it does—only
four states that Gallup concedes to Landon will actually be found
in his column in November; Roosevelt will 'have the remaining 34
and a record-breaking total of 510 'electoral votes.”
Mr. Ward concludes that Landon doesn’t have ,a Chinaman’s chance
and, by an analysis of many factors entering into the situation de
ducts most convincingly that “Roosevelt will carry at least 31 states
and poll at least 286 electoral votes, which is 20 more than he
needs, and there is a better-than-even chance that he will poll more
than 400 out of a possible 531.”
The only states safely Republican at this time, Mr. Ward believes,
are Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, M.aine, Connecticut
and Kansas, which will vote for Landon out of local pride. Roose
velt will have enough electoral votes without those of the above
states or of any of the following; Delaware, Illinois, M.aryland,
Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. But in many of these, Mr. Ward
points out, Roosevelt has better than a fighting chance.
The most recent Literary Digest poll was not taken into considera
tion by Mr. Ward; as it had not started at the time hisi article was
published. We will watch with a great deal ofi interest the outcome
of this poll. It should prove more reliable than that of last Jan
uary on the popularity of the New Deal as the question of the cur
rent poll is not so confusing. But wise political observers will draw
their own deductions from all unofficial polls, allowing plenty of
room for error and taking into full cognizance the fact that no
straw vote thus far held “is large enough to reflect anything but
the grossest sort of shift in public sentiment.”
barton
beware, sweet
SOUNDING WHISTLES
At- a rece.nt convention o
SocL, .rF.k»d, g.n«.lly "»■;
“not a smgle Quaker h.a
relief rolls during the national
‘"SSfextraordinary fo^k are a
survival of another era Thej, co
ceive It their duty to exc
themselves from the ^
suits of pleasure,” and
asked help to keep up
on the .automobile. Benjamin Frank
lin, who lived among them and wd
a close student of their habits, nas
left ,us many reasonable sayings,
such as the following.
“Beware of little expenses; a
small leak will sink a great ship.
“B,uy what thou has no need
of and ere long thou shalt sell ne
cessities.” . . . “Keep thy shop and
thy shop will keep thee.” ... -Um-
gence is the mother of good luck.
... “A child and a fool imagine
that twenty shillings and twenty
years can never be spent.”
In a letter to Mme. Brillo.n, writ
ten while he was representing our
country in France, Franklin told
how as a small boy he received a
pocket full of pennies as a birth
day gift. On his way to the toy
shop he met another boy who had
a whistle that charmed him. In a
great hurry, young Benjamin offer
ed all his pennies for a similar
whistle, only to learn, cn his re
turn to the house, that he had
paid much more than the whistle
was worth.
“I conceive,” Franklin wrote, “that
a great part of the miseries of
mankind arc brought upon them by
false estimates of the value of
things, and by their giving too
much for their whistles.”
Quakers cling to the old-fash
ioned notion that hard v.'ork, living
within your income, and a sturdy
self-respect are highly valuable
spiritual possessions—much too val
uable to be traded for any sweet-
sounding whistle.
WHENCE COME
IMMORTALITY
A dinner wasi held the other
night at which a bronze medal was
presented. The dinner was a simple
affair, in the grill room of a mod
est restaurant, down below the
street level; it was inexpensive be
cause the people who gave it were
mostly artists; they constitute
what, is known as the Institute of
Graphic Arts. The medal was pre
sented to J. Thom.son Willing.
“So what?” you probably say,
“There are dinners every night, in
every ^ restaurant, and who cares ?
Who is J. Thomson Willing?”
He began life as an artist but,
because he had talent for directing
and encouraging the work of oth
ers, and a fine instinct for the
proper arrangement and balance of
art .and type on the printed page,
a newspaper annexed him as art
editor.
Subs'eq,uently Willing was lured
to New York by a great litho
graphic house, and later he moved
on to a group of national maga
zines. It was during the days of
his magazine activities that I came
to know him.
We had been together only a few
days when I noticed something
strange about his office. It seemed
to be .always full of people. I asked
him about It and he blushed a
httle, and said: “Every year a lot
of young artists come to New York
T sorT of 'mSg ComUL^'e'
m a while I am rewarded by mak
ing a real discovery.”
Around the table' nn • ,
'^'as presented were some
iL Th « Amer-
Thomson^
when they were" yM^f’^n
cases he was the first to
a kindly hand anfut r ^
couraging word.
He has no wealth; he ha.; nr,
fame beyond the limits nf
profession. But his lifp -n r
the lives he has Vipln j
«»t they. ‘ I,' “ liv«
TM, is iLonS": '
(Copyright, K. F. S)
Night Automobile Accidents Ser
mil
Traveltrs Itis, Ct,
I /Last* year during daylight there
were 14,000 fatal automobile acci
dents as against more than 19,000
during dusk and darkness. But total
accidents in daylight exceeded the
nuiDber during dusk and darkness
by more than 130,000.
The fatal accident record during
dusk and darkness, in proportion to
all accidents in such periods, was
92 per cent greater than the daytime
experience. The tremendous loss of
life during hours of darkness con
stitutes one of the strongest argu
ments against the present-day prac
tice of driving too fast, ft
way to explain the Mgli
death per accident at nijl
by the fact that many opei
at speeds during darknes!
not permit them to stop j
range of the illuminatioj
by headlights. Under si(
tions lives are crushed oiili
the unexpected happte
highways must be illumiB
the lighting of streets imp
drivers must remember ai
the warning: WHEN T1
GOES DOWN, SLOW DO
PARK TRAVEL
ISINCPSING
Great Smokies Park D raws
125,672 Visitors
In August
ASHEVILLE, Sept. 16,-An esti
mated total of 125,672 visitors from
46 states, the District of Columbia
and Canada entered the boundaries,
of the Great Smoky Mountains Na
tional park during the month of
August, according to J. R. Eakin,
superintendent of the park.
The August park travel was 24.3
per cent greater than the total for
August, 1935, and 42 per cent of
e visitors came from states other
than the neighbor states of the na-
tonal park Tennessee and North
Carolina. Ihe August total, which
vs a suibstantial increase over
Hever’f' is be-
rrl. substantial in-
tlif n during 1936 over
toW 1 f year. The estimated
wIT . 5(»,000 and
natlnafirrk "
and“or?J’'" September
afk National
elsewhere in a7 equal
and brillialice t
to havf- the' a-V * known
the slopes"of’tt'f
at ele,a,"„
‘ravel and i!!
within the nark completion
beauties of the’ 7
of the vishor T, ’ "
the autumnal , f "ticipated 'that
the August lead follow
travel " 0,1 “• “p new
Smokies. ' ‘he Great
Food Fads Usuall)
More Harm Than
Most food fads are
ignorance rather than a
of foods and the requii
the human body.
No well inform'ed per
advocate the absurd &
mended by self-styW
and “professor.s” who
theories to give outoriv
promote the sale of cert;
foods.”
This is the opinion of
Sherwood, of the N. C. ■
experiment station, who
pie to use common se“
ing and to shun food fa
would the plague.
The public has beco
conscious during (hf
and people fall
quacks who talk glW
hydrates, proteins,^,
and vitamins. Dr. Stiw"'
Since most of their
based on an element o
is obvious to the pu '
tinned, the popular teM
suppose that 'every
make is also true.
Every time the
mo.nkies with the hu®
Sherwood declared, ^
harm than good.
He would have pW
that white bread is
proteins and carboliy
never be eaten at | e
that certain so-called
are essential to he,
happiness, the doctor
He added that he J
ring to reputable P y
eticians who recomW ^
people who cannot es
or who are in
foods.
But these recomn'
based on the needs o
ual, and are made
who know what
about. The faddis,
hand, usually
for all people.