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Published every Thursday by the Franklin Press
At Franklin. North Carolina
VOL..LX1 Number forty-three
WEIMAR JONES Editor-Publisher
Entered at the Past Office, Franklin, N. C., as second class matter
Telephone No. 24
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What's Wrong With Our Schools?
Ill'" most encouraging note in the' widespread
-discussion of our schools ? in the comity, the i
state, arid the nation? -is the general dissatisfaction '
with the way the schools are functioning, and the
growing conviction that something must he done
about the situation.
Major emphasis is being placed on teachers' sal
aries, and certainly there's plenty of room For em- i
phasis there. The base pav starting salary for the
.North Carolina teacher with the top grade certili
cate is $125 per month, for nine ntonths? $1.12."' a
year. Hut what is worse, no "A" certificate teacher
in North Carolina can ever hope, under the present
salary scale, to earn more than $U>7 per mouth, or
$1,703 a year? a fair starting salary in many other
lines of work. (These figures are base pay : teach
ers are now receiving a temporarily-voted "incre
ment" of $13.33 per month.)
Ouite as unsatisfactory as the size of the salaries
is the system by which- salaries are fixed and raised.
In the making of a good teacher, no factors are so
important as (a) native teaching ability and love
of the work; and (b) experience, lint the state
salary schedule is set up' oil the assumption that
the person who hates children, who possesses no
natural ahilitv as a teacher, and who has no interest
in the work, is more valuable in the school room,
given so many credits of college work and profes
sional training, than the born teacher who lacks
this training. And the system gives no credit what
soever for experience after the first 10 years ? no
credit, beyond the first three years, to the teacher
with the minimum certificate rating.
This is one result of the educational bureaucracy
that has been set up at Raleigh. Another and equal
ly vicious one is the effort to so rigidly standardize
everything connected with the school that the ?
teacher is largely robbed of any opportunity to use
her initative.
There is yet another thing wrong with our school
situation: the place the teacher, as a general rule,
occupies in the community. Time was when the
teacher held a lop position, both socially and intel
lectually: that position, in part. Compensated her. i
for poor pay in money.
Rut in the depression years we cut teachers' sal
aries to the vanishing point ; many of the best
teachers left the profession, at the first opportunity,
for better paving work : the general level of ability
and character among teachers took a tumble: their
position in the community, as a result, became less
attractive: and so more of them left the profession.
Thus we are on the downward spiral in a vicious
circle
We can well start with raising teachers' salaries;
we must, in fact, if we are to make any progress.
But that is not the whole answer. We must do
something to make possible again some community
and teacher initiative: and we will have to get
across to the educational bureaucrats in Raleigh
the idea that there arc some values that can't be
determined by the slide-rule.
? Others' Opinions ?
FASHION' FOR ICC A ST
Long before the bright leaves scurry along the sidewalks, the
streets are filled with moving coldr ? reds and yellows, bright
blues, greens. They gather in clusters, as leaves or flowers
often do. They drift as in a gentle breeze all in one general
direction. They make a river that cannot flow unruffled along;
there are eddies and whirls and sudden diversions from the
course, as when a gust scatters drifting foliage, or a stone
shatters the quiet of a stream.
Every morning, from Monday through Friday, they make a
kaleidoscope in the postofflce square, streaming on again to
ward the school yard, Impelled by something as invisible as
the autumn wind, and ayparently as inconsistent
No town quite comes to life until fall brings its children
home, with their sweaters, dresses, and coats of many colors.
Down the elm-vaulted streets they go, and under the maples
on the avenue, while the brLght morning sunlight sends search
ing shafts down between the still-green branches "This color,
and this," the light seems to hint, "is what the well-dressed
tree will soon be wearing."? Christian Science Monitor.
CREEPING INFLATION
The time has arrived to call a halt on this creeping infla
tion which is actually creeping paralysis of the economic body
of this nation The many millions of low wage and stationary
groups can't take much more of Its steady reduction of their
consuming power and standard of living without a calamitous
recetflon hitting the country In the not-Jar-distant future.
?St. Louis Labor Tribune.
? ? ? LETTERS ? ? ?
SAYS SCHOOL HAS XO FUEL
To the Editor of The Press:
I have seen and heard some reference made about ihe
Macon County School Superintendent. I didn't think we had
one. I just thought these schools were run by themselves.
I send my children to the Burningtown school, which is a
two-teacher school There hasn't been any wood sent to this
school yet.
What would Mr. Houk say If his children had to go to school !
and sit in a cold schoolhouse? We know that Mr. Houk will
never have that experience as long as he can be paid approxi
mately $4,000 per year and use his school office as a law of
fice and make enough on the side to buy plenty of bottle and
lond whiskey.
WILLIAM DRINNON i
Franklin, Route 3,
October 17, 1946.
RAINBOW SPRINGS SITUATION
Dear Citizens:
I wish that someone on the Board of Education would see
Mr. Houk and see if he would take enough time off from his
law practice to do something about the Rainbow Springs
school
There are 15 families living in this section of the county.
They have 25 school age children. The school bus goes only w>
Ed Crews' home, which is located three miles from Rainbow
Springs. These children walk that distance or pay for _the i-ide
out of their own pockets. They have to go to the Allison -Watts
school. ?
I went' to see Lawyer Houk, or I guess I should say Professor
Houk, about this and he told me to let these families move out
of there if they wanted their children to go to school.
It looks like Mr. Houk wants to set himself up as a little
Hitler in Macon County if the citizens will let him.
Why doesn't Mr. Houk give them a teacher at Rainbow
Springs? They have a schoolhouse, they also have a good
road. So there isn't any excuse for not letting the school bus
go over there
These people pay school tax as well as Mr Houk. They may
not pay as much as he does, far they don't get their pay out
of tax money, but they give an honest day's work for their uay.
E. A. ROPER.
Franklin. Route 1,
October 16. 1946,
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
? W. E. Henley.
The noblest motive is the public good. ? Virgil.
Investment in knowledge pays the best interest
? Benjamin Franklin.
Say: "I taw It advertised In The Frew".
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BRYANT FURNITURE COMPANY
NOT ENOUGH STEEL
? * * N* * * * * * *
Supply-Demand Balance May Be Two Years Off
Despite Big Production
Makers of Needles, Cushion Springs, Autos, Freight Cars Scramble for Metal
Strikes Cost 15 Million Tons
Steel, toughest sinew or war or peace,
will remain acutely short this winter.
Enough td meet all demands is a
year ? maybe two years ? away, steel
men say.
In Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Chicago,
Buffalo and Birmingham steel mak
ers voice the same outlook. The con- j
sensus: Not more than 69 million ]
funs of steel this year. .
That's 20 million tons short of j
what mills ground out In war-peak j
1944 And 20 million tons is a lot of J
steel. It's as much as Russia made in
1940, far more than England made
that year
This means that for a long time
makers of countless items you use in
home and business just won't get
enough steel to produce the things
you want. Needle and pin makers
won't get enough. Nor will automobile
makers. Nor will freight car makers.
"Sold Out For the Year"
Says the Buffalo sales manager of
Bethlehem Steel: "We are all sold out
for the year."
? Says a steel executive in Youngs- j
town: "All we can do is to grab the
. oldest orders we have and fill them
as rapidly as we can. We try to
spread the steel as far as possible."
Another steel maker declares: "We ;
are already scheduled to deliver so
much steel in the first 1947 quarter
that we probably won't even open pur
books for further orders." JL
Steel men invariably stress onjrtolg
factor, more than any other, as re
sponsible for the shortage. It's the
impact of the big coal-steel strikes.
Those strikes, say the steel men,
knocked out IS million tons of steel.
How big was the loss? It was about as
much steel as France produced in two
full years before the war.
After the strikes, O.P A price jug
gling and lack of steel scrap are cited
as production curbs.
How acute scarcity in specific stesl
items is born of O.P.A ceilings is
easily explained. A steel producer can
sell his wares In many different forms
or shapes Before selling, he can
make it into wire, or nails, or thick
plates, or thin sheets. Each of tlwe
items has a price celllrtc. If wim
ceilings are ?o low as to eliminate
profit, the steel man naturally tarns
most of his metal to other tines.
When a steel mill makes nails to
day it loses money. That's why many
new houses are "falling apart": Just
not enough nails to hold them to
gether. It's why craters can't get
enough nails to put crates together.
It's why the peanut crop was put in
jeopardy for want ol nails to fasten
cross bars on the stacks In which
peanuts are cured..
Lose Money on Many Items
Other items on which steel makers
say they now lose money include car
bon steel bars, "shapes," and plates.
Big users of steel plates are the
freight car builders. They want 250,
000 tons (mostly plates i for construc
tion) and car repairs in the final
quarter of this year. Opinion in the
steel trade is they won't get anything
like that much.
But maybe the wire springs In a
new auto or living room chair inter
est you more than freight cars. The
Wickwire Spencer division of Colo
rado Fuel ti Iron Corp. was once the
nation's biggest maker of spring wire
for furniture and auto cushions
They've quit the business entirely.
"We had to go over to more profit
able items," says a Wickwire Spencer
vice president tersely.
Furniture makers must clear an
other steel hurdle even after they get
springs for cushions They have to
upholster their chairs and sofas. Thfey
can't get enough tacks. And tacks are
made of steel, too.
Worst of Scrap Shortage Ahead
The worst of the steel scrap short
age is apparently still to come.
When you make steel, you use two
basic Ingredients. One is pig iron,
made from iron ore. The other Is
steel scrap, gathered up around the
country and sent to the steel mills.
Most of this scrap is collected in the
warm months Winter Ice and snow
on junk heaps slows collecting. Sum
mer weather favors It.
"But this summer," as one steel
man puts it typically, "scrap piles are
going down and not up. Instead of
building reserves for the winter, we
are reducing the small stocks we
have."
Pittsburgh steel mills are now get
ting less than half as much scrap as
they need.
A scrap shortage can be met to
some extent by simply using more pig
Iron. This is already being done In
normal times steel is about 40% to
45% pig iron in content. Now It's at
least 50% to 55%. But there's a Joker:
Pig iron is more costly than scrap.
Using It hoists the cfcst of steel mak
ing. v
Price Ceilings Hit Scrap
Much blame (or the scrap drought,
is placed on O.P.A ceilings too low
to Induce collectors to gather the
scrap and bring it in. A scrap price
increase granted recently doesn't help
because it was not on scrap of steel
making quality. The boost was on
scrap of the type used in foundries,
where iron products are made.
Steel men don't register too much
optimism over Government plans to
use 14 shipyards in turning surplus
ships into 750,000 tons of scrap. They
stress the time factor. The complex
job of breaking up those ships, they
say. will take many months.
Although the steel pinch is sharp
est in items where there is little or
no profit for the makers, the short
age covers all steel.
Steel sheets, for example, are rela
tively profitable. But the supply of
them satisfies only a fraction of de
mand. Refrigerator makers want far
more than they can get. So do auto
mobile makers. Because of the steel
sheet shortage. Hudson will make no
cars during the first week of October.
"The trouble is," as one steel exe
cutive points out, "that the country is
steel-starved. The demand ia for
everything all at once."
The insatiable demand for steel is
in itself a prime reason for the short
age. A glance at the nation's past
production makes that clear. The 69
million tons expected this year will
be far lea than wanted. But in 1839
production was only 47 million tons. ^
In 1940 It was only 59 million tons.
The steel output that will fall short
of demand this year will be greater
than aggregate 1938 production of
Germany, Russia, the United King
dom. Prance and Japan.
Steel men. straining to meet short
ages. suffer some shortages of their
own. One of the steel Items for which
people clamor most loudly is tin
plate. It's shipped in boxes. Steel men
can't get enough lumber to make the
boxes. Also they need lumber scaf
folding around their mills, and again
the lumber shortage smacks them.
8ome mills also suffer from a man
power shortage. The trouble Is in get
ting skilled men. In Youngstown,
Ohio, a steel making center, the U. S
Employment Service has about 2,000
lob openings There are some 3,800
registered as wanting work? but they
are chiefly women, over-age workers,
or handicapped people.
(Reprinted from the Wall Street
Journal of September 27. 1948)
MACON COUNTY SUPPLY CO.
Your Planter HARDWARE Slort