(Eh t Jfrattklnt -jjr^ss and ?bc jHatmtmn Published every Thursday by the Franklin Press At Franklin, North Carolina VOL. LXII Number thirty-seven WEIMAR JONES Editor-Publisher Kntered at the Post ?ifice, Franklin, N C., as second class matter Telephone No. 24 Obituary notices, cards of thanks, tributes of respect, by in dividuals, lodges, churches, organizations or societies, wyi be re parded as advertising and inserted at regular classified advertis ing rates. Such notices will be marked "adv." in compliance with the postal regulations. One Year E:x Months "lhree Months Single Copy SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ; $2.00 $1.00 CO ? 05 We Need More Water ?THIS town needs a far larger supply of water ? than it lias, or ever will have with three wells. In his interesting letter to The Press last week, Mr. Harmon (/tmse sensibly suggested the advisa bility of having the pumps in Franklin's municipal wells thoroughly tested to determine if they 'are pumping all the water that is available. Meanwhile, after Mr. Gnuse's letter was written but before it was published, the board of aldermen decided to do just that. It is possible, even probable, that the tests will result in a somewhat larger supply of water from the wells. It certainly is to be hoped that it will, for that would sufficiently remove the urgency of the situation to give the officials and the citizens of the town a little time in which to plan carefully for a water supply adequate for longer than just a few months, or even a year or two. Xo matter what the results of the tests are, how ever, the situation will remain essentially the same: A more adequate water supply still will be needed for a growing community ? and Franklin surely will not grow \yithout plenty of water. Increasing the efficiency of the pumps may re move the emergency. It will not. solve the problem. The Case of Mr. Fritz The ease of R. L. Fritz, Jr., principal of the school at Hudson, in Caldwell county, continues to hob ti]> in the news. There seems to he no question that Mr. Fritz is technically guilty of pay roll irregularities. In fact, w'hat ho did he has admitted with disarming frank ness. adding that it was done with the knowledge and approval of the Caldwell county superinten dent. On the other hand, there seems to he no evidence whatever that the Hudson school principal person ally benefitted by padding his school's pay roll. An audit indicates that what he did was to place on the pay roll the names of persons who did not teach and then, when the checks were issued, use the funds (o pay substitute teachers and regular teach ers for extra duties?duties, incidentally, that the state cxpects to be performed but makes no pro vision to pay for. Furthermore, though he did not personally bene fit, he appears to have done all possible to make amends. When the state demanded that the Cald well county school/msjard refnnd the $1,641.10 in question, Mr. Frit/ voluntarily borrowed the money and made the refund out of his own pocket. When the cast came before the State Board of Education last month, that body promptly revoked [ Mr. Fritz' teaching Certificate. It is worthy of note, ; however, that the vote to do so was not unanimous. D. Iliden Ramsey, of Asheville, refusing to vote for the revocation of the certificate, commented that: 'tFritz has been a good school man professionally, and I am not willing for one offense, so far as we know, to deprive a man of the right to earn his living." But the board of education has gone much far ther. It has turned the records in the case over to the attorney general with the implied suggestion that Fritz should answer for his actions in criminal court. Members of the Caldwell school board have been told pointedly that the contract they signed with Fritz to teach this year is void. And the state board, at its meeting last week, reached a remark able verdict : It reaffirmed its revocation of Fritz' teaching certificate, and then exonerated his su perior. the Caldwell countv school superintendent, jk ? * There are some aspects of this case that aren't too clear. Rather, the logical inferences are much too clear. It will he recalled that about a vear ago the rec ognized political and educational leaders of North Carolina decided just how much the salaries of North Carolina teachers should he raised, and an nounced their decision. To their shocked consterna tion. there were people, even school people, who dared have a different opinion; who even had the hardihood openly to advocate a different amount of inciease. Their unorthodox proposals crystallized into what became known as the South Piedmont plan. And the leader of this rebel group was none other than R. L. Fritz. Is is possible that the vigor of North Carolina authorities in prosecuting this case could be inspir ed by a desire to punish Mr. Fritz for sins other than pay roll irregularities? The .question is underlined by some others : How can the state board believe that a school pax roll could be consistently padded without the knowl edge of the county superintendent? For what coun ty superintendent doesn't know the names of the teachers in his system? If Mr. Fritz is the onlv one who is guiltv, then certainly the Caldwell county superintendent is grossly incompetent. Nobody, of course, ran defend tampering with public pay rolls. Rut why was it necessary for the Hudson school principal to pad his pay rolls in order to pay for services that it appears were per formed ? The answer to that one might be that the State Board of Education has set up regulations so de- . tailed and so inelastic that it is virtually impossible to comply with them and keep the schools running. The State Board, for example, blandly and blindly allots the same amount of coal to heat a school building in Macon county that it does in Wilming ton. Because it is so stupidlv rigid the state's set-up encourages just such things as Mr. Fritz, did. As a matter of fact, there probably aren't a dozen coun ties in the state where there hasn't been some jug S'linsr of school funds to meet emergencies for which there is no provision in t*he state set-up. Why was the Fritz case the one chosen for investigation? In the broader sense, there is a very real question as to which is the greater sinner, Mr. Fritz or the state school authorities. It is true that Mr. Fritz is guilty of a sin of com mission. V ! Rut what about sins of omission? Mr. Fritz did not fail to give the people of Hud son a good school ; so good a school that, despite all that has happened, they want him hack. But who can muster anv enthusiasm for the job being done bv the state school authorities? It probably is no exaggeration to say that the members of the general assembly, who enacted the state school laws, and even more, those who admin ister them, unwittingly are the worst enemies of public education in North Carolina. They have at tempted to apply assembly line technique to the ed ucation of children ; they have sought to use slide rule methods to determine who is and who is not a good teacher ; they have tried to set up regulations governing the tiniest detail of school administra tion. They tell a teacher what he shall teach, when he shall teach it, and how he shall teach it. Bv discouraging such tfungs as teacher initiative, local responsibility, and independence of thought, the system under which we are trying to operate our schools has gone a long way toward destroying those things which are the very fundamentals of any educational system. Others' Opinions ABOLISH ALL JURIES? Some time ago Judge Sink, pointing out some defects in operation, advocated the abolition of grand juries. Later he seemed to confine his recommendations to mending instead of ending the sytem. And now comes Judge Henry Stevens, according to The Franklin Press, favoring the abolition of all juries, grand and petit. t In his charge to the Macon County grand jury last week, Judge Stevens advocated a constitutional amend ment to permit substitution of three-judge courts for trial juries. Such a system, Judge Stevens argued, would reduce the number of petty cases coming into court, speed up court procedure, and cut down the cost of ad ministering justie. In short, it would be efficient. Not long- ago in Indiana a committee pf lawyers made "a recommendation somewhat similar to the one Judge Stevens made in Macon County. But it received little favorable re sponse. Recognizing and regretting some miscarriages of jus tice by verdicts of juries, the remedy is not to abolish a system which has proved its value through the centuries. While juries make errors, can it be said that judges are not likewise sub ject to human frailties? Commenting on the rather iconoclastic, if heroic, recom mendations by Judge Stevens, The Franklin Press in its lead ing editorial says: He (Judge Stevens) might have gone a step farther, if efficiency is tp be our goal, and suggested adoption of the methods of the Nazis. Theirs was the quickest, the cheapest, and the surest method so far devised; by elim inating court trials altogether, they attained the max imum of efficiency. While Judge Stevens does not, of course, advocate such extreme measures, he appears to have fallen into two Nazi-like ways of thinking that are quite common today. The first Is assuming that efficiency is an end in itself. It is not. Efficiency is nothing more nor less than a method of doing something, a technique; when it be comes more than a secondary detail, we have the cart before the horse. The second is assuming that democracies are built for speed and efficiency. They are not. If those are the things we chiefly want from our courts and our govern ment, the intelligent course is to adopt a totalitarian form of government. For democracies are built for one thing, and one only freedom. Judge Stevens feels that a three-Judge court would bring to the trial of a case more Intelligence and less prejudice than a jury. Perhaps. But most Juries, with all their faults, do their best to reach a verdict that is Just. And most Judges, with all their virtues, see the trees of Justice only through the dense forest of legal technicalities.? News and Observer, With the Churches BAPTIST First Church, Franklin The Rev. Charles E. Parker. Pastor Sunday: 9:45 a. m. ? Sunday school. 11 a. m.? Worship. 7:00 p. m.? Training union. 8:00 p. m. ? Worship. Wednesday: 8:00 p. m ? Prayer meeting. EPISCOPAL St. Agnes Church, Franklin The Rev. A. Rufus Morgan, Pasfor Sunday: 10 a. m. ? Church school. 11a. m. ? First Sunday, Holy communion. Third Sunday, Morning' prayer. 8 p. m. ? Second and fourth Sundays, evening prayer. METHODIST Franklin Church The Rev. W. Jackson Huneycutt. Pastor 10 a. m. ? Sunday school. 11 a. m. ? Worship. 7 p m. ? Intermediate You*.!! Fellowship 7 p. m. ? Senior Youth fel lowship 8 p. m. ? Union Worship every other Sunday. 1 Ffanklin Circuit The Rev. D. P. Grant., pastor 'reaching services as follows; First Sunday: 11 a. m.? Bethel. 3 p. m. ? Salem church. 8:00 p. m ? Clark's chapel. Second Sunday: 11 a. m. ? Snow Hill church 3 p. m. ? Louisa chapel. 8:00 p. m.? Iotla church. Third Sunday: 11 a. m. ? Clark's chape!. 3 p. m. ? Salem. 8:00 p. m.? Bethel. Fourth Sunday: 11 a. m. ? Iotla. 3 p. m.? Louisa chapel. 8:00 p. m. ? Snow Hill. West Macon Circuit The Re