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? * CI he If nut kl in 'press n,n Is! vLhr '-'ii, it limits Jlirtrmtirtu VOL. LXVII Number 8 Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press At Franklin, North Carolina Telephone No 24 Entered at Post Office. Franklin, N. C., as second class matter Editor Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One Year ? ? $2.00 Six Months $1.25 Three Months 75 Single Copy. .. .?. 06 Obituary notices, cards of thanks, tributes of respect, by individuals, lodges, churches, organizations or societies, will be regarded as advertising and inserted at regular classified advertising rates. Such notices will be marked "adv." in compli ance with the postal requirements. 4 WEIMAR JONES BOB S. SLOAN The Right To Say Something is wrong when a large group in a county seeks a referendum on whether the county shall he legally wet or dry and repeatedly are de nied the right to vote on the issue. Every since 1949 the drys in Haywood have been seeking a beer-wine election. Three times they have tried, and each time they have been thwarted by the law or by the courts. The same sort of thing has happened repeatedly in other North Carolina counties, when wets as well as drys have sought elections. And in Murphy, which has jus^ held an election and voted dry, it will be three years, under the law, before the wets will have an opportunity to call a new election. Sentiment could change radically in much less than three years. In the Haywood situation, the drys finally got an election called for February 23. Then the board of elections postponed it till March 8. Then that board reversed its previous ruling, and held there were not sufficient signatures on the petition for the election. The matter was taken before Judge Dan K. Moore, who ruled that "if the petition is not legal, the election would not be legal". Both the law and the courts appear to take the attitude that it could be made difficult rather than easy for the people to vote on such a question ; re peatedly the courts have appeared to feel that the purpose of the law is not to permit ^uch referen dunis, but to forbid them unless every technicality is complied with by those seeking an election. It has occurred to a good many people, a.s this kind of thing has happened time after time, that both the lawmakers and the courts seem to have forgotten the fundamental that the law, since it is an expression of the will of the people, is a creature of the people. There is a widespread tendency to act as though the people were the creatures of the law. The whole theory of our American government is based upon the assumption that the people have a right to decide ? that they have a right to voice their will, even if their decisions are wrong. I 9 9 ? ? ? Fairer? Twic^ last week, on Thursday evening and again Saturday night, the women of the Franklin Parent Teacher association served supper to large groups. That, we submit, is an example of devotion to the cause of education. To serve one big supper is a chore; to serve two within three days is a s&cri fice. And these were only two instances of the kind of thing that is being done all over the county. The people of Macon ? and especially the women of the P. T. A.'s ? are determined that the children of the county shall have the best possible in educa \ tional facilities. It is encouraging, even inspiring, to find such a spirit. It promises well for the future of education in this cou#tv. As long as this spirit is so wide spread. we may be sure that progress will not be easily halted here. But is it fair that this should be necessary? Is it right for 10 or 20 or 30 women to have to do ail the work that these women in Franklin, and thore at Cartoogechaye and Highlands and other .schools, have done, so that the children of all the people of the count** ninv benefit? Wouldn't it be fa'rer if the expense of providing equipment for the new schools were divided equal ly, by taxation? Our American Civilization i Paying for all the extra processing required to take everything out of the wheat except the starch, so we can have pure white flour. Then paying extra to buy bran and wheat germ. Calling this efficient industrial operation. a Others' Opinions B1GGKST HO,l?E Truman hopes Taft would run. Taft hopes Truman will run. Many voters hope neither will run. ? Rockingham Post-Herald. HOLD THAT ROI'H A Finehurst fireman who always drops everything when the fire siren sounds was in a predicament the other day. He was atop a building, holding a rope on which an assistant was dangling down a chimney they were cleaning. The siren sound ed. Came a frightened voice from below: "Don't let go that rope!" ? Pinehurst Outlook. I ? ??00 WORRY ENDS AT 70 That reminds me of a conversation I had with Mr. George on my seventieth birthday. I was feeling solemn about it and the age of seventy seemed pretty well advanced. "I am seventy years old today", I said. "I may live to be seventy-five. I hope so. If I do I want to get a little more done than I have yet ac complished. If I live to be seventy-five I want to have some thing to show for the five years." Mr. George was not impressed. Said he, "If you don't quit worrying, you won't ever see seventy-five." I must have quit worrying, for eleven years have passed since then. I am as far from taw as ever. ? Roland Beasley in Monroe Journal. INCOME TAX DEDUCTIONS The payment of income taxes is an obnoxious task to most folks, though it is realized that the government must be sup ported and there are certain obligations which rest on all citizens. Therefore most folks do it as gracefully as possible. But there are a number of provisions of the income tax laws which are unfair to certain groups, and one of these is that which permits the deduction of only $600 for a dependent. This bears down especially hard on those who are in the med ium income class and have several children they desire to educate. It is manifestly hard to support a child who has reached the age of requiring school clothing on $600 per year, but this can and has been done by numerous parents. However, when that same child attains the age at which college education begins, only an ignoramus would contend that $600 covers the cost of fees and maintenance. There are very few colleges in the United States where the fee required for tuition and board is less than $600 for nine months. When to this are added clothing, and book fees, and laboratory fees, etc., the cost runs much higher, and then, of course, the student must be sup ported during the summer months. Since an increase in the income tax has been decreed for this year, it seems only fair to remind the members of Con gress that they should rationalize their thinking on this sub ject, and make due allowance for dependents. Those with large incomes undoubtedly pay a heavy penalty in the form of in come taxes, but the dependency item does not affect them anything like it does those of modest income who have children at college. If the tax burden is to be fair and equitable, it should take due account to the expense of clothing, educating, and feeding a child, or for that matter any other dependent, and set up this expense as an exemption. We hope our law makers will do this one act of justice to millions of people before they consider increasing income taxes again. ? Scotland Neck Commonwealth. THK NEED: MEDICAL CARE The coming of Oscar Ewing to North Carolina has brought new emphasis to an old subject. It is how to put the full facil ities of medical care in financial reach of all classes of people. Mere mention of the subject in some medical circles produces high blood pressure, usually followed by the stock denuncia tion against "socialized medicine," Oscar Ewing, the Fair Deal and its author, Harry Truman. We have followed Mr. Ewing's goings and coming as closely as our newspapers can detail them, and we have read the speeches he made while in North Carolina. At no place, and in none of his talks, did he advocate "socialized medicine"; and, in fact, he said neither he nor the Truman administration wanted to see such a plan operating in this country. He did tell of the pressing need for more individual health insurance and he explained in some detail the projected National Health In surance plan. There was nothing dictatorial about what he said, nor did he claim infallibility for the administration plan of universal health insurance. Mr. Ewing, like his chief, President Truman, does want medical care put within reach of all people. The plan by which it is to be done is secondary. Take what Ewing had to say about it and add to it the recent action President Truman took in naming a committee of medical men to study the problem and recommend a plan, and you have what appears to us to be a fair and equitable approach to the question. The cry of "so cialized medicine" says nothing and gets us nowhere. Medical men can have whatever health insurance plan they want, provided they start with the same assumption: That there is a pressing need for fuller utilization of medical care by all the people and that a way must be found for all the , people to pay for medical care without facing personal eco nomic disaster, as now happens to many who use the full services of doctors, specialists, hospitals and drugs. Nothing will be gained by calling names and resisting every move to ? wards universal medical and hospital care. Nobody wants "socialized medicine" ? not even Ewing and Truman, if we can believe what they say ? everybody we know anything about wants the best medical and hospital care avail able, and they ought to have it. The medical profession can give the country whatever plan they want, so long as it works and works for everybody.? Hertford County Herald. I OUR DEMOCRACY b,M.i , a very important: source of strengthan^ security, clierislt public creSit... Use it as sparingly as possible, ~ avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace , but retxiember'utg also tltat tlmejy disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent inuclv greater disburse me nt s to repel it ~avoi&ing likewise tlie accumulation of &ebfc..not ungenerously tli rowing upon posterity tkeburScn u>kick we ourselves ouglat to Lear. GEORGt WASH I NGTOfO (" FAK.EWELL ADDRESS) ? Letters Editor, The Press: Little has been said publicly about the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution to limit federal tax to 25 per cent of income. I think it's time that it was given some pub licity as to actually what this would mean. It would mean that a person now making an income of $200, 000 would pay only $50,000, or 25 per cent, against $112,296, or 56 per cent, which he now pays; this would be a savings of $62,296,. or 21 per cent, for this person under the proposed amendment, or a loss to the government of $62,296/ or 21 per cent. Now who is going to make up this loss? The only answer to that is that the person who is NOT now paying 25 per cent of his income, or the lower income groups. To explain, take a person who is now making $3,500 a year. He now pays $526, or 15 per cent, of his income, but under the proposed amendment he could be taxed 25 per cent of his in come, or $875; this would mean a loss to this taxpayer of $349 a year, or 10 per cent, of his income. If such an amendment were to become law today, it would mean only one thing ? that the working class would have to make up the loss, because there would be no place else to get it. As the Louisville (Ky.) Times says: "One doesn't need field glasses to see what such a scheme would do to the nation's tax structure. It would mean shifting an undue portion of the tax burden on to those in the lower income brackets." Twenty-live states have O. K.'d the proposed amendment. If seven more states, or a total of 32, approve it, congress will have to call a national convention to prepare the measure for final action by the states. This thing must be stopped! Yours, COLEMAN M. REECE. Highlands, N. C. I ? ? ? ? ? MORE ABOUT GROUND HOG DAY Dear Mr. Jones: Your editorial in ' last week's Press does not give source of authority for 'the assertion that February fourteenth is Ground Hog Day. Here is a verse, said to have been written in 17S2, which proves that February second was then the accepted date: "If cloudy Candlemas Day in leap year be, And the woodchuck his shadow cannot see Back to his ground-hole he goes to stay For Vinter will last 'till All Fools' Day". I It is regrettable that wejack, the northern Indian name for this marmot, was altered and substituted for groundhog. But it did inspire someone to write the tongue twisting lines that have delighted children through many, many years: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck If a woodchuck would chuck wood?" (MRS. I MARGARET ORDWAY. Franklin, N. C. - . February 17, 1952. ? Poetry EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE Editor Weavervi'.le, North Carolina CIVILIAN PRAYER We pray, O Lord, for peace to hold at bay " The terrors of another martial day. Lord, may it be an everlasting peace Where calmness reigns and happy homes Increase. LOUISE GODFREY OGLE Asheville, N. C. ; -? Business Making News ? By BOB SLOAN We would like .to start off this week by paying ^tribute to a man who we think is very deserving of any compliments we might pass his way. It may not be about business, but I believe that it would be good business if more of us imitated this man in the particular attri butes of his which I wish to call attention to. The man is a veteran of World War I. Since he was discharged from service some 30 years ago he has been a member of a veterans organization. His rec ord of service in this organiza tion shows that he did not join as so many of us, to see what he could get out of it, but be cause he thought of it as a way to help other veterans. Through the years h^ has stayed with it through the times when it was popular to be a member of such an orgaryzation and through the times when the general public was hardly aware that such an organization existed. Since the Korean war he has felt that we should see the boys who are going into serv ice off just as we did in World War I and II wars which caught the public eye more. Each time that the dratt board has had a group of men to leave, Lon Dal ton has made it a point to be there at the bus station at 7 a. m. to see the boys off. It is a pleasure to pay this small tribute to Mr. Dalton who prac tices instead of preaches what he believes. Again, let me say it would be good business if more of us did. * * * We would like to ask a few questions about conditions which might effect business conditions here. If you were considering locating a business in the in dustrial section of Franklin and found that you had to furnish your own sanitary disposal sys tem (or in other words that no sewer line was available) would it affect your decision in locat ing here? If you were a stranger here, interested in buying a piece of property in Macon county, which was priced to you at $12,000.00 but listed on the tax books for a valuation of $3, 600.00 would you be inclined to think that maybe the local folks were trying to take advantage of you? Think about those things, maybe they should be changed. Do'You Remember? (Looking backward through the files of The Press) 50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK In a letter from one of his constituents a few days ago, Congressman Kitchen received the following request: "Please send me some of the volumes containing memorial addresses for dead members of Congress. There Is nothing I read with so much pleasure as obituaries of Congressmen." A Kansas editor who has con tracted the habit of occasional ly attending church has this to say: "Ladies should take off their hats in church. No preach er can inspire a man who is looking into a lop-sided aggre gation of dead birds, stuffed weasels, chameleon skins, rib bons, beads, jets, sticks, straw, flowers, corn tassel and thistle down. It makes a sinner feel lost in the wilderness." 25 YEARS AGO Lyles Harris, a native of Spartanburg county, South Car lina, has been chosen as county agent for Macon County and will assume his duties Monday. The first of this week the City Barber shop moved into one of the most attractive, modern shops in this section of North Carolina. The shop has been moved from the Franks building into the Scott Griffin hotel. 10 YEARS AGO' Miss Jewel Vandiver has been appointed the leader of the F.anklin Girl Scout troop by the Girl Scout committee of the parent-teacher association, of which Mrs. Gordon Moore has served as chairman during the past year. A party for the benefit of the Red Cross will be given by the past matrons of Nequassa chap ter of the Eastern Star at Kel ly's Tea room on Saturday eve ning.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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Feb. 21, 1952, edition 1
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