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Entered at Post Office, Franklin. N. C . as second class matter
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press
Franklin, N. C. Telephone 24
WHMAR JONES 1 ? ? Editor
BOB 8. SLOAN Business Manager
J. P. BRADY News Editor
MISS BETTY LOU FOUTS Office Manager
CARL P. CABE Mechanical Superintendent
FRANK A. STARRETTE . , Shop Superintendent
DAVID H. 8UTTON ' Stereotyper
CHARLES E. WHITTINGTON . ... I ........ . Pressman
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Outside Macon County Inside Macon Countt
One Year $3.00 One Year $2 50
81* Months 1.75 SI* Months 1.75
Three Months 1.00 Thref Months 1 00
OCTOBER 15, 1953
Obvious
North Carolina recently dropped down into 45th
place among the states in per capita income. For
the first time in decades, the Tar Heel state ranks
below South Carolina in this important index of
progress.
t
Why this slide down the toboggan? More im
portantly, how can we reverse it?
I ? . I _
"More and bigger factories !"
That shouted answer comes, in unison, from
North Carolina leaders in industry, business, and
politics.
"North Carolina needs, it mUst have, more in
'dustries. More industrialization is the solution.
"That is obvious."
Is it?
North Carolina was one of the first of the South
ern states to go in for industrialization. For dec
ades, it has been one of the more highly industrial
ized states in the region. Today, according to the
Blue Book of Southern Progress, it is second only
to Texas, among Southern states, in industrial de
velopment.
But its per capita income, meanwhile, has slip
ped downward, by comparison with other states!
To be more specific, consider what has happened
in the two Carolines:
North Carolina long- has been far ahead of South
Carolina in industrialization. In 1939, the Blue Book
reports, this state had '3,225 manufacturing plants
employing 270,000 persons. Bv 1952 the totals had
jumped to 7,400 plants employing 449.000 workers.
In 1939 South Carolina had 1,331 plants employ
ing 126,000 workers. In 1952 the figures were 3.100
plants and 224,000 workers.
In the 13-year period, in other words, North Car
olina has more than doubled the number of its in
dustrial plants and has almost doubled the number
employed ; while South Carolina today has not
even caught up with North Carolina's 1939 indus
trial development.
But South Carolina? along with other states ?
has gone ahead of North Carolina in per capita
income !
Industrialization has been accompanied by loss of
ground in comparative per capita income. So, say
this state's leaders, the answer is more and bigger
industries! That, they add, is obvious.
Actually, it is. so obviously un-obvious as to raise
a question about the omniscience, if not the sincer
ity, of Governor Umstead and his political, indus
trial, and business associates.
What is the solution of the problem of this state's
relative drop in per capita income?
This newspaper doesn't even pretend to have the
answer. Hut, we respectfully suggest. I irtstead and
Company do not have the answer, either.
That, we might add. is obvious.
If you doubt it. consult their own statistic-'!
Newspapers? And You
Hditorials appeared in newspapers all over the
land, during last week's observance of National
Newspaper Week, about the relation of the press
to the citizen. But this relationship, like others, is
a two-way affair. What about the relation of the
citizen to the newspapers?
It would be only natural for the average reader
to ask :
"What responsibility have 1 about the press?"
Perhaps the best way to get an answer to that
question is to ask another one:
Why did the Founding Fathers of this nation
write into the very first amendment of the Consti
tution a provision that the press should be free?
Was it because newspaper people are entitled to
special privileges, in their own right. Of course not!
That would have been in violation of the entire
spirit of the Constitution.
For the answers to both questions ? the question
ol why the average citizen has a stake in and a re
sponsibility for a press that is free, and the ques
tion of why the Constitution provided that it
should be free ? it is necessary to look no farther
than the Preamble to the Constitution.
First, there is that opening phrase: "We, the
people . .
It is not the people in Washington or in Raleigh
or in courthouses and city halls who own and gov-,
ern this land : the Constitution says plainly it is the
people ? all the people.
And it is not "the people" merely in a general and
theoretical sense, but "WE, the people": a govern
ment not just of all the people, but a government of
and by us.
It follows that how good a government we have,
and how long this government of ours lasts, de
pends, in the final analysis, on the character and
the intelligence of the individual citizen.
To the men who wrote the Constitution, it must
have been plain that the people could act intelli
gently, in passing on issues and in selecting their
representatives, only if there was full and open in
formation, and free discussion, pro and con ; and
that the only way for the people to get such infor
mation and discussion was through a free press:
Thus the press was given freedom because, and
only because, of a larger freedom ? the right of the
people to know.
A second phrase in the Constitution's Preamble,
a phrase setting forth one of the reasons for the
Constitution and the federal union, sheds more
light on the matter: To "secure the blessing* of lib
erty to ourselves and our posterity".
How can you and I and other average citizens
"secure the blessings of liberty" ? the right to free
dom of worship and of thought and of speech? How
can we make sure they are not being lost by de
fault or betrayed by intent, except through a free
press that tells the people what their servants, the
holders of public office, are doing; and goes a step
farther and keeps the people informed about the
pressures being brought by the selfish groups that
always find freedom inconvenient, sometimes dan
gerous. to their own ends?
The press is free, then, for two reasons: First,
because the citizen has the right, and the need, to
know, so he can think and act intelligently ; and
second, as a safeguard against the loss or theft of
his other and larger freedoms.
A free press thus is something in which every
citizen has a stake, and for which every citizen has
a responsibility, if he is to "secure the blessings of
liberty" for himself and his posterity.
* * *
It" and when Americans lose their freedoms, thev
will not lose theni all at once, dramatically, but a
little at a time, almost imperceptibly.
And the first they are in danger of losing is their
right to know. Once that is sufficiently restricted,
it will be easy for their other freedoms to be taken
from them ? because thev will have no way lof
knowing they are being taken. And whether they
arc taken by Fascists or Communists, or by well
meaning people who think a good end justifies any
means, the result will be. the same!
There are at least two ways this right to know,
and the freedom of the press that makes it .possible,
can be lost:
It can, and probably will, lie lost if the pres< be
comes so irresponsible as no longer to deserve to be
free.
And it can, and probably will, be lost if the aver
age citizen is too indifferent to be willing to fight
for it.
I le may have to fight for it.
For today, all over the world, there is a gradual
but unceasing effort to limit the people's right to
know. It is evident not only in Russia and in Eu
rope, hut in Washington and Raleigh and many
courthouses and city halls.
It was dramatized for North CarolJtiians last
spring when the General Assembly repealed a 25
year old statue requiring legislative appropriations
committees to hold all meetings open to the public,
and then enacted a bill specifically authorizing com
mittees to meet in secret.
When it enacted the secrecy law, the 1953 Legis
lature said to the people of North Carolina: "It is
not for you to know how and why we reach our
decisions in appropriating your tax dollars for your
institutions and agencies."
And what happened in Raleigh last spring was
Only one of many straws in the wind!
Bouquet
This newspaper often has expressed the opinion
that school accreditation sometimes is over-rated,
in comparison with the importance of the actual
work done in the classroom. For, while accredita
tion is based on things that can be measured, there
is no way to measure the work of a good teacher.
Nonetheless, accreditation is recognition of a
large and varied number of accomplishments, each
looking toward better classroom work, and as such
is something highly desirable. Accordingly, The
Press makes its bow to the Otto community for
being the first in this county to win accreditation
for its elementary school.
That the professional school people had a lot to do
with it goes without saying, but they were the first
to give the lion's share of the credit to the people of
the community, working through their P. T. A.
If the Otto P. T. A. never accomplished anything
else, this achievement would have justified its ex
istence, many times over. And of course this type
of thing, important and worth-while as it is, is not
the primary function of a parent-teacher associa
tion. The P. T. A.'.s greatest contribution always
is in bringing about a better understanding, be
tween parents and teachers, of how best to meet
the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of the
child.
Others' Opinions
ONLY ONE TIME
(Harnett County News)
?.
Last week a big bulldozer machine was clearing away the
last remains of the old Bank of Lillington building. A .crowd of
citizens we.re standing around "kibitzing" the job when one of
them, observed:
"I'll bet you one thing. I'll bet you that's the first time that
bank has been bulldozed."
HELPING HAND
(Jacksonville News and Views)
At the market, a store owner and manufacturer were argu
ing loudly and excitedly about a deal when a friend of the
buyer came by. He called the man over and said:
"I can't understand you, Irving. In all the years I've known
you, you've never once paid a bill. You know you're not going
to pay the man anyway, so why argue about the price?"
"I know," answered Irving, "but he's such a nice fellow. I'd
like to keep his losses down."
Poetry
Editor
EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINTS
Weaverville, North Carolina
GROWN UP SPRING
An autumn day is a nameless thing ?
This or that, the leaves' last fling
But here's the christening I would bring:
Vacation time for a grown up spring
EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE.
STRICTLY
PERSONAL
By WEIMAR JONES
CHAPEL HILL. ? Have you
ever suddenly found yourself
deaf?
I did recently, and it is not
a pleasant experience.
A little ear infection, plus the
medicine the doctor put in, plus
the cotton he crammed in on
top of the medicine, left me al
most totally deaf in one ear.
The week that lasted was one
of the longest in my life. And
the fact I was among strang
ers didn't make it any easier!
Never before had I realized
how necessary, to proper hear
ing, are both ears. I found my
self, in a group, catching a
phrase here, another phrase
there, and rarely a whole sen
tence anywhere:
. . that's what he said."
(Well, I wondered, what did he
say? and who said it?.. . . you
know who he is." (I might, I
thought to myself, if I had
caught the name.) And . . . "Mr.
Jones . . . (Golly, they're talk
ing about me. What in heck
did they say? . . . and what I
am supposed to say?)
I round myself craning my
good ear first this way and
then that; but always a trifle
too late ... or only to have
the sound blurred by another
one, reaching me from an angle.
And even when something
was said directly to me, once
or twice I smiled pleasantly and
said "yes" . . . only to realize,
from the quickly raised eye
brow of the person addressing
me, that the answer should
have been "no"!
I was first annoyed with my
self; then? quite unreasonably?
with the people around me
And after a while I felt tired
out trying to concentrate on the
sounds that seemed to come
from all sides, but almost none
of which were clear cut. And
my mind began to wander . . .
This experience, short as it
was, made me think of the
thousands who have to put ufc
with this sort of thing all the
time. And I suddenly realized
that deafness is perhaps worse
than blindness.
That is true, I believe, not be
cause deafness really is a worse
affliction than blindness, but
because of the way people re
act to the two. We are all
sympathy for the blind; but we
make Jokes about the deaf. For
some strange reason, we give
the person who is blind a sort
of halo or heroism, while we
are Just annoyed with the deaf.
And thinking back over my
own actions in the presence of
persons who hear poorly, I felt
ashamed. Because It seems to
Continued On Fife Three
News Making
As It Looks
To A Maconite
? By BOB SLOAN
Naturally there is a lot of
talk going on about the foot
ball situation here at Franklin
High School. There are always
hundreds of people who over
night become expert coaches. ^
They would do this and they
would do that and the only
thing they can agree on is to
give a losing coach the dickens.
I would like to take this op
portunity to remind people of
the following facts which, if
they have stopped to think,
they remember as well as I do.
Milburn Atkins didn't win a
game one year and two years
later with virtually the same
boys he missed the champion
ship by one touchdown. Bill
Crawford had a team beaten 72
to 14 once but later he pro
duced some of the finest teams
Franklin has ever had.
To all these fans who would
do this and do that or who
want to get rid of this person
or get .rid of that person I
would like to make one sugges
tion as to how we can help the
situation.
Let's tell our boys and our
coach that win, lose or draw,
we are solidly behind them. If
they make mistakes ? so what,
don't we all make mistakes. The
biggest mistake we can make is
to be out here publically crltiz
ing and sniping at our boys
and coach instead of being 100
per cent behind them. I don't
know whether the public quar
terbacking will stop, but I have
faith in our boys and I believe
their play will improve. Let's
put as much effort into sup
porting them as they are put
ting out on the field and I feel
sure things will improve. Re
member its STICK WITH
FRANKLIN. WIN, LOSE OR
DRAW.
? * ?
Soon the Christmas shopping
season will be here. Let's start f
right now to do our shopping ?
and let's do it at home.
Each year our merchants go
out on a limb to invest thou
sands of dollars to offer a wide
selection of merchandise for the
public. If we would really trade
at home it would enable the
merchants to offer a better se
lection each year. But when
you buy goods in Asheville that ?
can be found in the stores here
you are discouraging the mer
chants from stocking those
items again. ^
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward through
the files of The Press)
50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Horace Harrison, Jim Palmer,
Frank Curtis, and Arthur Add
ington left on Tuesday of last
week to seek fortunes in other
climes. The two former had
reached Birmingham, Ala., at
last accounts, but the two lat
ter had not .reported there.
Mr. W. G. Bulgin has a June
apple tree that has bloomed out
three times this year and now
has the second crop of apples
on it. They are fine and well
flavored and have no core.
The best interests of Frank
lin demand that the railroad
depot be on the west side of
town and it is to be hoped that
the engineers will find it to the
advantage of the railroad build
ers , to locate it. If Franklin
ever spreads out much it must
be on the western side where
all the beautiful building sites
lie.
25 YEARS AGO
Monday the Franklin post of
fice moved into the new build
ing on the public square. This
building was erected by Sam L.
Franks and M. D. Billings.
Mr. Frank Granes, of New
York, was shaking hands with
his many friends here last
Sunday.
The town board is having
Riverview Street from Main to
Tennessee Street widened and
graded.
10 YEARS AGO
On Tuesday night, shortly
after midnight, the lumber mill
of A. R. Higdon, located near
the river bridge, was complete
ly destroyed by fire.
Miss Dorothy Morrison, who
has been serving as a medical
technician at Moore General
Hospital, Swannanoa, spent last
week-end with her parents, Mr.
and .Mrs. J. R. Morrison.