Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / Nov. 5, 1953, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
(Eke Jfrattklnr tyttzz nni* Chr Highlands jHfarmtran Entered at Post Office. Franklin. N. C., as second class matter Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press Franklin. N. C. Telephone 24 IHCIMAR JONES Editor BOB S. SLOAN Business Manager J. P. BRADY News Editor HISS BETTY LOU FOUTS Office Manager CARL P. CABE .... Mechanical Superintendent TOANK A. STARRETTE Shop Superintendent DAVID H. SUTTON Stereotyper CHARLES E. WHITTINGTON . . > Pressman SUBSCRIPTION RATES Outside M\con County Inside Macon County One Year $3.00 One Year . . . . r $2.50 Six Months . . . 1.75 Six Months . 1.75 Three Months 1.00 Three Months 1.00 NOVEMBER 5, 1953 Freedom To. . . "We need also to know what we are free from and what limits we shall put upon ourselves. Mere freedom Is an ideological vacuum." ? Newspaper Columnist Ray mond Moley. "VACUUM: An unfilled or empty space"; that is to say, nothingness. So that, Mr. Moley. is the goal toward which all our aspiration and struggle and sacrifice, down through the centuries, has been leading us ? toward nothingness. And so freedom is something we can dismiss as "mere" ! And so freedom is a thing that must have limits put upon it ! And so we are free only from: that is, freedom is just a negative thing! You could as well say goodness is the mere ab sence of evil : that truth is the mere absence of er ror; that beauty is the mere absence of ugliness. And some men, in America today, do say those things ! They say them because they are afraid. Timid souls, they dare not leave the security of the famil iar; and they sense: ? though they never will admit ?that truth and goodness and beauty are positive, dynamic forces, and hence inevitably bring change. So, too. does freedom ? freedom most of all ! * * * Of course we must put limits on freedom. But we must limit it only to the end, and only so much as is necessary, that there may be the maximum of freedom for all. Freedom for all; there's the rub! That is what the shrinking ones, those who draw aside their robes lest they be contaminated by ruder men ? that is what they would be free from. They fear too much freedom, freedom fox too many. And freedom for the few among the many. That is what the timid ones, those who dare not go far from shore ? that is what they would be free from. They fear the strangeness of new ideas, the free dom to dissent. * * * It is true, too. that we all do seek freedom from; freedom from, such things as want and fear? But is that all? Was Socrates thinking of a purely negative thing, a mere freedom from, when he drank the hemlock as the price of intellectual freedom? Did Jesus have in mind a mere freedom from when he said "the truth shall make you free"? Were the men. on the Continent of Hurope and in Great llritian. who slowly, laboriously, painfully created the concept of political freedom ? were they driven hy an inner urge to fight on for a purely negative thing? Were tin- author- of the Declaration of Inde pendence inspired l>v the dream of a mere absence of slaverv when thev declared that all men are en dowed with the inalienable right to Liberty: ( For is a ri^lit in mere absence of a wrong?.) Or the author- of the ( onMitution of the I'nited States when th-.\ sought to "secure the blcs-ings of lib ertv"? (For i- a ble-sing the mere absence oi a curse? ) Did the American- who died at \ alle\ Forge and at tiettysburg and on the Normandy Heachluad die for ti n\ere negative freedom, one that one can lead onlv to "an ideological vacuum": ' \ Was\it mere freedom from that enabled America to create the technological and industrial miracle .of the ages? that made it possible for this nation to produce its Walt Whitmans and Abraham Lincoltis and George Washington Carvers? , Was it? \ j Or was it, instead, the unleashing of the limitless forces within men's minds and imaginations and spirits? ? * * * Real freedom is not freedom from but freedom to? Freedom of a man to worship (iod, in his own way. Freedom to inquire and fo know and to think. Freedom to speak the truth. a> each man sees the truth. Freedom of the child, to "burgeon out 4II there is within him'M Freedom to dream and to work and to achieve. Yes, and freedom to differ ? a freedom broad enough to encompass the timid who would limit its boundaries and the bold who would burst then. \ * * * Not" just freedom from, but freedom to ? that is what has made America great. It was toward freedom to that man stumbled up through the darkness of yesterday. It is toward freedom to that he gropes through the terrible darkness of today. And it is freedom to that beck ons him on toward a brighter, because a freer, to morrow. Ambitious This newspaper knows nothing of the merits or demerits of the church controversy that led Bishop Homer Tomlinson to seek to destroy the concrete letters that spell out the Ten Commandments, on a mountain near Murphy. But we will say one thins: for the good Bishop: he is ambitious. Most of us, in ^he course of our lives, break one or more of the Commandments, but Bishop Tomlin son must be the first man in history to try to break all ten at one time. Bouquet Congratulations to Mr. R. K. McKelvey on his election as a vice-president of the North Carolina Independent Telephone Association. This recogni tion from a .state group is an honor not only to Mr. McKelvey, but to his home town as well. Flowers, too, to Mrs. K. M. McXish for sharing her experiences on the trip to the U. N. Mrs.. Mc Nish's vivid account, which appeared on the editor ial page of last week's Press, did just what it evi dently was meant to do ? left the reader with the feeling he had been along. The Dream Step L. P. Cross, the hardworking editor-publisher of The Clayton (Ga.) Tribune, has taken the step all newspaper publishers dream of, but seldom get around to doing. Mr. Cross has sold his newspaper, explaining with a frankness that has marked his 30 years of publishing the Georgia weekly, . .1 am not anx ious to leave off the editorial toga, but I am tired and time just won't wait for me to catch up with things." We wish Mr. Cross the very best and hope he can find time to cross the state line and visit with us. To the new purchasers of The Tribune, Mr. and Mrs. Robert I'd ward Barker, we extend a welcome across the line and wish them all the success in the world in their new venture. Others' Opinions IT WOULD BE! (New York Sun. Scotland is drifting westward at the rate of seven or eight feet a year. 'T'.i-i significant thin;; is that it is a free ride. BATS, GOING AND COMING (Richmond Times-Dispatch ? Scientists report a mysterious decline in the bat population. The question, then, is where did they go? We've known sot years where they came out of. And fast too. HISTORICAL PERSONAGE (Raleigh News and Observer > .Mary Pickford, who so long was America's first favorite movie actress, has been visiting in Southern Pines and while there went to see a child at the Moore County Hospital. "Though the children in the hospital," says a news story, ..did not recognize the lady who was 'America's Sweetheart' in former years, the nurses did and there was considerable excite ment." This obviously Is an item on old age. Of course, the children cant remember Mary Plckford The wonder is that the nurses can. Her fame was made In the old silent picture days. It has been 20 years or more since she appeared in her last picture, which was a "talkie" ? a word Itself now lost to the language Miss Plckford is an historical character who was in the movies when the movies began. It was nice of such a personage out of the past -go to see the child in the hospital. It is also a little appalling to notice that the little old lady whose career covers the whole history of the movies is still just 60 years old. AIR FORCE FARCICAL HEARING (Des Moines Register! Many persons were shocked last week to find that an Air Force board had recommended (subject to review > that a re serve lieutenant, Milo Radulovich, be discharged as a. security risk solely because of some activities on the part of his father and sister. Many others are likely to be even more shocked at finding -how the board came to its decision. A,i described on newscaster Edward R. Murrow'j television program. Radulovich's trial was in the form of a hearing before three Air Force officers. The statement of charges consisted of a list of 12 allegations ? eight against the sister and four against the father. But while Radulovich's attorney was able to present witnesses and question them to answer the allegations, that was the ex tent of the hearing. The Air Force presented no evidence at the proceedings. Radulovich's attorney could not cross-examine witnesses because the Air Force offered none. The whole case against Radulovich was contained in a "confidential investiga tive file", which no one had the right to examine. Radulovich's attorney observes that in more than 30 years of practice he has never encountered such a "farce and travesty on justice." The justification for proceedings of this sort is that no one has a constitutional right to a government job or a military commission; nor is the government accusing anyone of a crime, in the usual sense. It follows that no one has a right to traditional constitutional safeguards ? such as the right to be confronted by the witnesses against him? in hearings which are solely to determine fitness for a post. All of that may be perfectly logical and acceptable from a legal point of view. But most Americans are apt to feel a sharp sense of dismay that a person can face being branded a secur- ^ ity risk and recommended for discharge on the basis of the kind of flimsy hearing the Air Force offered. Poetry Editor EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE Weaverville. North Carolina PETUNIAS IN NOVEMBER The orchard trees stand idle, Or flutter lifeless leaves; The sunbeams hint of Summer, So does a gentle breeze. I pause, to stare in wonder At blossoms by the wall ? Petunias richly flowering In the apathy of Fall. Against the somber landscape. These colors left by chance Are like a bit of harmony In Autumn's Dissonance. LOUISE GODFREY OGLE STRICTLY PERSONAL By WEIMAR JONES CHAPEL HILL? Wonder how that expression, "independent as a hog on ice", ever got started. As we use it, it means standing on your own feet, ask ing no favors. It must have come into use long before run - of - the - mill folks had enough ice to be able to put a slaughtered animal "on ice"; so it surely means as in dependent as a hog standing or walking on ice. The phrase brings me a picture of a hog standing on a sheet of ice float ing down a river. I can imagine nothing that would be more UN-independent than a hog would be under such circumstances. Rather than be ing independent, my guess is he'd be squealing for dear life for somebody to rescue him. Hardly a picture of indepen dence. Has anybody any idea about where we got this phrase? .Cf all the various kinds of discourtesy, the one that gets undsr my skin worse, I think, is the way some persons, par ticularly women, completely ig nore an apology. Y ju unintentionally bump in to them on the street, or step., on their feet in a crowd, or otherwise do something you are sorry for, and you involuntarily exclaim: 'Pardon me" or "I'm sorry" or "Please excuse me". And you get no answer what ever?not even a glimmer of acknowledgement in the eyes. All snobbishness, of course, is discourteous, but this, it seems to me, is carrying it to the nth degree. I had It happen the other day. A cafeteria was crowded and I unintentionally touched the foot of a women who was seated at the front ? barely touched It, that was all. I apol ogized in xny best manner. But nothing happened; not so much as a smile, or even a frown. Such ungraciousness seemed inexcusable, and I rpade up my mind I would force her to ac knowledge the apology. So I stood perfectly still and repeat ed it. No reply. I repeated it again, in a louder tone. She looked straight through me; it was as though I did not exist. I kept on, four or five times, getting Jouder all the time. I was so mad I was on the point on stepping on both her feet and just standing on them. Then I suddenly realized ? she must be deaf! * * ? My room here is in the home of an elderly French couple. They have been in this country only about six months, but the wife speaks excellent English and I have had several inter esting conversations with her. She coaches a number of col lege students who are deficient in their French; and I wonder ed why, if she were interested in teaching, she didn't apply for a job as French teacher in one of the public schools lict*. or in some town nearby. The answer: She hasn't a Nortn Carolina teacher'* certi ficate. , We have hundreds of persons teaching French in North Car olina's public schools whose ' French conversation probably no Frenchman coulcl under stand. But a native of the coun try, a woman of culture, who presumably speaks excellent French, can't teach that lan guage in the North 'Carolina public schools because she lacks a certificate! ? * * I like an expression of one of the journalism professors here; it sounds very much like the kind of thing we would say in Macon County. When he wants to discount something that Is chiefly talk, with no concrete results? some thing we In the old days would have described as "windy" or "hot air" ? Phillips Russell dry ly remarks: "There was a blast of trumpets ? but nothing hap pened!" News Making As It Looks To A Maconite ? By BOB SLOAN Many military leaders with experience in World Wars I and II say that the fighting of the American troops in Korea has been as valiant as any they have ever witnessed. Since many of our people have never clearly understood the Issues in volved in the Korean war there has been a doubt in their mind concerning the war. Perhaps this doubt was also in the sol diers' minds. Then why did they fight so well? I think the ques tion was best answered by Eric Sevareid, veteran news analyst in a broadcast one day after the Korean truce was announc ed. Below is part of Mr. Seva reid's broadcast on "Why Did They Fight": "Why have these youths be haved so magnificently? It was true, as many said, that .rota tion was a substitute for victory in this war. But that was not all the answer. The rest of it lies very deep in the heart and tissues of this American life, and none among us can unrav el all the threads of it. It has to do with their parents and their teachers and their minis teries; it has to do with their 4-H Clubs, their Scout troops, their neighborhood centers; it has to do with the sense of be longing to a team, with the honor of upholding it, the shame of letting it down. But it also has to do with their implicit, unreasoned belief in their coun try, and their natural belief in themselves as individual men upon the earth. Whatever is responsible, their behavior in this undefinable, . unrewarded war outmatches, it seems to me, the behavior of those Americans who fought the definable wars of certainty and victory. For this is a new thing in the American story; and for ' those of us who write the story, as they live it, this is a thing to be put down with respect and some humility." In addition to what Mr. Seva reid has said I think that our churches are having a growing influence in spreading the cause of justice and righteousness. Many of the soldiers would be the last to admit this but faith In those things which the churches stand for was the un definable thing which in many cases helped the soldier to make the extra sacrifice. Do You Remember? (Looking backward through the files of The Press) 50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK Button Lyle reached home last Wednesday at noon from Birmingham. Ala., where he had been working in a printing of fice for several months. The county commissioners have purchased three road scrapers, which are here, and propose buying two more. Revenue officers Shope and Ensley raided a sow-paw fac tory on Cowee last Saturday night, and captured a still and a lot of beer, which were de stroyed. 25 YEARS AGO Those who oppose building a jail for Macon County have ob tained an order effective until the first day of the November term of Macon County court restraining the commissioners lrom proceeding with the con struction of a new jail. Anyone in Franklin who is absolutely certain that he can't W wong about anything should try his hand at running a newspaper. Vermont Is said to have a breed of barkless dogs. Now there's hope that some day Franklin may have a breed of honkless horn motorists. 10 YEARS AGO Miss Daisy Caldwell, former ly with the Swain-Graham county unit of the Farm Secur ity Administration, is now home supervisor for Macon and Swain counties. Miss Carolyn Nolen has been in Franklin this week. She is now assistant administrative supervisor for the F. S. A. Ma con in one of the 23 counties in her area.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 5, 1953, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75