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Entered at Po*t omce. PranUln. N. C . a* ??nn?ia due matter
Pub lulled every Thunday by The Pnnklla Piw
Pimnklln. N. C. Telephone M
MB ?. BLOAM Bullae** Mana?er
I. P. BRADY Km Editor
MISS BETTT LOO POUTS Office Manager
OABL P. CABE Michanlnal Superintendent
PBANK A. STARRETTE Shop Superintendent
DAVID Hi SUTTON . .
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SUBSCRIPTION RATE8
Outbid* Ma com Coowtt In bids Macom Cooktt
Ob* Tear *3 00 On* Year P*
Biz Month* I TS SU Month* . . l.T*
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Pity The Motorist
Motorists ? most of them tourists ? probably are
at this minute singing the "blues" about the rough
treatment received in this county when they were
unfortunate enough to be arrested for speeding
during last week's "speed clock" detail by highway
patrolmen.
And they're probably singing far and wide, from
Maine to Florida. Bad news, you know, travels
fast.
So, you say to yourself, they were speeding and
were justly charged ? so what !
The problem goes deeper than that, much deeper.
Most of those who received tickets admitted
they were speeding. And they were willing to pay
a fine and be on their wav. But could thev do this?
No!
You see, an act of the 1953 Legislature took the
authority to dispose of .speeding cases away from
the justices of the peace and, in Macon's case, tossed
the disposition right into the lap of Superior Court.
So, our tourists find they are unable to pay a
fine and be on their way. They must post a $50
bond fo.r appearance in Superior Court ? which, in
cidentally just meets here three, times a year.
This, to our way of thinking is inequality in the
roughest form.
In some western counties, police and traffic
courts operate daily and it is relatively simple for
a motorist to stand trial and pay his fine, which
seldom exceeds $25.
But brother! pity the poor joker caught in Ma
con.
If he finds it is inconvenient to return for trial
in Superior Court (sbine arrested live thousands of
miles away from here), he forfeits the $50 bond.
If he is the conscientious type ? and many are ?
he might find that standing trial in Superior Court
is really going to cost him. Costs in this higher
court range from $30 to $40. Couple this with the
judge's fine ($10 to $25) and prepare to shed a
tear for the .poor motorist, which surely must feel
like a hardened criminal by this time.
Like we said. The bad news always travels fast.
An act of the 1953 Legislature brought on this
mess ? we suggest that an act of the 1955 Legis
lature change it.
Change -And The Future
So the Cullasaja and Ellijay post offices are no
more !
Well, maybe that is progress, though we hasten
to add we are far from sure that all the things
the U. S. Post Office Department does these days
represents progress ? far from sure!
Rut progress or not, it represents change. And it
is only natural that many of us should react to the
change with a nostalgic regret. Because the closing
of these, and other small post offices, is a symptom
of vast change: their closing breaks another link
between the present and a past in which each com
munity was a distinctive unit ? its own little world.
That situation had its virtues: but it is worth re
membering it also had its evils; it frequently is ac
companied by exaggerated community jealousies
and suspicions.
A single community no longer can live to itself.
In the larger sense, the unit has become the state,
the nation, and even the world. For practical pur
poses of common progress, though, "the county still
has meaning, at least in Western North Carolina,
and is likely to continue to do so for a long time to
come.
So, instead of wasting our energies in lamenting
the passing of something that already is gone, we
would do well to concentrate on" building a good
county community, in seeking to build one second
to none in the United States.
Not necessarily first in wealth ? that probably is
l>eyond the realm of possibility ; but it is far from
impossible to create a county that is at the top in
citizenship, in kindliness and neighborliness, and in
the ability and willingness to .see problems as they
are to set out to solve them.
Toward such a goal, the Macon County commun
ity has a good start already.
Matter Of Proportion
A number of stories, some of them in revolting
detail, have appeared in the newspapers lately
about men and women who have had their sex
changed.
Probably the first reaction of most persons to
these stories is that the fools in the world are be
coming mor(e and more foolish. The fact that there
continues to be a few isolated idiots in the world,
though, unfortunately is not the whole story.
There are two other, more serious considerations:
1. These changes usually require surgery and
other medical skill. Who are the doctors doing
this? And is the medical profession going to re
main indifferent to this perversion of a high calling?
2. This abnormal behavior on the part of a few,
but a growing number, of individuals almost cer
tainly is the outgrowth of a false attitude to be
found everywhere, especially everywhere in Amer
ica, today. Prudish as they often were, men and
women of a half century ago recognized sex as an
important part of life. In magazines and news
papers. in books, in art, in the movies, and on radio
and television ? everywhere a young American
turns today, he finds the suggestion that sex is all
of life.
Honesty Shrinks Not
"Secret committee sessions, except where the
question of national security is involved . . . are de
signed to protect selfish political interests."
That was the comment, the other day, of W.
Kerr Scott, candidate for the U. S. Senate.
The Press is in agreement. In fact, we've been
trying to say something like that for about a year
now.
The idea wasn't ours, though. John Milton said
something to the satne effect some '300 years ago.
And a man named Philip Freneau said it better
than either the Press or Mr. Scott. Writing in The
National Gazette, an American newspaper, in 1792,
he put it this way :
"How are you to know the just from the unjust
steward when they are covered with the mantle of
concealment? Can there be any question of legis- 1
lative import which freeman should not be ac
quainted with? What are you to expect when
stewards of your household refuse to give account
of their stewardship? Secrecy is necessary \o de
sign and a masque to treachery : honesty shrinks
not from the public eye."
Big News
Best news we've heard in a long time coines out
of Michigan.
A headline tells the story: "Big Trucks' Roar
Gentled to Purr".
The mammoth freight-haulers (and the little
ones, too, we hope) soon to he seen, and heard, on
the highways will meow like kittens instead of
roaring like lions, it seems. Long research has at
last produced a silencer for these destroyers of
both peace of mind as well as ear drums.
Noise has long since become one of the horrors
of existence in America, and anything that tends
to mitigate this evil is headline stuff. Fact is, we've
long been convinced present-day life calls for a
declaration adding one more freedom to the Bill of
Rights ? freedom from incessant, interminable.
nerve-wracking, damnabk' noise!
Others' Opinions
A NEW ALL-PURPt>SE EXCUSE
(Chicago Daily Tribune)
Physicists at the University of California, who are always
making startling announcements, now tell us that tides are
not confined to water: that land, too, rises and falls as a re-'
suit of the gravitational pull of the moon and sun ? in some
places as much as two feet.
What a boon this discovery will be to a lot of people!
/
Truckers will tell us that bad pavement Is due, not to trucks,
but to the strain Imposed by the tides. ? (
Railroads will explain late arrivals by saying It was low tide
at the point of origin and high tide In Chicago, and that the
poor train therefore had to go uphill all the way.
Elevator operators who bring their car to a sudden stop at
street level will apologize by saying that street level was 18
inches higher than they expected*
Bowlers will have a ready-made excuse whenever their scores
do not come up to par. The alley of course was tilted by the
tide.
And best of all, we need no longer fret about the various fig
ures given as the height of Mount Everest. The 29,003-foot
figure is low tide, and 29,141 is high tide.
LET GEORGE TRY IT
(Kiron (Iowa) Weekly News)
Learn from the mistakes of others ? you can't live long
ertbugh to make them all yourself.
BOMBPROOF BUGGIES?
(Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Tests indicate that the safest place to be in an atomic blast
may be inside a motor car. This, at least, holds out hope that
most of our teenagers would survive.
HOLp ON, PLEASE
(Richmond News Leader)
About once a year we write this piece, and right, now is as
good a time as any: t
What's the matter with those business and professional men
who think they're too busy to make their own telephone calls
? the big dealers who have their secretaries place their calls
for them? Do these gentlemen have any idea of the bad public
relations this practice leaves in its wake?
You know the sequence of events: The telephone rings, and
you answer to hear a dulcet feminine voice on the other end:
"Hold on, please, for Mr. Bigdome." So you h6Id on, and you
hold on, and you hold on. The clock ticks around and you sit
there with a slow burn building up. And finally Mr. Bigdome
condescends to pick up the receiver at the other end and the
conversation gets under way.
It's an ironbound rule around our plant that if a man is at
his phone, he answers his phone; and if he wants to make a
telephone call, he summons up the energy required to spin the
dial with his own finger.
The first New Year's resolution we have in mind is that the
very next time a Mr. Bigdome sicks his secretary on us, we're
going to (1> hang up, or (2) ask Brother Big if he's broken
his wrist. There must be some way of putting an end to this
increasing irritation, and one of these days we'll find some in
sult that will take.
Poetry
Editor
EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE
Weaverville, North Carolina
IN inE GARDEN
There is a flower and all m?ly grow it.
Exquisite, lovely as Heaven's display;
Many have seen it, a child may know it ?
LOVE gleams bright on our path today. ?
LENA MEARLE SHULL
STRICTLY
PERSONAL
- ? By WEIMAR JONES
There's an old story about the
Macon County man, back in the
days before we had either a
railroad or highways, who never
had been out of the county. At
last he decided to take a trip,
and went to Atlanta for a day
or two.
On his return, friends wanted
to know about his trip.
"Wonderful trip", he said.
"Have a good time?"
"Wonderful time".
"And what about Atlanta?"
"Wonderful place".
"And the people there?"
We-e-11 now, that's different.
. . . They're a shiftless lot".
"Shiftless? What makes you
think so?"'
"Bound to be. Everybody in
Atlanta must Just STAY behind
with their work".
"And what makes you think
that?"
"Think it? I know it! Why,
everybody down there Is runnin'
every minute, this way and that,
their tongues' almost hangln'
out."
I got somewhat the same im
pression on that first and only
trip of mine, recently, to Wash
ington, D. C.
As I watched the thousands ?
thousands? surely it was mil
lions' ? of automobiles, in a
steady stream, going at such a
terrific pace you knew better
than to try to jaywalk; you
crossed at a traffic light in
fear and trembling ? as I
watched all that traffic, hour
after hour and day after day,
always hurrying, hurrying, hur
rying) I said to myself, time
after time:
"There haven't been that
many people in that big a hur
ry, surely, In the entire history
of the world!"
* ? ?
Another impression I brought
back from that trip was how
big the national government is.
I had read statistics on how
many federal employes there
are, and on how big the fed
eral pay roll is. But "seeing is
believing", and in Washington
the buildings, something nobody
could fall to see, brought home
to me what all the statistics
never would have. Everywhere
tremendous (and of course,
beautiful) buildings; everywhere
you go in that big city govern
ment buildings, and of course
in every building is a veritable
swarm of employes.
And how big the buildings are
was impressed on me when I
pointed out a building that
looked to me like it was big
enough to swallow all Frank
lin's business section, and asked
what building it was. I was told
that it was a mere ANNEX to
a bigger, proper building!
? * ?
The most vivid impression I
brought back, though, was one
a lot less easy to describe.
I did what I suppose all vis
itors to Washington do (I be
lieve the total up to now is 30
millions), I went up in the
Washington Monument.
From that vantage point, the
city is spread out before you.
At that elevation, you get some
thing like a map of the na
tional capital, with the capltol
building off yonder at the end
of Pennsylvania Avenue.
But it was objects nearby, and
things I saw and felt around
Continued On Pace Eleven?
News Making
As ft Looks
To A Maconite
? By BOB SLOAN
Two weeks ago I suggested
that Secretary Stevens should
receive some kind of medal for
standing up to McCarthy, the
man who seems to have most
of Washington looking over
their shoulder. It aorta of back
fired on me in that before we
printed the paper the Secretary
of the Army had retreated
somewhat from his original
stand.
Nevertheless I would like to
make another similar nomina
tion. More power to Senator
Harley Kllgore for rising from
a sick bed to vote against the
Brlcker amendment. This
amendment would do much to
upset the balance between the
executive and legislative
branches of government that
was the intent of the authors
of the Constitution. When
Franklin Roosevelt was presi
dent the criticism was made
that the executive branch of
the government was upsetting
this balance. Certainly the leg
islative branch of the govern
ment with this attempted usur
pation of the executive powers
and McCarthy's committee in
vestigation assuming the pow
ers of the judiciary Is very def
initely upsetting this delicate
balance between legislative, ju
diciary, and executive arms of
the government which has been
proclaimed by many to be the
heart of the American system.
Again more power to Senator
Kllgore for helping to keep his
own folks In check.
* ? ?
The other day Governor Um
stead ordered his director of
the Budget to tighten up a lit
tle on government expenditures
and to be a little more thrifty
with the state's money. The
same day he ordered a new
Cadillac for the Governor of
ficial car. Tut! Tut! Governor.
Reminds me of that song title,
"Why Don't You Practice What
You Preach."
I wish that we elected state
highway commissioners so may
be in some fashion we could
put it to a vote whether or not
Nantahala will get the all
weather road to Franklin. I
don't know, but I believe that
enough money was wasted cre
ating the new highway districts
to have built the road and made
it 20 feet wide. I am just judg
Continued On Page Eleven
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward through
the files of The Prom)
5* YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Farmers are beginning to get
down to work on their farms.
Prof. F. M. Burnett resigned
his position here last week as
principal of the Macon High
School and left- Thursday morn
ing for Nashville, Tenn., to
enter the Medical Department
of Vanderbilt University. Prof.
J. N. Bradley succeeds him as
principal of the schools.
Mr. C. T. Blaine has moved
to the Harris Roller Mills and
is employed in the store and
general management of the
business.
The Macon High School has
enrolled to date some 135 stu
dents, and there are nearly 100
in actual attendance.
25 YEARS AGO
According to an announce
ment made here Monday, S. R.
Joines has bought out the in
terest in the Joines .Motor and
Tractor Company, Inc., local
Ford dealers.
Last Saturday morning snow
on Wayah Bald was four inches
deep ? none in Franklin.
J. V. Arrendale, county agent
of Clay and former agent of
Macon, was here Tuesday to
meet the district agent, John
W. Goodman.
Mr Rumby Ray, who has
been working in Hiawassee, Ga ,
for the past several months, is
here on a visit to his parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Jess Ray.
10 YEARS AGO
Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Corbin, of
Gneiss, have rented their place
of business to Mr. and Mrs. Bill
Tllson. They also have bought
an apartment house In the res
idential section of Knoxville,
Tenn.. and have moved there.
Fred Houk has Been accepted
in the Navy and is now in
training with the Navy unit at
Carson-Newman College, Jeffer
son City, Tenn.
Porter Duncan, of Fontana,
visited friends and relatives
Sunday.