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Entered at Post Office, Franklin. N. C.. aa second class matter
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press
Franklin. N. C. Telephone M
WEIMAR JONES BdltOI
BOB 5 SLOAN Business Manage]
J. P BRADY News Edltoi
MISS BETTY LOU POUTS Office Manage!
CARL P. CABE . . ' Mechanical Superlntendeni
FRANK A. STARRETTE Shop Superlntendeni
DAVID H. SUTTON Stereotype)
CHARLES E. WHITTINOTON Preasmar
SUBSCRIPTION RATE8
Outbids Macon Coxtntt Inside Macon County
One Year $3.00 One Year $2.5(
Biz Months 1.79 Six Months 1.7!
Three Months 1.00 Three Months 1 0C
Senator Ervin
The appointee, the appointer, and the state are
to be congratulated on Governor Umstead's ap
pointment of Sam J. Ervin, Jr., as U. S. Senator
from North Carolina.
Mr. Ervin, of Morganton, now serving as asso
ciate justice of the state supreme court, will succeed
the late Clyde R. Hoev in the senate.
Mr. Ervin won numerous World War I decora
tions, repeated election to the General Assembly as
Burke County representative, election to the super
ior court bench, appointment to congress, and ap
pointment and later election to the state supreme
court. More important than any of these, he has
won the respect and affection of almost everyone
who has come to know him.
The first thing his close friends say of him is
that he is a man of strong character. Members of
the bar (including members here, where he has held
superior court) describe him as a man possessed of
a brilliant and markedly logical mind. And his
views on political, economic, and social questions
stamp him as a middle-of-the-roader. A basic lib
eralism in his nature is diluted by a large fund of
common sense and a streak of irrepressible humor.
Governor Umstead could hardly have made a
better appointment.
The Court Decision
III
As issues, segregation and prohibition had many
things in common.
Both involved deep-seated social customs. In each
case, many persons were convinced that the issue
was basically moral. In each, there was a determ
ined effort by some sections of the country to force
a change on one or more other sections ? the South
and West forced prohibition on a reluctant North
and East, and the North and West have been seek
ing to force racial integration on a reluctant South.
And because of the crusading .spirit for reform, the
emotions of the reformers as well as the reformees
were involved.
There the similarity ends.
Prohibition was put into effect by the adoption
of an amendment to the Constitution (and later
abolished by repeal of that amendment).
Segregation could have been banned in the same,
or a similar, way ? that is, by action of the people,
or of their duly elected representatives in the Cong
ress and/or the state legislatures. But the issue of
.segregation never was submitted to a vote of the
people, and the people's chosen legislators in the
Congress consistently refused to outlaw it.
Segregation has been outlawed by a Supreme
Court decision ? and by a decision that has many of
the earmarks of legislation rather than Constitu
twmal- interpretation.
* * *
And in the segregation case, the court appears to
have gone a .step farther.
Elimination of segregation presents many and
complicated problems, and there has been much
praise of the court for deciding to hear arguments,
next fall, before ruling when and how the integra
tion of white and Negro children in the public
schools shall be accomplished.
In adopting this unusual procedure, the court's
motives undoubtedly were good ; just as its motives
undoubtedly were good in deciding the issue itself
on a basis of the court's judgment of what is best
for the country rather than on the question of what
the Constitution means. But what the court's mo
tives were is beside the point.
Nor does it make good sense to adopt the atti
tude many haver that "we'll just have to trust to
the intelligence and character of the justices". For
that means government by men, not by law ? a doc
trine repugnant to every American tradition, and
repugnant, surely, to the justices themselves. a
* * *
What the court has done is to defer unconstitu
tionality! It has said flatly that segregation in the
public schools is unconstitutional ; then it has added
that segregation will not be a violation of the con
stitution until a date to be set by the court. That is
to say, the Constitution is to be held in abeyance,
at the discretion of the court.
It has gone farther: After the arguments next
fall, it is to decide not only when integration must
be accomplished, but also how.
Such a ruling, on a constitutional question, is un
precedented. From the time of John Marshall until
the segregation decision, the Supreme Court has
passed on the constitutionality of a law ? and has
stopped there. It then has become the responsibil
. ity of the executive branch of the government to
decide when and how the court's decree should be
i enforced ? or even whether it should be enforced.
i
i * * *
We started in this country with three co-equal
? branches of government.
The first over-balancing of that co-equality came
when the court usurped the power to declare acts
of the Congress or of the states invalid ; that, in
effect, gave the court the veto over one of the
formerly co-equal branches, the legislative.
In recent years the court has more and more
tended to determine the constitutionality of laws
on the basis of what the court thought was good
for the country rather than what the court thought
the Constitution meant. Thus it has added to its
power of veto oyer the legislative branch the power
to legislate on its own.
And this latest case suggests a third new trend ?
for the court to decide when and how its interpre
tive-legislative decrees shall be put into effect.
That would seem to be a rather obvious invasion
of the authority of the administrative branch.
* * *
^\re we moving, as all the evidence seems to in
dicate, toward a federal government in which all
final authority, judicial, legislative, and adminis
trative, is vested not in three co-equal branches,
and not even in the people, but in nine justices ?
and the only nine men in high government position
who are completely beyond control by the people?
That question, though less spectacular, may
prove to be far more significant than the legal out
lawing of segregation.
Our Manners
Our best mountain manners to North Carolina's
newest newspaper, the twice-a-week Chapel Hill
News Leader.
The News Leader is ably staffed, as was indicat
ed by its first issue, a sprightly 14 pages filled with
well written news and pictures about the Chapel
Hill and nearby communities, including-, of course,
the University of North Carolina.
Its editor is Phillips Russell, long-time news
paperman, author, and U. N. C. journalism profes
sor, and its editorial page is just what those who
know Mr. Russell would have expected ? hard-hit
ting editorials and a variety of readable columns.
It's "a fur piece" from Franklin to Chapel Hill,
but The Press sends across the miles best wishes to
its new neighbor in the field in journalism.
Then there was the man who thought the high
way Stop sign was meant for the other fellow.
That's right ? WAS.
i
Others' Opinions
NOT GOOD
(Christian Science Monitor*
The new home owner and amateur gardner soon learns that
the mulch left by the builder ? consisting of plaster, bent
nails, sand and torn cement bags ? doesn't promote the growth
of shrubs and flowers.
EISENHOWER ATTACKS BY INNUENDO
(Charleston, S. C., News and Courier)
President Eisenhower's "Crusade of Truth" speech in New
York Monday was almost certainly aimed directly and carefully
at the controversial figure of Sen. McCarthy.
The President received his heaviest burst of applause when
he said that Americans must guard against "all who seek to
establish over us thought control? whether they be agents of
a foreign state or demagogs thirsty for personal power and
public notice"."
Not once during his speech did the President mention Sen.
McCarthy's name; but there was no doubt in the minds of his
listeners, including experienced White House reporters, that
McCarthy was the target.
The business of verbally shooting a man, without mention
ing his name, has somehow become associated with "clean po
litics" in the United States. If a public figure mentions an op
ponent by name and then proceeds to attack him, that is con
sidered "dirty politics". But to attack the opponent without
specific mention of him Is deemed dignified and "keeping pol
itics on a high plane."
? Letters
DIPLOMAS FOR G. I.'s
Editor, Franklin Press:
I was one of the smart ones who quit high school before I
graduated and I later was drafted Into the Army. I have been
over here In Japan for 19 months and since I have been over
here all of my buddies who hadn't finished high school have
taken the G.E.D. test put out by the Army and have received
high school diplomas. But I happened to be from so-often
called "good old North Carolina" and I can't get a high school
diploma from the schools, even though the Army approves It.
I would like to know Just why the state doesn't recognize the
test. There's just one other state besides ours that does this.
An Unhappy Soldier,
APO 27, c/o Postmaster CPL. ANDREW HOLDEN
San Francisco, Calif.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The awarding of high school diplomas
is regulated by the State Board of Education. Since shortly
after the end of World War II, tests given by the services
have not been considered adequate for high school diploma.
However, many North Carolina servicemen have made ap
plication for, and have received, high school diplomas from
other stales.)
LIKES EDITORIAL
Dear Mr. Jones:
Since the recent Supreme Court decision, outlawing racial
segregation in the public schools, I have read -editorial com
ments in the daily papers from Washington to Atlanta, but In
my opinion your editorial in The Press ("The Court Decision",
issue of May 27) is the sanest and clearest on the subject of
any that I have read.
Surely you are right in assuming that public opinion is fast
coming to the side of anti-segregation. No doubt the Supreme
Court gave full weight to this new development In rendering
its historic decision. Within the last dozen years, millions of
our choice young white men have fought on the battlefields
beside the young colored boys. They have mixed and mingled
together when not fighting. White and Negro children are
thrown together in schools on military reservations. Then the
two races of children often play together around their homes
or on the streets when their parents live in close proximity to
each other.
It will be a bit difficult for us older ones who are steeped in
prejudice to break with past customs, but I think the begin
ning will be the hardest. If parents will just let their children
alone, I am confident they will have no trouble at all.
However, a very great responsibility rests on the Negroes
themselves in making this non-segregation an orderly transi
tion. The more humble they are, the easier it will be for all
concerned. But some recent observations lead to the conclusion
that they are not going to accept the court decision in a spirit
of humility, but for many it will be just the opposite.
Some have already developed a spirit of boldness In public
conveyances. Only two or three days ago, while riding in a
passenger train from Atlanta to Charlotte, I went into the
white rest room and found two colored boys washing and
combing their hair as though they had as much right there as
white people. This attitude on the part of the Negro will nettle
the whites and make full compliance with the Court decision
a difficult one.
Charlotte, N. C.
Sincerely yours,
R. M. PEEK
STRICTLY
PERSONAL /
By WEIMAR JONES
If you want music while you
eat, this modern bit of restau
rant equipment, the juke box,
is wonderful. You drop a nickel
in the slot, and out comes your
favorite tune.
But if you don't want music?
If you want to eat in peace
and quiet, the juke box can
quickly become an instrument
of the devil. Of persecution, too;
because I've never found one
with a slot where you can put
in a nickel to keep the darn
thing silent.
Since they lack that slot, you
are forced to listen, whether you
want to or not, and to listen to
the tune somebody else selects,
whether you like that or not. I
resent being forced to do any
thing.
I've always felt that way, but
until recently I never got
around to doing anything about
my< convictions on the subject.
The other day I did.
This, then, is the story of the
muted juke box.
* * * . ?
Mrs. Jones and I were in a
town where nobody knew us. It
was about 9 a. m. I hadn't had
the morning coffee that usually
I have even before I dress. I .
felt exactly the way any coffee
drinker feels before he's had
his morning cup ? except, that
morning, I felt a good deal
more so.
We went into a restaurant
for breakfast. >
Just as we sat down, the
loudest Juke box I've ever
heard let loose with the most
raucous noise I've ever heard ?
well, at least, the loudest, most _
raucous noise I've ever heard
before I've had my morning
coffee.
Unreasonably, I know, but
as pleasantly as I knew how, I
asked the waitress, when she
came at last to take our orders,
if she couldn't shut that thing
off. The only answer I got was
a non-committal smile.
O well, I thought, that rec
ord will soon be over.
It was. But not the noise, for
immediately another one, even
worse, started.
Just as unreasonably, and a
whole lot less pleasantly, I ask
ed her, when she put down our
glasses of water, if she couldn't
"cut down the volume on that
thing." The only answer I got
was a cold stare.
O well, I thought, that record
will soon be over.
It was. But not the noise, for
immediately another one, still
worse, if possible, started.
Somebody evidently had put
a whole pocketful of nickels in
that juke box. I groaned. I put
my hands over the ears that
let the noise Inside an aching
head. But it was no use. Noth
ing would shut out all that
sound.
"Look", I said to the girl,
when she came around again,
"I don't like that racket. I've
listened to two records. Now I
want a little quiet. I'm a cus
tomer, too. Can't you stop that
thing until we leave?"
My answer this time: Not
even so much as a stare.
And I still hadn't had my
? Continued on Fife 3
News Making
As ft Looks
To A Maconite
? B 7 BOB 8U) Alt
There has already been con
siderable speculation as to the
whys and wherefores of the
recent political campaign but
I believe The Duram Observer
probably got the basic Issue
best in focus with the following
account:
"Political observers like to re
call the time Scott as Commis
sioner of Agriculture of North
Carolina issued a call to the
farmers of the State to come
to Raleigh to prevent passage
of anti-farm legislation. No
one expected more than 100
horny-handed tillers of the soli
to put in an appearance. When
the day for the hearing arrived
the farmers swarmed over Ral
eigh like so many swarms of
bees. Like the swarming bees
they were mad. There was only
one building in Raleigh large
enough to accommodate the
crowd . . . the auditorium at the
opposite end of Fayetteville
street from the State capitol.
The meeting had to be adjourn
ed to the auditorium.
"There were many speakers on .
the program. Everyone has for-*
gotten the issue Involved in the
discussion, but none have for
gotten the occasion. The crowd
hooted and cat-called the pro
ponents. It was a matter of
waiting for the star attraction.
The farmers wanted to hear
what Kerr Scott had to say
about the legislation.
"Just what the former Com
missioner of Agriculture said
during his speech of nearly an
hour's duration has been for
gotten along with the issue in
volved, except one little anec
dote used in his opening re
marks. It went this way:
"My friends, the speakers who
have preceded me tell you no
harm is intended by the propos
ed legislation. It reminds me of
the fellow who once caught a big
fish. He was preparing to clean
his prize fish and have it for
his supper. While he was hold
ing the fish with one hand he
sharpened his knife with the
other. The fish wriggled to free
himself from his captor. 'Lie
still,' said the fisherman. 'I'm
not going to hurt you. I'm not
going to do a thing to hurt
you. I'm just going to gut you.'
"The roar, applause, yells and
general confusion that followed
almost broke up the meeting.
It seemed to observers that the
noise could be heard from Mur
phy to Manteo.
? Continued on Page 3
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward through
the files of The Press)
50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Tom Johnston rushed in just
as we were going to press and
reported that he had beans
from his garden yesterday.
A large new bell passed
through town last week on its
way to Smithbridge to be plac
ed in the belfry of the ' new
Methodist church at Asbury to
replace one destroyed by fire a
year or two ago.
Most of Macon's wheat crops
look very promising.
25 YEARS AGO
At its meeting Wednesday
night of last week the town
board decided to cease all ef
forts at the present time to ob
tain an additional water supply
for Franklin. The new well that
has just been abandoned, after
costing the town more than $4,
000, evidently acted a deterrent
in so far as boring other wells
is concerned.
Word has just been received
at Franklin that Uncle Johnny
?Crawford, who lacks only one
year of being as old as Macon
County, will attend the Cen
tennial here next Saturday. Mr.
Crawford is now a citizen of
Clay County, having moved
there many years ago from Ma
con.
Mrs. Eva Ashear, after an ex
tended visit to her parents, Mr:
and Mrs. Rufe Henry, in Cali
fornia, .returned to Franklin last
Tuesday.
10 YEARS AGO
More than 400 men, women
and young people answered the
call of Franklin church bells on
Invasion Day and filled the
Baptist church for the union
prayer service at 3 p. m.
.Misses Ollie and Leila Whit
aker, of Andrews, spent the
week-end visiting their sister
in-law, Mrs. J. E. Whitaker, at
her home on Harrison Avenue.
Barbara Zoellner has been
elected editor-in-chief of The
Mountain Trail, Highlands
school paper.