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Ji it $tnttklin Tfrtt 0S nnb Che BUnjhlanite Jttarimrait Roiwed at Post Office. Franklin. N. C? as as oond class i Published every Thursday by The Franklin Fm Franklin. M. C. Telephone 14 JONES Ml tot a. SLOAN Bualneaa Manager J. P. BRADY Newa Editor KISS BETTY LOU FOOTS Ofllce Manager OABL P. CABE Mechanical Superintendent FRANK A. STARRETTE Shop Superintendent DAVID H. SUTTON Stersotyper CHARLES E. WHTTTINGTON Pressman SUBSCRIPTION RATE8 outbid* Macon county One Year $3.00 Biz Months 1.79 Three Months 1.00 Inside Macon uouwty One Tear $2.50 Six Months 1.73 ? Three Months 1.00 A JULY 1, 1954 The Point Is... I.ast winter the American government was plead ing with the .23 American prisoners of war who had refused repatriation from North Korea to come home. ' By implication, if not by unequivocal word, they were promised immunity from punishment for mis deeds they may have committed while held by the brain-washing Communists. Two of them finally returned to the American side. In May, one of them, Cpl. Edward Dickenson, Virginia farm boy, was courtmartialed and sen tenced to 10 years at hard labor. Hi was charged with informing on prison camp comrades and cur rying favor with the Reds. And last week the army announced that the other soldier who heeded our pleas and promises, Cpl. Claude Batchelor, Texas youth, will he courtmar tialed for cooperation with the enemy. After hold ing him in custody for nearly five months, the army announced it has collected enough evidence to war rant a courtmartial. Cpl. Batchelor will he tried, and no doubt con victed and sentenced. And no doubt the evidence, in a strictly legal sense, will warrant it. But the point is not whether he i.s guilty or in nocent, nor even whether or how much extenua tion there may have been in the circumstances. The point is the United States, through the Armv, has lied. The Prison Breaks - The recent prison breaks here ? three, involving nine prisoners, within two weeks ? raise a number of questions. The first and most obvious question is whether proper precautions are taken to prevent escapes. If the answer to that is no, then that situation must be state-wide, because the breaks are not confined to the Macon County camp; there has been a long series, in various sections of North Carolina. The second question is whether the treatment of the prisoners is such as to drive them to try to escape. We do not pretend to know the answer to that question, but our guess would be that, in part at least, it is yes. The third question, is whether our whole prison system is wrong. Kvidence that the answer to that one is yes is the generally recognized fact that, if a man isn't a criminal when he enters prison, he is almost certain to be one when he comes out. And of course the responsibility here is not pri marily upon prison officials but upon the public, for the system, by and large, conforms to what the public wants it to be: public opinion could change it. We don't like to admit it ; we'd much prefer to tightly close our eves to it.. But isn't it true that the trouble lies chiefly in our motives for imprison ing a man? Isn't it true that the major motive is vengeance, with protection of the public purely sec ondary, and reform onlv incidental? And isn't it true that those are the motives that guide our ? prison officials because they are the motives of the rest of us? At The Tabernacle l-'or the remaining four nights of the series, the evangelistic services at the Friendship Tabernacle should draw capacity crowds. That is true, in-, part, because the meeting has been well publicized ; in part because the visiting minister is a good speaker; and in part because some persons will go for duty's sake. But if those are the only reasons for attending, something's wrong. \ Because if the churches of Macon County (which are sponsoring the services) have the real thing, then publicity isn't essential (remember how Jesus repeatedly cautioned, "go, and tell no man" ? and how the multitudes that followed Him continued to grow.) And the forensic skill of the preacher is secondary. And there's a far deeper motive than duty. For if Christianity is anything, it is a gospel so dynamic, so revolutionary, it is exciting. If it is anything, it is something men, desperately in need of they know not what, will seek out. If it is any thing, it is a gospel that provides the answers for those who, having tried everything else, have con cluded there are no answers. If it is anything, it is the last, untried solution for both personal and social problems. ? Letters SOME QUESTIONS TO THE CITIZENS OF THE TOWN OP HIGHLANDS: i Since I have always believed that the citizens are entitled to know how their duly elected officers conduct the affairs of the community, I am asking The Franklin Press to publish this letter, giving the Retails of a recent occurrence in the Town of Highlands. The Highlands Art Gallery has a new building on the south side of the main street of Highlands. It has a wide entrance or alley running from the street across the side walk on each side of the building. In front of this building and between the two alleys there is room for three vehicles on the south side of the street, and this space in the past has been designated as a parking space by parallel parking lines on the street, though the paint is now practically gone. I, like other persons, have used these spaces to park my vehicle until, on June 18, the mayor approached me and demanded that I move my ve hicle immediately, and upon my refusal, he threatened me with physical violence ? which threat he did not see fit to carry out, although challenged to do so. The next day the police came to me with a warrant for my arrest, stating that the mayor had sent him with instructions that the warrant be not served if I would move my vehicle, otherwise to arrest me and have the town truck move my ve hicle. .> Although I knew of no law that I had violated, I moved my car rather than be arrested and placed In jail. Immediately after I moved my vehicle, the owner or owners of the High lands Art Gallery drove their automobiles onto the public street and parked them in the space vacated by me, and they and other persons have been allowed to park in this space since, without being molested. ? After a careful search in the town office, no ordinance was found prohibiting parking in the space from which I was re quired to move. On the above statement of facts, the following questions arise: * ? 1. Does the mayor of a town have the right to threaten and demand that a private citizen's truck or private car be re moved from a public parking area where there is no city ordinance or visible signs prohibiting such parking, and where the parking of trucks and cars has been customary since the town has had streets? 2. Does the mayor have the right, Where there is no town ordinance or signs regulating parking, to issue a warrant for a private citizen, said warrant stating that private citizen "was illegally parking and obstructing" traffic? (The private citizen was not obstructing or illegally parking). 3. Does the rr^ayor have the right to have the warrant served giving as his authority a state law. which says in part, ac cording to the town lawyer, and so stated on warrant, that it is "illegal to park in front of a building seating fifty people or more". To date I have not been able to locate such a law. And incidentally, the Highlands Art Gallery was not open for business at that time. 4. Does the mayor have the right to authorize a warrant to be served on a private citizen and then make a statement to the private citizen that he did not intend the warrant to be served, thereby using the warrant as an instrument of threat? 5. Who prompted or requested this demand for the removal of a private citizen's truck and car? 6. Do we have in our midst parties who control, in some manner, the majority of the governing body of the town? O. E. YOUNG Highlands, N. C. Poetry Editor EDITH DEADERICK ERSK1NE Weaverville, North Carolina GUARDIAN OAK Guardian oak with boughs that sway, You are a child of yesterday, And many strangers come your way. What stories you could surely tell, If day by day you would but dwell Upon the past you know so well. But you are peering toward the sky, You do not trust the human eye, You do not trust . the passer by. MILDRED S. BUROIN OUR DEMOCRACY CHECKS * AMD \ BALANCES One op our two major, political parties, the republican, WAS SORN loo YEARS AGO, MARCH 20, lOSf , IN A LITTLE WHITE SChOOLMOUSE THAT STILL STANDS* IN RlPON, WISCONSIN. . \ ,!L . . v.a rv ** aim* .al & uilUliMi Checks and balances in our political life , as well as in ooe GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION, ARC PROVIOED BV THE TWO- PARTY SYSTEM. THROUGH THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES, THE PEOPLE HAVE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPRESS THEIR. WILL, "FDR OR AGIN", IN THE GIVE-AND-TAKE THAT IS AN ESSENTIAL SAFEGUARD OF OUR DEMOCRACY. Others' Opinions KIND OF TRANSLATION WE NEED (Milwaukee Journal) Scientists at the international Business .Machines Corp. have come up with a huge electronic "brain" that can translate Russian into English in seconds. In a test the other day one of the scientists fed the ma chine a Russian sentence which we put in our letters as best we can ? "Myezhdunarodnoye ponyimanyiye yavlatetsya vazh nim faktorom y ryeshyenyiyi polyityichyeskyix voprosov." And the machine came right back with ' International understand ing constitutes an important factor in decision of political questions." We wonder if this is a step forward. The Russians them selves have been sending human machines to international meetings and the United Nations to rattle off what amounts to tape recordings of Russian speeches. Now we have machines to translate what they say. This solves nothing. What we really need is a machine that translates what they say into what they really mean. STRICTLY PERSONAL By WEIMAR JONES The hot days we've had re cently reminded me of a ques tion that often has occurred to me: What in the world would most of us do for something to talk about if it weren't for the weather? It's a topic we can always fall back on." We can remark on how hot or how cold or how dry or how wet it i#. Then we 1 Can talk about how it was last week, or last year; finally, when fthe silences begin to lengthen, we can discuss what it may be like next week, or next year. It not only is a way to "make ' talk" when we really haven't a thing to say. It also probably is the oldest of all ways to start a conversation with a stranger. But I sometimes won der if it isn't the best way in the world to advertise to a stranger that our tongues is more active than our brains. However that may be, I've al ways had a yen to reverse the pattern (just to see what would happen) and start a conversa tion with a stranger something like this: "I'm "not in the least inter ested in what you think about the weather, and you probably don't care what I think. Fur thermore, talking about it Isn't going to change it. When we've said everything we can think of to say, it'll be just as hot or cold or dry or wet as It was when we started. So why should we go through the motions of a polite conversation that will have no effect and that neith er of us is Interested in? "Aren't you interested in something besides the weather? If you are, we'll talk about that. If not, let's just keep our mouths shut." Some day I'm going to get up the nerve to try that approach. ? ? ? Speaking of conversation re minds me of a friend I once had who enjoyed a good con versation as much as anyone I ever knew. He rarely mentioned the weather, or seemed even conscious of it, but he could talk for hours about books or nature or ideas. He talked well, and nothing so pleased him as to find someone else who could talk well ? and would take the time, to engage in a leisurely conversation. His conversation was point less, as far as getting anything practical accomplished. But that wasn't its purpose. To him, the reason for conversation was to give pleasure, both to the talk er and the listener ? like play ing a musical instrument or painting a picture. Comparing it to those things, he called conversation an art. In his later years, he found fewer and fewer people who both could talk and would take the time to do it. So he came to refer to conversation as "a lost art". And he put most of the blame for its loss on the radio, which he always referred to as "that miserable contraption that has killed good talk". I've often 4 wondered, in re cent years, what he would have said about television, which de mands the attention of eyes as well as ears. * * ? I like Mrs. F. H. Potts' story, about the man, back in the old days in the .mountains, who liv ed in what was considered one ot the most poverty-stricken communities in this whole reg ion. His neighbors had spread highly uncomplimentary re ports about him. Finally a friend asked him point-blank if they were true. He denied them emphatical ly, and then clinched the de nial thus: "There's two things you'll never hear over there in my section ? the truth, and meat a fryin'." News Making As It Looks To A Maconite ? By BOB SLOAK Within me, the feeling In creases each day that It Is con siderably later than we think. Or to put it another way, the inevitable showdown between Russia and the United States is very, very close. And since on the international scene to day Russia appears to be call ing the tune, if she calls for a showdown she may be further along In the endless armament race than we realize. Russia's recent charge that the United States attacked one of her ships and her hand In Guatemala certainly show that she does not have the fear of or respect for this country that she once did. Since we (or some of our officials) talked so big about "massive retaliation" In Indo-China and backed down so quickly it may be that Rus sia plans to see just how far we will let her go in a series of incidents. Have the people of this country decided how far they will let Russia go before we fight? It is a question that will have to be answered some day, so individuals as well as the government should decide when do we stand up and fight. ? Or do we? * * ? Undoubtedly the Cherokee Ranch riders show which was here last Monday and Tuesday was a fine show, but I believe that it would have been just as good if the amplyfying system had been tuned so that it could be heard for only V2 mile in stead of at least a mile. If the show comes back next year, and I hope it does, but I also hope that they get a little less vol ume on their loud speakers. * * ? Since I have used up many, many inches of space urging that an all-weather paved road be built from Franklin to Nan tahala I would like to predict at this time that the contract for a portion of that road from Cold Springs to Feisty Branch, and maybe more will be let within a month. I don't believe that the local people here in Franklin have ever realized the value of this road both from the standpoint of the local trade and the opening up of one of Eastern America's most beauti ful tourist attractions. If my prediction comes true I think that Weimer Cochran should spread the first bit of asphalt. It would be' most appropriate too that he be assisted by E. W. Renshaw, former forest super visor, and Dale Thrash, former highway commissioner. Miss Nolen On Dean's List At Catawba Miss Connaree Nolen, daugh ter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Nolen, of Franklin, Route 1, was one of 17 juniors at Ca tawba College, Salisbury, to make the dean's list for the second semester of the 1953-54 school year. An announcement from the college says Miss No len has consistently made the dean's list ? requiring an aver age grade halfway between "B" and "A" ? since entering Ca tawba. Do You Remember? (Looking backward through the files of The Press) 50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK The Press was, doubtless, the first paper in the State to print the news and picture of Hon. J. M. Gudger's nomination (for Congress) last week. Hon. Sam L. Rogers had a walkover at the state conven tion in Raleigh last week, in his campaign for nomination for corporation commissioner, receiving 850 votes to 390 for S. B. Alexander. Capt. R. B. Glenn was nominated for gov ernor, his nomination coming at 6 a. m., on the fifth ballot. 10 YEARS AGO Just back from active duty in the Solomon Islands, S/Sgt. Chauncey M. Cunningham, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Cunning ham, spent a few days with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Cunningham. , The report of War Bond sales ' is approximately $75,000 to date. Wlnton Perry, son of Mrs. J. E. Perry, stationed somewhere in England as pilot of a Thund erbolt, has just been promoted to captain.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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July 1, 1954, edition 1
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