Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / Aug. 12, 1954, edition 1 / Page 2
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Sit* Ifintnklm tyxtub &1 it Bflighlanits ^Rutxxninn Batered at Poat Qffloi, PnnUla, W. C.. m woood olua atmr PubUabtd iwy Thursday by Tbt Franklin Pre* Planum. IV. O. Telephone M JONES Editor t. F. BRADY New? Editor ?DBS BETTY LOU POUTS Offloe Man agar ? P. CABS Mechanical Superintendent . STAR&ETTE Shop Superintendent DAVID H. SUTTON Stereotyper OH A HI .EH E. W HT1T1NOTON Pre? man SUBSCRIPTION BATES Ovremi macow Countt One Tear $3.00 ?tx Months 1.75 Three lionth> 1.00 IMSISI MACOM UOUKTT On* Tear *2 JO Six Month! 1.79 Three Month* 1.00 ACGDST 12, 1953 What We're Fighting For A committee of six senators, including Tar lieelia's Sam Ervin, has been set up to investigate the conduct of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. It is hard to see how any honest committee could make a real investigation and fail to find plenty to censure about the Wisconsin senator. But important as it is that Senator McCarthy be discredited, by the Senate itself, that is not the most important thing; because more is on trial than an individual senator. The really vital ques tion is whether a congressional committee, in to day's atmosphere, can conduct an investigation on so explosive an issue, and conduct it as it should be conducted ? with dignity, with courage, and with fairness. It is especially important that the committee make every effort to be fair to Senator McCarthy. It is important because, otherwise, he will become a martyr in the eyes of some. There is another reason, though, that cuts even deeper : Every American ? no matter how guilty of how many crimes ? is entitled to a fair hearing. That is the very thing McCarthy's critics are fighting for. Stupid And Unjust The letter, on this page last week, from Mrs. W. D. Brewer calls attention to a shameful situation that exists in this and many other North Carolina counties. It is the fact that non-residents, charged with ?state traffic law violations, must await the next term of superior court for trial. It is especially bad for border counties like Ma con, and for tourist counties like this one; with the large proportion of non-resident motorists on their highways, they quickly get the reputation for setting up "speed traps" ? they get that reputa tion, no matter how undeserved it may be. More to the point is the injustice to the non resident motorist. The Constitution of the United States guaran tees a speedy trial. In the case of a non-resident, charged with a misdemeanor like speeding, a "speedy" trial ordinarily would be one held within something like 24 hours. But under our present legal machinery, the next term of superior court may be months away. Meanwhile, the motorist's ?destination may be hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away. The expedient thing for him to do, therefore, is to post bond ? and fail to return for trial. When he does that, he not only is put in the position of plead ing guilty to a charge of which he may be inno cent ; his forfeiture of bond fails to erase the charge against him. If he ever returns to this coun ty, he can be arrested, tried, convicted, and pun ished, on the old speeding charge. In addition, he can be tried, convicted and sentenced for jumping l>ond. It Thus our court machinery, set up to enforce the law and create respect for it, really encourages vio lation of the law, and tends to bring the law into ?contempt. This is a situation that can be remedied. It is one that should be remedied ? and promptly. Since court officials and attorneys are those primarily charged with the administration of jus tice, we suggest that they are the proper ones to .take the lead in seeing that jt is remedied. 1 think what ha* chiefly struck me In human beings la- their lack of consistency.? Somerset Maugham. Different When the local Jaycees started the annual Ma con County Folk Festival a year ago, they hoped it would grow into a Macon County fair ? with the festival becoming simply the entertainment feature of the fair. Maybe it will grow into a fair. And a fair is highly desirable. But fair or no fair, the festival is here to stay. Public demand will see to that. And the best thing about the festival is not that it provides entertainment, for tourists and home folk alike ? fine as that is. The best thing about it is that it reverses the general entertainment trend in America, which makes virtually all of us mere passive spectators ; this is an event that provides opportunity for scores of persons, of all ages, to participate in entertainment. Another interesting feature was noted by visitors at this year's festival. More than one exclaimed: "It is different from anything I ever saw." Of course it is different! It is not a poor repro duction of something that has been on Broadway, nor ,a replica of folk festivals held elsewhere, nor something done according to rules laid down in a textbook on folkways. It is different for the simple reason it is Macon County. In a strictly technical sense, perhaps the music and the dancing are not authentic folk music and dancing, because they are not done exactly as our ancestors did them 150 or 200 years ago; the danc ing and the music have been influenced, in the in terval ? by Broadway (and the movies and radio and television), perhaps by other folk festivals, and possibly even by folk textbooks. But in the broader sense of the term, "folk", this festival is splendidly authentic ; because it is exactly the way Macon County folk do these things today. Even the humor has an authentic Macon County flavor. It is good, in short, because it is real. Others' Opinions PRAYER FOR OUR TIME (Shelby Cleveland Times > One of the most meaningful prayers of our times is a brief petition which is constantly appearing in numberless places. We have seen it variously attributed to the great Protestant theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, to Alcoholics Anonymous who have adopted it as their prayer, to unknown authorship, and we last saw it in Catholic Father James Keller's Christopher Notes. It is only one sentence long, thus: "God, grant me the grace to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." It is a prayer not too long for every man to carry always with him in his mind and his heart. It is a prayer which can work great wonders In a world which needs great wonders, if only more and more men and women will carry it with them always. GET RID OF THIS REPULSIVE SIGHT (Chapel Hill News Leader) One of the repulsive sights to which North Carolina treats passing tourists is that of grim-faced men, armed with shot guns, standing over State prisoners working on the roads under a fierce sun while the ^ater boy passes his longed-for pall. That Is one sight which the growth of intelligence and a realization of prisoners' needs ought to abolish in North Car olina. It is a vestige of an outmoded way of thinking, pre served by a wrongful and old fashioned application of the Mosaic law of an eye for an eye. One step, entirely feasible and often discussed, Is the sepa ration of prisons from highways. Prisoners were placed under the control of the State Highway Commission in the course of the depression years ago as a business and budgeting matter. This control has now become a sort of vested Interest, and to get the prisoners away from the Highway Commission is like getting apiece of meat away from a bulldog. SeVeral years ago the separation of prisons and highways was advocated by Dr. Austin MacCormick, student of penal conditions, supported by the Advisory Prisons Council. But their report has been avoided by politicians like holy, water. Governor Umstead has faintly praised It, but done noth ing more. Now would be a good time for those Interested in the separation to prepare plans to be brought before the 1955 legislature. WHAT'S A PENNY? (Dallas News) ^ The alleged story out of Waco, Neb., Is about an alleged fill ing station operator who dropped a penny here and then I around his place to see the results. Older folks bent over and picked them up. Youngsters didn't bother ? sometimes they even kicked the coins In disgust. It's easier to believe the reaction than the story. But assum ing both are true, the explanation is simple. Youngsters ? and we assume that includes those from seven to 13 ? have been reared in a different atmosphere. A penny-saved-is-a-penny earned Is no longer written on blackboards. It isn't talked at OUR DEMOCRACY hyMrt * 7ht. Stars *n)> Stripes ForeverS In muiams mow main ?uih mc OECAOCS BANOS HAVE WIN MUM THE MUSIC Of JOHN PWIUP SOUSA, THE *MARCM Kins* ST1KKJNO THE 6LOOO AND MAKING EVERYONE PEEU THE TALLEft-KXtTME 8?HTAND SOUND. mow* i>Mi tdusAt b? 1854 Wc AMERICANS LOVE 70 WATCH PARADES, OUT IT IS THE SWINGING MUSIC OF THE MARCH THAT PROVIDES THE BIG THRILL AS THE BAND PASSES BV. home. The talk: "Might as well spend It, or the government will get it." And what's a penny? Very little ? except those same youngsters will have to pay for the profligacy of the period when they were young. m \ Some day they will go to work and look back in the lusty past and realize why the old folks bent over. ODE TO AGITUMBLE ACTION (Greensboro Daily News) Evidence accumulates that the poets have not died or gone away, they have merely entered the advertising field. Thus Marjorie Holmes in House Beautiful describes an automatic washer as Homer described war or Swinburne wrote of the sea or Keats apostrophised a Grecian urn: The musical drum of running water. Steam rising and swirl ing like veiled dancers. The dry singing whisper of white suds blossoming. The foamy sleeves that cling to your arms, plunging into them. Rainbows playing leapfrog with the bubbles. The breathless intimacy wit* morning: The scent of damp earth and trodden grass. The great arched tents of the trees with sun winking on their leaf tips. Cruising clouds, and the sky's blue depth. These things are yours, hanging out the laundry. And more ? The gaunt grace of the propping poles. The blowing dance of white sheets drying. The Chrlstmasy look of the many stockings. Your husband's comically ballooning pajamas. We hadn't realized what a really romantic and poetic con traption a washing machine Is. If an advertiser-poet can do that with a washer, Just think what she can do with a cook stove. It's enough to make a husband stick these odes to house hold appliances on his wife's mirror where she can see them first thing when she gets up in the morning. ? Letters NAIVE AND STUPID' Editor, The Press: I suppose I should address you as the "Franklin Dally Worker", since you have joined with them and all the pinkos, the pink fringe left wingers and all of communist front organ-( lzatlons In trying to purge from public life one of the few red blooded Americans we have left In Washington. Why don't you raise your voice In protest against the In famous give-away Marshall plan, as does the Charlotte Ob server? Joe McCarthy Is backed by the American Legion and mll llons of other Americans who place the welfare of the U. S. A. above that of Europe or anywhere else. I don't know whether you are just naive and stupid or If you have received a grant from the left wing Ford Foundation. In any case, I doubt If your puny editorials will hurt our Joe. He has a Job to do and he will not be deterred. However, It is regrettable that you choose to mislead the good moun tain people of your community. S. W. RICHARDSON General Delivery, Oastonia, N C.t. (EDITOR'S NOTE: As a matter of keeping the record straight, the American Legion never has gone on record re garding Senator McCarthy, according to John L. Crawford, commander of the local Legion post.) * Newt Making As It Looks To A Maconite ? mr BOB SLOAN This past week-end I drove 1.100 miles here In the Eastern United 8tates. A trip always \ makes some big impressions on me. This one did. The main thing I noticed was the dif ference In towns. Take, for ex ample, Klngsport or Erwln, Tenn. Here were towns where people had a clean town and a great many recreational facil ities for young people and their parents. Compare these towns to Franklin, North Carolina and you get a feeling that we should keep our town cleaner and If we would put our shoul ders to the wheel there Is much that we could do to improve the recreational facilities. If other towns do it so can Frank lin. This Is just a hunch, but I believe that If we really had a clean town, recreational facili ties would not be long In ar riving. The first thing that is needed here is an adequate water sup ply, so for example, the town could furnish the water for a good swimming pool. Right along with this would be suffi cient water to allow someone to develop a good golf course with grass greens. The third thing would be dally street washing In the business district, dally pick up of garbage throughout the town, and vacant lots and street curbs mowed and kept cleaned. If all this were done steadily for a period of two or three years Franklin would begin to gain a reputation as a clean town. This along with the bet ter recreational facilities that I mentioned would make Frank lin grow and increase the reve nue of the town. An excellent water supply might be the main factor in drawing another in dustry here. If we had more tourists and more people de cided either to retire here or to make this thetr Summer home, It might be that the revenue of the town would be sufficient to build a town hall without financing the construc tion by selling bonds. Also may be water would be plentiful and cheap enough to make it pos sible for the children In Frank lin to have a first class swim ming pool all summer long. They do it In other towns, so why can't Franklin? Soon school will be starting again and thousands of dol lars worth of clothing and sup piles will have to be bought to get the kids ready to go back Continued on Fare Three ? Do You Remember? (1? Wn< backward thraagk Um (Oa at Tha Tram) 50 TEARS AGO THIS WEEK In 1901, Macon County voted $60,000 In bonds as an Induce ment to get a (rail) road built to Franklin, at the suggestion of Mr. Prentiss and on his promise to have the road here at a certain specified time. The time expired and the road was far from being here. Work was 1 being done, however, on the ex tension of the Tallulah Falls Railway, pointing in this direc tion. Mr. Prentiss came here and asked for an extension of time. It was given him and a new date set. We believe the time expired again some months ago, and the road is not here yet, nor within 20 miles of it. The road is not yet to Clayton, Oa., from the best information we can gath er, all hands have gone and no work is now being done. 25 YEARS AGO Organization of the Nanta hala Power and Light Com pany, a subsidiary of the Tal lassee Power Company, was an nounced in a dispatch from Bryson City Sunday. Mr. Dan Lyle, of Peck, Idaho, and Dr. Jim Lyle, of Lewiston, Idaho, are here on a visit to Dr. S. H. Lyle and Mrs. Mary Lyle Waldroop. 10 TEARS AGO Dr. Frank T. Smith, 85, one of Macon's most honored and beloved citizens, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Fleet H. Scroggs, In Richmond, Va., Wednesday. Pvt. Curtis Pearson is home on a ten-day furlough. Mrs. Louise Edwards has re ceived a cable from her hus band, Capt. Edwards, telling of his safe arrival overseas and of his unexpected meeting with Lt. Val Plerson, Highlands para trooper, almost Immediately after landing in North Africa. ? Highlands item. f
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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Aug. 12, 1954, edition 1
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