/ SJt* ffltnttklin jutfc ?li* Jiigitlanbs (Mntixnian Entered at Post Office. Franklin, N. C., as second clan matter Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press Franklin. N. C. Telephone 24 *AR JONES Editor 8. SLOAN Business Manager J. ?. BRADY News Editor EDWARD CRAWFORD Office Manager CARL P. CABE . . Mechanical Superintendent PRANK A. STARRETTE Shop Superintendent DAVID H. SUTTON Stereotypy CHART .E8 E. WHTTTINOTON Pressman SUBSCRIPTION RATES rr* Ink One Tear $3.06 Six Months 1-75 Three Months 1.00 One Year 81z Month* Three Months 100 Cause For Thanks At this season of giving thanks. Americans have much to be grateful for. Of all our many blessings, the greatest, of course, is personal freedom. And the most important and most precious of our persona] freedoms is the right to think our own thoughts, to put our thoughts in to words without fear, to disagree with any. or all, of our fellows. It takes no seer to sense that that freedom is im periled today: to recognize that it has been im paired somewhat, by law, by court decision, and by mass fear. Happily, though, there is good cause for optim ism that the pendulum will swing the other way; because there appears to be a growing realization that America is not free because it is strong and great, but is strong and great because it is free. Absentee Voting Here This newspaper would he the last to suggest that all things political in Macon County are spotless. We are sure they are not. And we've called, long and loudly, for improvement. But we wonder a little at the way this county "has had the finger of suspicion pointed at it by some of the state's newspapers ? on evidence that is purely geographical and arithmetical. Not only have no specific charges been made of absentee ballot corruption in this county; there 1 hasn't even been an official indication that an in vestigation is in order. Yet Macon, because it is in bad geographical company ? it adjoins counties -where charges of absentee ballot corruption have t>een made ? is lumped in with them. The geography comes in by the simple addition ' of the sum of absentee ballots issued in this county. There were many : so it is assumed there was cor ruption. Now the first basis for finger pointing is a per fect example of guilt by association ? geographical association; a basis considered -bv most thoughtful people as insufficient. And we find ourselves unable to follow the reasoning that it is the quantity of absentee ballots that creates the evil. It doesn't seem to us numbers bave anything to do with it; the question is: Were the ballots cast according to law? As a matter of fact, the numbers lose much of whatever significance they might have, when ana lyzed. It is true that 1127 applications for absentee ballots were issued in this county, and il is true that thai represents something like 20 per cent of the vote 'tis' in Macon County at the 1952 elec tion. Hut onlv 52.V of those applications were re turned. and 'he number of absentee ballot? actual ly casi and found in order was 423. That is approx imately s-<.\vn i it cent of the Macon vote ? not 20. Ac"" !' ; < ' '.osMble that y 20 per t\'nt < ' ; be proper! v cast, because r the person. - who still call ? "l 1 i \ ebrwlv't'' ;, indica the i "'itber i' iv the tact that ap novv li\.e e .!?? ? . n resident ? v ho ev here. W e ip:- 1 ihc fiir.'vr of suspicion has been pointed at this eoflnt; witlnmt sufficient evidence. And we are convinced, from long observation. that ihc po litical ethics of Macon County people arc far above the average. , Having sairl that, we hasten fr> say some other things. We have no doubt that the absentee ballot has befcn and is abused in Macon County. We think it is the duty of every good citizen to present every scrap of evidence they possess on the subject to the grand jury. We hope the county Republican chair man, who is dissatisfied but unspecific, will deliber ately seek evidence and present it tolhe grand jury. Meanwhile, we'd welcome an investigation by state luthorities. Whatever is won?r here ought to be jrought to light and remeditu ; and whoever is guil :y ought to be punished, severely. We think the bad features of the absentee ballot ar outw'eigh the good, and we think the General Assembly should repeal the absentee ballot law. uirthermore, we do not see how a Democratic Leg slature can justify absentee voting in the general :lection when the Democrats will not permit it in heir own primary. And while we're cleaning up, we'd like to see ;omething done about two other election evils that, n our opinion, are even worse than the evils of ibsentee voting. | ^ We consider the way political henchmen haul voters in to the polls, like cattle, a travesty on the heory that elections are to determine the will of he people, voluntarily expressed. And we think the system of "markers" at the )olls is indefensible. With the exception of t,he >lind, no man who isn't intelligent enough to ma!rk lis own ballot is intelligent enough to cast a >allot. The Davies Case The case of John Paton Davies continues to bob ip in discussion ; it will continue to do so for a ong time. The reason is it involves something )asic. Mr. Davies, an American career diplomat of 23 gears' distinguished service, was dismissed recently jy Secretary of State Dulles. Now Mr. Dulles has ? or certainly should have ? ? the right to discharge any man in his depart nent with whom he cannot work. But that is not he reason Mr. Davies was discharged ; he was dis- . nissed as a security risk. Eight times within the last five years, Mr. Davies' loyalty has been investigated, and each time he has( been cleared. But a ninth security panel recently recommended that he be dismissed, as a security risk, and Mr. Dulles followed the recom mendation. A security risk because he is disloyal? Not at all! Both the security panel and Mr. Dulles emphasized that he unquestionably is completely loyal. No : Mr. Davies is a security risk because he is charged with showing "bad judgment", a number of years ago, about the situation in China. There is considerable evidence that Mr. Davies showed better judgment, at that time, than his superiors. But that is beside the point. The point is that we have now come to brand men as security risks for stating honest opinions ? unless those opinions prove correct. This is another long step along the road toward trying and convicting men not for their actions, but for their thoughts. V That road has no turning. And its destination is slavery of the mind. Stacey Russell Stacey Russell was an adopted son of Macon County who served the Highlands community faithT fully and well. Retired, he had the lime to do civic work; and he gave tinstintingly of both his time and his ener gies. For years he was active in Rotary and the Red Cross; hut perhaps his greatest contribution was his work for a community hospital in High lands. His vision, enthusiasm, and devotion in that field have borne abundant fruit. We in Mhcon County are the richer for his hav ing lived the latter years of his life among us. Some Handshake \o\(- we've heard everything: The Senate of the 1 nited States lias had to go into recess, (or 1 1 days, because Senator McCarthy, on trial, is hospitalized l>\ injuries suffered shaking hands! FARM PRODUCTION DROPS (N. C. Agricultural Review > North Carolina has less land in farms and fewer people on farms in 1953 than in 1952, according to the annual County Farm Census Summary released recently by the Statistics Di vision of the State Department of Agriculture. Total land in farms declined 73,146 acres, but harvested crop land increased about 2,000 acres, improved pastures gained 55,387 acres, other pastures Increased by more .than 218, 197 acres, and idle cropland decreased by 4,530 acres. People of all ages living on Tar Heel farms in 1953 totaled 1,426,798, a decrease of 40,000, or 2.7 per cent, from the pre vious year. This downward trend In farm population has been under way for some years. OUR DEMOCRACY Wm* * THOUGHTS J THANKS ' As A NATION W( ENI-JO y NOT ONLY MATERIAL BLESSINGS V ? i NOT OREAMED OF OV OUR FATHERS WHO ESTABLISHED v THANKSGIVING ? BUT, WHATiS MORE, WEVE ?OWN IN * TOLERANCE , IN NEISHISORLINESS, IN APPRECIATION OF THE FREEDOMS THAT WE HAVE WON IN OOR DEMOCRACY We CAN ALL IiE THOUGHTFUL OF, AND THANKFUL FOR, OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE - AND PARTICULARLY FOR. THE VALUES OF THE SPIRIT THAT IT EMBRACES. Others' Opinions RACE LABELS (Greensboro Daily News) Mrs. Elizabeth Avery Mills Hoffman Waring and her hus band, former federal Judge J. Waties Waring, returned to Charleston the other day for a visit ? their first after two years in the North. Mrs. Waring is the Detroit divorcee who, having married Judge Waring, is credited with changing his views on segrega tion and other matters concerning racial relationships in the South. A news story about the Warings' return noted that 99 per cent of the 300 persons who greeted the couple were Negroes. The low percentage of whites in the crowd which welcomed Mrs. Waring is understandable. In 1952, Mrs. Waring reportedly told a Negro audience in Charleston that Southern whites were "decadent, stupid, sel fish, savage, full of pride and complacency, introverted and morally weak and low." Let us hope that Mrs. Waring's two years of association with anti-prejudice groups in the North have taught her to observe one of their chief precepts: Never pin labels on any race . . . ma'am. STRICTLY PERSONAL By WEIMAR JONES Thanksgiving inevitably calls to mind the Thanksgiving din ner, and that, in turn, suggests thoughts about how people's eating habits have changed. Thanks to modern refrigera tiou, gadgets like thermostatic ally controlled ovens, and scien tific knowledge about such things as calories and vitamins, people undoubtedly eat much more intelligently than they once did, and possibly better. I am sure, though, they don't eat as much, and I wonder some times if they eat as flavorsome iy Thanksgiving dinners- of a generation ago, for example, really were things- to bsholil and to hold. Today we may or may rot have turkey, but ceiUMnly most of us have only one meat dish. In the old days, no self-re spect' j,; hostess -woul serve less than three. And whereas today's well balanced meal calls for three, or possibly four, veg etables, the Thanksgiving table of another day groaned under a score, ranging from dried beans and celery .to stewed pumpkin and cabbage. There'd be half a dozen kinds of pick les, and jellies and jams with out end. And bread! Nobody in that day would have thought of serving rolls and stopping at that. "Do take some of this lamb Cousin Mary; it will go so well with your beef roast and turk ey .. . And it always seemed to me mutton just calls foi gooseberry jelly; try some ol this that Cousin Hilda gave mt for my birthday . . . And you'i: need some candied sweet pota toes with it . . . My! I hadn'l noticed you were out of cream ed Irish potatoes . . . And bread too! have a biscuit; do ta^e twe and butter'em while they're hot. . . Or maybe you'd prefer some of this light cornbread with it, or some Boston brown bread . . . and have your bis cuits later with jelly or honey ? there are plenty more biscuits in the oven . . And if eating habits have changed, so have the customs that go along with it. There was a time in Macon County when it wasn't uncom mon for one family to invite half a dozen other families to Thanksgiving dinner. And that was the day of big families. What modern hostess, no matter how many gadgets she has. would attempt to feed 20 or 30 or even 40 guests! Anrl whnt n difforence In the way children are treated. Then, the children took it as a matter of cours? that they should wait tot the last table; and that mi^ht h" the third, or even the fourth. Today? . . . exactly! the children arc served first. And that, believe me, is as it should be. For if this recitation of food lists makes my mouth water, the recollection of the last table is even more vivid in my memory. It is terrible even to contemplate being as hungry as children got in those days , of interminable delay. .Many times I've grumbled: "I don't mind waiting on 'em I to eat, but why d.o they have to talk so long" . . . and had I my feeling of injustice con ? firmed by the apology of Aunt ! Susie or Cousin Sally or who ? ever the hostess was: "My! I 1 know you children must be ? hungry. We sat and talked too t long (as though I didn't know ? it!) . . . Well, sit right down , (as though I needed to be > urged!) . . . News Making As It Looks To A Maconite ? By BOB SIX) AM A great deal of attention U wing focused on the absentee rote situation here and through >ut the rest of Western North Carolina. There are two or ihree facts that hit me hard when the situation was first brought to my attention. First, some of North Caro lina's bigger and supposedly better newspapers are guilty of some pretty sloppy writing, rhey not only editorialize in their news columns, but they are also guilty of not really digging into the facts. They started with the fact that here In the mountain counties, particularly Macon, we have a high absentee vote in proportion to the registra tion. After seeing this, they then concluded, or at least so implied, that the sole -cause was crooked work in the elections Far be it from me to attempt to say that every absentee vote. Democrat or Republican, cast in Western North Carolina or Macon County was strictly legal. Frankly, i don't think so. But neither do I think that every absentee vote cast in any other county in North Carolina is strictly legal. What gripes me is that the newspapers, had they stopped to think or even investigated the situation as good news men should, would have come up with these ob vious answers as to some of the causes why we have a large absentee vote here. 1. Many of our people have one or more members of their families working away on a job. According to the chairman of the board of elections about 80 per cent of the absentee votes issued went to people out side of the county, most of whom have found it necessary to do so In order to gain em ployment. 2. Here in the mountains, people have a much more dif ficult problem to get to the polls than in cities, therefore, older people are more inclined to request ballots. In Franklin, the precinct Is too large and many old people do not like to climb the Courthouse stairs. All these factors had something to do with the number of absen tee votes cast in this county. But none were mentioned by the big papers. Before labeling this large ab sentee vote as "evidence of fraud and corruption," honest reporters and editorial writers would have ascertained and mentioned all the contributing factors. To me, the whole thing Is ust another example of the act that newsmen are quick 0 grab at the sensational and he obvious. There is a good itory in the fact that there is 1 relationship between lack of :mployment and the absentee )allot, but it would take lots )f work and it would not be nearly as sensational. To me, the whole thing is also i good example of why, we, the people, should not give "The Press" a shotgun to fire scatter shot with without at least hav ing a modified choke. At pres ent, I think at least some are ?uilty of firing rather wildly. Do You Remember? (Looking backward through the files of The Press i 50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and turkeys are 20 cents a pound. ? ? Highlands is pretty well rep resented this week at court. Among those present wo .see Me: srs. David Norton, W. W. Smith, J. J. Smith, Jerry Pier ton, Dr. G. W. Hayes, Sumner Clark, Henry Stewart, Jr., Char Icy Wright, and others. :r, YEARS AGO Vitntone heard at local Movie. Feature pleases full house of tans who came to "Talkie" ? Headline. Mrs. L. S. Conley has been conducting the local Red Cross roll call this* week. Miss Cornelia Smith, of New York, is visiting Mrs. D. D. Rice for a week. 10 YEARS AGO Sleet Sunday afternoon and night encrusted forest and tel- # ephone wires from Cullasaja Falls and over Highlands. Phone wires were down between Franklin and Highlands from Sunday to Tuesday afternoon. Highlands was in a black out, due to Ice on the power lines, from Sunday night to Monday afternoon, it is reported.