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Entered at Post Office. Franklin, N. C.. a* second class matter
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press
Franklin, N. C. Telephone 24
WXDiAR JONES Editor
BOB 8. SLOAN Business Manager
J. P. BRADY News Edltcr
iOLs ALLEN SILER Society Editor and Office Manager
CARL P. CABE . Mechanical Superintendent
FRANK A STARRETTE Shop Superintendent
DAVID H 8UTTON Stsrsotyper
CHARLES E WHi'lTlNOTON Preaaman
1 SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Otrrsss Macon County Iran Macon County
Ons Tear $3 00 One Year >2.50
?x Months 1.73 Six Months 1.73
Tliree Months 100 Three Months . .? 1.00
A Myth Explodes
For decades now. nearly all the experts and most
of the laymen have, had a standard prescription for
what ails lis in North Carolina.
V
Whatever the state's economic ills, we have heen
told, and told, and told, there's a cure-all ? indus
try . . . any kind of industry. If we don't get well
immediately, then the trouble is not with the pre
scription hut with the size of the dose. What we
need is yet more industry: once we get enough in
dustry, runs the well-worn theme, all our troubles
will be over.
And the chorus swelled in volume, a couple of
years ago, when North Carolina dropped below
even South Carolina in average per capita income.
"Disgraceful !" shouted the worshippers of Indus
try; "now, even more than ever, we must get more
industry ? that's the one way to raise our average
per capita income."
Well, maybe.
Rut the other day there came out of the U. S. De
partment of Labor an announcement that raises
some embarrassing doubts. In 1954, the Labor De
partment said, North Carolina was 48th among the
states in average weekly earnings of manufacturing
employes.
In other words, it isn't our oft-cited failure to
strike a balance between industry and agriculture
or our low farm income or even the lack of enough
industry that puts us near the bottom in average
per capita income; the average income of every
body is pulled down by the average income of in
dustrial workers in this state. That is, we are in
44th place in per capita income because we are in
48th place in average earnings of factory workers.
Of course we need a balance between agriculture
and industry, and of course a certain amount of in
dustrialization is necessary to attain that end.
Rut what we seem to need first of all in North
Carolina is industry that, on the average, pays de
cent wages.
The World Do Move
The world, it is said, "do move". Things change.
Yesterday's ideas and tastes and customs arc out
of date today, or, at the latest, tomorrow.
We've granted that all along. Rut it seems it was
a purely intellectual acceptance of this great truth.
We didn't really comprehend it until the other day.
It always had been our idea that the purpose of
art was to transmit from the artist to others ideas
or inspiration or some other emotion. The viewers
of paintings or sculpture* or the hearers of music
were expected to see an 1 hear and feel what the
arti>t saw and heard and felt . . . and the more viv
idly the artist got across his message to a great
number of people, the greater his artistry.
As we say, that was our idea. But it seems we
were wrong, dead wrong.
Because the other da;, we visited an exhibition
of modern painting. We wondered, at first, why all
the pictures were lying on their sides, instead of
top up. We leaned to si-le to look, but that wasn't
the trouble. Maybe the were upside down. So we
bent over and looked between our legs. They made
a mite more sense that way, but still they conveyed
neither ideas nor emotion ? unless puzzlement be
emotion.
So we asked. And we were told!
Modern art (and they spell Modern with a capi
tal, if not the art) has as a single purpose, to "ex
press the soul of the artist" ? and to heck with
everybody else.
O. K.! O. K.! Our apologies for being ignorant!
But to go back to our opening remark:
? The world do move. Praise be! Maybe it'll move
some more!
>1
Others' Opinions
High Authority
(Wall Street Journal)
The late Jim Thorpe, blesides being a champion athlete, was
considered a fine referee. One time he removed a player for
cursing. "What rule did I violate?" demanded the player.
"The second commandment," replied Thorpe. There was no
further argument.
Slow And Easy
(Capper's Weekly)
t
A tourist driving along through the country noticed a farmer
and his little daughter sitting under a tree. The tourist pulled
up alongside and admired the little girl.
"What do you call her?" he asked the farmer
"Amalasyinta," the farmer replied
"Isn't that a rather long name?"
The farmer looked at the tourist with contempt. "Listen,
son, we're not city folks ? we've got time."
Ending Sentences With With
(Cleveland Plain Dealer)
We may be old-fashioned, and ail that, but we can't agree -
with English teachers who don't mind if a student of com
position ends a sentence with with.
Teachers of freshman English may indeed have given up
trying to ban a preposition at the end of any sentence ?
we'll admit that they have hoed a long, tiring row ? but we
wish they hadn't given up so easily.
Such usage of words is simply sloppy writing. Any sentence
can be rejiggered so that it will not end in a preposition,
which is not only shocking to the eye but hard on the ears.
We are aware of the existence of the "usage makes it
proper" school, but we don't believe this, either. There are
some people who use double negatives, but no one would
attempt to defend this practice on the basis that usage makes
it proper: Some people say: "X have went," and ' her and me,"
but if everyone in the country followed suit, that wouldn't
make it right.
True, some pretty good boys have been guilty of prepositional
endings to sentences. Sir Winston Churchill is reported to
have made a marginal note on a manuscript which had been
corrected by a secretary who didn't like a phrase which ended
in a preposition as follows: 'This is the sort of ar:*nt pedantry
up with which I shall not put."
Then there is the story of the small boy who said: "I want
to be read to."
"What do you want to be read to from?" his mother asked,
starting out on "Little Boy Blue". The child didn't like it,
and said:
"Why did you pick that for me to be read from for?"
You can see how complicated it gets!
/
It may be stuffy to stick pretty closely to the rules of
grammar, but unless we do our language will get sloppier and
sloppier. Others may do as they choose, but as long as we
live we shall never end another sentence with with!
Leave The Good Myths Alone
(Chapel Hill News Leaden
A magazine writer says Davy Crockett was a phony, a wife
deserter, and a ne'er-do-well.
The information is not surprising. Some of the big figures in
history were not at all respectable in their private lives. They
could not wear the harness, that's all.
But aside from ail that, it is a question whether a people
should, without good ground, be deprived o.f their favored
myths and legends. A good myth is part of a nation's treasure.
The learned person.? who stamp out a myth fail, as a rule,
to put anything in its place. They pour water on a harmless
glow and leave a grey blank behind.
They forget what should be obvious ? that people must
have heroes as well as daily bread. A hero perhaps begins in
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a small way; he is only one size bigger than the average man.
But he grows by loving repetition until he fills the horizon, de
livers orphic and revered sayings, and at last becomes the
saint of small boys who naturally must have romance to off
set the steady diet of routine at home.
The Davy Crockett legend was in its beginnings harmless
and useful. It has been over-done in the wholesale American
way until it has become commercialized and racketty.
But as long as it inspired a single small boy to heroic deeds
and lofty imaginations, it had its place in a varied universe,
and the destruction of it shows only that the destroyer is
baldheaded and middle-aged, and is out of touch with a boy's
world.
Time For Silence
(San Angelo, Texas, Standard Times)
A visitor to a town deep in the state of Maine joined in a
small group of men on a store porch and made a few remarks.
No one replied and the visitor asked, "What is there, a law
here against talk?" One of the natives replied, "No, but there's
a sort of mutual agreement among us that nobody says any
thing unless he can improve on the silence . .
How wonderful It would be If everybody only talked when
they could improve on the silence. Should that become the
custom what stretches of silence we would have, restful for
the ears and for the tongues. Sessions of the legislatures would
be only a fraction of the hundred and twenty days they now
cover. Rumor and propaganda would get no circulation. Even
fear of another war might be dismissed.
There are countless other wonderful possibilities that do not
need enumerating. Everybody would have time to read a good
book or to do a little quiet thinking and soul-searching and
It would all be for the best. There would be more happy homes
and contented families. The habit of keeping silent unless one
could improve It would grow until we would say nothing unless
it meent something for the good of mankind. ,
Poetry
Editor
EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE
Weavervllle, North Carolina
THE SUNFLOWER'S SECRET
The sunflower gay and yellow
Growing by the garden wall
Peeps at all the other flowers
Because he is so tall.
But he has to turn his head around
To follow Mr. Sun
Everywhere he goes
Until the day is done.
Marion, N. C.
ANNIE G LITTLE
SOUTHERN PINES PILOT
SCHOOL BOARDS SHOULD BE ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE 1
If a machine runs smoothly,
it doesn't necessarily mean that
it's the best possible machine
? or even that it is the best
machine for the job it is do
ing.
It's human nature not to
look beneath the surface or ex
amine the whys and wherefores
if things roll along pretty nice
ly
We're thinking these thoughts
in connection with the way
county school boards and a
good many city school boards
are chosen in North Carolina.
We have no reason to believe
that the county board of edu
cation and the Southern Pines
board of school trustees are not
doing as good a job as would
similar groups elected by the
people. Maybe they are doing
better jobs than would 100 per
cent elected boards.
We're not thinking in terms
of next week or next year, but
rather about what Is the most
satisfactory way to fill public
offices in a democracy in th#
long run. If good and capable
men and women fill appointive
offices that handle thousands
of dollars of the public's money
and administer educational sys
tems that have a personal im
portance to practically every
family in the county or city ?
we can congratulate ourselves
on our good luck, but not our
good judgment.
It may sound misleading to
say that county boards of edu
cation are not elected, as they
are nominated by Democrats ?
and Democrats only ? in the
Democratic primary in May of
one year, but then are appoint
ed by the General Assembly in
the Spring of the following
year.
Regardless of all other con
siderations, this lag of nearly a
year between "election" and
taking office is a mockery of
responsive democratic govern
ment. It is a glaring example
of the 'lame duck" muddle
that was eliminated from the
Federal government more than
20 years ago when the Presi
dent and Congressmen, elected
in November, did not take of
fice until the following March.
County board of education
members generally think of
themselves as elected officials,
but look what happened this
year in Watauga County when
the representative in the Gen
eral Assembly wanted to ap
point one county school board
and the senator wanted to ap
point another group. They nev
er got together and now Wa
tauga's county board of educa
tion is to be chosen, or maybe
has been chosen by this time,
by the State Board of Educa
tion ? taking the matter com
pletely out of the hands of the
local folks of whatever faction.
As for city unit school boards,
they are elected in some cities
and appointed in others. In
Southern Pines, members of the
school board of trustees are ap
pointed by the town governing
body, the town council. Little-d
democracy presumably enters
the picture because the people
have elected the council and so
the council can speak for the
people In choosing school offi
cials.
This Is what Is known as
keeping politics out of educa
tion, but it is our observation
that the politics of appoint
ment are at least as involved
and potentially vicious as the
politics of election.
One result of the lack of
school board elections at town
and county levels is growing
public apathy about school af
fairs. School business tends to
become hidden business, because
no candidate is compelled to
defend openly his stand on
school issues in order to hold
his office in a free election.
It is our opinion, therefore
that school elections on both
town and county levels, should
be non-partisan, just as the
Southern Pines town council
election is non-partisan, and al
so that these elections should
be held at a time when no
other election is being conduct
ed.
Such a procedure would instill
new vigor and public interest
in operation of the schools and
might bring out as candidates
persons who would have much
to contribute as school admin
istrators and who now either
can not or will not advance
themselves for such a public
office.
News Making
As It Looks
To A Maconite *
? Br BOB SLOU
During the past week there
have been events of considerable
significance on a local, state, na
tional, and international level.
The "Meeting at the Summit"
has been held. No one can yet
judge its worth. But it is certain
ly to be hoped that as President
Eisenhower indicated on his re
turn to the United States that
there is a new friendliness in the
world.
Perhaps man
throughout the
world is coming
to the gradual
realization that
he has created
forces of de
struction so
powerful that
they must nev
er be unleashed
if mankind is
tn siirvivp Oft
~ " Sloan
en it has been
said that "Necessity is the mother
o t invention." I think that real
ization of this i? the moving force
behind the peace moves today.
* * ?
This past week Gov. Luther
Hodges expressed the thought
that mass integration would never
be put into effect, in the public
schools of the state of North Car
olina. To me, that is a strong in
dictment of the effectiveness of
the Christian churches. One of
the principal tenets of Christian
ity is the brotherhood of man. Will
the Christian churches never be
able to influence their members
to the extent that they cannot
mix and mingle together due sole
ly to a difference in color of skin?
Today, I realize that public feeling
prevents it, but does the Gov
ernor think that the churches will
never overcome this?
* * ?
Locally, the loss of our district
school principal, Ralph Smith, is
of considerable importance and to
me points out a weakness in the
state school contract system. Mr.
Smith was able to change his
mind even though he had signed
a contract here, but had the Board
of Education changed their mind
and found a man they had rather
have had than Mr. Smith, the cry
would have been raised, "Oh no,
you can't do that, he has a con
tract." It is a poor rule that
doesn't work both ways.
Do You
Remember?
(Looking backward through
the files of The Press)
50 years ago this week
We were informed today that
the track was laid on the Rail
road extension to the Scruggs
place, this side of the Rabun Gap.
Mr. L. H. Enloe, who has been
spending several months in At
lanta, Ga., returned to his home
on Cartoo^echaye last week
Major W. J. Stribbling, of Wal
halla, S. C? was here Mooday on
business connected with our tele
phone system.
25 YEARS AGO
Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Bolick, of
Washington, D. C.. have been vis
iting Mr. and Mrs. E. V. Amnions.
Dick Jones and the Rev. j. A
Flanagan left Tuesday morning
for Gaffney. S. C., to attend a
two-day session for presidents and
secretaries of the Rotary Club for
the 58th District
| Miss Alia Phillips, of Andrews,
visited Miss Marie Palmer last
' week. She was accompanied on
her return home by Mrs. Palmer
and Marie, who spent the week
end in Andrews
10 YEARS AGO
Sgt. James B. Gibbs has return
ed to Harvard. Neb., after spend
ing a 20-day furlough with his
1 mother, Mrs. Florence Gibbs, in
the Cowee community. Sgt Gibbs
[ has been in the service for the
J past 2'/2 years
Mrs. Dan Reynolds, of the
| West's Mill community, left Thurs
day for Norfolk, Va . for a visit
with her husband. Seaman 2/c
Dan Reynolds. Mrs. Reynolds will
also visit her aunt, Mrs. Turner
\ Vinson, and Mr. Vinson, in Clay
! ton, N. C., before she returns.
Major General E. Brown, arriv
ed Saturday to spend a 30-day
? leave with Mrs. Brown at the
home of Mrs. John Stephen Se
well, following several years of
overseas service. ? Highlands item.