Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / Sept. 22, 1955, edition 1 / Page 2
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(?k* $\mnklin tyttss unit Mixjitlaaiis jUnrtfitmn Entered at Post Office, Franklin, N. C., as second class matter Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press Franklin, N. C. Telephone 24 WEIMAR JONES Editor BOB S. SLOAN Business Manager J. P. BRADY . 1 . News Editor MRS. ALLEN SILER Society Editor and Office Manager MRS MARION BRYSON Proofreader CARL P. CABE . . Mechanical Superintendent FRANK A. STARRETTE Shop Superintendent DAVID H. SUTTON ^ Commercial Printer O. B. CRAWFORD Stereotyper SU3oCRIPTION RATES Oursxos Macon C sunty On* Year $3.00 Six Months . . 1.75 Three Months 100 Inside Macon county One Year $2.50 Six Moflttis 1.75 Three Months 100 SEPTEMBER 22, 1955 Some Ouestions rs> A fortnight ago. the number of daily bus runs between Franklin and Asheville was reduced by one-thi.rd ; the number between Franklin and At lanta, by one-half. The1 Press suggested that Macon County people complain to the State Utilities Commission in Ral eigh about this drastic curtailment in service. How many letters of protest the commission got we do not know ; but we have seen the commis sion's reply to one such complaint. It .said : During the last few years the bus companies have found it absolutely necessary to curtail their service wherever possible in order to stay in business. The rea son for this, of course, is the ever increasing number of private automobiles. As a matter of fact, out of ninety six common carriers of passengers in North Carolina last year, only four of these companies showed a profit at the end of the year and Smoky Mountain Stages, the bolder of the franchise through Franklin, was on the verge of bankruptcy and would most certainly have been forced to discontinue all operations had not a merger been effected with Queen City Coach Company. The purpose of the foregoing is to give you some idea as to what the bus companies are up against. There are very few paying runs left and certainly not enough to support an appreciable number of runs which are highly unprofitable. Nevertheless, we will, of course, make an investigation to determine whether or not Franklin should have additional service and we would also like to point out that you or any other interested citizens have the right to protest any proposed change in bus sched ules and to ask for a hearing before the Commission. In the meantime, we will make the aforestated investiga tion and will advise you further upon receipt of our In vestigator's report. That letter suggests some questions: 1. Who pays the salaries of members of the Util ities Commission? The public, of course. Then isn't it up to the commission to see that the public gets service", without its being necessary for a delega tion to go to Raleigh to a hearing ? without its even being necessary for the public to protest by letter? 2. Isn't it the job of the commission to protect the interests of the thousands of people who have no automobiles and must depend on the public car riers? And in this particular area, do these people have any choice? ? is there any other way for them to travel? 3. If the bus companies are losing money to day ? and we find that a little hard to believe ? didn't they make huge profits until recently? Wasn't it true, over a period of many years, that there often were more people standing on a bus than were seated? And aren't the fat years suppos ed to take care of the lean ones ? for public util ities as well as for other businesses? 4. Just how do the bus companies and the Util ities Commission expect the buses to get more business and thus prove profitable, if the service becomes constantly worse? Keeping Record Straight Thi s is to keep the record straight. When a three-judge federal court, on September 10, ordered the University of North Carolina to admit three Negroes to its undergraduate school, the news dispatch indicated the court had ordered them admitted, period. Commenting on the ruling, in an editorial last week, The Press said the court had held the Ne groes "must he admitted, presumably without re gard to their personal qualifications of character, personality, and scholarship". Last Friday's daily papers carried a story indi cating that was not entirely correct : it appears that the court did take into account one of those three. The .story quoted Attorney General Rodman as ad vising University officials they should admit the three youths "if educationally qualified", the infer ence l>eing that the court had specified they should meet the institution's educational requirements. On the two points of character and personality, the court apparently was silent. Interesting Election That's an interesting election that's coming up in Highlands township November-#. \ For man/ years. Highlands has had the prob lem ? especially during the winter months ? of how to have adequate medical care immediately available. At last the Highlands Community Hospital opened its doors. But the going still was tough ; that institution has been kept open and operating only through the loyal efforts of many unselfish persons. Now the whole question is being handed to the people of the township. Do they want the hospital? and do they want it badly enough to vote a tax on themselves for its support? More Wonders The wonders of tax evaluation on public serv ice corporations, arrived at in Raleigh, never cease. Why, for example, do the lines of two telephone companies, in the sam(e area, vary so widely? The State Board of Assessment puts a value of $24 per mile on Southern Bell lines in this county, while it says the lines of the Western Carolina are worth $43 per mile, nearly double! ? Letters More About Bus Service i Dear Mr. Jones: < After seeing your editorial in the Sept. 8 issue of The Pres6 about the changes in bus schedules, I would like to write a few lines on that subject. I am a soldier stationed at Camp Stewart, Ga., and have been home twice since I have been here. I leave after duty hours and make very good connections to Atlanta, arriving there about 11 p. m. As it was before this change, the earliest I could get on into Franklin was 2:55 the next afternoon. If this wasn't sorry service to the public I can't figure out what to call it; and this new change will make it even worse, because if a man gets to Atlanta 5 min utes after the bus leaves, he will have to lay over there 23 hours and 55 minutes. How would he feel toward the public utilities if some one in the family was expected to die any moment, and he had to wait that long on a bus to get to their bedside? Sp/3 WILLIAM R. BINGHAM Camp Stewart, Ga. Others' Opinions Same To All (Park Region, Minn., Echo) We want Adlai Stevenson again. We want the candidate who says in Georgia what he says in Harlem. Who says to the CIO what he says to the Chamber of Commerce. Who says to the Americans for Democratic Action what he says to the American Legion and the D.A.R. Carl S. Slagle (Farmers Federation News) Western North Carolina has suffered a great loss in the sudden death of Carl S. Slagle of Macon County. Mr. Slagle was a citizen who threw his strength and influence behind every good cause. He was a man of sound judgment and high ly respected all over Western North Carolina. He had been a director of the Farmers Federation and chairman of the Ma con County committee ever since the Federation was organized In Macon County. He knew the problems of farming In the mountains, he was an excellent farmer himself and was one of the principal leaders In the great progress Western North Carolina has made in agriculture in the last few years. He was a tower of strength to every good cause. He served his county not only in the legislature but also In many constructive and little known ways all through the years. Carl S. Slagle was a man to match our mountains. Want No Klan (Franklin, La., Banner-Tribune) It is one thing to disagree in free and open debate on an issue such as Integration. It is an entirely different matter to endeavor to resolve the question by use of an organization whose members must hide their faces to conceal the hatred of their fellow men that is in their hearts. Americans of all races and all creeds, regardless of their differences in opinion on other issues, must stand united and vigilant in their opposition to the revival of the Ku Klux Klan or any other secret society that preaches Americanism but practices an ideology entirely foreign to the American Way. What Boss Wanted? (Windsor, Colo., Beacon) When Russia fell in with the proposal for a meeting of heads of state at Geneva, Secretary Dulles had it. all figured out. The amiable "new look" over there, he said, indicated that the Soviet economy was on the verge of collapse. Recent reports of visiting American farmers and businessmen, how ever, certainly do not bear out the Dulles analysis. American sightseers, of course, are still limited pretty strict ly to such sights as the Russians want them to see, but at least they have been there and Mr. Dulles hasn't. His state ment presumably was based on the reports of his intelligence department representatives ? who perhaps had limited them selves to seeing only what their boss wanted them to see. STRICTLY PERSONAL By WEIMAK JONES I've sometimes discussed in this column the difficulties pre sented by myopia (fancy word fo rnear-sightedness) ? and some of the amusing results. I don't believe, though, I've ever remarked on the problems it presents for a person at tending one of these commun ity suppers, where the food is served cafeteria style. When they're outdoors, in the twi light, the situation is just about hopeless; but it often isn't much better inside. Because my observation is that church din ing rooms or school cafeterias either are dimly lit, ar that the light is so bright it blinds me. For a person of ordinary vis ion, I am sure the light is fine; in my case, though, there has to be plenty of light, and it must be somewhere besides in my eyes; otherwise, what I am likely to see is a vague blur. For one who really enjoys good food, the results some times can be close to tragic. Take macaroni and potato salad, for instance. I like most things, and my mother long ago taught me to eat whatever was put on jny plate. So, when they get on my plate, I eat macaroni and potato salad. I wouldn't say, though, they were my favorite foods; fact is, of all the things I don't like much, I don't much like those two the most. And so what happens at a community supper? It is rare indeed that I get around the serving table without acquiring at least two servings of maca roni and sometimes three or four of potato salad! I sit down, quite sure I have slaw and spoonbread and some other of my favorite dishes. My mouth waters in anticipation. But all too soon I. find I have, instead, a plate heaped up and running over with macaroni and potato salad! I said it was near-tragic. I guess it would be tragic ? if it didn't always hit me as so fun ny. ? ? ? The other night, though, I had an illustration of how things generally even up, in the end. The folks out at Bethel were kind enough to in vite Mrs. Jones and me to their ?Community Development Or ganization supper. Such gath erings, in rural .Macon Coun ty, always are delightful; they would be, even if there weren't any food. This one was no ex ception to the rule, as far as the company was concerned; and, food-wise, it was a rare treat. That was one commun ity supper I really cashed in on, gastronomically. Because if there are any two things I like better than any other two, they are sweet po tatoes and lemon pie. Somehow, I usually manage to get the lemon pie; maybe its bright yellow color distinguishes it, or maybe my nose is especially sensitive to the odor of lemon, and I track it down like a dog does a rabbit. But I've never been particularly fortunate about sweet potatoes. That time, X was. I found myself, when I sat down, with two big slices of lemon pie, and three servings of sweet pota toes, fixed three different ways! What a meal that was! ORDEAL IS THE DF.SFRT RED-TYPE TORTURE MADE PART OF U. S. AIR FORCE TRAINING Rr printed from NK II', V WEEK (EDITOR'S NOTE: The fol lowing article, reprinted from Newsweek by special permis sion, tells how the U. S. Air Force seeks to toughen Amer ican soldiers to resist Com munist brainwashing. The ar ticle, the magazine explains, was cleared with the Penta gon.) By PETER WYDEN The lieutenant was young and frail. There had been a time when he had eaten, washed, and slept, but that had been In some other life many night mares ago. Stripped to his shorts, he stood on the crude wooden floor with his knees slightly bent. It did not look like an uncomfortable position, but the pain in his legs be came worse and worse. He be gan trembling. It was difficult to estimate the temperature In the window less wooden shack. It might have been HO degrees. It might have been 130. The lieutenant couldn't see his surroundings because three powerful spot lights flooded his grimy face from 3 feet away. He kept star ing at his arms. They were stretched forward with a thin, naked wire looped around each forefinger. Whenever somebody behind the lights felt like it, the wires pumped an electric shock through the lieutenant's body. The unknown somebody often felt like it. Perhaps he enjoyed watching the lieutenant jump toward the ceiling like a jack in-the-box. Perhaps he was an noyed because the lieutenant wasn't answering questions. There were many questions: "Where are you from?" . . . "What kind of aircraft do you fly? . . . "Who's your wing commander?" . . . The questions hit the lieutenant by the dozen, sometimes with the insistence of machine-gun fire, sometimes interrupted by screaming har angues about American Air Force officers who were too stupid to know answers to sim ple questions, sometimes by promises of food and sleep, al ways by more electric shocks. The lieutenant was a navi gator in a B-57, but he did not reveal this. He even refused to give his first name. This made the interrogator angrier. There were more shocks. More shouts. More shocks. The lieutenant said nothing. He trembled and jumped for nearly two hours, but in the shack something had happened to time. To the lieu tenant it seemed as if he had never been anywhere else. So when he was shoved through the door, he collapsed on the ground and cried. Not Alone The lieutenant was not alone. A few steps down the dirt road was an upright wooden box 16 inches wide and deep and just too short to let a man stand straight. After hours of con finement in this device, men tumbled out like footballs, mus cles temporarily paralyzed. Notwithstanding the foreign language signs all around the prison compound, the farelgn looking uniforms of the Inter rogators and the submachine guns of the guards, the victims of these persuasive techniques were captives not behind the Iron Curtain but American air men in the sand-and-sagebrush desert of Lemmons Valley out side Reno, Nev, They were guests of Stead Air Force Base, the only U. S. centar exclusive ly dedicated to teaching men how to survive in enemy terri tory. The men who run Stead ad minister a lesson never taught before: How to resist brain washing. No teachers ever ap plied more Ingenious combina tions of physical and mental stresses. But the pressures are turned on under supervision of medical men and five psycho logists and some 29,000 men have safely withstood the seventeen-day course. Gradu ates Include the majority of crews who fly the Strategic Air Command's A-bombers, many Air Force jet fighter pilots, and some Army, Navy, and Marine instructors who are setting up (See Back Page, 1st Section) News Making As It Looks To A Maconite ? By BOB SLOAN When the United States Su preme Court gave a decision which made segregation Illegal, there was much criticism, par ticularly from people living south of the Mason-Dixon line. A large part of the comment was to the effect that the Su preme Court was trying to leg islate rather than just Interpret the Constitution. They were called everything from starry eyea reiorm ers to "politic ians." I was guilty of some of It myself. I remember that I was dis pleased that the Supreme Court said something was illegal and then set an indefinite wait Sloan Ing period before the offenders had to do something about it. That, to me, seemed a little out of character, but I'll admit that the problem of segregation is a difficult one and perhaps a different solution was in order. However, in recent months, I have been struck by a much more blatant example of the crossing of lines which separate the executive, legisla tive, and judicial bodies of our government by some of our own state officials, with the govern or being an offender, but there was no cry raised. Last Spring the North Caro lina legislature, which is the law-making body of our state and as such is the body which most nearly reflects the senti ment of our people, adopted a resolution which said that the problem of determining who would attend what schools in our state should be left up to the local boards. No one object ed to this proposal when it was passed. The secret feeling among many, I think, was, "That's good, the local boards won't let any 'niggers" into our schools." Also there was the feeling in Raleigh that "That gets the problem off our neck." The resolution was praised in some quarters because it con tained the virtues of home rule. I did not see any criticism of me iaea. If Governor Hodges or Attor ney General Rodman did not think that it was a good idea to let the people decide the issue; that it would be better for the state as a whole to fol low one uniform plan they should have said so then. Any person could see then that there was the possibility that a local board might favor inte gration in its own locality. The time to be opposed to letting (See Bacp Page, 1st Section) Do You Remember? 'I-onkin* backward through the files of The Press) 50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK Miss MaybelJe Ashe returned home Wednesday from a pro tracted visit to South Carolina. Mr. W. J. Zachary has pur chased a fine, new, four-seated hack and put it on the line from here to Dillsboro. It ar rived here Saturday evening. A party stopping at Mr. W. N. Allman's went to Wayah Bald Wednesday to see the beauties of Macon County and enjoy the freshest of air and water. 25 YEARS AGO Mr. Alex .Setser, son of Mr. Frank Setser, left last week for N. C. State College, Raleigh, to take a course in forestry. Messrs. Fred Guest and Frank McDowell left Tuesday for Pineville, Ky., to accept a po sition. Attorney McKinley Edwards, of Bryson City, was in Frank lin last Friday on business. 10 YEARS AGO Major Winton Perry, who has been spending his 30-day fur lough here with his mother, Mrs. J. E. Perry, left last week for his new assignment at La Junta, Colo. Mrs. Craig Cranston, of Au gusta, Ga., is here for a stay at her cottage on Satulah Road, which was occupied dur ing the summer by Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Fargo, who have re turned to their home in Augus ta. ? Highlands item. T/Sgt. Reno Moses, of the U. S. Army, stationed in Santa Fe, N. Mex., is spending a 30-day furlcugh with his mother, Mrs. Rebecca Moses, of Franklin.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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