Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / Oct. 6, 1955, edition 1 / Page 2
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?Jt* Tfitnttklin -firtss anil Ote Zrtighlatt^s jHarrmian Entered at Post Office. Franklin, N. C., as second class matter Published every Thursday by The Franklin Pre68 Franklin, N. C. Telephone 24 WEIMAR JONES BOB S SLOAN J. P. BRADY MRS ALLEN SILER lfRS MARION BRYSON CARL P. CARE ? ? FRANK A. STARRETTE DAVID H. SUTTON . . O. E CRAWFORD Editor Business Manager News Editor Society Editor and Office Manager Proofreader Mechanical Superintendent Shop Superintendent Commercial Printer Stereotyper SUBSCRIPTION HATES OUTSIDE MACON tOUNTI One Year $3.00 Six Months ... 1.75 Three Months *-00 One Year $2.50 Six Months 1.75 Three Months 1.00 OCTOBER 1 to 8 1955 ?*? National* A* NEWSPAPER WEEK !??**? ROHTSFOC YOUR RIGHT 5 TOM OCTOBER 1 to 8 1955 THREE times within a recent week, this news paper was told it had been unfair ? to the State Board of Assessment, to the bus companies, and on the desegregation problem. Maybe we were unfair, on one, or all, of those matters: because the people w}io edit newspapers are human, subject to all the frailties, the mistakes of judgment, and the temptations common to hu man beings. And it is a terrible thing for a newspaper to be unfair ? no matter how unintentionally. When un fairness is charged, the least it can do is admit the possibility, print the charge, and try again to state, as clearly as it can, its position ? then leave it to the reader to determine just where the truth lies. TELEPHONE EVALUATIONS TWO weeks ago we commented unfavorably on * the fact that the telephone lines of the South ern Bell Company, within this county, were valued for taxes at only a little more than half as much, per mile, as lines of the Western Carolina. It has since been pointed out to us that that left an in accurate implication. For the State Board of Assessment, in arriving at the taxable value of telephone companies, puts a value on all the company's properties (excluding real estate), and then pro rates the whole value by miles of line. Thus such things as central offices are taken into account in fixing the value per line mile. For practical purposes, it would seem doubtful that the 'proportionate value, per mile of line, of a relatively small company, like Western Carolina, would be almost twice as great as that of a lyg company, like Southern Bell. But the reader was, and is. entitled to the exact facts in reaching his conclusions. ABOUT BUS SERVICE wr\() you want to put the bus companies into bankruptcy?" we were asked the other day. "How can you expect them to operate when they are losing money?" We don't. And vou can't. But when a public utility is granted the privilege of a monopoly, protected by the state from compe tition. thai privilege carries with it an obligation? the obligation to provide service. The whole pur pose of granting the monopoly, in fact, is to as sure service to the public; it it were a competitive proposition, the competing companies would oper ate only where and when it was profitable; pro tected by monopoly, the utility is expected to give service, generally, making the profitable lines sup port the unprofitable ones, and making the good years and the good months take care of the bad ones. Our major criticism has been directed not at the bus companies, but at the State Utilities Commis sion; because that agency i> paid by the taxpayers to see t<\ it that the public gets service from those utilities that are given a monopoly so they can provide it. We don't think the commission has been very active in looking after tlte interests of the very people it is paid to protect. Our further position is that it is bad business for the bus companies themselves to give poor serv ice, just because a particular line, or a particular run on a particular line, is unprofitable. The point can be illustrated even with a business that gets no monopoly protection from the state. Frequently a particular i^sue of The Franklin Press is unprofitable: certain issues, in fact, are unprof itable every year ? the one immediately alter Christmas, for example. But if this newspaper pub lished only those weeks that it made lhoney, how long would it have any subscribers? EQUALLY BAD A LETT K R to the editor, published last week, called this newspaper's position on segregation "flabby" and "neutral". We are not the proper ones to say whether our position has been "flabby". But if, by "neutral", the writer had reference to this newspaper's efforts to present a wide variety of viewpoints, then we plead guilty to being "neutral". And we shall continue to try to be "neutral", in that respect. Because the whole purpose of having a press that is free is to make possible the dissemination of just such a variety of, viewpoints. The newspaper that fails to present divergent viewpoints is not fulfilling its function. More serious is the charge, in a personal letter, that we tried "to make an issue where ^nne really exists". The reference was to the editorial, "Stop at Color Line", three weeks ago, and an editorial statement, the following- week, giving information not available at the time the earlier piece was written. The earlier editorial attempted to make the point that refusal to face facts, thinking with the emo tions. and discrediting an argument because of its source rather than on its merits, is bad: that it is ecpially bad, no matter which side indulges in it ; and that, of late, rabid integrationists have been as guilty, or perhaps even more guilty, than rabid segregationists. Perhaps we were wrong. But that is what we thought at the time, and it is what we think now. Honesty will not permit us to say otherwise. * * * \X/E welcome these criticisms. Not because it is pleasant to be criticized ? it rarely is; but be cause it nearly always is profitable. It tends to create that .spirit of humility that should go with every responsibility. ? Letters Applauds Publication Of Letter Editor, The Press: Having seldom been attracted by your paper before, I am now compelled to applaud the printing of Mr. V. L. Deane's letter In your September 29th issue. Mr. Deane's obvious prejudice and vitriolic comments on vyour stand deserve less than no mention or note. The pub lication of the letter, however, gives view to all your readers the type of mind and biased short-sightedness that combat the forces of good and justice in this country. The Mr. Deanes of this woria are nothing. They belong in the family applauding group of Tallahatchie whites. Please send Mr. Deane's Franklin Press to me. I am delighted with the turning over of the rock, and sickened with the view beneath. Congratulations. ALBERT L. CHALKER. Atlanta, Ga. (EDITOR'S NOTE: The above letter came in the form of a telegram.) Poetry Editor EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE Weaverville, North Carolina PETUNIAS Not all the spices of bright Araby Nor costly perfume from old France or Spain Can give fragrance half so sweet to me As wet /petunias crushed by falling rain. MARIE SMITH INZER TLJCID l/~\D T ki A l/C CI IDC FORESTRY -U.S.A. i&Kzia&x? r IN T? EARLY MVS. OUR RIVERS WERE TOE PRJNCJML HICHWAY5 i FROM FOREST TOMILL. EVERY I SPRIN6 FOUND THEM CHOKED . WITH LOOS. TODAY, MORE AfID | BETTER ROADS HAVE BROUGHT | AM ENP. IN MOST PLACES. TO THE , COLORFUL RIVER RUNS Of OLD. MT MOOWN EAST MAINE. OH TIK AMCMAS BHTM, IM OWK DOWERS snu KEEP me toes muim hum fMEST *0 MUl AS WEV WM MEN ?0M6 FO* NEAMV ZOO WARS? A GOOD ANNUAL HARVEST. FROM WEU-MAMAOf D FORESTS. PROTECT THE FORESTS AND USE THEM WISELY Others' Opinions Honored (Asheville Citizen) The famed Penland School of Handicrafts in Mitchell Coun ty has been honored once again. It has been awarded a contract to weave 100 yards of ma terial far a national shrine ? Independence Hall in Phila delphia. The school will obtain the wool, have it spun into thread and dyed and weave it on hand looms. The project is part of the restoration work sponsored at Independence Hall by the National Federation of Women's Clubs. The sum of $200,000 has been raised for the restoration, with the National Park Service in charge. The Penland material will be hrownish green baize for use as table covers. It is not a large order, of course, but Penland School feels pride in having a part in helping with the restoration work of the hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. (EDITOR'S NOTE: The Penland School is headed by Miss Lucy Morgan, native of Macon" County and sister of the Rev. A. Rufus Morgan and Mrs. H. E. Freas.) Stirs The Imagination (Smithfleld Herald) With the schools of Johnston County reopening, it seems in order to pose again the fundamental educational questions. What are the schools for? What are they supposed to accom plish? Have they strayed from the main road? The questions were asked on a radio panel the other night. Answers varied. The schools, as they are, had their defenders. There was denial that vocational courses are overemphasized. But the sharpest speaker on the panel, the noted Mortimer J. Adler, ventured to say that the public school system needs an overhauling. Adler held that the schools nave no business teaching the young how to make money, but should confine their work to teaching the young how to study and how to think. Education is a never-ending process, he reminded, and the only valid function of the schools is to prepare youth for adult educa tion. He contended that the training of the mind in a system of "liberal education" is necessary for all youth, whether one plans to be a carpenter or a professional man. And he argued that in a democracy, in which all adult citizens are granted the right to vote and to help shape policies, it doesn't make sense to rule out any pupils as unfit to take a liberal educa tion. If Adler's view seems extreme, it is a view that stirs the imagination and tends to shake us out of complacent attitudes toward education. Have we gone hogwild, as Adler suggests, in stressing the money-making value of education? It is not doing the things we like to do, but liking the things we have to do, that makes life blessed. ? Goethe. intiix jud i w ivi/-\iM. jur\c That The People Shall Not Lose Their Voice Mishawaka, Ind., Ent?rnr;s2 The people are losing their voice; who but the country ed itor can speak for them? A challenge to assume re sponsibility for voicing the opinions of the "little people" ? those who might otherwise be come forever lost in a world of bigness ? was boldly placed be fore editors of non-daily news papers at a recent national ed itorial conference. They came from the sugar cane country of Louisiana, the lake land of Minnesota, from Iowa farm land, for high Colorado, beautiful West Virginia and North Carolina, the California valley, from Illinois, Missouri and Indiana. Some of their opinions were shaped or modi fied by the province from which they came, but they had one bond in common. They knew that they must listen' ? listen to the people, that they must speak for the people. In an earlier era, When many communities had two or three newspapers, readers witnessed vigorous editorial debates on local, national and internation- i al affairs in the columns of 1 the local press. < Newspapers have followed the trend toward consolidation which has been characteristic of business and industry. Num bers of daily newspapers have been declining. "Of course, we encourage our subscribers to read a daily newspaper," said one weekly ed- 1 itor. "We don't think they can be intelligent citizens today if they don't." 1 But the large, dally news paper is less and less able to ' Seal with strictly local prob lems. This remoteness must be overcome by the local editor who is close to the people, and, as in the old days, always has spare time to listen and cour age to speak to his community. The 10,000 non-daily news papers in the United States to day are not just country cous ins, little sheets that couldn't quite make the grade against their big daily relatives. They are special media, in terpreting and communicating to a special group ? the people af their community. And they have rededicated themselves to the goal that the people shall not lose their voice. < News Making As It Looks To A Maconite ? By BOB SLOAN The farm problem is the chief sore spot of present economic conditions in this country. While most everyone else Is ex periencing conditions that are generally considered "Boom Times," farmers are getting less for what they sell, and paying more for what they buy. Undoubtedly, the causes are many. The Republican agricul tural leaders cite two chief causes. i. 11 e y say the prices have been driven down by the accu m u la t i o n of surpluses und er the govern ment price support plan. Secretary of Agriculture, Ez ra T. Benson, adds to this a Sloan statement in which he contends that some of the surplus we have accumulated has come from farmers who are working poor land and in some cases using inefficient methods. Sub sidies help make this possible, he feels. The Republicans and their chief farm spokesman are partly .right. The Democratic farm pro gram during the Truman ad ministration did not differ too much from what we now have, except, that instead of a flex ible sliding scale of ?>rice sup ports, they were fixed at 90% of parity which is higher than the present price support level. Surpluses accumulated, but the farmer did receive more for his crops. However, it cost the gov ernment more. Many writers, economic seers, and politicians will tell you that there is no solution to the farm program. This I do not believe. There is one plain fact that we must face up to if the farm er is to have a stable income. If you have price supports which guarantee the farmer a good price for his product you must have a very strict control on the . amount the farmer is allowed to produce. This is ter rible, everyone cries ? "Why it's regimentation." That may be, but if the government is going to assist the farmer to have a normal income, then the government must have the right to limit production. Other wise, the price support program (See Back Page, 1st Section) Do You Remember? (Looking backward through the files of The Press) 50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK Hon. Kope Elias has received notice that he has been ap pointed one of the assistant marshals to receive President Roosevelt at Raleigh en the 19th inst., and to lunch with him. Dr. Charley Trotter left Mon day for Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md., to resume his studies and duties. Messrs. H. T. and S. L. Angel, who have been in Cali fornia during 18 months past, arrived here Thursday and will remain for some time. 25 YEARS AGO Mrs. A. B. Omohundro re turned to her home in Arkan sas last Friday, after spending three months with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lee Barnard. Miss Edwina Dairymple, who is teaching in Hayesville, and Miss Norma Scroggs, from that town, spent the week-end with Miss Dalrymple's parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Dairymple. Mr. aild Mrs, E. W. Allfather, of Black Mountain, were in Franklin last Monday. Mr. Porter Pierson, of High lands, was a business visitor in Franklin the first of the week. 10 YEARS AGO T. H. Callahan, manager j>f Belk's Department Store here, with his family, has moved from Bryson City to the Or lando Apartments on Harrison Avenue. .Mr. and Mrs. Earl Dryman, who have been making their home in Clinton. Tenn.. have returned to their home at Scaly. Chief Petty Officer Frank Norris has returned from for eign service and left this week for Athens to re-enter the Uni versity of Georgia, accompanied by Mrs. Norris, who has been spending the summer in Horse Clove. ? Highlands item.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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Oct. 6, 1955, edition 1
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