Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / April 19, 1956, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
$\mnkiin tyrtzt unit i ? ht Highlands fflinzwxmvi Entered at Poet Office, Franklin, N. C., as second class matter Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press Praaklln. N. O. Telephone 24 VEDCAR JONES Editor BOB 8. SLOAN . Advertising Manager 1. P. BRADY News Editor-Photographer MB ALLEN SILER ....... Society Editor-Office Manager MRS. MARION BRYSON Proofreader CARL P. CABE Operator-Machinist PRANK A. STARRETTE . * Compositor O. E. CRAWFORD Stereotyper CHARLES E. WHITTINGTON Pressman DAVID H. SUTTON Commercial Printer | SUBSCRIPTION RATES Outside Macon Countt One Year1 $3.00 Ctx Months 1.75 Three Months .... 1.00 Two Years 5.25 Three Years .... 7.50 Inside Macon County One Year $2.50 Six Months 1-75 Three Months . 1.00 Two Years , 4-25 Three Years 6 00 APRIL 19, 1956 'Leading The Way' What more compliment could a town be paid than being recognized as one "leading the way". Well, Franklin has that distinction. In the Community Development News Letter, publication of the W. N. C. Rural Community De velopment Contest, the town's program for com munity betterment, along the lines of the rural de velopment set-up, is called to the attention of the .rest of Western North Carolina. "Another fine example of the rural communities *?f W. N. C. leading the way," it said. Opportunity Lost Students from Franklin High School did not take part in the 10th annual Western North Carolina Field Day, held at Western Carolina College on April 6. This was an opportunity lost. Principal Harry C. Corbin gave as a part of the explanation as to why the Franklin High School faculty voted not to participate this year, a ques tionaire prepared by the field day program com mittee, which, obviously, did more to discourage than encourage various schools to attend. ? rt* ? This popular event ? more than 250 students from 'schools throughout Western North Carolina took part this year ? is one of the few efforts made to encourage interest in academic subjects. Of par ticular value is the fact that here the incentive to * develop) an interest in the pursuit of knowledge vBomes from competition. Members of tbe faculties at both Franklin High School and Western Carolina College would agree that for a state supported institution of learning, almost as basic as the job of teaching is the task of .stimulating general interest in the pursuit of knowledge. If more attention were paid to the lat '.ter, perhaps the former could be an easier job. 0 The fact that the event has been held for the past 10 years is evidence the administration at Cullowhee is aware, because of the scarcity of in stitutions of higher learning in our area, of its obli gation to encourage such programs. Granted, it is. a big job; still, no stone should be left unturned to see that bovs and girls from Franklin High School next year are there to bring back to Macon County their share of the laurels as they have in the past. Who's Responsible? 'It's difficult not to sympathize with the plight of S/Sgt. Matthew C. McKeon as the web of cir ?cunVStance tightens around him. 'For if anyone has ever been a victim of circum stance, the 32-vear-old combat veteran is the one. Until last week, he was an efficient drill instruc tor at the U. S. Marine Training Center at Parris Island, S. C. Today, he's a broken young man. saddled with the responsibility of a "forced march" of his platoon into a treacherous tidal swamp. Six -of his men drowned in the darkness. The injustice of it all is that the sergeant is a victim of the very psychology encouraged and de manded by any branch of the armed forces. That psychology i.s "esprit de corps", an intangible of the mind that has fired the U. S. to victory in two world wars and several smaller conflicts. "Esprit de corps", coupled with hard-line discipline, is the thing that turns civilians into soldiers and soldiers into battlefield heroes. It was S/Sgt. McKeon', s job to instill this in his platoon. As a combat veteran he knew first-hand the necessity of discipline if a man is to survive a fight The "forced march" into the swamp on that fateful night was ordered by the sergeant for dis cipline. , ' That he was the last man out of the treacherous stream, after risking his own life to save .several others, is proof enough the young Marine did not take his responsibility lightly. This kind of rationalization, of course, cannot blunt the grief of the families of those who drown ed, but it can case the bitterness they hold in their htarts for the young man they think responsible. The mother of one of the dead recruits seems to have expressed this justly : "We can't condemn the man ... I have no bit terness toward anyone." Of ber son, she said: 1 "He liked the Marines, and as long as he liked it, I like it." If S/Sgt. McKeon is guilty of anything, it is of an error in judgment. He admits he was unfamil iar with the swamp. I But what of the U. S. Marine Corps, the armed branch thalt created these attitudes of "esprit de corps" in S/Sgt. McKeon? Did this organization that places so much emphasis on "semper fidelis" defend the young man it considered capable enough to train recruits? The corps' seemingly spineless announcement that his actions could not be condoned seems to indicate' the high brass plans to "pass the buck" back to the sergeant. His courtmartial appears in evitable. So, the question of responsibility becomes a mat ter for debate. As for punishment for S/Sgt. McKeon, consider this : Fate and circumstance have already passed sen tence on him. He has to live with the horror of that tragic night. Poetry Editor EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE Weavervllle, North Carolina THE WHITE AND THE RED The flowers are white when a mother dies. They fall in petals from mourning skies But their perfume is borne on a memory's breath And so the mother may live in death. The flower of life is a crimson rose. From its warmth a tenderness gently flows, But whether the flower is white or red Love and the mother are faithfully wed. Time cannot alter or dying sever The root of this love that lives forever. EDITH DEADERICK ERSKINE Weaverville, N. C. Others' Opinions (Opinions expressed in ttys space are not necessarily those of The Press. Editorials selected for reprinting here, in fact, are chosen with a view to presenting a variety of viewpoints. They are, lhat is, just what the caption says ? OTHERS' Opinions.) 'DL.ck iViarket' Newsprint (Stanley News & Press) During the past sixty days, the News and Press has received communications from various paper brokers offering to sell newsprint at about twice the price charged on the open mar ket today. In other words, a "black market" has developed in newsprint, the paper on which newspapers are printed. This "scarcity" situation has arisen because newspapers throughout the country have been printing bigger papers and selling more of them, a fact which does not make a publisher unhappy, because it indicates a continuing prosperity among his subscribers and advertisers. Some of the newsprint made by the smaller manufacturers is being diverted into the "black market" in order to reap a Oar Great America ? fy- MrfA \MmK ClIWFTTH HAP "THE FIRST TAX FOR | FREE SCHOOLS ?AT PEDUM, ,649 \ cT JOHH OOOMBS, ?we 'iron man" OF CPWNIE MACK'S PrfCHlNfi -STAFF, NEVER *FU?SBP * AT AH UMPIRE HE NATIONS I.J MlUIOtf BOV SCOUTS "THIS MONTH Will 6E6IK USIN6 A SPECIAL FORESTRY KIT PROVIDED By THE WOOD USIN6 INDUSTRIES. K I quick and large profit, since a newspaper gets in bad shape # quickly unless it has sufficient newsprint to meet its require ments. t Our purpose is not to discuss the newsprint situation, but to point out the increasing use of this and other paper prod ucts. At the same time, we should like to stress once again the wisdom of putting all Idle land in the county to work pro ducing pulpwood. Under more or less normal conditions, the use of paper products, made from pulpwood, will continue to increase steadily, and the landowner with pulpwood to sell will always have a market for it. The big paper companies are coming into this state, buying huge tracts of land and starting long-range forestry pro grams. We were particularly Interested in a report made re cently to Governor Hodges by the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company which started such a program in Dare coun ty in 1952. Today, this company has a total of 302,291 acres of woodland in Dare, Tyrrell, Washington and Hyde counties in the eastern part of the state. During the past three years, it has planted a total of 1,107,750 year-old trees, and a scien tific program which will result in the production of usable pulpwood in a minimum length of time is being further de veloped. There are other pulp and paper companies with vast hold ings in North Carolina, representing tremendous investments. They know what the future holds for the paper industry, and they are preparing for it. Here in Stanly county, we have many idle acres which should be growing trees, and land owners should follow, on a smaller scale, the example set by the paper companies. It's Plain Tragic (Windsor (Colo.) Beacon) It's purely tragic, the way authorities are trying to disejur age original thinking! Postmaster General Summerfield has announced that ball point pens will be placed on the public desks in postoffices ? right after I'd worked out a hilarious joke on the unique sub ject of the scratchy postoffice pen that won't write. 1 Sometimes it seems they're just bound to tromp out the spark of genius. Can Be Wrong, Too (Asheville Times) Everyone has heard the old saying, "Fifty million French men can't be wrong." One of France's greatest men of letters, the late Anatole France, made an infinitely wiser observation: "If 50,000,000 people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." This is not limited to France, of course, it applies to every nation on the face of the earth. The fact that many people, or even a great majority of people, believe or approve some thing does hot necessarily make it right. Some of the greatest human achievements ? in the realm of ideas as well as material progress ? have come from non-con formists and dlsserfters who hewed to their principles in the face of widespread ridicule, opposition, and even persecution. If a nation expects tq be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. ? Thomas Jefferson. GREENSBORO DAILY NEWS - First Recorded Use Of Small Round Dot (Period) Goes Back To Pehriad Tomorrow, The Saturday Re view reminds us, is the 2,500th birthday of Kohmar Pehriad (544-493 B.C.), inventor of pun ctuation in written language. This day we should not let lightly pass. Pehriad, according to an article by K. Jason Site well, was a leading literary fig ure of Macedonia in the pre Christian era. In those days written langu age was continuous. There were no sentence or paragraph breaks. Pehriad's own writings represent the first recorded use of the small round dot to indi cate the end of a completed unit of expression. More impor tant than that, he gave 30 years of his life, traveling through ancient Greece, Rome, Persia, North Africa and Asia in an ef fort to obtain local acceptance of the small dot that has since done so much for literature. Adds Mr. Sltewell : The stark simplicity of this idea, amounting virtually to genius, is doubtless responsible for the fact that every written language in the world today uses the small round dot. Thus, Pehriad's contribution is not only to his own country but to mankind. Pehriad's efforts did not stop with the dot. Concerned with the need for an appropriate marking to correspond with the pause in a person's speech in the middle of a sentence, he devised what we now know as the comma, also named after him (Kohmar). Still another marking was added by Pehriad's son for the purpose of strengthening the written language. Apos-Trophe Pehrlad felt the comma could be adapted to other purposes, so he used It Inside a word to show an abbreviation and at the end of a word to denote possession. But Mr. Sltewell overlooked important researches by Jan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547-1619), Dutch statesman and enthusi astic amateur philologist. Careful digging led Olden barnevelt back to another great benefactor of the written lan guage. We refer to Kohlon Peh rlad (544-480 B.C.), who, strangely enough, was born on the same day as Kohmar Peh riad. Kohlon was a double second cousin on Pehriad's father's side, no relation at all to the Kohmars. Kohlon felt the need for a punctuation mark to stop the reader after an introduc tory phrase preparatory to ex planation, example, definition, restatement or recapitulation. Hence the colon, as It is known today. In this highly literary family it was not surprising that Koh lon's son followed familiar in terest in punctuation. Ceemy Kohlon was his name and his great gift was a mark signify ing a more distinct separation than his double third cousin's dot with the descending curve. Today we call It the semi-colon. And here is the strangest thing of all about these Mace donians who added so much to written language: Pehrlad, Koh lon and Ceemy Kohlon all were born on the same day ? April 1. VIEWS By BOO 8 LOAN Random thoughts on events here and there. ? * ? The other day, while coming to town, I noticed two large trailer trucks parked on the sidewalk near the Farm and Home Supply Co. I am sure the town strained a point to build the sidewalk and I am also sure that the huge trailer trucks (placed quite a strain on the sidewalk there. My reaction at the time was that a law en forcement officer would surely come by and fine the truckers as much as the law would allow. It Is difficult enough for us to get sidewalks without having them destroyed by pure care lessness. ? * * Governor Hodges made an excellent address to the Jack son County Chamber of Com merce last Saturday night. His theme was the subject that seems to be the one dearest to his heart, as he has spoken many, many times throughout the state on the matter. In brief, he advocates that we In crease North Carolina's per capita Income by Increasing the Industrialization within the state. However, Governor Hodges would not have us be Indiscrim inate in our growth. I was pleased to hear him say he would rather have five small Industries than one large one. Another theme In the Gov ernor's talk that pleased me was the Idea that, In as much as possible, we should particu larly encourage Industrializa tion which would process the raw materials found In this state. He stressed the packag ing, processing, and marketing of farm products. To emphasize a point, he told of finding pea nuts, grown In North Carolina and shipped to Wisconsin to be packaged and processed, return ed to North Carolina to be sold. He described it as a disgrace. I have to agree! Any good army or marine infantry outfit would say, "We take care of our own." North Carolina would do well to adopt the same slogan, particu larly in regard to the process ing of raw materials. ? ? ? I wonder who should be blamed the most in regard to all the tripe that 1s appearing in the newspapers in regard to Grace Kelly's wedding ? the newspapers themselves or the reading public? Do You Remember? I Looking backward through the files of The Press) 50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK J. R. Morrison and the two young men quarantined with him on account of smallpox were re leased Tuesday of last week. The young men were vaccinated at the start and no new cases de veloped. Mrs. Emma Huskin and little son, Frank, of Andrews, came over last Wednesday to spend a few weeks with relatives here. There seems to be much activity among the mica men of this coun ty just now, and timber men are busy too. 25 YEARS AGO Mr. and Mrs. Sam Neely, of Atlanta, Ga., have leased Trimont Inn on Harrison Avenue from Dr. S. H. Lyle, and will operate it this summer as a resort and tour ist hotel. Mr. and Mrs. C. S. Sloan, of Port Worth, Tex., and small son, are in Franklin for a , visit of several weeks with Mr. Sloan's mother, Mrs. J. S. Sloan. Mrs. D. D. Rice and little son. Bailey, and Mrs. C. W. Hames, re turned from a visit with rela tives and friends in Atlanta last Friday. 10 YEARS AGO The Nantahala Forest led all the national forests in the entire southern region both in the amount of timber cut and in tim ber sales during the period, July 1, 1945, to March 31, 1946. Mrs. Knyon B. Zahner has re turned from Atlanta where she spent several days last week at tending the flower show. ? High lands item. Major and Mrs. Prank Carmack. who have been spending the win ter months in Tampa, Fla? have returned to Franklin for the sum mer and will open the Franklin Lodge and Golf Course about June 1st.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 19, 1956, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75