EDITORIAL
He'll Be Missed
The man with the handshake and warm greet
ing is gone.
The Rev. W. N. Cook, 79, died last week at his
Franklin home with 58 years in the ministry be
hind him.
A "pioneer churchman" in Western North Caro
lina, he was the first to do many things ? the first
missionary of the Tuckasiegee Baptist Association,
the first sponsor of a Baptist Training Union pro
gram in the area.
Though retired, it was an action in name only
for Mr. Cook always seemed to be where he was
needed, a sympathetic and understanding friend.
His life was one enriched by helping others.
The Rev. W. N. Cook will be missed in the com
munity.
Why Does It Cost So?
"Higher education is higher", reports The State
magazine.
Why is it so expensive to send a boy or girl to
college? and why does it cost so much more than
it did even fjive years ago?
A table showing what it costs to attend North
Carolina colleges, published in The State, reveals
an average increase since 1952 of 24 per cent. Thus,
if it cost $1,000 a year, in 1952, to keep a youngster
in college, it will cost $1,240 this year.
The figures shed little light on the reason for
the jump in college education costs, a jump con
siderably higher than the rise in the cost of living.
The figures make the situation, in fact, more
puzzling, because there is no pattern. The increases
vary from just 4 per cent at one institution to 38
at another.
It is possible, of course, that, at some of the
schools where the costs have gone up most, the
students are being given more ? more and better
laboratory, library, and other facilities and more
and better teachers.
Paradoxically, though, one of the biggest in
creases was at an institution ? Duke University ?
that not only has one of the biggest endowments
in the nation, but that, presumably, already was
well equipped and well staffed in 1952. The increase
in the cost of attending Duke is put at $400, or 37
per cent. Only one other school ? Queens, at Char
lotte ? had a bigger percentage jump ; at 'Queens,
the cost has gone up 38 per cent since 1952.
On the other hand, at Western Carolina College
at Cullowhee, which, the evidence would suggest,
has added vastly in the past five years to its facil
ities, and presumably to its staff, the increase has
been smaller. At W. C. C., the rise is 20 per cent ?
in cash, that represents a jump of only $113, as
against Duke's $400.
Whatever the reason, the rapid increase in the
cost of a college education tends to magnify an
already existing evil. As Dr. Roger P. McCutcheon
pointed out here recently, more and more students
from high income-families go to college, without
reference to their abilities ; and fewer and fewer
students from low income-families, no matter how
great their abilities, get to college.
How, then, is the Macon County boy or girl with
a keen and inquiring mind but little or no money to
get to college? A part of the answer, at least, lies
in the too-often overlooked scholarship aid that is
available. More and more scholarships are open to
bright students ; so many, in fact, that they aren't
all applied for.
Somebody here could do a great service to the
KNOW ANY ME WS:>
cause of education and youth by compiling com
plete information about scholarships and then
bringing this aid and the bright but needy student
together.
Bouquets
%
Catch !
Here're some belated bouquets to:
The Franklin Volunteer Fire Department, the
Franklin Chamber of Commerce, and Radio Sta
tion WFSC for their combined efforts in securing
Christmas lighting for the town.
Cowee Community for its fine showing in the
W. N. C. Rural Community Development Contest
just ended ; ample proof of the rural development
slogan, "There is no limit to what a community
can do ? if it wants to."
Gary McKelvey, on his being selected as Macon
County's nominee for a Morehead Scholarship at
UNC.
4
Letters
Couldn't Do Without It
Editor, The Press 1
Enclosed please find check to cover my Press subscription
for another year ...
I could not do without my home paper.
Cordially yours,
MRS. BURTON C. BOESSER.
402 Comanche Drive
Richmond 25, Va.
I Others' Opinions
(Opinion* expressed In this specs are not secessarlly those
I of The mm. Edltorlsls selected tor reprinting here. In Isct,
ere chosen with s elew to prrsentlng s variety of viewpoints.
They ere. thet is. Just what ths cspUon ssrs ? OTHKBJT
Opinions.)
Definition Of A Bore
(The Globe and Anchor)
A bore ? A man who opens his mouth and put* hi* faato in it.
Hay, Hay!
(Yuma, Colo., Pioneer)
A gentleman farmer is one who has more hay in the bank
than in the barn.
Too Much For Moses Model
(Frederick, Colo., Farmer & Miner)
This insane modern civilization is too much for the Moses
Model human body. Here we have an organism that was de
signed for Biblical times, yet we expect it to cifpe with arti
ficial lighting, executive board meetings, carbon monoxide,
cigar smoke and bubble gum.
What Makes America Great?
(W. Amos Abr&ms in North Carolina Education)
As do all visitors to the great city, I was taking the boat
tour around Manhattan Island. We were approaching a mas
sive edifice of steel known as a bridge. In one direction I saw
the Statue of Liberty whose torch has beckoned to this bless
ed land so many thousand homeless victims of oppression. A
later tfirn of the head and I saw, reaching upward toward
Ood, the United Nations Building, a symbol of hope for all
mankind ? where men talk away their differences rather than
annihilate each other with some Frankenstein monster laden
with hydrogen hate.
In my hand I held a copy of a morning paper which re
ported the record-breaking exploits of an atomic-powered sub
marine, thus enabling men to burrow, unseen and at great
speed, beneath the ocean waves. I felt and heard the throb
of the powerful motors which drove forward the surface
craft on which I stood. Across the span of steel above my
head, like animated toys in a Christmas display, rushed the
land-bound traffic, rolling, rolling on rubber-tired wheels. A
giant helicopter with twin sets of propellers passed above the
bridge, free from water and free from land. Then, came the
climax, streaking through the heavens, out racing sound
itself? a jet plane, glinting in the sunlight!
"Here Is the might of America," I thought, "Its a great five
level transportation system, bespeaking our ability to produce
world goods beyond that of all other nations." But I knew
I was in error. The greatness of America lies not in its sym
-bols of power? the throbbing motors, the bridge of steel, the
jet explosions. The greatness of America gleams In an up
lifted torch held in the raised hand of a stone lady on a little
island near a cluster of man-made skyscrapers. The great
ness of America is to be found in the halo of hope resting
above a structure of stone and steel where men of good-will
strive dally to strew with flowers the path of lasting peace!
Some Pointers On How To Make Friends With The Editor
Herman D. Lawson in Smithfield Herald
"Bo, You've Been Elected
Publicity Chairman!" is the title
of an Interesting and informa
tive booklet published by the
Occidental Life Insurance Com
pany of California. As the title
Implies, the booklet contains
helpful hints on how to get leg
itimate news published in a
newspaper and is sub-titled, "Or
How To Make Friends with the
Bdltor."
Newspapers want news. Edit
ors and reporters are constant
ly searching for news items
about people or happenings in
their circulation area and ap
preciate getting these items
from any one as they occur.
Much of the news that ap
pears in a local newspaper
comes from sources outside the
staff of the publication. The re
porter In many instances must
depend on someone else to tell
him the news.
There's a simple way to get
news published in a newspaper
?just send, call, telephone or
take it to the newspaper office.
Some pertinent tips on what
constitutes news, the import
ance of accuracy and prompt
ness, and things not to do are
included In the booklet for pub
licity chairmen.
One chapter, In the booklet
reads as roiiows:
"The ABC of wrl'ing a news
story Is to tell? who, why, what,
when, where and how. After you
have written your story, check
It against the five w's and the
h.
"The editor wants all the
facts and the necessary details,
Including the full names and
addresses of local persons in
volved and any Identifying titles
they may have.
"You naturally will want
every story you give the editor
to be as accurate and impartial
as though It had been prepared
by his own reporter.
"In fact, when you give, a
story to an editor, you In ef
fect become a member of his
reporting staff. He can rely on
you as a dependable and dis
criminating news source by
publishing the material you pre
pare, or he can fire you as a
reporter by tossing your mate
rial Into the wastebasket.
Don't misinform him or make
mistakes that may appear In
print and reflect adversely on
him and his newspaper ? mak
ing him feel his confidence In
you is misplaced . .
The Important thing to re
member: If you know of any
news, let him know immediate
ly.
Thinker
m
WHY VISIT MOON
When Great Smokies Are So Accessible?
Pie Dufour in New Orleans Statt ?
It is easy to understand, now
that Sputnik II is up or out
there, whichever it should be,
racing furiously around the
world with the first space trav
eler in history, why there should
be a lot of talk about landing
on the moon.
'WHOSO WOULD BE'
A Thought
(From yesterday's talk by the
editor on The Press' weekly 8:20
a.m. Wednesday program, "A
Thought Far Today", over Sta
tion WFSC).
Ralph Waldo Emerson said it:
"Whoso would be a man must
be a non-conformist."
Probably never in American
history has there been such
pressure for conformity. We are
under pressure to conform in
our style of dress; in our ac
ceptance of things that are
stupid, simply because others
accept them; in our manner of
speech; in our very thinking.
And if you think it's easy to
be a non-conformist in thought
today, Just try openly advocat
ing integration in some areas;
or, in an even larger area, try
defending segregation! The
crowd will tell you, in its atti
tude if not in words, that you
are a fool; that if that is your
view on this particular issue,
thtn your thinking on every
thing else Is cock-eyed.
If and when television and
radio and the newspapers and
magazines and even our schools
Today
oubv.ccu ui iim&uig us an wii
formlsts, what will we be? Well
be robots; responding, like the
jack-in-the-box, to the stimulus
of the pulled string.
Such a creature doesn't even
resemble a manl And that Is
why Mr. Emerson put In the
word "must". Whoso would be
a man MUST be a non-con
formist."
That doesn't mean, of course,
refusing to conform Just to be
different; It doesn't even mean
refusing to conform In the
things that don't matter. It
does mean Insisting on doing
our own honest thinking, on
choosing our own Ideals, and
on following our own Individual
course, In the things that do
matter.
It was this non-conformity
that made America great.
And It seems to me, on this
matter of being our own best
selves, that we, right here In
this mountain country, may be
able to make a great contribu
tion to our country. For prob
ably we have gone less far
down the road toward confor
mity than Americans generally,
and so we can more easily keep
burning the flame of non-oon
formlty ? keep alive the truth
that "whoso would be a man
must be a non-conformist".
But why anybody In his right _
mind would want to go to the
moon when the Great Smokies
are still In business I'll never
fathom.
The Great Smokies are green
er and softer and more lovely
and lovable (for my money)
than any old mountains on the
moon or Mars or anywhere
else, planetary, inter-planetary
or earthly.
That a lot of other folks
agree with this, I submit as evi
dence a travel study of the
Great Smoky Mountains Nation
Park made jointly by the high
way departments of North Car
olina and Tennessee and the
United States bureau of public
roads.
During the summer of 1958 ?
the survey was made oh a 12
month basis but with special
sample interviews added during
the peak months of June, July
and August ? a total of 621,400
automobiles entered the Great
Smoky Mountains National
Park. Data was obtained from
the parties in 29,928 cars or
nearly 5 per cent of the total.
All the information was code
punched on cards. Then months
of study developed many inter
esting facts about the travelers
to those magnificent mountains
that straddle Eastern Tennes
see and Western North Caro
lina.
Cars from every state in the
Union ? true there were only
four vehicles from Nevada noted
? and many foreign countries
visited the Smokies during the
period under stud?. But the
greater bulk of travel came
from within a radius of 500
miles of the national park. To
SEE NO. 1, PAGE 3
The Camera Has
Become Badge
Of Traveler
<W. E. H. In Sanford Herald)
The badge of the traveler Is
a camera carried in the hand
slung around his shoulder. North,
south, east and west, in these
waning days of summer 1957,
cameras are abroad In the land,
gladdening the hearts of those
who snap pictures and making
the cash registers of supply
houses and manufacturers Jingle.
From an old style Brownie No.
2 to the newest fangled Leicas
with built-in light meters and
automatic stop settings, the
travelers roam the land. Movie
cameras there are galore, both
eight and 16 millimeter. Films
are shot with reckless abandon,
both still and movie, in full color
and black-and-white.
The traveler with a camera in
his hand or on his shoulders is
hard put to it . these days when
everybody has one to keep out of
the line of vision of another
traveler snapping a picture. Wit
ness the tremendous number of
pictures brought back home with
some unknown guy ducking his
head or easing himself hurriedly
sidewise from your shot.
Photography and taking pictures
is like unto a creeping disease;
gradually it takes hold of you and
before you know it, you're lnnocu
lated and using up film like mad;
photographers' fever is worse and
far more expensive than buck
fever.
Cameras, cameras, folks taking
pictures everywhere. In countless
homes all over the country your
mug shows up as part of the set
ting In vacation-taken pictures; v
better look your best all the time
because you never know when
you're in someone else's picture./
DO YOU REMEMBER?
Locking Backward Through the Files *f The Praaa
65 TEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(1892)
Messrs. F. P. Davis and 8. J. Justice, of Hendersonvllle, were
at the Franklin House Monday night and yesterday. Mr. Davis
was formerly editor of the Macon Advance, published In
Franklin a few years ago.
Will Sloan and Lee Crawford left yesterday for Athens, Ga.,
loaded with apples and produce.
Capt. W. P. Moore and his daughter, Miss Jennie, of Clay,
came over on a visit Thursday and spent two or three days.
25 YEARS AGO
<1932)
Credit slips good for staple articles of food and clothing
will be used In the future, instead of money, to pay persons
employed on public projects undertaken with unemployment
relief funds.
Macon County Confederate veterans and widows of Con
federate veterans received $5,390 In semi-annual pension
checks from the state, on December 14.
10 YEARS AGO
Macon County voters will decide, at an election February
14, whether the sale of beer and wine shall continue legal, or
be outlawed, In this county.
The Franklin Lions club plans to set up a dime board on
courthouse square today.
Eighty more veterans of World War 2 have been enrolled
for on-the-job farm training, it was announced this week by
E. J. Whltmire, who directs the program In this county. This
brings to 180 the total number taking the training.