North Carolina Newspapers

?ltr firnttklin tyxt ss nnb ?tu* Highlands (JRarmtinu Second class mall privileges authorized at Franklin. N. C Puollshed every Thursday by The Pranklln Press Telephone i4 Established in J 886 (is The Franklin Press Member: N. C. Press Association, National Editorial Association. Caro/tnas Press Photographers Association. Charter member, National Conference of Weekly Newspaper Editors. BOB S. SLOAN Publisher and Advertising Manager J. P. BRADY News Editor WEIMAR JONES Editor MRS ROBERT BRYSON Office Manager MRS BOB SLOAN Society Editor CARL P CABE Operator-Machinist PRANK A. STARR ETTE Compositor CHARLES E. WH ITT I NO TON Pressman O E CRAWFORD Stereotyper DAVID H SUTTON Commercial Printer SUBSCRIPTION RATES Outbids Macon Couhtt One Year $3.00 8U Months 1.75 Three Months . 1.00 Two fe?r? Three Yean 5.25 7.50 I n. sice Macon County One Year $2 50 Six Months 1.79 Three Months ... 1.00 Two Years Three Yearn 4.25 6.00 THURSDAY JUNE 5. 1958 Election Postscripts Some congratulations are in order. First of all, of course, to the winning candidates. It is an honor to be given the confidence of the public. Along with the honor, of course, goes a correspondingly heavy responsibility. Second, to Macon County voters, for turning out in such numbers. More than 3,000 votes were cast in the Demo cratic primary. This compares with approximately. 1,500 two years ago, and with some 2,700 in the 1954 election, the last time most of the county of fices were to be filled. In addition to the Democratic votes, more than 1,100 Republicans cast ballots in the primary elec tion that party held this year. Thus, there were well over 4,000 votes cast in primary elections in a county of less than 17,000 population. While it is each party's business how it conducts its own affairs, it has always seemed to us that the democratic way to nominate, as well as elect, pub lic officials is at the ballot box. We, therefore, commend the Republicans for having a primary election ? something rare here in the past. LOSERS HELPED A word of appreciation is due ? and it has been the custom of this newspaper to say such a word after each election? the defeated candidates. They performed an important function in making democ racy work; for they gave the voters an opportun ity for choice. Even in Russia, they have elections. The differ ence is that here the voters may choose between candidates. If the time ever comes that we have only one candidate per office, our elections will be little better than those of the Communists. NEW VOTING BOOTHS Every election is important. It should be carried on with the dignity that befits its importance. And most voters in Franklin township, we are sure, will join in a word of praise to the county board of elections for the new voting booths. They are not elaborate? there is no reason why they should be; but they are in welcome contrast to the ramshackle, tattered makeshifts that had served before. ANOTHER PRECINCT? The division of the Franklin township precinct into four new precincts seemed to prove wise, too. It looks, though, as though Franklin proper needs to be split again. Such an out-size proportion of the total vote was cast here that, even this year, the vote-counters had to work until 1 a. m. Creation of still one more precinct, by the division of the new Franklin one into two, seems called for. SIGNIFICANT What the various results mean is anybody's guess. We'll comment here on only one, the Con gressional contest. It's significant, it seems to us, when a complete novice in politics, with the triple handicap of being foreign-born, a Jew, and speaking Fnglish with an accent ? it's significant when such a man can pile up 18,000 votes, nearly 40, per cent of the total cast. It may mean a number of things. One thing it almost certainly means is that there is growing and widespread dissatisfaction with the timid, "safe", narrowly provincial Democratic leadership that has dominated this Congressional district for decades. ^ Nobody At Home? When a stranger comes to a place where the yard is grown up and the door.s hang on one hinge, at an angle, he takes it for granted nobody Lvts there. When a stranger comes to Franklin from the south or west, the first thing he sees at the top of the hill (where Harrison Avenue intersects with ' West Main Street) is a traffic sign, standing, at a 45-d<gree angl e. f And it's been like that for months. "Don't Fret, Chile! Pappy Won't Let 'Em Take Y' Alive" I pkhkegajW I ORDER Need More, Not Less The annual Hillbilly Day celebration in High lands has been popular with home folk and visitors alike. To the latter, especially, it came as a welcome and pleasantly different bit of diversion; that was proved by the whole-hearted way they participated. We would regret, therefore, to see it discontin ued. We have no doubt the Highlands town board had good and sufficient reasons for its decision to drop .sponsorship of this particular celebration. But the thing tourists most frequently find to criticize about this region is the lack of entertainment. We need more of it, not , less. And so we trust the Highlands board did not act in this matter with out having something else in mind, new sponsor ship for this event, or a substitute that will prove even better. Could Be (Coast Guard Magazine) High heels were invented by a girl who once was kissed on the forehead. Taxpayer's Plaint (Libertyville, N. J., Beacon) There's a tax when I phone, and a tax when I wire, there's a tax on my heat, and my fireplace fire. There's a tax on my lights, and a tax on my books, and if I would fish, there's a tax on my hooks. There's a tax on my hat, and a tax on each shoe, there's a tax on my shirt, and on other things too. There's a tax on the oil I rub on my hair, and a tax on the toothpaste I use Strictly Personal By WfclMAK JONES (NOTE: I Hi riii it the primary campaign, it would have been taking: an unfair advantage for the editor to use this page to promote his own can didacy, even indirectly. That was kept scrupulously in mind. But now that the elec tion is over, there seems mo impropriety in relating here some experiences and some strictly personal reactions of a defeated candidate.) It could have been worse. That three-cornered contest for the Democratic nomination for representative could have been four-cornered or five-corn ered or six-cornered; and thus I could have been not third in the race,- but fourth or fifth or sixth. Which reminds me of a blessing an old man I used to know said once. At mealtime, he insisted that every member of his big family be present, promptly on time; and nobody sat down until the old man had said the blessing. Usually, he thanked the Lord in detail and at length. One day, though, as he stood behind his chair, be scanned the dinner table. All he saw was dried beans and cornbread, with water to drink. Hopefully, he looked at his wife for some sign that there was more In the kitchen; but there was no reassurance in her eyes. And so this was that day's appro priate but abbreviated grace: '?O Lord, we thank thee ? even for this." That, of course, doesn't really represent my feeling; for I am with such care. I am taxed if I gargle, and if I get ill, I'm taxed if I swallow a capsule or pill. I'm taxed when I plan, and taxed when I talk, and a tax on my sex makes me taxed when I walk. They tax all the money I earn, beg or win, then tax me aplenty for blowing it in. ? Letters 'Long Letter From Home' Editor, The Press: I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the nice write-up that you gave me in the May 22 Press. I am very proud of my home county and town. And when I speak of home, I mean Macon County and Franklin. I look forward each week to receiving my copy of The Press. It is like getting a long letter from home. FRANK W. NOLEN Gastonia, N. C. Likes 8- Column Paper Dear Mr. Sloan: It gives me much pleasure to congratulate you and the other members of The Press force upon the first publication of an eight-column (full-size) newspaper in Macon County. The good citizens of Franklin and Macon County may well feel proud of our up-to-the-minute pictured and snappy news paper. Your fine contribution toward progress in this section can hardly be measured in words. WALTER A. STEELE Franklin. / (EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Steele's words are doubly wel come, as coming: from a life-long printer and a former member of The "Press staff. In the interest of complete accuracy, however, it should be pointed out that this is not the first time an eight-column newspaper has been published here. More than half a century ago, The Press was eight columns. Later, it become five, then six, then seven, aind now it's back to eight columns.) SOMETHING 10 CUP Nature Has Come Up With Remarkable Sights In W. N. C. John Parris In Asheville Citizen-limes (EDITOR'S NOTE: Here's something worth clipping for reference. It contains good trip suggestions to pass on to tourists or to use yourself when relatives or friends come this summer for visits.) To roam the mountains is to see what the world was like when it suffered the travail and spasms of its youth. This Is particularly so in the Balsam and Blue Ridge moun tains of Jackson County. Here nature's handiwork through lncalcuable time stands strange and awesome In its mysterious beauty. Some of it is rare, and none of it is common. Here nature has built rock bridges and dammed lakes. She has moulded gigantic fig ures in stone. Eons before Nubian slaves built tombs for the Pharaohs, she sheared a mountain in half to make an 1800-foot high granite wall. She gouged deep Into the earth to release smoke from a smouldering fire. She divided the waters of a single spring between the At lantic Ocean and the Oulf of Mexico. 8he channeled a river along a mountain crest and then sent it cascading 411 feet to form the highest waterfall In East ern America and the seventh highest In the country. She wrapped another water fall in a rainbow that Is almost ever visible. Her first tool was a prehis toric ocean and when its waters receded she, used glaciers to cut grooves In the earth's crust. For instruments of polishing, she has relied on the icy wa ters of mountain streams, the wind and the rain and snow, and sometimes sleet and hail and lightning. The best map for locating and identifying them is the Western North Carolina-Great Smokies-Blue Ridge Vacation Map. This is made easy both through the use of names and symbols. Once you have the map, lo cate N. C. Highway 107, then the crossroad village of Tucka segee. Turn north at, Tuckasegee on Highway 281 and proceed six miles to Anvil Tongue, a great rock hanging over the Canada prong of the Tuckasegee River. Ahead two-tenths of a mile turn right on a dirt road to Natural Rock Bridge spanning the prong, and Wolf Creek Falls. Right from Tuckasegee on a logging road for three-and-a half miles Is the Smoke Hole where passersby often warm their hands In the vapor when the temperature is low. The Cherokee Indians used to say the smoke came from the townhouse of the Nunnehl, im mortals who dwell beneath the mountains and the rivers. South of Tuckasegee, N. C. 107 passes through- and up a winding gorge where the moun tains overhang the river, houses perch precariously on the hill sides, and waterfalls ? such as Grassy Creek Falls ? spring from the mountain toward the high way. i Once out of the gorge, the traveler is in the land of lakes. The first is Lake Thorpe. Beyond Lake Thorpe is the crest of the Blue Ridge. And there beside the road, right on top, is a gurgling mountain spring that divides itself. Cashiers is the intersection of NC 107 and US 64. Here you can follow NC 107 for two miles, just beyond the entrance to High Hampton, and turn right down Into Whiteside cove. Down in the cove is the com munity of Grimshawes whose claim to fame is that here once was the smallest post office in the United States. To the right drops the mas sive cliffs of Whiteside Moun tain. it is the highest in the east and has one sheer drop of 1800 feet. Bv turning right at Cashiers on US 64 and heading toward Highlands, the traveler comes to a toll road leading to the summit of Whiteside. From the parking area just below the summit a trail ex tends half a mile to Devil's Courthouse, a jutting rock for mation on the east side of the mountain. Also on Whiteside is a spring that divides its flow of water between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. There's a boulder on the mountain with mysterious Span ish writings that mav have been the work of one of De Soto's Dons when they came through the area back In 1540. The most impressive water falls in Eastern America are In the region. The grandpappy of these falls is beautiful Whitewater Falls, which has two levels. The up per falls cascade 411 feet. Whitewater Is reached by a a good gravel road by turning off US 64 near Oakland, be tween Cashiers and Lake Toxa way. A 10-mile road from US 64 to Whitewater passes four other falls ? Horse Pasture, John's Jump. Thompson's, and Rain bow. Rainbow is 200 feet high. There are several rock for mations in the county resem bling figures. Of these, the most impressive is four miles east of Sylva on US 19-A. It resembles an Indian lying on his back along the crest of the Plott Balsams and is north of the highway. There are some who say it is Judaculla, the Paul Bunyan of the Cherokee. Judaculla was the mythical god of the Cherokee Indians and his home was in the Caney Fork Balsams, three miles left from East LaPorte. There above East LaPorte on the Milas Parker farm is Juda culla Rock, whose soft sand stone is covered with mysteri ous tracings which never havq been Interpreted. Cherokee legend relates that the marks were made by Juda culla, the mythical giant, in leaping from his home on the mountain top to the creek be low. And east of Cherokee on U8 19, Just as the road begins the climb up Soco, there on the right ? hanging like a grim prophecy above the highway? Is the perfect nature-carved head of an Indian. Yes, nature has carved away at the terrain of Western North Carolina and left many oddities as well as magnificent attrac tions. *r And to roam the mountains is to see what the world was like when it suffered the travail and spasms of Its youth. genuinely and deeply gratful to many people. Not once did I ask anybody to vote for me. But some 800 did ? without being asked. Nor did I ask anybody to work (or me. But I suspect a number of people did that, too, though I don't even know who they were. Such an expression of confi dence is cause for gratitude, under any circumstances; I am doubly grateful because it came unsolicited. ? ? ? Looking back, I have no re grets. If it were to do over again, I'd do what I did and do it the way I did? make my self available, tell the people ex actly where I stood, offer to answer questions; then leave the decision to the voters. I did that ? and that fulfilled my re sponsibility. I thought I could do a credit able job as this county's rep resentative. (I still think I could have.) But most of the Democratic voters thought the other two candidates were bet ter qualified. The decision as to that was their responsibility. I accept the verdict cheerfully. I am glad I became a candi date, and not just because I have done what I conceived to be a citizen's duty; I am glad, too, because of the experiences it brought me, some of them' revealing, some amusing, some heart-warming. * ? ? One revealing incident: I had always felt ? and; maybe naive ly, thought others felt ? that the vote was something sacred, to be cast almost prayerfully, for the best man; not something to be given as a personal favor. Well, everybody, it seems, doesn't feel that way. One man, in fact, volunteered this infor mation: "I wanted to vote for you. But you didn't ask me. So I voted for one of the others, who did ask me. Why, he even came and spent the night with me." ? ? ? Then there was that experi ence this babe In the political woods had with the old lady. Approaching me on the street, during the period of registra tion, she explained she had no way to get to her polling place, in a far-distant part of the county, to register. Did I know anybody who'd take her? I'm far from enthusiastic about the practice of hauling people to the polls. But I said to myself: "You believe in everybody's registering and vot ing: and you preach good neighborllness. your candidacy has nothing to do with it. It's your job, as a citizen and as a good neighbor, to take her." So I did. When she was registered, I offered to take her home. It was "just a little piece", she said. She directed me where to leave the highway, and then I followed her directions, over one country road after another, for miles and miles. When at last we arrived, she thanked me; then, still holding the car door, she turned to ask: "Mr. Jones, havent you a dol lar you can lend me?" I didnt have. And, coming back home, my gas tank empty and my afternoon gone, I thought wryly: "She'll not only vote against me; she'll never even like me." ? ?' ? And there was a wild ride ? two wild rides, in tact ? over in the Nantahala section. I want ed to see a man we'll call Bill Smith. I was told how to get to his house. It was the worst road I've ever been on; it went up at what seemed a 45-degree angel, there was one hair-pin curve after another, and it was so narrow you couldn't have passed a boy on a tricycle. I went on only because I had to ? there was no place to turn un til I came to the end of the road, at Bill Smith's house. I was repaid by the cordial greeting that you always get over Nantahala way; nonethe less, I solemnly promised my self, If I ever got back down the mountain alive, I'd never be caught on that road again. Finding your way on unfami liar roads is difficult at best; when you're so near-sighted you can't read the signs or rec ognize landmarks at a distance, It's really tough. Somehow I got hopelessly confused, and the next thing I knew I was on a road that seemed as bad as the first one; and once again, there was no place to turn around. So I drove oh, almost straight up, and around one sharp curve after another, till I came to the end of that road ? and found myself right back at Bill Smith's house! * ? ? And there have been happy experiences I never could have had without this first venture into politics. There was the remark, re peated to me, made by a man I greatly respect, shortly after I made my announcement. In that announcement, I said there had been no great public pressure to get me to run; that nobody had begged me to run; that the decision was my own. Said this man; "That's right. There wasn't any great hue and cry for Weimar to run. That's the most honest political statement r ever read." Who could pay any of us a higher compliment than to call us honest! There were the scores of peo ple, some of whom I didn't even know by name, who approach ed me to congratulate me on announcing, and to wish me well. And there were the letters. Dozens of letters, from all over North Carolina, and some from outside the state. Letters con gratulating me for becoming a candidate, expressing the writ ers' wish they could vote for me, and generously saying I could be useful in Raleigh. One of those letters came from the president of a North Carolina college; one from the chairman of an important state board; one from a former member of Congress, mailed from Europe; and many others I felt honored to receive. Appreciated most, though, were the ones that came from plain people, in vari ous parts of the state? some of them people I'd never even met. Then, last Saturday morning, came a telegraphic message of good wishes from South Caro lina. ? * ? And Sunday morning brought the nicest touch of all, when a voice on the telephone said; "We're so glad you aren't going to be 'way off down in Raleigh next winter. We'd miss you. Be sides, we need you here." To try to pretend it's pleas ant to lose would be both fool ish and dishonest. But nearly every situation has its compen sations. And things like those are beyond price. ? ? ? There may be another com pensation, too. Of all the blessings I value, I place first the right to do my own thinking and to speak plainly. Well, speaking plainly is frowned on In politics; it isnt supposed to pay. In the long run, i think it probably does pay. But I can see how, in politics, there might be a tesmp tation to soft-pedal unpleasant things. Well, the voters last Sat urday relieved me of that pos sible temptation. And it may be that, subcon sciously, they were shrewd enough to know I could be of more value to Macon County doing the plain speaking every community needs than as a public official. In any case, I am sure of the truth of what I said, in a radio broadcast on election eve: . . when the great major ity of the people go to the polls and seriously and honestly vote for what they are convinced is best, the outcome usually Is both wise and right." DO YOU REMEMBER? Looking Backward Through the Files of The Prcas 65 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1893) The mall from Clayton failed to arrive yesterday, we sup pose on account of the rain and high waters. Mr. John Hester brought a side of home raised bacon to town Friday and sold it for $14.10. It weighed 94 pounds. Mrs. N. P. Rankin and daughter,. Miss Lily, left Monday morning for a month's visit to relatives in Guilford Qounty. 25 YEARS AGO (1933) More than 100 Rotarians from 48 North Carolina and South Carolina clubs in the 58th Rotary district are expected to come to Franklin for the annual district assembly In July. Forty-three relatives and close friends of "Uncle Bragg" Hlgdon enjoyed a sumptuous dinner given by his daughters in-law, Mrs. Leslie and Mrs. John Hlgdon, In celebration of his 78th birthday Sunday. < 10 YEARS AGO ' Mrs. Slier Slagle, who, before her recent marriage, was Miss Nina Rae Waldroop, was honored with a tea and miscellan eous shower last Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. Louis Phillips and Mrs. Erwin Patton were the hostesses, and the party was given at the Patton home on West Main Street. A seven-acre white pine forest was dedicated to the mem ory of Cpl. C. L. Potts, only member of the Nantahala Nation al Forest organization to give his life for his country In World War 2, In a ceremony at Cllffslde on Memorial Day.