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and Uthr Highlands fftarmuan W ELM. in JU.VES Editorial Page Editor THURSDAY. APRIL 16, 1959 ISSUES, TOO The Town Election Through the years, Franklin usually has been fortunate in the character and ability of its mayors and aldermen. That is true of the present officials; and nothing that follows is intended as a reflec tion on them or on any other candidates in the May 5 town election. Past experience suggests that, whoever is elected, we probably will have good men in office. But does Franklin's growth present issues that go beyond the question of personal character and ability? We think it does. And we suggest these issues, among others, on which we believe the peo ple have a right to know where the candidates stand : 1. The issue of a clean town. That is a matter on which town authorities should lead, not lag. Parents do not expect children to set the example; it goes the, other way 'round. Nor is poverty any excuse for being dirty. It's easier to take a bath in a tub, with running water, but it can be done with, a bowl of water and a cloth. Franklin can be .kept .spotless. 2. The issue of water. There really are two phrases of that issue, it seems to us: (a) The quality of the present water supply. There are housewives in Franklin who have to scrub lavatories and toilet howls every single day, to keep the "red water" stain from .settling into the porcelain. There are women who dare not wash their clothes because of that same stain. There are people who have to go to a dentist frequently, solely to have the iron stain cleaned from their teeth. All that doesn't make sense. F.specially it doesn't, invan area that could- have the best water anywhere. Here's what a recent analysis of a .sample of the town's water, made by the State Laboratory of Hygiene, .showed: . Sediment ? heavy. Should be none. Color ? very high. Should be none. Turbidity ? slight. Should be none. A3talinity ? excessive. (That means hard water). Iron ? high. Iron bacteria ? not found. There's a solution for this problem. We think it can be found. We'd like to sec candidates for the town board pledged to find it. (b) There should be some long-range -planning, for an abundant supply of water, of the highest quality. It is true, the next town board probably could not carry out such a plan. It is true, too, that it's planning would not legally bind the following board. Hut if a plan were made, a ltd approved by the voters in a referendum, future hoards would be morally bound. 3. Streets. We haven't enough streets, and most of those we have- were narrow even in the ox cart age. (Franklin folks will realize how nar row, if they'll take a look at the streets in .our sister town of Highlands.) kvery year we wait, it will cost more to cut new streets and to widen the ones we have. Both arc going to have to be done. Again, it's time for some town-wide, long range planning. 4. We believe Franklin is big enough to war rant a city manager. We arc Mire a good city man ager would more than earn his salary in increased efficiency. We suspect' he .'could' save enough that his salary would cost the taxpayers little or noth ing. The town now has an annual 'budget of ap proximately $1 50,000. That's too much money to l>e spent by part-time 'management? and, obvious ly, the mayor and aldermen cannot be expected to devote full time to their official duties. Town Clerk Charles ( ). Kanlsey, though lacking a city manager's authority, and though confined to his town hall office, in recent years has shown how much can be accomplished along this line. Those are issues, it seems to us, that need de bating; issues on which candidates for town office should tell the voters their position. Get ALL The Facts ' i , A proposed investigation by the National' Labor Relations Hoard of the labor ^.situation here should be welcomed. It should, that is, if it is to be a thoroughgoing investigation, to bring out all the facts on both sides. It should not stop, it seems to us. at de termining . whether or not the Franklin Hosiery Company violated the labor laws. It also should /fjy . CM'O+Z* SL~- r*~*T -Jf .? ? "HELP/* determine whether a labor organizer was beaten, or whether, in broadcasting the story of the alleged heating, he libeled a whole community. The rights of the public, that is, are even more important than thpse of either labor or manage ment. An Oath And A Vote When members of the Xorth Carolina General Assembly take office, they swear to support the state Constitution. Why is that necessary? It is because the Con stitution is a sort of compact between the people of the .state and those who govern them. The Con stitution outlines what those in power may do, and when and how; it sets forth what they may not do; and it says what they must do. All this is for the protection of the people. One of the things it says the General Assembly must do is to re-draw state .senatorial district lines and to reapportion the 120 house seats, after each 10-ycar federal census, to conform with population changes. It does not say the General Assembly may do this, or should do it ; it says it "shall". Every member of this General Assembly must haVe known about that provision in the Constitu tion when he sought office; because it has been discussed, repeatedly, over a period of years, in the state's newspapers, including this one. Yet, in four successive Assemblies, the legisla tors have ignored this plain mandate of the Con stitution they have sworn to support? in 1951, in 1953, in 195.^ and in 1957. In the past, bills to carry out this command have been killed in committee. This year, though, a bill to reapportion the House was given a favor able committee report, so that house members had a chance to vote to do what they were stf^rn to do. When that opportunity came, they defeated the measure, 61 to 50. Among those who voted against reapportion ment was Macon's representative, Mr. J. M. Raby. 1 fere's a "reform" we don't expect anything to be done about. We probably wouldn't do anything about it, if we were on the town board. We think, though, it has merit: Why shouldn't the Town of Franklin give uptown merchants a percentage of the money it collects from its .parking meters? That's the only way we can figure the merchants will ever get paid for all the time they spend mak ing change for the motorists who haven't any pen nies or nickels! LETTERS In Appreciation Friend Weimar: Through your fine newspaper I have followed with much interest the plans for a Youth Center there, and since Mrs. Slagle and I both hold many fond memories of a wonderful few days' visit with friends there in the summer of 1957, it is with genuine pleasure ? considered a privilege? that this small check is sent to help along with the project, as a very small token of our appreciation of the many courtesies and pleasures experienced while there. It had been our hope to make a return visit before now, but work schedules seem to have a peculiar way of some times interfering with hopes. Bosslbly It may be different the coming summer. Please accept this with our every wish for complete success of this very Important project real soon, and we look forward to seeing you and other friends in that vicinity before too long. Kindest personal regards, and all good wishes. BEN SLAGLE. Lubbock, Texas. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Slagle, editor of Southwestern Crop and Stock, Inclosed a check for $10.) First Impressions (Arapahoe, Colo. Herald) First Impressions stay with us. Each day we and our town are making first Impressions on some new acquaintances. What an overwhelming thought! N. C. One Of Four (Eaton, Colo., Herald) Forty-five of the 49 states now Impose special tax on ciga retttes. California, Colorado, North Carolina and Oregon are. the exceptions. Rates run from two to eight cents a pack. DO YOU REMEMBER? Looking Backward Through the Flies of The Press 65 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1894) The store building was brought up from Geo. A. Jones' place at the foot of the hill, Saturday, and placed in position along side of Wright's store. The following jurors have been drawn to serve at the Spring term of the Superior Court: C. W. Thomas, I. C. Wishon, H. M. Rogers, B. N. Allen, John Hester, T. A. Downs, T. S. Potts, J. C. Shope, E. Z. Downs, M. E. Welch, Thos. Cabe, J. M. Wild, S. A. Bell, J. L. West, M. N. Long, W. P. Deal, Wm. Howard, Wm. Queen, J. A. Pendergrass, j. B. Addlngton, J. A. Patterson, R. H. McPherson, R. V. Wil liams, J. S. Campbell, David Sweatman, J. L. Tallent, L. M. Bradley, W. B. McGuire, H. N. Justice, C. B. Edwards, S. T. Ramsey, W. H. Hasket, J. E. Wooten, J. C. Howard, David Howard, N F. Howard. 35 YEARS AGO (1924) It is reported that the farmers of the Scaly section are planning to plant 100 acres to cabbage. The County Summer School Will begin in the courthouse May 21. All teachers and prospective teachers holding certifi cates below the elementary should plan to attend. Rev. George Cloer filled his regular appointment at lotla , Baptist Church ? Item from lotla Bridge. 15 YEARS AGO (1944) Mrs. J. E. Perry has received word that her son, 1st Lt. Alfred Wlnton Perry, has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Miss Dorothy Sloan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sloan, recently gave her graduating voice recital at Woman's College. 5 YEARS AGO (1954) The grand jury this week recommended the modernization of the county courthouse. ' STRICTLY PERSONA] By WEXM/ Ever notice how. when some people start talking, everybody gathers around to listen? and how, with others, people can't get away fast enough? I've often asked myself: What makes the difference? Part of It, I am sure, Is person ality. The person with a pleasant personality attracts people; and. sometimes, even the one with a domineering personality ? even though you or I may be able to see right through him ? holds attention. Part of it, of course, is having something to say. And part of It is facility with words. Usually, though, I've observed, the thing that makes the greatest difference is whether f,he one talking is self-centered o t is in terested in others. (There's even a difference in the way a person tells a funny story ? whether he tells it because he wants to be the center of attention and because it amuses him to tell it, or whether he tells it because he thinks it will amuse others.) Do a bit of observing for your self, and see if this matter of self centeredness vs. Interest In others doesn't spell the difference be tween a good and a poor conver sationist. Take the fellow who always wants to tell you what he has done, about how smart his children are, about how much trouble he has had, about ? and may the 6aints preserve us from this! ? about his operation. And he not only is determined that you shall know every detail ? he never, will give you a chance to put in a single word about what you have L LR JONES done or about your children or about your troubles, or. under no circumstances, about your opera tion. You don't even have to ob serve to know he's no good at conversation; all you have to do is remember how often you've crossed the street, or dodged around the corner, to keep from meeting him. On the other hand, what kind of person do you and I enjoy talking with? It's the fellow who's interested in something besides himself ? the fellow who is enough Interested in us to ask. with real interest, about us, and to be sympathetic in our troubles and pleased when good fortune comes our way; and, better still, the fellow whose interests go be yond the trivial things he and his neighbors did or said , yesterday, or the gossip of the community: the fellow who informs himself about ideas and developments, anfl gives some thought to what they mean, so that, when he opens his mouth, he has something t? say. Even here, though, that matter of self-centeredness enters in. For who wants to talk to the best in formed man in the world, the one with the best brain, if he knows all the answers, and so is inter ested in nothing but what he him self has to say? The really good conversationist, in fact, is first of all a go?< listener. And that suggests an interesting paradox. In the realm of conver sation. and of ideas, the Biblical rule applies in reverse. In that realm, it is more blessed to re ceive than to give. ABOUT BIBLE SOCIETY 'Soldiers Of The Word' Book Review SOLDIERS OF THE WORD ? By John M. Gibson. (Philosophical Library, Inc., New York. 304 pp. $3.75.) This is the story of the 143-year old American Bible Society, of its almost fantastic success in making the Bible available to people, of whatever tongue, the ?world over, and of the moving inprepidity of its representatives, who faced hardship, danger, and even death in their determination to take the Scriptures to all people, everywhere. Many of today's' younger people probably never have heard of the American Bible Society, but it has a special place in the af fections of many older persons, who have contributed to it regular ly for decades. There is a reason for the difference ? difference in conditions. While many people today know almost nothing about what is inside the covers of this Book, in most places the Bible HERE'S TIP TO LEGISLATORS Here's a law the General As sembly ought to revive, amend and strengthen. It was passed by Parliament in 1770 and thus ap plied to North Carolina, as an English colony: "That all women of whatever age, rank, profession, , or degree, who shall, after this act. Impose upon, or seduce and betray into matrimony any of His Majesty's male subjects, by virtue of scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, bolstered hips, or high heeled shoes, shall incur the pen alty of the law now in force against witchcraft and like mis demeanors; and the marriage un der such circumstances shall be null and void." ? The State Maga zine. ? K'XEE-JKRk' LIBERALS' They Seem Out To Kill Off Any Democrat Who Might Be Elected (EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. White, whose father was the famed William Allen White. Li a veteran Washington corre spondent. He also is author of the book. "The Citadel", con sidered one of the best ever written on the (J. S. Senate. This column is reprinted from The Charlotte Observer.) By WILLIAM S. WHITE WASHINGTON? The most un secret of all Republican weapons is never found in any Republican arsenal. This top weapon Is a strictly Democratic knife, the knife of discord which some of the Democrats are unable to re frain from sticking into other Democrats before each Presi dential election. True, the Republicans are not always above family fighting. But they seldom start Intr'aparty war without some rational purpose. And in any case they never in flict among themselves wounds impossible to poultice over before election day. Such self-restraint is not for the Democrats. Their automatic trouble-makers used to be the Southern ultra-conservatives. These old boys went to every con vention happily doinc their best to shoot down with their squirrel rifles any Democratic nominee who could conceivably carry all of the United States. This breed has largely gone. Now. Democratic difficulties come from the ultra-liberals. These mainly1 are allies of a small, grim ly articulate, high-minded, self riRhteous and profoundly Inept group called Americans for Dem ocratic Action. Most ADA people are knee-jerk liberals: they react automatically to certain slogans. To ADA. only ADA is competent to decide who is adequately "liberal." The definition, more over. is reached by incantations which the working Democratic politicians, who are merely pro fessionals, have difficulty in fol lowing. ? Thus, ADA codc processes some times exclude politicians whom the unexcited onlooker might have thought to be pretty liberal, on such humdrum tests as their pub lic records. ADA, with the best possible in tentions and the least possible sense of humor, is now primly at work to set the Democratic party straight (or 1960. And to the pros, it is a case of run for your lives, boys, the dam has bust. For an immediate result of ADA'S earnest efforts is to do a job on the three ablest ? and probably the three most responsi ble ? 1960 Democratic Presl? dential possibilities. Among the amused and gratified spectators is the Republican National Com mittee. Item: Three ultra-liberal and highly decent Democrats, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, former Senator Herbert H. Lehman, and former Air Force Secretary Thom as K. Finletter, have solemnly set out to oust Tammany Boss Carmine de Sapio. He is the only surviving New York Democratic leader of obvious competence. Naturally, he must go; he has been found not to be liberal enough. It is widely known that Mrs. Roosevelt and Finletter. at least, have been strongly attached to Adlai E. Stevenson. Pew things could be more harm ful to Stevenson's chances for a third Democratic Presidential nomination than to be associated, willy-nilly, with this absurd at tempted purge of the regular New York Democratic organization. There is a side jest here, too. It is no secret, except possibly to ADA ultra-liberals, that Steven son is essentially a civilized con servative. Item: The ADA is sniping tire lessly at the Senate Democratic leader. Lyndon B. Johnson. John son's principal disability Is that he neglected to Inform his par ents that he must not be born in Texas. The ultra-liberals, under standably from their viewpoint, would not want to see him Presi dent. > Nevertheless, who would have supposed that they would not pre fer Johnson In a pinch, at any The ADA And, I960 rate, to Vice-President Richard M. Nixon, against whom ADA has been quivering with outrage (some of it wholly Justified) for years? It is a secret only to ADA that Johnson might conceivably be nominated by the regular Dem ocrats in a hung-up convention. Against such a possibility it really would not seem wise to try totally to destroy in advance his combat potential against the quite pos sible OOP nominee, Mr. Nixon. Item: Senator Hubert Hum phrey, of Minnesota, one of the few members of ADA who knows the score, is running for Presi dent under manifest difficulties. The greatest of these is his loyal, but not very wise, continued association with ADA. Therefore, it would appear sensi ble for ADA not to embrace him too publicly and too often. But. naturally. ADA'S affection for Humphrey is not being re strained. All the same, you ran kiss a man to death in politics almost as easily as you can kick him to death. Is easily available. That was not always true. In the early years of the Society, in fact, its repre sentatives reported finding whole communities, and even areas, where there wSre few, if any. Bibles. When a public official was about to take the oath of office, in a town in Louisiana, the cere mony had to be postponed ? almost had to be cancelled ? until a Bible could be found ? the only one, as it turned out, in the town. And later, the Society, with , headquarters in New York, found conditions almost as incredible in its own back yard ? in Pennsyl vania, New York, and New Eng land. While the Society has trans lated, printed, and earned the Bible to all parts of the world, and has been active in this coun try in peacetime, its best known work was during war. And always, in distributing free Scriptures to soldiers and sailors, it has made no distinction between friend and emeny. During the Civil War, it went to extreme lengths to get Bibles and Testaments to the Con federates, and during the two world wars, it took the Scriptures to the combatants of Germany. Austria, Italy, Japan, etc. During itp long period of service, v. the Sqciety has enlisted the active aid and support of some of the great men of the nation. John Adams was a member of its board; John Quincy Adams a vice president; John Jay was one of its presidents; John Marshall was a vice president; its work was highly Indorsed by Woodrow Wilson; and the list could be con tinued. This book has at least two lipks with Western North Carolina. It's author married a Franklin girl, the former Miss Virginia Smith; and considerable space is given to the Society's first president, Elias Boudinot. That unusual name strikes a familiar note with everyone who has seen "Unto ' s These Hills", since the Rev. Elias Boudinot plays a prominent, and not admirable, part in that drama They were not, however, as is generally assumed, the same man The Bible Society president had been dead 14 years when the Cherokee Removal, the story the drama tells, occurred. The Chero kee half-breed of that name, it seems, admired the New Jersey philanthropist, and, so simply appropriated his name ? w. J. GOOD ADVICE FOR SPRING Spring! Spring fever is when you become totally exhausted by a household chore you haven't begun. . . . This is gardening time.' And here's some good advice, it'll pay you to heed ? don't plant more than your wife can weed. ? Rockingham Post-Dispatch. WHAT MARVELS RESEARCH REVEALS! Recent research from a promi nent institute reports that par enthood is hereditary. If your par ents didn't have children, the I, chances are you won't either. ? ' North Carolina Education.
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April 16, 1959, edition 1
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