Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / June 25, 1959, edition 1 / Page 2
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?&c gtwMn f it?? and QTIir Highlands fflarmiian WE1M.-W l<).Yt:s Editorial /'tin,- Editor THURSDAY, JUNE 25. 1959 THREK QUESTIONS About The Courthouse It's quite possible last week's public .meeting to discuss the courthouse problem reflected Macon County sentiment generally. There was apparent general agreement that the present courthouse, in its preselit condition, is a disgrace. It is unsightly, run-down-at-the-heel. And, as it is presently arranged, proper provision is lacking for storage of county records in fire-proof vaults. But while then- seemed to he agreement that we need to do something, there was a wide variety of opinion about what. . Really, the problem raises three basic questions: 1. What can we do? 2. What, that wo can do, is the wise and desir able thing to do? Should we, for example, build a "new courthouse? Or should the present structure, said by competent builders to be sturdy and well built, be. completely remodeled, so as to be attrac tive as well as adequate? 3. How nuich are the taxpayers willing to spend? (For every $100,1 KX) spent, the cost, for interest ?lone, would be about 30 cents for every man, woman, and chil<l in the county; payments on the principal would. have to be added to that.) * * ~If it's to be a new courthouse, how m(uch would irt cost? We don't pretend to know. But some idea can be gained from the experience of a neighbor, Haywood County. ? The Courthouse at Waynesyillc, possibly some what larger than we might need, cost $250, 000. Bat it was built in 1932, at the bottom of the de pression ; stone masons who worked on it were paid 60 cents an. hour. How many times have build ing costs multiplied since then. On one thing we think the people of this county will agree: If we're to build a new courthouse, let's build a good one, one with dignity and beauty, as well as being adequate and efficiently planned. Lct^s not spend a lot of money? and still have a courthouse we're ashamed of. Alice In Wonderland Whether ;? withholding ? tax. is good or had, in principle ? and there are valid arguments both for ?and against such a plan there are certain hard facts ^boitl the tax w ii hholding law just enacted (>v the Xortli Carolina (ion.eral Assembly; tiiat can not he evaded. f 1 1 lite t ? t'.-.| place, there's thai trirkv tax "wind , fall' .. est iiiiated to vicld some h milliott dollars next vear. Where does that wind I all conici front.", Che si.il - w i i 1 gel those extrj't millions bv requir ing individuals i o pax both this year's and next year's income tjixes in I'M)- ? two years' taxes in ?one. With (hat windfall, the state, theoretically, will have a "balanced budget'': without it. it would i operate in the red -millions in the red. What's it going to do hen that windfall is spent? The obvi ous answer is that the 1961 Legislature will have "to face what the Hodges adniinist ration and this Legislature closed their eyes to ? the need ejther'to reduce state services or levy more taxes. The second fact: The reason we need more money now is that, two years ago, the Legislature made a tax gift of millions of dollars to North Carolina corporations. It may he, as was argued then, that fairness to the corporations demanded that revision of the tax law. The point is that that Legislature, like the current one, dealt in Alice in Wonderland, financing. It pretended you could clip millions off your income and still have the same amount to spend. We'Ve been in a tax jam this year because of that pretense, and this Legislature, instead of tackling the problem, has merely put off the evil day for two more years. The third fact is that the new law will require you, starting next year, to pay your individual in come tax as you go along, week bv week or month, by month ; but it exem.pts all but the 41 biggest corporations from this pay-as-yoti go feature. The slate, that i.s, will have the use of your tax money all during the year; but it will permit the corpora lions ? except for this handful of big owes- to use their fax money till the end of the year. That, oi course, is discrimination. Across The State Last. " week Hugh Morton, of Wilmington, brought a photographer from Life magazine to Macon County to make pictures of the flame azalea on YVavah Bald. Now there's no <lonl)t, in our mind, that the W ayah azalea, said to be the finest stand in East ern America, deserves to be pictured to the world. It's barely possible, though, that we are a* mite parti.il to the VVayah flowers because they're in Macon County. Furthermore, there must be a .score of other interesting spots Mr. Morton could have guided the photographer to. We're grateful he chose to bring him here. And so, from this Southwestern tip of North Carolina, across the state to Hugh Morton at the southeastern tip, we make our lowest mountain bow. Basic Problems Remain It is hardly surprising that this regular session of the General Assembly should have refused to do anything about court reform and constitutional re vision. It is not. because the legislators were ab sorbed by a multitude of problems and were split on such controversial issues as the withholding tax and teachers' .salaries. Court reform, though, is still needed. And this state's constitution, adopted in carpetbagger days, to fit the post-Civil War period, is hopelessly out of date. The chances are the next regular session of the Legislature, two years from now, also will be ab sorbed by many problems and also will be split by controversial issues. The chances are it, too, would refuse to act on these two basic problems. The best way ? perhaps the only way ? to get ac tion on court reform and constitutional revision is to have a special session of the Legislature, to deal exclusively With these two needs. What Do YOU Think? Members of the Board of County Commission ers have expressed a desire to learn from Macon County taxpayers what they want done about this county's courthouse problem. Should we build a brand new courthouse? Or should we completely remodel, modernize, and do a face-lifting job 011 the present one? What do you think? The I'ress will welcome letters on this subject. The Two Greatest Inventions (Marietta, Ohio, Daily Times) After the wheel ? which is usually credited as mankind's greatest invention ? there is no single discovery that has in fluenced mankind more than that of printing. An obscure German named Gutenburg printed the first books from mov able type. It is impossible to imagine the depth of ignorance in which men lived before the 1 discovery of printing. Written records, painstakingly copied by monks in monasteries, were the only reading material. Before the discovery of printing, tiie King of England's library consisted of five manuscripts, mostly legends and troubadours' tales. These were kept in a stout, well-flocked chest. They were rarely read. The first book to be printed in English was a history of Troy, a sort of romance, and it appeared in 1*74. The printer was William Caxton. Two years later this wandering English man set up a printing press, using wooden type, near West minster Abbey Books gradually became popular. Men's minds reached out for this new method of learning and spreading ideas. Inevit ably. printing became linked with man's fight for freedom. When men read, they thought of being free, and rulers op posed the growth of new ideas which threatened their estab Science is a good piece of furniture for a man to have in an upper chamber provided he has common sense on the ground floor. ? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. lished position. This battle for the right to express Ideas still continues, as the world has seen recently In Soviet Russia where the famous writer Pasternak was penalized by his government for writing a novel the authorities disagreed with. What Is Our Welfare Goal? (Shelby Star) Editor Jay Huskins of the Statesville Record puts his finger on a sensitive point in the public welfare picture when he questions proposals made by Dr. Ellen Winston, state welfare commissioner. Dr. Winston says North Carolina lags behind every state in the Union in support of public welfare. She will ask the Legis lature to set up a $500,000 "matching fund" for a general as sistance program. This is a program North Carolina does not have at the moment. More money should be spent, too, on aid to needy children, she says, so that we can attract more federal funds. Huskins raises a timely question when he asks If low rating in state welfare expenditures is necessarily an unhealthy thing. It might be, he adds, that North Carolina's position should be described as a "lead," not a "lag." The theory behind Huskins' question Is a good one. The ideal situation would be one that left no need for Dr. Win ston's job or those of other welfare workers in North Carolina. In other words, the faster the people of North Carolina can become self-sufficient, the better off they'll be. Unfortunately, the matter Is not that simple. Under present conditions, a rise in population seems to automatically mean a rise in the size of our welfare1 bill. And, as the state becomes more prosperous, the natural tendency is to make the checks of individual welfare recipients larger. But we, like Huskins, have always been a little bit wary of assistance programs In terms of what other states are spend ing. It makes it sound as if our goal is to spend as much money as possible on welfare programs. Actually, our goal is the op posite. ? - ? - ? What we in North Carolina want to do is to make sure that needy adults and children are adequately taken care of. Aside from that, our aim should be to secure as many new jobs as possible for our people and raise our per capita In come. In the process of providing good welfare care, we should be diligent to weed out the undeserving ? the so-called "freeload ers." In the final analysis, our state can truly be called a leader in the public welfare picture when it is adequately providing for those in need and yet spending a smaller proportion of its income for this purpose than any other state In the Union. If Dr. Winston's proposals come from a compassionate feel ing for North Carolinians living in abject poverty because of our miserliness, we are tor whatever appropriations are neces sary to correct this condition. But we are not Interested in a statistical race with other states as such, nor In drumming up appropriations simply to attract more funds from the federal government. DO YOU REMEMBER? Looking Backward Through the Files ot The Press 65 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1894) There was a picnic at the new Wallace school house last Saturday. Miss Mary Lyle opened school there Monday. Water was shut oft at the splash dam at the Black Place Friday. Mr. C. W. Slagle sold to Messrs. Swan the hemlock timber on five acres of land on Nantahala to build the dam. We are told that 75,000 feet of lumber was cut and put into the dam, and about one-third of the hemlock timber remains on the land, as the trees were too large for use. Caroline West, colored, wlio was sold as a slave and taken to Texas 42 years ago, has arrived back in Macon County, her son here having learned where she was, and having gotten up enough money to bring her home. 35 YEARS AGO (1924) Robert Armour, prominent New York tenor, will join the Musical Colony of Franklin and conduct a six weeks' course of vocal instruction, beginning July 1. v. Mr. W. P. Landrum, of Cullasaja, was in town on business Friday of last week. For ice, call 41. Franklin Ice Co., Paul1 Newman, Prop. ? Adv. 15 YEARS AGO (1944) Lee Roy Roper, son of Mr. and Mrs. Claude Roper, is one of 13 boys from this state to make such outstanding records as Future Farmers as to receive checks from the Firestone Rubber Company. 5 YEARS AGO ' (1954) Mr. and Mrs. Nondus Fouts have announced the engage ment of their daughter, Miss Betty Lou Fouts, to George Ed ward Crawford, son of the Rev. and Mrs. Lee Crawford. J OIINJV Y ' S K1T1IER WON'T READ If He Would, He'd Learn He's Ignorant, Might Get Educated BIGNALL JONES in Warren Record, During the current examination of the American educational sys tem. accelerated by the launching of Sputnik by the Russians, some consternation was caused by the publication of a book. "Johnny Can't Read." The fact that many Johnnies can't read is a cause for dismay, for the ability to read is the be ginning and the bedrock of edu cation. Incidentally, many of the larger high schools are doing something about it through the installation of remedial reading classes, but these courses are be yond the means of the small schools, and as a result many Johnnies never learn to read and never attain an education. Many never even obtain a diploma. But what disturbs me as much as the fact that "Johnny Can't Read" Is the fact that Johnny's father won't read. In thinking of this state of affairs which is often forced upon me. I recall a remark made to me by the late William T. Polk. Bill said, "I don't care how much formal education a man has. how many degrees, if he doesn't like to read, he is not educated." , Most persons with any kind of education read to some extent, but mostly their reading is con fined to newspapers, with particu lar attention being focused on the headlines of the front page, to the sports page, and to the comic sections; to the digests,, where cul ture is supposed to be made easy: and to escape literature. There is nothing wrong in itself in such reading and it may serve the pur pose of allowing one to keep up to a degree with what is going on. But a truly educated man will not find his hunger for knowledge satisfied by such reading. I don't think that a desire to read, even the awakening of a desire to know, will guarantee that a man will become intelligent, for intelligence is a native gift, but a desire to know certainly will sharpen whatever intelligence exists. I feel strongly about this, so strongly that if I had to choose for my child a college degree or a thirst for knowledge. I would lather have him with a thirst for knowledge and access to books than for him to have a college degree. However, there is nothing incompatible about the two. and I would like my children to have both. In my work. I have many con tacts with college men. Most of them have been well trained for the Job In hand; most of them use Rood English, most of them can read, many of them can spell, and I suppose most of them have a certain degree of culture. But what discourages me is that a great many of them have not read a good book since they received their degrees. In college, they memorized what was necessary to know to obtain a degree; in col lege. they were forced to listen to the expounding of good literature. But college being over, their edu cation ended because they had not developed a thirst for knowl edge. That seems to me to be a terrible waste, and a terrible in dictment of our colleges. Even reading is not enough, for a man may be known as a book worm, and learn little from his reading. A man must read because he wants to know, and must pur sue his quest from book to book as he finds an answer to his quest. And having found the answer, he will go on to seek other knowledge, and his education be comes a continuous thing, ever growing. Perhaps his increased knowledge will bring a better understanding, fit him better for the adventure of life: but it will not necessarily increase his earn ing power, nor is it certain that it will bring Y >m happiness. But he will gratify a hunger, he will realize his ignorance, and in the process he might actually obtain an education? which is much more than any college can guarantee. V STRICTLY PERSONAL By WEIMAR JONES Visitors and people who recent ly have moved to Macon County .express amazement at the cour tesy. the thoughtfulness, the kind liness, shown them by people here, often people they have never met. Polks here still are, as the old word had it, "accommodating". They remain so remarkably "ac commodating", in fact, that people who have lived here a long time still find themselves surprised. E. C. Klngsbery, for example, was telling me the other day that two mornings in a row he had left his car at the garage for re pairs, and started to walk to work. But each time, almost immediately he was offered a ride. That reminded me of my ex perience recently with a flat tire. It was just this side of Cowee Gap. Well, it was flat; nothing to do but change it. And how I hate to change a tire! So I pulled off the road, put it in gear, and went around to get the spare out of the trunk. I had a spare, all right; but not a tool ? not even so much as a screw driver. If that had happened to me in California, or Illinois, or even Eastern North Carolina, I'd have felt desperate. It's a long walk from Cowee Gap to Franklin. But It happened in Macon County. And so I not only wasn't worried; I really was relieved there were no tools. That gave me a perfect alibi for not changing the tire. Then what happened? The very first car that came along stopped. It was a youui couple and they had more chil dren packed into that car than I've ever seen In the same amount of space. Could they help? ( Well, were they going to Frank-, lin? No, just a couple of miles down the road. O. K. Thanks. But, before that car was out of sight, a second came around the bend, stopped, and wanted to know If they could help. They were going to Franklin, and within five minutes after I'd stopped, I was on my way again. And, so far as I know, neither of those drivers had ever seen me before ! It would have been the same, had I been a tourist from Maine or Florida, just passing through. It's things like that, rather than the progress measured In sta- ? tistics, rather than the amount of our wealth, rather than our fine business buildings and beau tiful homes, that make me proud to live in Macon County, and that make me hope I'll never have to live anywhere else. After all, such things as sta tistical progress, wealth, and fine business buildings and beautiful homes can be found anywhere. CREDIT GOES TO MRS. A Smart-Looking Man W. E. H. in SANFORD HERALD Other day I was uptown in a new suit. This isn't noteworthy; I buy about two a year. What struck me was the num ber of folks who said the suit looked good on me. The credit for looking good goes to the wife, to whom I have delegated the job of picking out my clothes. Many men have a phobia against their wives interfering in selection of suits, sports coats and what have you. Not me. I learned long ago women folk have much better taste than the men. They are more color conscious for one thing. They have more HAVE LOST FAITH IN OUR SYSTEM Those witch hunts and loyalty oaths simply prove that we do not believe sufficiently in the strength of . our democratic sys tem. We are secretly doubtful about the efficiency of a form of government which in less than 40 years presented its people with two world wars and a ten-year de pression. In this state of uncer tainty. we lash out at Russia and become defensive of our own sys tem, instead of carrying it to a higher development. ? Phillips Russell, biographer and professor emeritus of journalism at the University of North Carolina, in an interview. balance and proportion, too. They remember what color and pattern are the suits and coats you already have; and when the time comes up for a new one, they can steer you right so you won't have dupli cations In colors and weaves. The world is full of men folk who buy clothes without letting their wives pass approval first. Some of them come out looking like race-track touts. Some have that gosh-awful bold and garish look. Some have that too-con servative appearance. Some have colors that just don't go with the . wearer's complexion. J Strange thing about the whole business is that the clerks in men's stores brighten up considerably ?when a wife comes in with a hus band. After all, the seller wants his customer to look well turned out. When the wife passes judg ment, the haberdashery clerk knows his customer's going to look sharp and be a credit to his store. This is no boot licking for the wives. But believe me, they know clothes better than 99 out of the next 100 males youH meet. ONE PROBLEM, THEN THE OTHER Parents spend the firstpart of . a child's life getting him"to walk " 1 and talk, and the rest of his child hood getting him to sit down and shut up.? Frederick. Colo., Farmer & Miner. \YK KNOW A SECRET! Of Stupidity, Pills, And Newspapers SMITHFIELD HERALD Anti-stupidity, pills have been peddled in Germany, but no ped dler has been convicted of fraud. Can't get a purchaser to sign a complaint. 'Twould be a sort of written confession of his stupidity. The News and Observer doesn't have faith in anti-stupidity pills, but its mouth waters at the thought of such medicine. It knows a lot of senators, representa tives, governors, neighbors, pro moters, and members of pre vention societies who would need varying degrees of dosage if such pills were available and effective. An N. and O. editorial writer gives further play to his imagina tion. He cah hear some customer exclaiming to a drug clerk. "Gimme a big, economy size jug of the anti-stupidity pills!" And I he can hear the customer erase ' 4 embarrassment by adding "Gotta git 'em for my wife's brother that's coming visiting." Which reminds us Smithfied Herald folks of countless men who have come into our office through the years to subscribe to the paper. After ordering the econo my size (that would be a year's subscription for $4 instead of six months for $2.50 or three mpnths for $1.50), the male subscriber is likely to remark "My ole lady says she just can't do without The Herald." It's the male's way of letting us know that while his wife may 1 be short on brains, he isn't so stupid that he would wish to spend ' valuable time reading The Smith field Herald. But, ah! We have spies. And we know. Men. too, are stupid. They have been seen reading the ole lady's paper. SOUNDS HEARD AT A CAT-FIGHT An actress at a party, seeing an authoress Whom she disliked, went over to congratulate her on her latest book. "I enjoyed it. my dear." she said, "Who wrote it for you?" ? "Darling." replied the author ess. "I'm glad you like it. Who read it to you?"? Montreal Star.
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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June 25, 1959, edition 1
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