?I|p Highlands fHanmian WEWAH JONES Editorial Page Editor The editor controls and takes full responsibility (or this page. He has no control over or responsibility for what appears elsewhere in the paper. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 19.V> HAVKN'T UKARI) IT Any Good Answer? Congress has pasesd a bill amending the vet erans' pension law. * Whether the new measure is an improvement <>n the old 1 aw we do not pretend to know. But it has served one useful purpose. It has brought out into the open what many Americans did not know ? that this nation is paying out millions of dollars to ex-servicemen whose present disabilities have no connection with their wartime .service. It would be hard to do too much for the man who was disabled while serving his country. But why pension those of us who came out with whole skins and arc suffering from a disability ? even as little as 10 .per cent disability ? that's solely due to age or other natural causes? If there's any good answer to that .question, we're yet to hear it. Later' s Too Late It may l>e that the best solution ? possibly the only solution? of Franklin's water problem is to pump water out of Cartoogechaye Creek, as proposed. If and when there is convincing evidence that that is the case, we'll go along 100 per cent. In the meantime, two things have made us 'ques tion the desirability of the plan:' 1. We can't understand how you can get better water front, a polluted creek than from an unpol luted watershed. 2. We can't understand how it can be cheaper, in the long run, to pump water uphill than to jet gravity pu[l it downhill. After h'ranklin has alrt-adv spent a third of a million dollars on a water svstein,, it will be too late to discover we've iliade a mistake. The time to make sure what is the best plan is now- ? before we spend the numev. \ It is with that in .mind that we respectfully .ex press the hope the town board, before it jfoes far ther' with this project, ^v i 1-1 carefully investigate the possibilities of a watershed system. We don't mean a mere conversational going through the motions. Not: -do we mean a mere re survev bv anv engineerings linn that's already been over the ground : human nature being what it is, it .would be extraordinary for a firm to reverse its own recoiii mendat ions. A really careful, open-minded investigation, it seems to us, might involve hiring other competent, independent engineers ? preferably a firm not en gaged in construction, but serving solely as consul tants ? and saying to theni substantially this: "We'd like to put jn a watershed gravity system. Please survey all the possibilities and tell us it it's possible and practicable and give details of cost, amount of water obtainable, etc." After that, there could be comparisons of initial cost, long-time op i crating costs, quality of water., and so on. That would cost some money, but it would be better to spend it now than to wish we had, later. Our I .etters . i This newspaper always welcomes letters to the editor. If such letters applaud a stand taken l>\ The Press, we are. gratified but if they disagree, that's even better ? it gives readers the benefit of two viewpoints instead of one.. To be published, though, a letter must hear the signature of the writer. ~ t ? *v " i Hij^ht now we have on file a letter dealing with Franklin's water problem and another critical of careless, low-flying pilots. We'd like to publish both. But they'll get into print only if and when the writers put their names to them. I a,m an eld man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.? Mark Twain. Less Than Convincing ? Sometime ago. it was . learned that radioactive wastes from atomic energy plants were being dumped mi' the coast of N'orth Carolina. .Manned Tar Heels poured protests into Wash ington. Now the fears of North Carolinians have been pooh poohed. In Raleigh last week. Governor I lodges made public a letter from the Governors Advisory Com mittee on Atomic Knergy and other officials. The letter said there is no danger, period. "There is 110 danger", it read, "to the people living permanently or visiting temporarily on the Coast of N'orth Carolina^-either directly or front eating seafood"? in the disposal of radioactive wastes and trash in the ocean. I f Well, we find that reassurance somewhat less than convincing. We suspect the persons respon sible for thar statement either do not know what they are talking about or are not telling' the truth We base that suspicion not on any knowledge of the competence or the character of those re sponsible. We base it on the fact there is so much difference of opinion among scientists on this sub ject that it seems to us no responsible, informed person who was honest would make such a sweep ing, unqualified statement. The truth probably is that nobody, so far, really knows whether there is danger from the dumping of atomic wastes, and if so, whether it is .small or great. Many eminent scientists feel the dangers from radioactivity have been exaggerated. Other equal ly eminent scientists feel the dangers have been vastly under estimated. There seems fairly general agreement among scientists, though, that there is danger. Vet the Governors Advisory Committee dismisses the whole matter of atomic waste disposal with a flat, sweeping statement ! Here's what one scientist says on this very sub ject of dumping atomic wastes in the sea: "Is the creation of atomic energy for peacetime purposes safe? Well, what are you going to do with the waste? It is true you can put it in containers before you drop it in the sea, but have you anv as surance such containers will keep it safe for hun dreds of years?" That comment, in response to a quest-ion, came from Dr. Carl ( . I.indegrcn, director of the bio logical research laboratory at Southern Illinois 1'niversity, at a receiut newspaper' meeting. Dr. I.indegren. one of the nation's leading. getre- , ticists, has made a long time study of the whole subject of radiation, particularly of the hereditary effects *>!' today's radiation on generations yet to be born. In that connection, he expressed' this opin ion : ? Any dose of radiation, no matter how small, produces an incurable, irreversible, hereditary damage proportional to the dose. It is on this simple basis that one may affirm that there is no safe dim of radiation. The shocking fact about the effects of radiation damage upon the heredi tary apparatus is that it requires an average of 40 gen erations for one of these incurable, irreversible character istics to be eliminated from the population by natural causes. "This means that 4he original effect of a single radia tion damage on a single person (who may be totally un conscions of the effect on himself) may be perpetuated on the avenge of about 800 years through the suffering of all the individuals involved before they are eliminated from the population by a higher death rate than their neighbors." Now Dr. I.indegren's fears may he exaggerated. It may riot he as had as that. Conceivably, it may not he had at all. But that, is the considered opinion of one respon sible scientist. And nobody knows enough about the subject to nay that he is wrong. In the light of that, we can all breathe a sigh of GROWING PAINS HEAVEN'S, 5AKE, JlMAdy^ TURN THAT BLASTED VTHIN6 OFF J RAMA (^CONNECTICUT MUTUAL LIFE INS'JHANCr CO. One ff ay Street Jimmy and Grandpa should respect each other, uniVrstand irritating little habits. Diff rent generations have" ciiMt rent needs. Acceptance of this fact can make a happier home. relief at FJresident Eisenhower's decision last week to extend America's suspension of nuclear weapons tests till next January. State Of The Union (Putnam County, Tenn., Herald ? Following is a kind of report on the state of the Union which some politicians and wasters of public money would prefer the people didn't see. It is a report made by Edwin Vennard, managing director of the Edison Electric Institute, to the Rotary Club of New York City and to all fellow citizens interested in preservation of freedom under self-government: Federal government non-defense spending, per family, has increased from $86 in 1930, to $543 in 1959, or more than 500%. Federal non-defense spending has Increased from $2.6 bU lion in 1930 to $28.1 billion in 1959, or about 1000%. Exclusive of the armed services, the federal government now employs 2.1 million people, as compared to 644,000 in 1930, an increase of over 200%. In May,, 1959, Senator Harry F. Byrd said: "Nearly 40 mil lion Americans will receive direct payments from the Fed eral Treasury this year!" In December, 1954, Rowland R. Hughes, then Director of the Bureau of the Budget, said: "(The federal government! is, among other things, the largest electric power producer in the country, the largest Insurer, the largest lender and the larg est borrower, the largest landlord and the largest tenant, the largest holder of grazing land and the largest holder of timber land, the largest owner of grain, the largest ware house operator, the largest ship-owner, and the largest truck fleet operator. For a country which is the citadel and the world's principal exponent of private enterprise and individual inltatlve, this Is rather an amazing list." All taxes in 1930 took 13% of the national product, as com pared to 20% in 1958. The national debt has grown from $540 per family in 1930 to $5500 per family In 1959, an increase of more than 900%. And In this year of great prosperity, we are not requiring that our government live within its Income from federal tfixes. We are about to go further into debt, meaning we will borrow from future generations and may devalue the dollar in order to get more government hand-outs today. Mr. Vennard says: "If these trends continue, what will our children face 30 years from now? Isn't It about time that we take a serious look at this situation and do something about it? And by we, I mean you and I ? not someone else." DO YOU REMEMBER? Looking Backward Through the Files ot The Press 65 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1894) The new ."fixings" for the courthouse vault are coming in. Bishop Cheshire is expected at Nonah tomorrow, and in Franklin Friday. Mr. W. R. Johnston is home for a week. He is the hat drummer, you know. The deadly sneeze-weed got in its work on one of Mr. D. C. Cunningham's horses Sunday. The animal got it in hay, and within four hours was dead. 35 YEARS AGO (1924) Shortly after midnight last Thursday our town was aroused by the ringing of the fire alarm bell, but the fire had gained such headway the firemen were unable to do anything to check the flames. The two-story frame residence owned by Mr. George Carpenter and occupied by Mr. Vick Haney was destroyed, members of the family barely escaping with their lives. 15 YEARS AGO (1944) Pvt. Woodrow W. Reeves, now stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., spent the week end here with his wife. Sgt. John B. Tilson, son of Mrs. June Tilson, of Gneiss, is now stationed somewhere in England. 5 YEARS AGO (1954) Two strip ruby mines, one owned by Weaver Gibson, the other by Will Holbrook, are now open to the public on a year 'round basis. THE PLAY OK SEX What's Worst Is Denial There ARE Any Standards From The .Milford (N. H.) CABINET Back in our college days, if you wanted to read Lady Chatterley's Lover it was necessary to go to the librarian and ask for it. If, as the English Department main tained, the book had literary merit, it was at least apparent that it also violated the accepted standards of good taste. The changed outlook of this generation is evidenced "by the number of people we have talked with who are not indignant, but simply puzzled by tfie current furore over the book. We oppose on principle the people who would ban certain books and movies, for the Idea of censorship in any form is ob jectionable. Yet it is frightening to browse through magazine racks, to pick up best sellers, to so to popular movies, and to realize the lack of moral standards resulting from this exercise of "freedom". There was Forever Amber, and The Naked and the Dead, and then that gold mine oif sex, Pey ton Place. There will be others. One of our teen-age children v'as advised by the clerk in a book store the other day to try The Bramble Bush, because "it's bet ter than Peyton Place." They marie a movie out of Pey ton Plirce, and while the book had such a heavy fiosting of sex. that it overshadowed the story, the movie brought the plot back into perspective and made a. beautiful and effective presentation out of a rather sordid novel. Last week we saw a movie which was the same situation in reverse We sat up most of one night recently reading Anatomy of a Murder. Starting with an alleged rape, the book developed the intri cate pattern of a murder trial. Emphasis was on the legal ma neuvers, the problems of the de fense lawyers. It was a gripping story, too tense to put down. The movie does not waste much film on the intellectual aspects of the book, and the courtroom duels come close to slapstick comedy. But the rape angle is played to the utmost. The camera focuses long and lovingly on the girl in the tight slacks as she describes the attack in detail, and examination of witnesses at the trial permits amplification of any biological background overlooked in the first account. We will not compound the situation by repeat ing the dialogue, f>ut the. whole thing is dealt with in a way that made us feel uncomfortable. Wc cannot quite explain our feelings. Certainly it was not the words themselves. Ferhaps it was just embarrassment at sitting in a theatre containing a large num ber of teen-agers, all waiting with obvious anticipation for the next titillating detail. In reading a book, there is fome privacy. In the theatre, every suggestive shrus V . * is amplified by the mass emotjon of the audience. Well, so what? You can't change life, so why not admit it? People do not have to read books, you may say, and they do not have to go to movies. But they do read books ? Milford students bought up every paperback edition of Peyton Place as soon as it was placed on sale ? and they do go to the movies. Anatomy of a Murder will really be a hit at the drive-ins. These things are bad. Not just because they violate the moral standards, but because they im ply that there are no standards. There have always been people, and there always will be people, who act contrary to the accepted rules. But the evil thing about so many of today's magazines, and a growing number of books and movies, is not that they obviously violate the rules, but that they seem to go on the premise that there are no rules. They complete ly ignore the existence of any standards of good taste. It is a problem of concern to every parent: how do you bring up boys and girls to live by a decent sense of values when the resources of a vast segment of the entertainment and publishing industries teem dedicated to ridi culing those values as outmoded, or to denying that they even exist? \ STRICTLY PERSONAL By WEIMAR JONES There's quiet at our house now. But we've Just experienced something like an earthquake. Or maybe it was a series of atomic blasts. The force that struck us ? ex plosive, shattering, devastating ? came in the form of a boy of seven . . . goin' on eight. The visit had been pleasantly anticipated by all concerned. But when it was over, at the end of two weeks, Mrs. Jones and I felt the way a plant looks, after it's been pulled up by the roots and left all day in the hot sun. The night after we put our grandson on the bus for home, we sat idly on the dark porch, gasping with exhaustion and relief. But in oh! such blessed quiet. Not. mind you. that he is a bad boy. He isn't. (And I don't mean that in the sense that, to his grandparents, no child is ever bad. Ours really isn't!) As a matter of fact, he's a good child; polite and cooperative, usually prompt and cheerful to do what he's told. Yes. and always ready tp help: eager to. Eager! That's the word . . and a part of the explanation of our weariness. Eager to rush out and meet the tiniest adventure life may hold; afraid of nothing, hesitating at nothing. An eagerness that has the deed already done before it is possible to get the little word "no" off the tongue. As when we had the gravy calamity. The gravy was hot, and so was the bowl; too hot to be handled with bare hands. But before his grandmother could open her mouth, Billy had it half way across the room toward the dinner table. It never reached its destination, of course; it was splattered, instead, into every corner of the room, over every piece of furniture, up every wall. And every day something like this took place: "Can I go play with George now?" "Well, maybe . . . but wait a minute!" Too late; he's already out of sight. But if youth's eagerness some times gets it in trouble, it Is its energy that quickly reduces an older adult to a state of collapse, i How does it happen that, in the few short years since our own children were small, we've so completely lost the art of living calmly in the middle of a tor nado?) It's exhausting just tA watch him ? bouncing when he might run: running when he might walk: standing on his head when he might stand on his feet. Shouting when he might whisper. Slamming the screen door as he enters the house, only to find he must go back out again ? with* another slam. Prom early moan ing till late evening, never sti!J an instant. And never quiet ? ex cept for the bedtime story. Wetl. he's gone home now. Once more life takes on its ordered course. Nobody shouts. Nobody dashes in and out of slamming screen doors. Now there's quiet. Ah! such blessed quiet. Yet, paradoxically, after a couple of days pf that longed-for quiet, we found ourselves looking back with nostalgic fondness to incidents of those two long, gruel ing weeks. No longer was there the flatter ing cry of welcome: "Oranddaddy! you're home!" No longer the tri umphant cry of "surprise!" when his grandmother entered the kitchen to discover he'd washed the dishes ? got 'em clean, too. No longer the sense of going back to something pleasantly familiar, as we read the old stories we had read, once upon a time, to our own children. No longer must we wonder, amused, how we ought to meet a situation like this: "Surely you aren't going to sleep without saying your prayer?" t "I'm so sleepy . . "All right, go on to sleep . . . but tomorrow night, you'd better get to bed earlier." You say good night and start out the door, only to be called back: "111 say my prayers." After they're said, and there's been another good night, you get to the bedroom door, only to be called back again: "Now, can I stay up late to morrow night?" No longer, at a little boy'r bed time, is there the impulsive reach of two small arms, the soft, moist kiss of a child. 1 > i No. Now there's quiet ... only quiet. Blessed nuiet? Well, maybe. But, somehow there's too darn much of :t! 'I'N'CLK DAN From Doolie' Glass Banks And Farmers' Baths Deal' Mister Editor: I see by the papers where they got a bank in New York built all out of glass, doors, walls, every thing out of glass. It's gitting so everybody wants to live in a show case but I never thought them hard-rock bankers would fall fer that new-fangled stuff. But they say some big city banks has put in lunch counters and music, so I reckon the country has finally gone to the dogs afore the meek had a chance to inherit it. It used to be that when a feller wanted to git a bank loan, he could sneak in the bank, set with the cashier behind a partition or some goods boxes and maybe git it without the whole town know In MOORESVILLE TRIBUNE ing about it. But with glass bank ] coming in style. I reckon a telle J just as well put it in the papel if he gits a loan. And if he don'l git it, he just as well put that ii| the paper, too. More'n likely, he didn't git it I Next to a hen trying to set dh.f a woman trying to marry off he daughter, there ain't nothing is| this world as stubborn as banker when you're trying to gil a loan. I recollect once whe 1 Zeke Tinker decided to trade hi car off fer a station wagon. Zek figgered a station wagon woul make him look like a agriculture Instead of a farmer. So he ask his banker to let him have a thoij sand dollars until he got his croc laid by. When the banker aske| him what he wanted with tlj money, Zeke told him he wantej to add a bathroom to his housfl The banker let into him somethin Iterrible. Told him a feller raise) on fatback and cornbread didn. need a bath but once a mont' and a good creek had a bathrpoi] beat two to one fer luxury bat ing. I heard that Zeke got so mai at the banker he ain't took a bat) since. Yours truly, Uncle Dan HIS COMEUPPANCE A few weeks ago I opened nj big fat mouth and put my fo in it at an educational meetic The meeting was held in cc junction with the Board of Ed. cation, some teachers and a fa parents to discuss some scha problems. Attending solely at reporter, I had no intention speaking a single word. But when, the board ChairmJ asked my opinion of prese 1 schools and methods of teachir) I completely forgot my self-i posed silence and remarked th most students with whom I car into contact had failed compleU to learn a simple thing like sp(, ing. One teacher told me that I or| came in contact with the lov. mentality group of stucienl which probably put me in place or on ih? "?"f ciHo nf : I railroad tracks at the very leal That very day I had received! litter from a college student \?| spilled "pupils'' in a way I I. J never seen before. He--speH?H "puples." ? - Carlton Morris Gates County Index.