North Carolina Newspapers

?&e fftmltfin 1 ft?? and Highlands iHaroman WEIMAR J ONES Editorial Page Editor DOLLAR CRISIS It's Like Jack-Rocks We're seeing a lot, these days, about the "dol lar crisis". Most of us probably pass over those items without reading them, on the theory that the situation is too complicated for us to under stand. 4 No doubt it is complicated. But, in its simplest terms, it seems to boil down to the fact that we've been sending more dollars overseas than we get back. If the trend should continue, the time would come when other nations had all the dollars and Uncle Sam had none. It's a good deal like the old game of. jack rocks. When boys played that ? in the days when boys did play so simple a game ? if one boy consistently won the rocks, the time soon came when the other boy had none. When that happened, the game was over. The same sort of thing is constantly happen ing, too, to the individual in this country. He can't buy the things he needs and wants with out dollars; and he fights a constant ? and sometimes, it seems, losing ? battle to keep the other fellow from getting all his dollars. Which suggests something the economists haven't exactly shouted from the housetops: Weakening the dollar at home, via inflation, can hardly be expected to help the .situation. Yet inflation continues; the latest figures show the cost of living at an all-time high. By cheap ening the dollar at home, as well as abroad, we're creating all sorts of domestic problems. And, generally speaking, it is these problems, rather than the basic one of inflation, that our government attacks. Perhaps what really make? the situation hard to understand is that we've been spending more than we had, nationally and individually, so long, we'd come to believe we could get away with it indefinitely. Suddenly we find we. can't ? and we're puzzled to understand why. Nothing New Who says there's nothing new under the sun? Here's something that was new ? ? and a lit tie flabbergasting ? to us: In New York. City, they have a school for ? what do you suppose? A School for Santa Clauses. There elderly men take a regular course in how to play the role of Jolly Old Saint Nick, and the other day a class of Santa Clauses was "graduated". Well, no wonder! In today's world, the kids spiel off so mUc'h scientific jargon it takes a liberal education for us to understand what our own are talking about, much less be able to answer their <|uestions. The man who must be able to talk with and understand and answer the questions of hundreds every day surely must need a special course. ' It won't surprise us, in fact, if, in a few years, there are graduate schools in how to be Santa Claus. One of these day, no doubt, there'll be a new educational degree, I). S. C. t ? Doctor of Santa Clausing. Tar Heel Secretaries When Luther II. Hodges next month be comes secretary of commerce in the Kennedy administration, it will be the first time in 40 years ? with one brief exception ? that North Carolina has been represented, in a President's cabinet. The exception was Kenneth ( . Royall. ?who served for a short time in 1(>4 7 as sccre tary of war. Kxcept for his brief tenure, the last Tar 1 1 eel to hold a cabinet post was Josephus Daniels, secretary of the navy under President Wilson, 1913-1921. Mr. Daniels, incident ially, had the distinction of being the first man ever to head the navy department for two full four-year terms. Governor Hodges will have the distinction, too, of being the first North Carolinian ? again excepting Mr. RoyalPs brief servicc ? to occupy any cabinet post other than secretary of the navy. By strange coincidence, all the others appoint ed from this state to a President's cabinet were named to the navy post. There were five of them : James Iiranch (who served under President Jackson), George P. Badger (under Presidents William II. Harrison and Tyler), William A. ( 1 rail am (under Fillmore), James C. Dobbin (under Pierce) and Daniels. ( Following merger of the three armed serv ices under a single secretary of defense, Mr. Royall served as the first secretary of the army, but that is not a full cabinet post. Later Gordon ( iray, another Tar Ileel, held that std>-secretary ship.) Nowadays everything gets smaller and small er ? except the price you pay for it. But Reputation Suffers (Arapa, Colo., News) The fellow who laughs last may laugh best, but he gets the reputation of being pretty dumb. The Gentle Quaker (Jim Parker In Chatham News) A gentle Quaker roused from sleep by a strange noise investigated and found a burglar at work. The Quaker went for his gun and returned to the room where the burglar was occupying himself with the family silver. He stood in the doorway and announced quietly. "Friend, I would do thee no harm for the world, but thee standest where I am about to shoot." Sanford Faces Road Problem (Greensboro Dally News) Already speculation centers around governmental re organization which may take place after Governor-elect Terry Sanford assumes command In Raleigh. The Incoming chief executive repeatedly declared that the highways, especially secondary roads, should be brought closer to the people. Expectation Is that the com mission's membership will be enlarged and that district commissioners will be given more of a( say In their baili wick than at present. The problem here, as Governor -elect Sanford doubtless recognizes, Is to maintain balance and perspective. Roads do mean much and do come mighty close to the people. They are so closely tied In with North Carolina life that they cannot be left in the hands of Impersonal, profes sional engineers. , , Yet highways are essentially an engineering assignment. The job will be to interpose understanding lay representa tion between the engineers and the people. But even be yond that there are delicate questions of balance. Inter state highways and heavy traffic areas press for attention in an expanded and modernized highway system which sees North Carolina whoie and as a part of the national travel and defense pattern. There is no place for highway compartmentalization of North Carolina as under the old district czar system which ruled so long. It is no easy task to bring roads closer to the people, in all their political implications, and at the same time to give engineering and state-wide and even Interstate systems their places In the picture. On the horizon may well be a responsible enlarged commission and a clearer delineation of the duties of its members on a split-level hasis of secondary and primary roads. LETTERS About Power Rate Increase Dear Mr. Jones: I have received the notice sent to all users of Nanta ha'a Powtr and Light service advising of that company's petition to the North Carolina Utilities Commission for permission to make a general increase in all of ^ts rates. Even though some of the figures set forth in this notice are misleading, no one would object to an increase in rates if they can be proven to be necessary in order that the company earn a reasonable return on its plant invest ment. However, the relationship between the Aluminum Com pany of .America and the Nantahala Power and Light Company is the problem which must be investigated be lore the need for increased rates lias- been determined. Furthermore, the proposed sale of the Nantahala Power and light Company's distribution system to the Duke PoweT Company must be considered as a- part or this re quest for a rate increase. Otherwise, why has the petition requesting approval for this sale been so long in being filed? If one can refer to electric service as a commodity, there is no difficulty in finding- many utility companies whose rates are much lower than they were many years ago. I hope that the "more than 2,000 Industrial and com mercial customers and public service fcodie~" in the Nan tahala Power and Light service area offer some form of cons' ructive resistance to this combination RATE IN CREASE-DUKE POWER, deal. LEE SKIP WITH jrranklin. From Alaska Editor, The Press: The mall arrived by dog team on November 19, after a six weeks' spell without any. We, of course, received sev eral copies of The Press, and were thrilled to be able to read up on everything. Including the political scene. Although I do agree with what Mr. Rollman had to say, in his letter In the November 3 Issue commending The Press for Its fairness in covering politics, I do not agree completely. For In the same issue I find jests and contu melious language used, tor the most part, against Re publicans. Now, I have no quarrel against publications with a Democratic slant Immediately preceding elections, even though repeated favoritism toward one party or the other indicates a deeply rooted prejudice. In fact, I have no quarrel against prejudice, because to have such would mean that I have qualms wlflh humanity Itself. For cer tainly all men are either prejudiced for or against some thing. And they have every right to be. But what seems most silly to me are those who help elect Mr. John Doe, then spend the following four years opposing moves he makes toward fulfilling the promises of his campaign and his platform. ? In other words. It seems silly to help elect a man then help make a hypo crit out of him, WILFORD W. CORBTN Scammon Bay, Alaska, Nov. 24. 1960. DO YOU REMEMBER? Looking Backward Throagb the FOeo of Tbo Ft? 65 TEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1895) Some people act as If their debts were like coffee, and would settle themselves in time by standing. S. J. May, esq., was in town Monday and renewed his subscription to The Press. There are a few individuals left about Franklin that don't seem to know What to do with themselves these days. We have been requested to announce that a meeting of citizens interested in the improvement of cattle stock will be held in the courthouse Saturday. .35 TEARS AGO (1925) A special elec: ion has been called in Highlands on the proposal to issue $70,000 in bonds to build an electric power plant and to install a sewer system. Friday afternoon the Iotla girls defeated the Sylva girls in a basketball game on the Iotla court. ? Item from Iotla High School News. 15 YEARS AGO (1945) The $80,000 Franklin bond issue for street, water, and sewer improvements was approved by a vote of about 4 to 1 in Tuesday's special election. Three to four inches of snow fell here Thursday morn ing, the first of the winter for Franklin. < 5 YEARS AGO (1955) Holly Springs last Saturday was announced as the win ner of the 1955 W. N". C. Rural Community Development Contest. The 63-family Holly Springs community pio neered the development program in this county in 1952. I .1 ? ? ? ' Why Do Christianity And Crime In U. S. Grow Simultaneously? ? ? . i By GEORGE W. CORNELL Associated Press Religion Writer Statistics are at an all-time high today for the two "C's" ? Christianity and crime. It's a puzzling parallel. Measured numerically, both elements have risen simultane ously at a rate far faster than the relative growth in popula tion,/ and totals last year hit new peaks ? 112 million church members and 1'^ million ser ious crimes. Why would the proportion of criminal behavior and religious affiliation both be on a sharp upcurve at the same time? Church sources offer various clues to the puzzle, such as wbrld tensions, greater mass concentration of people In cities, the higher rate of mov ing from place to place. But they also wonder why the expanding scope of church es isn't providing a counter balance. "If Christianity is what It claims to bo it cannot escape from a tremendous sense of ac countability in the light of the appalling comparative statis tics," says the Seventh-day Ad ventist Journal, the Review and Herald. For over-all U. S. church membership, the increase has been 28 per cent since 1950, and 76 per cent since 1940. Crime, as reported by the FBI, lias risen 69 per c^nt since 1950, and 128 per cemt since 1940. Church membership now stands at 63.4 per cent of the population, 15 per cent more than 20 years ago. Yet with a bigger share of people going to church., a big ger, share also are courting a Jail pell. Why the seemingly contradictory combination? "Superficial religion." say some. "Inadequate religious education", say others. Or: "Overfized institutions," "wa tered-down preaching," "secu lar influences," "television crime." And a host of other possibilities. "As the nation's religious curve has gone up, the nation's moral curve has gone down," writes Catholic layman John Cogley in the Commonweal. " 'Bigness,' which has af flicted icclesiastical life, may have much to do with it." Methodist Bishop P. Gerald Ensley, of Des Moines, citing general symptoms of a slump in public morality, says "It's quite iironic" that it would come in the midst of a suppos ed religious upturn. "If sackcloth and ashes hre in order, repentance might well begin in the house of God," he says. "For one of the avowed aims of the church is the elevation of character." He suggests a main source of trouble is that education is "In the grip of a humanistic philo sophy" that eschews religion and lacks any firm, moral an chor. Says the Rev. Dr. Robert E. Pitch, of the Pacific School of Religion: "We live today in an age when ethics is becoming obsolete. It Is superseded b? science, deleted by psychology. dismissed as emotive by philo sophy. "The usual moral distinctions are simply drowned in a maud lin emotion in which we have more feeling for the murderer than for the murdered, for the adulter jr than for the betray ed." The editorial in the Review and Herald, by editor Francis D. Nichols, blamss the trouble on a loss of vitality in the churchis themselves, and the abandonment of any emphasis on sin. "Toe ay the word, sin has lost that tremendous moral vivid ness it possessed in a day v. hen men were instructed that the violation of the Ten Com mandments was an offense against a personal God." the editorial declares. "The k nd of religion that is preached in most of the church, es lacks the vital, life-changing power that is the distinguish ing mark of true Christianity." A national Baptist maga zine. th<? Watchman-Examiner, says that violence, sex and crime on radio and television have affected the general popu lace, particularly the young, more than churches can coun teract. "More people are reached by these and other avenues of car nality and sin than by the . 225.000 Protestant preachers in this country in any one week." an editorial says. On the other hand, it also is suggested that a certain sur face piety can make p?ople worse in some ways: instead of better. "There is not only tha fact that every sin of the world crerps into the church, but there is also the fact that rei ligion itself can accentuate sin." says the Rei/. Dr. Rein ho'd' Niebuhr, of Union Theolo gical Seminary. "There is nothing worse than a religious-sanctioned racialism or nationalism which presents itself piously in the name of God. Piety makes for complac ency unless there is a real con tact between God the judge and the human soul." i, STRICTLY PERSONAL By WEIMAR JONES ??I haven't got time." How "often, every day in the week, do you and I say tha^s We complain about It, though somebody had cheate us of time. Yet each of us has exactly the same amount of time as all the rest of us. Each of us. In fact, has all the time there is. And time 1s a strange thing. It is constantly flowing past, constantly being exhausted, whether we vise it or not. But It never really Is exhausted, when today's time is all gone, there's always tomorrow s wait, ing for us. Time really runs out only when life does. Why do we never have enough time? And why does that seem truer today than ever before, when today we have more and ever more time saving devices? In my own case? and I'm probably little different from others, in this ? I've found there are two culprits? and both of "em are me. First of all. I spend a lot of time doing things that don't need doing, or more time doing them than there's any neces sity for. or really doing noth ing. Up town on an errand, for instance, I'll decide It'll soon be time for the mail to be up. so I spend half an hour waiting for that. Or I idly glance at the newspaper, looking at .ev erything in general and nothing In particular. Or I spend five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes, deciding what to do with the time I have on my hands. Even worse. I spend three or four or five times as much time on a dreaded chore than there s any need for. Because its something I don't want to do I postpone actually starting just as long as I can. Then I study it carefully, debating which is the easiest way to start. Then I make elaborate preparations; if it's a writing chore, I change the ribbon on my typewriter and get my desk in order and glance over the newspaper for ideas and won der if there's not some other job that I ought to do first. When my conscience answers that last with an emphatical "no " I sit and look at the blank sheet of paper in my typewrit er a long, long time before put down the first word. Are you like that? Finally. I make a start. What happens then? J. finish the job in a half or a third of the time I've spent dreading it and try ing to find ways to avoid It and getting ready to do it. The tragedy of all this is twofold. The first part of the tragedy is that, while time Is, in a sense. Inexhaustible, it also is limited. We have all there Is, '' but there's only so much. It's much too precious a commodity to be frittered way. The second part at the tragedy is that most of us spend our lives doing not the things we want to do, but, be cause we're always pushed for time, being driven to do the things we dont want to do. And since we never seem to get time to do things when we first have the impulse to do them, and so want to do them, even the things we originally wanted to do have become hated drudgery by the time we get around to them. Yet surely time is something ' to be enjoyed. We are given so much of it so there'll be plenty for us to do all the things we want to do ? or, at least, most of them. If we used time wise ly, life could be a continuing series of pleasant experiences. It's the very fact that time seems to be pushing us. seems to be running away from us, that makes time such a slave driver. The answer, then, is to forget time. If you don't agree, with that, consider the fellow about whom we say. a little tolerantly, "he has no sense of time." He's never hurried. If there's some- ? thing that needs doing or that he wants to do, he stops and does it, right then, no matter what else may be waiting to be done. It never occurs to him to ask himself : "Have I got time?" So far as he's concern ed, watches and clocks, and even appointments, just don't exist. So what happens? You know what happens! He gets more done than the rest of us. More over, he seems to have a lot more fun spending his time than you and I. He's oblivious of time. Para doxically, that gives him more of it. * ? * When I think of a fellow " like that, I say to myself : "He's got the answer: Just forget about time. Hereafter, I'm going to do just that." I say that. Then I look at my watch, note with alarm that "I'm running late again," and complain, "I never seem to have enough time." BORN IX TO 'EM Why We Belong To Parties JIM PARKER in Chatham News What makes a man a Demo crat, or a Republican? Do peo ple who take their politics ser iously join a particular party after a long and diligent study of the history, philosophy and creed of the parties? Some folks might, but the average man doesn't. He's a Republican because his Daddy was before him or a D;mocrat because his folks have always been Democrats. In Chatham and Randolph counties there are any number of people who are descendants of the original Quakers who settled these parts. Almost all, if not all, the Quakers were Re publicans, mostly because of the slavery question. And their descendants today are still Re publicans. even though the slavery question was settled a hundred years ago. This i? not to say that peo ple all belong to the political party of their fathers, or that no one thinks about the issues involved when he affiliates with a party. Some people con sider the matter very care fully and then choose the party which best suite them. But far too many of us are what we are mereiy because of what our fathers were. Dowh East where I was rais ed most folks are Democrats, just as were their fathers. And the reason that their fathers * were in the Democraic party is because the Republican party, after the Civil War, got into the hanes of carpetbaggers and Negroes, with Some coun ties even sending Negroes to the legislature. When the Re publican rule was overtJirown in the late 1800's, many of these folks remained in tha Demo cratic party and their children and grandchildren are there today. TSK! TSK! WHAT'RE , i WE COMING TO? 1 One of the year's most un usual fashion events ? a men's fashion show ? was heralded as art overwhelming success Friday by Menlo Park clothier Jerry Jacobs. Over 260 quests attended the show at the Marie Antoinette, featuring the latest in men's wear. Door prizes were award ed to many Of those attending. Refreshments were served by the Party Givers. "We were told by some skeptics that a men's fashion ' show would flop," Jacob6 said, "but Judfting by the attendance and comments this show was j a complete success." ? Menlo Park (Calif.1 Recorder.