North Carolina Newspapers

r7 O ESTABLISHED IN 1885 Oljest North Carolina Newspaper West of Asheville DEDICATED TO MACON County and the Welfare of its Good People v i I V1 m7 ' ,7 PROGRESSIVE-LIBERAL -INDEPENDENT VOLUME XLVI, No. 9 r FRANKLIN, N. C, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1931 $1.50 PER YEAR C1ROWD i MOTO I i i i HIGHWAY BILL APPROVED HERE Macon County Officials And Others Endorse Gardner Plan WIRE DR. ROGERS House Passes Measure for State To Take Over, County Roads Governor Gardner's highway bill, now before the Slate Senate after being passed by the House of Rep resentatives by a vote, of 89 to 16, has the approval of all of Macon county's public officers and a large number of other prominent resi dents, of the county. This was revealed Saturday when the following telegram was sent to Dr. V. A". Rogers, Macon's rep resentative in tlc General Assem bly: "We urge you to - support ad ministration road bill. We believe it to be for the best interest of the people of Macon county." Endorse Bill The telegram was signed by the following: - W. 1). Barnard, chairman of the Board of Commissioners; Walter Gibson, county commissioner; Charles H. McClure, county com missioner; Dr. S. H, Lyle; Sheriff A. B. Slaglc; M, D. Billings, coun ty superintendent of schools Frank 1. Murray, cleik of superior court; C. Tom Bryson, register of deeds; C. V. Teague, road supervisor; C. L. Ingram, tax collector; B. M. Angel, Ras I'enland; E. W. Long, J. R. Morrison; George Patton, chairman of the Macon County Democratic executive committee; A. R. Higdon, chairman of. the Macon County Republican executive conimiUee; H. W. Cabe; A. L. Ramsey, C. 1 Moody; R. I). Sisk, Klias Amnions; W; B. McGuire, T. N. Moses; T. J. Johnston. Governor Appreciative This support brought from Gov ernor Gardner an expression of ap preciation through a letter ad dressed to T. J. Johnston, as fol lows: . , "I have just seen a copy of the telegram signed by yourself and other' leading citizens of Macon county to Hon. W. -A. Rogers, member of the House f Representatives.- "1 cannot tell you how deeply 1 appreciate this splendid manifes tation of confidence and support. "Cordially yours, "O. Max Gardner." Prom the first local leaders have outspokenly approved Governor Gardner's proposal for the state to take over maintenance of county ' .hiuhwavs. but for a' while there was considerable opposition to his plan to reduce the number of' high -way commissioners to five, lest J. (',. ' Stikeleather be displaced as commissioner in charge of. this ana. : However, the governor agreed to an '..amendment to the highway bill providing for six com missioners and a chairman. This -.reassured the Macon county lead ers, for it is regarded likely that Mr. Stikeleather will be reappoint ed. Although the districts will be wiped out under the. bill, it is felt lliat Mr.1 Stikeleather will be in position to look out for this coun ly's interests. Tax 'To Be Raised The gasoline tax would be raised from ive to six cents a gallon, Un der terms of the bill, to take care of the additional expense to the state. It has been estimated that the measure would save the cotin- iirs r.i.nroximalelv $o.(HX).(XX). If the gasoline tax should be in creased and the present highway sysUtn continued, it is estimated that' .Macon's share in the gas tax surplus would be in the neighbor hood of $4S.IKX). A strong fight over the Gardner road idan was predicted in the Senate, especially over' the .pro vision for .working state convicts on the highways. Enemies of the measure have charged that an ef fort is being made to cover up a -deficit. at. the Stat" prison. Slide Nearly Blocks Road to Highlands A rock weighing many tons crashed from a high bank on the Highlands road near Thomp son's camp Wednesday night of last week and, until it was re moved a day or so later, nearly blocked the highway. Luckilly,. no one was passing at the time of the crash. The rock was - about ' as large and many times heavier than an automobile. It brought down with it a big pile of dirt and loose rocks. Travelers have reported that another large rock,' about op posite the lower falls in CuIIa saja Gorge, is a grave peril to all who pass. This rock, which is about 20 feet from the edge of the road bank, is said to have slid over 40 feet within the past year. ENDS TERM AS PASTOR HERE Baptist Church To Do Without Minister For Awhile Dr. W. E. Abernethy, who for the past year has been pastor of the Franklin Baptist church, an nounced to the congregation last Sunday morning that he was no longer their preacher. ' He said the board of deacons had informed him that, for financial reasons, it had voted to do without a pastor for the time being. The. . .veteran minister., who ..is known all over North Carolina as an eloquent preacher and well-read theologian and scholar, told the church members, however, that as long as he remained in Franklin he would be glad to serve the church, "I am a preacher first of all," he said, "and as such it is my business to preach. Although 1 am no longer your pastor, 1 will preach here tonight and shall be glad to do so as long as 1 remain in Franklin." Dr. Abernethy said he had no criticism to make of the board but expressed the hope that the con gregations soon would find itself in position to call a pastor, wheth er they decided to give him an other invitation or whether they voted to call another man. His sermon Sunday morning was based on the text: "On the east three gates; on the south three gates ; on the west three gates, and on the north three gates." Revelation 21 :13. The keynote of the sermon was that there is an opening for every rrfan in God's scheme of things. At the evening service he used Matthew 5:13, "I am come not to destroy, but to fulfill." At the morning service Misses, Gladys Panncl and Jarvicc Lcd ford sang a duet. The B. Y. P. U. met at 7:00 p. m. and carried out their program to the benefit of all present. The W. M. U. will meet at the home of Mrs. R. M. Ledford Thursday afternoon at 3 o'clock. A full attendance is requested. This organization is to. finish a .study course at that meeting. They have been anxious to finish the course before the day of prayer, which is to be held one clay in the first week in March. Blood Hounds To Track Silas Dean's store in Couec township was entered sometime Monday night and goods valued at -.approximately $100 stolen, it was reported to the office of Sher iff A. B. Slavic - More' than half a dozen store robberies . have been reported in the county within the past six weeks and the sheriff and his deputies arc determined to put an end to the series of theivcrics. 1 Shortly after the robbery at Dean's store was reported, the sheriff sent to Buncombe for a pair of bloodhounds. These were taken to the store and soon pick ed up a trail which led them to a URGES BETTER PASTURE LANDS Livestock Specialist Is Heard at Series of Farm Meetings C. G. FILLER SPEAKS County Agent Sloan Nears End of Agricultural Campaign Crop and pasture improvement is the keynote of an agricultural pro gram for Macon county being map ped at a series of farm meetings conducted in various sections of the county by Fred S. Sloan, farm demonstration agent. Mr. Sloan is winding up an in tensive two weeks' campaign of 24 meetings. Today he has meet ings scheduled at Aquone in the morning and Kyfe in the afternoon. Tomorrow he will meet with the farmers of the . Ellijay section at Henry's store at 10 o'clock in the morning, and with farmers in tin vicinity of Highlands at I'ott's store. Last week, the farm demonstra tion' agent was assisted at the va rious meetings by - F. R. Farnham, dairy specialist of North Carolina State college. This week he is be' ing accompanied by C. (r. Filler, beef cattle and sheep spcialist of the State Department of Agricul ture. The farm experts have not been over-encouraging in their expres sions of opinion as to the agricul tural outlook. On the other hand, they have warned the farmers not to expect very large cash returns from their crops for the next few years, pointing out that recovery from the present financial depres sion and overstocked condition of world markets will be slow. First of all, tbey have advised farmers to "farm to live at home," to grow sufficient food and feedsluffs for their families and livestock. Before any progress can be real ized by Macon county dairymen and cattle raisers, according to Mr. Filler, they first will have to im prove their pastures. He expressed surprise that Macon, which claims to be a dairying county, does not pay more attention to its pasture lands. They are among the poor est found in the state, he said, citing figures to show that the average pasture acreage required per head of cattle in this county is seven, whereas it should be only RESIDENTS ASK IMPROVED ROAD TO HORSE COVE A group of Highlands and Horse Cove residents came to Franklin Monday to place before Super-' visor A. A. Wood of the., Nantaha National forest an urgent request for the building of a new road or improvement of the present one from Highlands to Horse Cove. While Mr. Wood gave them 'no definite promise, members of the delegation said following the con ference 'that they felt encouraged. Included in . the group were ''Pro-: fessor T. G. Harbison and Frank Cook, of Highlands; Frank Hill, of Horse Cove, and his 'daughter, Mrs. Helen Norris of Atlanta. Are Used Store Robber house in the neighborhood. It was understood Wednesday that a war rant had been issued for a certain suspect but late last nlght"it had not been reported whether the war rant had been served: Beside the road not far from the sUre a shirt 'and a bottle of whis key were -found. . The goods stolen consisted of shoes, shirts, general merchandise, etc. Within the last few weeks Tom I'ryson's store and Norris' stole have been robbed and a little over a month ago someone entered the Carolina Provision company's ware house, p lank Plans Near Success; $300,000 Deposits 'Frozen' Reopening Now Depends On Signatures of Few Depositors Plans for reopening the Franklin are being pushed Hank .of steadily forward. Wednesday night 1,1 IS2 depositors had signed agreements to freeze their deposits .until October, 10.U. While definite figures were not available, it was estimated that ap proximately $.?(K),(KK) in deposits were covered by these agreements. Success of the J Sank of Frank lin plans now. tests with the few who. have not signed the contracts, according to members of the Coin mitlcc of depositors and stockhold ers in charge of the reopening project.. Replies from 200 depositors who live ' outside the county and who had to be reached by mail are now coining in, daily swelling the amount of "frozen'"' assets, accord ing to Gilmer A. Jones, Franklin attorney who has been, active in circulating the blank contract forms. ;. "Freezing" Necessary The which banks. Corporation Commission has supervision over stale has stipulated that the first and principal requisite for reopen ing the bank 'will be. the . signing' of these contracts. The forms now being circulated have been approved by the commission. It is n-ccs: sary, according to the reopening committee, for practically all de positors to sign the eontiaels. ' Un til this task is accomplished no further steps can be' taken. But when the depositors have signed it is believed that it . will be a matter of only about two weeks, possibly less, before the bank can again open its doors for business. Hard at Work For nearly two weeks a group of 17 men have been devoting prac tically their full time to the Work of reaching the depositors and se curing their signatures to contracts not to withdraw their funds. They have defied the elements'-and mud and gone in automobiles and afoot ti) all sections of the county. Two of them .--Joseph Ashear and Edward S. ' Eaton went through four iniles 'of mud to reach a cer tain depositor. They .secured' his signature to a contract, then asked him how much he had in the bank The depositor 'lohl them $1.50. CoWce township is reported to In leading all others in the number of depositors Who have signed 'all but one. POSTAL VACANCY AT CLAYTON, GA., IS ANNOUNCED Postmaster John.E. Uiiki'uau an nounced Wednesday, that cNauiina tions will be held soon for .the job of postmaster at Clayton, Ga. A statement front Washington said that applications will be closed on March 13. Franklin is among the places-'where the 'examination' may be taken, but only persons jiving in the territory served by the Clay ton postoffiee -are ' eligible to lake the examination, exact date of which , is to be announced later. The Clayton.-postmastership arries a salary of $2,(KW). FORMER MAYOR OF ASHEViLLE KILLS HIMSELF. Former Mayor Gallatin Rob erts of Asheyille, one of the 18 public officials and bankers in dicted by the Buncombe county gland jury last week 'or con fnirncy tr defraud the city and county, committed suicide Wednesday afternoon, accord ing to word brought to Frank lin last night. Mr. Roberts, it was report ed, shot his brains out with a pintol in the Legal Building just ncross the lawv from the courthouse. He was said to have left three notes. Mr. Roberts rescind as mayor of Ardieville shortly af ter the closing of the Central Bank and Trust company re vealed irregularities in the handling of public' funds. Cooperation Urged Committee 0 M O. l 171 1J .1 oaiuruay, . renruary 11, me committee appointed by the depositor! and the committee appointed by the Board o.f Directors of the Bank of Franklin began its work of getting the deposits of the bank frozen in order that the way ;night be made clear for the bank to reopen. It has been just ten working days since the work was undertaken, and in that time almost eleven hundred depositors have signed the contract approved by the corpora tion commission. The committee realized at the out&et that it was undertaking a task of no small moment. Had it not been for the uplendid cooperation re ceived from the public in general, und from a group .of volunteers in particular, the progress which has been made would not have been possible. Men, in some instances have volunteered and have gone .from house to house, in soma cases on foot, making a compelle canvass, their only hope of reward being that the bank might open again, and that business might be restore-d to a normal condition. ' As long as there is a hope for the Bank of Franklin to be reopened, the committee to whom this work was entrusted does not intend to relax its efforts. Still, the question of whether or not the bank will be reopened is a matter to be decided by those who have money on de posit, for unless the deposits' are first frozen, any attempt to reopen the bunk would be time ond effort thrown away. A great many ac counts, an amount, we believe, equaling as much as five per cent of the total amount on deposit, are in the names of persons who reside out side cf Macon countv and cannot be reached, or are in the names of oer- Hons who are dead and no one qualified to sign for them. There are some who are dead and no one qualified to sign for them. There are some who hesitate to sign the contract for the good and sufficient reason that they do not thoroughly understand its legal significance. There ere some who intend to sign the contract sooner or later, but are sim ply putting it of, not realizing that their delay is increasing the work of the committee and those who are so ably' helping it, but that they an- also delaying the reopening of the bank. And there are some, a very few, we believe, who are selfishly declining to sign, hoping that enough of the deposits will be frozen for the bank to be reopened, .ind that they, by failing to Aign the contract, will be enabled to withdraw their money immediately when the bank is opened again. IS we are correctly informed, these people will be sadly disappointed. Each member of the committee, consisting of Joseph Ashcar, C. B. Russell, Dr. W. E. Furr, S. L. Franks, M. L. Dowdle, Ceo. B. Patton, R. D. Sisk and Gilmer A. Jones, will be glad to give any person such information as thfey may desire in regard to the meaning and effect of the' contract. Any communication addressed to either of them will be immediately answered. If you have not signed the agreement, please communicate with one cf the men named above as soon as possible. If you have, please exert every effort to assist us in carrying the work along. .Although a large majority of the depositors have signed, and a large per cent of the deposits have, been frozen, the future of the bunk is yet to be determined to be determined by those who have not agreed to accept the Corporation Commission's terms. . Macon county has, beyond all question, reached its greatest crisis. Both banks arc closed, business is at a standstill, hundreds are without employment and in some sections there are families who are begin ning toi feel the sting o.f want and destitution, a strange thing indeed for our county. But as in any crisis, the burden of the solution of it is placed upon the shoulders of the people at Large. So far they have thrown themuelves wholeheartedly into the task. We sincerely hope that nothing will thwart thorn in their purpose until the task has been completed. Again we ask that you exert every effort to help us carry this work to its completion. Respectfully, THE COMMITTEE. Lawmakers 'Prayer-Proof Says Legislative Writer 25 Million State's Share in Cash Bonus CHARLOTTE, Feb. 25. -Should the compensation legisla tion approved by both houses of Congress become law, it would be possible for No.th Carolina voterins to receive approximate ly $25,000,000 in cash, according to the estimate of J. S. Pittman, of Charlotte, i egional director of the United States Veterans Bu reau. The exact sum coming to Nr:th Carolina veterans would be determined by the number obtaining the full 50 per cent al lowed f..i the fice vidtie of their certificates. OPERATIONS AT FRANKLIN MICA PLANT RESUMED The Asheville " Mica company's I'ranklin j. hint has resnnled opem I i-.us, ri(,( ordiiu; to air announcer merit by . J. V. Koj,er, manager. The jilant reopened the latter part of last- week with X employes at woik. Later, Mr. -.Roper said, it is hoped, that business will justify expansion .of -operations.. When the plant is'-operatinn on. it normal bas is it employs' about 30 nirls and several men. - Statement .. '. r . kmiu committee, ronsislinc or the Not Even Preachers Can Get Action out of Assembly BY CARL GOF.RCH ' KAI.KKJII,' l-'eb. 2.v If you have n't been up to K ul iv.1t diiriliu llie last week or so, yon' oiikh! to tac tile Irip and ywr the legislature, a look-in. The hoys have at last ya warm ed up,' and tli(v-'i (' now nii.sinn e,n all six cylinders, 'lire only thiny on which - thev've...,beeu-.-..ahle t aree. lints far is tlt:i 1 it's (). . K. for them to lake tin if pay checks'. Kach' day's session is o-petied with prayer. The preachers in Raleigh first I lied to (ope with the situa tion hut found it to be -too much f 1 1 1 1 1 1 . Since' then, preacliei-s have l;ec n eoniinn from all parts of the. state, bur, the- legislature seems to be praver' proof. One of these davs" somebody . is noinr; to open' '.hi-' day'v session with a nun, instead of. with prayer, ami then things hi;h bruin, lit happen. nitsini'ss. conditions throughout Vorth Carolina' have improved a f.reat deal during- the last, two months. I'p until the time that the legislature met, everybody could talk and think of nothiiiR 'except hard times. Since then, however, attention has been focused almost exclusively .-.on the General Assem bly. As a result, business has been moving along much more briskly. (Continued on page six) 400 GEORGIANS VISIT FRANKLIN Nearly 100 Automobiles Take Part in Good Will Caravan FROM GAINESVILLE Visitors Given Hearty Welcome By Mayor George Patton Practically the whole populace of I'ranklin and scores of persons from other' parts .' of the, - county throiu'ed the business section Tues day afternoon to welcome ths motorcade 'of 75 to HKI automobile whieh came here from (iainesville. da., in celebration of the opening of the last link of the paved high w.iy from Atlanta to Asheville, via Fiaiiklin. Known as the" Short Route," be can e. it is 57 miles shorter be tweeti Asheville and the Georgia nieiiopolis by tl$s road than, by any other, the new highway marks the - completion of a solid stretch of paving from Quebec, Canada, tu M iauii, Florida. ' -400 Visitors The motorcade attracted the larg est crowd that Franklin has seen in many months, despite the fact thai the sky was overcast all morn ing and it began to drizzle just about the time the first ears reach ed here. It . was estimated that nearly 4UU Georgians took part in the caravan. Mailt street and the Sniare were cleared to allow park ing space for the visitors, but when they arrived, together with a con linenl of local people .who mo tored down to Clayton to greet theni, the streets were clogged with a jam of automobiles and'tnill ing crowds. However, I'olice Chief Hob Henry handled the situation like a New York traffic officer and tury thing went off orderly. Welcomed by Patton The visitors were extended a In arty welcome to , I'ranklin by Mayor George 15. Patton. A. S. Hardy, president of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce- and editor of the Gainesville News, and Col. Hammond. Johnson, lieutenant gov-l-rnor of (ieorgia Kiwauis, respond ed. . "The dedication of this highway, ' Mr. Hardy declared, "means that a great part of the tourist traffic will be diverted through north Georgia ami this, part of North Carolina. The road now provides a direct connection through1 the Shaiiandoah Valley to Washington and the east, and also serves as a link for western tourists through Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago, De troit, Cleveland and Buffalo." W. ('. Thomas of Gainesville led tin parade of automobiles in the pace-maker's car. Next came a bus carrying the Riverside Military Academy's band, a group of boyg who .enlivened the occasion with their' music at every place they stopped.. Also in the motorcade were a number of girls from Bre nail College. . ' Stops Made On its way north from Gaines ville the good-will party made stops at Baldwin, Cornelia, where re freshnieiils were served; Demorest, Clarkcsville and Clayton, where the visitors were entertained at lunch ion. " ' About a dozen automobiles froni Franklin went down to Clayton to meet the visitors and lead them across the ; North Carolina line. Among those in this unofficial re ception committee were; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence S. Brown; W. C. Higdon, Fred Higdon with Mr. Fredcrieks, of 'Atlanta;'.' Mr. and Mis. Lyles Harris; Mr. William " (Continued on page six) To Entertain Rotary Club at Ritter Plant ' Franklin Rotarians wilt be the guests of Mr. Agee, manager of the Ritter Lumber company's plant at Rainbow Springs, at a dinner to night in the company's clubhouse. This will take the place of the regular weekly luncheon usually held at the Scott Griffin hotel.