THE ELKIN TRIBUNE
Published Every Thursday by
v.I.K PRINTING COMPANY, Inc.
Elkin, N. C.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1934
Entered at the post office at Elkin, N. C., as
second-class matter.
C. S. POSTER President
H. P. LAPPOON Secretary-Treasurer
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, PER YEAR
In the State $1.50 Out of the State, »2.00
NationalSPEditorialAttociation
i ak=m€lTlߣR • • 1934
Of course if the textile workers just must
strike, regardless, they will find September Morn
a better time than the dead of winter, even
though they passed up the blackberry season.
Greensboro News says: "It's beginning to
appear that George Ross Pou has definitely re
placed Odus Mull, and then Will Neal, as the man
who is always mentioned."
Tobacco sales are reported to be averaging
almost double what they were this time last year
in some markets, which leads us to hope that
maybe, come Christmas time, Santa Claus will be
able to make his rounds with less embarrassment.
The Highway Toll
According to figures submitted in the report
made by the Motor Vehicle Bureau, four hundred
and fifty-five lives were sacrificed in North Car
olina's magnificant highways during the first
seven months of the present year. Drunken,
reckless and hit-and-run drivers are charged with
most of this toll, while simple carelessness and
crave of speed on the part of the motorists fur
nish cause for the balance.
The records show that drunken drivers were
responsible for seven deaths; speeders slew six
teen; recklessness resulted in seventeen fatali
ties and five lives were lost in grade-crossing
mishaps; seven children were struck down while
at play, four of them being the victims of hit
and-run varmints, not yet made to account for
their crime.
These fatalities are by no means the only
loss. There must be added the injuries that did
not prove fatal and the material loss involved,
and these present abundant reasons why * we
should be pulled up with a jerk.
We have this long list of fatalities, injuries
and damage to property because the motorist has
not yet grasped the meaning of his responsibili
ties. He refuses to drink his liquor and remain
from under the steering wheel; he does not con
cern himself with what or who is around the
bend or across the brow of the hill; he does not
place the proper value on the lives of little child
ren; he is not going anywhere in particular, but
he craves speed and is in a powerfdl hurry to get
there.
Until motorists in general desert their pres
ent frame of mind, nothing much can be done
about it unless we provide a driver's license law
with teeth —one that will keep his toe off the
accelerator after he has once proved his reckless
ness.
Showmanship
Coleman W. Roberts, presiaent of the Caro
lina Motor Club, paraphrases Irvin Cobb's state
ment that "all North Carolina needs is a press
agent" by saying that "all North Carolina needs
is showmanship." It would take a lot of defining
to determine the difference in the two statements,
because very little extets, except that the activi
ties of the press-agent is only succeeded by those
of the showman, which maybe is what Mr. Rob
erts is driving at.
"If California had some of the things that
exist in this state, the entire world would know
about it," says Mr. Roberts, and that, we take it,
would be the job of Mr. Cobb's press-agent. "But
when the world in turn started its trek to see
these things, the visitors would find them dis
played with all the fine points of showmanship,
the good points played up and the bad ones hid
den."
He points out that because of lack of show
manship we are allowing vast stretches of the
finest beaches in the world to remain with only
a few fishing shacks to mark their human in
terest; we haven't even made adequate arrange
ments to accommodate the people who will natur
ally come to the newly opened national park, even
in the absence of ballyhoo and invitation.
Mr. Roberts is eminently right in his con
clusions, and it might be added that good show
manship could profitably be employed to other
than tourist interests, important as the passing
visitor is to any community.
» We are too complacent and self-satisfied. We
make the best furniture in the world, and Ship it
all over the United States, but when we go to buy
a living room suite we do not even notice that
it was made hundreds of miles beyond the State
border, because no showman has pointed out per
fectly good reasons for looking, for a North Car
olina label. It is the same way with countless
other things ranging all the way from shirts to
threshing machines.
The farmer too, is suffering from lack of
showmanship. His potatoes are marketed with
out selection; his butter is n»t- guaranteed as to
freshness; his products are not attractively
packaged, and he sees customers purchasing Cal
ifornia and Florida asparagus tips and carrots,
because they are sized and ribbon-tied, while his
fresher and better products are passed up because
they are unwashed and dumped in the basket in
a harum-scarum sort of way.
There is abundant room for showmanship in
every line of industry in North Carolina, but we
are sot in our ways and probably will continue to
wait for some enterprisinor Yankee to come and
point the way. *
• Fair Tax Resolves
It is not too late to refer to the recent first
annual convention of the North Carolina Fair Tax
Association, meeting at Sanford. This organiza
tion is dedicated to a commendable purpose, and
its progress should be of interest to all of us.
The conventiori resolved: "That we intensi
fy our campaign of education and organization
throughout the State, giving particular attention
to the formation of county units which may work
for better and more economical local government
and taxation . . . That we use our influence to
check the trend toward centralization of govern
ment and power at Raleigh, and to restore to the
people of our counties and municipalities the right
to self-government and control of local affairs
All of which is within the providence and
purpose of the Association's pronouncement when
it was organized, which was to "foster, promote,
encourage and otherwise awaken an interest in
governmental affairs and functions, directing
particular attention to matters of taxation and
economy in government."
Yet in another resolution the Association
goes on record as opposing the proposed new con
stitution for the State of North Carolina, which,
to our way of reading it, strikes out vigorously
for many of the things that the Fair Tax group
is fighting for.
Excessive taxation is admittedly the result
of extravagant spending by state and local units,
which under the old constitution are permitted to
go unhampered. Under the old constitution, the
State has accumulated about the largest per cap
ita debt in the United States, and practically all
of it without popular vote. Under the revised
constitution the debt making power of the legis
lature is severely curtailed. The same applies
to county and local units. The proposed new
instrument provides for a better general system
of taxation, homestead exemption a uniform sys
tem of inferior courts that are now hopelessly
overlapping and costly.
Just what danger there is in the proposed
new instrument prepared by unbiased and
thoughtful citizens, the Fair Tax Association does
not point out. There may be good and sufficient
reasons why the old constitution should be pre
ferred over the new, but they have not been con
vincingly presented, and the Fair Tax Association
is aligning itself with a group of selfish politi
cians who are appealing to the prejudices of the
voter through the cry of wolf. And that is not a
sign of future good health.
In resolving against the absentee ballot law
and calling for its abolishment, the Association is
on common ground with thinking North Caro
linians, who are not seeking political preferment
and who would have honest and dependable ma
chinery for registering the will of the citizens on
any subject.
The Association has a man's size job on its
hands in its effort to lift the sales tax from the
shoulders of the taxpayers in this State, and in
the meantime it could well leave some of these
other matters ifor future resolves.
Our Interests Are Pooled
The fact that definite decision has been made
to route the great scenic parkway through North
Carolina as far as Blowing Rock, might mean to
some of us that that is as far as our interest lies.
Having come thus close to our own front yard,
we may make the mistake of letting other selec
tions fight their own battle.
As the Asheville Citizen points out, the
resources of. North Carolina are more nearly
pooled than in any other State, because of tax
policies, school and highway programs to which
this state is committed as a whole.
It is plain then that what happens to * help
or hinder one section is reflected in others; a
pinch at one point brings something more than
sympathetic pains at all others.
While piedmont and eastern North Carolina
have received some aid from the federal govern
ment in working out the salvation of these sec
tions, western North Carolina still relies upon
the tourist industry for the main support. It
has been the chief reliance of that section for
many years, and by the very nature of things
will have to remain so.
To divert the course of the parkway from
Blowing Rock into Tennessee for entrance into
the Smoky Mountain Park, when by every kind
of sensible reasoning it should include Asheville
and other North Carolina points along its ap
proach, would mean that tourist traffic with its
obvious possibilities would be reduced to a min
imum. The people of North Carolina as a whole
are or should be interested in seeing that this
injustice is not done.
Tennessee statesmen, or should we say poli
ticians, are pointing boastfully to the amount of
money that the government has poured lavishly
into that state through emergency grants and
allotments in recent months; they are asking fur
ther support of the voters on the basis that they
will continue to deliver, i *
We would not take from Tennessee one iota
of the joy that has come from this national fav
oritism, but we do deplore the tendency over
thsre to hog the shovfr. That part of Tennessee
which her leaders would have the route traverse,
as an entrance to the Smoky Mountain park, has
never been a resort section; conversely it may be
stated that for almost half a century, the resort
counties of Western North Carolina have been
bending every energy to bring this wonderful
section to the attention of the nation. Are tliey
to be robbed of the fruits of their labor by am
bitious politicians who have already received pa
ternalistic preferment from the government at
Washington ?
If this is to be a great scenic parkway, then
it should be charted a course that provides
scenery; if one of its purposes is to provide iem
ployment to individuals and industry, then it
should be routed through at state that the govern
ment has neglected rather than through Ten
nessee where it has poured fourth its bounty
unsparingly.
The tourist counties of Western North Caro
lina need the help of all of us in preventing this
injustice; it is not their fight alone although
they are having to bear it.
THE ELKIN TRIBUNE, ELKIN, NORTH CAROLINA
How About A Labor Day for Ma? — by A. B. Chapin
WEB l6HOlK2Etty 'V '
MRS. E. W. HOLT
TAKEN BY DEATH
Mrs. Drucilla Hurt Holt, 46, wife
of Emory W. Holt, of the Union
Cross community, died Saturday
night in the Mount Airy hospital
following a surgical operation three
days prior to her death. The de
ceased was a daughter of the late
Mr. and Mrs. John Hurt, of Rusk,
and was an esteemed woman in her
community.
Funeral services were conducted
Monday morning at 10 o'clock at
Salem Fork church by Rev. D. G.
Reece and Rev. Zebedee Adams. In
terment was in the church cemetery.
Mrs. Holt is survived by her hus
band and the following sons and
daughters: Otis, Walter, Harvey,
Victoria. Viola and Vena. ,
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|R. L. Church, Mgr. Phone 11 Elkin, N. C.
New Piano House Now
Open In Winston-Salem
The J. R. Stackley Piano House,
catering to retail and wholesale trade
has opened at 534 North Liberty
street, Winston-Salem.
Mr. Stackley, formerly a sales
manager for R. J. Bowen Piano Co.,
has covered this territory for 14
years. At one time he was regarded
as the youngest wholesaler in the
United States.
In addition to the Liberty street
store he will open a wholesale ware
house and show-room for repair,
tuning and reconditioning pianos on
North Main street.
According to the management, the
store will carry a general line of
pianos from the best known and
Thursday, August 30, 1934
finest quality to the satisfactory low
price instrument. Mr. Stackley has
just returned from a two week stay
in New York city, where he pur
chased 100 new and used pianos,
players and grands. Incidentally, he
studied music at the Wisconsin Con
servatory of music.
ROOSEVELT CRITICAL
President Roosevelt Friday night
beckoned the average man and wom
an away from the newly formed
American Liberty League designed
to enlist 4,000,000 property owners
in critical examination of the new
deal. He believes it does not go far
enough to protect the rights of all
the people.
The North Pole is about 13 miles
nearer the earth's center than the
equator.