THE YANCEY RECORD
Established July, 1936
TRBNA P. FOX, Editor & Publisher
THURMAN L. BROWN, Shop Manager
ARCHIE BALLEW, Photographer & Pressman
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY
YANCEY PUBLISHING COMPANY
Second Class Postage Paid at Burnsville, N. C.
THURSDAY, 0CT..7, 1965 NUMBER SIX
SUBSCRIPTION RATES $2.50 PER YEAR
Reprinted From THE ASHEVILLE CITIZEN
Schools Unimportant?
Just Ask An Industry
You wouldn’t think it, maybe,
but—
The quality of local school sys
tems is coming more and more to be
a key factor in the selection of plant
sites by U. S. corporations. Local
schools.
These companies have found out
that they cannot attract high-grade
scientific and engineering personnel
to communities that lack good educa
tional facilities. Neither can they train
the kind of employes they want in
poor schools.
The General Electric Company
has a school check-list for prospective
plant towns. It includes such things
as whether the community has a good
long-range plan for providing the
necessary facilities, how well it pays
its teachers, the ratio of pupils to
teachers, relations between teachers
and the community, the educational
qualifications of teachers, school cur
ricula, and the percentage of high
school graduates who enter college
each year.
Celanese Co r p o ration judges
schools in part by the College En
trance Examination Board test scores
made by local students. It also looks
for the presence of an institution of
higher education (at least a junior
college) in the community.
a
When schools lose their accredita
tion, industry begins to shy away. The
WESTWARD
HO! :
By : William L. Ratkburn
A trip along the Oregon
Coast is a refresher course in
iusto y, for here we are re
minded of the Astor family
for whom Astoria, Oregon is
named. You will al.o recall
that the Astors somehow
managed to monopolize the
fur industry in the ear'y days
when beaver were as plentiful
as the buffalo.
Asto ia is situated at the
mouth of the Columbia Riv
er, and all ships coming into
Portland must pass the town.
Some, however, take on cargo
here. But those bound for
Portland sail up the Colum
bia to the confluence of the
Willamette River and thence
to Portland. (The Columbia
does not flow through Port
land ) .
Duval County, Fla., schools lost South
ern Association accreditation a year
ago. Since that time the county has
gained almost no new industry, and
as a result community leaders are
working hard to regain accreditation.
Small point? Big point.
Once a major industry locates in
a community, it often works to im
prove the schools. This has been the
case the General Electric Company at
Louisville, Ky. GE employes helped
last fall to obtain a tax referendum
that would have provided new financ
ing for the city’s schools. When this
failed and the achools were threatened
with loss of accreditation, GE and
other big Louiaville employes lobbied
hard and successfully to get the Ken
tucky legislature to provide emer
gency finandaf for the Louisville
schools.
Other conearna regularly provide
funds to local school systems to make
possible adviiced training of teach
ers and to bay equipment not pro
vided in the Khool budgets.
As education in America becomes
increasingly competitive, good schools
will be of even more importance in
plant location. It costs money to pro
vide top quality education, but the
community that does this will usually
get much more back in increased tax
revenues and payrolls from new
plants. Good schools pay off.
Nea*' Astoria is a monument
marking the end of the Lewis
and Clark Trail. Near this
monument is a museum
where many relics of the past
are displayed, especially those
necessities used by early pio
neers. Mu?h historical data
Is displayed iin this bui ding
which is built of huge fir logs,
some of which reminds us
that it was a Scot by the
name of Douglas who, being
a botanist, classified the large
trees we now call Douglas
Fir.
Another interesting charac
ter who merits more than
honorable mention is Saca
jawea, the Indian woman
who guided Lewis and Clark
ac-oss the Northwest Wilder
ness at which time they map
ped the Northwest Passaie.
When we my daughter,
her mother and I started
out from Portland, Seaside
was our ultimate destination,
but we meandered consider
ed before coming at last to
, "■
. jiyx i'Ti '.ft ■- ti - . . :£' :
Fat Hereford cattle pick
grass along the slope of a
the sea. This being the d y
season, I was able to view the
coastal country In a different
perspective, because it was
during the rainy season when
I first visited along the Ore
gon coast, and much of the
scenery was obscured by tog.
I had previously heard that
the My tlewood growing a’ong
the coast grows no other
r’ ce ci earth except in the
Holy Land. 8o it was interest
ing to see these trees growing
in their natural clime.
At Seaside, we did some
hiking along the trails made
by the Coastt Guard during
Wo dd War 11. For here were
many lookout stations from
which guards kept lookouts
for enemy vessels.
On a high promontory over
looking the sea we watched
incoming breakers splash a
gainst the cliffs and burst
into mist, saw outgoing ships
until they disappeared beyond
the earth’s cu vature.
rich, grassy pasture. Yancey
County has many rich pas
Up Go The Hemlines
One thing T lght now the
world need' is some women
who will tell the fashion de
signers to go take a running
leap into the lake and stay
there r
The world needs some
women to assert their inde
pendence and wear dresses
with hemlines to suit them
selves and not the designers.
We’re getting a bit fed up
with the-e fashion dictator.
Word from fashino centers
is that the designers are in
deed trying to put the hem
lines up so high they might
be worn for belts. One has
gone so far as to put the
length a daring 10 inches
abnve the knee: others are at
eight inches, while others are
anvwhere from one to three.
If it is true, as rome say,
w~men dress to please men,
it’s about time they get bock
to it. Men see nothing attrac
tive in the skin-tight skirts
that seem no longer than a
foot rule, top to bottom. It’s
getting to whe~e a man stops
and stares only when he sees
a woman with a full skirt go
swishing down the street. The
women may call her old
fashion, but not the males.
They find her Interesting.
Is Tho Hot Wttor
Boiling In Russia?
Word from Moscow is that
the Soviet spring wheat har
vest will be 7.9 million metric
tons smaller than last year,
another sign that all is not
going well in the agricultural
world over there.
The spring wheat harvest
Is expected to be only 40
million metric tons.
So no wonder indeed that
the Rus ians are looking to
foreign lands for wheat. In a
few weeks we’ll probably be
Strolling along the strand
we were amused to see chus
taceans seized upon by gulls.
Once we saw a crab that had,
somehow, got turned upside
down and was unable to get
on its feet. A short time later,
after we had walked away,
gulls swooped down and tore
it to bits.
Along the Atlantic Ocean I
have noticed that the trees
keep at a distance f rom the
beach. But such is not the
case sn the Oregon Coast.
Gnarled trees grow to within
a few yards of the surf.
I regret that lack of space
does not permit a more de
tailed picture of this fantas
tic a-ea. But I will be back
next week with an account
of my train ride* eastward
aboard Union Pacific’s City of
rortland.
fure,slope® where both beef
and dairy cattle graze.
RANGERS
RAMBLINGS
By: Helton Carmichael
This week I’m going to de
part from the usual forest
theme of the column because
last week my ramblins took
me to a different kind of for
est the man made forest
of New York City and the
Wo id’s Fair. I was so much
impressed by the 1965 Worlds
Fair that I wanted to share a
litt e of it with my readers.
The impressive thing
to my mind at the Fair was
that the best exhibits were
free, that’s right, free. After
paying a $2 50 adult admiss
ion fee you could spend days
just visaing the free exhibits
shown by business and indus
try, not to mention the exhi
bits shown by states and for
eign countries. The big exhi
bits by industry such as Gen
eral Motors, Ford, General
Electric and others, seemed
to have spared no expense to
give the fair goer a wonder
in' time.
For example: At the Fo’-d
exhibit you rode through air
conditioned darkened tunnels
In new Ford convertibles on
a moving Line which. canned
you back Into time. Marve
lous animated exhibits by
Walt Disney made it seem
you were actually in the time
of the dinosaur. The giants
of another age were right
there around you as you mov
ed along. They moved In life
like actions and roared as if
in real life as you ' passed
them by.
The many other shows and
exhibits we~e all carried out
in taste and accomplishment.
The many buildings, most to
be torn down after the fair
closes October 18th, were con- •
structed as if to be perman
ently Instated, and sure cost
thousands of dollars. Anyone
seeing this magnlflcant ach
ievement of mankind could
not possibly fail to be im
pressed.
I sure was glad to get back
Jto Yancey County though.
Tall as the buildings are they
can’t hold a candle to our
mountains. And you just
don’t know how sweet our
water is until you have tasted
the water New Yorkers have
to drink. Now I know why so
many people from up north
stop along our highways to
lcok they can’t see any
thing where they came from
for the smog. Yep, I’m right
glad to be back but I did en
joy the trip.
selling it to them and ship
ping it in vessels other than
American because the Russ
ians refuse to pay the extra
charges on cargo shipped on
oUr boats.