ESTABLISHED JULY, USB UtENA P. POX. EDITOR A PUBLISHER lOSS. ZOE YOUNG. ASSOCIATE EDITOR THURMAN L. BROWN. SHOP MANAGER ARCHIE & BALLEW, PHOTOGRAPHER A PERSSMAN PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY YANCEY PUBLISHING COMPANY SECOND CLASS POSTAGE PAH) AT BURNSVILLE, N. CL THURSDAY, JULY 17, IMF NUMBER FORTY-SEVEN SUBSCRIPTION RATES $3-00 PER YEAR OUT OF COUNTY *4.00 PER YEAR Scene From Top 0’ The Hill By: Jack Kelly I have about reached the con clusion that what this Country needs is to get rid of one Heck of a lot of our “do-gooders”. Not only our Governmental brand but particularly the kind who write the syndicated artic les for newspapers all over the USA. Quite recently, I read an article, two, as a matter of fact, by one of our better known and more readable columnists, who, properly, has gained quite a fol lowing. I’m writing about Jim Bishop. He’s the chap who wrote the Lincoln’s Last Day, Christ’s Last Day, President’s Last Day, and many other tomes. In that type of a book, you must make allowances for a bit of truth-stretching and author interpretation. His book on Lin coln was, on the whole, accurate and most readable. The book on our Savior, well, let’s face it, it was an impossible task for any author. Actually, it was a confession that the material iust was not available to a resear cher so, Mr. Bishop compounded the various facts of which we are all aware, then he present ed them in dialogue form be tween non-existent people, as if he had a pipe line to the actual scene on the actual occasion. No complaint if I say "if”— he had presented it as a fiction al work. But he didn't. He at tempted to palm it off as a re searched set of facts. As a re sult, it was not a good book, nor was it good reading, because it left you with a sense of empti ness He had not furnished what you had a right to expect. On his book about a day with President Johnson, a much bet ter reviewer than myself by stating that with friends like Bishop Johnson didn’t need ene mies. This volume was one of the most uninteresting “who cares” volumes anyone ever read. His latest, well, it’s just a compendium of the newspaper clippings, only not as well writ ten. All of this, I could have withstood, but, now his column, which I always liked, has taken a different slant. Not too long ago he wrote one about his mother-in-law. It gave the impression that he was going to praise the olu gal but, after you got into it, you realiz ed he was ripping her to shreds. Now anyone, male or female, who has ever married, tias hundreds or even thousands of gripes, all legitimate, about a mother-in-lawlaw, but, to put it down in writing for money, seems to be a bit on the crass side. That was the article that made me wonder if my favorite columnist had changed. All of my doubts were settled on that •core when, in the latter part of June when I was up in Maine, I read his "do-good” article on Negroes in Harlem, the gigantic colored section of Manhattan in New York. As a younger man, I worked in Harlem as a Federal Investi gator, and I know the area and the people. Bishop really pbon ied on this particular article. He described Harlem as a “tor ture.” Then he stated that IK years ago, when he lived there, “we didn’t have the gray slant of rain then.” Just what a gray slant of rain would be, I frankly don’t know. I do know that if they have one now in Harlem, they also had it 35 years ago. Then, he waxed poetic. He wrote, of his recent visit, “There was a moon over the clothes lines. And gin. And watermelon laughter.—” Now, all of us have seen a moon over a clothesline but gin—l don’t believe it. As to watermelon laughter I don’t get it. As to its being over a clothesline, I don’t believe it. After a few more lines that im pressed me that Harlem used to ba pretty good for the colored brother he tells me that all of that “misery has boon UwUd for despair.” Then he tells me that heroin is delivered by baloons attached to a bicycle, which, on the face of it is ridi culous. Besides, I don’t care too much for people who use heroin. His finest and, to me, most non understandable statement was “The gray rat will learn to work an automatic elevator.” If you understand it, please don't explain it to me. Next he goes into some balderdash about one Negro here and another placed here or there in a big job, but tle states “This country is still white Protestant. It pits 90 per cent against 10 percent. The 10 percent cannot win—.” From his research, Mr. Bis hop must know that this Coun try is approximately 25% Cath olic, 5% Jewish, and 70% Pro aestant. He also should know that the 10% of the population that is Negro is about 95% Pro testant. So I fail to see how ha can blame the Protestant popu lation of our Country for the Negroes’ plight. I will not be lieve that our Country ever Boas up on any proposition on a 90- 10 basis. We are too big to gen eralize. We have too many de grees of any side mentioned: rich and poor; Republicans and Democrats; capital and labor; white and black; Catholic and Protestant, etc. If Bishop doesn’t know that a lot of Protestants voted for Catholic Kennedy he is hopeless. Bishop is a “do gooder” I can do without. Votorm’s Information EDITOR'S NOTE: Below are authoriative answers by the Veterans Administration to some of the many current questions from former servicemen and their families. Further informa tion cn veterans benefits may be obtained at any VA office. I Tn* last of W vvowouoauu; wo- I ThS OAIOOSiJ ■ y ? u „ AM Can I I AA ° V ® OUT Off TMiS I 1,0 . 1 PUACS AN'3*T THAT I ■ ft SmAui, APa»T/v»6mT^ K _ -TO Hearing On Parkway To Be Held WASHINGTON U. S. Rep. Roy A. Taylor has announced that a hearing has been sched uled for 9:45 a. m., July 28, on Uhis bill and companion bills to extend the Blue Ridge Parkway at Atlanta. The hearing will be before the National Parks and Recreation Subcommittee of the House In terior Committee. Taylor is chairman of the subcommittee and will preside. Witnesses will include Con gressman Taylor, Phil M. Lan drum