Editorial Comment
Golden Opportunity
The town of Murphy and the
auirounding area will be miaaing a golden
opportunity if our participation in the
Babe Ruth 16-18 Bate ball League that is
being formed for the first time this year
j| ignored. We have a chance now to
provide athletic training to many boys
?ho do not play football and basketball
in high school, as well as having
organized recreation during the summer
months.
The need for a little league baseball is
definced in an article on the front page
by Scout Advertising Manager, L. D.
(Red) Schuyler, and the purpose and
objective of Babe Kuth 16-18 baseball is
given on page 2.
Fortunately, there is still time left for
Murphy to participate in the program.
However, it is up to each person in the
area that is interested in this type of
program to express their interest before
anything can be done.
All you have to do is write a short
letter to this newspaper saying that you
want little league baseball in Murphy,
sign your name,' and we will see that
your letter gets into the right hands.
American Ingenuity
Fails On Measurements
A congressional committee has been working
two or three years on the prospect of
converting the nation to the metric system of
measurement.
The lawmakers and the citizenry are acting
something like a boy getting a jump on the
season with an eariy-spring swim. He knows he
wants to go in the water, he is sure he will like
it, but it sure is tough to get started.
The cost and awkwardness of the conversion
period are awesome to think about.
Who wants to visualize a beauty queen with
measurements like 93-71-93? That's in
centimeters, of course.
That may have been what the congressmen
were thinking about when they avoided the
issue by authorizing the Secretary of Commerce
to make a study on the feasibility of changing
the metric system.
- ; The idea now is that conversion would be
accomplished gradually over a period of about
30 years, time for a whole generation to adjust.
More than 90 cent of the world population
already measures by meters, liters, and grams,
according to the National Geographic Society.
The only major exceptions are Canada, New
Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.
Even Great Britain, the nation that invented
the inch, is abandoning the so-called English
system. By 1971, the sixpence, shilling, and
?rown will be replaced by decimal coinage
iimilar to ram. Other non-metric British
weights and measures will be converted by
1975.
No one can say that the United States is
' being to hasty about this thing.
George Washington urged adoption of the
metric system. Thomas Jefferson advocated a
foot with 10 inches, arguing that a simple
standard would bring "the calculation of the
principal affairs of life within the arithmetic of
every man who can multiply and divide in plain
numbers."
Most of us know vaguely the peculiar origins
of the odd measurements in the English system.
King Edward II ordered that the inch be
precisely the length of three dry barley corns
laid end to end. King Henry I decreed that the
yard must be the distance between the top of
his nose and the end of his thumb.
Frenchmen, sick and tired of a bewildering
array of weights and measurements after their
revolution, invented the metric system. 'fhagr
created the meter, then believed to be one,
ten-millionth of the distance from the equatdr
to the North Pole.
We know better today.
A meter is 1,650,763,73 times the wave
length of the orange line of isotopic krypton of
mass 86 at 760 millimeters pressure and 15
degrees Celsius (formerly known as Centigrade).
Or, as Americans say, 39.37 inches. (From
the Spartenburg Herald)
Smoking Declines
Five years ago this week the U.S. Surgeon
General's report on the health hazards of
cigarette smoking was published. With it, the
tobacco industry's longtime denial of a
relationship between smoking and health was
effectively shown false. Since then, antismoking
pressures have continued to mount. And in
1968, for the first time since 1964, these
pressures were enough to lessen slightly the
^number of cigarettes sold (526.5 billion, down
"from 527.8 billion in 1967, according to a
-Business Week study.)
?Z But more telling figures are those that show
the number of smokers to be declining. One
Expert estimates there are 1.5 million fewer
smokers now than a year ago. Since there are at
least 3 million more people of smoking age in
the country, this also shows that the proportion
of smokers has dropped again, as it has each of
the past 10 years. In that decade, the
proportion of female smokers increased to
about one-third of all women, while the
proportion of males smoking dropped from 55
to 40 percent.
While the decline in smoking is taking place
in all age groups, it hearteningly is dropping
fastest among teenagers. The National Clearing
House of Smoking and Health reports that only
3 percent of high-school students expect to
take up smoking in the next five years, while 91
percent are aware of a connection between the
habit and one's health.
The antismoking campaigns of private and
government agencies, TV and radio
commercials against the habit, printed warnings
on packages, punitive state taxes on tobacco
products? all have had effect. The tobacco
industry itself, however, admits it has been the
TV and radio antismoking messages that have
hurt them most. Some in the industry even feel
that an outright ban on cigarette commercials
would help sales because it would shut off the
antismoking messages. They feel they could
then spend their $200-million TV budget to
magazines and newspapers and billboards.
The fight against smoking must continue. It
would be unfortunate should President Nixon
fill the Federal Trade Commission vacancy
expected next September with someone not in
sympathy with the FTC's present
tough-on-smoking stand.
Common sense should be enough to rout the
smoking practice in America. Anyone should
know that the inhaling of foreign substances? a
kind of private air pollution? would interfere
with the natural bodily processes. Yet so long
as smoking is represented as offering status or
relaxation, the effort to counter this false
attractiveness must continue.
(From the Christian Science Monitor)
W rite A Letter. . .
Listed below are the addresses for our
senators and district representative. If
you have an opinion about a local or
national issue, do not hesitate to let
them know.
Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
337 Senate Office Building
Washington, D. C.20510.
Senator B. Everett Jordan
6625 Senate Office Building
Washington, D. C. 20510
Representative Roy A. Taylor
1202 House Office BuiMii*
Washington, D. C. 20515
The CHEROKEE
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Dill Gray Managing Editor
Red Schuyler ... Advertising Manager
Jim Morgan .... Production Manager
Ruth Anderson Compositor
Hugh Carringer Compositor
Betty Patterson Bookkeeper
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Barbara Waldrup T ypesetter
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Includa tha state's three par cant salas tax.
In Their Ivory Tower Sizing Up President Nixon .
Around
Capitol Square
By WILLIAM A. SHIRES !?:
RALEIGH? What impressed
observers and lawmakers most
about Gov. Bob Scott's
legislative message was its
scope.
In analysis, it contained few
surprises. There was little in
terms of entirely new proposals
but, if implemented, a great
deal that would be new for the
people of North Carolina.
The tone was forthright and
forward-looking. The time has
come, Scott was saying in
effect, to face challenges of
both today and tomorrow.
"We are reaching a point
where the level of expectations
is rising at a rate that outstrips
our capacity to provide them
without imposing on ourselves
a greater burden of stewardship
to the state," Scott said.
It was a key paragraph and
one which set the tone of the
entire message.
LETTERS fi
EDITOR (J
THANKS TO JAYCEES
Dear Editor,
On behalf of the town of
Murphy I would like to
congratulate the Murphy
Jaycees for their efforts to
obtain translation of WLOS
TV, channel 13, Asheville to
the Murphy translator on Fain
mountain.
The television reception of
this station will be the first and
only North Carolina television
received in the Murphy area.
This will enable us to keep up
with the news and other
happenings of our own State.
We say a big thank you!
Sincerely,
Cloe Moore, Mayor
Town of Murphy
THE POWER OF A WORD
Dear Sir:
In the Scroggs story the
paragraph reads, "The name
Scroggs is now without note in
Scottish history."
It should read. The name
Scroggs is not without note in
Scottish history.
Please bail me out as I don't
want the Scroggs on my neck.
I know my typewriter prints
somewhat dim and I did not
double space.
Thanks for printing the
article.
Very truly,
J.Neal Hall
Burkburnett, Tex.
NEED A TELEPHONE
Dear Editor
Why is it that some of us
that live near Notla and
Bellview can't get a telephone?
I have had my application in
for several months, and some
of my neighbors have had
theirs in longer.
I think anyone with the
money to pay for a telephone
should have it if they want it.
Yours truly
Raymond Tanner
Rt. 2, Murphy
Very Broad Field
The new governor did not Vi
go into great detail about his tl
various recommendations. He c
could not have done so in a u
4,000 word address.
Neither did Scott attempt ji
to spell out fiscal ,S
specifics-how he proposes |i
financing of his administra- a
tion's programs. That will i[
come later in a separate bugdet d
message, probably in February. S
Also he promised to fill in
specific details of his f<
proposats-and even submit
additional ones~in subsequent
messages.
"I will express my views
from time to time on matters. .
that affect our state and our
people." Scott said.
Emphasis On Implementing
What Scott did say in his
initial address to the General
Assembly covered a very broad
and wide field, from creating a
new state department of urban
affairs and constructing an
arterial system of highways of
advocating new campuses of
the Consolidated University
and a start on establishing a
state zoo.
Most of Scott's proposals
were based on earlier
recommendations by study
commissions or on previously
voiced Scott positions.
There had been
conjecture about whether
Scott would, as most new
governors have done, call for a
reorganization of the State
Highway Commission. He did,
and it could not be called
surprising.
Packed With Specifics
Despite lack of detail, the
"state of the State" address
was packed with specific
proposals. In 20 pages Scott
covered a lot of ground in
spelling out his positions.
Some of these that stand
out include:
- ? I m plement major
recommendations of the
special study commissions on
the public schools and higher
education, including
"meaningful strides" toward
raising teacher salaries to the
national average and extending
public school bus
transportation to urban and
suburban children.
-full-time director and staff
for the state's Good Neighbor
Council.
--a policy of appointing
more members of minorities to
state boards and positins and
encouraging such policy at
state and local levels.
??Salary increases and
additional benefits for state
employes.
--Gradual expansion of the
state parks system.
-A "blue ribbon"
commission to study accident
rates and automobile liability
insurance.
-Moving to leadership/in the
field of marine science.
??A reserve fund for
matching federal grants.
-Establishing the State
Board of Education as , the
policy-making agency for the
public schools with power to
appoint the state
superintendent of public
instruction.
??State incentive funds to
match local funds for schools
beyond a basic program.
--Greater emphasis upon
Dcational training relevant to
le North Carolina economy in
ommunity colleges and
?chnical institutes.
--A statewide police
nformation network,
trengthening authority of
ocal governments and
dministrators of public
istitutions to deal with
isorders and disruptions,
trengthen the SBI.
--Implementing of the
?deral Medic-Aid program.
* * ?
All Indianapolis veteran
received the *ven millionth CI
home loan in December 1968.
? * ?
More than 4,250,000 World
War I and U veterans will
receive $236 million in
dividends on their G1 insurance
policies during 1969.
I
? * *
The Kvm mil booth home
loan was guaranteed bv the
Veterans Administration
(luring December 1968.
? ? ?
As of the end of November
1968, 3.3 million GI home
loans with a face value of
$26.8 billion had been paid in
full.
Wild savings
on air conditioning
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vinyl interior!
Body lid* iwoiawjtf
^1
dings ! H
Cool discount
on whitewalls. wheel covers,
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Galauc 500 2-Doof Hardtop
Galaxie500 P
Price reduced $144*
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BURCH MOTORS
MURPHY. NORTH CAROLINA
I'VE GOT
I SOMETHING
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SHOUT ABOUT..
MY SAYINGS
ACCOUNT!
I'm so pleased I want to tell
the whole world about it!
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