Editorial Comment Voters Verdict The voters have spoken - there will be no local one-cent sales tax in Cherokee County. Last week we gave editorial endorsement to the tax, admittedly in a lukewarm, half-hearted manner. Our support was not perhaps what it should have been for the very idea goes against human nature. Who can stand up boldly, flags flying and bands playing, and say "Come on boys, let's all march together down to the courthouse and vote a tax on ourselves"? But maybe we should have. The only people who could see the real need for a local sales tax were the local politicians in this county and politicians are always suspect. They wanted another source of revenue to take the burden off the property owners and many of them will lay their heads on the political chopping block in the future when they raise property taxes, increases which might have been staved off by passage of the local sales tax. It was not an issue we could preach about with fervor, proclaiming it as the final cure-all remedy. It is our considered opinion that if local government needs, for example, $100 from you as a taxpayer, it will get $100 from you. Your only choice, as we see it, is to say which pocket or pockets the money will come from. Cherokee County has no liquor stores, as many other counties do, and it has now voted against having a sales tax, which others will have. Its source of revenue will remain the property tax and all support for government will come from one pocket, the whole $100, as opposed to the $90-$10 or $85-$15 split which might have been seen with the addition of a sales tax. A raise in the tax rate will come soon, local officials say it is inevitable. And the raise will be quite visible, a raise in property taxes, more coming out of the one pocket. We think it would have been easier and less painful to pay another penny on the dollar but you voted otherwise. So be it. Getting The Mails Through That's perfectly all right about neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom staying the mails, but the real challenge is getting an improved postal service through Congress. The Nixon Administration and the Johnson Administration agreed on the need for a complete overhaul of the postal operation - specifically the placing of the mails into the care of a government corporation, thereby relieving Congress of the year-to-year worry, and the patronage, and maybe even introducing improved business methods. But the other day the House Post Office Committee filed by only one vote to dispatch the plan to the House floor. Actually, the vote was 13 to 13, but committee rules say a tie means defeat. Postal unions have fought the corporation idea bitterly, fearing a loss of the powers they have with Congress, which is working on postal changes within the framework of the present setup. Postmaster General Winton M. Blount declared after the defeat of the corporation plan, "I am concerned that some members of the committee continue to ignore the will of the over-whelming majority of the voters in their own districts, as demonstrated in poll after poll." Neither snow, nor rain, nor Congress . .. - Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution. More Silly Millimeters Have you read any good cigarette packs lately? In addition to the health warning now required. Rep. James A. Byrne, D-Pa.. wants to compel tobacco companies to put a fire hazard warning on the pack, too. It would read: "The smoking of cigarettes is a dangerous fire hazard which results in hundreds of deaths and many millions of dollars in damage each year. You are urged never to smoke in bed or when in a drowsy condition and to be absolutely certain that each cigarette, before it is disposed of, is completely extinguished." Good advice, but does Congressman Byrne say how all that printing can fit On the present size package? And here we thought cigarettes had gotten about a long as they could. Roanoke (Va.)Times Goodnight Chet World-weary Chet Huntley has looked for some years as though he were ready to lay down his script and contemplate man's folly; as if he were looking at wars and disasters and neighborhood squabbles from the wrong end of a telescope. His tone and inflection strung the words together for the effect of historic perspective. It seemed to reduce the problems somewhat, for Chet was so weary of them, and so detached, one felt that surely even the newest crisis could not be that final doomsday or else he would be at least a little agitated. He seemed about the safest thing on television, for he never wavered. He tried to smile or chuckle now and then with David Brinkley, but one could tell it was forced. He really was too weary with it all. Chet knew that this too would pass, for it had passed before. Worry not, viewers. When he finally lays down his burden, we will miss his tolerant, reassuring goodnight. - Miami (Fla.) Herald Space Spy The news dispatches from Moscow say that the Soviets have put three spacecraft into orbit in order to build the first space platform. We wonder. That third spacecraft was probably sent up by the secret police to keep watch on the other two. Winston-Salem Journal The CHEROKEE SCOUT y/ and Clay County Prt&r OFFICES IN MURPHY, N. C. - PHONE AREA CODE 704-837-5122 ESTABLISHED JULY 1889 JACK OWENS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER BOB SLOAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Wally Avett . Managing Editor Red Schuyler Advertising Manager Jimmy Sifnonds Production Manager Lonnie Britt Pressman Ruth Anderson Compositor Hugh Carringer Compositor Joanne Hedrick Typesetter Maudie B. Alexander Typesetter Betty Patterson Bookkeeper Mattie Palmer Society Editor Charles Taylor Cameraman Published every Thursday at Church Street . Murphy, North Carolina ? 28906 Second Class Postage Paid at Murphy, North Carolina $4.12 One (I) Year in Cherokee and Clay Counties ALL OTHER AREAS I Year $6.1 6 - 6 Months $3.50 abacriptions delivered In North Carolina Include the state's three per cent sales tax Lightning Rod Around Capitol Square Br WILLIAM A. SHIRES RALEIGH - Gov. Bob Scott has changed his mind on the entirely "open door" policy in state government which he promised, as a political candidate, to implement. Now, as governor since last January, he feels that executive sessions -? meetings of certain boards and commissions behind closed doors - are necessary in order to be effective. Executive sessions, closed meetings, are repugnant to the press which regularly criticizes and castigates the practice. It was believed, on the basis of Scott's campaign promise, that most if not all of the previously closed doors would be opened - to the press and public while public business was being discussed and decided upon. Scott was asked this week whether he felt meetings of the University of North Carolina trustees' executive committee in private were necessary. "Yes, I do," Scott said. OPEN ? The fact is that instead of often doors, there has been more so-called secrecy, more "executive session" activity and less press and public access to government officials, including Scott, than during previous administrations. The governor has not been as available to the press as his predecessors. Newanen covering the state political beat usually were admitted to see Govs. Terry Sanford and Dan Moore in their offices to ask questions Voice In The Wilderness Is it so hard to conceive that God talks to man? Is it not an association bom of familiarity in prayer and meditation? Do y/e not talk to our physical family when we wish to communicate? Then why is it so hard to accept the fact tht God, who has all under His control can talk to us? All He needs is a receptive behicle, made pure through the desire to perform good works, and to clear this denser dimension with thoughts that will clarify the path to enlightenment. If we follow the teachings of the Bible and interpret them correctly we will in no time begin to live a life conducive to this arrangement. The door of perception, long lain dormant due to misuse, needs to be oiled with the will of action and to be opened with the determination to perform in the manner of righteousness. It is not only left to the few who develop extra-sensory perception to receive this bounty, it can be accomplished by all who are willing to do that which is necessary in order to be able to accomplish this, and that is study and meditation. The Cherokee Humane Society meets every thtrd Tuesday of the month at the Power Board Building in Murphy at 7:30p.m. Won't you please join us(? fid get private background interviews upon request. Sanford frequently would invite inquiring reporters to lunch, then light a cigar and ?nswer any range of questions. u,n Moore enjoyed the company of newspapermen on all occasions. In fairness, so does Bob Scott. If he has been more secluded and "unavailable" it may be because of his aides mther than Scott himself. They have guarded lines of questioning arbitrarily. The governor's press office in the Capitol has been a relatively idle and infrequently visited place because it Produces little if anything of news value. . 4 te \i ? UNTYPICAL - This situation is not really typical of Bob Scott. As lieutenant governor - and prior to his election - Scott was extremely friendly to the news corps. His doors were open. He would grant spot interviews. He would invite newanen to accompany him on trips He would get a group together for lunch at a favorite oyster bar. The rapport was good. From his close association Scott learned that the chief concern of the newspapermen covering state government was limited, arbitrary accea to sources of information and the practice of holding "executive sessions" CHANGED - What has changed? Fink, perhaps, Scott does not realize the attitude warned by his top aides and staff members toward the press There have been reports of sharp differences of opinion, dispute and jealousy among those who surround the governor's office. Some of these feel that they have no real authority to answer or to relay questions and if so they ?re mm figureheads Others feel they must screen all questions Others have decided that the governor usually is too, busy to see reporters Some of these aides arrange the governor's schedule and have managed to include a press conference on an average of leas than one a month since last January. REASONS - In addition Scott apparently has accepted the advice of administration sides and other advisors that executive sessions of certain boards and commissions are "?cssaary and advisable. When asked, Scott said the reasons are that there should PAGE 4 THE CHEROKEE SCOUT AND CLAY COUNTY PROGRESS MURPHY, N. C. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6,1960 be free discussions of individuals. In the case of the University trustees, he said, they must discuss positions, acquisition and other items which might be entirely restricted or jeopardized by premature publicity. It appears, at this point, that more and more of these boards and commissions have seized upon these and other reasons to uphold the practice - now becoming a tradition - of closed sessions. But it all remains the public's business, whether the public knows it or not SENATOR SAM ERYIN * SAYS * WASHINGTON - - Much criticism is being directed at Congrem (or not acting more swiftly on thirteen regular money bills which fund governmental activities for the fiscal year which began July 1. This is not at all unusual, since this is the season when those who need Federal funds to operate programs want some assurance about the continued funding of projects. Since only two of the thirteen appropriations bills had reached the President's desk in late October, governmental agencies have been operating on the basis of authority given under a continuing money resolution. This permits activities to continue on the basis of the previous year's appropriations until the regular money bill for the agency can be enacted. With the current fiscal year about 1/3 completed, the question arises as to why appropriations are not enacted by July 1, the