Editorial Comment
Blueprint For Progress
The Cherokee County
Commissioners, in their meeting here last
week, adopted an advisory report by
state planners for laying sewer and water
lines from Andrews through the valley to
Murphy, a 20 to 30 year program.
In conjunction with a planned
four-lane Appalachian highway through
the valley, water and sewer lines will be a
glittering asset in attracting more
industry. The commissioners can see the
possibilities and heartily approved the
plan. So do we.
The detailed report of the State
Planning Task Force will be printed
sometime in February or March, officials
say, and at that time will be distributed
in this county. It will probahly be talked
about by many groups and written about
in this paper in the months to come.
This blueprint for progress may be
followed to the letter - this county has
tasted some of the fruits of industry
in recent years and a little momentum
has been built up. However, it may also
be torn apart by the silly, schoolgirlish
rivalry between Murphy and Andrews.
A rivalry, within the bounds of good
sportsmanship, can add spice to an
athletic contest. But a bitter rivalry
between two towns, especially two
towns in the same county, is costly to
everyone. And it is seen far too often,
even among community leaders who
should know better - 'I wouldn't shop
there' or 'I don't even like to go through
there,' just because the speaker feels it is
a case of Us and Them. It is not - it is
We, Cherokee County, and what benefits
one will, to a degree, benefit us all. We
will progress faster and easier by working
together, in the same direction, rather
than fighting against each other.
The current hospital situation is a
case in point. We've said it in private
conversations, well say it in print -
Cherokee County, as a whole, would
have benefited more if a new hospital
had been built in a central location
somewhere near Marble. It could have
been called Tri-County Memorial, or
^ snmotKinc " u i* i.? _
been, with Murphy and the southern end
V of the county joining Andrews in seeking
federal funds, even larger than the
present District Memorial hospital. It
could have been a landmark, offering
patients from this entire area a variety of
medical services which neither town will
be able to afford on its own. Now,
however, the time has passed and a large
county hospital is just a pipedream.
Andrews has a hospital and Murphy,
facing a crisis in medical service, will
make some sort of arrangement.
The state planners, in their report,
note that the valley between the two
towns will grow in population naturally
between now and the end of this
century. But they predict that the
growth will be much faster if their plans
for a water and sewer system are carried
out. The rivalry, the sectional feelings,
will have to be put aside if this is to be
accomplished because it will take several
bond issues and taxpayers will not
approve bonds if they feel they are for
the sole benefit of the other end of the
valley.
We would like to see the program
implemented, as soon as possible. The
state planners' timetable calls for
completion of the project by the year
2000. We wish it were ready tomorrow,
to spur growth in the valley now.
Perhaps the program can be accelerated,
it will be up to the people. And we
believe one possibility will be the
establishmant of a Citizens Committee,
made up of people from both towns and
the valley between, to study the program
in detail, explain it to citizens in their
respective areas and guide it to
completion. Regional commissions will
also have to be formed to operate the
water and sewer systems and collect the
user fees which will pay for them.
The valley may grow and prosper
with new plants and good jobs putting
needed money into the county economy
or we may just sit here, fighting and
squabbling among ourselves and go
plodding toward the 21st Century.
Whether the water and sewer lines are
laid in 10 or 12 years or in 30, or 40, or
of oil . m mm Uaw A ? mmftrnj VCT <UkJ
voters. It's up to you.
In Defense Of Press
In some degree the American press (all
kinds) is guilty as charged of nearly everything
in the book. It is rich, powerful, influential,
arrogant, myopic, opinionated, trivial, tiresome,
sensational, rude quarellsome, etc. Name
it.Somewhere the charge is bound to stick. But
with all of this, some slight case might be made
in the defense of this press.
When the Vice President levels his
blunderbuss at the networks, where does one
read and hear about it? Why, in the press, of
course.
When the press, in ruffled dignity, strikes
back, how is this fat conveyed to the breathless
spectators? By the press. What else?
When this bristling confrontation erupts into
something approaching a constitutional crisis,
where is the play-by-play account readily
available to anyone in the least concerned? In
column after column of print and hour after
hour of video exposure, the sum of them
running into millions of words.
And all of this takes place in a rather special
set of circumstances which are so unusual that
they are often unnoticed:
Those who do not like Eric Severeid can
turn him off and turn on with Spiro Agnew.
Those who cannot stomach the New York
Times can cancel and subscribe to the CHicago
Tribune.
And for those who are bored with these
alternatives, as any purely dispassionate
observer might be, one more remains. Hiey can
go off somewhere by themselves and curl up
with a good book. Here, too, the American
press spreads a feast remarkable for its
abundance and variety.
SOLEMN CONCLUSION: The American
press which affords so many people so many
options, including the option to ignore it, with
so few compulsions, cannot be all bad.
Charleston (W. Vs.) Daily Mail
The CHEROKEE MfiSl SCOUT
/
and Clay County Program
OFFICES IN MURPHY, N. C. - PHONE AREA CODE 704-837-5122
ESTABLISHED JULY 1889
JACK OWENS EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
BOB SLOAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
-WallyAvett ; Managing Editor ?
Red Schuyler . , Advertising Manager
Jimmy Simonds Production Manager
LonnieBrltt Pressman
Charles Taylor Cameraman
Mary Jones Circulation
Ruth Anderson Compositor
Hugh Carringer Compositor
Betty Clay Typesetter
Maudie B. Alexander Typesetter
Betty Patterson Bookkeeper
Hattie Palmer Society Editor
Published every Thursday at Church Street
Murphy, North Carolina - 28906
Second Class Postage Paid at Murphy, North Carolina
$4-12 One (1) Year In Cherokee and Clay Counties
ALL OTHER AREAS
1 Year $8.18-6 Months $330
I subscriptions delivered in North Carotins Include the state's three per cent sales tax.
H-bomb
Around
Capitol Square
By WILLIAM A. SHIRES
RALEIGH - A topic for
today, appropriately, is snow.
Trie cool, soft white stuff
covers moat of North Carolina.
It is pretty, it is beautiftil. It
delights children and
gwosn-ups alike. Of course, it
often is troublesome and a
nuisance - and expensive to
cope with. But it is also
beneficial.
The high meadows of
Watauga and Ashe Counties are
greener and more lush in
Spring and Summer because of
th?*now which blankets them
in Winter. Hie snow not only is
a protective blanket but in
melting it brings moisture and
"Jewels to the land. It is
~?r? ^ fertilizing uie
?nd making it more
productive.
One source, without
reporting his method of cost
?Mounting, believes a good
snowfall is worth $17,000 an
?ere in the ski resort areas.
COST ? state highway
officials try harder to calculate
the cost and are unsuccessful.
But during a season it could
cost as much as $17,000 a
mike to dear snow and ice
from primary highways and
keep them open.
"There's really no way to
figure it exactly," says a
highway department eingineer.
There are too many factors
involved. And it varies from
place to place."
llie there is no doubt that
the job of keeping highways
open during periods of snow
and ice is tremendously
expensive both in terms of
money and manpower.
Literally hundreds and
sometimes thousands of state
highway maintenance workers
go out in the teeth of a snow
storm. Often they work around
Voice In The
WILDERNESS
We dose our mind to any
infiltration of thought counter
to our own established
conception. We negate that
which is new to our mode of
thinking even though it is as
old as the Bible and even older.
The thought of spirit
communication is so embedded
in our old wive's tales that the '
true concept is lost in the
telling. Did not God talk to
Moses by a burning bush? Did
He not give the precepts by
which to live by
communicating with him the
Ten Commandments? How do
you suppose Moses translated
this knowledge without the
Possibility of a direct contact
through the mind?
If it was done then why do
people think It is impossible
now? It is not. It is as true
today as it was then and even
more so, for now is the time of
the beginning and the end. We
will live to see the prophecy
come true, whereby the meek
shall inherit the earth and the
pure in heart will govern.
The Cherokee Humane
Society, Inc., meets every third
Tuesday evening of the month
at 7:30 at the Power Board
Building in Murphy. This
month it will be on the 20th of
January. Wont you please join
us?
the clock, braving cold, bitter
wind and sleet. It is not easy
work. Many of these workers
do not receive overtime nav
They are promised
compensatory time off, at
some future date. In any case
the cost is high.
But perhaps nature gives
more in return. Agricultural
experts think so.
In late Spring or in the
drought and heat of summer
they talk about a "million
dollar" rain. Now in Winter,
snow lying across the fields
gives promise of greener fields
and better crops in a few short
months.
? " DUJ Sharpe knew
North Carolina's geography,
history and customs as well as'
any man and wrote about them
better.
His name was William
Pleasant Sharpe, but everyone
knew him as Bill. He was editor
?nd co-publisher of The State
Magazine fqr 18 years. He died
this week at the age of 66.
He became first director of
the State Advertising Division
after it was established by an
act of the legislature in 1937.
One of his favorite stories
was that when he assumed the
job, "I didn't know the first
thing about what they wanted.
But it didn't matter because
they didn't know what they
wanted either."
He spent four years getting
the Advertising Division (now
the Travel and Promotion
Division) started. He
criss-crossed the state obtaining
material. He authored seeral
books and issued pamphlets
?nd promotional brochures.
After purchasing The State
magazine he initiated a policy
of featuring a single county in
each issue. And he compiled
these exhaustive reports into
three volume work called
North Carolina Counties
complete Svith maps and
statistical data and a text of
interesting information.
Outtlioni and Answers
l'i
Q. I am already receiving
monthly social security
benefits and will be 65 next
May. How do I apply for
Medicare?
A- You Will automatically
be entitled to the hospital
insurance (or Part A) of
Medicare as of the first day of
the month jrou reach 65.
? But you will have to enroll
for the supplementary medical
insurance (or Part B) of
Medicare - and definitely
mould do io during the 3
months before your birthday.
Actually all you'll have to
d0J* the "Yea" on an
enrollment card you 11 gat in
the mail, then sign and return
m t Pre?ddressed card.
Naturally If you have any
question you should promptly
contact the Social Security
office. *
PREDICT ? BUI Hensley,
iresent director of the State's
Pravel and Promotion division,
i only the third man to hold
he post Hensley became
lirector six years ago after the
leath of Sharpe's successor,
Charles Parker.
In a recent statement,
iensley predicted that the
itate's travel industry volume
iviU reach $1.5 bUlion by 1979
iepending upon wise
levelopment of resources and
:areful planning.
He also said that
x>mpetition for tourist and
travel business will become
teener during the 1970s.
UM ^
The very first man who ever grew a
field of com planted it beside a small
creek. He had planned to put it in a field
of rocks, thinking they might scare away
evil spirits, but his brother-in-law talked
him into putting it beside the creek.
His wife's younger brother was out of
work at the time, as he was most of the
time, and was sitting under a shade tree
dreaming up the design for the first
wide-tread tire. Which was rather odd,
for the wheel had not yet been invented
and he had no rim to mount it on. Nor
could he envision one.
However, he could see the com
needed water. "Put the com beside the
creek," he said. It was probably the only
intelligent thing he ever said and the
Comgrower heard practically everything
he said since he had lived in the
Comgrower's family cave practically all
his life.
So the Comgrower did as the
brother-in-law advised and the com crop
came up strong and green and full of
weeds, which didn't matter anyway. And
then one night the beavers who lived in
the creek dammed up the stream,
creating a small lake which covered most
of the com patch.
The comgrower, who had always
voted a straight Democratic ticket, could
not understand why such a calamity had
struck him. "Dichflub it," he cursed,
which goes to show you that profanity
was then still in its infancy.
"Don't worry about it, baby," said
the tire designer. By this time he had
woven a mold out of sticks and was '
preparing to make his first wide-tread
tire. The mold was a rough triangle, a
shape which appealed to him. As the
Comgrower watched, he poured liquid
rubber, melted over a fire, into the mold.
"Man, look at them beauties," he
yelled gleefully, as he repeated the
process, again, and again. And, behold,
there appeared the world's first ?
triangle-shaped, wide-tread tires, not a
white wall in the bunch.
The Comgrower scratched himself
under his bearskin T-shirt, which
harbored a lively colony of fleas, and
said "I can't see how that's gonna help
me any." The other didn't answer, but
just kept popping out new tires unjty he
'? ?" wI
(This weak The Scout' begrf
publication of a regular column, to I
carried on the editorial page, written aq
signed by editor Wally Avett.)
had a stack of 25, moat of them in I
popular 7.75 by 14 size.
That night over a supper of mast
steaks in the family cave, he
his plan. And shortly after supper
two of them, Comgrower and
brother-in-law, lit out for the fli
cornfield with the 25 wide-treads
their arms.
By the light of the moon, they bust
up the beavers' dam with Comgrowe
stone axe and then they piled the til
up along the creek bank and set the
afire. The stench of the burning rubb
soon routed the whole bribe of bean*
and they paddled off down the creek.
The choking clouds of Black rubb
smoke also routed Comgrower's fam
and all the other families who lived I
nearby caves and they left, raining doe
a shower of curses, rocks and Ol
dinosaur bones on the tire-burners.
., The brother-in-law hid behind a S<
K,ock city sign but Comgrower wi
beaned on the head with a ainosai
legbone and fell into the creek, wnere I
developed a nasty head cold before I
was pulled out. ' fc i
' " MOKAL: Recaps and old casing#^
okay, but if you bum new wide-treads i
the backyard, the neighbors will t^lk.
t * * * * *
Bill Sharpe was editor an
CP-publisher of the State magazine f(
,26 years and his beat included Murph;
Manteo and all points in between.
His magazine covered currei
happenings in North Carolina and all
held fascinating bits and pieces of tt
past, putting flesh over the bare bones <
the basic state history course we wet
taught in the eighth grade.
' To quote bill Shires, who writes tt
Around Capital Square column on th
page, "Bill Sharpe knew North Carolina
geography, history and customs as wc
as any man and wrote about the
better." . ^
Bill Sharpe died last week. He was &
He will be sorely missed. . ? t
'they're i
always courteous"
bank on cordial service
F
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ANDREWS
CASHIERS
CULLOWHEE
FRANKLIN
HAYESVILLE
MURPHY
ROBBINSVILLE
SYLVA
Citizens Bank
& Trnst Company
Serving Southwestern North Carolina.
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