Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Sept. 15, 1955, edition 1 / Page 12
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•. The Kings Mountain Heiald * Established 1889 A weekly newspaper devoted to the promotion of the general welfare and published for the enlightenment, entertainment and benefit of the citizens of Kings Mountain and Its vicinity, published every Thursday by the Herald Publishing House. Entered as second class matter at the postoffice at Kings Mountain, N» C., under Act of Congress of March 3, 1873 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Martin Harmon. Editor-Publisher Robert L. Hoffman .Sports Editor and Reporter Miss Elizabeth Stewart.Circulation Manager and Society Editor Mrs. Thomas Meacham.Advertising Salesman and Bookkeeper MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT Eugene Matthews Horace Walker David Weathers Bill Myers Charles Miller Paul Jackson TELEPHONE NUMBERS— 167 or 283 ~~~ SUBSCRIPTION RATES PAYABLE IN ADVANCE ONE YEAR—$2.50 SIX MONTHS—$1.40 THREE MONTHS—75c BY MAIL ANYWHERE TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Proverbs 7:9. Interesting Figures While too many figures sometimes --maisc '”d5aH.'T£C.di.rjg'*tS’'r.'iSfiy, 'the”2 are several interesting ones in the recent re port of city officials on tax valuation, to tal levy, and pre-payments. Among them: 1) Realty values on the tax scroll in creased during a 12-month period ending last January 1 by $138,000. 2) Motor vehicle values on the city books declined $31,000 but still aggre> gated a good-sized $800,000. 3) More than half the current year’s tax levy has already been paid. Since 1955 has been a bigger building year than 1954 (the recession year), it is normal to assume that the total of realty values will increase for this year by even more than the $138,000. And the shakeout in automobile values, which began in 1953, should be over for two reasons. “Blue book” whole sale values are probably at their fore seeable low and 1955 has been a big car buying year, here as elsewhere. Newer models will go on the books for 1956. It is a safe guess that at least 400 new cars have been bought by Kings Moun tain citizens during the present year and more will be bought as the new models begin to appear, beginning next week. Thus the aggregate indication is that Kings Mountain’s total tax valuation for 1956 will rise, probably past the $10 mil lion figure, ending a two-year period in which the total valuation figure has been virtually static. The same situation will undoubtedly obtain for Cleveland Coun ty. If this occurs, it will mean a slight easing of pressure on both the city and county commissioners to escalate tax rates. Both units of government have, within the past two years, upped their bonded indebtedness to provide new and expanded public facilities, thereby add ing large fixed costs — for bond retire ment and interest — to the annual bud get requirements. The trend of tax figures also indicate a more important fact, that the commu nity is continuing to grow’ on a solid foundation, and that a good portion of the citizens are sufficiently careful of their financial affairs to be able to pay their tax bills, not.only on time, but ahead of time. School Space Needs Fifth day enrollment figures at the six city schools showed a population gain over the comparable day of 1954 of 72. It does not seem a considerable gain until viewed in the light of required classroom space. The present teaching load in North Carolina schools is 30 pupils per teacher. This does not mean that a teacher may not have more than 30 pupils, as many do, but that is the formula on which teachers are allotted to the schools. Seventy-two pupils spells out to two plus additionally required classrooms, and already many make-shift arrange ments have been made to house the pu pils and to avoid tw'o-shift schooling. School folk think the new’ north plant, a 14-room elementary school, will be ready by opening day 1956. At the current rate of school enroll ment increase, the city schools will be back in the same ditch in six years. It is a matter not only for the school offi cials to think about, but all citizens, too. Congratulations to Arnold Lee Jack son, Kings Mountain native, w ho has al ready been promoted to manager of Fielderest Mills’ synthetic fibre plant at Spray. Our congratulations to S. C. Ratterree, elder citizen, who recently attained his nineieth birthday. Safety First, Finally The recent news out of Detroit, where jHho . rnnf/>r-nio lrqo experts gathered for a clambake, is that the auto manufacturers, finally, are go ing to concentrate on safety features in automobiles after many years of pri mary attention to 1) increasing horse power to provide more getaway pick-up and greater speed, and 2) gadgets to pro vide push-button auto operation. Perhaps the last major contribution to automobiling safety was the all-steel top. The idea was that a car, when wrecking, would not crumble and result in crushing of the occupants. But with speed increased tremendouslv, this fea ture has been minimized and there are some who will argue that the top-down, open air convertible is just as safe, or more safe, than the conventionable hard top. According to press reports, Ford is the leader in the new trend toward safety features on automobiles, and general thinking in the auto industry is reported as regarding safety features and the up coming big appeal for continuing the re cord high production and sale of new autos. Among the prospects just around the corner are safety belt attachments, dashboards packed with foam rubber, steering wheels which will collapse slow ly under heavy impact, periscope-type rear view mirrors to eliminate the dan ger of the protruding mirror bracket, and safety-lock doors to prevent open ing on smash-ups. It would appear the motor-makers are joining the public in the new awareness of needs for motoring safety. Safety en gineering for roads has been regarded as one way to cut the accident toll, but most have come to realize that while en gineering itself is perhaps 30 years ahead of present road-building the auto population is growing to the point that new highways and thruways are often out-moded before traffic rides over them. There is a mania for speed, but the autos are too speedy already. It would seem there should be speed ceilings for ground travel, with those who feel they must travel faster forced upstairs into the airplane. The educators who conducted the re search on the auto safety devices are dis inclined to over-enthusiasm on the safe ty business, but they are confident that general use of the recommended changes in auto construction will save many lives, minimize many hospital bills, and enable a general paring of auto liability insurance rates. The changes will be greatly welcomed by the vast mass of saner citizens, many of whom are coming to fear the once pleasant highways. The recent Labor Day toll is enough to make anyone afraid, even a daredevil hot-rodder. Medical Staff Organization of ,a medical staff at Kings Mountain hospital, is designed to impi’ove its operation and its service to the ill. As the hospital grows to 50 beds and full hospital status, it will be in po sition to render greater service to the citizens of the Kings Mountain area. Organization of a medical staff, includ ing the surgeons who customarily use the hospital, and the full corps of Kings Mountain general practitioners, fits into the picture. Most persons are amazed at the re sults of Kings Mountain hospital in the less-than-five years it has been open to patients. Few, including its most ardent backers and well-wishers, thought it would handle a patient load sufficient to justify two expansions in a short four years, and the fact that it has not shown the regularly anticipated deficits re mains a source of surprise to the citizens, to medical authorities, and to state and federal hospital officials. Congratulations to Dr. W. L. Ramseur on his election as the Kings Mountain hospital’s first chief of medical staff. YEARS AiO Items of news about Kings Mountain area people and events THIS WEEK taken from the 1945 files of the Kings Mountain Herald. Lt. Humes Houston, of Kings Mountain, has been awarded the bronze star medal for heroic a chievement in connection with military operations in Germany, according to a copy of the cita tion accompanying thfe award re eently received here. Social and Personal The WMS of Boyce Memorial ARP church entertained at a sil ver tea in the educational build ing last Thursday evening. Mrs. J. S. Norman was hostess at thb monthly meeting of the Thursday Afternoon Book club at her home last week. Charles Moss, Jr., has returned to State College, Raleigh, to re sume his studies. MARTIN'S MEDICINE By Martin Harmon Ingredients: bits of news, wisdom, humor, and comment. Directions: Take weekly, if j possible, but avoid overdosage. At City Hall the other mottl ing as I was gathering the lat est facts and figures, one of the auditors with A. M. Pullen Company moved over to in quire of Gene Mitcham about certain records and his voice came out with notable acceht. UI-UI I listened a little, then curi ously inquired, “Arte you Scot or English?”, mentally reason ing that, Were he Scot, Dave Rae and he could have an old home week get-together. m-m “Ha!”, he accented. m-m I was right much off base. Hie repeated his name a couple of times at least, but I still don’t have it. At any rate, I got the “Hungarian” report. This long, spare, lank drink-of water came from Hungary in 1938. Was he a refugee from —ths ■ Hli&fLuv CTislatiglri: -' I did not ask or understand the answer. He was not Jtewish, one good reason for taking a pow 1 der in the Hitler heyday. m-m He wanted to know if I knew whether General Sloan lives in Asheville, as he had heard, for he wants to look him up. I didn’t, though I was abfe to say that Asheville does very well on the business of making itself available to retired generals. At least, MacArthur’s ex-chief of staff lives on Asheville’s Char lotte strteet. Had he heard it, General Sloan probably lives there. m-m In civilian status, the audit ing Hungarian friend wants to have a confab with General Sloan, whom the Hungarian lists as “the only general I ever cussed out.” m-m The Hungarian was serving in thfe 88th army something-or other during World War II and moving out some wounded GI’s under fire. The situation was getting a little over loaded, and the Hungarian auditor turned to the helmeted, combat-attired guy closest and barked, "Why in heck don’t you lend a hand?” The guy did. The next look our auditing friend took revealed the bronze star of generalship on the lapel of the fatigue out fit. m-m His face took on a nice crim son hue and he stuttered out apologies, receiving a relieving laugh for a reply. m-m “He was a good Joe,” the Hungarian says, and I’d like to see him again. m-m Gene Mitcham says the audi tor tearhed to speak English via records, which, mayhap, ac counts for his strange accent, indeed a combination of British preciseness and Scot burr. m-m Languages are quite inter esting, but 1 have little adept ness for them. School study of Latin and French produced a minor reading ability, but no conversational fluency, even though exposed in French speaking French Morrocco. One trouble: the French all spoke English better than most of the Americans spoke French and delighted in practicing on the Anglo-American acquaintances. I do remember one telephone number which, written out, read like this: "A douze quatre vingt six”. In English: “A 1286”. The English is a bit sim pler. And Arabic is out-of-this world. I never even mastered the word for 'bread which sounded like it might be spelled “harobs”, with the first sylable a cough and the accented last soundings like “rubs”. m-m With the world internation alizing, through traffic, trade, and growing closeness due to jet-age speeds, knowledge of languages will become more and more important. A linguist should become more and more necessary to the scheme of world movement. Education shifts and shifts. There had been a movement away from the old-fashioned “straight A. B.” to more specific training in the sciences and trades. Does the new era portend a re-make of the cultural, how become practical? Perhaps only in de gree. And, of course, the cultur al-practical will perhaps fore shadow the coming of the earth-wide language. m-m If you and I probably don’t see the day, will today’s pre schoolers? , . m-m In ten years this 600 mile per hour speed in the ozone won’t excite the newspaper and tele vision editors. It’ll be common place to have breakfast in New York, lunch in London or Paris, and dinner back home in New York. >ui?. fk' •kan's thirst ^ FOR PEACE Viewpoints of Other Editors CUTTING TSHSS-— "FOOLHARDY" Perhaps the most disturbing in formation which has come out of Washington in the past ten dkys was contained last week in a news story about the possibility of balancing the federal budget this year. Part of a paragraph in this story was as follows: “Legislative leaders in both parties have begun to talk en thusiastically about cutting taxes in advance of next year’s general elections.” The federal debt at the present time stands at about $280 billion, an obligation that is burdensome to the nation and will continue to be a threat to our economic struc ture so long as no effort is made to reduce it. Yet we have “legisla tive leaders” who are more con cerned with outcome of the 1956 elections than they are with the economic stability .of the govern ment. The observation is often made’ that we need statesmen in Wash ington rather than politicians, and here is a clear instance that confirms the observation. It is true that Senator Byrd, head of the Senate Finance Com mittee, has cautioned against any “foolhardy” or premature action. But the Senator’s influence is not strong enough to check the ac tions of election-wise politicians. All of us would welcome tax re ductions, but to cut taxes drasti cally would make it impossible to/begin to reduce the govern ment’s debt. It seems to us imperative that a schedule of regular debt retire ment should be included in the federal budget. If it is good busi ness for an individual to live with in his income, this rule certainly applies to the government of that individual. — Stanly News & Press. “MINT." NOT GREEN For many years Senator Mat thew M. Neely of West Virginia, who is quite an individualist on matters of personal taste, was about the only man ever seen in Washington in green clothes. Senator Neely, it appears has lots of company this year and it is predicted that green clothes for men will be even more popu lar next year. An official of the Clothing Manufacturers associa tion explains the change this way. “We have nevfer been able to sell green clothes to men. This year we have been calling them mint. They’re the same color, but they have been going over great.” Maybe it is about time for men to stop laughing at women’s fas hions. — Raleigh News and Ob server. The delivery boy from the fish monger’s presented his package to the maid with the simple an nouncement, “It’s C. O. D.” The girl 'bristled up and re plied, “You needn’t spell it out for ine — and, besides, the mis tress ordered haddock.” — Mon treal Star. ONE ON THE DOCTOR The best cure for insomnia, says a doctor, is to sleep with all the bedroom windows open. This is one of the few sleeping; drafts that can be obtained with out a doctor’s prescription. —Humorist. LOOKS LIKE , A LONG TIME So long as the average citizen ]qts the possession of considerable money determine a person’s im portance, the country will have crooks, rackets and gangsters. — Lafce Mills (/otvaJ Graphic. UNFAIR TO THE ANTS A talking picture of an ant hill is to be produced this year. One more illusion will go its way when we can listen to ants wast ing a lot of time In Idle gossip.— New York Sun. ALL OF THEM “There are 12 types of drunks,” says a police official. We know them well. They range from ob trusive to obnoxious. — Cincin nati Enquirer. — ■ 'fcBUCifiTfON f A'TS BIG DIVIDENDS Inasmuch as school enrollment got under way today in the Elkin school system, and will begin within days at some of the neigh boring schools, this seems like a good time to mention some of the findings of the U. S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Divi sion and its bearing upon the wage ■earning power of those who did and did not complete school. Frank Muench, who is acting regional director of the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor, urges teenagers who havfe quit school to return to high sthool this fall. He points out the result of a 1950 census,' which showed that a return to high school will mean thousands of dollars to the average youngster. One of the findings of the 1950 census was that men over 24 who had completed eight ytears of grade school received an average annual income of $2,533. Those who had graduated from high school, however, averaged $3,285 a year, an increase of over $700. Moreover, the same study show ed that those who had four years of college received an average an nual wage of $4,407. This is an in crease of about $1,500 over the average annual earnings of men over 24, who only had teight years of grade schcol. It was also pointed out that the cash value of finishing the last year of high school, measur ed over a period of 40 working years, resulted in earnings of about $15,000 for men and $20, 000 for women. We are all too familiar with the success stories of many business men who did not finish school. Their achievements are remark able; and these men are some times the community’s leading businessmen and best citizens. However, these are the exception rather than the rule. They do not change statistics. It would appear, therefore, the youngster who has quit school, or adults who never finished high school, should make every effort to return to high school, or go to colleg'e, if possible. When one thinks of this school training in terms of probable 10, 20, 30 or 40 thousand dollars, the argument to return to school seems pretty convincing. — Elkin Tribune MOSS AND WEEDS IN THE COURTS Federal Judge John J. Parker again .urges lawyers and judges to do something to rid the courts of the moss and wteeds that sprout from almost every avenue of court procedure. He says some cases take four years to reach trial. _ A layman would say other cas es take longer than that. Nearly every movement associated with the courts is subjected to delay, tedium, postponement, and set backs. The parties to a case grow old or die before they can reach the witness stand. Thte cumbrousness of court procedures wears out judges and lawyers alike. In many courts delay has be come a habit and is so ingrained in all hands that a speed-up is re garded with suspicion. In some cases delay is justified in order that tempers and pre judices may have time to cool off. But such cases are fairly rare. Most of the more commonplace and routine cases could be dis posed of without delay if custom and habit did not interfere. The crowded condition of many dockets has become scandalous, and grows worse instead of bet ter. Judge Parker points out that such conditions cause loss of re spect for the courts and for the law. When such a state of mind is reached, it is high time for re form. The Rip Van Winkles should no longer bb reded uoon to make it. Forward-looking law yers should make the changes be fore exasperated legislation com es in. — From Chapel Hill News Leader THE REASON A college president says stu dents have changed very little in j the past 30 ybars. This is why I parents who have sons or daugh I tars in college worry. — Life TWO PAINTS FOR EASY DECORATING RUBBERIZED WALL SATIN For walls and ceilings SATIN IMPERVO ENAMEL for trim in matching colors M Benjamin MOOfC paints Consult us about your painting questions Safety research has determined that, in event of an accident, your chance of receiv ing a serious injury is half as great if you stay inside the car. Ford’s new double-grip Lifeguard door locks give added protection against doors springing open under impact—to help keep you safer within the car. You’ll be Safer in a ’56 FORD Coming September 23 F.DJLF. •••and the livin' is easy |V7 with LONG DISTANCE dt your fingertips So easy to keep in instant touch with friends and loved ones—so much a part of truly modem living—and wherever you call, the cost is low. SOUTHERN BELA. Telephone and Telegraph Company
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Sept. 15, 1955, edition 1
12
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