The Kings Mountain Herald
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. La Faye Meacham.Advertising Salesman and Bookkeeper
MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT
Eugene Matthews Horace Walker Jack Heavener Bill Myers
Charles Miller Paul Jackson
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TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE
He therefore that despiseth, deapiseth not man, but God, who hath aho given unto us his holy
Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 4:8.
Saturday's Election
In May 1954, the United States Su
preme Court ruled illegal the “separate
but equal” doctrine of the public
schools.
It was a body-blow to the South
which had been indulging itself, as
Southerners are wont to do, in expen
sive sentimental luxuries for many
years. It’s a plain fact. Quantity pro
duction is cheaper, whether it be tex
tiles, printing, or education.
Actually, it has been only in the past
decade that the South became a full de
votee of the “separate but equal” doc
trine. North Carolina was a bit ahead of
the field, as it customarily it in progres
siveness, but North Carolina, as other
Southern states, figured out the liberal
Supreme Court attitude and attempted
to head it.
Saturday North Carolinians will vote
on a constitutional amendment concern
ing its public schools, and it is a serious *
decision. This amendment is very inno
cuous as it appears on the ballot, but
not in text.
North Carolinians are voting a means
to go out of the public school business,
the state’s Big Business No. 1, or, at
least No. 2, and a business that has paid
fat dividends. The reason is single: to
circumvent the Supreme Court decision
by living within the law, yet continuing
segregated schools. None knows whe
ther the amendment will have the de
sired result. The most ardent suppor
ters acknowledge the adoption of the
amendment “at worse” will buy two to
three years time before school integra
tion is effected.
It may work, but there would have to
be many deaths of Supreme Court jus
ices to insure it. Odds are that when the
newly voted Constitutional amendment
has been subjected to the Supreme
Court’s ruling, the result will be its ille
gality.
If the aforementioned paragraphs
have indicated pro-integration, they are
not.
The Herald feels the Pearsall Plan
which amendment 1 at Saturday’s elec
tion puts into effect) should be adopted.
North Carolina, as well as the majori
ty of the South, is not ready for integra
tion, particularly forced integration.
Chapters and verses have been in evi
dence in the newspapers within the past
week. There was the Clinton, Tennessee,
violence, in a community where Ne
groes are only a handful of the popula
tion. There was the safe, sane (North
Carolina brand) incident at Bryson
City. There was last year’s Old Fort in
cident, still in the courts and unsettled.
Last weekend trouble flared in Texas.
A Kings Mountain merchant was re
porting last weekend a conversation
with a Negro citizen of Connecticut, for
merly of Kings Mountain. “Those Yan
kees,” the ex-patriated Kings Mountain
Negro said, “talk integration. They
don’t treat us anyway near as man-to
man and friendly as the Southerners
do.”
B. T. Falls, Jr., the Shelby legislator,
made an interesting and logical talk to
the Kings Mountain Lions club last
week. His principal point was that the
violent East (which would prefer and
threatens to secede rather than inte
grate) controls the Senate and will kill
public schools by refusing to appropri
ate money if integration is forced down
the throats of North Carolinians. Mr.
Falls’ contention is pure speculation, but
the Herald knows Easterners and be
lieves Mr. Falls’ speculation is correct.
Those who will vote against Amend
ment No. 1 Saturday include:
1) Teachers, professionals in an un
derpaid, yet proud trade, who don’t like
the idea of voting themselves out of
jobs.
2) The Catholic church which, in the
South, regards itself as a minority, and
a bit tramped upon and formally favors
desegregation.
3) Negroes following the tenets of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, an extremist
group, which—over the long pull—may
have proved to have done its service to
its people, but which in the short term,
is a sensationalist, all-is-black-all-is
white, propaganda organization.
4) Citizens alarmed at the prospect of
the state’s voting itself out of the public
school business.
The Pearsall Plan, embodied in
Amendment 1 on Saturday, has caused
the Herald much soul-searching and stu
dy. The “second-class citizen” alarum
and the voting ourselves (possibly) out
of the public school business have given
heavy cause for antagonism.
But North Carolina is not ready to
de-segregate. Even Republican Time
Magazine has toned its immoderate ap
proach, after Delaware’s experience
and others.
It is also an established fact that Su
preme Court decrees have never chan
ged mores, social custom, nor mass in
dividual thinking. It is part of Ameri
can thinking to decide that Chief Jus
tice Warren, for instance, in spite of his
regal robes, his prior popularity as a
California politician, and his opinion on
the matter of school desegregation, is
essentially a man of reasonable integre
ty but woefully uninformed. That was
polite. Many say he’s just plain stupid
and over political.
The Herald prefers the former judg
ment, but acknowledges the political
aura.
The Herald is anti-violence. The
Herald is pro-education, pro-better wa
ges, for better sanitation, for better mo
rale, for morality, for the Negro.
Saturday’s voting is a time-buyer, as
the proponents know and as some of
them admit. On Saturday in adopting
the Pearsall Plan, North Carolinians
will buy time as insurance against emo
tional outbursts and violence.
The Bethware Fair "
The Bethware Community Fair opens
next Wednesday for its ninth conse
cutive year.
A Number 4 Township event, it has
improved each year and 1956 should
find this community fair best ever. For
the first time, cash awards to prize
winning exhibitors will accompany the
blue, red and yellow ribbons.
It’s a real family faii\ with enough
midway and youth-pleasing rides to ex
cite the ydung, and a good offering of
both agricultui*al and commercial exhi
bits.
Much work on the part of Bethware
community citizens goes into this fair.
Those who have visited this fair before
will be going again. Those who haven’t
should.
With the Labor Day kick-off speeches
by the two major candidates, the fall
general election campaign is underway.
Television fans of non-political bent can
look forward to an interrupted autumn.
Each year the Powell Bill refund
check of gas monies to the city further
shows the advantage of this plan to the
State’s municipalities, which formerly
found themselves in the street build
ing business, yet with no revenues to
support it, other than ad vaolorem
taxes. Kings Mountain’s record 1956
share tops $32,000. This is not a great
amount of cash per se, yet it will build
and/or maintain several streets. Based
on 90 percent collection of ad valorem
taxes, the $32,000 check for 1956 appro
ximates 40 cents per $100 on the city
tax rate.
Kings Mountain and Cleveland Coun
ty citizens believe in keeping their tax
bills as low as possible, as shown by the
heavy pre-payments during August. It’s
still possible to discount these tax bills
during September, though the rate
drops to one percent.
Our congratulations to Campbell
Phifer, veteran hardwareman, who is
in his 51st year serving Kings Mountain
as a Kings Mountain retailer.
YEARS AGO Iteins news about Kings Mountain area people and events
THIS WEEK taken from the 1946 files of the Kings Mountain Herald.
Kings Mountain's city board of
education, the Central Parent
Teacher Association, and many
other citizens throughout the
county this week added their sup
port and endorsement to the elec
tion on Saturday in which the
voters will decide whether to is
sue $1,500,000 in bonds lor con
struction improvements on the
schools.
Construction is now underway
on a portion of the building which
will house Kings Mountain Nar
row Fabrics, Inc. and the firm
hopes to be in operation by Oc
tober 1st.
claH J1IU OJllJlf ingliU lairs
and ferris wheels, the World
Series, political bombast and
a nationwide general election.
m-m
I hear L. S. Sirqupe, the
druggist, waxed warm as well
as red-laced recently when a
group of pranksters wreaked
havoc with a prescription
sales promotion. I don’t repeat
this story for the absolute
truth in all detail, but I be
lieve my informants are close.
Mr. Stroupe was pushing
“scripts” by offering a pint of
ice cream bonus on any pre
scription filled. But some of
his neighbors, feeling strictly
unsick but ice cream hungry,
concocted a neat means of
claiming the ice cream w,ith no
damage to the wallet. As I un
derstand it, Bill Bennett, the
insurance saleman, Sam Col
lins, the city commissioner,
Fleete McCurdy, the dry clean
er, and Dan Weiss, who sells
ladies ready-to-wear, held a
conniving session with Dr.
Kenneth McGill. iResult was
that Ken wrote out prescrip
tions for each calling for ex
actly one asperin tablet.
m-m
Confronted with the 'scripts
and also with copies of the ice
cream proffer, L. S. reddened
and scratched his head. But
the best he could come up with
was a muttering about the mi
nimum price of ANY pre
scriptionone asprin or other
wise—being a half-dollar. But
these customers would have
none of that and L. S. lived up
to the letter of his offer.
m-m
Had a chat with Fred Fin
ger last week, who was visit
ing his mother here. Fred, who
works in New York, now lives
at Ridgewood, N. J., a New
York suburb of 15,000 souls. It
is really a suburb, Fred says,
as there is no industry. It is
also known, Fred reports, as
the city of trees. It’s .plain
against the law too cut ’em in
Ridgewood and Fred says elec
tric utility and telephone lines
'bear a close resemblance to
the emergency brand the army
put up in the battlefields. The
utility folk have a lot of line
trouble, but 'Ridgewoodians
have a lot of verdant beauty
and plenty of summer shade.
I spent a night in Ridgewood
back in 1042 and I recall the
beauty of its residential
Streets. It had some pretty
girls, too.
m-m
Last week’s Bethware Fair
barbecue was another of those
wonderful Wednesday picnics
but the Herald folk didn’t miss
out on that one, thanks to
Friend Stokes Wright, the ef
ficient Fair secretary and
Kings Mountain mailman.
Stokes came in the office just
about press time with a mam
moth box, well-laden with
platters of barbecue, rolls,
plates of slaw, pickles, and po
tato chips. It really hit the
spot, and since there was
enough for the whole staff, I
wouldn’t be a bit surprised if
it didn’t make the Herald’s
roll-off time ten minutes later
than it would have been,. But
the odor of the barbecue was
too much for hungry composi
tors, pressmen, and reporters.
Stokes was reminiscing
about his service hitch, spent
mostly at Jacksonville, Fla.
Stokes says he was an errand
boy for the athletes, and
among his landlubbing “ship
mates” were Jim Tatum, Don
Faurot, and other big names in
sport. Ted Williams was just
around the corner at a marine
air station.
m-m
Dotted Notes . . , We’ve had
another fine gift of homegrown
tomatoes, these from the gar
den of Mrs, Eugene Patterson,
who is quite a horticulturist,
be it vegetables or flowers. I
don’t credit Gene with this
work as I think he's pretty
strictly a cowman . . . I’ve been
on the receiving end of so many
fine gardens this summer I’m
going to havfe to attempt one
next year in self defer.se . . .
It’ll probably turn out like
soriiebody said his did . . . each
tomato had cost him a quarter
each , . . the city schools are
close to having “closed” lunch
periods, meaning that all stu
dents will be required to eat at
the school cafeterias .. be
gun experimentally at West
school several years ago, it has
proved popular with parents
and pupils. Mama doesn’t have
to have lunch on an exact time
schedule and junior has one
less trek in traffic each school
day . . . Dr John McGill says
his new son yelled all night
his first night at home . . . not
acquainted with the new sur
roundings ... t
Viewpoints of Other Editors
HOW'CAN PEARSALL
PROPOSAL SAVE
SCHOOLS AND KEEP
SEGREGATION? "
Johnston County’s three legis
lators, the entire membership of
the County Board of Education,
and 17 other school officials of
the county have signed a state
ment supporting the Pearsall
School Amendment. The state
ment was prepared by James
Earp, chairman of the County
Board of Education, and Julius
Corbett, vice chairman of the
board. It is undoubtedly a state
ment conceived in honesty by
sincerfe men. Its drafters and its
signers are opposed to any mix.
ing of the races in the schools. In
that position, they reflect the
thinking of the vast#majority of
the people of Johnston County.
But a close analysis of this
statement reveals that it is main
ly an attack against integration
and a plea for segregation, while
the issue before the people in the
September 8 election does not
give us the choice of segregation
over integration. The issue of
segregation versus integration
has been decided by the Supreme
Court of the United States. The
Court ruled against segregation.
The Pearsall Committee, in re
commending the plan which we
are to vote on, does not propose
that we defy the Supreme Court.
The Pearsall Committee recog
nizes that the decision of the
Supreme Court is the law of the
land. The chairman of the Pear
sall Committee has emphasized
that North Carolinians intend to
abide by the law.
The issue before us is whether
we wish to make it convenient
for communities to close their
schools rather than accept some
mixing of the races. A compan
ion issue is whether the Pear
sall Plan will invite suits against
the school authorities and ulti
mately result in more and speed
ier mixing of the races than we
might reasonably expect without
the Pearsall Plan.
The statement signed by John
ston County legislators and
school officials contains this sen
tence: “The Pearsall Plan is the
only plan which has been pre
sented to preserve our public
schools as they now operate and
exist. This contention reflects
the popular impression that the
Pearsall Plan will hold the line
against segregation and at the
same timie keep the schools op
en.
It should be noted that the
statement signed by our legisla
tors and school officials does not
state or suggest how the Pear
sali Plan will preserve segrega
tion and keep the schools open.
In fact, no supporter of the Pear
sall Plan in the county or state
has thus far made it clear how
the Pearsall Plan will save the
day for both segregation and the
schools.
The reality is that the Pearsall
Plan offers no guarantee against
mixing the races. If it did, there
would be no need for the “safety
valvtes." Unless North Carolina
defies the law of the land, we
may expect some integration
whether we have 'the Pearsall
Plan or not. And with the Pear
sall Plan, we may expect some
school closings that will take
from North Carolina children
their right to real educational op
portunity. How can we put our
faith in private schools that do
not exist? And if by some miracle
we had private schools adequate
in number and quality, how could
most of our people afford to edu
cate their children in these
schools? A state tuition grant of
$135 would hardly begin to pay
the expense of a year’s schooling
for one child.
There is a part of the Pearsall
Plan which is quite sound. That
is the part which calls for use
of the Pupil Assignment Law
enacted by the Legislature in 1955.
By wise and honest use of the Pu
pil Assignment Law, school
boards in the state will be in
position to prevent a flood of in
tegration and to ease the ten
sion between the races. Certainly
we want in Johnston County and
everywhere in North Carolina
:he least possible disruption of
VOTE "FOR" ON
SEPTEMBER 8TH
On September 8th, Transyl
vania voters will join with others
across the state in voting on a
constitutional amendment vital
ly affecting the public school
system.
As interpreted by former At
torney General William R. Rod
man, the amendment would do
two things:
1. Permit a child to receive
an expense grant for attendance
at a private, non-sectarian
school if the child were assigned
against the wishes of his parent
or guardian, to a public school
attended by a child of another
race, and if the child could "not
ibe assigned to a different public
school in which the races were
not mixed.
2. Permit a local community
to suspend operation of any one
or all of the public schools in
that community by a majority
vote of those voting on the ques
tion of suspension.
Under the proposed amend
ment, 'Mr. Rodman adds:
The present constitutional re
quirement of a general and uni
form system of public schools
may toe suspended only toy vote
of the people; and if the opera
tion of a school is suspended,
the pupils affected thereby
would toe entitled to an educa
tion expense grant to pay ex
penses in attending a private,
non-sectarian school.’
The amendment was recom
mended toy a special commis
sion headed toy the able Thomas
Pearsall of Rocky Mount after a
long and thoughtful study of the
U. S. Supreme Court’s, decision
declaring compulsory segrega
tion in the public schools toe
cause of race alone unconstitu
tional.
It was endorsed by Gov. Lu
ther Hodges, and it was approv
ed, along with enacting legisla
tion, toy the General Assembly
last month. The amendment has
since been supported toy respon
sible groups and organizations,
and opposed toy others.
Briefly stated, five points for
the amendment are as follows:
1. The amendment proposes a
minimum course of action. It
could have been more drastic
and more dangerous to the fu
ture of public education.
2. It will serve as a “safety
valve” for public opinion in the
crucial years ahead, toy fostering
the impression that there are
workable alternatives in the
event of state or federal court
orders compelling desegregation.
3. It will not toe used except
as a last resort, after the 1955
pupil assignment law, the basic
N. C. legislation on the subject,
has been tested in the courts and
found inadequate.
4. It will give to local commu
nities the power to settle among
themselves problems growing
out of the Supreme Court deci
sion, thus avoiding having Ra
leigh tell them what to do.
5. It will preserve the state
structure of public education,
even though some communities
may elect to close their schools.
Since we believe that the con
stitutional amendments as pro
vided by the ’56 special session
of the General Assembly will
help materially in preserving
our public schools, we urge our
citizens to vote ‘for” in the elec
tion on September 8th.—Transyl
vania Times.
educational and community life.
By inviting court actions to com
pel admission of Negro pupils to
schools attended by white child
ren, the Pearsall Plan would like
ly create more problems than it
would solve. The strong probabi
lity is we would wind up with
more integration, not less. Either
that, or our children would have
open to them no schools worthy of
the name.
The Herald is opposed to the
Pearsall Plan because the Herald
wants neither a flood of integra
tion nor the closing of a single
school in North Carolina.—Smith
field Herald.
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