The Kings Mountain Hetald
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-BufbHstaer
David Baity.Advertising Salesman and Bookeeper
Miss Elizabeth Stewart.Circulation Manager and Society Editor
Heale Patrick...........Sports EdMoc
MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT
Eugene Matthews Horace Walker
Paul Jackson i Mlonte Hu
Wade Hartooe, Jr.
TELEPHONE NUMBERS — 167 or 283
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BY MAH, ANYWHERE
TODAY'S BIBLE VEBSE
Enter into Hie gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, bless
His name. Psalm 100:4.
An Effort. Anyway
North Carolina’s General Assembly
tried to plug a dike in the welfare pro
gram by giving county welfare superin
tendents the right to supervise spending
of monies received by mothers with de
pendent children — where there were
evidences that the mothers were squan
dering that cash rather than using it for
its purpose, upkeep of the youngsters.
Now the federal administrators have
threatened to withhold the funds — in
most part paid by the federal govern
ment — if this state-granted privilege is
applied.
The federal reasoning is, of course,
somewhat in outer space. The federal
administrators say that the receiving of
these aid-to-dependent-children checks
is a right, with the maternal recipients
allowed to blow the cash on do-dads if
they like. ,
A Guilford county state representative
responds with a hearty “not so”.
His legal reasoning is that mothers
are merely trustees for the children and
their mal-administration of the funds
constitutes something akin to incompe
tence, if not downright crookedness, and
that remedies should be the order of the
day.
Furthermore, the Guilford law-maker
has petitioned the attorqey-general to
take the state’s case to the federal
courts, providing the federal administra
tors fail to see the practical light.
North Carolina’s position on this mat
ter is correct. Intent of the act was to
care for the innocent waifs in this world
through no cause of their own.
Undoubtedly, there ai'e as flagrant
mis-spendings in other states as in this
one, maybe more, and the state, wheth
er through conversation or the courts,
would to the nation a real service if it is
successful in cleaning this portion of the
welfare program.
Exit Fair Trade Gas
Esso Standard Oil Company, biggest
seller of oil products in North Carolina,
has announced a complete retreat from
its effort to fair trade gasoline in the
state and it appears the other major oil
companies will follow suit.
What is right?
Certainly many retail dealers appre
ciated guarantee of price stability in the
price of their product. On the other
hand, the buying public, which likes a
bargain, welcomed the occasional op
portunities to fill ‘er up for less.
Small merchants in other lines have
favored fair trade as a means of pro
tection against the “big boys”, who
could buy more favorably by carload
lots. Again, the public disfavors ideas of
restrained competition. And the mer
chant could can his ideas on fair trade
quickly on items which he over-bought.
The reasons for occasional gas price
wars — exclusive of small dealers who
use cut-rate gas as break-even or loss
leaders have never been spelled out,
though there is some grounds to believe
that the major companies themselves
launch them. Just as small industry has
trouble balancing production to meet
seasonal needs, so do the oil producers,
which are mammoth producers.
World War II experiences in pricing
by-government rather well proved: 1) a
bout the only way to put a floor under
prices is via government subsidies and 2)
ceilings are virtually impossible, for a
black market quickly developes. It’s
hard to smoothe out a supply-demand
situation.
More basic is the question of property
rights. If a person buys property ox any
kind, many feel it is his basic right to
dispose of it, via sale or gift, as he sees
fit.
It’^ time to buy Christmas seals in
support of the local-national effort to
stamp out tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has
been comparatively conquered, largely
due to the availability of funds giving
means for research and for mass efforts
at early detection of this communicable
disease. Continuance of early detection
efforts is imperative to keeping this
dread disease in check.
Good News
Statement that Slater Manufacturing
Company is proceeding with plans to
consolidate its operations in Kings
Mountain, which requires the building of
a dyeing and finishing plant addition to
its present York Road facilities, is quite
good news.
Consolidation here will pare transpor
tation and other manufacturing costs
and, President-Owner Albert Slater says,
will remove competitive advantages of
other firms in the manufacture of plush
goods and other products the firm
makes.
It is a reminder that expansion by
firms already on scene is quite as desira
ble as obtaining new industrial citizens.
The expansion should result in con
siderably increased employment at the
Slater firm.
City officials were impressed with the
attitude of President Slater, who, in ask
ing for sewage disposal arrangements,
made it plain he did not seek something
for nothing. Added cost to the city he
said he would pay and contracted with
the city per his statements.
This attitude has not always been evi
denced by industries seeking to move
South.
A cordial welcome to President Slater,
who is now a Kings Mountain resident.
Let's Moke It
Last week’s United Fund campaign
news was the best in recent weeks,
though there was considerable work in
store for campaign workers if the
$18,000 quota is to be obtained.
In the first year of a aggregate fund
campaign, it is not surprising that some
difficulties would be encountered.
For some years, the Herald regarded
the United Fund idea with a slightly
jaundiced eye, feeling that some prior
footwork and arrangements would be
necessary before this industrial com
munity could safely embark on a united
type appeal. Principal among these
needs was agreement among employers
to make a withholding plan for giving
available to employees. This was done
and enough employers agreed to this
plan to make the United Fund appear
possible of success.
It is to be hoped that more firms will
agree to this arrangement in the future.
Otherwise, it seems a major lag in the
campaign is failure by some solicitors to
see their prospect lists.
As a quasi-member of the retail com
munity, the Herald finds it somewhat
embarrassing that the commercial gifts,
at last report, totaled only $407.
There is reason to believe the cam
paign can be brought to a successful
conclusion.
Let’s make it.
Christmas Cash Cheer
The postman took good news yester
day to numerous Kings Mountain area
citizens in the form of Christmas Club
checks from First National Bank.
The payment marked completion of
the bank’s ninth annual Christmas Club
and set a record for an aggregate pay
ment, this year’s total approximating
$90,000.
Many a person will be thankful he’s
done a bit of saving during the year for
the Christmas celebration and will be
even more thankful when January bills
are being delivered by the mailmen.
The bank is opening its tenth annual
Christmas Club now, would like to see
the new enrollment reach 1,000 (there
were 825 members this year) and the to
tal payments reach $100,000.
The 1,000 who join, if they do, will be
glad that they did.
Congratulations to Barbara Yar
brough, who has been elected “Miss
Bethware” by the high school student
body.
MARTIN’S
MEDICINE
By Martin Hannon
Ingredienta: bit* of new,
wisdom, humor, and comment.
Directions: Take weekly, if
possible, but avoid
overdosage.
Another Thanksgiving has ar
rived and it can be safe to
guess that many a turkey will
have gone down the hatch be
fore the end of the week.
m-m
Next week ’twill be turkey
hash', which is the major com
plaint about the big fowls, par
ticularly in sntaller families.
The birds last too long.
m-m
The Thanksgiving tradition
and celebration is an old one,
but Thanksgiving Day didn’t
became a national holiday-ob
servance until 1863, according
to a booklet on *1Little Known
facts about Thanksgiving and
Lincoln’s Proclamation”, as re
cently published by the Lincoln
National Life Insurance Com
pany.
m-m
There is no effort by the au
thor, Dr. (Louis A. Warren, to
dim thte romantic-historical con
tributions of the Pilgram Fa
thers to celebration of Thanks
giving. Dr.. Warren, indeed,
credits Gov. William Bradford,
of the Massachusetts colony, as
the founder of the Thanksgiving
festival, which was first obser
ved in 1621 at Plymouth. Gov.
Bradford in 1621 called the ear
ly settlers together to offer
thanks to God for thte preserva
tion of their lives, food to sus
tain them, and clothing for
their comfort. fGov. Bradford
■wrote a manuscript “God’s (Mer
ciful Dealings with Us in the
Wilderness" and continued to
call periodic seasons of thanks
giving.
m-m
It is noted that one of Presi
dent Lincoln’s ancestors, Samu
el (Lincoln, settled not far from
Plymouth in 1637 and likely
took part in the earlier Thanks
giving festivals.
m-m
According to Dr. Warren, the
first national observance of
Thanksgiving resulted from a
proclamation by President
Washington for a national day
of Thanksgiving for a constitu
tional form of government and
the blessings which accompan
ied it.
’ m-m
Next national observance
didft’t occur until 1815, when
President James Madison pro
claimed a Thanksgiving festh.
val to celebrate the end of the
war with England and to pray
for national guidance and peace
m-m
Governors of state, mean
time and subsequently, called
Thanksgiving seasons, but there
was no national proclamation
again until 1863, when Presi
dent Lincoln made the holiday
nationwide, a custom followed
by every President since,
m-m
Dr. Warren credits a New
England lady, Sarah Josepha
Hale, as contributing much to
building a favorable public
opinion for a national Thanks
giving festival. She importuned
Presidents and others for twen
ty years, before Abe Lincoln
issued his proclamation. Mean
time, her importunities had re
sulted by 1862 in Thanksgiving
celebrations in 23 states and
three territories.
m-m
It is interesting to note that
the 1863 Thanksgiving, set for
the last Thursday in November,
fell just a week after the dedi
cation of Gettysburg cemetery,
where Lincoln had made his
now-famed Gettysburg address.
However, his initial Thanksgiv
ing proclamation had been writ
ten before the Gettysburg
speech, winch, at the time it
was given, got something less
than critical praise in the press
of the day, though it now
stands out as a model of sim
plicity, faith and charitability.
xzi-xn
Why the final Thursday of
November for Thanksgiving?
The author says this choice of
date found Mr. Lincoln contri
buting to an ancient religious
sentiment fostered by the apos
tolic church and he notes that
a period of solemnity had been
observed with the coming of the
advent season by the Roman
Catholic, Lutheran, English
and Protestant Episcopal chur
ches. George Washington, an
Episcopalian, had similarly set
Thanksgiving on the final No
vember Thursday.
m-m
It remained for yet another
Episcopalian, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, to endeavor to up
set the ingrained tradition of
the years and to make the
Thanksgiving celebration earli
er. The effort at change—spark
ed by a national mercantile
trade association which wanted
to get Thanksgiving out of the
way earlier as a boost to Christ
mas - season sales — immedi
ately became a political matter
and could be listed, along with
the court-packing plan, as one
of Rooseveit”s major mistakes.
Some states kept the tradition
al day, others followed the
Roosevelt day.
m-m
This year’s observance will
be notable, likely, for a pauci
ty of cranberry sauce on holi
day tables, but there should be
no paucity of turkey, oyster
dressing and mincemeat pie.
No Magic Carpet
Viewpoints of Other Editors
ARE YOU ON A
SUCKER LIST?
The forthcoming government
campaign to warn .the American
public against stock market
swindlers will be locking the
bam door after the horse is sto
len so far as many quitely a
nonymous but red-faced invest
ors are concerned—but (there are
a lot more horses in the barn.
It can’t happen here? Brother,
it has happened here.
Phony stock market “tipsters”,
sometimes called “boiler-room
operators” because they ofitert
operate from rented, temporary
offices, have been active in and
around Winston-Salem. The ac
tivity is poradic, and the local
scene seems to be quiet new. Yet
it’s a good bet that the boiler
room boys will be back, placing
their long-distance telephone
calls from New York or Montreal
or Toronto to homes and offices
in Piedmont North Carolina.
And it’s an even better bet that
many Tar Heels will permanent
ly part with savings they can ill
afford to lose.
Although P. T. Barnum’s obser
vation about the birthplace of
suckers may have been 100 per
cent correct, another adage still
applies: Forewarned is forearm
ed. So here is an idea of what
you can expect if your name is
on a stock tipster’s sucker list:
You will be mailed a well-pre
pared brochure describing a com
pany wiith little in the way of
actual profit but a great deal,
apparently, in the way of profit
possibilities.
After you have had time to di
gest the material and dream a
bout getting in on the ground
floor of a good thing, you will
receive a long-distance telephone
call.
You will be told that the stock
“is becoming active” or that “a
merger is in the wind” or that “a
special company announcement”
is coming that could send the
price of the stock soaring. And
then you Will be offered a chan
: ee to buy some shares—100, 500,
1,000—(the sky’s the limit
**We don’t usually do business
over the telephone,” you may be
told, “But we realize that the on
ly way we can add new custo
mers Is to give them the same
information we give our old cus
tomers.”
It sounds too pat, too slick,
too glittering. Buit the tipster has
two things going for him. The
first is that his sucker may be
someone who has never received
a telephone call from anywhere
more distant than Mocksville,
say, and who is thrilled at the
thought of the interest being
shown by a far-off stranger. The
second is human nature—the un
derstandable urge to make a fast
buck by being on the inside of a
big deal.
Almost two years ago, at a
time when telephone tipsters
were particularly active in and
around Winston-Salem, one local
Investment broker asked three
questions that every potential
investor needs to ask himself:
"Why do these people offer
you this big opportunity if it’s
such a hot tip? Why do they let
others in on it? Why not corner
the market tor themselves?”
The answer is obvious. The
boiler-room stock salesman Is
showing friendly concern about
your pocket book because he
wants it to he in good shape
when he takes it away.
The Securities and Exchange
Commission, the major stock ex
changes, established investment
firms and other groups and ag
encies have been waging war for
years on the fly-by-night opera
tors. Yet they are still operating
and they are likely to continue
operating as long as (there are
gullible and uninformed citizens
left to bilk.
Your name may be on a stock
tipster's list. You can increase
his overhead by making him
waste his time and his money if
you follow five simple rules.
1. Think before buying.
2. Deal only with a firm that
you know to be reputable.
3. Be skeptical of stocks offer
ed on the telephone and watch
out for glib, high-pressure sales
talks.
4. Beware of promises — or
hints — of sudden and spectacu
lar profits.
5. Realize that there is a risk
^ THE SENATOR
OVERLOOKS A POINT
As a book, ‘The Ugly Ameri-.
can" caught the reading fancy
of thousands of Americans 'and
stayed high on the list of the
best-seller list for months. It al
so caught the ire of the U. S.
State Department because it de
picted American diplomatic rep.
resenitatives in Southwest Asia
as being lazy, irresponsible, and
less able ambassadors of good
will for their country than cor
responding Soviet officials. A
merican readers wondered if
there might 'be some truth ito the
charges.
Now Hollywood is turning the
book into a movie, planning to
film it on location in Southeast
Asia. The film makers want the
State Department to help them
in the project but Senator Ful
bright of Arkansas, chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, is urging the De
partment not to co-operate with
"arrogant Hollywood movie ma
kers," who have dared to film a
book critical of U. S. foreign po
licy.
No doubt the Senator is speak
ing in righteous indignation. And
perhaps the picture of diplomatic
life drawn in “The Ugly Ameri
can” is overdrawn. But the Sen
ator is overlooking one fact that
might cause the movie to do the
American cause more good than
the book did it damage. Marlon
Brando is to star in the movie. If
he has the same effect on swoon
ing Asian females as he has on
Americans, that should win over
at least the femaie half of the
Asian population to the Ameri
can way of life. And if the pro
ducers would just cast Lana
Turner or Marilyn Monroe in the
leading female role, that should
take care of the other half.—
Smithfield Herald.
SOMETHING TO GIVE HIS
CREDITORS
The doctor finished his exami
nation of the man and shook his
head regretfully.
Doctor — “I’m sorry, but I’m
afraid you have a bad case of
smallpox.”
/ The patient turned weakly on
his pillow and said to his wife:
‘Tf any of my creditors come pes
tering around now, Mary, you can
tell them I am finally in a posi
tion to give them something.” —
Commercial Dispotch.
•ns AN ILL WIND...
Two women who had not seen
each other for a long time met
on the street one day.
“Why, Mary,” said one of
them, “I see you got your new
fur coat after all. I thought you
said your husband couldn’t af
ford it this year.”
“So I did,’ replied the other,
but we had a stroke of luck. My
husband fell and broke his leg,
omd the insurance company paid
him $400.” — We The People.
of loss whereever there is a
chance of gain .—Winston Salem
Journal.
ttema of mim about Kings
Mount** area people and
events taken from the 194$
foes of the Kings Mountain
Herald.
Howard B. Jackson, Neislei
Mills executive, was elected pres
Went of the Kings Mountain
Country dUb for the coming year
at an organization meeting oi
newly - elected directors Novem
ber 17. Mr. Jackson succeeds Paul
M. Neisler, Sr.
Kings Mountain’s National
Guard company received a satis
factory rating at the second fed
eral inspection held on November
15.
Social and Personal
Thte monthly meeting of the S«
nior Woman’s club was held Fri
day night in the clubhouse. Mrs
Jay Patterson presided.
The Myrtle Derrick circle o
the Lutheran church met Mondaa
night with Mm- Dan Unger.
.....
Dollar for Dollar...
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sured? If you need more coverage, see us this week.
Hie Aithnr Hay Agency
ALL KINDS OF INSURANCE
Phone 182
HARRIS FUNERAL HOME
—Ambulance Service—
Phone 118 Kings Mountain, N. C.
kingsize
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