Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / March 17, 1960, edition 1 / Page 2
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The Kings Mountain Heiald Established 1889 f 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 . Kditor-Bubllsher David Baity.Advertising Salesman and Bookeeper Miss Elizabeth Stewart.Circulation Manager and Society Editor Neale Patrick...Sports Editor MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT Horace Walker Eugene Matthews Paul Jackson Wade Hartsoe, Jr, Monte Hunter TELEPHONE NUMBERS — 167 of 283 SUBSCRIPTION RATES PAYABLE IN ADVANCE ONE YEAR—$3.50 SIX MONTHS—$2.00 THREE MONTHS—$125 BY MAIL ANYWHERE TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE Even so faith if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. James S:17. Bank Merger Most folk, at first thought, must have been surprised that Kings Mountain’s 60-year-old First National Bank was merging with the large First Union Na tional of North Carolina. At second thought, the> were less sur prised, somewhat conditioned by the rash of mergers that has been a bank ing trend in recent years. Prime reason for banking mergers is to be able to meet the demands of big business for lines of credit. First Union’s Louis Brooks gave an example here last week. A large nation wide finance company, a prime risk bor rower with regular need for large a mounts of short-term credit was a de sired customer of First Union (then Union National). Said Mr. Brooks: “When our maximum credit limit w^s $90,0(X), this company’s officials went through *the motions of bare courtesy. They gave us little more than the time of day. When our limit reached $500,000, these officials treated us quite cour teously, but didn’t give us any business. When our limit reached a million, this company became a customer. It seems that a million-dollar credit limit is the magic figure.” Needless to say, the big majority of First National of Kings Mountain’s cus tomers can be served quite well with their present $30,000 credit limit. But some can’t and have either been forced to get First National to broker these loans or to do business directly in larger cities with larger banks. The great push of the Hodges Admin istration to attract new industry and new payrolls to North Carolina has been a major factor in pointing the need for big banks. The fact of a major bank op erating in Kings Mountain is a definite asset for the Chamber of Commerce to point out, as it invites new industrial citizens, just as the bigger loan limit is an asset for present industrial citizens. Untoward effects, if any, are remem bered by citizens who lived through the banking debacle of the,Great Depress ion, when banks went bankrupt in droves, following a heavy season of mer gers and construction of bank buildings. \ A major hedge here are the stringent banking laws evolved in 1933 and the fact that tax laws tend to more than hal ve the costs of construction, via long term depreciation. Some customers think they’ll miss the local flavor of a strictly local bank, but lines of credit are obtained chiefly on basis of the borrower’s collateral. The obvious potential benefits to cus tomers, employees and stockholders ap pear to outweigh the aforementioned ob jections. City Tax Position The city’s position of tax supervisor and collector is not an easy one to fill because the position is a difficult one to administer. Essentially, the chore requires a per son who can collect on time as near to 100 percent of the tax levy as is physi cally possible and to make the taxpay ers happy about it. In addition, the per son must have sufficient knowledge of bookkeeping and clerical duties to keep the accounts in order and up-to-date. It can be seen that the requirements call for a person who is tough enough to get the job done, yet diplomatic and per sonable enough to prevent personality complaints. It’s another personnel situation, in which, as most are, the job should seek the man. Kings Mountain’s new telephone ex change is to be the most modern yet de veloped with seven-digit telephone num bers rather than exchange designation such as Regency, Edison, University or Franklin plus five digits. The new sys tem is designed to enhance direct long distance dialing by subscribers, among other benefits, including eliminating dialing errors. Principal problem will b< memory work tor subscribers who have been accustomed to learning not more than four-digit numbers, but it is pre sumed seven digits will be a little more difficult to remember than five. Then there’s always the directory, which un doubtedly will be quickly dogeared after the new system is cut over on September 10. Handbill Restriction The Herald was glad to notice that the city commission tabled suggestions on prohibiting distribution of handbills, and rather hopes such a suggestion won’t be renewed. In the first place, such an ordinance would have very doubtful legal founda tion, since the federal constitution guar antees every citizen the right to say, or write what he pleases. In turn, the con stitution guarantees the right of citizens injured by speech or writing to seek restitution via the courts. As the Herald understands current North Carolina law, handbills, like news paper advertisements, must be credited to organizations or persons responsible for their distribution. In political adver tising, for instance, the old signature “Citizens for Better Government”, or similar ones, is insufficient. The name of the chairman or president must be printed, too. This establishes responsi bility. It is not uncommon for organizations or groups under attack (rightly or wrongly) to seek to use the law to re strict the attacker. As is customary in these situations, the would-be restricters might also inadvertently restrict mer chants wishing to sell their wares, chur ches wishing to promote attendance or fund campaigns, and many other groups —even their own. The law is generic, not particular, the high courts have ruled. The Herald’s job printing department publishes some circulars, mostly for churches and merchants. It is service side of the business which returns little profit and has been known, dut to news paper publication schedules, to prove downright painful business. While we’d be quite willing to relegate this phase of printing to the ash heap, legal restric tions on our customers are without the spirit of freedom with which this nation was founded and on which principles North Carolina and the United States have grown great. Adlai Again It is axiomatic with political candi dates that they either get the candidate bug cured early or never get it cured until they reach their goal or die, some thing akin to attitude of a person desir ing a particular piece of real estate. Thus it appears that Adlai Stevenson, innoculated with the candidate virus by winning the Illinois governorship, has the disease fatally. Twice defeated in ' the national sweepstakes by President Eisenhower, he still cherishes the dream of holding the top office in the nation and feels he was a victim of the war hero halo in his two defeats. He can, he thinks, defeat Vice-President Nixon or any other candidate the GOP might ad vance. Most Democratic loyalists through the 1952 and 1956 defeats of Stevenson still like Mr. Stevenson and many, even those supporting the other would-be nominees now, will admit privately that Mr. Stevenson is the party’s outstanding man, leading philosopher, and soundest in the basics of government. But the spectre of two consecutive de- j feats and Mr. Stevenson's prior inability to generate emotional voter appeal, either through the high level campaign of 1952, or the rather low-level profess ional approach of 1956, has genei'ated the “he can’t win” theory. Then there’s the memory of three consecutive defeats ot William Jennings Bryan. Mr. Stevenson may be listed as an e qually outstanding darkhorse for the nomination as Senator Symington, but apparently no more than that. The pos sibilities of both gentlemen depend on some heavy stumbling of the present leaders between now and the Los An geles convention. MARTIN'S MEDICINE By Martin Hannon Ingredient a: bits of newt, uHsdom, /tumor, and comment Directions: Take weekly, if possible. but avoid overdosage. None will be more glad to see the arrival of spring than the city’s retail merchants, Who, with grocers probably ex cepted, find heavy snows con siderably deleterious to busy cash registers. m-m Apparel merchants have one principal snow sales outlet, in the form of rubber footwear, as the service stations do auto chains, but in each instance, stocks aren’t too heavy because of the normally mild weather of Piedmont North Carolina. There is good reason for this, for some winters pass with sales limited to those citizens who work in construction or otherwise out-of-doors. m-m The merchant knows as well as anyone that his principal route to business success is to have what the customer wants when the customer wants it. Big-city stores may do some business on bathing suits in January — for the Californ ia-Florida resort trade—but a Kings Mountain merchant Who promoted swim suits in mid winter would be wasting his cash. There isn’t much demand. m-m Thus Kings Mountain mer chants, during the snows, quickly found their stocks of snow-repellant footwear evap orated and most of them kept telephone and telegraph wires busy trying .0 get more. Hil ton Ruth, at Belk’s, was lucky in two ways. Between snow two and three, he got fast ship ment from the manufacturers, and, in process of rummaging in his supply room found six dozen pairs of overshoes which had been “lost”, he guessed for at least three years. m-m Plonk Brothers wasn’t quite as lucky on re-ordering, re ehccked the manufacturer to find the shipment had left by motor freight. It was reasoned that the shipment Should have reached Charlotte 'before the snow stopped the trucks again and four telephone calls to ter minals brought results with Number 4. Result was that Johnny Plonk and Paul Walk er got Charlie Dixon and a Vic tory Chevrolet snow-tired truck and took off for Charlotte at 5 o’clock in the snowy after noon. (Meantime, Paul placed a small advertisement saying the shipment would be on hand the following morning. The trio didn’t get home ’til 11:30 p. m., fcut the needed footwear was on hand the following morning. mm Johnny had another interest ing experience a few weeks ago in the mountains. He left Burnsville for North Wilkesbo ro about 7 o'clock in the even ing. The route is a lonesome one. as anyone who has been through the Newlamd area will be quick to remember. Johnny began to notice smoke in his car. He first guessed somebody was burning trash along the side of the road. (But a roll down of the window eliminated the smoky smell. Johnny then stopped the car and checked under the hood. There was nothing amiss. As quickly as he began his journey again, there was more smoke. m-m “I didn’t know whether to stop the car and startwalking or to drive as fast as I could and hop>e to find a service station,” Johnny laughed. He chose the latter course, and with more smoke boiling finally found a small mountain service station. With help of the station lights and the owner, Johnny found that the straw mat under the car carpet was afire. Johnny doesn’t smoke, guesses sparks from a tear in the tail pipe ig nited the mat. Conversation with the station owner reveal ed that the station was really a general store, offering gas, groceries and ury goods. John ny, who sells for Ely & Walk er, suggested the owner might need some goods. The write up was a Sl.OOO-order. IU winds do blow good. n-a Mrs. George Plonk, giving daughter Barbara some sug gestions about housekeeping recalled that her mother (Mrs. E. C. Cooper, had a graphic method of teaching her family the art of neatness with cloth es. tovs and children’s gear On the back porch was a big bar rel. If child’s gear was found in the middle of the floor, or otherwise out of place when not in use, it went into the bar rel. Margaret says the young sters learned auicklv it was better to be neat than have to fish stuff out of the barrel. m-m Carl MoCraw, First Union National Bank president, hasn’t lived here since 1923 but has always retained interests and friendships her?. Item: he’s been a Herald subscriber since he went to Charlotte 37 years ago. I knew about 15 of them X Marks the Spot (( /i m w. M Viewpoints of Other Editors EFFICIENCY IN GOVERNMENT In industrial plants throughout the nation an effort is continual ly being made to increase effici ency, to step up the productive ca pacity of machinery and work men. In farming, just as in industry, the future depends upon the a bility of the farmer to produce and market his crops in an effici ent manner. The inefficient pro ducer will be left by the wayside and be forced out of the competi tion. In like manner, the store man ager or other businessman is for ced to continually seek efficiency. That is a result of the competi tion which spurs on our business operations. Each concern, in or der to Obtain for itself a fair share of the market in goods and services, must compete success fully against others in its field. In government we .-(have no such incentive to efficiency. There is no competing govern ment which is ready to take over When incompetence and flound ering bureaucracy makes a mess of things. That is, there has 'been no such competition in the past. Whether there will be in the future fnay be a different stpry. The true test of our democratic republican form of government is whether we make It work, whether it con tinues to provide a stable frame work of national organization of fering the necessary services to its people. We can stand up and shout un til we are hoarse, “Hurrah for democracy! Hurray for our re publican form of government! Hurray for the American Way!”j But if we do not make certain this vaunted way of life retains its virility and its stamina, we shall soon lose those things which we prized most as blessings of it.: There are a good many people in responsible positions Who frank- j ly admit that they are afraid this' nation has passed its peak in po wer and influence and is about ready to join the multitude of de-! dining civilizations. We do have competition today. Communism, a strong and/ ad vancing^ though godless, political and economic system, is ready to take over the moment we let down the bars. It is admitted by those who have made a study of our gov ernment that it is far from effi cient, that it is full of needless bureaus and administrations, that it is filled with overlapping agen cies, and that it seeks to offer quite a numlber of services which j should be provided by private in dustry or by the people themsel ves. It has grown so big as to be unwieldy and full of waste. Its leaders often think too much of pork barrel projects and too lit tle of national welfare. In its present state it is a prime target for the competition being offered by communism. It may spend itself into submission. It may become decadent through lack of interest on the part of its citizens. Or, its inefficient opera tion may finally breed disgust a mong its citizens to the extent they will no longer support it. We do have com{Jetition from a potent force today. The question pararrtount in these times is whe ther our government can operate efficiently enough to stave off the challenge. That is a question the people will have to answer. — Stanly News and Press. THIS WONDERFUL AGE OF SECURITY Otto Graham, who is disting uished as one of the all-time great player of college and pro fessional football, says he > has turned down several offers to' coach in the '"big time” because he is quite happy as commander in the U. S. Coast Guard and coach of the Coast Guard Acade my's ‘small college” football team. Not only is he free from the pressures of big-time football. He says he has another big advan tage: “When I wake up in the morning, I don’t have to wonder over whether I’ll wear a blue, gray, or brown suit. I just hop, Into the uniform." Lucky fellow! A worry-free ex istence! If the Gout Guam were ROGER. WILCO — AND OUT! Even the language of the Air Farce always puzzled most of us. “Roger, Wilco and out” we used to hear the fly-boys say; and we supposed it was some strange jargon with which they commu nicated from one plane to an other or from plane to ground. It all sounded like it was some where off in the “wild blue yon der,” but then every man has a right to choose his own brand of talk—even babies. During the war days we were glad enough to have the Air Force men protecting us so we never quibbled about their lan guage or their sloppy dress or their youthful brashness. cui now in peacetime it seems the flyers Have another langu age so easy to understand that even mebers of Congress know what it means. Take their train ing manuals for instance. Once they were so technical only an Air Force man could read them. Now they are smeared over the front pages of the newspapers for everybody to read. The first one that raised the public wrath and Congressional scrutiny was a training man ual teaching airmen how to be servants to officers: how to wash the officer’s dog, how to shine his shoes, how to set his lunch eon table. Then came the teaching man ual that suggested American churches were infiltrated by Communists and that the Re vised Standard of the Bible was written by Communists and fel low travelers. A third manual, with the ra ther staid title of “Open Mass Operating Manual”, tells how to get dates for bachelor o-fficeis, how to imix martinis, how to se lect a bartender and how to pro mote the sale of food. Here is a luscious sample: “Just ‘fried chicken $1.25’ doesn’t mean much; however, if we were to replace this with ‘Southern pan fried chicken, br owned to perfection, nestled in golden brown curls and served with piping hot-biscuits and ho ney, the chances.of a sale won Id be greatly increased.” Bat the manual remark that really sent Congress up in the aim—out into the wild blue yon der—was this one: “Another foolish remark often heard is the Americans have a right to know what’s going on. Most people realize the foolish ness of such a suggestion. Keep in mind that public news media present only as much informa tion as the government wants to release.” As they say- so pithily in the Air Force: “Roger, Wilco—and out.” But mostly out. — Smith field Herald. advertising for recruits on TV, the commercial would probably run something like this: “Join thp Coast Guard, you cuss, and leave the decisions to us!" Remember ’way back when the armed services appealed to the adventurous? —^ Smithfield Herald. 1 A TEARS AGO IV THIS WEEK Items of news about Kings Mountain area people and events taken from the 1950 files of the Kings Mountain Herald. The building committee of First Baptist church tentatively approved bids totaling $39,980 Wednesday night for the three story addition to the church’s ed ucational plant. Work began at First National Bank this week on installation of an air-conditioning system and interior remodeling and re arrangement Hie Jaycee (Minstrel of 1950 will be presented in a repeat, performance Saturday night at 8 o’clock at the high school au ditorium. Social and. Personal The monthly meeting of the Pauline Community club was held Tuesday evening in the clubhouse with (Mrs. Jack Hul lender, Mrs. Earl Ledford, and Mrs. Verm Cash, hostesses. ' You Wouldn't Zfcm Money.. Don't Risk Losing Money Through the Ravages of Fire! Insure! To Be Sure! — SEE US TODAY — The Arthur Hay Agency ALL KINDS OF INSURANCE Phone 182 ' ——... ..■ YOU anFYOUR STATE DOLLARS AHEAD when you shop where you see this sign YOU RE dollars ahead because your SfisH Green Stamps give you extra values in Distinguished Merchandise at no added cost to you. YOUR STATE is dollars ahead, too, because S&H is a big buyer of your State’s manufactured products for 600 Green Stamp redemption centers across the nation. So shop where you see the sign of -—the sign that means extra values for your home State, too. Broutffy and protect your horn* for a small sam poy abfo monthly. Wo arrange payments to eoft ysn needs and yoo get the work done NOW. A leaky roof is sere to cease damage. Avoid coelty troeble and make your home better looking ...with a colorful new roof. Added insulation will cut fuel tofa New sidewalls, too, add insulation value and beau tify the appearance of your home. Use our ABC Budget Payment Plan. Payments to suit your income. AIIJII Phones 25 & 54 "FOB THE BEST SOUND IN TOWN" TUNE IN DAILY TO “Soundhouse” FROM SUNRISE TIL SUNSET OVER .000 WATTS WKMT DIAL Kings Mountain
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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March 17, 1960, edition 1
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