.••/it The Kings Monntain Herald
Established 1889
A weekly newspaper devoted to the promotion of the general welfare and published
for the enllghtment, 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
David Baity . Advertising Salesman and Bookkeeper
Alton Stewart . Sports Reporter
M;ss Elizabeth Stewart. Circulation Manager and Society Editor
Sandra Plonk . Assistant Society Editor
MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT
Eugene Matthews Douglas Metcalf Wade H. Hartsoe, Jr.
Paul Jackson Monte Hunter Allen Myers
TELEPHONE NUMBER __ 739-5441
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TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE
For- I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Ilosea 6:6.
The Vote Upcoming
Major projects cost money and require
time, particularly when they’re govern
mental projects, involving all the people
of a particular area.
Such is the upcoming proposal, to be
endorsed or declined by the people, on
the building of a new high school plant
to serve the expanded district.
Many have been impaltient at the
seeming slowness in calling the election,
but the legal details must be correct - -
down to the proper location of the com
mas - - to assure the would-be bond-pur
chasers that no legal technicalities will
be pled to prevent repayment of the
bonds.
The election has now been called and
the voting is soon to be held.
The facts are that classroom space is
needed and potentially to be more short,
minus more buildings, with a growing a
rea population. The high school fresh
man class is three classrooms larger
than this year’s graduation class.
The sum of $1,100,000 is a heady one,
bilt less so when compared to the aggre
gate wealth of the area. Expressed in
taxable values, considerably short of ac
tual, the citizens of the Kings Mountain
school district are worth about $23 mil
lions, the county tax supervisor relates
from his figures.
It behooves all citizens to speak their
piece, via the ballot, on the March 10
bond election.
As is well-delineated, the Herald
favors the bond issue, is glad to see en
dorsements from the Junior Chamber of
Commerce and the Number 4 Township
Grange, agreeing with the latter that
full attention and facilities should be
provided for vocational agriculture.
Due to the requirement of the Cleve
land County school act of 1935, under
which the upcoming election is called, a
new registration is being held. Those
who fail to register will find themselves
unable to register their opinions on
March 10.
The books will be open at the eight
voting places February 10, ten days
hence.
( ___
The Republican party intends to field
a full slate of candidates at the county
level, Chairman Pierce Cassidy said hero
recently, and it labeled “a crying
shame” the historical fact of Republican
lethargy in the county. The Democrats
undoubtedly reioin that they’ve given
the county good government for, lo,
these many years, which gave no reason
or excuse for GOP activity. Meantime,
fielding a local team is the onlv route
whereby the GOP can hope to effectuate
a strong organization.
An astrologer predicts the end of the
world on Monday, which makes him a
likely candidate for the gallery of those
who have predicted in error in years
gone by.
Protecting Watersheds
In the past few years, North Carolina
has moved in an important direction,
that of protecting its waiter supplies for
the benefit of all. A prime mover of the
movement was the late Dr. J. S. Dorton,
of Shelby, who saw earlier than some
that the growing population would de
mand more and more water as the years
pass.
Thus the city recently, at the recom
mendation of its engineer, W. K. Dick
son of Charlotte, moved to protect its
only nearby potential watershed of any
size.
Mr. Dickson looked into his files to
find a 1954 engineering survey for the
city, which, at that time, recommended
Kings Mountain move to Buffalo Creek,
as the closest major water supply of con
tinuous flow and with a sizeable water
shed.
The acreage area of the watershed,
according to the engineer, is quite gra
phic. Whereas Kings Mountain, with its
present two resevoirs, is served by a
watershed approximately three square
miles, the watershed it attempts to pro
tect via the state stream sanitation com
mittee has 188 square miles.
Water, even more than food, is essen
tial for life.
It is also essential for economic life, as
many of the world’s major industries re
quire great quantities to produce their
products, be they textiles, minerals,
paper and many, many more.
Only recently, E. I. duPont de Nem
ours, the great chemical firm, announ
ced it would build a multi-million plant
near Brevard for the manufacture of
photographic supplies. Editor John An
derson, of Brevard’s Transylvania
Times, acknowledges that water availa
bility was a key factor in duPont’s lo
cating there. It was the key factor in
Olin Mathieson’s locating a plant there
a few years ago, and, of course, in Ecus
ta Paper Corporation’s being a Brevard
area citizen.
As long as ten years ago, it must have
been, a textile firm expressed interest in
locating here, but the water demands
were as much or more as Kings Moun
tain was then able to supply. It located
at Hendersonville.
A major direction for watershed pro
tection is in clean-up of streams being
polluted with sewage and waste, and
protection in the future of those unpol
luted.
As one city commissioner noted, the
city’s efforts to protect its closest, avail
able watershed of any size may cost the
city dollars in building modern sewage
disposals plants, such as the one in the
McGill creek area.
But water is imperative.
Depending on the area’s rate of grow
th, it may be a generation hence be
fore Kings Mountain finds it necessary
to tap Buffalo Creek for water, but that
day is pretty sure to arrive.
Seeking M ©deletion
Two Kings Mountain civic clubs, the
Lions and Khvanis, were treated to in
teresting addresses last week. Thouch
the addresses were of considerably dift'
erent hue, there were threads of simi
larity between them.
On Tuesday night, the Lions heard an
address by Edward J. Dowd, who man
ages a Charlotte area trade association
specializing in deterring growth of or
ganized labor in the Piedmont Carolmas.
Mr. Dowd professed:
1) Unions have limited offerings to
their members.
2) Management, if management will,
can out-do the unions in providing em
ployees these benefits.
Prime effort of the organization, Cen
tral Piedmont Industries, Inc., which Mr.
Dowd represents, is to encourage indus
try to establish a climate non-conducive
to organizing movement.
The Kiwanis club heard Kays Gary.
He didn’t mention the labor movement,
but criticized 1) the super-patriots who,
he charged, are limiting their wallets by
playing on the fears of people, and 2)
the super-liberals, the inference being
the super-liberals do the same.
Mr. Gary noted on the Communist
scare that many people shout the epi
thet at dthers when they don't agree
with them, one of the world’s older pro
paganda tricks. He also said that the U
nited States had more Communists, be
fore or since, in the starving years of j
the Great Depression, adding that a re
cent FBI report showed about 20,000
listed in the FBI files, which would be
■“about one among 9,000 in the United
States and probably one-quarter in
Kings Mountain.” (Mr. Gary should be
more charitable to Kings Mountain’s
population of 8,008. That figuring would
give us seven eights of one Communist).
Mr. Gary’s defense of federal regula
tory agencies made sense. Very few of
the sometimes-maligned federal agen
cies (he mentioned the Securities and
Exchange commission, the Federal
Trade commission, the Bureau of Public
Roads) could be abolished, he contend
ed, without giving the Russians cause to
cheer - - but without causing Mr. K to
lay down his 100-megaton hydrogen
bomb.
It’s a point to remember.
Both addresses were thought-pro
voking and the similar hue seemed to be
a plea for moderation, for letting the
neighbor live, if through different ap
proaches.
Dr. Bennett R. Willeford, Kings Moun
tain connected, is an outstanding resear
ch chemist. His award of a fellowship to
study abroad next year is a high compli
ment to the ability of the Bucknell Uni
versity Professor.
MARTIN'S
MEDICINE
By Martin Ham on
Ingredients: bite of new*,
wisdom, humor, and comment.
Directions: Take weekly, if
possible, but avoid
overdosage.
A letter addressed to The
Kings Mountain newspaper”
last week stirred friendly mem
ories. A lady in Sterling, 111.,
which the dictionary reports
is a community of about 13,
000 folk in the northwestern
part of that state, named Blan
che Long, was seeking the
whereabouts of her cousin
Horace (Rudy) Rudisill, who
for many years was pianist for
the Jan Garber band.
m-m
Unfortunately, I had to re
ply that Horace had died on
Thanksgiving Day 1960 at
Daytona Beach, Fla., but with
the aid of (Mrs. Vera Mauney
Cooper, also kinfolk to Miss
Long, I was able to supply
names and addresses of the
four surviving members of the
eight-member Rudisill family.
m-m
Miiss Long also suggested
that Jan Garber was from
Kings Mountain, but he isn’t.
m-m
I never had ithe pleasure of
hearing the Garber band in
person, but remember his good
music on the late evening ra
dio broadcasts in the thirties
from Chicago’s Trianon Ball
room.
m-m
I mentioned the letter to
Mrs. Paul Hendricks and teas
ed, "You should be old enough
to remember the Gaaber band.”
She laughed, “Yes, I’m old
enough.” Then she remember
ed as a Wirtthrpp college stu
dent going to a June German
at the University of South Car
olina with Garber furnishing
the music.
m-m
Tjaifier, talking with Joe Mc
Daniel about the letter, he
says, “No kidding. Jan Garber's
playing for a Shrine dance in
Charlotte Satuday night. And
he has a beautiful girl vocal
ist, his own daughter.”
m-m
Glee Bridges attended the
Shrine banquet at Charlotte.
Seated across the table from
Glee was a pretty lady, and,
befitting a man who’d spent
most of Ms life in retail bus
iness and 20 years as a coun
ty eomimlissdoner and mayor,
Glee introduced himself and
asked the lady’s name. She re
plied, ‘T’m Janice Garber.”
She told Glee her father is 72
(Clyde Whetstine, also pres
ent, says he doesn’t look any
where near that age), proceed
ed to 'sing two numbers for the
banqueteers.
m-m
Speaking of 'Germans, Jack
White tells an interesting tale
on himself. When he was a
Wake Forest student, he and
some other lads went to Rocky
Mount for its famous June
German. The dance and atten
dant festivities make quite a
social occasion. At times, two
big name bands have furnish
ed the music and the dance
doesn’t begin until midnight,
continuing to dawn. Jack, on
this occasion, said he was like
most financially-thin college
boys, but put on his tuxedo
and went along. By dawn,
says Jack, his assets were re- j
dueed to a half-dollar, insuffi- j
cient for a hotel room, so his 1
only choice was to hitch a ride
•home.
m-m
A friendly trucker, impress
ed by Jack’s evening dress in
daytime, broke company rules
to take Jack as far as Raleigh,
Where he deposited Jack on a
busy street corner. “That was
some crazy sight,” Jack re- j
members, “me on a busy Ral
eigh street corner at 11 o’
clock in the morning wearing
a tuxedo.”
m-m
Tom BoSt, Jr., Who works at :
the University of North Caro- ■
I;na and is a UNC alumnus, is ‘
pretty sure the present crop j
of college youngsters has gone i
to the dogs. His reason, as re- \
lated to me a few months ago:
‘Martin,” says Tom, “they j
don’t have big dances any
more!” To me this is at the
least heretical, if not down
right communistic. No big :
dance weekends at Chapel
Hill!”
“No,” Tom continued, “they |
had Louis Armstrong: here not |
too long ago, paid him $5,000
for a two-hour concert. He got
his check and left, and the
kids tlien got into bermuda j
sihorts and danced to juke-box
es ait the fraternity houses.”
m-m
The youngsters don’t know
what they're missing. Tom, I
and others not only went to
dances which always ended
promptly at 1 a. m. Fridays
and midnight Saturdays, but
later, after the post-dance
sandwich, sat on the campus
giving out with barber shop
harmony until the wee hours
of the morning.
m-m
Life is change, mutation
being the law of life, but that’s
a change I can’t fathom. Had
it not been for the big dances
I wouldn't have ever seen and
heard Larry Clinton, Paul
Whiteman, Kay Kyser, Jan Sa
vftt, Vincent Lopez. Hal Kemo,
Tommy Dorsey. CSenn MaUer
and many others. And there
were the beautiful vocalists,
‘‘They come in three sizes: small, medium-small
and confidential!”
Viewpoints of Other Editors
MOSCOW'S MEMO
TO NOBODY
On December 27 the Soviet
Foreign Ministry handed a me
morandum to Dr. Hans Kroll,
West German Ambassador in
Moscow. It was the subject of
much speculation in Bonn and
elsewhere. Now German Chan
cellor Adenauer says the docu
ment was “without address, with
out signature and without any
indication as to who wrote it.”
This, seems, on the whole,
rather clumsy attempt to drive a
wedge between West Germany
and its North Atlantic allies, par
ticularly the United States, Bri
tain and France. The paper char
ged that West Germany's part
ners have no real interest in the
unification of Germany.
There is, of course, a long-ran
ge danger that the Communists,
after having blocked reunification
for more than a decade, may in
substance insinuate to the Ger
man people, “If you want reunion
with East Germany, you will do
better to talk with us than with
your NATO allies.”
Some such implication is la
tent in the present memo. It sug
gests that Moscow, having here
tofore denied West Germany any
voice in the fate of W^st Berlin,
now would be wiiling to talk to
Bonn about the status of that
city if Bonn’s negotiators would
leave their Western friends at
home.
Chancellor Adenauer’s govern
ment has flatly stated it is not
having any of this. And it is not
likely that such a bid would be
muse the Social Democrats. But
there are groups in Germany
which either for business or for
ideological reasons might be
swayed.
It is clearly to such groups and
with a desire to broaden their ap
peal among the West German
people that the undirected, un
signed memo from the Moscow
foreign office is aimed. An over
whelming majority of West Ger
mans can be expected to under
stand that any separate dealings
with the Soviet Union over Berlin
or Other matters would only be
at their own ultimate expense.
Figuratively they will mark the
Moscow memo “Returned because
of Insufficient address.” —
Christian Science Monitor.
A CURE FOR RSVP
Every time you get around to
cleaning out the desk, you find
all those unanswered letters you
filed and forgot where. You feel
you've found half a conversation,
and you feel a bit ashamed.
But so many times, when you
re-read your mail you find sim
ple statements of fact that need
no answers. Yet we are stuck
with the RSVP code of ethics.
RSVP is French that in modem
translation becomes “reply by re
turn mail."
A New York lawyer has come
up with a perfectly splendid re
medy for all these guilty feelings
about unanswered mail. He and
a small knot of fellow crusaders
are pushing a plan they say will
save just about everybody time
and money. Govemmentto-people
and money. Government-to-peo
ple and govemment-to-govem
ment connections will save sim
ply bushels of money, paper and
postage, the promoters explain.
Under the signatures of routine
business notes written by this
courageous group are the letters
DBTA. The letters abbreviate
“don’t bother to answer." The
technique is that simple.
Sounds like a fine idea. We
could extend this DBTA courtesy
in many business transactions.
Like when we run short and mail
the bank only half the house
payment. — Moareaville Tribune.
Ginny Sims, Bea Wain, and
Marion Hutton. Pearl Bailey
was a tit too heavy to be ac
cused of extreme beauty, but
she was beautiful when she
opened her throat to sing
“Please Be Kind."
WHOSE "QUALITY"
IN EDUCATION?
There is no doubt that in many
American elementary and high
schools, the quality of education
could toe improved. As long as
this is so, it is pretty certain
that somebody will want to do
something about it.
So we find the Administration
in a do - something mood, plan
ning to present to Congress a new
“quality secondary education”
program to improve the caliber
of public school education. The
cost is estimated at $100 million
a year for an as yet undetermin
ed number of years. The program
would be in addition to the elab
orate assortment of school aid
measures, costing billions, al
ready advanced toy the Adminis
tration. Though President Ken
nedy did not elaborate in his
State of the Union speech on
what he called a (bill to improve
educational quality, some of its
features have already been re
ported.
The new program proposes
Federal 'Scholarship grants to
teachers for study at colleges and
universities; grants to states for
such special projects as devel
oping new types of instruction,
improving equipment and librar
ies, and advancing methods of
teaching gifted as well as prob
lem pupils.
Hardly anyone can quarrel
with the plan’s general aims. Butj
something is decidedly wrong
with a theory that the best and
only way to improve education
is through the application, from
the top down, of more Federal
money.
Indeed, everywhere there is ev
idence that 'better education is
not basically a question of mo
ney at all. Localities across the
U. S., rebelling at the wishy
washy effects of years of “pro
gressive” education techniques,
have on their own initiative been
upgrading elementary and high
school curricula, teaching mater-,
ials including books, and meth
ods of instruction. This has been *
going on in the absence of any
Federal “quality secondary edu
cation” project.
To be sure, all these local ex
periments may not be perfect.
But one can see on all sides a
healthy ferment of ideas and ac
tivity, (brisk interchanges of ex
periences and stimulating rival
ries between communities in the
process of raising the quality of
instruction.
If the Federal project is a
dopted all this grass roots ac
tivity is going to grind to a halt
while the localities wait to see
just what its implications are.
What, for example, will be the
Office of Education’s concept of
"quality” education? Will it be
better than those standards of
quality being worked out by lo
cal school officials? And if the
Federal standards turn out to be
the wrong ones — as have, for
instance, many standards embra
ced by “progressive” educators—
where would that leave the lo
calities?
For make no mistake about it,
the Government will be the one
to determine what is meant by
“quality.” And if experience has
taught the taxpayer anything, it
is that a Federal ‘ quality second
ary education” program would
in the end result in education of
secondary quality. — The Wall
Street Journal.
I-1
TEARS AGO
THIS WEEK
10
Items of news about Kings
Mountain area people ana
events taken from the 1951
files of the Kings Mountain
Herald.
Charles Connor, Kings (Moun
tain insurance salesman and
Bruce Thorbum, Burlington Mills
personnel manager, will serve as
co-chairmen of the annual Kings
Mountain district Boy Scouts fi
nancial campaign.
Social and Personal
Mrs. Maary Lovell and Miss
Mary McGill are in St Louis this
week on a buying trip for Plonk’s
Department Store.
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