TZ'7'i'nnZ PamT°^jf t"M'JI'**
and its vl.lnily, published every Thursday by the Kin** Mou,»tain
Knlouvl as second class m.ntciai ihe i,oLf„?nI ! J Publishing Hottm.
_ -«'» A,: of * C • 5
2*ou;
MarMn Harmon.
Dick Woodward .
Miss Elizabeth Stewart
Miss Libby Bunch
editorial department
.V.V.V.V.V.y////// ..Editor- Publisher
.Clerk
Douglas Hnus.-I
Paul Jackson
MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT
Russell c. Parrish
Allen Myers
N'orman Camp
Monte Huiitet
TELEPHONE NUMBER - 739-5441
ONF YEAR lH*Xf RATKSs^^ ABLE ,x ADVANCE .. HY MML ANYWHERE
PLUS NORTH CAROLINA SALES TM " **
TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE
h:rlkr .-toe o/ ha* . *„ c that u hn I,
Vafthr>tr IS:l]
Improvements Mandatory
Saturday’s train-car accident, costing
four lives and hospitalizing another per
son. shocked Kings Mountain area citi
zens and reminded them of what they al
ready know: Kings Mountain, with its
long stretch of main line rail track, has
all too many one-track crossings, and
quite a paucity of protected crossings
Total of the latter is three, the l S. <
bridge, the adjacent "old” overhead
bridge," too narrow for today’s autosand
ith dangerou means of ep»vss. and the
too narrow unde»*;«iss se.un oi the city
at Glass Grocery.
More or less amateur engineers have
come forward since Saturday with num
erous suggestions for improvement to
prevent future tragedies, most of them
quite costly in treasure. But. as many
at so suggest. who can measure the value
of a human life’
At the Gold street crossing, the short
approach from the east, as well as the
short approach to westbound traffic en
tering from South Railroad avenue, adds
to th< crossing hazard and makes allevi
ation or the problem more difficult. Most
agree, however, that immediate installa
tion (if the red-flashing lights with hell
signal, such as employed at the Moun
tain street crossing, would be helpful.
Some of the sidewalk engineering sug
gestions include:
1) Construction of an underpass to re
place the Gold street crossing.
2) Construction of an underpass to re
place the Gold street crossing vyith con
current closing of the Mountain street
crossing.
.\) Construction of an underpass at the
Cedar street (Kings Mountain Cotton Oil
Company t crossing.
It Kxtension of Railroad avenue south
to link with the county road serving the
Margrace community, to cut crossing
traffic.
Large expenditures are indicated in
any or all these suggestions, and de
mand, of course, the service's of a quali
fied traffic engineer.
It is not proper in this instance to
damn the Southern Railway, which na
turally would be happy to see all the
crossings along its right-of-way plowed
up and closed.
At the same time, the Kings Moun
tain problems and the many othi rs along
the long Southern route, must be assum
ed to be of much concern to the railwav
company, as ours are to the citizens of
Kings Mountain.
Here is an area the officials of the city
of Kings Mountain. Kings Mountain
Chamber ot Commerce, North Carolina
Highway commission, and Southern
Railway Company need to examine
closely and togethc: with firm intention
of alleviating 'noth short-term and long
term this, continuing and increasing haz
ard to life, limb, and property.
Canard Labeled
When Judge L. Richardson I’ivyor an
nounced his candidacy for governor, his
supporters quietly acknowledged that
there appeared only one speck of rust
on his otherwise quite bright armor.
It was the fact that he had defended
the convicted Communist, Junious
Scales, and, it was understood, had sub
sequently signed a petition asking a re
duction of Scales’ six-year sentence to
federal prison for violation of the Smith
Act.
Typically, Candidate Preyer has made
the full facts public. The salient ones
are:
11 He accepted the Scales case as one
of two court-appointed attorneys.
2) He withdrew from the case when
it became apparent that Scales was. in
effect, going to bo his own attorney and
ignore the advice of counsel. (Judge
Preyer would be party to no soap Ikjx
utilization of the courtroom for espous
ing Communism.!
3) He did not sign the petition.
4) He addressed a letter to the judge
presiding in the case (as many have
done and will do again) saying he felt
Scales was finally maturing from an un
due and misguided intellectual idealism.
The canard is labeled.
And the speck of rusd never was on
the armor.
t
Mattel of Money?
While leaders of the pro and anti
forces on the amendment to the state
constitution changing the make-up of
the General Assembly have waxed elo
quent in the extreme, the rank-and-file
citizen has expressed comparatively lit
tle interest.
It is therefore easy to predict that a
paucity of the states voters will go to '
the polls Tuesday to determine whether
the amendment is ratified or rejected.
The proposal, if approved, would re
duce House membership from 120 to
loo, with one from each county, and
raise Senate membership from 50 to 70,
based on population. It looks like an ev
en swap, but it isn’t.
Presently, 20 "extra” House members
are alloted the more populous counties.
Adoption of the amendment would cost
Mecklenburg County probably two of its
eight-member General Assembly delega
tion. Forsythe and Guilford would prob
ably drop a member, but, with the add
ed Senate membership. Gaston and Bun- |
combe would qualify for their present
t hree-member delegat ions.
At home. Cleveland, now qualified for
one and two-thirds members, would, by ,
the numbers, rate two. a Representative
and Senator at each session. Yet the po
litical leadership opposes, apparently re- ,
sardine Cleveland as a “big” county, .
when, population-wise, Cleveland is a
“middle-sized’* county.
Filthy lucre is a factor in the argu- j
ment, as is hardly unusual. The larger
counties, for instance, oppose the up
coming Sion million state school bond
election on cash grounds. These reason
that the percentage return of their tax
money will be much less than percentage
p.iid in taxes.
Yet Mecklenburg would hardly send
the cash to Raleigh it sends were it not
the hub of the Piedmont and shopping
mecca of the whole of the Piedmont
Carolinas. Obviously, much of the sales
tax and income tax sent to Raleigh by
Mecklenburg, Forsythe, and the other
large counties is actually derived Irom
citizens ol the small counties.
Assumption that the small counties
will align into a solid bloc to impress ,
their will on the large ones is technical
ly but not practically possible. The spec
ial interests o! the many small counties
ol the east and of the west are co-termi
nal in only a paucity of matters.
Without especial excitement, the Her- .
aid recommends voting in lavor of the
"littie lederal” amendment Tuesday. The
nation has operated successfully under
a system whereby one house is Wasco
solely on geography, the other solely ;
on population, and it makes sense for '
North Carolina.
Top Baseball Man
John H. Moss, the Kind's Mountain :
citizen who had an idea and led it to
fruition in spite of unaccountable odds. !
has been elected by sports writers and
sportscasters as North Carolina's out
standing baseball man lor 15)63.
In 15160, 1961. and 1962. many of these
same citizens “knew** that the fledgling
Western Carolina (now Carolinas)
would never go to post. It always did.
The pay-off for Mr. Moss* imagination,
persistence, energy and hard work was
in 15163, when his league walked off
with the major awards of the National
Association of Professional Baseball
Leagues, known in the vernacular as
"the minors."
His choice for the Will Wynne award
given in honor of the state’s first of
many former and present major league
performers is a high honor and mightily
deserved.
The unheralded amendment at next
Tuesday’s election on allowing a wife
to deed property in her own right with
out her husband's signature has been
advertised as evening the deal. Not nec
essarily so. a veteran attorney says.
While a husband may deed property in
his own right without his wife’s signa
ture. the party of the second part would
be ill-advised to accept such a deed. The
w ife, should her husband die, would re
tain a dower rwht in that property as
long as she lived. Practically, the amend
ment change won't make a great amount
of difference, but, as one citizen said,
“Were getting along fine like we are."
MARTIN'S
MEDICINE
»Y MARTIN HARMON
Ingredient*: bit* of new
iri*dom, humor, and comment*.
Direction*: Take weakly, if
possible, but avoid
overdotaga.
Last Saturday night. I was
Retting a closing time shoeshine
from George Lindsay and th«*
harboring contingent of Dill Brid
ges and Baxter Wright were ad
mitting to clock-watching. after
a very busy day. But. after the
blinds were closed, Baxter took
lime to comment on a bizarre
happening of Friday.
A motorist had the misfortune
to lose a front wheel while navi
gating the Gold street rail cross
ing. The tale had a hapny ending,
as Good Samaritans helped roll
the car off the tracks, while a
wrecker was summoned to get
the car to the auto hospital.
mm
Just a fraction over an hour
after Baxter related the tale,
anothei car was crossing the
track, but didn't quite make it, a
southbound freight smashing it.
The result was lour deaths, with!
another passenger hospitalized
with serious injuries.
Saturday night's tragedy may
be the worse of many, from
standpoint of numbers, of the
many rail crosr-frig accidents oc-1
curring in the Kings Mountain
environs through the years.
Paul McGinnis’ memory and
the Herald files proved my child
hood recall of an eight-death
bus-train wreck at the Gold
street crossing incorrect. The
correct account was one death,
the driver of the bus. with fout
passengers reported as “painfully
injured." The injured, incidental
ly, were given emergency treat
ment hv local doctors, transport
ed to Gastonia and a hospital by
the train i.No. 3S> which had
struck the bus. It was the rainy
and foggy night of April lit. 1921.
a Thursday, and ex - President
Woodrow Wilson had died only
12 days previously. The driver
who was killed, name! P«. rl Da
vis. wasn't n regular driver of
the Studebaker ous. but was fill
ing m for the regular driver, his
brother-in-law. The depot at that
time was located between Plonk's
and Bridges Hardware.
m-m
No Kings Mounain crossing
has escaped tallying a fatal ac
cident.
There have been some miraou
lous escapes and among the more
miraculous, \ttoiiiey J. R. Davis
recalls, was the double-lick ad
ministered the late Claude O
Rhyne, who v as struck first hy
a train going in one direction,
then, his car tossed on the oppo
site track, by the oncoming train
from the oilier direction. Mr. Da
vis says. “The car was a sham
tiles. hut Claude wasn't even
scratched. Claude told me Liter
he coui dhear the dickety-cliek
of the incoming second train."
m-m
Raul McGinnis also remem is-rs
that happening. Mr. Rhyne pro
ce<*ded to J. D. fiord’s cafe fry a
•up of coffee and was visibly
shaken. Then he revealed his
narrow escape.
Dr. J. K. Anthony and the late
Dr J. S. Hood got a free ride for
. -me distance many years ago
hat neither regarded as a bar
;aii. Their car was struck at the
'.in wood i Craft spun Yarns*
•rossing. and car, with passen
;crs, was carried on the row
•atcher almost to the present
business district. Injuries were
•omparativcly minor.
Cnfortunately. most of the un
witting arguments between train
iiid car are resolved tragically,
is well as always in favor of the
train.
All rail crossings are dangerous
md the Gold stn-et is among
Kings Mountain's worse, due
n+neipally to 1> the short ap -
proach from the east, and 2* the
-onsistently heavy traffic this
•rossing accommodates. I mani-j
mlate this crossing a minimum
it three* times daily and some
imes nutty more times than that.I
md I've iiad several narrow es
capes at this spot. The most re
■ont occurred years ago. My mind
was miles distant rather than
where it should have been, anil I
hopped for a northbound switch,
engine with inches to spare. The
'ireman. half-scared and half an
jry at such stupidity, shaked his.
inger at me likt an angry school
cacher. If I shaked back, it was
because I was shaking all over.
Tragedies such as Saturday's
-.hock the community, and the ac
cident has a major topic of con
.ersation since, concurrent with
strong contentions that "some
thing should be done."
Something should. Minimally,
flashing bell signals, such as at
the Mountain street crossing,
should be installed. More ambi*
tious planning would provide un
derpasses. not only a t Gold
street, but at other crossings. It
is a problem which, with increas
ing auto traffic, promises to
January Safe
Viewpoints of Other Editors
SMALL JET STUDY
The Federal Aviation Agency
probably will Itave a far easiet
time getting action on it? propos
al for a small, Jctpowered airlin
or than it is having with its pro
posal for a supersonic monster to
corner the trails-Atlantic trade.
A venture info the short - haul 1
market assumes much more mo- I
tlest proportions than a superson- ,
ic push into the trans-oeeanic
field. Vet the short-haul market
has not received the attention it
demands. A speedier replacement
for the 160-mile an-hour DC-3
World War II design long has
h«*««ii needed. A successful model,
seating lie!ween 11 and 2d per
sons, should interest foreign buy-;
ers as well as this country’s 13
local-service lines and probably
the military. Costs and design
problem? would not begin tocom
pare with those of the su|iersonie(
transport.
It may he found that much of
the future of the aviation indus
try lies hi exploiting the immense
potential of short and medium -
haul markets.
ftt. /.out* Punt Ttinpntrh
IN THE PYFAMIDS*
SHADOW
Tourists visit the Pyramids of
Egypt in part because it is the
thing to do and in part, if they,
are sensitive, to fell the brooding
of ant lent though and work, to*
cat.-h an impression of the anti
quity of man. For the same rea
sons. they leave buses behind in
the desert anti mount donkeys
anti camels.
ltut modernity has caught up
with the Pyramids and the earn
els. Tlie camel-drivers struck for
higher rates, just as if they were
driv ing New York City garbage
tru ks. and won. Probably Mr.
Hof fa has not yet extended his.
tentacles to (li/eh, hut the time
is almost ripe. As Galileo is re
puted to have muttered, when
forced to affirm that the world
stood still: "Mu: it does move!”
And we're not altogether sure we
lik-* it.
The Sitr York Hcralil Tritium',
SEASON IN THE SUN
The slanting sun now reaches
down in the humble ancients on
the woodland's floor, the club
mosses, venerable ancestors of all
the trees that tower aliovo them
today. Some coll them running
pine and gr >und cedar, and they
look like miniature eve» greens
seldom as much as a foot In
height. Long strands of them will
soon lx1 gathered among the
Christmas grerti*.
They dale hack perhaps 300
million years, tc the Paleozoic
era when they were huge trees
in the fern forests that laid down
today’s coal lieds. In our area
there arc about a dozen species
of them now, all miniatures, mere
whispers from the remote past.
But they persist, still clinging to
th<* ancient way of reproduction,
by spores instead of seeds. Thote
spores, almost microscopic, form
the lycopodium powder of medi-1
cine and industry.
How they lost thfeir status as
trees is a mvfttery, and why they
persist is not really understood.
Evolution seems to have passed
them by. though it created from
their kind not only the pines and
hemlocks and all today’s ever-1
green conifers but even the oak
and the maole and the white-hol
ed birth. They were here, in some
form, before the first violet volv
ed. And here they still are. older
than the hills themselves. Per
haps they prove that nothing
worthy is ever lost, that even be
ginnings are not forgotten. In
any eaae. they come now to their
own season in the sun, the thin,
distant winter sun.
Tkm gfaia Park Timm
I
THE WORLD AT TER
KENNEDY
Without much doubt, one of
the main American interests in
the coming decade will continue
to be the prevention of nueleat
proliferation and of the reduction
of the risks of world war.
The present and future Ameri
can Administrators may well
welcome the prospect of Britain
playing »he role of candid friend
and even of go-between. That
was Britain's role duiing the
more passive phases of President
Eisenhower's Administration.'But
America is hardly likely to re
spond sympathetically if Britain
is aiming to force U. S. policy by
having a nuclear Bomb intended
to trigger off the American de
terrent at will. That is the true
purpose of President de Gaulle's
Bomb plans anti neither this nor
any other American Administra
tion is going to react favorably to,
that kind of pressure.
Not only would a Bomb-less
Britain encounter less suspicion
in Washington than de Gaulle
with his Bomb. Britain would al
so he able to address herself to
Bonn friv from the handicap of
seeming to want to deny to West
Germany what she de:*ms essen
tial for herself. It could he that
Germanv's diplomatic rok> may
tie enhanci-d in the months or
years ahead. Any advance toward
an agreement with Russia in Eu
rope whether on Berlin or on a
network of military observers
will depend on German agree
ment. It may well be, therefore,
that British Influence will need
to he exercised as much through
Bonn as through Washington.
The Obnerver (LondonI
IF THE MACHINE GOOFS!
The Post Office Depart mi til
has set three engineering films
to work designing a machine that
will rear! and sort letters with
ZIP code addresses at the rate of
IT.triti an hour.
The | urposc is to speed up the
handline of printed matter sen!
out l»y mass mailers. Hand ad
dressed letters (tom that cherish
ed aunt of yours or a son 01
daughter at college would lire
sumahly gel extra attention «~ilv
to the extent that the regular
mail handlers were relieved of
the j ink mail burden.
A scanning • sorting machine
would undoubtedly increase effl-1
ciCitcy, and the Post Office Dc
partment is to he encouraged in
its efforts to keep lii !->p of the
mounting pile of mail, liut we
have had qualms ever since we
rea dahout the subscriber who
received 3,000 copies of the same
magazine because a machine
goofed.
Imagine the result jf the new
Post Office machine got stuck
on your name and ZIP number
for fust an hour. The amount of
junk mail reaching our mailltox
es is bad enough now. But 17.000
pieces at otne time. Whew!
Milwaukee J'rui-nal
TEARS AGO
THIS WEEK
Jack White. Kings Mountain;
attorney and judge of city re
corder’s court, wfes elected chair
man of No. 4 Township Young
Democrats at an organization
barbecue Friday night.
The city board of commission
ers held a busy though largely
routine sAslon last Thursday.
SOCIAL AND PERSONAL
•Mrs. Walter D. Harmon was
hostess to members of the Queen
of Clubs Bridge club Tuesday
T*l*phon«
T«IK
»T
r. B. HOUCK
THE POSTMAN WAI KS ABOUT SIX MILES A DAY
. . . the businessman around four . . . the average house
wife walks over nine miles a day! I rom this we draw at
least one conclusion. Extension telephones are the answer
to every housewife's prayer. I hey save steps, time, and
energy. An extension phone in just the right place . . .
kitchen, bedroom, family room ... can make a big dif
ference in a busy housewife's day!
THE HOUSE OF DEEN WAH is
probably the world’s most unique
telephone booth. It’s located in
New York City’s Chinatown and
is built like a small pagoda. A
Chinese house-warming was held
at its opening. Incense was burned,
and a make-believe tiger frightened
away evil spirits so that telephone
users would meet with good luck
in their business, social anu romantic affairs, bv me *ay,
"Deen Wah" means “electric talker."
• * •
TELEPHONE OPERATOR: "Do >ou have the Area
Code?”
CALLER: “No. just a had case of hay fever."
* * *
AND SPEAKING Ol AREA CODES . . . why not in
clude them when making a list of numbers you use most
often. You’ll lind many of them in the front of your
directory, others you can get from the operator. Once you
have your own personal list complete, keep it beside your
phone for even quicker, more convenient Long Distance
calling.
* * *
YOUR FAMILIAR TELEPHONE HAS AN EXOTIC
BACKGROUND! Tin from Bolivia . . . rubber from
Indonesia . . . nickel from Norway .. . copper from C hile
. . . there’s some of all of them in your telephone. Over
60 materials from all over the world go into telephones
just like yours.
RIGHT AWAY «*>
C*tt Di®(§fi\Dj Today!
t *»> «•
•a
if*000
31J00
40*00
*1000
1300
1700
*304 00
434 00
730 00
*31 00
34 00
r***|ti - Kit'IlKt *>t» aM
4*'t*C«**
FORMERLY _ LINCOLN LOAN COMPANY
1S1 N. LAFAYETTE STREET
IMby. North Carolina
KEEP YOUR RADIO DIAL SET AT
1220
i
WKMT
Kings Mountain, N. C.
News & Weather every hour on the
hour. Weather every hour on the
hall hour.
Fin. ent.rtainm.nt in betWMn
c