The Kings Mountain Herald
Established 1889
* ■ •
^uT^Zu!WOlt*rv ",,d P»Wtoh«l
.
— ActN r.. WS
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Martin Harmon . Editor Publisher
Dick Woodward . Sport* Editor
Miss Elizabeth Stewart .Circulation Managei and Society Editor
Mis* Llbbv Bunch . Clerk
MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT
Paul Jackson Allen Myers Monte Hunter
Douglas llouscr Gene Blanton Norman Camp
TELEPHONE NUMBER - 739-5441
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TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE
Hr i/e thrreforr remit al*r>: for Ihi No* «»/ man, n, „t „H hour yr think not St t.nkr I2. pt
Big Country Town
When the Knight newspaper organi
zation bought the area’s favorite morn
ing newspaper, the Charlotte Observer,
it announced concurrently that its op
erational format would be “metropoli
tan."
That promise has been met. The old
style Observer, which, in newspaper
parlance was a big Carolinas "s t a t e
desk." went by the boards, with more
attention to national and international
events and more concentrated and sen
sational treatment of events in the Ob
server’s circulation area. Editorially, the
Observer is as plain-spoken on local and
state issues, as it once was on national
and international ones.
Needless to say, some Observer read
ers still get indigestion in the mornings
not caused by the breakfast lure, but
they’re still reading the Observer and
in increasing numbers.
Muny newspapers regard it their dut\
to e\|K»und and lead, as does the Ob
serve!. which means their pronounce
ments. they feel and hope, are lioth pro
gressive and right, if some days, months
or years ahead of the thinking of their
readers.
The recent blue law business in Char
lotte indicates that the metropolitan
minded Observer is. indeed, ahead of the
thinking o! many of its neighbors.
Many of Charlotte’s citizens, steeped
in a Bf 'Mist, Presbyterian, and Puritan
background, were are in relist'd at see
ing businesses o[>eruling seven days per
week. There was another factor, too,
some merchants who decry .Sunday op
erations seeking to force those feeling
otherwise to take a day’s rest by law
The Supreme Court of North Carolina
found flaws in the state-wide aet twice.
Now, after a brief foray at enforcing
the City of Charlottes Sunday blue law,
city officials have found many, many
flaws in its law — perhaps legal, but
quite impractical.
It reminds of comparatively small
Kings Mountain's brushes with enforce
ment of Sabbath rest. Some years ago
the Ministerial association obtained
agreement of service stations and some
other businesses to close during Sunday
church services. Asked if he would com
ply. one veteran operator replied, “Sure.
I”ve learned long ago not to argue with
the preachers. If the others agree, I’ll
comply." He added the prediction, how
ever that the agreement would be brok
en within three weeks. He was correct
in his prediction. In the interim, while
taking his Sunday rest, he had two
emergency calls from ministers. One had
let his gas tank run dry. The other had
the misfortune of a flat tire, and both
had pulpit appointments. The service
station operator expressed his regrets,
•aid he would provide relief at the
agreed re-opening hour.
Again the Charlotte situation points
to the fact that what is one man s meat
is another’s poison. And legislation mor
als won’t work minus mass support of
the legislated.
A Charlotte businessman agrees:
Charlotte’s still a b.g country town.
Pent Of Th« |ob
The I'm ted States Supremo Court has
ruled, in libel litigation lodged by an
Alabama police commissioner against
the New York Times, that a public of
ficial must prove malice afore thought
before he is libeled.
In effect, this opinion means that
public officials, when they accept their
commissions and take their oaths of of
fice. are accepting at the same time the
unpleasant duty of accepting often-tlmes
back-chewing criticism.
In contrast to some decisions, the
opinion was unanimous.
Freedom of the press and of speech
are basic freedoms guaranteed by t h e
Bill of Rights. And the Supreme Court
decision reiterates that fact.
It's hard to argue against a tax cut.
though the more conservative did—and
lost. Paychecks since last Wednesdav
have been a little bigger. While the eco
nomics of the federal tax cut are too
deep for most laymen, they’ll have no
difficulty understanding that a few more
dollars will be availablebuy junior's
Faster gtooM*
Civil Rights
The continuing and continual battle
over civil rights legislation is beginning
in the United States Senate, with the
Southern delegation led by Georgia's
Dick Russell planning every available
parliamentary move to water down the
bill passed In the House with only 130
dissenting votes.
There will tie a civil rights law from
this session. The Southern bloc's aim is
to eliminate what the South considers
the hill's more objectionable sections.
Civil rights is intertwined with social,
emotional, practical and vote - getting
factors and perhaps many more. Not
•inly Southerners but other citizens of
the nation, including former President
Hairy Truman, wonder where private
property rights, a cornerstone of this
nation, end. and civil rights begin—and
vice versa.
This district's Congressman Basil L.
Whitener was one of the leaders in the
losing fight in the House, not in the
Senator Bilbo vein, hut with good tern
tier and logic.
Even the most ardent civil rights pro
moters could not have been but impress
ed when Mr. Whitener commented on
the attitude of his home-town Gaston
ians toward minorities. Mr. Whitener
reminded his colleagues that Gaston
ians had elected a Negro city council- '
man for the past dozen years, noted that
at onetime, the Negro member served
as an able city treasurer while a Jewish
citizen served as an able mayor.
It is human to decry force, regardless
of race, creed, or color. On request,
most folk would lend another person
his shin. On order, the reply iikeiv
would be. "Go to . . .*'
I
Sam Saber
It any man ever practiced a labor of
love, it was Sam Suber, in his work as
superintendent of Kings Mountain's
Mountain Rest cemetery.
A burial place since 1876. the citv's
cemetery was expanded and landscap
ed in 1921. with Commissioner H. C.
j>wellt» the chief promoter. After Mr.
Dwelled departure, with the Depression 1
following, the cemetery got compara- ;
lively cursory treatment, as city admin- !
istrations worried about the pressing 1
problems of water and sewer service t
and debt retirement.
In 1942, the Joe H. Thomson adminis
tration decided that the city should im
prove the appearance of the res'
place of its citizens and employed Mr.
Suber to superintend the joo.
Mr. Suber recalls, on his retirement
22 years later, that he promised he
would make Mountain Rest the "pret
tiest cemetery in the South.” That cov
ers many cemeteries, both public and
private, but the vast majority of Kings
Mountain citizens and many from other
areas will agree he succeeded. Certain
ly Mountain Rest cemetery has no peer
among city - owned cemeteries for neat
ness. good landscaping and quiet beau
Mr. Suber has discharged his respon
sibility much better, it is suspected, than
the Thomson administration anticipat
ed. And he did it at a minimum of cost.
Kings Mountain is In Mr. Sutler's debt
The death of Palmer D. Pulton removw
ed trom Kings Mountain a long - term
citizen and veteran city servant. Mr. i
r ulton served the city fire department
was the city's first sal
aried fireman and for years doubled in
brass as the "night man” at the police
department. He helped fight every fire
during his long tenure of service. He
was a good citizen.
A hearty best bow to Joseph Landrum
Cole, who recently celebrated his 90th
birthday, in a day when some citizens
complain about a 10-hour week being
too long, it might be well for all to note
that Mr Cole started earning ten cents
daily at the rip* ago ot nine yean.
MARTIN’S
MEDICINE
By MARTIN HARMON
lmjti <h< nt* ■ l>iIs uf new*
ii'inlurn, humor, mid t ommrulir
fHrcrt i< hm ; Tiikr • rrrklft. i,
l*j**ible, bill avoid
uwrduuage.
Clifton Blue, tandiriatc for lieu* I
tenant xotcrno. is another of the
(••ndidaiii f >r stall* officv who.
tmawd mi* by keeping to ache* I
dule. Expected bon* for lum-li
Inst Krklay at 12:10. ho park™I
his oar in front of the Herald pro
cisoly on tho minuto.
Shortly loss than four hours
later, he had d-Kested lunch, tap
wl a radio int< rview by Jonas
Hritigm of V’kMT and shaken
hands with a minimum of 300
King* Mountain area citizens.
Candidate Blue, incidentally,.
asp,res to the state’s No. 2 elec
tive offi-e with a background of
nine terms of service in the House
of Representatives, culminated
by the rei 'nl session when In
served as an effective and level
speaker of that body. He also
publishes n weekly newspaper,
tho Sandhills Citizen of Aberdeen,i
and. at 53. boasts of bcini; thrice
a jjrandpa
citizens wno siana nitened to
Kings Mountain are often wont to'
wonder aloud it the community |s|
growing I found, as did Bob
SouthweH. in accompany ins Cliff
merely through the business area,
that Kings Mountain is a pretty;
fair sized community with a bur
gconing population. Merely visit
ion the tip-town business area
consumed the full afternoon.
ai-ai
I; was fun for me and appar
ently most enjoyable to the vlsit
&ig candidate.
■«
Cliff capitalizes on his surname
by printing all of his campaign
material in blue Ink. And. in the
course of the afternoon, he met'
State Patrolman Greene, of the
Albemarle station, and Bill
Brown. Belk's manager.
Kings Mountain Senate caiidi-i
date Jack White and Lieutenant
Governor candidate Blue aspire
to be serving together, and infer
red good wishes for each other.
w:*h the horn" they'd tie seeing
more of each other come Febru
ary '*55 I teased them with the
suggestion Jack tell Cliff what
committee assignments he pro
ferred. appointment of commit
tees being the duty of the lieuten
ant governor who is also ex offi
cio of the Senate.
To somo fo!k I remark<xl that
Cliff Blue published a "gimlet'’
or ns Charlie Moss sometimes ne
fers to it a “gun wad” and (his
generally got consumer accept • ‘
a nee until I said it to my escer
bic-tongued friend George Hord.
the assistant postmaster. George
rejoined I might do well to keep
my mouth shut about that, as I
might be doing Friend Blue harm
Mrs. Clyde Kerns teased Cliff,
"You know I’m not old enough to
vote!" And one lady, showing a,
hit of red in her face declared
imainlv to me*. "You know I’m
a dyed-in-the-wool Republican!”
Chancing into a host of high
schoolers. Cliff creeled them, too
I presented him to Charlie Dixon’*
No. 2 daughter Joyce and her
c<mm**nt must have been one of
the afternoon’? most cheering:
’’Oh. I know about you. We stud
:ed about you in civics." Joyce,
incidentally likes politics to the
extent she plans to major in po
litieal science at college, w hich is
yet a few years away.
emblematic ot the grandfather.
Cliff was solitious of the littlest
youngsters, too. I may be divulg
ing a trade (vote getting' secret,
hut he would press a card into a
little fell >w‘s hand and ask.
‘Please give that to your Daddy.”
Cliff is a longtime friend and
neighbor of William P. (Bill'
Saunders, onetime Kings Moun
tain citizen and father-in-law of
Boh Southwell Bill, after serving
as Conservation A Development
board director for Governor Lu
ther Hodges, is a first-term state
senator and is seeking re-election
Cliff expect* to return to Kings.
Mountain hefort voting day May
30 He could remain no l.mger
last Friday for the obvious rea
ton: he wa* due in Monroe for a;
speech at 8 p.m.
Anyone who’s ever sought a,
county office is quick to relate.1
"Cleveland is a big county." Cliff,
came* it a step more, declaring. •
"Yes. North Carolina is a BIG I
STRONG WINDS OVER NORTTH CAROLINA
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Viewpoints of Other Editors
A Touch of Lincoln
It was an appropriately Lin
• dnesque touch President John
**e» put Into some re.narks this
week Tito Government, ho said,
should do for others what they
tre unable to do for themselves. ;
Actually. Lincoln expressed it
a little more elaborately and with
a little different emphasis: The
Sovernme-it should do "only"
those things the people cannot do
ror themrs'lves or cannot do so
well.
I
But whetho- uttered by Lincoln
»r Johnson, r i-d however sound
Ihe underlying principle, the
words have proved extremely
stretchable in application. In this
they resenbi'' the famous Consti
utional observation about pro
mot in , the general welfare.
It is abundantly plain from the
■ontext of tlv Constitution, and
fh<- kn nvn thinking of its au
thors. that to rpcak of promoting
:he general v tlfare was never
niended to endorse what has
>tne to tv* enderstood as tlte
■Vderallv subsidized welfare state,
'it. n an ido > would have anger
'd men who had just finished
’ighting .1 war against govern
ment despotism.
It is equally clear that Lincoln
meant to .stress the desirability
>f limited Government; Not how
much it could (io. but how little it
ihould d > in order to permit free
men to govern themselves and
each the tuliest potential of
heir abilities. j
Yet. oy a curious twist, the
itatemeuts of both the Constitu
ion and Lincoln are now used
is justification for the ever-ex
■anding sway of Government
*ver the lives ot all of us. And in
ruth the proper limits of Gov
•rnment are not easy to define.)
n many cases tt comes dow n toj
he practical question: Who docs
vhat best in a given activity - the'
ndividual. the private orgatiiza i
ion. the municipality, the county,
he state or the Federal Govern-,
nen ?
iu i.im- nuu. ium uni' OI in
■unerable examples. much of it
ias always be«*n in the public --j'
:overnmental domain, and even
he Federal Government has
H*en at least indirectly involved
n it for a hundred years or more.l I
rherp is no philcv*?ohirr»l nrfnci
>le we are aware of which says
t can't all be done by tile I-id 1
ral Government if that is the
H*st way to do it.
As a practical matter, however,
t has always seemed to a practi
cal people best to Keep its con- 1
rol as close to home <-s possible '
n the local community parent*
an really do something about
■duration: many in recent years '
lave doiie much to effect im
irovements In standards and cur- 1
icula.
When even the state level of
[ovemment gets too much con '
rol in its hands difficulties mu! \
iply. Local school boards find .
hemselves confronted with arbi-i
racy decisions and rules, ignor 1
ince of local conditions, red tape. '
he usual pet tmess and arrogance
>f officialdom
If control is transefrred to the
•Yderal Government, as it grad
tally but relentlessly is being in
his country, the difficulties en
ountered at the state level be
■ o m e infinitely compounded.
Moreover, if the Federal author!
ies make fundamental errors in
durational policy-, as they are
irone to. the mistakes become
lAUonwide catastrophes.
So it is with much else in the
•eneral area of welfare. The fact
s that the Federal Government J
tas made a hash of almost every- 1
hing it has tr ed in that area, i
starting from Sociological theo- i
»es rather than sound economies. i
t has created a chaos in fanning. I
.'nder the quise of urtoaa reams -
il. it has committed scandalous
ibuses against the general tax-11
FARM SUBSIDY
American farm policy long has
been completely indefensible
fiom an economic point of view.
The social g.»od it has done, at
such vast cost, has been dubious
l<; say the verv least. And now
the wlteat sail's to Russia expose
the utter nonsense of a two-price
program Hinder which American
consumers pay artificially high
prices while exports must either
be subsidized or given away*.
The cost of the farm program
any where from $fi billion to $8
billion a year is enough to con
demn it out of hand. Vet what it
docs not do is even worse.
•High support prices encou
rage uneconomic production by
large and smali farmers alike,
an obvious waste of human and
physical resources. At the same
lime, efficient units ride a verita
ble gravy train.
• Marginal farmers are kept
an the land in the mistaken be
lief that they are at least eking
Hit a bare living again a waste
:>f resources.
A Surpluses go on mounting,
iespite acreage controls that pre
rent farmers from making their
>wn decisions.
A We price ourselves out of
»'orl(l markets by means of unre
ilislic supports. And so to move
turplus“s we have to dump i for
giveaways and export subsidies
ire simply polite name sfor sell
ng abroad below prices at home*.
On Capitol Hill there is pious
iratorv about the sin of subsidiz
ing Russia to the tune of (JOe on,
•very bushel <>f wheat we might
sell a “gift" of. say. $180 mil
lion on exports of :Wf million
bushel* ’Hiis is I he time to re
member that the t‘>0 cents a bush
i»l actually is a lionus to the A
mcriean farmer, not to the over
seas buyer, and that there would
ve no such mix up were it not for
nisquidod and discredited farm
jolicies that continue to price us
jut of the world markets.
Buninens IVrrt
end even rnanv of tin- people sup
posedly being helped.
None of this should be surprisi
ng, because all of it violates the
iragrr.atic idea that most human
ictivities are I letter left in indt
idual. privatt group or local
tovemment hands The question
s not to nave welfare or no wel
fare, but how welfare is most
ikelv to he enhanced It is no ac
cident that the society with the
nost centralized authority in the
corld is not only incredibly inef
icient hut remarkably unrespon
live to the needs of the people
is well as Iieing despotic. i
And that raises a question both
•radical and philosophical. The ]
iroper limits of Government may 1
ie hard to set and. indeed, should
tot he set rigidly. But if many
teople. misunderstanding t h e
'onstituticn and Lincoln, will no
onger attempt to set any limits
it all. how car they realistically
■xpect anything except unlimited
government ?
The Wall Street Journal
1 A TEAM AGO
1U THIS WEEK
Item* of nru« about King*
Mountain arm people anti
eren tn taken from the 195 i
file* of the King* Mountain
Herald.
Official confirmation that Lith
um Corporation of America, Inc.
dll build a large spodumene pro
-essing plant in the Kmgs Moun
am area came over the weekend
n a formal statement from K. M
Jeute. president.
SOCIAL ASD PER SOS'AL
Mrs. Hugh Ormand was hostess
© the Tuesday Bridge dub at the'
KEEP YOUR RADIO DIAL SET AT
1220
WKMT
Kings Mountain. N. C.
* V * ‘ " -
News & Weather eve-ry hour on the
hour. WentHti wiry knur on the
half hOw.x
Fine entertainment in between
RI6HT AWAY
C*N Da@@fi\Di Todmyl
i w«fj n
rOBMC ULT _ LINCOLN LOAM COMVaOT
121 N. LAFAYETTE STREET
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Mr
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