Hue Made It
ffa Hard Route
ABERDEEN A self • marie
man who r?lus«i in atop short of
success.
That's a swcinct hut accurate
capsule of H. Clifton Blue's news
paper career.
Owner of two newspapers and
a shareholder in a third. Blue can
look hark on a successful 31 \ ear
> arrer that startl'd at the very i
bottom.
To say ho made an inauspicious
entry Into the newspaper busi
ness is a classic undeistatement.
“I didn’t even have the proverbial
shirt-tail lull of type." Blue re
marks, local lint; the day he went
to work ai a $i a week printer's
devil.
Today Blue owns the Sandhill
Citizen in Aberdeen and the Rob
bins Rei-ord :it Robbins, and is a
director of the Montgomery Her-'
aid at Troy. Ifis weekly column.
WKMT
Kings Mountain M. C.
N*'*‘ * „6rT houi ^
hour. Waathar wary hour on tha
half houi.
Pine
entertainment in between
"Tar Heel People and Issues." Is
carried in a number of papers
throughout the state. He has held
the highest office in newspaper
rtom in the state, president of the
.N’orth Carolina Pn»aa Association
His start :n the business was
not easily accomplished.
Cnahle to go to college tieeausi*
of his father's failing health. Blue
and an older brother Barney,
worked the family's one-horse
farm at Vass. At one time they
cut crass tier and blocks for GO
cents a day to help support their
large family.
But the bug had bitten, and the
young would be-newspaperman
wrote letters to publishers seek
i ing employment.
He landed a job a printer's
devil on the Sandhill Citizen, and
went to work December 1. 193<>.
at $.» a wbek. 'Hie pay vx*nt up a
dollar a week until he was mak
ing $40 a month.
Blue’s teeming good fortune
wat thort-lived however. The pa
per was loaing money and had
been aold at auction. "In an ef
fort to curtail expenses, the new
ownership of the paper redu<e<l
work to one day per week." he
recalls.
He went back to work on the
farm after a fruitless search for
I Jobs in other print shops.
In the summer of 1912 R. P.
Beasley of Vass offered to sell
Blue a run-down print shop with
, a foot-pedaled Kelsey press for
I $130. Blue secuibd $*> loans from
several people to raise the $>*
i down payment. Beasley himself
chipped in. and most who lent
; money took their payment in ad
I vertising and subscriptions.
His first paper was a four-page
[weekly called the CAPTAIN,
j Tvno was set by the Sandhill
j Citizen, and it was printed on
I Blue’s foot-pedaled second-hand
: press at Vass.
“Things were pretty rough at
I the start. One issue during the
i depression had lets than a dol
lar’s worth of advertising," he re
calls. Blue toot: a job driving a
school bus for 18 a month to sup
nlement his income.
In 1934 (leorge Ross, former
Director of the State Board of
Conservation and Development,
isked Blue to teke over his Sand
hill Citizen and combine it with
the Captain. Blue became editor
and a partner in the new venture.
I He later acquired full owner
ship of the Sandhill Citizen and
the Robbins Record.
He is a stockholder and direct
or of the Montgomery Herald,
printed in Troy.
Extra Capful
Dnvtnq At Niqht
Night driving calls for that
j "something extra" bo:h in cat
handling skills and in observance
of safety precautions.
I The warning comes from the
Association of Casualty and Sure
ty Companies which says that the
death rate in fetal accidents per
million miles driven is about three
! times greater at night than dur
ing daylight hours.
Don’t bet your life against these
statistics by failing to he extra
, careful at night, the ACSC id
i vises. Driving mistakes made In
daylight do not invaribly lead to
' accidents, nor do errors made af
ter dark: but at night, there is
■ more chance of serious injury.
The important thing about being
popular is staring that way.
WMe-Track Pontiac
Seo your authorized Pontiac dealer lor a wide choice at
Wide-Tracks and good used cars. too.
w HKflP*
kackey Falk Pontiac, Inc
m w.
Lie. No. U
etty
Africaltan
IB
Actioa
Like my»tpries? Let's set the
scene and the plot.
A hunched figure creeps steath
ilv down an aisle in a supci mark
*t> plucking item after item from
high piled shelves. It is apparent
that the figure is either that of a
woman or a Beatle, for locks ot
long hair i-url down over the coat
collar and dangle in the eyes.
Finally, the figure dashes f *i
the door, hut is halted b\ a long
line at the cash register. Money
is passed. A ft of intrigue is
added by the fart that this i» a
“steal”, what with 1963 food
costs repri*sentmg only Ivs pet
cent of the average family's in
come. As late in 1*60. it was 22>'
per cent.
But baek to our brief tale. The
figure extricates itself from the
crowd, emerges from the store,
and disappears down the street.
We’ll never kn w who it was
That, however, is not the mvs
tery. The mystery is: How come
the farmer gets so little of the
money?
Farmers put -in per cent more
food onto markets last year than
they did annually for the period
1947-49. The total paid by consu
mers for farm produced fooo
meanwhile went up 64 per cent
The $07 billion paid h;. shop|>ers
in 1963 came to $26.2 billion more
in food hills then was paid an
nually during 15M7 19.
When* did the $26.2 billion in
cn*ase go? Processors and maik
etinu agencies got 23.2 billion, ot
*S..*> per cent. About $3 billion
found its way into the farmer's
pocket.
Here are some individual ox
amDies of what's going on:
Between 1947-49 and 1963 the
farm price of wheat has declined
9 per cent. Th<* retail price of
bread, bakery products and cere
als is up 4.7 pet cent.
Over the same period, farm
prices of dairy products have
dropped 8 per cent. Retail prices
at the market have leaped by 18
Milky Way'
Is Featured
At Planetarium
CHAPEL HILL The Milky
V. ay and Beyond". a picture of
the unimaginable galaxy of gal
per cent.
The wa re earner pays 9 pot
cent more now for mea’ products
The farm pr.oe i> down 22 |wm
i-ent.
Market prices for fruits and
vegetables have jumi>cd ,‘tti per
*•<•01 But firmer* ..Ming on
ly 19 per i ent more.
Not much of a mystery, you
say? Admittedly. But you pay the
grocery tolls. So we’ll lei you
write the ending.
axies lhat is the universe, open
ed Tuesday right n» the More
heart Plnntarium.
Tlx- program, the next t<* the
last oi the current school year to
ho performed on the Planetari
um's program schedul" « .11 m
tinue through April 27
"The Milk? Way and Beyond"
was designed b> Planetarium
staff t<» give \ iewers some idea
of where they an* in the universe
Because the universe g«n*s on in
terminably, the only picture that
can he aceurateh drawn is of
Earth's own galaxv of ino billion
'tars. But astronomers have been
able to see beyond our own gal
axv which is pin thousand ligt*!
years long, and to determine that
the universe is compile I of eourtl
less galaxies, themselves group
ed in clusters, all of which com
prise i as far as can In* told i one
HARRIS ^Juneml ^
KINGS MOUNTAIN. NORTH CAROUNA
Dear friends,
me
Ke have been publishing
these ’open letters* for sev
eral nonths and are gratified
to note the good public
acceptance of the information
about our profession that they
contain.
The letters are meant to
be informative - free from any
claims of superiority.
Ke thank you for the kind
comments already received and
welcome further suggestions
and comments.
Respect fullv,
«> my,tat** © NATIONAL SEtTCTro MORTICIAN'S
K-Xv;.
m&m
mmcasurable galaxy.
Two months ato, in a protrram
uititled "Tin* Sun anti You", the
Planetarium portrayed, with nat
oral t »*l<and .sound, the end of
he world, resulting from the ex
plosion of the sun. In "Milky
Way”, the I’lanetiirium shows
ilte treat ion of the universe,
tgain in eolor anti sound aeeord
itiit to the "hio hana" theorv: the
'i itltial contraction of a im_'e
tihbs of yis anti tlus until min
l*ressit»n forced an explosion,
forminv myriads of star
"The Milky W.tv ari l Beyond"
is |>'*rformid for the piddle on
wcH'daxs a' m t»j Satur
ads s ..I 11 a.m . 3. 4 and Sundays
at 2. 3. 1 and 8:30 p.m.
Sim i performances are given
for -< bool roupN bv advance re
servation on Worlnrsdays. Thurs
dnvs. and Fridays al 'll am. 1
and 1 pin.
The oldest of all cullivatoil
fruits is pro'vitds the grape. A<•
cording to iho I look of Know
ledge. grapes I is. Ik- n grown
for food and mink for at least
six thousand years.
In North Carolina . ^
at a picnic, beer is a natural
When you're reliving ar your favorite outdoor beauty spot with
friends or family, and your thirst's « hetted by fresh air and exer
cise—that's the ideal time for a cool, refreshing glass of beer. In
fait, you can name your recreation—swimming, hiking, or just
watching T\ —and chances arc nothing in the \\ orld fits it quite
as well as beer.
Your familiar glass of liecr is also a pleasurable reminder that
we live in a land of personal freedom—and that our right to enjoy
lie* r and ale, if we so desire, is just one, but an important one, of
those personal freedoms.
In North Carolina... beer goes with fun. with relaxation
l SITED STATES BREWERS ASSOCIATION', INC.
1005 Rale gh Building Raleigh, No^th Carolina
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