Established 1889
The Kings Monntain Heiald
A weekly newspaper devoted to the prconotlon of the general welfare and published
for the enllghtment, entertafnment and benefit of the citizens of Kings Mountain
and its vicinity, published eveiy Thursday by the Herald Publishing House.
Kntcrcd as second class matter at the past office at Kings Mountain, N. C., 28086
under Act of Congress ef March 3, 1873.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Martin Harmon Editor-Publisher
Gary Stewart Sports Editor
Miss Elizabeth Stewart Circulation Manager and Society Editor
Miss Helen Owens Clerk
MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT
Jerry Hope Zeb Weathers Allen Myers
Paul jackson Mike Camp Rteve Ramsey
SUBSCRIPTION RATES PAYABLE IN ADVANCE — BY MAIL ANYWHERE
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PLUS NORlH CAROLINA SALES TAX
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TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE
Brethren, let every man, ivlievein he is called, therein abide with God.
I Corinthiann 7.'Si.
MARTIN'S
MEDICINE
Ingredienta; bits of newt
wisdom, humor, and comments
Directions: Take weekly, i;
yussible, but avoid
overdotage.
Co'incidences
An official of the National Urban
League, charging on June 20 that Kings
Mountain schools had discharged six
Negro teachers, proved to be prescient,
if premature.
Six Negro teachers in the system
last year were not re-elected _ for the
coming year and had been priorly in
formed they would not be recommend
ed for re-election. Reasons varied,
though "lack of cooperation” with ad
ministration, faculty, and patrons was
the principal one.
One white teacher has not been re
elected. Holder of a “B” certificate, she
failed to take steps to upgrade her cer
tificate to “A”, as the board of educa
tion has required for many years.
Otherwise, the board of education
has re-employed all teachers in the sys
tem last year with “A” certificates and
higher, as well as holders of "B” certifi
cates where the test of certificate up
grading is being met — except those
who were not candidates for re-election.
By coincidence, 189 Negro pupils
asked and received assignment to pre
viously all-White schools. Since North
Carolina’s teacher allotment formula is
based on an average of 30 pupils (27 now
in grades 1-3), it is easy to understand
the conclusion reached by the National
Urban League and other Negro groups
that Negro teachers were being dis
charged or, technically, not being re
elected, on basis of numbers of Negro
students assigned to formerly all-White
schools.
It is unbelieveable that President
Johnson, or the Congress, in passing the
1964 civil rights act, intended that em
ployees of any establishment, unfit by
attitude, training, or performance of as
signment, were/are to be retained mere
ly because of race, creed, color, sex or
national origin — the phrase continual
ly recurring in the text of the act.
Yet another coincidence, it is hoped,
will not color the thinking of Mordecai
Johnson, a Negro lawyer on the staff of
the federal Office of Education, though
it is easy to understand it might.
Johnson was one of a team of Of
fice of Education officials in Raleigh
last week to outline to school adminis
trators errors in school pupil assignment
plans, which errors thus far had pre
vented approval by the Office of Edu
cation.
Thursday’s morning newspapers re
lated that Johnson had been refused
service by a waitress in a Raleigh rest
aurant — an action not designed to im
prove this official’s regard of a southern
state. Johnson was reported to have said
he would file a complaint w’ith the De
partment of Justice. The news account
did not say whether Johnson were serv
ed in another restaurant.
Of such coincidental events are de
cisions dictated and misimpressions
hatched.
Rev. Marion DuBose
Among the news stories the Herald
would rather have not been required to
publish last week was the one detailing
the upcoming departure of Rev. Marion
DuBose, pastor of Kings Mountain Bap
tist church.
Rev. Mr. DuBose, a six-year veteran
of the Kings Mountain Ministerial corps,
has been an effective preacher and pas
tor to his church, as well as to the whole
community, with an ecumenical view of
his work not always exhibited by some.
Rev. Mr. DuBose came to Kings
Mountain to serve as Initial pastor of
Kings Mountain Baptist church, follow
ing the decision of a sizeable minority
of First Baptist church members to form
another church. The decision and com
promise division of First Baptist proper
ties left in their wake much bitterness.
Rev. Mr. DuBose proved most adept
at calming roiled waters.
Best wishes accrue to him as he as
sumes next month the pastorate of
Newington Baptist church, Gloucester,
Va.
Congratulations to Miss Margaret
RRtterree, da,ugiiter .of Mr. apd
Bright D. Ratterree, new Dean of
Women at Western Carolina colleg*.
New Banking Citizen
First Citizens Bank & Trust Com
pany, headquartered in Smithfield, is
the state’s fourth largest in assets. It
operates 97 units in 46 North Carolina
cities and towns and soon will become
a banking citizen of Kings Mountain.
Approval of the operation here, fol
lowing approval by the State Banking
commission last week, awaits action by
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corpora
tion, which is regarded as routine, once
favorable action by the state commis
sion is taken.
Vice-President George Broadrick,
who made the presentation before the
banking commission, credited Kings
Mountain with a trading area popula
tion of 14,000, noted it is North Caro
lina’s largest city with a lone bank (tiny
Marshall has two).
The commission’s action of approv
al was quick.
A principal reason, undoubtedly,
was the fact First Union National Bank
did not oppose the First Citizens’ appli
cation to operate here. An official com
mented on a question whether First
Union would oppose, “I understand we
never have.”
There have been times in the past
when the banking commission, as well
as many other state licensing boards,
have been accused of making decisions
designed to perpetuate monopoly, rath
er than for purpose of protecting the
public, excuse for being of these regula
tory and licensing agencies. Some years
ago, Don Elias, then a member of the
banking commission said, after the com
mission had declined by 6 to 2 vote to
approve a new bank for Greensboro,
"It’s easier for the camel to pass
through the eye of a needle than to get
a new bank in North Carolina.”
First Union National apparently
adopted the attitude, “Come on in, boys,
the water’s fine.”
There are relative advantages, from
the operational standpoint, of being a
national or state-chartered bank, as
there are relative advantages to bank
patrons, the Herald understands.
Kings Mountain will now have both
represented.
Volunteers. Please
The “free choice” school pupil as
signment plan elected by the board of
education could have posed more head
aches for the board than it did.
There are two major imbalances:
1) Too many parents want their
youngsters to attend West school.
2) Too few parents chose Park
Grace school.
Except for the added dimension of
the de-segregation requirement, the sit
uation is no different from the past. It
is an annual custom for school adminis
trators to invite volunteers to attend
other schools to correct imbalances in
teaching loads.
to&
, Bhe basic formula of teaching loads
“ ------
is 27 pupils in Grades 1 to 3, and
30 pupils otherwise. But babies, some
how, are not born annually in equal
numbers.
West school still has too many ap
plicants, though retaining two class
rooms carved out of the auditorium.
Heaviest overload is in West school first
grade.
By MARTIN HARMON
There is a saying in this area
that a newcomer should beware
of making derogatory remarks
of any kind about anybody, as |
the addressee is sum to be the i
derogatod’s kinfolk, oven if a
second cousin twice lemoved. 1
ik
m-ra
Tis true, I’m sure, for I con
tinue to find new kin (if quite
distant I continually.
r
■Dr. Sam Robinson, partner of
Dr. George Plonk, may be a case
in point. Chatting with his wife
recently, I found, when the dis
cussion somehow turned to gen
ealogy, that Tennessean Robin
son has McGill kinfolk (did
someone say his mother?). That
would make him possible kin to
members of the William McGill
clan CDr. John C. McGill and
John L. McGill) and to the Mc
Gills of Gaston, which includes
his partner.
The above (not checked out)
is principally a prelude to say
ing that 1) the world is small
and 2) this area’s citizens values
its family relationships and cus-
to.naarily expresses the values
uith a horde of annual elan re
unions
m-m
And August is the favorite re
union month, obviously stem
ming from the days when just
about all members were farmers,
crops were laid by, and there
was a comparative surcease
from arduous tillage until har
vest season.
Sometime ago, David Beam,
the county commission chairman,
gave me a copy of “Sketches of
the Life of J. T. Beam and His
Fifteen Children", an interesting
booklet compiled by A. R. Beam,
published in 1897, and, by Act of
Congress, entered the following
year in the office of the Librar
ian of Congress.
Just about everyone, if they
are indigenous to Cleveland, Gas
ton, Lincoln or Rutherford aoun-
ties, would likely find on a lit
tle digging they are somehow
related to John Teeter ’Beam
(Baum), born the same year as
(Jeorge Washington in 1732, and
a migrant to the New World in
1767—just 198 years ago. John
Teeter more or less hitchhiked
to America, making port at
Charleston, S. C., paid his pas
sage by indenturing himself to
one Christy Eaker, of Lincoln
county. According to the sketch
folklore, the ^am forebear
proved such a good workman
that Eaker freed him in six
years. J. T. had six children
■when his first wife Rebecca
Ranyalds died in 1779. His .sec
ond, Elizabeth Rudolph, was to
bear him nine more. Says the au
thor, Miss Rudolph was a de-
Cendant of a 14th century Ger
man Emperor.
The problem of Park Grace school
is quite the opposite. Minus more pupils.
Park Grace apparently will be a four-
grade school, operationally sub-margi
nal from many standpoints, per capita
cost of operation a principal sub-margi
nal area.
Since consoliation of schools of the
area into the Kings Mountain district
the premium has been on space. In the
first year of the merger, the administra
tors showed almost magictil wizardry in
squeezing eight extra classrooms out of
the already crowded Central plant.
Now it appears that extra space
will be available for a few terms, though
some of it is undesirable space.
The board of education asks volun-
m-m
m-m
liail
(IWII
not our stew
Ci'MccKc ta.v folks in several
i Middle Allaiuie .Stales are now
asking Noilh Oaridina (»
; (hem"eid of “
makin,!:.
; I’ranUly, we <lon't .see (hat
North Carolina lias any ohliga-
I lion lo help. Not ih th<‘ way tliat
is leiiig -suggested, o'
II seems that socalled
Icggers" arc buying up
of Tar Heel ei.qarettes,
them up north, and
them at prices which
bool-
batelic.s
taking
unloading
can’t be
mot bv local eigatettc peddlers
in New York, .New Jersey, Penn-
Maryland and Dele-
I sylvania.
ware.
in those St,ates, cigarettes
i have been taxed to absurd levels
by legUlatures and municipalities
' hiokin.g for an easy source of
revenue. North Carolina, on the
i other liand. stands now as tlie
1 last bastion of tax-exempt cigar-
Viewpoints of Other Editors
BE SPECIFIC ABOUT
WHICH GOVERNMENT
m-m
John Teeter Beam, who died
in 1807, is buried at New Pros
pect church, which he founded.
Now a Baptist church, it was
originally Lutheran, emblematic
of Beam’s German heritage. It is
also the locale of the annual
Beam reunion, which attracts a-
bout tile largest crowd of any
There was this fellow who
phoned the other afternoon to
say that he just wanted to talk,
"About what?" we asked. About
how he didn’t like the way the
government is being run, he said.
"Which government?” we ask
ed. .. . “Are you trying to be
funny?” he bristled.
We didn’t have the figures a-
vailable then. But we know now
that at the last official count by
the Census Bureau there were
91,236 governments in the United
States. In addition to the federal
government and the 50 states,
there are 3,043 counties, 17,144
towns and townships, 17,997 mu
nicipalities, 34,678 school dis
tricts and 18,323 special districts.
So you can see that govern
ments aren’t what they used to
be.
They’re disappearing.
Twenty years ago there were
more than 150,000 government in
theJJ. S.
School district consolidation
e.\plains the decrease.
But with 91,^6 regimes extant
it’s**a little difficult to know
where your money is going.
However, one thing’s certain. It
isn’t all going to the federal gov
ernment.
Oh, sure, we know: Of the na
tion’s labor force of 77 million
(as of the first of the year), the
federal government had 12)4
million employed (if you include
the armed services) and another
six million workers in private
industry were working on gov
ernment contract work.
But did you know that in
another couple of years state and
local governments will be hiring
four times as many additional
persons as the federal govern
ment? Did you know that local
government bodies and states
are now spending five times as
! much money as does the federal
LORDLY BREVITY
"Come to the point my boy,
come to the point by all means,
but don’t camp on it!” So. Lord
'Mancroft reminded the House of
Lords the other day, Winston
Churchill once admonished a
junior minister in his adminis
tration. The Lords were debating
at Westminister a motion b>
Lord Egremont “that speeches in
this House should oe shorter.” It
would do many public speakers
— and writers — good to read
what the noble lords had to say.
Each peer who rose was deter
mined to show that he was not
long-winded. Indeed, 23 spoke,
and the whole debate took only
99 minutes.
Lord Casey, an Australian —
with a touch of that bluffness
that henceforward it w^ould be
enough to shout “Egremont!”
when a peer rambled on for too
long. Lord Egremont’s own view
of long-winded lords was that
long
' ‘‘Ues , , ,
Now the inevitable has hap-
i iiened. Forced upward by zoom-
I ing taxes, tlie price of cigarettes
, in the .Middle Atlantic States has
' gone so far above the North Car^
I oliiia price that some folks have^
I ':een unable to resist the oppor-
! tunity I.T make a quick dollar.
! They can buy cigarettes here at
i retail, sell them at a nice profit
up north, and still beat the
I northern price which is so bloat-
! ed by exet'ssive taxes.
; Every time a “liootleg’’ pack of
' North Carolina cigarettes is sold
; in one of those northern areas,
i the slate and local governments
, are deprived of the revenue
which would have derived from
a legitiimate sale of eigai'ettes.
So how do wo help? The CItief
of the Cigarette Tax Division of
the Delaware State Tax Depart
ment suggest that North Caro
lina should now tax cigarettes
to narrow the price gap.
That suggestion, we submit,
represents the very essence of
gall. And it is difficult to
improvement in actualit.v.
Thus we are dubious about ,
Alabama Rep. William Dickin
son's reported proposal to build i
up the reputation of the South
through the efforts of a high- ^
powered public-relations firm.
A lot of public-relations work i jiffu-ult to dis
can be undone by a performance |
such as Mr. Dickinsons when he ;
unprovenly charged the selma
marchers with all manner of im
morality. A PR firm might ad
vise against such outbursts. But
to report them, once they have
happened, can hardly be called
a distortion.
What does make for distortion
is to forget the achievements of
the South, the decent people, all
I prices more nearly in line. Taxes
! can be brought down too, you
know.
I full context, however much many
of them may seek to do so.
; Public-relations people can be
I of enormous help in obtaining
I information. But, by and largo,
I in seeking the whole story on
the attractive Southern qualities, i today’s South, papers would
as well as the tortured history i rather have the cooperation of
that helps explain present atti , primary sources of fact than the
tudes. I ministrations of PR conveyers o^
Northern headlines on strife in | image. — Christian -Scicnci- Mon^
the South should not lead South- i itor. ^
erners to assume that their fel-
lowcountrymen are unaware of
the South’s progress as well as
any fool can make a
speech." Lord Carrington was no I the South’s progress as well as
less sharp. It was often a sign | problems. But daily newspapers
of laziness, he argued, to make 1 do not operate for image-making
a long speech. (And the saime i purposes. In the press of events,
point is valid, of course, about
aixi government in its non-defense
more modern vintage was the j g“nal^^l|vel^
1 iwliticians — particularly of poli-
ticians at the regional level. But
m-u 1 we also know that too much
fragmentation of government re-
author Thomas Dixon,
of a Nation”, etc.)
("Birth
John Teeter Beam was a loyal
Colonialist but, typical of Kings
Mountain, Ramsour’s Mill, and
virtually all of the Revolution
ary War. neighbor was against
neighbor, and some fo his ex-
friends ftecame his bitter ene
mies.
sponsibility often can be waste
ful and expensive.
So when you want to talk a-
bout the government it might
be well if you specified which
government you're gunning for—
the federal government or one of
the 91,235 others. — The Hunts
ville, Ala., Times.
If I recall correctly, Commis
sion David Beam told me he is a
fifth generation descendant of
old John Teeter, which would
make him David’s great-great
grandfather. According to the
book, I’m a sixth generation des
cendant. 'VYhether I'm sufficient
mathematician to figure our
tuavid and my kinship, I doubt.
Re-reading the "Life of Beam”.
I found 1 can claim kin to a
couple of families—the Long
family and Graham family out
of Lincoln county.
10
YEARS AGO
THIS WEEK
long-winded writing.)
Earl Attlee, the former Prime
Minister—speaking with the ex
perience of an octogenarian —
said he believed in the old song
“Shorter in wind and in mem
ory long." Mixing matter and
art in about the right propor
tions, Lord Rea was reported at
saying that modesty was the
soul of brevity and brevity was
the soul of compassion. Whereup
on he announced that it was
with compassion, if not with
modesty, that he would resume
his seat.
(But somehow or other we had
most fellow-feeling for Lord
Raglan, who was making a maid
en speech in the chamber. He
apologized for arriving in a flus
tered state and covered with oil
as he had had trouble with his
car. Some speeches, he said, had
by their very length defeated the
purpose of the speakers, which
was to get themselves listened
to. Then he paused—presumably
fumbling in his pockets with his
oily hands. He had suddenly
found he had lost his notes—and
so he sat down.
■We are taking to heart the ad
vice of thenoble lords to them
selves. What they said about the
effectiveness of overwordiness
applies to all ways of expression.
But we shall do our best not to
get too oily or flustered.
The Christum Science Monitor
wherever they are, papers can
not always add to the news the
Those attending the inaugura
tion of President James Garfield
paid five dollars for tickets and
for another dollar were served a
meal.
The Amazon river is navigable
for thousands of mile.s.
A
RI6HTAWAY
Local Finance Co.
121 N, LaFoyette St.
SHELBY PHONE 482-2434
(Across Street From First Baptist Church)
HOURS: 9-5:30 Mods., Tues., Thurs., & Fris.;
9-1 Weds. & Sats.
My great - grandmother was
Jane Beam, grand-daughter of
John Teeter. She wed John Har
mon, bom 1811, and both are in
terred at New Prospect -hurch
cemetery-
teers for Park .Grace find, if past per-
if 9 slifgripff,
get them.
m-m
Afrparently there was inaro
jjtgii flcjiqn ,t^ "i^m’
idn” iMsinees,
Items of news about King
Mountain area people am
events taken from the 19S
files of the Kings Mountain
Herald.
Grady Yelton, the city’s new
superintendent of public works,
assumed his duties Monday,
j The Kings Mountain Mer
chants Association will hold Its
annual employer-employee sum
mer outing next W^nesday af
ternoon at LsUte ^ontonia.
Receipts at Kings Mountain
Postoffice declined in July, ac
cording fo figures reported by
W. T. Weir, acting postmaster.
SOCIAL AND PERSONAL
Miss Anne Dilltng entertained
Tuesday at her home at a des
sert-bridge party honoring Miss
Cornelia Ware, bride-elect.
Mr. and Mrs. George Thomas-
oon liAxe returned from a vieit
w(tl) Mia. Tboraesson's sigter,
Mrs. W. J). >fitfer And fMtdiy in
Burlington.
4
NEWS AND IMAGES
Some Northern newspapers
may be unintentionally distort
ing the image of the American
^uth. We doubt that many are
trying to do so.
It is easy to believe the report
that Alabama newsmen found
naivete about the South among
some of the 48 out-of-state news
men who accepted the invitation
Governor Wallace had sent to
1,700 editors. But the way to en
lighten the outsiders was not to
bring up the well-known short
comings of the North. This was
too much like what the Governor
had already done on national
television.
“We would rather have an
answer than have parallels
drawn,” a Pennsylvania editor Is
reported to have said. It was dur
ing one of the embarrassing mo
ments at what turned out to be
the Governor’s final news con
ference with the group. Mr. Wal
lace canceled a further one that
was to have been held the next
day.
Clearly, despite some visitors’
praise of the tour, there ftre plt-
fallf Lp ol^cial efforts at imAge-
Jmprovement. jifptWPK IFW im
prove an image so much as an
KEEP YOUB RADIO DIAL SET AT
1220
WKMT
Kings Mountain, N. C.
News & Weather every hour on the
hour. Weather every hour on the
half hour.
Fine entertainment in between
Thursda
FIFTH E
Rogers.
James H
Circle. V
birthday
LEAF
Someh
like a St
served 111
cent anni
Cured Tt
btiization
'Missinj
pall of
hung ovc
in recent
frantic a
wiltlermt
meeting
in fact, s
That’s
Stabiliza
being sta
about th(
and dem
00 stock
The mi
prevailer
cause Ih
back in
thct-e’.s n
forecast
happy ti
The la
ventory
history t
65 booki
(xl sales
rand
J in i
smeratic
the acre
Over 50
sales, ir
months
April.
There’
head foi
ing fortw
Cigarett
keeping
report f
smokers
baeco’s
trying ti
market.
Thing!
to help
pearanct
liave air
We SUSP
meeting,
as caln
That’s II
IE
FI
On