Established 1889
The Kings Mountain Herald
A weekly newspaper devoted to the promotion of the general welfare and publ.shed
for the enlightenment, 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 post office at Kings Mountain, N. C., 28086
under Act of Congress of March 3, 1873.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
. Editor-Publisher
. Sports Editor
Circulation Manager and Society Editor
. Clerk
MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT
Bobby Bolin Dave Weathers, Supt. ’Alien Myers
Paul Jackson Richard Blanton Rocky Martin Dave Weathers, Jr.
’On leave with the United States Army
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TELEPHONE NUMBER — 739-5441
TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all
them that are about him. Psalm 89;7.
Martin Harmon .
Gary Stewart .
Miss Elizabeth Stewart
Miss Lynda Hardin ..
Buffalo And Overlaps
Governor Robert McNair of South
Carolina recently appealed to the fed
eral government to instruct us agencies
to utilize more extensively exisiting ad
ministrative organizations of the states
in federal programs.
Governor McNair’s remarks were in
friendly vein and in the category of
“constructive” criticism.
Said the Governor, his ideas, if fol
lowed, would result in much more good
; from the federal dollars spent with
many more people benefitted.
President Johnson, in his State of
the Union address, referred to the same
problem, both on over-iapping programs
to which Governor McNair referred and
to another area in his recommendations
to merge the Departments of Labor and
Commerce.
An immediate sample of specific im
portance to Kings Mountain and the
'.whole area of Eastern Cleveland Coun
ty is the Buffalo Creek watershed proj
ect.
Kings Mountain, with more treated
water only a figurative day or two away
from “must,” finds various agencies
' with an integral stake in planning and
financing this project. First business
' was with the Department of Housing
, and Urban Development, but close
aboard were the Soil Conservation. Ser
vice ad Farm Home Administration.
It became apparent in sort ordeRihat __
cooperation between the several agen
i! cies, including the City of King Moun
1 tain, was imperative to bringing the
• .project to fruition and nearing fruition
date.
The cooperative venture is under
way.
Let it proceed with all haste.
Legisla&ive Forum
Cleveland County’s legislative dele
n gation has scheduled a forum for Feb
ruary 2 with a public invitation to all
Cleveland citizens to attend.
Specifically, the five-member dele
gation wants citizens’ ideas on issues
facing the General Assembly which con
venes a few days later.
The purpose: “in order that we may
serve them bette:’”.
a ' Certainly there are sufficient is
sues apparent, as is customary at the bi
1 ennial session.
All, of course, citizens and legisla
tors alike, await with more than pass
ing interest Governor Dan K. Moore’s
detailing his ideas about paring taxes.
How much and in what direction
are the two major questions, allied as
both are with the size of the surplus up
coming on June 30. Guesses vary from
$150 to $200 million.
Citizens should avail themselves the
. opportunity of conveying to their legis
lators their wishes.
Bullets P
What is the productive capacity of
the economy of the United States?
Very great, says President Lyndon
Johnson and his budget planners, as rep
• resented in the proposed budget sent to
' the Congress this week.
The unpleasant features include the
previous call for imposition of a six per
cent surtax on regular income tax bills,
recommendation for increase in postal
rates (20 per cent for first class surface
11 mail, 12.5 percent for air mail, and in
creased payroll taxes for employees and
employer.
Some decry an unwillingness to
pare some of the social programs in
cluded in the “Great Society” program,
particularly when the cutbacks have al
ready been ordered in the highway and
other construction programs.
The borrowing bill (interest) must
be paid, but the growing total of an esti
mated $14.2 billion alarms some. Here
in, “tight” money has taken its total.
The late Governor-Senator Clyde R.
Iloey seldom made a speech \\ lien he
failed to call attention to the fact that
the nation didn’t need to worry too much
’ about the growing national debt be
cause the carrying cost was negligible.
The same situation does not obtain to
day.
Alamance Bid
At a time when education leaders
are pushing for big increases in North
Carolina teacher pay and anticipating
use of a major portion of the indicated
biennial surplus, Alamance county’s
board of commissioners have sought to
put sand, rather than grease, in the
gears.
Alamance wants the General As
sembly to outlaw the paying of local
supplements to teachers. Alamance ob
viously does not, nor wishes to pay. The
Burlington city district does pay a sup
plement.
Herein the situation compares with
Cleveland County’s, where both Shelby
and Kings Mountain districts pay basic
supplements to all classroom teachers,
and the County district does not.
Alamance war ts to impose its nig
gardliness on the rest of the state.
Had the appeal come from one of
the poorer counties, which obviously
have trouble employing teachers due to
differentials imposed by the supple
ments, it would have been understand
able.
But Alamance is one of the state’s
richer counties and is sixth in per capita
income. Alamance wants the state to
say, in effect, “You can’t spend your
money as you wish.”
The Kings Mountain district is
hardly in a position to boast too highly.
The supplement of §90 per year (in
vogue for a long time and only recently
doubled) was the lowest of any supple
ment paid in the state. But it was and
is that much. In turn, there has been no
suggestion here that Mecklenburg, if its
people wish, should not pay $800 or
more minimum supplement.
The big quarrel this newspaper has
with the school people, boards of educa
tion and administrators alike, is not
minimal-maximal supplements, but an
unwillingness to 1) adopt merit pay
plans whereby more able teachers win
larger supplements and 2) unwilling
ness to go into the open teaching market
and pay the price required for teaching
excellence in fields where teaching per
sonnel is short.
The later problem has been with all
since the Russian Sputnik shocked the
United States from its head-in-sand
superiority conceit in 1957. Teachers of
science and mathematics have been in
insufficient supply since.
Merit pay differentials would com
plicate administrative problems. But the
policy is followed on limited scale in
other agencies of state government. It
is followed in industry.
It is real and it is truth. Many in
tangibles mark the differences between
the teachers who are excellent, good,
adequate, and poor.
Liid Butter
Members of Congress, some within
the President’s party, promise cuts in
the proposed budget. The size of the
social security benefit increased they
would pare. Some domestic programs
w ould be emasculated. There is acclaim
on both sides of the aisle for some in
crease in social security payments and
expansion of medicare benefits to the
disabled.
A pet peeve with this newspaper is
the continued upswing in postal rates,
and vain effort of both the Congress and
succeeding Postmasters General to
make the postal service a break-even op
eration. Congress likes, yea loves, to in
crease postal salary and wage scales, the
postal union fights automation. It’s a
continuing and never-ending upward
cycle. Both the postal department and
Congress should forget the foolishness
and categorize the postal service for
what it is: a mandatory, if costly, ser
vice of government.
Meantime, additional weekend duty
in speeding the mail would be a worth
while expense.
The President may not enjoy the
high batting average (about .900) with
the Congress this year, as last, but odds
are the bulk of his recommendatilons
will be honored.
MARTIN'S
MEDICINE
Ingredients: bits of news,
wisdom, humor, and comments
Directions: Take 'weekly if
jiossible, but avoid
overdosage.
By MARTIN HARMON
The Heerald staff has noted
through the years that news
events run in cycles and often
concentrate in particular editions
Sometimes there is a charity is
sue, sometimes an issue filled
with tragedy- sometimes a
| "roads” issue, sometimes a "City
I Hall' or "schools” edition. Since
the news pages reflect the activ
ities of the citizens, last week
found finance emphasized,
m-m
First Union National Bank was
holding open house at its new
building a half-biock north of the
venerable corner location, with
such added attractions as Miss
North Carolina, a ribbon of hun
dred dollar bills, a treasure chest,
and refreshments.
Not everybody’ of course, a
great portion of everybody in the
Kings Mountain area accepted
First Union’s invitation to at
tend, and here for the occasion
I was a goodly portion of the First
Union “brass*, including Chair
man Cliff Cameron and Senior
Vice-Presidents W. J. Smith and
C. C. Hope, managing vice-presi
dents of other units and direc
tors were present, not to men
tion Charlie Smith, the public
relations specialist, who this
week, was adjudged one of North
Carolina’s three top Jayeees of
1966.
m-m
Mrs. Bonnie M. Summers,
daughter of the first president of
former First National Bank,
and wife of that bank's third
president, and Dr. 'L. P. Baker,
Kings Mountain branch director
enjoyed a laugh when J. P. Setd
man, First Union director and
president of the former Scottish
Bank, now merged with First
Union, sought to introduce Miss
Bonnie -to Dr. Baker—a day or
two too late for these long-time
friends, neighbors and fellow
Kings Mountain Lutherans.
m-m
The visiting dignitaries were
happily surprised at the number
of open house visitors, estimated
at 5,000. Chairman Cameron com
mended Vice-President Elmore
; Alexander afterward by mail
! labeling the Kings Mountain
opening the best organized of
his experience.
m-m
That evening the subject was
“How to Make a Million in the
Market,’’ as Mrs. Devere Smith
began the first of a three part
course on investments. Actually,
that wasn't the subject though a
desirable end, perhaps, for all.
Among nine basic rules of in
vesting most important were:
don’t over-diversify investments,
(too many eggs); don’t over-con
centrate investments (too much
hen fruit in one basket); retain
a reserve; invest in firms show
ing strong and consistent earn
ings increase; and keep one’s
sense of humor (laugh, if hollow
ly- when investments sour tempo
rarily, as in 1966).
m-m
The finance business continued
with Chapter II of Mrs. Smith’s
course on the recent Tuesday
night, when Phillip Small, a spe
cialist in the field, discussed the
relative merits of mutual funds,
where the investor buys mutual
fund shares and the professionals
managing his $40 billion industry
buy portfolios for the sharehold
ers.
A believer in his specialty, Mr.
Small pointed to the record of
mutual funds (better than mar
ket averages on upswings' less
average losses during down
trends) as well as some personal
experiences in which he acknowl
edged he would have fared much
better had his investment been
in the hands of the mutual man
agers, rather than in his own.
m-m
Much in the news recently has
been Securities and Exchange
commission efforts to clip the
commission fees of mutual funds.
Small contends the mutual fund
pack is fair and reasonable, says
; every portfolio, whether for
youths or retired folk, should
contain a Dercentage of mutual
fund shares.
m-m
I have teased Rev. Bob Haden
as seeking locks on the board of
Kings Mountain banking institu
tions. First Union’s John and
Lynda Ross are Episcopalians
Then came the Milton Single
tarys. at First Citizens, also Epis
copalians. When- I asked, is the
Episcopalian building program be
ginning.
m-ra
After Tuesday night’s invest
ment session, I found it has be
gun. My wife was complaining
to Bob she had bought a share
of stock in the Greek Orthodox
church, accompanied by oppor
tunity to win a color TV set.
Her Investment in Bob’s Episco
pal organ fund carried no side
benefits. Bob indicated she oould
play the organ.
PUT UP YOUR
DOOKS, BUSTER!
'? lr. ~ ■ - 1 . ■ * '
Viewpoints of Other Editors
This Week
In Tar Heel
HISTORY
By ED H. SMITH
• On January 25, 1781, British j
General Cornwallis halted at:
Ramsour’s Mill (near Lincoln ton) j
in his pursuit of General Dan.
Morgan after the Battle of Cow-1
pens. He camped on the site of i
the Battle of Ramsour's Mill,;
where local Whigs had defeated
the Tories a year earlier.
Discouraged by the slowness
of his march, Lord Cornwallis
determined upon the drastic step
of burning his wagons and much
of his supplies. The Redcoats re
mained at Ramsour’s for two
days, while huge bonfires con
sumed enough food and clothing
to have kept the entire area in
comfort for months.
• On Jan. 26 — while the
above was taking place — the
General Assembly convened at j
Halifax. Due to the hazards and j
exigencies of the war, it had tak- j
on 26 days to assemble a quor- i
um.
On Jan. 28, two days later,
British ships dropped anchor at
Wilmington, and troops under
the command of Major James
Craig seized the town of 200
homes and 1,000 population.
After years of relative peace,
North Carolina was finding it
self a battleground in the Rev
olution, invaded simultaneously
in east and west. .
Other events concerned with
the American Revolution occur
red in January:
• On Jan. 27, 1788, William
Tryon died in England. As Royal
Governor he had left his mark
in North Carolina — principally
through the construction of Try
on's Palace at New Bern, and his
involvement In the Regulator
Rebellion in 1771.
Tryon also served as Governor
of New York after leaving this
state.
• On Jan. 23, 1730, Joseph
Hewes, one of the three signers
of the Declaration of Indepen
dence from this state, was born
in New Jersey. He moved to
Edenton around 1760 to establish
a mercantile business.
Biiihs and Deaths
• On Jan. 22, 1789, Samuel
Price Carson was born. His prin
cipal connection with history
comes from a famous duel at
Saluda Gap in 1827, where he
killed Dr. Robert B. Vance, U. S.
Congressman and close kin of
Zebulon B. Vance. Carson’s sec
ond that day was Davy Crockett.
Dr. Vance was Carson’s congres
sional predecessor.
• On Jan. 23, 1857, Miles Dar
; den died in Tennessee. Known
as the "World’s Largest Man",
Darden was born and raised in
the mountains of western N. C.
At the time of his death he was
7 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighed
over 1,000 pounds. His coffin was
8 fg«t long, 35 inches deep and
32 inches wide. Over 24 yards of
black velvet were required to
cover it
IN THE LIGHT
OF MIRANDA
New York City plans to experi
ment with round-the-clock sur
veillance of police interrogation.
The police hope that this might
prove a way to protect the state’s
oase against a charge that police
questioning of a suspect violated
his constitutional rights
This matter has come to the)
fore because of the Supreme'
Court’s ruling in the Miranda case;
which prohibits questioning j
unless the suspect specifically
and voluntarily waives his rights i
to counsel and to remain silent, j
at present, authorities dispute;
both the importance of confess- j
ions in obtaining convictions and
also the effect which Miranda
has had on the ability of the po
lice to get confessions.
The difficulty since the Mi
randa decision, as Judge J. Skel
ly Wright has pointed out, is that
the circumstances under which
waivers are obtained resemble
those under which confessions j
were procured before Miranda i
was decided: the suspect and j
several policemen alone in the j
interrogation room. Thus the vo- j
luntariness of the waiver, like
the confession in prior times, i
becomes the word of the police j
versus the word of the suspect. |
In the light of the Miranda
decision, the New York City po
lice will set up a six-month pi
lot project to deal with persons
who have committed certain ma
jor crimes. One interrogation!
room will have a tape recorder
and television camera on at all
times ansd their contents sealed
at the close of each day. In addi
tion, a civilian observer will be
present who could serve as an
impartial witness.
This, the police reason, should
provide fair observation of police
interrogation—its lenght and the
way in which it is conducted. If
this <toes prove a feasible techni
que for protecting the rights of
suspects, it may provide the so
lution for other large cities which
could afford such an elaborate
setup. We commend the New
York City police for their will
ingness to undertake this experi
ment in criminal justice. Christ
ian Science Monitor
WINTER WALKING
On a blue sky- crisp day be
fore the snow blanket is too
thick it is good for a man to walk
the fields and swales, upland pas
tures and woodlands. Walking,
you may recall, is that form of
movement in which one foot is
repeatedly placed ahead of the
other.
Epecially sifter a light fall of
snow, the rewards are many.
Fences and silos, walls and posts,
wear clean, sparkling berets;
tree limbs with lines of white
paint a picture in the sunlight
Down by the swale, tracks of
field mice make lacework pat
terns. Along the Ice-frosted brook,
one may see the sharp tracks of
a mink
Climb a boulder-studded hill
side on a pleasant January day
and the feeling of space and free
dom gives a lift to the heart. In
the distant river valley' the strip
ped elms seem like feathery gray
vases; against the far heavens,
blue-green mountains loom with
white birch etippiing.
Countrymen known ther are
secrets In winter walking. One
should never hurry; a sandwich
YEARS AGO
THIS WEEK
Items of news about Kings
Mountain area people and
events taken from the 1957
files of the Kings Mountain
Herald.
I
The whammy has made its of
ficial appearance in Kings Moun
tain. The electrical speed-timing
device was used for three days
last week and resulted in 44 per
sons being charged with exceed
ing in-city speed limits.
Bruce Thorburn, personnel
manager at Lithium Corporation
of America’s Bessemer City plant,
has been assigned the added du
ties and responsibilitie of public
relation manager of the Bessemer
City works.
Social and Personal
Mis Emily Maxine Bumgard
ner and Richard Newman Black
were married Saturday afternoon
in Oak View Baptist church par
sonage.
Mrs. Ector Short entertained
Saturday evening at her home
honoring her daughter, Jewel, on
her 13th birthday.
in the pocket means one can dis
regard time. There is beauty in
the heads of grasses 'above the
snow; there is peace among the
evergreens where pines and
spruces play haunting music when
a gentle breeze passes by.
We are not a walking nation,
as are the English, Germans and
Swiss. We hop into a horseless
carriage to go a block. Efut there
are those who know the jay of
walking in all seasons of the
year. January is the heart of win
ter, and there are days when a
gold sun shines in a blue sky and
the temperature is moderate. On
such a day. it is good for man to
escape from the daily treadmill
and walk the fields and wood
lands.—Hartford Courant
I
The Veterans
Comer <
Q— WTio must submit income
questionnaires to the Veterans
Administration?
A— Generally, all veterans
and widows on pension rolls and
parents who are receiving de
pendency and indemity com
pensation as of October, 1966.
Questionnaires will also be mail
ed this year to parents in re
ceipt of death compensation.
Q— When I move next month,
how should I tell the VA so that
I will get my pension check at
the new address? Should I noti
fy the U. S. Treasury in Chicago?
A— No. Do not advise the
Treasury Department. Notify the
VA Regional Office where your
records are located and they will
advise the Treasury Department.
Give your claim number along
with your old and new address
Also- be sure to tell your post
office of the change.
Q— Will children in receipi
of death pension be required to
submit questionnaires?
A— Children will not be sent
questionnaires. However, am
child that has an annual income
exclusive of earned income in
excess of $1,800 should report I
source, amount, and date of in
come promptly.,
ENFANTS TERRIBLES
The British are making ima
ginative experiments in the arts
these days. One of the fascinat
ing if not paradoxical facets of
all this is that the newest ground
i3 being most successfully ex
plored by public institutions.
They are- in fact proving an en
lightened Maecenas Neither the
National Theater (Director: Lau
rence Oliver) nor the Royal
Shakespeare Company (Manag
ing Director: Peter Hall) nor
the BBC (Director-General: Sir
Hugh Carleton Greene) is pri
vately financed or run for pri
vate profit. And given the mis
taken stuffy stereotype which
many outsiders have of the Bri
tish establishment, each of these
institutions might be thought to
err on the side of the bland.
Far from it. The National
Theater has given us such things
as ‘‘The Royal Hunt of the Sun”
| (as well as that remarkable
! “Othello”). From the Royal
' Shakespeare Company have come
afSade” and the enigmati
cally titled (if clearly aimed)
“US.” And from the BBC—some
times sneeringly dubbed “Auntie”
for its imagined prudery—came
this Christmas Jonathan Miller’s
Marienbad-like interpretation of
“Alice in Wonderland.'1
We applaud this experimen
tation. At the same time, of cour
se, we recognize that experimen
tation can become a fetish; and
that reaching for the incongru
ous or the bixarre can be taken
to the point where it is phony
instead of interesting. We com
mend Paul McCartney of the
Beatles for having raised this
question with—of all people—Sir
Laurence's literary manager
Apparently the latter wanted
Mr. McCartney to write music
for the songs in Shakespeare’s
"As You Like It.” And what
did Mr. McCartney say? “If
they’d wanted me to write me
dieval, period sort of music to
fit the words, I would have done
that- as it would have been a
challenge. But they wanted me
I to write in my usual style. 1
j don’t think that would have
j worked. Can you see ‘Hey no
nino’ going well with a tune like
i ‘Yesterday’?” The strength of the
I Beatles was always their fear
1 less determination to deflate
! pomposity and expose the phony
I —to say -whenever the occasion
| demands: “Come off it!” Through
! Mr. McCartney, they have done it
again
KEEP YOUR 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