y
f
\
SA—MIRBOR-HEBALD—Thunday, Jaankry 4, ItTt
a regular Tower of Babel
Juit before we moved from South Pied
mont Ave. to North Piedmont Ave. leat
October we published a story about how The
Mirror-Herald would build a new facility In
l»7».
At the time I didn't know that the entire
General Publishing Company employe
roster would be called upon for Ideas about
what t}rpe of building we would construct.
So, adiat started out as an ambitious,
progressive plan suddenly turned Into a
Ihree- Stooges comedy.
Garland (that’s Mr. Atkins to you) made
arrangements for the staff to meet for
breakfast and a work session at a neutral
point. The day started badly because It was
raining so hard the drops were bouncing
knee-high off the pavement. Just getting
from our cars Into the lobby of the restaurant
was something akin to participating In a
Ckimnlon Run.
Next, the restaurant was out of everything
they had listed on the menu. In frustration,
(Jarland said, “Just bring us whatever you
have."
I don’t know about you, but I don’t par
ticularly like Chlll-Con-Came for breakfast.
Not with chocolate milk, anyway.
After sweeping off the table we unfurled
sketch pads and prepared to get to work.
Problem number three then arose. The room
we were setUed In was lighted for disco
dancing and not eye-stratnlng detailed work.
’’Don’t worry about a thing,’’ our waitress
said. ’’I’ll get (he company electrician to rig
something up.
Public shocked at
student test fttUures
TOM
MclMTYRe
She did and he did.
So, with the benefit of two 60-watt biilbs
hanging naked from dropcords scotch-taped
to the overhead, we set about sketching our
Ideas on how the new building should look.
Garland drew a box, then dissected It with
a single line.
«’’What’s that?” Darrell Austin asked.
’’This side Is for reception, advertising,
edltorlsil offices, Johns and the pressroom,”
Garland said. “That side Is my office.”
’’You’re kidding!” Darrell shouted.
“How do you see It, then? ” Darrell drew
a box with a large circle In the middle. “I
think everything should be built around the
advertising department. That circle Is the
advertising department.”
“Where you planning to put the newsroom
and the darkroom?” I sMked.
“Ya’U can find a comer somewhere to
work In,” Clyde HUl piped up. ’’After all
advertising Is the most Important thing In
the paper.”
“They don’t call It an advertising
newspaper, ayde,” said Gary Stewart.
“They caU It a newq>aper. PersonaUy, I
think sports Is more Important, so I should
have a large office all to myself.”
”I hate to say anything,” Ken Green, the
pressman spoke up, ’’but I got a story and a
1*11 high press that runs roughly hall the
length of a football field to locate somewhere
In this new building. Then there are the light
Ubles, plate burners and production
darkroom facilities.” .
“Who asked you anything?” Garland said,
‘'/ell, excu-whoozeee me!”, Kbn said.
“Boys, Boys!” I Implored. I’ve always
seen myself as a great arbitrator. ’’This Is
getting us nowhere.”
’’Arbltra . . ., er, I mean Tom la right,”
Garland said. “Let’s start all over again.
He drew another box and halved It with a
single line.
And so It went until lunchbreak (More
ChlU-Oon-Came) and the decision that
everyone woxild draw up his own Ideas, then
all the drawings would be put together.
The results were a 383,000 square foot
structure to house various sidelines
businesses as a duck-pin bowling alley,
miniature golf course, a plsserla, a
motorcycle repair shop and a savings and
loan.
And half of the building Is to be Garland’s
office.
This Week In Tar Heel History
’’Ihe public will be shocked at the number
of North Carolina students failing the
competency test, but the (allure to
adequately fund our schools In the past Is
now bearing bitter fruit,” the North C!arollna
Association of Educators said today.
President C. Stewart Stafford of NCAE
said the group’s Board of Directors grappled
recently with the competency test — which
NCAE has endorsed — and with methods of
helping those students who fall the test.
Poets
«#vi ■iiisi
OOD IS NOT DEAD
Some folks say there Is no God
Others say He’s dead.
I wonder If they ever stop
To think what they have said.
What do they think each morning.
When the sun begins to rise?
What do they think could give It power
To light the Eastern skies ?
I wonder what they think could make
Tile (lowers bloom In spring
Or, does It ever cross their minds,
Just how the birds do sing?
I wonder who they think could give
The breath of life to them?
Just how could they ever (all to
Realize It’s Him?
I have news for all of those
Who such things would say.
There is a God, He Is not dead.
I ’ve talked to Him today.
CALVIN WRIGHT
Kings Mountain
MIHfOMIIIIlD I
PUBLISHED EACH
TUESDAY AND THURSDAY
GARLAND ATKINS
Pabtlst.OT
TOM McIntyre
Editor
EUZABETH STEWART
Woman’s Editor
GARY STEWART
Sports Editor
DARRELL AUSTIN
General Manager
CLYDE HILL
Advertisiag Dlreotor
MEMBEROF
NORTH CAROUNA
PRESS ASSOCIATION
The Mirror-Herald is published by
General Publishing Company, P. O.
Drawer 753 Kings Mountain, N. C. 38086.
Business and editorial offices are
located at 481 N. Piedmont Ave. Phone
TS8-74B6. Second Class postage paid at
Kings Mountain, N. C. Single copy IS
rents. Subscription rates: 18.50 yearly
in-state. $4.35 six months, $0.50 yearly I
out-of-state. $5 six months; Student rate I
(or nine months 16.34. 1
“What came through to me most clearly,”
said Stafford, “was the group’s frustration
that so many students will (all and that many
of these failures could have been avoided
had we been willing to pay the price for good
schools.”
He said the NCAE Board was partlculsu'ly
concerned that the failure rate will be
highest In those areas which do not have the
local property value to supplement the state
school program.
”We know that children in our richer areas
will (all the test, but we know also that the
foilure rate will be highest where the areas
are poorest for that is where students have
not been exposed to the broad curriculum
Srd-r **
said.
Stafford said that, on the average, the
strongest teachers are also to be found in the
richer areas which can afford to pay a salary
supplement.
”We get outstanding teachers In all areas,
Ixit It is only normal that more of the top
teachers migrate to those systems which pay
supplements. We have more master’s
degree teachers in the richer systems. It’s
that simple,” he said.
Stafford said NCAE Is pleased that Dr.
Oalg Phillips has asked that competency
test scores not be released until after the
CSiristmas holidays. He said NCAE tad.,
feared that many students, donfi^ntad wfth a '
failure on the test, would not return to school
after Christmas.
”11 they are back In school and then learn
that they have not passed the test, we will at
least have an opportunity to do some
counseling,” Stafford said.
He added that NCAE’s Board Is ”ln
thorough agreement that the competency
test will result In an Increase In the drop-out'
rate,” and he said that the state must deal
now with that problem.
"Tlie kids still exist, whether they (all the
competency test or not. They are still part of
our society. I’m afraid many people have the
mistaken impression that the competency
test will automatically solve our problems. It
will only Identify them,” Stafford said.
Johnson remarkable tar heel
Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth
President of the United States, was bom In
Raleigh, N. C., December 39,1794. His story
Is one of the most truly remarkable ones in
American history.
Johnson was bom In poverty and orphaned
as a snudl boy. He grew up imeducated, a
tailor’s apprentice, until he fled this state as
ateenager and moved to Tennessee. (He was
even a fugitive from justice at the nme,
since apprentices were bound to their
masters for a certain number of years.) His
birthplace, a tiny clapboard cottage which
has been located behind the inn where his
parents worked, has been preeerved in
Raleigh, though moved from Its orlglntd
location.
The controversy of Reconstruction Period
politics fuid Johnson’s Impeachment trial on
trumped-up charges has obscured the fact
€D
SMITH
that he was a better President than
generally supposed. His narrow (one-vote)
acquittal by the Senate and his later return
to that body as a Senator from Tennessee
represented a real triumph of the
democratic process over political ex-
pendlency.
-oOo-
One of the stormiest and most cUmaclic
sessions In the history of the North Carolina
General Assembly took place on Christmas .
Eve, 1884. R Involved a eoiitrovery j biller’
that It destroyed the state’s one-party
political system (the old ’’Republican”
Party created by Thomas Jefferson and
others In 1890) and created two new parties,
the Democrats and the Whigs. And as Is so
often the case. It did not Involve an Issue that
was of immediate concern to the average
citizens, such as taxes, highways or
education. At Issue was the question of
whether or not the state legislature should be
able to ’’Instruct” the state’s two U. S.
Senators on how to vote on certsdn Issues,
^leclfically Involved was an upcoming vote
tai the U. 3. Senate to remove or retain a
censure resolution passed against President
Jackson a year eariler. The resolution
condemned Jackson for “exceeding” the
power of his office by withdrawing all U. S.
government funds from the Bank of the
United States (In essence destroying the
bank).
One of this state’s Senators, WlUle P.
Mangum, had voted in favor of the original
censure motion, and It was well understood
that he would resign his seat rather than
ford Brown, a strong Jackson supporter, I
already announced his Intention to vote
removing censure, but the antl-JaduTn
forces in the legislature (the soon-to'-be
Whigs) were ftghtlng bitterly to keep
Mangum from being "Instructed” to Join
Brown’s side.
For over a month the legislature wrangled
over the matter, accomplishing little else.
Oi Christmas Eve, long past the usual
holiday recess, the battle continued, with
repeated efforts by the anti-Jackson forces,
to adjourn being voted down. Tempers
frayed, and the language was later
repoalad. beeanM more rancourous than
eveil'before In hlitory. Finally 1& measure
to Instruct both Senators passed, by a
narrow margin, and Senator Mangum had
been given. In essence, a ticket home for his
<3irlatmaa present.
Ironically, It would be the losers In that
night’s debate who triumped In the long run.
Mangum later returned to the Senate, where
he served as President of that body, and as
Acting Vice President during the Tyler (
Administration (thus making him the'
highest office-holder from this state In i ^
Matory). And the leader In that historic fight Y
against instructing the Senators, William A. J
Graham, as a Whig, went on to become 3
perhaps the state’s most political figure of 3
Wa time. Governor, U. S. Senator, Secretary
of the Navy and Vice Presidential candidate.
He taught people^ not school
“When I’m teaching. It doesn’t matter if
I’m teaching a llftli grader or a candidate for
the Ph.D. degree. I try to show my students
something about themselves and how they fit
Into this world.”
Dr. Hollis Rogers, associate professor of
biology at UNC-G.
ByBOBCAVIN
UNC-G News Bureau
(Special To The Mlrrw-Herald
GREENSBORO — Several years ago,
when Dr. Hollis Rogers of the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro was attending
a national teachers’ convention he was
drawn Into converratlon by a new
acquaintance.
“And what do you teach. Dr. Rogers?” she
asked.
“Why, people, of course,” he replied.
Although brief, the story tells a lot about
Dr. Rogers and his long career as an
educator.
Rogers, who will officially retire as an
associate professor of biology at UNC-O on
Dec. 81. estimates he has taught in the neigh
borhood of 17,000 people during his 83 years
on the Greensboro campus.
“I don’t teach subjects,” he explained. “I
use subjects to teach people about life
because life Is what It’s all about.”
Although a large portion of those 17,000
people taught directly by Rogers have been
coUege biology studente, there have been
many elemenUry and high school studente
as well as many senior cltlsens Influenced by
his deep love of nature and science.
It doesn’t matter If he teaches in a
classroom or on a nature trail, or If the
student Is nine years old or 60, Rogers
teaches with the same goal In mind.
“When I’m teaching. It doesn’t matter If
I’m teachings fifth grader or a candidate for
the Ph.D. degree,” he explained. “I try to
glow my students something about them
selves and how they fit Into this world.
“After all, biology Is the science of life and
that Is what I try to teach people —
something about their lives that will make
them a better person,” he added.
“And It doesn’t matter what age group I
teach. I teach the same way — I just use a
different vocabulaiy,” Rogers said.
"People operate under the mistaken Idea
that they acquire brains by getting older, but
pre-schoolers are Just as smart as they will
be when they are 40,60 or 80 years old.”
m frequent demand as a speaker and
lecturer on nature topics. Dr. Rogers was a
leader In the field of environmental con
servation decades before It became
feahlonable.
Several years ago, Rogers Joined other
environmentalists In working to save Bald
Head Island from development. While that
effort was not successful, Rogers does feel
that they helped raise governmental
awareness of the need to preserve more
state parks. Since that time, 30 parks have
been lulded to the state system, he said.
Rogers credits much of what has been
done to ecology-minded young people. “The
young petal* today are more Interested than
ever about environmental Issues,” he
commented. ”T1wy are not Jumping up and
down like they did Hve years ago, but they
are taking action.”
In addition to the numbers of people
Rogers has taught directly, there are many
others who have been touched Indirectly by
Ids work as a leader In ecological con
servation, as a photographer and film
maker, and as a consultant to the National
Science Foundation In an effort to upgrade
the quality of biology taught In high schools.
He was Instrumental In organizing the
present system of high school science fairs In
1955 which has encouraged thousands of
students to develop scientific Interests
before they reach coUege.
For many years Rogers served as director
of UNC-O’s Summer Science Training
Program, which provided educational
training for talented high school students In
math, chemistry and biology.
Bom In Lynn Grove, Ky., Rogers received
his undergraduate degree from Murray
State College In Kentucky and his master’s
degree from the University of Kentucky.
His woric toward the Ph.D. degree in
biology at Duke University was Interrupted
hy World War n and three years service as a
photographer with the U. S. Army Air Corps
In the rain forests of New Guinea.
After the war, Rogers finished work on his
doctorate and continued his photography In
an effort to record the beauty of North
Carolina’s flowers, forests and wildlife from
Ihe seashore to the mountains.
He also produced two films, “Effects oi
Climate on Vegetation In North OroUna”
and “Natural Gardens of North Carolina,”
the latter of which was based on a book
written by retired Wake County botanist Dr.
B. W. WeUs.
In his UNC-G office, which contains an oak
filing cabinet and a maple chair serving as
reminders of his first days as a college In
structor Rogers Is frequently visited by
former students.
“Tliere have been 17,000 successes,” he
concluded. “If I enriched the lives of each of
my studente, then everyone of them was a
success for me.
“Many of my students were falling when
they came to me,” Rogers recalled. “But
something they learned must have helped
because a majority of them went on to
become successes at life.”
“Hiese are the successes he likes to em
phasize, but among the many other honors
he has received are the 1974 UNC-G Alumni
Teaching Excellence Award and the
American Association for the AdvaneemM*
of Science Award In 1960.
Looking ahead. Dr. Rogers Isn’t sure how
long retirement wUl last. “Right now, I’m
ff»lng to try It for a year,” he said. “Biit If i
nin out of things to do, I might be back to
teach one semester a year.”
Already his leisure time Is being sought
however. He has been approached to become
a consultant with an environmental agency
and next spring he’s taking ao nursing
ftudents on a three-week survival camping
“Plus, I’m going to be doing a lot more
nature photography,” he promised.
What’s your opinion?
We want to hear your opinion on things of
interest to you. Address aU correspondence
tor this page to Reader Dialogue, Mirror-
Herald. P. O. Drawer 752. Kings Mountain,
N. C., 38086. Be sure and sign proper name
and include your address. Unsigned letters
will not be published.