The Watchman And Southron

A HERO THWARTED
Sergt. York, America's greatest personal hero of the World War, who single-handed killed and captured an incredible number of Germans, is now engaged in an equally incredible fight with a group of Tennessee bankers and business men. And this time he seems to be losing.

The story comes out in connection with a damage suit filed by York against the Bank of Jamestown and 10 individual citizens, "in behalf of all school children of Fentress County, Tenn., and the Alvin C. York Industrial Institute."

He charges that the men named, as an organized body, have opposed and rendered futile all his efforts since the war in raising funds to educate the mountain children. By false and unwarranted statements, he charges, they have tied up $10,000 he raised in personal campaigns and kept him from the use of $50,000 appropriated by the state and a like sum voted by the county.

There may be some misunderstanding there. It doesn't seem possible that so distinguished a hero as Sergt. York should be so thwarted by other Americans in any pursuit in which he chose to engage, especially in one whose purpose is so unselfish and admirable as the education of the neglected children of his backwoods section.

If business men are really hindering educational work among the mountaineers, they are certainly standing against their own interests as well as committing a crime against the children. Nothing contributes so much to the development and prosperity of a community and the success of its legitimate business interests as the educational improvement of its people.