The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1951-03-29

phoned me, stopped by the office, or
stopped on the street to kid me about
the front page of last weeks issue
being dated January 22-the last
phone call l got was on Saturday
night while I was taking a bath
thanks for letting me know that you
read my paper closely enough to
catch something that all of us at the
plant missed, even though it is our
job to check every page before the
forms are put on the press.
With the passing of Merrill Hays
l have lost a really true friend. At
tracted to each other perhaps by the
very oppositeness of our characters,
we became close friends through the
years, and as long as 1 live 1 will
always cherish the memory of that
friendship and be thankful for it.
Merrill and myself got into the
habit of lunching together once a
week and out of that was founded
the Exclusive" Mutual Admiration
Society, of which Merrill, Ford
Bryan, Max Schof (former local
manager of Montgomery Ward's)
and myself were charter members.
We met every Thursday for lunch
at the Hotel Alexander and our
Exclusive" club continued until
Merrill was taken ill an illness
from which he never recovered.
Because Merrill was so much a
part of our little luncheon group,
none of us felt like continuing it
after be became so seriously i'll. But
all of us will forever remember his
quiet chuckles and sly humor when
we gathered together every week.
Although the Federal Communica-
lions Commission has announced
that hearings will be held in Wash
ington in May, for the purpose of
considering applications for the
granting of Television channels in
the higher frequencies, it will prob
ably be year or two, at least, be-
fore HagerStown has its own tele-
vision station.
Talking with Grover Crilley, own
er of radio stations WEI and
WJEJ-FM, who filed an application
two years ago with the Commission
for Channel 6 on the presently used
channels, he told me that while he
will attend the hearings, he doesn't
expect any concrete action by the
Commission for several months at
least, and that even when a channel
is finally assigned to Hagerstown,
the length of time that will elapse
before television station is actually
in operation here will depend on
when equipment for the station will
be available.
Mr.. Crilley also told me that when
he attends the hearings he will make
every effort to secure channel 6, for
which his application is already on
file, before considering one of the
higher frequency channels, none of
which have, so far, been used for
commercial television.
The meeting of the Board of Di-
rectorS of the Chamber of Commerce
with Congressman j. Glenn Beall
and officials of the Department of
Interior and the National Park Serv-
ice, went long way toward clearing
up some of the misunderstanding
concerning the purpose of the C&O
Canal Parkway project and resulted
in the Chamber passing an unani-
nous resolution calling upon Gov
ernor McKeldin to appoint a COM
mission to make thorough study of
the subject.
During the discussion it was
brought out that it will be quite a
long time before work could even
get started on such a project and
it was also brought out that if, and
when the parkway is constructed,
provisions will not only be made for
bird sanctuaries, but also for fish
hatcheries. The representative of
the National Park Service also stated
that the construction of the parkway
will in no way interfere with the
fishing rights of the public, over
which the Park Service will have no
control
Concerning the granting of per-
manent water rights for industries,
Congressman Beall stated that he
has introduced a bill in Congress on
that subject and that he will be glad
to amend the bill in committee, to
make its provisions satisfactory to
all concerned
Apart from the controversy re-
garding the value to Washington