Newspapers / The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, … / Aug. 22, 1929, edition 1 / Page 4
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PAGE FOUR THE CHATHAM RECORD o. J. PETERSON Editor and Publisher SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: One Year $1.50 Six Months 75 THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1929 SELLING PITTSBORO At last the faith of the people of Pittsboro themselves in the future of the old home town has been quickened. As pointed out several times in these columns, the former handicaps to the development of the town are no longer in existence or have been mini fied. Whereas, only a few years ago, the largest clientile of the mercantile houses of the county seat could boast were the comparatively few hundreds or thousands within a radius of eight or ten miles. But good roads and the auto mobile have changed that con dition, and today Pittsboro is within a half-hour’s drive, at the legal rate, of nearly 25,- 000 people. This fact has been discover - ed. The Record has been her alding the new condition abroad, and the editor per sonally discussing it where it would have an alluring effect. Others have seen the new op po:*tunitv, and all at once out-j siders have become interested in the prospects of the ancient village. | This has broadened the' vision of the home folk and ■, inspirited them a real en deavor. The faith of Mr. W.j G. Fields, who is spending i many thousands of dollars in' the erection of stores, offices, I and a theatre here, has been reflected in the hearts of many who formerly consider ed Pittsboro side-tracked for ever. A new spirit prevails. Our people begin to see that .what helps the town helps each of them, and no more convincing evidence of a new spirit of co-operation is re quired than the page adver tisement paid for co-operative ly this week by the merchants and other business men of Pittsboro. There is a-candid effort to sell the idea of Pitts boro as the commercial center ojf Chatham county to the peo ple of the county. The sales} rtalk is true talk, and it is to be hoped tfiat the people of the old county will respond heartily to the appeal, * County pride, recollection of the old days when Pittsboro and its people were a power in the state, and personal in terest also, should appeal to the citizens of the county, j Pittsboro was a town and fur-j nished leaders for the state f when Durham, Greensboro and many other prominent towns were unborn. Despite its Rip Van Winkle sleep, due to odds against it, the old town has a prestige of a cen tury and a half. Its very’ name Pittsboro is resonant of the most magnificent statesmen of old England in the 18th cen tury. In short, its past is an asset of real value to the old county-seat, and is not to be duplicated by any of the new towns. It can be as modern and as busy as any of them and yet retain its sentimental values. The Record adds its appeal to that of the Pittsboro mer chants. Os course, we realize that they must deliver the goods. The people must be convinced that quality and values here are the equal, if not the superior, of those in the neighboring towns and cities. But there is no reason why they cannot be, and while we add our appeal to that of the Pittsboro business houses to the citizens of the county, we warn the mer chants that this is a pivotal period. The fortunes of the town revolve upon their re sponse to the opportunities of -the occasion. Convince those • who do come here to trade that it is to their interest and they will come again, and ; their . neighbors will come. | ■ "Yea; ; if the present oppor-| tunity is thoroughly utilized, it should not seem an unbe < jievable thing that Pittsboro will be drawing trade fi om the area of those towns and cities that have so long bat tened upon the patronage of the people of a county of 25,- 000 population. If a city lady can save $5 by buying in Pitts boro and getting a desired outing, it seems more reason able that she should do so than that a Chatham county lady should trade in a city at a loss of $5 for the sake of merely going to the city. It is safer to visit Pittsboro than to risk the traffic of the city, and there is no reason why it should not be as pleasant. A visit to a city is a treat to very few of us today. Hurrah for Pittsboro and hurrah for Chatham county! <§> THE PROBLEM OF THE “THING-MINDED” A high school principal ask ed the writer a few days ago whether he thought a boy oi girl lacking sufficient mental ity, at least of the kind to master the high school sub jects, should be given a di ploma if he should have at tended the high school for four years and have done his best. Our answer was, No. Our conception of the reason for granting a diploma is a mark of scholastic accomplishment, and we see no more reason for granting a diploma to a youth who cannot accomplish the work designated in the high school course than to give a football player a score ! for doing his best at the goal but missing it. However, do ing one’s best is in itself an | achievement and deserves some kind of reward. But the ' error of having a youth under take what he is not cut out I for, of undertaking the im- I possible, cannot be corrected by giving him a diploma in -1 dicating that he has achieved the impossible. Such an award cheapens diplomas and dis counts the value of scholar ship in the view of those who can achieve. Only a high standard set for grades and diplomas can bring North Car olina high school work up to the desired excellence. But, mind . you, the writer is far from considering all those who cannot make the grade in high school work as fools. There are “thing-minded” per sons, and many of them. That is, some people have an abil ity to think in terms of things but not so well in symbols. The fool in algebra may beat the mathematical genius two to one in learning the struc ture of a machine, or the manipulation of a tool. The misfortune is that the “thing-minded*' is forced in the Pittsboro school, for in stance, to attempt to work in a sphere for which his men tality is not fitted, and, if he should by force and awkward ness finally achieve a passing grade, he has attained some thing in which he has neither pleasure nor profit. He must find his way tardily into his proper sphere of activity and learn by experience, alter his apprenticeship should have been largely served, the fund amentals of the “thing lile. His stay in the high school devoted to book-learning alone is not only valueless, but worse. He has lost the op portunity to devote his youth ful days to the character of knowledge that is of practical benefit to him. Whether the schools can accomplish what actual ap prenticeship can for the thing minded is a doubtful question. The interests, or the talents, of the group so vary that it would take a fortune to es tablish every kind of vocation al plant , needed and almost a university faculty to operate the school. For instance, we have seen youths with a me chanical turn of mind who profited as little from a course in high school agriculture, and found as little interest in r it, as they would have found in Latin. Our own son, fog in stance, took two years under agricultural teachers, along with demonstration farm work, and could hardly have plant ed a row of beans in rainy weather so that they would | come up. But he knew hipre ! practically about electricity from hanging around garages and helping just anybody #hat was working on a car than his THE CHATHAM "RECORD, PITTSBORO, N. C. dad knew after a theoretical study of electric phenomena. One evening the youth failed jo appear and all night the young chap was out. His father found him at sunrise the next morning helping a Clinton citizen who was try ing to get a kink out ot his car in time for a trip, and the two had stuck to the job all night, with hopes of hitting the trick the next minute and from sheer doggedness. Yet ten minutes in the garden was a bore to the youth, and the same was true in a Latin class, or even a history or English literature class. The problem, then, would be to fit the schools and pro vide teachers for a great va riety of interests. Whoever can solve it will be a bene factor to the thing-minded. Yet an agricultural equipment and a course in agriculture and allied subjects and a home economics equipment and instruction would provide educational advantages to many of the thing-minded, be sides giving opportunity for • the symbol-minded who may be also capable of equal achievement in thing-thinking, to do apprentice work in a vocational subject. Home economics is abso lutely needed in the Pittsboro school, and, if possible, an agricultural course combined with shop work. The teacher training class operated here for several years, is of no real ly practical value to the town or county, and the per capita cost of training to the state, which has paid the bills, has been extremely high. We are confident that the fact that “the state pays it” is the only reason that the course has been retained, and that fact falls right in line with the suggestion quoted last week from Gerald Johnson in the Baltimore Sun, that the school funds are subject to all kinds of stupid raids. “If we don’t take it, some other community will get it,” is the argument; so it is taken. Then, when the legislature is in session, the heads of the various school departments estimate the needs for the next biennium upon the basis of what has been used, including the virtu al extravagances such as are manifest in the per capita cost of something like $250 a year per teacher-pupil here for mere instruction—a sum that would almost pay their entire expenses at the Appa lachian School at Boone. And thus the vicious extravagances are perpetuated. Recurring to that son of ours, it is only fail* to say that we believe he can learn any thing, but his teaching lacked the vitalizing touch with actu alities and could not compete in attraction with the town and country full of real things. Ac cordingly we, sensibly we be lieve, let him get his education where his interests lay. He could not attend a mechanical college. He lacked the string of “units” necessary, and would.have wasted years get ting them with little else. He went to carrying a chain for a surveyor; directly he could use the instrument and make the calculations, was in fact a tolerably good practical sur veyor. He went with a high way engineering team, and 10, within a short while he was carrying the leveling instru ment and making calculations. Today he owns his own busi ness within about 100 feet of a similar busiifess operated by a University graduate, and we doubt whether any advantage is in favor of the latter. There fore, not every “thing-minded” youth lacks ability in symbols, but some, as the youth in ques tion, are thoroughly attracted by realities that they must have them to vitalize their in terest in the theoretical; The writer took a course in survey ing and navigation at college, and after nigh forty years can, he assumes, calculate areas by the traverse tables qr by tri angulation; but in his course he peeped into a transit once or twice during the limited field exercises, and if he start ed to survey today would have to learn the use of the instru ment. Accordingly, if you needed a surveyor, the boy who .quit school in.the ninth grade would do the job more certainly than the father who took every branch of mathe-] matics, he believes/that was i taught in North Carolina 40 years ago. Let the directors of the school system of the state chew upon these thoughts a bit. <?> WHY NOT AN INVENTORY? The extraordinary develop ment of schools in North Car olina and the expenditure of millions of dollars annually for their support have been largely based upon the idea that universal education means the industrial development of the state and the upbuilding of the moral fabric of the people. If this should not be a correct notion, then the ex penditure of the many extra millions for high school and college facilities for the masses has been in great measure a waste and a disappointment. There is scarcely another in stitution in the world that would not find out whether its aim of existence is being achieved. Even missionary so cieties delve into the records to discover the degree of their success. But it seems that no one in North Carolina has ever considered it of importance to undertake to discover whether the magnified school system is accomplishing what it was es tablished to accomplish. We suggest that an inven tory would not be out of place. It is only too apparent that the penetentiary is get ting an unusual share of the younger people. The state should be concerned to know who these young people are from the educational stand point. Also, if the graduates who have swarmed from the high schools and colleges dur ing the past ten years, say, are going to achieve the de sired aims, it is possible at this time to discover the fact, or at least an indication of it. We suggest that the roll of the high school graduates in 1919 and 1924 be called and every one accounted for, and that a list of vocations be drawn and the number of graduates in each vocation be published. While many have not struck their pace yet, it is, nevertheless, possible to get an idea, and a rather definite one, of the prospects of the achievement of the aims of 1 the modern school develop ments. Personally, we have no defi nite opinion as to the answer. It might be very gratifying or the'Contrary. We don’t know. Do you? But wouldn’t you like to know? The Greensboro News de clares that A1 Smith did not father its use of the double conjunctive “if and when.” Anyway, we were struck last fall with the frequent use of the double conjunctive by A1 Smith in his radio speeches an d straightway thereafter the double form began to ap pear in North Carolina news papers. Moreover, as a close reader of the Daily News edi torials, we are confident that the double form has been of the rarest use in them. This is the first time we have detected it ever. But it has been of frequent occurrence in other North Carolina papers the past ten months. We recall seeing it in the Biblical Recorder and the Harnett News the same week. We admit that “when” and “as” do not mean the same thing, but if McDonald does come to America and Mr. Hoover has an interview with him, it will necessarily be “when” he has come. There fore the uselessness of the double form. Besides, “when” means “at what time,” and as “if” usually implies the possi bility of the event happening at no time, in that case we should have a word fixing the time of an event that may not happen at all. The News grace/ully admits, its error of syntax into which it was led by the double con junctive. Os course, the; Rec*-, ord did not mean to p h rase * “double futurity.” ■ “Double” had appeared two or three times in the article; and the printer evidently* glanced at “doubtful” and took it for another “double.” The.; editor of the Record does not 1 have an opportunity to read; its proof, but it is very seldom that k we have occasion to la ment such an error-; * * S ! WHEN NEWS IS NEWS (From The Hamlet News-Messenger) The business of gathering, sorting, collating, verifying and .interpreting news is a fascinating one, but like every other business or job it has problems peculiar to itself and not understood by the average outsider. Some of these prob lems are more vexing on a small paper where every mem ber of the staff has from two to a dozen positions to fill than they are on larger papers where the work is more com pletely departmentalized. The editorial staff of the big news paper consists of one or more persons whose sole duty is to write editorials; others have nothing to do except to col late and rewrite news which has been gathered by still other reporters. Then the bus iness office is entirely sep arate from the editorial and is manned by business, advertis ing and circulation managers and their assistants, each of whom has some particular duty to perform. In the me chanical department the work also is apportioned there be ing men to set advertisements in type, others to set news matters in type, while still others handle the make-up of the pages and the presses. On small papers such as The News-Messenger effort is made to departmentalize the work, but the same person must of necessity handle sev eral. The same folks that gather the news must also sell the advertising, and then upon 1 returning to the office must act as lay-out and rewrite men. The same typesetting machine must handle news, advertisements and job print ing, and the same folks that have done the outside work must do the mechanical work, too. The natural result is that for the day or two before the paper goes to press every person and every piece of ma chinery is taxed to meet the demands made upon it. Small papers like this can not afford special correspond ents and editors for sports, society and finance as the larger papers do.. Baseball fans sometimes criticise the home paper because it doesn’t do justice to sports. Women I A DEFINITE OBJECT ' Do not save money just for the sake of saving. That isn't the idea at all. Have a definite object.. Then thrift will have a new meaning to you. Save to pay for a home; to give the children an education; to take that vacation you long for. Save to eventually have an income from your investments. Save to be able to start in business for yourself. Have some definite object in view—you can attain it. Let our bank help you. Start now. THE BANK OF GOLDSTON HUGH WOMBLE, Pres. T. W. GOLDSTON, Cashier GOLDSTON, N. C. | HIT THE BALL HARD —if you would win the game And so it is in the game of life —we must hit the ball hard every working day—to win. Even then you are not winning the game if you are not saving a part of your earnings. You must lay aside a certain sum for a rainy day to win in the end. A savings account is the easiest way of building this fund. Come in today and discuss this very im portant matter with us—no obligation. • < ' !* • . t BANK OF PrmBORO PITTSBORO, N. C. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22. iqoo and pthers interested i n SQ ciety sometimes think that tn paper does not cover social affairs in sufficient details. An instance of this kind occurred recently. A social affair 0 f more than usual interest to many of our readers occurred The News-Messenger had no society editor who could be detailed to write it up. Every reasonable effort was made to get the story for the following week’s paper. A representa tive of the paper called at the home of interested parties. N 0 information upon which a story could be written was ob tainable. Then two weeks later a full account of the af fair was sent in to the office. It was just what we had tried to get, but when it came it was two weeks old. That part of the force charged with re sponsibility for such decisions decided that the news value of the article had been de stroyed Jby the time lapsed and it was not printed. There was some criticism because it had been omitted, there would have been some criticism for handling stale news if it had been printed. The paper chose what it believed the lesser evil. A newspaper is bound to be impersonal or it loses all of its standing* as a real news paper. We often have articles submitted with request for publication, when they really contain no news and would serve only to embarrass some other reader of the paper. Again we are frequently pe titioned not to publish other items of real news value and which our duty to most of our readers requires us to handle. In every such case personalities and personal feel ings are ignored and the de cision reached, whether right or wrong, is that which in our judgment is for the best inter est of the most folks. We make mistakes, of course; but we would like for all of our friends to understand that no items are omitted or publish ed because of personal ill-will or friendship. $ “Gee! Dis Is a Cinch’’ Mrs. O’Brien-—“Was your old man in comfortable circumstances when he died?” Mrs. Finnegan—“No, ’e was under a train.” —Judge.
The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 22, 1929, edition 1
4
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