North Carolina Newspapers

- Editorial Opinions - YOUR HOME NEWSPAPER’S editorials are the opinions of staff members. As such they may be wrong. Whether you agree or disagree our columns, under “The People Write’’ heading, are open for you to express your own opinion. INASI^UCH A$ VE HAVE DOME IT UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE MV BRETHREU... NORIHAMPION TIMES-NIWS — Zf.4-0 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1965 Bed Sheet Boys At Plymouth PlymoLilh is the town in North Caro lina that got this year’s nod from the power structure of the civil rights move ment for its eastern North Carolina showcase for the season. The pretext used to gain the movement’s public re lations end—voter registration out of season—was transparent enough. The whole thing was beginning to be a bit tiresome even for its instigators. Then all of a sudden from the way things were going one would have thought it was some unenlightened borough of Mississippi there across the levee on the other side of the Roanoke, What caused this sudden change? How could one teen-age bearded beatnik from San Francisco and two discredited rabble ruusers of questionable character out of Edenton cause such a commotion? The answer is simple enough. The real white man’s burden—the Ku Klux Klan—got into the act. What had been the lone beatnik and a handful of teen agers with nothing else to do for kicks, suddenly blossomed into a full scale series of demonstrations, demands, boy cotts. ill feeling all around and more rowdies of all hues than the local police could manage. As usual when these things burst out in places of generally good relations between the races, the Klan had been in the act. It took a good bit of the state’s majes ty and power to quieten things, even temporarily, in Plymouth, And if the Klan keeps getting in the act somebody will end up getting really hurt before people come to their senses again. The Ku Klux Klan has been in dis repute too long to be of any use except for making trouble when race relations become tense. As editor Tom Lassiter of the Sniil/i/ield Herald wrote recently, •‘Today’s Klan claims respectability and cites its ‘good deeds,' but the history of the Klan in North Carolina and the rest of the South is a history of violence, law- le.ssness, brutality, rascality. Does it not .seem strange that level-headed men of goodwill would seek to promote right eousness through the medium of an organization using a name that for a century has been identified with violence and rascality?” There’s a lesson fc)i- us all, black and white alike, over here on this side of the Roanoke from the events at Plymouth and those at Williamsloji which pre ceded them a year ago. There is no ap preciable change in circumstances be tween the races in Williamston now than before all the notoriety of last year. Chances are slim for any different result in Plymouth. It still takes reasonable people dealing with each other with mutual respect to make progress in this world. This end is fostered neither by turning a peaceful community into a national showcase of the moment nor by the bed sheet boys of the Klan. Most especially is there a lesson in Plymouth from the Klan created com plications. It’s almost a guaranteed way of making a bad situation worse to have the bed sheet bigots involved. Regardless of one’s own view of the proper conduct of race relations, the sooner even the must ardent white supremacy champions realize that their views are made less likely of prevailing by the Klan’s pres ence when things are sticky, the better it will be for everybody. The Klan can’t make this a different or belter world in which to live—but it can sure make it bloodier—even for Klansmen. R-C Editors Say... Music Lessons Tough On Parents Working Poverty Top On Down Publisher Tom McKnight of the Mooresville Tribune writes a weekly column for his paper and a number of others entitled “Uncle Dan From Doolie." Written in a folksy vein, it is in the form of a letter from “Uncle Dan” out in the country to his newspaper editor. Almost always the country humor mixes well with a sage observation on some topic of ,tTie day. In a recent column “UnCle Dan” was comnjenting on the progress of the war- on poverty. It gets across extremely well the point recently made by Your Home Newspaper that to date the war has failed to have any impact on the poor. There may be parts of the country where it has begun to be effective, but for this area the poverty war, with the sole exception of ‘Operation Head Start,’ has yet to bring down to the level of the people any program whatsoever. We have begun to feel just like “Uncle Dan” that the whole thing is being run upside down and that the money will run out before the poor people get any. But "Uncle Dan” tells the story better than we do. He says. . . "DEAR MISTER EDITOR: “The fellers at the country store has backslid and Saturday night come out 100 per cent agin the anti-poverty pro gram, They was fer it at first on account of they figgered the handouts would start at the bottom and they might git a slice of the pie. But now, they allowed, it was plain they was running this proj ect upside down and was starting at the top and would run out of money long afore they got down to the pore folks, ''I'''irst off, Ed Doolittle reported he had saw in the papers where teachers fer the antipoverty program in New York City was drawing $250 fer a 25 hour week. This movement was bound to spread, perdicled Ed. and at $10 a hour the teaching perfession would soon bo cured of poverty. In the same piece, said Ed. it reported nurses fer the pro gram in some parts of the country was now gitting $9 a hour. That, claimed Ed, would eventual take care of the nursing perfession. “And Zeke Grubb reported he had saw where Government agencies was spreading out their surveys, investiga tions, public polls and studies so’s they could take on several thousand workers and git ’em off the poverty list. Fer in stant, said Zeke, he was reading where the U. S, Public Health Service has made a survey..,a.rQyngst 7,000 men and wimmen from I's to 79 to see which had the broadest beam. He said the official name of the project was ‘Operation Seat Breadth.’ And according to Zeke, they found the average woman had four- lenths of a inch more seating capacity than the average man. Zeke told the fel lers he was discussing this item with his old lady and she claimed it wasn’t worth, a dime on account of it didn’t say if the wimmen was with or without girdles. Anyhow, claimed Zeke, it probable look a heap of people to make the survey and got ’em off the poverty circuit. He said he was looking any day now fer ’em to start taking the national census ever year instead of ever 10, “Josh Clodhopper reported he had took note where President Johnson’s brother- in-law, a feller named Antonio Taylor, was now touring South America ter $75 a day and expenses as a ‘consultant.’ Josh was of the opinion this ‘consultant’ business would open up a heap of new opportunities fer the poverty folks. “I ain’t too shore, Mister Editor, but what the fellers at the store don’t rep resent a good cross-section of grass roots opinion in the country. Fer that reason, I'm thinking about sending the results of our vote to Washington, It would probable git as fur as the assistant- to-the-assistant letter-opener in the White House basement. Incidental, the vote was unanimous on account of Clem Webster, that is very outspoke fer the Great So ciety, was absent Saturday night. “Yours truly. Uncle Dan” Need more be said on this .subject'.' Carlton Morris Writes- Then They Worked And Prayed Now They Morch One of the great mysteries of life is the failure of communica tions between people. We may all speak the same language and live in the same country, but down through the ages, we’ve never learned to communicate. Which seems like a rather sweeping statement on first thought, but take another look at it. Over and over, jvejre.told that the world belongs to the young and soon everybody will be 25 years, old. All this Is wonderful, but we've heard it all before. Seems as if Hitler came up with some sort of super generation when he had his day. If it had been possible Hitler would have forced his madness on the whole world, and we who are old enough, can very well remember how he ranted and raved, but still failed to convert the world. All these things pass away because we can’t communicate with each oth- we began to see a little light breaking, like the first paleness of dawn. er. I’m sure there are many people alive today, who can remember the days when people marched. Well, they didn’t exactly march, they stood in line. To put it frank ly, they stood in soup lines from one end of the earth to the other. I remember it, though fortu nately I lived in a land of rich soil and we never went hungry. But I remember it. I’ll remem ber it to the day I die. I drove a truck for a dollar a day and my day started before first light and ended after dark, I didn’t get paid for overtime. I was paid by the day and I was Then we were plunged into the worst war man had ever devised up to that time. And like we’re doing today, some of us took ad vantage of the misery of men and made millions, while others turn ed again to God and prayed for the terrible cup of war to betak en away. Many of u.s promised our Lord we would remember the years of hunger and strife and would never let them happen again. And after considered lucky. I knew college graduates who would have been most delighted to take my job, but they didn’t know about sitins and marches in those days. I did not get paid for rainy days either. But I lost that job. The boss saio he could no longer afford to pay me. All of us must have been dumb back in those days for we never once thought of marching on the courthouse or the governor’s mansion or maybe the White House. I know the world went hungry. 1 was there. It’s no use to try to sweep it underthe carpet and for get it. I tell you it happened and all the newly rich can deny it un til they’re blue in the face. Like the family skeleton, we’redeter- mined to keep it a secret. Right there is where we of that generation of sorrow have lost communications with the Pepsi generation. We can’t or we won’t tell them about it because we’re afraid it will come back. Second ly, we like to be believed, and we’ve so far lost contact with the youngsters, they think we’re dreaming when we do tell them about it. So we pretend to under stand them and join in with them, rather than have them join us in the essential things of life. . Back then, during the depres sion, I suppose we would be call ed pretty stupid by present day standards with its new morality, no sense of guilt andwrongdoing, and the doctrine that every man or child must do as he pleases without regards for the laws of God or man. For back in those years many of us felt we were getting our just desserts from our maker. And many of us prayed and prayed and wore our gingham and overalls to church every Sun day. After a while and after all kinds of schemes by the government, a long time it did pass away. But we have failed. We have allowed our young people to by pass our time of travail, and now many of us even encourage them in lawi e s s n e s s, arrogance and demands for something for noth ing and all the things that once brought us under the wrath of God. Instead of trying to show them paths of righteousness, we encourage them in strife and tur moil. We have lost our final link of communications with them and I have a strange feeling we’ll all be held responsible in the final accounting. By JAMES WALLACE Executive Managing Editor Your Home Newspapers Ahoskie It may be that “music sooths the savage beast” but I’m sure it doesn’t have the same effect of parents whose children are in the learning stage. Since my girls have started piano lessons, I’m in abetter po sition to understand what my mother went through in trying to get six children started in the field of music. Most of the chil dren did manage to acquire some proficiency with the piano before they were at an age where they could follow their own bent. Sev eral fell by the wayside. My piano teacher gave up aft er two years when she realized that I was giving her more ad vice than I was willing to accept for myself. You can imagine what a con tinual round of clashing chords rang out in a house where at least four were practicing an hour a day. In those days, half of the time was spent in doing scales. We didn’t go in for this modern enjoyment while learning nonsense. When television came into our house, the piano was moved to the basement where the torture went on while Milton Berle en tertained. My youngest brother was de termined to learn all by himself and after some particularly hor rible chord we could often hear him talking to the piano and of fering it one last chance to strike the right note before he demolish ed it. The father of one of my par ents friends had a daughter who was an aspiring vocalist and she seemed oblivious to the confusion she spread as she went about in public vocalizing. He soundproof ed a closet in her room. I re member going to call on her one day and he told me to look in her closet. I thought he had gone off his trolly but I did as he said. When I opened the door a torrent of sound poured out of the closet and as I peered into the gloom I could see her sitting on a small chair and giving vent to great gusts of sound. She became a fair choir singer and her father retained his peace of mind. My brother Donald was a bit of a music nut for many years and he would sometimes show up at dinner time with all kinds of Curtis Institute students. They were all geniuses and they were all hungry. They spent their funds on tickets to the operas and concerts and ate out at their friends parents’ homes. He outdid himself one time when he brought home an elderly lady who was proudly presented as Madame So and So (I have for gotten the impressive name) just back from Bucharest, She v;as done up in a moth eaten black dress with a fringe of white lace and it appeared that she must have escaped rather than return ed from Rumania. She was just as hungry as the younger ones. The six children were so ac customed to bringing guests to meals that no one paid much at tention to them. One evening aft er a particularly fine young man had eaten, taken a large part in the conversation, excused him self and left my father asked who had invited him. No one knew. We still don’t. Now that I have undertaken this parental task, I have lost all compassion for music students. They have unlimited excuses why they can’t practice now. It always turns out that the teacher told them to do it in some fashion that differs from your instruction. I’m always surprised to learn each year that the teacher can still stand them. It may be that the experience will help to civilize them. Never theless it takes the temperament of a dictator to see it through. CLIFF BLUE . People & Issues | .........Mr By CLIFF BLUE INTEGRATION. . .Eleven years after the U. S. Supreme Court ruling, integration in more than token manner took place in schools throughout North Caro lina quietly and with practically no resistance. Civil Rights turmoil duringthe past week in North Carolina cen tered, not over integration, but over the “completely superfluous issue - voter registration” to quote from Governor Moore. Capital Clipboard White and colored people get along well inNorth Carolina when they are let alone to work out their own problems. In Plymouth where some violence took place and more was feared, outside agitators were responsible. And when their chief grievance was immediate voter registration, when the books will be open throughout most of North Caro lina beginning October 9, you can see how well Governor Moore described the matter — “com pletely superfluous.” Sanford’s New Interests STRAW VOTE. . .Lastweekthe members of the Fayetteville Ki- wanis club participated in a straw UHF TV And Nursing Homes N. C. Needs The Accrediting Agency Proponents of the Speaker Ban Law willhaveto find some other reas on than the proposition that we do not need the accrediting agencies. There can be no question that North Carolina’s institutions of higher learning need the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools more than the association needs us. There are many accrediting associations for colleges and every one ofthem has Itsplace. With out them we would have no idea how our medical schools, law schools, nursing, pharmacy, busi ness administration schools stand In relation to other institutions. Somebody has to set the standards tor our in stitutions of higher learning. It is simply a matter of every game must have its umpire. We might not like how the umpire calls balls and strikes, but the only alternative would tobebrlngour own. That Is just what some people like Thad Eure propose that we do in setting up only a state wide accrediting agency. The trouble with this flimsy reasoning is that nobody trusts an umpire which belongs to the home team. There Is considerable sympathy for the Speak er Ban Law in North Carolina, we realize. But the public should never listen to the reasoning that we can get along without the Southern Asso ciation or any of the other accrediting agencies. They set the standards simply because they are made up of all the Institutions which they serve. It is a good system and it is one that North Cai'o- lina or any other state singly cannot upset. -Greenville Daily Reflector Seawell Proposal Has An Element Of Reason Elections Board Chairman Malcolm Seawell’s proposal to have voter registration books open each day of the regular registration period begin ning in October should provide ample time for every unregistered North Carolina citizen to get his name on the registration books. .\gitallon for opening the registration books in specific counties immediately Isbothunnecessary and uncalled for. As Gov. Moore has pointed out so candidly, it would take a special act of the leg islature to open registration books immediately. By the time the legislature could called intospe - cial session and consider such action, the regu lar registration period would be here. By having the registration books open at poll ing places each day during the registration pe riod, every citizen would have ample opportunity to register. Those whose names do not get on the registration books will have only themselves to blame. -Greenville Daily Reflector By EULA N. GREENWOOD TWO FRONTS, . .Whether he will make money on either ven ture remains to be seen, but for mer Gov.TerrySanfordhas since leaving office this past January been one of the beginners on two projects: 1. The establishment of a new television station in Raleigh. 2. The formation of a chain of nursing homes. There are now only two televi sion stations - Raleigh and Dur ham - readily available in your Capital City. If you have special antenna equipment, etc., you can get Greenville and Greensboro. Former Gov. Sanford’s new station - to be in operation a year from now — had million-dollar backing from this and other states. It will be an ultra-high frequency station as compared with the very - high frequency stations now in existence inmost sections. Its maximum range will be about 35 miles. The UHF station is to the YHF station about what a weekly newspaper is to a daily. Makers of television sets are now all required to have on all equip ment sold facilities for picking up UHF stations. Within ten years, experts say, we will have ten to one more of the Sanford - tjpe television station than the kind we watch today. The UHF approach was tried here once - the News& Ob server was in on its beginnings- but WNAO-TV faded from the air because so few people had the type of set that would pick up the picture. With his liberal station bucking conservative WRAL-TV, the fur will f!y-and Sanford and Jesse Helms can have it out again as in days of yore. Also, our former Governor should make a nice lit tle pile of money once the station gets swinging. Sanford’s nursing homes chain has limitless possibilities -what with Medicare on one hand and top physicians (Dr. George Paschal, Dr. Walter Neal and Dr. Hayden Lutterloh), Attorney John Jordan, and several good businessmen in as investors. AS IT STANDS. . .There are today in North Carolina about 75 licensed nursing homes. Their organization is known as the N. C. Association of Nursing Homes, with each member also affiliated with their national organization. Owners of Holiday Inns of America have recently dipped their toes experimentally into the vast oceanic venture of homes for the aged. They build the home for you, sell it to you as the op erator, or arrange a long-term lease. One was recently com pleted near Greenville; and an other is abullding near Winston- Salem. Nursing homes owners and managers don’t like their places to be known as “homes for the aged.” It’s a different setup. Nursing homes are closely allied with hospitals-and under Medi care and Terry Sanford could be come one of the No. 1 sociologi cal - business projects in the South next year. Because of climate and resort facilities, North Carolina’s mountain and sandhill areas are expected to see the development of scores of nursing homes of various types within the next two or three years. The N. C. Nursing Homes As sociation in this States is over seen by John Harden Associates, with David Murray of Raleigh as the manager of this particular phase of the Harden operation. Mrs. Emma F. Lanier of Elm City is president; Riley Clapp, Pleasant Garden, vice president; and Mrs. Elderlene Keller, San ford, secretary. Tern President Robert Morgan of Lillington, and Senator Gordon Hanes of Winston-Salem. Nevertheless, neither side seemed particularly happy with the turn of events; and the word going here is that the next round will be much more inflammatory. DISPLEASED. . .They aren’t saying much about it forpublica- tion, but the inside Information we have been able to pick up is that those opposed to the Speaker Ban Law believe they made a rather poor showing in the initial hearing held here a few weeks ago. It seemed to many that the brightest spots in the two-day hearing were Chairman David Britt of Fairmont, Senate Pro NOTES. . .One of Terry San ford’s weakest spots in his ad ministration’s all-out support of Richardson Preyer last year was over in the independent, conser vative Justice Department. . . and there it was that RayB. Bra dy, an assistant attorney general, got in some quiet though effec tive licks for Dan Moore. He made one outstanding contact for Candidate Moore - burning a lot of shoe leather in so doing - and so it came as no great surprise to insiders that Ray Brady suc ceeded Sanford Man Vic Aldridge as director of ABC, . .Aldridge used to be former Gov, J. M. Broughton’s chauffeur. . .Brady, a Wake Forest College alumnus, is a brother of I. O. Brady, Car olina Power & Light Co. official . . .and one of Raleigh’s best citi zens. -Soon after Dan Moore was sworn in as Governor former Eighth District Congressman Paul Kitchen of Wadesboro was seen around Raleigh quite a lit tle; and there was talk that he would become associated with the new administration. We noted it here, but nothing more was said until Ed Scheldt announced hiS' departure from Motor Vehicles vote. Among other issues voted on were the controversal speaker ban law. Participated in by 94 members, 42 Kiwanians said the speaker banlawshouldbeamend- ed to return to the trustees of the institutions their traditional authority over visiting speakers, 15 said the bill should be repeal ed, and 36 said the ban is a good law. Sixty-seven said Moore was making an “average” governor whereas 17 thought Richardson Preyer would have done better. PHONE SERVICE. . .Tremen dous strides have been made in expanding telephone service in North Carolina during the past 17 years since Kerr Scott was elected governor. Back in the late 40’s and early 50’s the fight was to get telephones. Now, the issue has moved on to extended toll-free service to cover a whole county rather than one town or community. Extended toll-free service is a tremendous help. Toll charges are a far greater barrier to communication than the cost might indicate. Recently the N. C. Utilities Commission approved a county-wide toll-free telephone service for Moore County, Now we note that the Winton Ruritan Club is proposing that county-wide dial service be provided in Hertford County. YDC FIGHT. . .It now looks as if the State YDC contest for president between Bob Huffman of Monroe and A. J. Stephenson of Lillington will go to the con vention, although we doubt that it will go to a vote at the conven tion. Huffman is the candidate of the Sanford-Bennett-Preyerwing of the party, whereas, Stephenson is the candidate of the Moore- Lake wing, RALPH SCOTT. . .Ralph J. Scott, congressman from the Fifth North Carolina District has announced that he will not be a candidate to succeed himself in the 1966 Democratic Primary. Scott did the same thingtwoyears ago but was persuaded to run again. Now, Scott says he has really had enough and really means to retire to his home in Danbury. Scott’s retirement will throw the field wideopenforDemocrat- ic hopefuls. A leading possibility to make the race is Bert Ben nett, a Terry Sanford lieutenant and former State Democratic chairman. Former State Rep. Winfield Blackwell of Winston- Salem opposed Scott in 1960 and may still be Interested. State Senator William z. Wood who opposed Scott in 1960 is also re garded as a possibility. Senator Gordon Hanes who has announced that he will not be a candidate for re-election to the State Senate in 1966 has also been mentioned. You can expect a lively primary campaign!