VOLUME
THE
PILOT
NUMBER
29
Is a Paper Devoted to the Upbuilding of the Sandhill Territory of North Carolina
Address all communications to
the pilot printing company. VASS. N. C.
FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1924
SUBSCRIPTION $2.00
HON. A. W. McLEAN
Candidate for Governor in the Democratic
Primary, Saturday
DR. HIGHSNITH NOT
AFRAID OF TAXES
Says North Carolina Has Ample
Money to Pay for Schools
and Never Miss It
Coiiiniencement exercises were held
in the auditorium of the Southern
pines high school last Friday night
when live students received their di
plomas from John R. McQueen, mem
ber of the Moore county school board,
for the completion of the high school
course.
The fine new building is a model
one and ranks far above the average
built in'any village the size of South
ern Pines. The building with its
equipment, its force, of educators, its
commodious size and arrangement, its
style of architecture, the attractive
grounds and shrubbery that surround
it, give a feeling of pride to the towns
people as they gathered there Friday
night to hear Dr. J. Henry Highsmith,
State Supervisor of high schools, de
liver an address on schools and educa
tion, and what a school house means
to any community.
Dr. Highsmith made a mighty inter
esting talk and one that gave cause
for thought. He went on to say that
there is a great cry for reduction of
taxes. We need taxes, and higher
taxes, or more taxes in order to get
money from the people that can be
collected in a systematic way in order
to have funds from some sort to be
able to build the school houses that
we are as a state so much in need of.
He pointed out the fact that North
Carolina has wealth. As a state we
are prosperous, and have incomes
from varied industries that make us
a member of the Union that is rank
ing nearer the top than it did some
twenty years ago. We have over 250,-
000 automobiles in our state repre
senting an enormous figure. We spend
millions for soft drinks, tobacco, chew
ing gum and various other things,
showing that we are not cramped for
money and that the school houses
could have their share, or at least a
figure far above the small percentage
that is allotted to education purposes
when compared with any other item
of expenditure. Not more than 1%
per cent of all the money we dispose
of goes towards the progress of our
schools and fitting boys and girls of
our state with an education. So we
aren’t being robbed to a great extent
when we pay out a few dollars to the
tax man.
With modern up-to-date school
houses in the county, the county will
lead in progress faster than with any
other development. Illiterates don’t
lead. Bigger and better schools offer
a broader field for every individual.
And here the boy and girl pick out
what they incline towards without a
long list thrust upon them that will
never bring in a return, except per
haps a medal saying that they have
completed so much work and spent
so much time in doing something they
will never follow once they have
escapd the narrow condition that held
them there. Dr. Highsmith added that
Latin and other subjects should be of
fered in school, but required of no
one. To be required of no one, schools
must offer enough in their course of
study, to give the student a chance at
making his own selections to be a suc
cess. Little schools are restricted by
modest funds. It takes money to
build up an equipment. As the money
must come from the people, taxes
must be paid. There is not much ex
cuse of poverty today in North Caro
lina. And poverty seldom comes to
the man equipped with intelligence
and health. He is in possession of
trained ability and competency, which
brings to him the well paid salary that
adds to prosperity. There isn’t much
reason why every boy and girl in
^orth Carolina today can’t be ranked
as a success if started out with a fair
education from our own public schools
^^id poor farms be few and far be
tween. To the child that is given a
^air start in life with educational ad
vantages the world is his, and ambi
tion and ability are developed with
THE CAnrAiGN
FOR GOVERNOR
The campaign for a candidate for
governor for the democratic ticket will
close Saturday night when the election
takes place. The fight is between J.
W. Bailey and A. W. McLean. . Many
factors enter into the contest, but af
ter all is said but one should govern,
and that is that the most efficient man
should win. The Pilot does not sub
scribe to the theory that this is
Bailey’s fight or McLean’s fight. Rath
er it is the fight of the people of the
state to secure a man who is capable
of best directing the business of the
state of North Carolina. The Pilot
has been disposed toward Mr. Mc
Lean, and purely because from what
knowledge it has of the two men, and
of the conditions that prevail. Mr. Mc
Lean is a better man to'fit the re
quirements of the work than Mr.
Bailey is.
A. W. McLean is a man who has
risen from a place on the farm to a
place high in the business horizon of
the whole nation. The Pilot takes no
stock in that sentiment that because
a man comes from the farm he is any
better qualified than the man who
comes from the palace, and has no
reverence to offer the man born in the
log house. It does not believe a poor
man is better qualified to handle a
big business responsibility like the
management of a populous and busy
state like this one any better than a
man born to a business experience and
trained in it. Its opinion is that Mc
Lean is a qualified man because he
has grown into business contact with
public and industrial life, and that
he has made a success in his business.
Moreover, business is business, and
the business of North Carolina, involv
ing millions of dollars annually, is one
that calls for the intelligence of a man
who has big business experience. The
state government is the biggest busi
ness in North Carolina. It is absurd
to talk about carrying it on by any
but a business man. Mr. McLean is
a business man, and he is a candid^ one.
He deals with people in a busmess
way. There The Pilot prefers him and
his methods to Mr. Bailey. The lat
ter has not played a square hand. He
has told of things that he proposed
the help our schools give. We ought
to meet the tax man with a willing
hand.
and favored, which he has certainly
known could not be influenced by a
governor, nor by any contact a gov
ernor could establish. He has, or his
friends have without his interference,
caused it to be noised abroad vehe
mently, that McLean has worked
against the interests of the farmers.
Now to begin with as McLean is a
farmer, and his principal business is
farming, it is a simple fact that to in
terfere with anything that brings
prosperity to the farm would hit him
vitally. But no sane man in either
public life or business, is antagoniz
ing any industry, especially one as
large and important as the farm. Such
a course would be as idiotic as it
would be useless, and it is not honest
nor intelligent for the Bailey forces
to lay such a charge at McLean’s door.
That is one reason The Pilot does not
look with favor on Mr. Bailey. His
policy is that of the demagog, playing
to the sensational, and that does not
seem to be the character that a man
should possess who wants to adminis
ter the business affairs of this state.
Mr. McLean has made his campaign
on business grounds. He has not
grown emotional at any time, promis
ing the things he knows can not be
accomplished, and although Mr.Bai-
ley’s house has some glass in it Mr.
McLean has thrown no stones. Such
tactics do not have any proper place
in applying for a job as head of the
state government.
Freight rates in North Carolina are
unfair in many ways. When Mr. Bai
ley intimates that he will lower freight
rates he deceives the people, for
freight rates are governed solely by
the Interstate Commerce Commission
in Washington, and Mr. Bailey has
been sadly remiss in his duty in the
past if he can influence that body and
has let the matter stand until he
wants to be elected governor. If he
could change rates why has he not
done it long before this? Certainly
he knows he cannot as governor do
any more than other governors have
done. Morrison and his predecessors
have fought for lower rates, but the
changes in rates in the last fifteen
years have been upward rather than
downward. Mr. Bailey is well aware
that he can not make a change the
other way, but he plays on the im
pressionism of a certain group of peo
ple, and that is one reason The Pilot
prefers McLean. McLean is not hand
ing out gold bricks. A thoroughly de
pendable man is extremely important
in the govemor^s office.
Mr. Bailey also intimates that he
will reduce taxes on land. He has as
much power to do that as the man in
the moon. The tax on land is fixed
by the county commissioners when
they have considered after looking
over Auditor Bell’s statement of how
much money the county needs, what
taxes are necessary to meet the
amount called for. Every county in
the state has a different rate of tax
on land. It is purely a matter with
the counties, and Mr, Bailey is offer
ing another gold brick when he hands
that line of talk to the taxpayers.
The Pilot does not like that sort
of stuff. It is not fair, and it has no
purpose except that it may delude the
voters and elect Mr. Bailey to office.
If such as that are his qualifications
he is not the man The Pilot would
like to see engaged for the work of
being governor.
Governing North Carolina in the
days that are ahead of us is work for
a broad-minded conservative, capable
business man, not for a! promising
dodger, for we are moving forward
faster and farther every year, and
1925 will have its weighty problems.
They cannot be met by sensationalism,
but by dispassionate hard sense. Mr.
McLean has shown all his life a keen
business intelligence of a broad guage.
That is why The Pilot inclines to him
in this campaign. It believes he is
the capable man, and it is we who
vote and who are governed who are
concerned in the proper handling of
state affairs. The Pilot favors Mr.
McLean because it believes it will be
best served by a man of his type in
the high office. The situation is a bus
iness proposition and nothing else.
This paper would be glad to favor
either man in a personal way, but
when it comes to hiring a business
man for the business job of governing
North Carolina it decidedly prefers
McLean.
MR. TUFTS WRITES
Pinehurst, N. C., June 2, 1924.
The Pilot
Vass, N. C.
Gentlemen:—I have heard of sev
eral people criticising Mr. Shaw be
cause he induced the State Highway
commission to make a hard surfaced
road from Carthage to Pinehurst. I
am pretty familiar with the work that
Mr. Shaw did at the time and I want
to correct this impression.
In the first place Mr. Shaw paid his
own hotel bills, gave his own time and
paid for the gas and oil in his own car
to go up and see if it were not pos
sible to get a road from Carthage
north, as he believed this would be a
great thing for Moore County as ev
ery one will agree that it would do
more to advertise the northern end of
the county than anything that could
be done. He worked hard on this but
found that in the state highway law
there was a map showing the roads
that were to be built by the state un
der this bill and that the commission
ers could not build any roads other
than those shown on this map.
He did find, however, that Moore
County was not getting its share of
the appropriation and the only thing
that he could do was to try to induce
the State Highway Commissioners to
hard surface one of the roads in the
county. The road from Carthage to
wards Raleigh the Commissioners re
fused to hard surface because they
had already spent a large amount of
money and had an excellent road
there. The Southern Pines people had
already planned for a hard serfaced
road from Aberdeen to Souhtern Pines
but he found that he could arrange
to have the road that was still to be
constructed from Carthage to Pine
hurst hard surfaced. He worked hard
and made this arrangement.
If Mr. Shaw had not done this the
Moore County portion of the state
highway would have gone to other
counties. As it is there will be spent
on this road as much as the entire
taxes of Moore County for a year. All
of this money would have gone else
where if it had not been for Mr. Shaw.
The fact that he got that money
spent here has not added one. cent to
Moore county taxes for the roads are
built from the sale of bonds, the in-
EUROPE WILL BUY
MORE CO-OP COTTON
The Associated Tobacco Growers
Gain New Markets by
European Expedition
Enlarged markets for the tobacco of
the 260,000 American planters of the
Carolinas, Virginia and Kentucky who
are united in co-operative marketing
associations will unquestionably result
from the work of their commission
which is now in Europe for the pur
pose of shortening the bridge between
the organized American producers and
the millions of European consumers of
tobaccos from this country, according
to Oliver J. Sands, executive manager
of the Tobacco Growers Co-operative
Association, who has just arrived from
overseas and is the first member of
the commission from the tobacco farm
ers of America to return from Europe.
According to Mr. Sands, the co-op
erative associations will undoubtedly
increase their deliveries of tobacco to
Great Britain as a result of the visit
of the commission to trade ccnters of
England, Scotland and Ireland. The
officials of the Imperial Tobacco Com
pany of Great Britain received the
commission from the co-operative as
sociations with every courtesy and
consideration on May 15 at Bristol,
England, another meeting of the Im
perial officers and the officials of the
tri-state association of Virginia and
the Carolinas and those of the Ken
tucky Burley and Kentucky Dark As
sociations will be held following the
arrival in England of Judge Robert
Bingham, of Kentucky, founder of the
Burley Association.
The French minister of finance and
the minister of commerce who direct
the affairs of the French government
monopoly in tobacco gave the com
mission a most encouraging reception
which resulted in assurance of co-op
eration and continued purchases of
the tobaccos produced by the associat
ed growers.
Every encouragement to the com
mission is expected from the other
European countries which sell through
government monopolies and very fa
vorable connections have already been
established in Germany, according to
the latest cable to reach the offices of
the Tobacco Growers Co-operative As
sociation at Richmond.
The tri-state association has just
completed delivery of approximately
twenty million pounds of its redried
tobaccos to three of the largest man
ufacturers of the world trade, accord
ing to the latest statement of Richard
R. Patterson, the co-operative’s leaf
manager who says that several other
large sales will probably be made
within the next few weeks.
Checks which total more than a mil
lion dollars are almost ready for dis
tribution to the members of the Tobac
co Growers Co-03:erative Association
in Eastern North Carolina, and will
bring the receipts of the associated
farmers in the Eastern Belt to seven
ty-five per cent of the bankers’ valua
tion upon deliveries of the 1923 crop.
This payment will be made to asso
ciation members not later than June
15 from all association warehouses in
Eastern North Carolina. Each mem
ber of the association in the Eastern
belt who delivered his 1923 crop to
the association will receive a half of
the total amount of cash which he
was paid for all deliveries during the
past season. S. D. FRISSEL*L.
SPECIAL MEETING OF
EPWORTH LEAGUE
There will be a special meeting of
the Epworth League, Sunday evening,
June 8, for the purpose of re-organ
izing the society. All members are
requested to be present. There will
not be a joint meeting of the Epworth
League and Christian Endeavor so
cieties at this time.
come and sinking fund of which are
paid by the gasoline tax and the au
tomobile tax, and the roads are main
tained from the same sources.
Yours very truly,
LEONARD TUFTS.