THE PILOT—Southern Pines. North Carolina
Fridayi*>January 27. 1950.
THE PILOT
Published Each Friday by
THE PILOT. INCORPORATED
Southern Pines. North Carolina
1941—TAMES BOYD. Publisher—1944
KATHARINE BOYD Editor
VALERIE NICHOLSON Asst. Editor
DAN S. RAY General Manager
C. G. COUNCIL Advertising
Subscription Rates:
One Year $3.00 6 Months $1.50 3 Months 75c
Entered at the Postoffice at Southern Pines. N. C..
as second class mail matter
Member National Editorial Association and
N. C. Press Association
For Health and Hope
It is probable that Moore County citizens, as
they face the March of Dimes drive now get
ting under way, hardly need the added spur of
Chairman Blue, that ^‘we are all morally re
sponsible to help this cause,” to impel them to
contribute. The memory of the epidemic two
years ago, when the hospital beds were crowd
ed with polio patients, and the knowledge of
what the Foundation did in caring for them is
still fresh in every mind.
Many causes come before us every year. To
one this may seem more important than any
other; to another it will take second or third
place to what seems to that person a greater
need. Sometimes the knowledge that a cause
has national backing will give it added validity
in one person’s mind, while, again, that very
fact may emphasize, to another, the greater
need, because of less wide appeal, of a purely
local charity.
The March of Dimes has a very poignant ap
peal because of its cospcern with children, be
cause of the dramatic quality of the dread dis
ease itself, and because, also, the healing ef
fects of the treatment which the funds raised
by the polio organization have paid for are
often so miraculous.
However, though these obvious points may
bring the quick response, there is another side
to the picture which might, if it were better
known, make that response even more gen
erous. This is: the long grind of the treatnaent
and care that must take place, in so many sad
instances, where, because of factors not yet dis
covered in the study of the disease, the crip
pling paralysis hangs on, or if it is at length
overcome, leaves irreparable damage.
These are the saddest cases, and they are,
very often, the ones that eat up the funds. Their
care must go on. These children cannot be given
up, to shrink back, discouraged and sick of
heart, into the pathetic ranks of the crippled
and forlorn.
The clinics which keep watch over them,
where 'they come for their treatments and for
the strengthening drugs, and food that may
help, must be maintained. Never must it be
said: ‘-Don’t come back . . . there’s no use com
ing any more!”
And that means that we must give all we
can. Give to fight this disease through research;
give to fight the epidemic that swoops down
without warning, like a black cloud on the
hot summer day, give for the miraculous cures
of desperate cases, and keep on giving to ease
the long weary stretch that lies ahead for those
unlucky ones whose suffering disability may be
permanent, but for whom, always, there must
be hope.
Our Accredited Hospital
Appearing in the state papers, and carried in
the Pilot, last week, was a report of the list of
accredited hospitals in the state. Among the
85 listed was the Moore County Hospital.
What does it mean for ,a hospital to be on this
accredited list? At a time when the public is
being asked to contribute towards the enlarge
ment of Moore County, it might be a good idea
to find out. It means, first of all, that a hospital
has been approved by the American College of
Surgeons. There are certain basic things in the
way of facilities involved, but it may well be
that a good many institutions not holding such
approval could qualify as to such physical facil
ities. It appears that the physical equipment is
secondary: the main thing emphasized is su
periority of medical and surgical care.
The standing of attending physicians is care
fully scrutinized by the examining board. Their
qualifications to perform the work they are
called on to do is the first point, but next to it
must be demonstrated that staff meetings are
held regularly, that there is free discussion of
cases, and cooperation between the members
of the staff. That there is consultation with out
side specialists whenever this is indicated is an
other point made. Clinical records must be kept
up.
The administration of an approved hospital
is obligated to furnish the full clinical reports
of all patients treated for the examination of
the board. Further: analyses are made of the
work done in the hospital’s laboratory, to de
termine whether careful study is made of each
case for proper diagnostic purposes. That this
laboratory work must be done by qualified per
son, properly supervised, is stressed. The
same is true of the Xray department: records
must be kept, qualified personnel must admin
ister the department and it must be shown that
this aid to diagnosis or treatment is being used
to the fullest extent. Again, a hospital, to be
approved, must show that a certain number of
autopsies have been performed, and attendant
studies made.
In other words, a complete picture of a hos
pital from the angle of patient treatment js
what is desired, and it is upon this ground that
the board of examiners makes up its list. To
put it even more simply: is the hospital “a suc
cess,” is it doing what it is supposed to do,
what the people who built it and who back it
meant it to do. . . this is what the examiners
want to know. And it is significant,' and as it
should be, that they are thinking more of those
who care for the patients than of the physical
facilities. They go on the theory, in other words,
that great healing is accomplished through the
wise use of the means at hand. The surgeon
and the doctor come ahead of the pills or the
scalpel.
As we contribute to this drive for funds to
build the new wing of the Moore County Hos
pital, we may do so, then, in the full confidence
that the hospital has met the standards and has
the approval of competent and careful outside
opinion. The basic requirements of a fine hospi
tal are already there: the men, the staff, the or
ganization. What we shall be doing is to give
them better tools to do still better work to help '
a greater number of i)eople.
An Un-American Activity
There are a good many un-American activi
ties besides the ones which the committee of
that name has investigated. One might be: the
procedure by which the Rules Committee of
Congress has kept legislation from getting to
the floor. Such an attempt to put over minority
rule, and a fractional minority, at that, is un-
American, to say the least.
Another activity which is just as far at vari
ance with the principles of our democracy is
the imposition of censorship by pressure groups.
Such was the "ban imposed on the publication.
The Nation, by the city authorities o-f New
York. Because the magazine had published
articles critical of a religious group the Nation
was banned from the public schools of New
York and, even though the articles ran for only
a few months, the ban has not been lifted. At
no point before the decision was reached was
the Nation, or any interested individual or or
ganization given an opportunity to be heard.
The case is not alone, of course. Similar in
stances have been noted through the years,
notably in Boston where the Watch and Ward
society has in the past succeeded in having cer
tain books banned from sale. But the case of
the Nation has been conducted in such a man
ner as to arouse the concern of a good many
people.
Among them a group, headed by Archibald
MacLeish, has formed a committee to work to
get the ban lifted. The statement issued by this
group, which reads as if it might be the work
of the distinguished chairman himself, strikes
us as being a very fine exposition of the proper
American attitude toWard this un-American
activity of censorship. We print below the main
body of the statement for the thoughtful con
sideration of our readers. ^
“The school system in the United States
provides the most important training
ground for American democracy. For the
majority of our youth the high school is
the last formal period of education—educa
tion for citizenship in a dynamic democ
racy.
“The basis of a dynamic democracy is
the citizen’s capacity to exercise indepen
dent judgment. Cultivation of this capacity
involves the opportunity to read, see and
judge for oneself from the whole range of
divergent and controversial materials. The
ideal product of education is the precise op
posite of the standard and uniform human
product which dictatorships labor to pro
duce by imposing a cordon sanitaire around
the preconception of a government, of a
party or any other institution.
“The danger, if the ban on The Nation is
maintained, is that the youth in our schools
may come to regard censorship of a publi
cation obnoxious to a particular group as
a normal and desirable practice in a dem
ocracy. Further, that once the principle of
an area of forbidden subjects is established,
that area, under the pressures of one or an- »
other group, may be extended to threaten
freedom of expression on about every mat
ter of importance to society, if that matter
is controversial.”
,It looks as if the Rules Committee had lost out
in its attempt to keep a stranglehold on the
democratic process of legislation. It is to- be
hoped that this other un-American activity' of
censorship will suffer similar defeat.
No Abstract Journalism
No two methods of expression are farther
apart than a newspaper and. an “abstract” or
non-representational painting. The former
deals in a carefully checked and arranged series
of facts. The latter deals with forms and colors
that have little or no relation to the world of
men and nature and that depend for their
“meaning” entirely on an emotional reaction to
their shapes and contrasts.
We thought of this when we chuckled, as mil
lions of non highbrows must also have chuckled,
at the recent news story telling how a child’s
daubing—in which the kid’s kitten had rolled
as a finishing touch—^received favorable and
very weighty comments at an art exhibit in
England.
There is nothing the ordinary man likes bet
ter than to get a laugh on a highbrow. While
we do not by any means advocate universal
scorn for unconventional art, we do like to see
a pontifical critic confounded.
What a wonderful thing it would be, if we
could occasionally turn production of The Her
ald over to, say, a couple of the carrier boys and
their dogs and cats—and then get praised for
it. But, alas, we do not live in the shadow
world of abstract art. The little black letters
must still be placed one before the other in a
way every one will recognize. We must stand
or fall on what they say in plain English and
there is no way to interpret our efforts but by
the inflexible yardstick of common sense.
—Sanford Herald
Report From Britain
If you are looking for advice on
this business of carting a sizea
ble family around the world, I’m ,|
the guy to come to. Week before
last we packed our bags in Aber
deen, Scotland, prepared to grab
the 9:15 a. m. train for London,
with reservations through to Italy.
During the night Betty decided to
continue the family’s campaign to
wreck the British National Health
Service, with the resulting loss of
four teeth and five days from our
schedule.
We negotiated the intracies of
London traffic and channel cross
ing with the aid of doses of Dram-
amine and rolled through north
ern France without seeing it. The
journey will always be memora
ble, though, because of my first
try at a combination of high-
school French and Indian sign lan
guage—which netted a couple of
beds for the kids. Missing and
changing trains in Switzerland
sheer joy because of the gorgeous
countryside but put us into Milan
at night unmet and apparently un
wept. My major accomplishment
of the year came in getting
through Italian customs, changing
stations, and arriving on schedule
by local train at Canzo, Provincia
di Comb, some twenty miles north
of Milan, without meeting a single
person who spoke English.
What About Conditions?
For the past week we have been
soaking in this rare Italian at
mosphere and George Carbone,
my colleague from Ole Miss, and
have been swapping notes on
Britain and Italy. We have come
to some tentative conclusions.
Italy is a tourst’s paradise.
Meals are out of this world and
stores are crowded with merchan
dise, including almost every lux
ury item you can dream of. There
are few controls and prices aren’t
too far out of line for the Ameri
can who can afford to come over
DR JAMES W. SILVER,
Southern Pines, University
Mississippi history professor,
now instructing in history
Aberdeen university, Scotland, on
a Fulbright scholarship ^awarded
by the State department. His
“Report from Britain” will ap
pear in The Pilot during his year
abroad.
here. Plenty of sugar, steaks, but
ter, chocolate, eggs, cigarettes—
everything. Bread is particularly
cheap and meat runs about the
same as in Britain or the United
States. As in Britain, rents in old
er housing are controlled and
reasonable but sky high in new
buildings. Gasoline costs twice
what is does in Britain and four
times the price in America. Ciga
rettes run about a third more than
in Britain where they bring two-
and-a-half times what they sell
for in Mississippi.
The catch to all this seeming
abundance is that the workingman
in Italy simply cannot afford the
standard of living available to his
counterpart in Britain where ra
tioning and price controls divide
up supplies on a fairly equitable
basis. Italian workers cire lucky
to get enough lire to take care of
food and rent. They buy few new
clothes. To help with the house
work, the Carbones hire a woman
whose husband is a metallurgist
who doesn’t make enough to keep
his family going. The gulf be
tween rich and poor is definitely
closing in the United Kingdom
but is more than holding its own
here. Beyond that, unemployment
raises its ugly head in this Med
iterranean country, especially in
the south. Forty-seven million
Italians are just too many for the
resources of their country.
Passion For Peace
Britons and Italians are ex
tremely grateful for economic aid
from the United States and are.
aware of its source. Both have as
their supreme passion the contin
uation of peace. They realize that
in the next war, as in the last,
they will do the fighting first, in
their own countries. They want
no more of that. The scars of war
are probably more in evidence in
Milan than in London and new
construction is going forward rap
idly in both places.
Probably an eighth of the Ital
ians have been driven, largely by
extreme poverty, into the fold of
Communism. The vast majority
repatriated from Russia not so'
long ago. Met at the station by ef
fusive Commies, they proceeded
(Continued on Page 3)
From the Pilot files:
TEN YEARS AGO
Mack’s Five and Ten moves to
new home in building recently
completed adjoining the Arcade
building.
Miss Janet Davidge Wiggins
and W. A. Leland McKeithen are
married January 20 at Middle-
town, N. Y.
Members of Vass Baptist
church, discussing fire insurance
after Sunday service, notice
church on fire and quickly put it
out.
feels as did the Italian prisoners Flag.”
TWENTY YEARS AGO
Robert N. Page, of Aberdeen,,
sworn in as a lieutenant governor
of the Carolines district, Kiwanis]
International.
Benefit concert nets good supn
for library building fund. On thej
program: Mrs. Gertrude W. Page,!
mezzo soprano; Miss Margaret
Bishop, violin; Charles Pier, ceUo;
Mrs. E. Ellsworth GileS^, piano; A.
B. Yeomans and Miss Mary Yeo-,
mans, playing in a quartet with
Miss Bishop and Mr. Pier.
Miss Natalie Wheeler wiU be
local contestant in American Le
gion’s oratory contest on “Our
Unless the members of the'
Southern Pines school band keep
on working hard and playing
pretty, they may lose their direc
tor, J. G. Womble. . . For another
career opened up to him not long
ago, one in which his princely
manner and old-world courtesy
would truly shine.
After the Morehead City games
a couple of weeks ago Guy went
down to the Southland hotel to
visit with the Morehead coach. . .
He was still dressed in his re
splendent band leader’s uniform
of white with touches of blue and
gold. . . The clerk was temporari
ly absent from the desk and as
Guy waited, two men came in,
discussing whether or not to
spend the night in Southern Pines
. . . One of them, spying Director
Womble, said, “Boy, will you take
care of our bags for us?”
“Certainly,” obliged Guy, bow
ing from the waist. . . He was sad
ly disappointed when they deci
ded hot to stay after all, but to
move on to another town for the
:iight.
We are sure he would have
given the best of service. . . And
collected a handsome tip.
The Mattocks family claims a
new boarder for 1950 but hopes
she won’t stay long. . . It is For
tune’s daughter Miss Fortune,
who has been busy around there
since the New Year came in.
To start the year off with a
bang, and tve do mean bang, she
tripped up Mrs. Mattocks with an
ottoman in the living room. Try
ing to avoid hitting a child seated
on the ottoman, the lady of the
house lost her balance and ' fell
face down on the floor, sustaining
a compound fracture of the nose.
• The son Gary Mattocks, on his
return to Greenbrier school in
West 'Virginia, got flu, along with
an infected heel. These were ac
companied by a severe case of
homesickness. He has recovered
from all but the last )
Then last Wednesday night,
Miss Fortune decided it was son
Dick Mattocks' turn. . . She rush
ed him into a volleyball net
which extracted his two front
teeth. . . And he’s hoping not to
have to wait till next Christmas
to get two more. ^ _
Have you wondered what these
initials “F. X.” stood for, in the
name of Proprietor F. X. Credle
of the Hotel Charmella at "Vass?
We didn’t, as we were sure they
meant “Francis Xavier”. . . We’ve
known of a good many people
with that name, that of a great
Catholic saint.
But in Mr. Credle’s case, they
stand for Fenner Xyvon. . . And
in Xyvon, the X is silent.
Where his parents got this name
for him he’s not quite sure, but it
gave him an unusual start on an
unusual and diversified career,
which we hope to get around to
writing up some day.
He’s an A. B. and A. M. in agri
culture, having secured both de
grees in the same year at Virginia
was a county agent. Chamber of
Commerce secretary, and Army
chaplain, with captain’s rank. . .
Now in the hotel business.
A big, good-looking bachelor,
he says he’s looking for a woman
He didn’t say a word about
marrying the gal, just wants her
to help him run one of the best
little hotels in this part of the
state. . . The Charmella is fine, he
says, but for that one thing. . .
Needs a woman’s touch
Of course, the gal might have
some ideas of her own on the sub
ject . . Line forms at the right,
ladies, moving slowly forward.
Billy Buchan, of Pinebluff, has
left the University of North Car
olina (where he was taking a
journalism course) to go to work
for one of the most unusual news
papermen in the state. . . And
one of the best.
His new boss is Billy Arthur,
editor of the Onslow County News
and Views, published in Jackson
ville. . . Billy is pint-size in phy
sique, full-size in mentality and
experience. . . Also in the esteem
cf everyone who knows him . .
He’s a miniature to you only when
you first meet him, and from that
moment on assumes his full stat
ure in all essential ways. . . He
has served his county as their
representative in the General As
sembly, and in businesslike man
ner puts out one of the best small
papers in the state of North Caro
lina.
Billy is just one of the Sandhill
boys to seek his fortupe in Jack
sonville. .,. Herbert Eastwood, of
Lakeview, is mayor down there at
Jacksonville, and Clyde Cook
went from here last May to be
chief of police. . . Both doing fine,
Billy told us at the Press Institute
at Chapel Hill last week.
Maybe the Postal department is
trying to negotiate a loan. . .
Anyway, they have honored the
bankers with their latest com
memorative stamp, which Post
master A, Garland Pierce tells us
is now on sale at the Southern
Pines post office. . . It’s a hand
some three-center, known as the
American' Bankers’ commemora
tive.
Southern Pines has several col
lectors investing in U. S. com-
memoratives as they are issued. .
. And it’s a real investment, be
sides being a. fascinating hobby
. . . A U. S. stamp is one thing
whose value never goes down. . .
And some of them go up in value,
a little or a lot . . Thing is, you
never know which Ones will do
this!
The collectors buy a single
stamp, a plate number block of
four or a whole sheet, according
to what they can put into their
collection as it goes along. . . One
I know who started collecting
about 20 years ago has put about
$500 into the stamps, which are
now worth $2,000 at a conserva
tive etsimate, and will continue to
increase in value.
And if you get tired of collect
ing the stamps. . . You can always
’ ^0utl|Frn (H.
A Private School for children under fourteen.
Music, Handicrafts, Sports. Resident pupils received
Kindergarten Department
MRS. MILLICENT A. HAYES, Principal
JOHN C. PARRISH
4
Plumbing and Heating
Day Phone 6893 Southern Pines Night Phone 6814
^ . -
DR. DAVID W. WHITEHEAD
OPTOMETRIST
EYES EXAMINED GLASSES FITTED
Hours 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. daily except Saturday >
(Wednesday afternoon, close at 1 p. m.)
Telephone 6982—Hart Building—Southern Pines. N. C.
TYNER & COMBS
CONTRAGTING
Painting and Wall Papering
SOUTHERN PINES. N. C.
O. C. Combs
Pinebluff 313
G. W. Tyner
Southern Pines S804
ANTIQUES
ALLiE McIntosh
., I
Southern Pines
675 South West Broad Street
Telephone 6452
DRY CLEANING SERVICE
PROMPT
MODERATE
Valet
V D. C. J^EN
ANGLOW TWEEDS
Hand Woven Tweeds By The Yard
Polytechnic.
Taught at VPI, use them for postage!
Original Models
and
Custom Tailoring
By Our Mr. Frank
Tweed Hats and Bags
Sport Jackets
for
Men and Women
Slacks and Skirts
Cashmere Sweaters
Sales Room on Road Between Pinehurst and Southern Pines
Phone: Southern Pines 5812 — Pinehurst 4832