Newspapers / The pilot. / May 14, 1954, edition 1 / Page 2
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PAGE TWO THE PILOT—Southern Pines. North Carolina FRIDAY. MAY 14. 1954 Spring Is Convention Xinie In Pinehurst North Carolina Southern Pines “In taking over The Pilot no changes are,contemplated. We will try to keep ^ ncca. W. to to ».k= 0 Uttto monoy lot oU conceded. f^"to^tovSyS Sion to use our influence for the public good we will try to do it. And we wiU treat everyDoay alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941. ' More Answers Are Needed The letter of the Moore County commissioners to The Pilot regarding the article recently pub lished on the County Home, though it answered none of th^ questions raised, did indirectly touch on a point worth examination. In connection with the position taken: that the County Home must remain in operation be cause there is no other place in the county for mentally afflicted Negroes, the letter says; “A few years ago a boarding home for colored peo ple was opened in West Southern Pines, but after a .great deal of publicity and investigation it was closed.” This reference is to the fact that this so-called nursing home was closed by the state Depart ment of Public Welfare after an investigation by The Pilot, made at the suggestion of local physicians, had revealed conditions of shocking neglect. It developed that the specifications un der which the home had been licensed had not been carried out and it was operating illegally. This state of things came about only because inspections of the place had not been made fre quently enough to disclose the true state of af fairs. There is, admittedly, always the chance of abuse when the care of the sick is a profitable business. The successful and humane operation of privately-run hospitals and nursing homes depends on two factors: the honesty and de cency of the people in charge and a system' of regular, thorough inspections carried out by the public agency that is responsible for the establishment of the homes. It is, however, un fortunately a fact that both the state and the county welfare departments are so understaffed that the necessary frequent inspections cannot always be made. That is, they could not be made, perhaps, al ways by the professional staff, but in a wide awake community there would seem to be no reason to let such a consideration stand in the way cf a desirable goal. It should certainly be entirely possible for the citizen-staffed Meore County welfare board to organize an inspection committee of public-spirited people who would gladly lend their help in such a worthy cause. The Moore County Hospital’s board of directors has just such a committee cf inspection, opera ting for years with entire success. This danger of abuse of power is one to which the commissioners might well have drawn at tention in the state’s suggestion to turn the County Home into a privately-operated nursing home. But, it must be pointed out that, as things stand now, that danger is an immediate fact. It is, of course, true that those who are in charge of the Home are not supposed tO' profit from its operation, but there is no regular thorough system of inspection made cf the place. The county commissioners are not well-informed as to its condition, the number of people there or their state of health. Nor is there any careful check made of finances. That, at least, must be the assumption. For if the commissioners were familiar with the place, we believe things would be different. As to its cost, surely a board that is noted for its economical attitude in money matters would have found some way of taking care of a ew people at less exhorbitant cost to the taxpay ers. Not to mention taking better care of them. I PINEHURST'S FAMOUS CAROLINA HOTEL turns from golfers to conventions as spring comes around. Bankers, realtors, auto dealers, druggists, "'the butcher, the baker, the candle stick-maker" all convene successively in the big, comfortable hostelry, to exchange ideas and have a good time. Last week the Carolina was full to bursting with the doctors of the State and their wives. They rigged up a tent, big as the Big Top, where the history of state medicine was displayed in a variety of interesting ex hibits. This week and next, the bankers and dentists take over in their yearly conventions. For The Glory Of France THE McCARTHY-ARMY INVESTIGATION U. P. DISPATCH A hard-core band of 2,000 Foreign I,egion- naires chose to go down fighting for the glory of France in a suicidal attack on the Communist captors of Dien Bien Phu, The French High Command at Hanoi said the Legionnaires under the command of Col. Andre Lalande at outpost "Isabelle ’ preferred a fight to the end than to surren der. A Communist Radio Peking broadcast heard in Tokyo said the conquerors of Dien Bien Phu had "annihilated’ the Legion naires hours after the main fortress had fallen. 1 'The fall of Dien Bien Phu hit hard. To people everywhere it must have brought a profound sense of loss and failure. For whether or not there is agreement on the policy, or lack of it, which was followed by this country and the others, even by France herself, there is the shock cf realization that, once again brave men had to die for the mistakes of others. As in the Charge o.f the Light Brigade: “Their’s not to reason why, Their’s but to do and die,” And they did, and they died. But as we shudder at the loss, as we try, per haps, to shut our minds to the thought that even now another Death March of Bataan is m progress in the jungles of Indo-Chma, as the exhausted and hopeless troops are herded to wards theif Chinese prisons with the wretched wounded left desolate, our own hurt is little in comparison with that of France. That is what we must remember This is, for France the end of more than eight years of fruitless battling in the jungle, of ghast ly losses wherein the flower of French manhood was sacrificed. If France was uncertain and con fused before, we may expect to see things worse, as the full force of this national humili ation is felt. France may turn more' strongly against those who were responsible, the Soviets and Chinese, who found, in the corruptio-n and “colonialism” of Indo-China, grist ready-made for their Communist miU, but human nature being what it is, it is more likely that, in her grief and hurt pride, France will turn angrily against the ally who gave her strong cause to think that help was at hand and then, at the last moment, pulled back from danger. If that happens, we will, let us hope, understand and make allowances for a brave nation for which this humiliation and defeat is one more in the se-ries that started with the German occupation. For ourselves and the others on our side, the fall of the French fortress should bring a time for soul-searching. Editors Comment On Hearins^s Washington’s Nauseating Spectacle The Senate’s Responsibility By LOUIS GRAVES (In The Chapel Hill Weekly) In an editorial in the issue of April 2, entitled “The Senate Is Responsible for the Harm that McCarthy Does,” I said; “There has never been a time since Mc Carthy began his disgusting be havior when the Senate could not have stopped it. The Senate has power to change the membership of committees. It has power to en force rules about how investiga tions shall be conducted. Yet it al lows McCarthy to go ahead and do as he pleases. When the time came for a vote on whether Mc Carthy should have the money he wanted, to carry on his investiga tions, the Senate voted almost unanimously to give it to him. The Democrats supinely joined it operates. “If Senator Cooper’s new views are shared by enough Senators, there can be in the Senate an effective reversal of the almost unanimous approval that was SiV" en in the appropriations vote.” And another Kentuckian, For mer Vice-President of the United States Alben W. Barkley, has also waked up to the responsibility of the Senate in the matter of inves tigations. In the course of his long service in the Senate it never oc curred to him to make any move toward improving the procedure, but now he writes in the Saturday Evening Post: “It is true that some unsavory characters, who were, and are, unquestionably enemies of this country and who should be rooted from public life, have been ex- Communities that have a well Civil Defense program have found it to be of in estimable value in the case of a peacetime emer gency. In last year’s wave of tornadoes that hit several sections of the nation where tornadoes are extremely rare. Civil Defense organiza tions enabled rescue operations to get started ef fectively long before they might have without a well prepared directing agency. This and other functions of the Defense program in Southern Pines will be in the minds of county and local CD leaders as they appear tonight (Friday) in Weaver Auditorium in an effort to set up here as complete an organization as possible. Under the direction of General A. V. Arnold, Moore County was one of the first in the state to set up a fully organized Civil Defense pro- The Lag In Civil Defense organized gram. General Arnold and the county CD war den, General Roger M. Wicks, have been gomg over the county speaking on behalf of the pro gram and attempting to wake people up to the potentialities and the urgency of Civil De fense. All who have heard them have been im pressed, but activity— understandably in peace time ^has lagged. Southern Pines, home of two CD officials, is said to be lagging badly in de velopment of its CD activities. Moore County is fortunate in having avail able leadership of the quality provided by Gen eral Arnold, General Wicks and others who are working at the county level to help towns get their Civil Defense programs set up properly. We trust that citizens of Southern Pines wiU now step forward with enthusiastic activity worthy of such leadership. lilt; J-/C111V..V1CIW5 iroill PUUAIL XIX'-, the Republicans in voting for the j posed through the inquisitorial requested appropriation.” type of congressional investiga tions. At the same time, it is a serious matter when the innocent can be made to suffer along with the guilty, without what we have always cherished as ‘due process of law.’ It is deplorable when in dividuals, and even whole classes or groups of people, religious, edu cational or economic, are con demned by such procedures, often without the opportunity of de fending themselves. “I suppose it is natural in times of hysteria or fear for these in justices to be expected. But it is surely not in harmony with our process of government, which pro- _ am glad to see that some emi nent persons are now expressing the same opinion. It is a pity they did not do so earlier for they might have exerted influence to prevent such evil performances as have been taking place lately. For example, there is Senator John Sherman Cooper of Ken tucky, who says, “In view of what has happened I believe'it would have been better to have withheld funds from the investigating sub committee until there had been assurances of safeguards for wit nesses.” Cooper was one of the 85 Sen ators who voted to give the Mc Carthy subcommittee the funds it asked for. Of the 86 Senators present when the vote was taken on the question of granting the funds, only one—Fulbright of Ar kansas—voted no. His colleague, McClellan, who is now lined up against McCarthy, - voted for the aiferopriation. “The statement by Senator Cooper of Kentucky,” says the Chatham News, “lends emphasis to a widely-held opinion that the Senate must develop ground rules under which its subcommitt^s can operate—that irresponsibility cannot be curbed, either through Last Week Was Music Week We aie a week behind in hailing Music Week, but as a result of that editorial dilatoriness, we can now do it in style. For, Saturday night, the Young Musicians concert was held in Pinehurst, and if that isn’t the best possible way of cele brating Music Week, we’d like to hear of a bet ter one./ On that evening was given a program that in cluded one pupil from the classes of most of the music teachers of the county. Wlhat’s more, at the end of the program five former pupils of local teachers, who are now majoring in University music, played their pieces and made their bows. They* played to an audience that had watched and heard them come along up the scale, so to speak, of musical learning and achievement, as each one appeared in this yearly young people’s concert. This innovation, introduced by the Sandhills Music Association, of young people, beginning smaU and growing bigger, playing for the gath ering of county people, is surely one of thje pleasantest things that has come about in this section. We are unaware that anything of the sort is done, in just this way, anywhere else in the state, and we submit that Moore County has a reason to be extra proud and delighted with the whole affair. That the idpa has turned into a real success is evidenced in the marked improvement in the performances given and in the choice of music. The programs started out by being in ordinately long, and slightly on the trivial side. Saturday night everyone'played well and the choice of composers ranged through the gamut of classical music; from Bach to Brahms, to Chopin, to Boccharini, Liszt, Debussy. The success of this event assures it a place, we feel, on the yearly calendar for Moore Coun ty. As such it ranks well in its own right, for musical production and taste, while as an event of educational and cultural value, bringing richness into the lives of many, it stands almost at the top of such local activities. vides legitimate methods of deal ing with violations of law or breaches of public trust, for any official group to blast the reputa tion cf innocent men or worthy institutions' by procedures which would not be tolerated in any court of law. “Out of it all has grown what seems to be an urgent and obvious need for a congressional code of procedure, defining the areas in which investigaiting committees can move and establishing rules for the protection of witnesses. Both Houses of Congress have the power to correct abuses by any of their committees. They owe a Presidential decree or through the [ responsibility to groundswelling process of public so. I think that public confidence giuuivi e. r orpat legislative institution opinion. “In voting to continue the ap propriation for the McCarthy sub committee the Senate gave tacit approval to the manner in which in our great legislative institution would be enhanced and whole somely so, if Congress itself would enact a sensible code of procedure to achieve these aims.” The Public Speaking ‘Unwarranted Accusation’ To the Editor: It is difficult for this reader of The Pilot to believe that anyone who carefully studied the account of conditions at the County Home did not consider it a most just and moderate statement of well- authenticated facts. It was there fore startling to learn from Mr. Cameron’s letter that the article was considered by the commis sioners “most unjust, unfair and unkind to Mr. and Mrs. Barber who manage the home,” though it is understood that at least one of the commissioners had not read the. entire article. There is also the claim that as Mrs. Barber grew up in the Home she was ‘trained to be kind.” This statement, it seems to me, should not have been made with out some authentic and factual rebuttal of the evidence brought to light by an investigation, cour ageous and public-spirited, of ac tual conditions. There should be further investi gations, some more substantial evidence as to the “kindness of management. Until then, the up- in-the-air accusation of injustice, unfairness and unkindness made by the commissioners of the (From The Smiihfield Herald) While the United States has been closer to embroilment in an other war than many of us think, the nation and the world has been served the nauseating spectacle of the Army-McCarthy investigation in Washington. The Kansas City Star expresses well the feeling we have toward this new “mess in Washington.’ The Star says that the Senate has ‘"'gone investigation crazy,” that “the public is led up.” It is cer tainly time the public was fed up The issue underlying the Army-McCarthy probe is not whether the Army should or should not be rid of subver sives. The evidence is clear that the Army has been doing a creditable job in protecting itself against Communist infiltration. The evidence is also clear that Senator McCarthy “horned in” on the Army’s Fort Monmouth inves tigation in one of his characteris tic maneuvers for building him self up in the eyes of the public. The Army-McCarthy probe sim ply shows the extent to which the American people and their leaders have allowed an unscrupulous United States Senator to go in destroying public confidence in leaders of government, in agencies of government including the de partment of military defense, and in democracy itself. Senator McCarthy himself is the principal culprit in this tragedy of errors. The Senate, which has voted funds to continue the Mc Carthy assaults on democracy, is next in line for blame. And every American, from the top leaders of -government down, who has either given full support to McCarthy or condoned McCarthyism in" the false belief that the Senator from Wisconsin was “doing some good,” for the Republican party if not for genuine anti-Communism, must share responsibility for the degrading spectacle in Washing ton. Other nations understandably are wondering if a ■ nation which has tolerated Senator McCarthy so long is qualified to lead the international fight ■ to preserve democracy against the inroads of Communism. And it is not very reassuring to us in America, frankly, to think th^t the fate of the United States in the current international crisis is in the hands of an administration which in the name of Republican unity has for so long tried to do business with McCarthy. Thank You, Suh, Mr. Seawell If there is one-man who knows a good GRAIN when he sees one, and has contributed a golden share of humor for the jollifica tion of his fellowmen, it is Moore County’s Chub Seawell. The Pilot’s Grains keeper is proud and grateful for the assist, printed be low, from the typewriter of one of North Carolina’s wittiest citi zens. I "Gone with the Wind. . . Look Homeward AngeL . . ■or something like that" Solomon said one day when he was feeling pretty good “of writin’ books there ain’t no end.” Will Rogers was criticized one day for using ain’t and he replied by saying that a lot of folks that ain’t say in’ ain’t, ain’t eatin’. Solomon must have looked ahead, and he saw our present , day, because it takes our modern writers four hundred pages to say what Solomon said in one verse. The more unimportant a matter is, the more copies we make of the proceedings, and if it gets to be outrageously un-important we put it on the television. Of course some folks must have copies of everything, and the usual number of copies now is seven. The United Nations must have a copy, Elinor Roosevelt must have a copy, and if you don’t furnish Senator McCarthy with a copy, you’re accused of being sub versive. When I get a letter nowadays with several extra copies I just throw it in the trash basket be cause I know it must be some very un-important matter. When anything important happens we don’t bother to take that down at all. It comes under what is known as “off the record.” Nobody knows what Churchill said to Roosevelt when they met on the high seas in the North At lantic. Nobody knows what Stalin said to Churchill or Roosevelt at Yalta. Nobody knows what Gen eral Marshall said to the Chinese General at Cairo. Even a copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence cannot be located, if one was ever made. Under these circumstances, Congress should call a joint ses sion. All of the McCarthy-Stevens matters should be loaded on trucks and carried five miles be low Mount Vernon and dumped into, the Potomac River at high tide so it would be certain to be carried out to sea. I am convinced that this is the proper procedure in this matter due to the inconsequentiality, the extreme pusillanimousocity and the infinitesimalicity of whatever decision ' might ultimately be reached by the Committee, which, in itself is very doubtful. It's Duller Dullest If you see something flying through the sky, and it looks like Halley’s Comet, it is NOT Halley’s Comet, it is just John “Frosty” Dulles and 350 stenographers on the way to another Conference. H. F. SEAWELL, JR. A. D. 1954 Hold Those Books! Mrs. Margaret York’s efforts to get some good photographs of the West Southern Pines Library pro ject, to use in Finer Carolina pub licity ran up against an unexpect ed stumbling-block. She wanted to- have one of those effective “before” and “after” cuts; one taken of the almost empty shelves and the other of the first batch of new books that came in. Trouble was: the chil dren took the new books out be fore the photographer could get up there. They just couldn’t wait! So, when another batch of gay, shiney, bright-covered volumes came in, MPs, (so to speak) were stationed to hold everything until Photographer V. Nicholson got there. The PILOT Published Every Friday by THE PILOT. Incorporated Southern Pines. North Carolina 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 Katharine Boyd r— Editor C. Benedict News Editor Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr, C. G. Council Advertising Mary Scott Newton Business Bessie Cameron Smith Society Composing Room Lochamy McLean, Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen, Jasper Swearingen Pilot article seems to an un prejudiced observer, entirely un warranted. SincGTcly KATHARINE NEWLIN BURT Subscription Rates: One Year $4. 6 mos. $2; 3 mos. $1 Entered at the Postoffice ^ South ern Pines. N. C» as second class mail matter Member National Editarial Assn. and N. C. Press Assn.
May 14, 1954, edition 1
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