Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / Sept. 3, 1954, edition 1 / Page 2
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THE PILOT. Southern Pines, North Carolina FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 3. 1954 / The Public Speaking North Carolina 'Swill try to keep this a good Where there seems to be an occa- the“ro^od^ it. And we will treat everybody Southern Pines “In taking over The Pilot no changes paper. We wrM try to make a little money for ^ii sion to use oar WJ alike.”—James'Boyd, May 23, ,1941. Maxwell Struthers Burt Recalling the life and personality of Struth ers Burt, who died Saturday, those who knew him are struck by the wonderful clarity with Yirhich he is remembered. There is nothing hazy, indefinite, doubtful or uncertain about the pic ture. In his vigorous physical being, his inci sive mind, his caustic or gentle wit, his pro found emotional involvement in all existence from the fate of the nation to the beauty of a flower—he is all there and clear in memory. We can be thankful that Struthers Burt lives not only in the memory of those who knew him but in his writing, in all of which—whether in the sweet chiming words of his verse, the living characters in his novels or the evocative think ing of his non-fiction—the picture of a definite man, a definable spirit, a whole but marvelous ly diversified person, is also clear. That is a mark of greatness i to be remember ed as a human being by whom the raw materi al of existence, in actual living and in creative work, was transformed into something signifi cant and unique. Struthers Burt shared another mark Of great ness; where others might have been satisfied, he pressed on to new ways of life, new ideas, new achievements. Growing up in Philadelphia, a city that has become the symbol of aU that is conservative and traditional in the settled and often complacent life Of the East, he and his wife, as young people, homesteaded in Wyo ming. Last Spring, leaving Southern Pines for the West, gravely ill, he spoke confidently of returning to build a new home here this Fall. As a young man, he studied and lived abroad and might—had he been a lesser person—have remained an expatriate. Yet he returned to this country to become, over the years', one of America’s most eloquent interpreters, proud of the nation’s history and accomplishments which, he pointed out, are much greater than little minds would have us think. For the United States of America; Struthers Burt felt an absolute devotion and he had an unswerving faith in the American people. He believed in the American destiny—the “Ameri can dream”—he believed in democracy, the ability of the people to govern themselves and guide their future, and as a primary article of this faith, he spoke out, belligerently and cour ageously, against those who through fear, greed, weakness or lust for power attempt to pervert this nation and its people into something into - erant, ignoble or un-free. This community can be proud that a man o this stature chose to spend a large part of his life here—not as a remote observer of the pass ing scene, but as a good citizen, warmly and genuinely involved in acquaintances, friend ships, happenings, civic affairs and the ins and outs of small-tpwn life. On Southern Pines, Struthers Burt brought to bear the same quali ties of spirit, the same loyalties, the same scorns, the same freshness and originality of outlook that he turned on the nation as a whole. Through the years he thus exerted an influence on the community that was powerful because it came from an interested participant in the life of the town. We like to think that Struthers Burt chose Soutfiern Pines for a home because he felt here a quality of living that combined much of the best he had found elsewhere—the stability and decorum of his native city, the vigor and unconventionality of the West, the sensitive ness and sophistication of Europe and some thing of the “melting pot” quality that has pro duced for the nation as a whole unprecedented personalities and events and which is insepar able from democracy’s essence. Southern Pines, however, cannot and should 'not claim to be the real home of Struthers Burt. No more can such a claim be made for the Wyoming mountains and valleys nor for the historic narrow streets of Philadelphia. His home was the nation—-the U. S. A. His personality combined all that is best in the na tional character: directness, outspokenness, loy alty, wit, friendliness, curiosity, adventurous ness, yet also, paradoxically: reserve, sensitivity and the guarded dream, the yearning for better things to come, the faith that man can mold his destiny and that he can make it good. The impact of Struthers Burt’s existence— now felt with such amazing conviction by those who mourn his passing—will, we believe, be come increasingly understood and appreciated. Personally and in his creative work, he pointed the way for Americans to live meaningful and effective lives. 5 LOOK WHO’S HERE — Governor William B. Umstead seems more than a little interested as North Carolina’s Betty Jo Ring of Lexington, who will represent the state for ^iss Am™ honors next month, urges Tar Heels to SLOW DOWN AND LIVE. The drive against fast driving was kicked off in y the governor and will close with an aU-out effort by the State Highway Patrol to save lives over the Labor Day weekend. Letter to Mayor Clark i [To the Editor: I am enclosing an open letter, the fourth of a series, to the Hon. Lloyd T. Clark, Mayor of South ern Pines, North Carolina. "^Mr. Mayor: * " The writer was not only puz zled, but amazed and flabbergas ted, too, at the outcome of the Golfcrest fiasco. Then I fully realized the same old gang was doing business at the same old 1 stand, in the same old way, man ifesting incompetence, favoritism and what have you. In view of the Golfcrest inadequate hand ling it appears quite clear “no change of policy” was made by our present council, in fact the council “has had no policy,” other than above mentioned, “for sev eral years.” What do “Taxpayers” in their letter to The Pilot, August 6th, 1954, say? I quote; “There was no definite contract existing be tween the town and Mr. Newland Phillips.” You, Mr. Mayor, were “stran^e- jly silent” and sat back very “complacent” when the sum of $2,433.59 was literally taken out of the taxpayers pockets. ‘Other Taxpayers” in their let ter to the Pilot August 20th, 195 some cf these Southern P^nes dogs have gotten their wires crossed and started watching the wrong people. Now personally I come,home quite late at night, "Specially on week ends, and some of cur good canine citizens that are most friendly during the days have seen fit to '“ride herd” on me after midnight and will invari ably bark and wake up most of the neighbors when I try to slip in without making any noise. Now Mr. Clark, when you tcok office as mayor you promised to look after the health, welfare, and happiness of the people of this beautiful little town and I do not think it is asking too much when I humbly request that you either get these friendly animals to watching the right people or resign as mayor. A TAXPAYER Southern ! or Clark ^ to Hon. Lloyd T. of Southern Pines; [Layor: as been an unusually !mber of gnats in our town ■ *ummer. At the same time, ^^e has been a sharp rise in the e of an oily liquid termed “In- agree with this. In plain words,^g^^ Repellent.” Is it possible that segregation decision background Free Schools Relatively New In History Of N. C. Education Delinquency and Rural Communities Since The Pilot commented two weeks ago on the unusual number of teen-age (Jefendants in Superior Court cases, the nation has been shocked by the New York City “thrill killers” who, according to the district attorney in charge, “committed crimes for pleasure and got a kick out of seeing blood flow.” In contrast to the rampage of brutality in dulged in by the four New York youths, juve nile delinquency in Moore County seems a very mild business. For that we can be thank ful. The contrast does not lessen the seriousness of crimes committed by youths in this county, but it does indicate that hereabouts young people have not sunk to the depths of depravity uncovered in the New York investigation. The New York cases tend to minimize our theory that most juvenile deUnquency stems from boredom and lack of constructive recre ation facilities. The four “thrill killers” are said to come from good, if humble, families and if a young man can’t find something worthwhile to occupy his time in New York City, we dont know where in the world he could. Moore County life is that of small towns and rural areas—a type of environment which is said to be producing an increasing amount of juvenile delinquency. In this environment, bore dom and lack of inspiration toward a whole some life are, we believe, responsible for most of the troubles young” folks have with the law. While we do not mean to be smug about it, we cannot conceive of any young people in Moore County—even among the various rough groups who have deservedly earned the “hood lum” designation—deliberately beating, tortur ing and killing persons whom they did not know and had no grudge against. There is a good deal of violence among young men in va rious parts of the county, but it is predominant ly not violence for its own sake. We have seen many a young defendant on the witness stand during court sessions, but none has ex hibited the sickening sophistication and moral perversion of the New York youth who des cribed one night’s activities of torture and murder as his “supreme adventure.” Rural delinquency in Moore County, a large part of which appears to originate in the Rob bins area, offers a problem' that is not nearly so unsolvable, it seems to us, as the teen-age gang batHes, beatings and other delinquencies of the big cities. We don’t know the answer to the Moore County problem, but we can’t help but feel that there is an answer which can be found by the sincere efforts of all good citizens who have the county’s welfare at heart. If the homes of some of these young people offer no help, the schools and churches provide two avenues for exerting an influence on their development. Over the nation, it has been shown that residents of rural communities can do wonders in raising the standards of living and the quality of life in their neighborhoods once they set out to do so. Home Demonstration Clubs, 4-H and FFA youth programs and such organizations can work wonders in a rural com munity when they put their shoulders to the ' wheel. “A Report To The Governor of North Carolina,” a 206-page mim eographed study of last May’s Su preme Court decision outlawing segregation by race in the public schools of the nation, was pre- .pared and issued recently by the Institute of Government at the ■Qj^Ygrsity of North Carohna, Chapel HiU. Because of wide interest in the court decision and the able job of fact-finding and research ena- bodied in the report. The Pilot is bringing readers portions of the document. . In the first of these reprinted portions, published last week, a short history of the Negro m North Carolina was given, along with pertinent facts about popu lation distribution of Negroes in the state and in the United States today. Continuing the first section of the report, which is called “The Background of the Court s Deci sion,” a brief summary is given of white and Negro schooling in North Carolina from 1665 to 1865: due to lack of leadership on your part in this particular instance, the taxpayers were taken for a ride to the tune of $2,433.59—an- 1 other -‘dead Horse deal”! May I add that I fully believe, I constructively speaking, that oUr town needs a new mayor now, one who will lead us competently, ethically, legally and sincerely, with favoritism towards none and justice to all. In view of this, you should resign immediately. A. R. McDANIEL For Negro Children Negro children followed in be- j Southern Pines lated fashion the pattern of schooling for white children. By I Letter to Mayor Clark the 1800’s some of the masters -p^itor- were teaching the more apt following is an open letter their slaves to read, and write and I ^ insure. Mayor of Southern Pines, This teaching was furthered m| Mayor; there is some connection between the two? Lcoal politics provides the clue. My investigation shows that your administration is exercising no control whatsoever over the gnats. Now, SOMEONE must be reaping huge profits from the sale of the oily liquid. Is it not bad enough that we have to fight gnats, with out also having to combat civic corruption? I demand that you resign. GNAT-GNUTTY. Southern Pines. / Sunday Schools and churches. It was cut down but not cut out by the law of 1830 making it a mis demeanor to teaich a slave to read and write. None of the public Surqly, when you were elected Mayor, you were aware of the elderly unemployed here, and yet no works projects such as basket weaving, clay modeling, finger schools started under the law of pointing’ etc. have been prbvi- oiaiTP what’s happened. Since you have obvioqsly failed in this instance, you should re- For White Children Private schooling for white children had its beginnings in laws authorizing county co'urts to bind out destitute white orphan boys and girls as apprentices, 1839 was open to Negroes—slave or free. In 1865 a meeting of Negro leaders in Raleigh petitioned thel'P Constitutional Convention “for EMPLOYED education for our children, thatj Pines they may be made useful in all the relations of life.” In 1866 the! Letter To Mayor Clark General Assembly required the _ ^ Uctte feaS^IL^t^reTand Lloyd T. Clark, Mayor of South- ern Pines: M Hon. Lloyd T. Clark, Private schools for Negroes Mayo^r, Southern Pines, lowed in the wake of the Union Pines, N. C. armies: by 1869 two hundredL^^^^ Clark: twenty-four teachers repre-j recorded in history and a Letter to Mayor Clark To the Editor: The following is an open letter to the Hon. Lloyd T. Clark, Mayor of Southern Pines! Mr. Mayor: Surely, as Mayor of Southern Pines, you should have realized your responsibility, and used the authority of your office to obtain increased transportation facilities, including railroad, bus and high way, to the end that disgruntled residents would have ample facil ities for departing in any direc tion, including horizontally. Fail ing in this community need, you should resign. SATISFIED Southern Pines senting northern religious matter of record that a dog is benevolent societies were teach-j ^jj^t a good ing eleven thousand Negro chil- j dog” is a valuable asset dren in one hundred fifty schools, almost any American home but and four hundred or more teach-' — ^Rh^he-requirement that^ their masters teach them to read and write; supplemented by the teacliinfi of missionarios anu traveling preachers of religious denominations; followed by scat tered schools and academies. Public schooling for white chil dren had its beginnings in acts of the General Assembly: in 1764 authorizing the “Society for Pro moting a PubUc School in New Bern,” giving it state aid to pay for the schooling of ten poor chil- More Youth Needed In YDC The new president of the Moore County Young Democrats, Voit Gilmore, was barking up the right tree when he urged, just after his election at a Carthage rally last week, that every effort be made to interest young men and women m the 18-30 age group in the organiza tion and its activities. Out of some 200 persons attending the rally, a show of hands at the request of the president, disclosed less than two dozen in the 18-30 group. The responsibility for this situation lies less with the young people themselves than it does with the older group who, after up to 20 years of enthusiastic membership in YDC, remain young in spirit and continue as the working core of the organiaztion, but are likely to forget that each year, in all the communities of the county, young folks are coming along who might, if urged and invited, become valuable members of YDC. It took a depression and the subsequent vig orous early years of the Roosevelt era to make the YDC the inspiring force it was in the lives of young people and in the political life of the nation. Young people of the present day probably do not recognize ih political activity as much excitement and urgency as young men and women found in politics in those days. Yet the YDC remains a vital and influential force in the State and nation. Only a few days ago, Adlai Stevenson said that the work of young Democrats through YDC is of “enor mous value” to the party and called on them to help weld a strong party organization. Our suggestion is that Mr. Gilmore set up a special project in the Moore County YDC, headed by several members in the 18-30 group, with representation in each community of the county, devoted solely to drawing younger Democrats into the organization. thousand Negro children m more question than four Lun re sc . educating negroes. . . or Tax supported schools tor L^aii l pass over this whole negro gro children were a'^ound the cor-1 putting it on the ground ner, but they were not m signt-Lj^^^ commission having Public Schools Abandoned jt in charge, by order of the Seven days before the meeting I Assembly and Conven- of the General Assembly in -would be obtrusive for the newly elected Governor of I g present my views.” North Carolina wrote to a friend message to the General and advisor: “I am greatly at the Governor stated: for tne scnooiixis ux less on sortie of the “Whatever may be our pecuniary dren annually and to supplement ters which I shall be distresses, our youth must be ed- the salary of the teacher; in 1825 discuss in niy message and shalN sustain our in- SLting the Literary Fund for be much ob iged to you for any 1 .i^utions of learning.” suggestions from you on these or j following session of other matters. First 'fhe Negro General Assembly: (1) abol- question. . . I have no confidence offices of “Superinten- that the condition of our negroes ^g^^^ gj Common Schools for the will be elevated by emancipation I “Treasurer of the Lit —but in our present condition 11 Fund,” (2) took away state fear we shall have a Freedman s I made the levy of local Bureau and military rule over us, ^^^’gg ^gj. ggmmon schools discre- if we nwike <iiscri)miaiation--asLjgj^3j,y county officials, (4) admittance in Common Schools, f I g^j-j^gj.jzed county officials to ap- mean if we educate the negroes] , ^ taxes they might decide in like manner—and your schoolRg jg ^g ^j^g g^ of subscription fund being reduced to ”°mingl authorized local and our people impoverished, 11 ggjjgg^’committees to allow sub Letter to Mayor Clark An open letter to His Honor, L. T. Clark, Mayor of Southern Pines, is enclosed: Dear Mr. Mayor, It is a remarkable thing to me that in a town this size there are so few really smart people. How you manage to go along fooling thousands of people, I don’t see. The poor dopes like the town, Rke the mayor, think the town gov ernment is doing a good job. The trouble is, they are busy people, with a good many things to do, and they don’t have time to look into things, the way I do. It is a lucky thing for them that I am hefe to point put all the things that are wrong. The trou ble is, I point and point and point —and, well, I, er, point—and-r- Goodb^k. ' DISGUSTED. Southern Pines. common schools with dividends arising from bank stock owned by the state, and miscellaneous revenues; in 1839 dividing the “counties of the state into school districts,” and calling upon the people in each district to vote on a tax to yield one dollar for every two dollars furnished by the Literary Fund. By 1860, one or two-roOm schoolhouses in 3,700 districts were accessible to most of people. , the Judge Francis O. Clarkson of Charlotte, who recently presided at his first term of Superior Comt in Moore County, revealed while he was in Carthage that he ^ a direct descendant of Alfred Moore, eminent jurist of Bruns wick County and Associate Jus tice of the Supreme Court of the United States, for whom Moore County was named. Judge Moore was born May 1, 1775 and died October 15, 1810. Moore County was created and organized in 1784. In 17^0, Alfred Moore was elected attorney general; in 1798 he became a judge of the Super ior Court; and in 1799 he was ap pointed an associated justice of the U. S. Supreme Court—^the first, we are told, from North Carolina, although we do not scription schools to be taught in the common, schoolhouses by teachers qualified to teach in the common schools. Thus the General Assembly closed the doors of the common scho-ols which had survived the vouch for this statement. Judge Clarkson established! stresses and strains of civil war cordial ,c«o„. «i.H “--h—S press during the recent court I mixed schools term, calling one reporter to theL^j! ,„^^hite and Negro children, bench during a lull in proceed- University Abandoned ings and with a straight face, to The \University of North Caro the consternation of the repo-rt-hina was conceived in the Consti- er until the judge’s beatific smile] tution of 1776, chartered by the relieved the situation, said that] General Assembly of 1789, open- he would have to hold the report j ed its doors in January, 1795 er in contempt of court—^for not] greeted its first student in Feb- volunteering a personal introduc-j ruary, 1795, grew to nearly four tion sooner. 1 hundred students by 1860, dwin- The judge presided in a quiet] died to a handful by 1865, closed but firm manner that brought ap- its doors in the aftermath of civil proval from attorneys and specta-jwar and the toils of r®constnm^ tors alike. While pronouncing] tion in 1871. It succumbed to the rather stiff sentences in some [fears of poverty, taxes, pohtic^ cases he nevertheless showed] manipulation—from which tne leniency and mercy where it ap- Negro question was not wholly peared to be in order. | absent. Asks C. of C. Resign To the Editor; The following is an open letter to the officers of the Southern Pines Chamber of Commerce; Dear Sirs: Whereas, in lan open letter to the Pilot, Mayor Clark has been asked to resign because of the re cent inclement weather conditions in Southern Pines, and; Whereas it is common knowl edge that weather conditions are the sole responsibility, not of the Mayor’s Office, but of the Cham ber of Commerce; Therefore, with this total lack of leadership manifested by you, it is believed that you should re sign in a body, and do it now. PRESUMPTUOUS. Southern Pines. The PILOT Published Every Friday by the PILOT. Incorporated Southern Pines. North Carolina 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 Katharine Boyd Editor C. Benedict News Editor Dan S. Kay Gen. Mgr. C. G. Council Advertising Mary Scott Newton Business Bessie Cameron Smith Society Composing Room Lochamy McLean, Dixie B. Ray, M'cbnel Valen, Jasper Swearingen Subscription Rates: One Year $4. 6 mos. $2: 3 mos. $1 Entered at the Postoffice at South- Pines. N. C.. as secoad class m^ matter Member National Editorial Assn, and N. C. Press Assn.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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Sept. 3, 1954, edition 1
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