THURSDAY. DECEMBER 1. 1955
PAGE TWO
North Carolina
Southern Pine*
“In taking over The Pilot no changes Sre^seS’to be aJi'o^^a-
paper. We will try to make a little money for a co • everybody
Ln to use our influence for the public good we w,ll try to do it. And we wm
alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941.
Too Much Make Believe
Is there too much thought being given to
the way things will seem to others and not
enough to what the things themselves are go
ing to do?
Sometimes it seems so. Take the two Geneva
conferences. This newspaper was among a few
to take the first hallelujahs with a bit of cotton
in the ears. Not that it was all too good to be
true, but simply that it was hard to see what
all the shouting was about. True, the creation
of an atmosphere of good will was a fine ac
complishment, but when that atmosphere was
created only because of one man’s smile and the
fact that no controversial topics were allowed to
be discussed, the carrillons rang slightly pianis
simo. Especially when some of the press boys
spilled the beans that they had been urged to
“play up optimism,” as one put it.
Then several things seemed to happen. Those
interested in balancing the budget, only pos
sible, it seems, through cuts in military appro
priations, smiled. It might be possible, now, to
get some cuts. Across from them was the De
fense Department’s frowning facade with
“DANGER” written all over it. So, quickly, get
back into the middle. Forget Geneva I and get
ready for Geneva II. Take the halO' off Secre
tary Dulles and put his harrassed frown on
again. Stop playing the Hallelujah Chorus and
give us the Dead March from Saul.
The foreign ministers went to Geneva, know
ing exactly what was going to happen. The
'West would propose terms which Russia co'uld
not possibly accept; Russia would propose
counter-terms which the West could not accept;
everybody would frown at everybody and go
home. This duly happened. And thus a slight
deflation took place in the chorus of praise for
Geneva I, now judged to have been slightly,
excessive. So the second conference was play
ed down in gloom as the first conference had
been played up, with full orchestra both times
and the result judged not by the quality of the
music but by the reaction of the audience.
It is the same sort of psychology that causes
Secretary Dulles to unleash Chiang one minute
and, when the public and our allies throw a fit,
tie him up in a treaty the next.
It might well be asked what use were the two
conferences? The first one was definitely use
ful as it emphasized, through the words and
personality of a leader whose honesty and good
will could not be doubted, the friendly attitude
of this nation. It was useful but it was not stu
pendous, and the very attempt to ballyhoo it
into, something stupendous has made it far less
useful than it started to be. It is, however, hard
to see much use in the second conference. It’s
only reported use is stated to be the fact that
Russia’s position as the villain of the piece is
made more unmistakable. In other words, again,
the conference is useful for its propaganda
value. .
Belief in the usefulness of propaganda, in the
value of the manipulated public opinion, is
widespread in America today. Far from being
shocked and repelled by the rise of the Goe
bels formula here, the nation seems to have
fallen for it, hook, line and sinker. It runs with
the manipulated radio audience, the commer
cialized Hit Tune vote, the “built-up” stars and
athletes. And more and more, in government,
things are done, things are said, not for their
own value but for how they will seem to the
public.
This is dangerous. And not only because it
insults the independence and will undermine
the integrity and faith of the American people.
It is dangerous, too, because it presupposes in
fallibility in those who presume to direct how
the public is to think. And they are not infal
lible.
The administration, it will be recalled, put
on one televised “cabinet meeting.” More peo
ple laughed or groaned than cheered and they
never put on another. They learned a lesson
then but it has not gone far enough.
It will be a good thihg if this upsy-downsy,
fummit-to-valley, Geneva I and Geneva II re
calls the lesson of the One Cabinet Meeting; to
forget propaganda—even the coaching of that
pleasant guy, Robert Montgomery—and play it
straight to the people.
A Sensible Request
The National Association of Daytime Broad
casters, of which Jack Younts of Southern
Pines is president, is starting proceedings be
fore the Federal Communications Commission
to obtain a ruling that would allow these radio
stations to operate on a uniform daily time
schedule, with broadcast hours from 5 a. m. to
7 p. m. At present, as listeners of local radio
station WEEB know, the daytime stations are
allowed to operate from sunrise to sunset. This
throws their sign-on and sign-off hours at va
ried times throughout the year. The situation is
an aggravation and inconvenience for both the
station and the public and is based on outmoded
rules adopted when there were less than 500
radio stations of all types operating in the na
tion a^ compared with today’s 2,800.
The Association of Broadcasters assures us
that the technical problems responsible for the
time rule under which they operate now, for
the most part, no longer exist. In the North,
daytime stations must leave the air as early
as 4;45 p. m. in Decem’oer. In this latitude, the
sign-off hour falls as early as 5;15 p. m., pre
venting stations from bringing to residents of
the community at the traditional supper-time
listening hour the news and community service
announcements that people expect.
Radio stations everywhere have a fine record
of community service activity. It is no dis
service to newspapers to say that people count
on radio for the latest announcements and in
structions in times of disaster or emergency,
and in all such situations radio has played its
part well.
Weather forecasts, election returns and other
news of vital interest often come first via radio.,
especially in the small communities where
many of the daytime stations are located, and
it would be of great advantage to listeners in
these communities to be able to receive these
reports up to a 7 p. m. sign-off time.
Uniform sign-on-and sign-off hours, as re
quested by the Daytim’e Broadcasters, appear to
us to be in the public interest by serving pub
lic convenience and necessity.
Traffic Safety: We Must Begin To Care
Moore County marks the nation-wide Safe
Driving (S-D) Day today under the shadow of
two highway fatalities within the past two
weeks, and against a background of what ap
pears to be steadily increasing traffic offenses.
It has been pointed out by students of public
attitudes that, during World War 2, we gradual
ly became hardened or immured to violence so
that an incident of battle that would have
deeply aroused or shocked the public before
or early in the war drew littlp attention as the
conflict progressed and the horrors of violence
mounted to the peak reached by the atomic
boijibings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Perhaps something like this reaction has been
going on with automobile accidents; as the toll
mounts, we tend to care less. It is a defense
mechanism, we suppose, to insulate us from
the violent emotional shocks that we would un
dergo if we reacted sympathetically to all the
terrible things that take place on the highways.
Even law enforcement officers who are used
to extremes of human behavior could not con
ceal their amazement when five young men
were tried in Moore County Recorder’s Court
this week for speeds ranging from 80 to 100
miles per hour, with an officer testifying that
one of the young men had probably reached a
speed of up to 115 miles per hour. Judge Rowe
aptly commented that this is “like firing a load
ed pistol into a crowd.”
The purpose of S-D Day is to remind us, for
24 hours, of our minute-to-minuie responsi
bility lor traffic safety. Incidents like 115-
miles-per-hour driving cannot be ignored. We
must care, we must try to stop this sort of thing
—today and every day in the year.
Imagination Makes The Difference
Life in Moore County is not as prosaic and
uneventful as it seems to many who stay home
and go to bed early.
The spectator at Recorder’s Court in Carth
age, almost gny Monday, sees qnd hears evi
dence of violence, jealousies, brutalities and
mysteries that, related by a Mickey SpiUane or
other author of that ilk, would rival exciting
scenes in bpoks law-abiding citizens take to bed
to read because everyday life seems dull to
them.
We do not mean that there is an excessive
amount of violence in Moore; it’s probably less
than the average county experiences, if any
thing. But, while good citizens settle down to
read thrilling tales of violence and adventure,
real life adventures may be taking place—Plater
to be revealed in court—not many miles from
where eager fiction readers relax in bed or
easy chair.
The Public
Speaking
Wants Railroad Photos
To The Editor;
We would appreciate your
bringing to the attention of your
readers our urgent need for pho
tographs of the 1860-1890 period
of early locomotives and trains
for inclusion in our worldwide
visual education displays, design
ed to perpetuate locomotive his
tory in photographs from the
earliest days to date.
We are not endowed to pur
chase such photos, but believe
many would gladly present them
to us for this work, instead of al
lowing them to repose up-attic
where they cannot be of wide
spread value and interest to com
ing generations.
We credit all photos presented
to us to source of origin, as donor.
Thank you.
DAVID GOODYEAR
Curator, Railway
Historical Museum
Box 52-D, High Falls, N. Y.
1-4
1/’
‘It Was Just Murder. .
“Get On The Bandwagon, Senator!”
To ’The Editor;
It seems that you are always
harping about the Till murder in
Mississippi.
You try to give the Impression
that it was a lynching it was just
murder and should be taken as
such.
I have never heard you con
demn him for insulting a lady.
Neither have I heard you say a
word about the 3 little children
in Chicago who did not insult any
one that was murdered or do you
call it lynching when gangster
shoot people down on the street
of N. Y. Why don’t you clean V
your own house and stop contam
inating the young people of
Southern Pines with your whis
key ads in your paper and why
don’t you start a crusade against
all the gambling in Moore County
if you don’t know of any say so
and I will tell you some things
ScttuC
Christinas Fury I slips gayly from your grasp and are so narrow, the pack fits §Q
A new fury has been added to falls on the floor—with a merry | snugly, that if you arent m-i-g-
the Time of Peace. They—those nasty laugh, we swe^. Business c-a-r-e-f-u-1—ough, there
People who are always thinking of fumbling among other impedi-1 gjjgg
up something diabolical-are now ment. down “ f tag Inside. In last, cut
rthat will shock a decent person.
Of all the news papers in N. C.
I don’t know of but 2 that carries
whiskey ads, but of course a dol
lar makes a difference.
Yours truly,
JEFFERSON CORTLAND
wrapping Christnaas tags in ceRo-
phane.
It used to be that you bought
the tags in packages and opened
them with ease. There was al
ways a certain hassle with the
strings that got twisted around
each other or came out of their
holes, or the holes themselves
split. Now such little inconven
iences are minor hazards of the
job of Christmas wrappings.
Before you can even tackle the
strings, let alone get ready with
ink and pen to address the things,
you have to get the pack of tags
open.
There are several ways in
which this undertaking starts.
Generally you grasp the bit of
loose fold of cellophane wrapping
firmly and pull. The whole thing
the big chair, and retrieving the
right through the string with
thing. So—start all over.
Don’t pull this time. Try slit
ting the cellophane end with your
fingernail. No soap. It is of a
hardness to resist the Sword Ex-
calibur. You chip the end of your
finger on the sharp edge and quit
again quickly.
After spending a few minutes
sucking your finger, you try tear
ing the edges apart. They are
there, quite clear to the eye, two
edges, but glued inextricably to
gether. Nothing will split them,
the strength of Sampson wiU hot
tear them apart. - ^
Take the scissors. You might as
well have started that way, but
even so there are hazards ahead.
The edges of the cellophane wrap
which it gets tied to the parcel.
So now—^yeah—look for the
ends of string, tie them' together,
too short—get more string—too
big for the holes—split the tag. .
say; “Ahem. . HI-HO, THE HOL
LY!” or some such capitalized
seasonal remark, and get you a
nice big envelope,
Write; “Hello, Uncle Jeremiah!
Hope YOU have a Merry Christ
mas” on it and ship it off.
'CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE'
Pinehurst And The College
In court, of course, the perspective is differ
ent. Knockout punchers, knife wielders, jealous
lovers, heavy drinkers, jolly roisterers, all those
types who appear so tensely dramatic in fiction,
show up amazingly drab and colorless—even
dull and stupid—in court.
Imagination makes the difference. Sometimes
a witness with a vivid personality or way of'
speaking makes a trial come alive like fiction.
But often incidents of violence—described halt
ingly or evasively on the witness stand—seem
in the courtroom no jmore exciting than two
cars bumping together at a street corner. We
have seep spectators yawn during the trial of
defendants in a knife fight. Yet the same fight,
in fiction, would have made their hearts beat
fast with excitement.
We might conclude that the reduction of his
personal drama to courtroom banality is one of
the worst punishments the wrongdoer must un
dergo.
Dr. Adam Weir Craig, min
ister of the Village Chapel at
Pinehurst, writes as follows
of the effort to have the pro
posed Presbyterian college
located at Southern Pines,
heading his words—which
appeared in the Chapel s
weekly church bulletin Sun
day—‘Challenge and Re
sponse”:
ing unity, and the separation of
the two cannot be viewed by
Christians as anything but un
healthy and perilous. In our gen-
a be-
tion.”
Don’t know any more than
when Ed told us what it meant.
But immediately following both
explanations, experienced tem
porary attack of psychokinesis.
Drank more water. Got pounded
on the back, put arms over head.
O. K., now. Or maybe not?
‘The greatest challenge of our
life-time” and “the most import
ant thing in our community’s en
tire life” are phrases with which
Dr. R. M. McMillan described lie
new consolidated college which
we have a good chance to locate
in Southern Pines.
These statements are no exag
geration. Our Sandhills com
munity is today in the process of
change, and if we do not realize
the fact and determine the shape
of the future for ourselves, it will
be determined for us by the com
ing of industry to this very con
genial section. Through default m
awareness and commitment we
might well allow things to drift
this second-rate direction.
in
Surely the alternative of the col
lege represents an important
challenge that ought to rally the
entire community in self interest
and in an effort to preserve the
things that are loveliest among
But from our point of view
the important thing is that here
crucial challenge that must
IS a
.especially appeal to Christi^.
I The connection between the
Christian faith and higher educa
tion is an organic one in the sense
that they belong together in a liv-
eration it has produced
numbing secularism and vicious
destructive ideologies. And this is
to be a Christian co-educational
college with an enrollment of
from 800 to 1000 students. It is
therefore an opportunity for us
Christians to do a creative Chris
tian work, and I would say, an
opportunity that comes to a com
munity perhaps only once in his
tory!
Two generations ago Mr. James
Tufts founded our own commu
nity and in the next generation
Mr. Leonard Tufts gave it an im
petus and a character that makes
all of us love it. Our generation
may now take this step which
will mean cultural blessing and
advance for every member of the
community. Education will be
available here lor all our high-
school graduates, the level of
public school education will be
raised, and the general adult pub
lic will have so many enoyable
and profitable opportunities—and
all under the auspices of the
Christian faith. That surely is the
way we want to mould the good
tradition that has been handed
on to us. ’That surely is the shape
that we want to give to the in
evitable change that is coming.
That surely is the kind of future
for the Sandhills in which we
want to invest.
Arnold Toynbee teUs us that
civilization advances only
through challenge and RE
SPONSE. The Bible tells us that
without vision a people perish.
Choked Up
Got ourselves all tangled up
trying to understand the award
ijhat Ed Cox got from the British
Society for Psychical Research.
Ed said it had to do with re
search “on the human capacities
which we commonly call ‘super
natural,’ such as clairvoyance,
precognition and psychokinesis.
Asked Ed what that meant. He
told us but we choked up and
missed it.
Ended by drinking a glass of
water, and looking it up. Found
it, too. (Nothing chokes Mr.
Webster). Dictionary says; ^‘A
violent seizure of temporary in
sanity due to defective inhibi-
Lonely
Clif Johnson sold his little bur
ro. The one who made the pages
of The Pilot last summer.
Clif and Helen loved him and
he loved them, but it seems he
loved their cocker puppy even
better. They were inseparable
companions. The almost inevi
table dog tragedy came along and
carried off the pup and, from
then on, the burro mourned.
He went around everywhere
looking for his friend and brayed
so dolefully that it broke your
heart to hear him. Finally the
Johnsons decided to get him
away from the surroundings that
would always remind him of his
friend. They found a home not
too far away where there were
children, who love hjm. In time,
perhaps the little fellow will get
over his almost-human grief.
Almost? How do we know?
[Maybe more than human.
t ^
Are We Meeting Children’s Needs?
Henry Steele Commager, in antisers sell. These may starve rath-
xxciixjr w o +Vizi imacnnfltinn. .
article which appeared in the
Saturday Review, deplored the
failure of today’s American writ
ers to write for children and
longed for the era of the maga
zines, Youth’s Companion and St.
Nicholas. _
Dr. Commager wrote, in part;
“This is not a criticism of the
writers. They are, after all, a part
of their society. They are part
of a society that has substituted
the comics and television for
Youth’s Companion and St. Nich
olas.. . They are part of a society
that thinks two cars a sign of
a high standard of living, but not
six children. They are part of a
society that spends billions on au
tomobile roads and nothing on
bicycle paths. . . .
“Never before have children
been as pampered as they are
now in America. Never have they
been provided with better
schools, larger libraries, with
more elaborate playgrounds, or
devices and techniques for rec
reation. But it is not enough that
we provide our children with
good schools. It is not enough
that we provide them with sub
stitutes for countryside or the vil
lage. It is not enough that we
give them every gadget that in-
1 venters can think of or adver-
er than feed the imagination.
It is essential that we return to
childhood what belongs to it, re
turn to it simplicity and indepeh-
dence, privacy and imagination.
A society that produces St. Nich
olas and ‘Little Women’ and
‘Tom Sawyer’ is healthier and
richer than a society that pro
duces, for its children, comics and
television.”
The PILOT
Published Every Thursday by
THE PILOT, Incorporated
Southern Pines. North Carolina
1941 JAMES BOYD—1944
Katharine Boyd Editor
C. Benedict News Editor
Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr.
C. G. Council Advertising
Mary Scott New;ton Business
Bessie Cameron Smith Society
Composing Room
Lochamy MeLean, Dixie B. Ray,
Michael Valen, Jasper Swearingen
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