Page TWO
THE PILOT—Soulhern Pines, North Carolina
THURSDAY. JUNE 21. 1956 #
■LOT
^ V North Carolina
Soulhern Pmea
“In taking over The Pilot no changes Sr^sirnTto^S m ^sca-
paper. We will try to make a little money for all con^ . ^ everybody
Sion to use our influence for the pubUc good we will try to do it. And we wm xrea
alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941.
Last week The Pilot expressed misgivings
about the proposed state constitutional amend
ments that would permit public funds to be
used to pay tuition at private schools for chil
dren who otherwise might have to attend inte
grated schools, and would permit local school
units to close schools by a majority vote of lo
cal citizens when conditions became “intoler
able.”
Our main expressed objections were:
That there is so little questioning of this
evasive program; members of the General As
sembly are reported almost unanimously in
favor of it.
That the amendments offer inflamed local
feelings an easy chance to take control and
wreck the public schools.
Not mentioned last week was the point that
the whole procedure of setting up private
schools—so charming to those who are unwill
ing to face the Supreme Court’^s school ruling
head-on—^seems unlikely in the end to stand
the court tests to which it would probably be
submitted. Thus, the vast effort of the whole
contemplated North Carolina program may
prove to be lost motion in the long run.
In 1954, the Institute of Government at
Chapel Hill put before Governor Hodges its
report on the Supreme Court’s first decision
of that year, prepared by James C. N. Paul, an
attorney and assistant director of the Institute,
as well as a former legal assistant to Supreme
Court Justice Fred M. Vinson.
Mr. Paul came to the conclusion in his re
port that vemious proposals to evade the segre
gation decision would not be legally feasible—
among them the tactic of setting up private
schools supported by public funds.
He cited several decisions in similar cases, in
cluding the one in which Judge John J. Parker
ruled in the circuit court of appeals against
South Carolina’s attempt to make the Demo
cratic “white primary” a private affair,
Mr. Paul wrote:
“Generalizations are dangerous in any
field of law and often meaningless in con
stitutional law. But the gist of these and
a good many other related decisions is that
a state cannot give legal implementation,
let alone financial assistance, to effect a
discrimination by private persons and cor
porations, and the principle is of especial
force when the discrimination affects, ad
versely, important interests of a large class
of citizens.
“Thus proponents of plans for ‘free’ but
private schools face a dilemma. The more
a state refuses to participate, by economic
support and legal control, in the education
of its youth, the more the community may
suffer for a want of adequate school facili
ties and teaching for the guidance of its
prospective citizenry.
“Yet the more a state does participate in
securing and maintaining good schools for
all its children, the greater the likelihood
that those schools will be bound by the
Court’s determination that segregation can
‘play no part’ in the classification and
treatment of pupils.”
And, in another portion of his report, Mr.
Paul said:
. . Whether or not any ‘private’ school
supported by state money would be free
to segregate Negro students would depend
on one basic legal issue. The Court would
have to say whether the operation and
maintenance of the school involved state
action.’ If the answer should be yes, then
the ‘free private’ school system would fare
no better under the 14th amendment than
have the presently existing public school
systems.
“Tire issue turns on a finding of ‘state
action,’ and it seems quite plain from other
decisions in this field of constitutional law
that the Court will countenance no legal
sophistry just to sustain the legality of that
which laymen would view as an obvious
subterfuge. The realities, not the pretenses,
of a state’s exertion of its political authority
will govern. . . ”
Certainly, it would seem, the state would not
undertake the revolutionary program embodied
in the proposed amendments unless there were
some expectation that it could meet a test in
court.
Yes, reading Mr. Paul’s analysis, an observer
is forced to be pessimistic about the eventual
legal success of the program into which North
Carolina seems, with strangely blithe confi
dence, to be heading.
Will that confidence in the end cost the state
protracted litigation, so that, years from now,
we find ourslves back where we have been for
the past three years, and with little or no
progress made along the only road that will
lead to final success: the road of inter-racial
communication and understanding?
' Steps along this road not only have not been
taken but apparently have been actively dis
couraged at all levels: witness the fact that no
Negroes were appointed to the Pearsall study
committee and that local communities have al
most entirely ignored Negro participation in
their preliminary planning on how to meet
the problems posed by the Supreme Court de
cision.
Returning To Sanity In Security Matters
Another indication that the nation is return
ing to sanity on “security” matters is the Su
preme Court ruling that the government may
not summarily dismiss on security grounds
workers whose jobs are not directly concerned
with national security.
The administration moved promptly to re
store 17 former employees to their jobs—per
sons wno had been suspended pending civilian
employee security proceedings.
After the court’s ruling, grumblings in the
background were heard from Messrs. Mundt,
Eastland, McCarthy and other self-appointed
guardians of the nation’s welfare. Legislation
has been prepared that would restore similar
controls. But there appears to be no widespread,
vigorous support for it.
Somehow we can’t bring ourselves to feel
that the security of the nation is endangered by
the restoration of the _ 17 employees to their
“non-sensitive” positions, or by the retention
of other such employees in their jobs.
Most assuredly, the dignity and majesty of
the United States is enhanced by a ruling that
removes the government from the business of
hounding workers out of their jobs.
The climate is changing in Washington, as
throughout the nation, on this matter of securi
ty. People are realizing that a few politicians
have been making personal hay out of the at
mosphere of fear and mistrust that reached its
peak with the rise of Senator McCarthy. Mer
cifully, these manipulators are making less and
less headway as time goes on.
It is very well to maintain proper security in
secret matters or dangerous situations of mili-
tray or diplomatic importance. But, the nation
is realizing, indiscriminate accusations and
firings are unworthy of “the land of the free”
and in the end do little but advance the person
al fortunes of a relatively small group of men
in Washington yho like to stir up fear and mis
trust and then take credit for keeping a largely
imaginary situation under control.
American Banker’ Boosts Local Advertising
Because Southern Pines is a resort town, be
cause personnel at the USAF Air-Ground Oper
ations School changes regularly, because this is
a growing town and for other reasons, almost
any week of the year finds a number of strang
ers in Southern Pines.
Some come to stay permanently, some are
here for a few months or years, some are sea
sonal visitors,' some are staying with friends
for days, weeks or longer. At any rate Southern
Pines is a town where a stranger’s face on the
street is not unusual and exacts no special at
tention.
Often, in writing news, we put in more ex
planatory details than would be necessary for
old readers, because we know we have an in
creasing number of new readers who may not
have the background information that others
have about certain places or subjects, in the
news. We have always thought of this ex
planatory method in relation to our news col
umns, but “American Banker” magazine, in
very strong language, points out that business
es owe it to themselves and the town to keep
their names before the public in their home
town papers:
“A stranger picking up a newspaper should
be able to tell what business is represented in
a town. . . it’s the best possible town advertiser.
Crains of Sand
Shopping Bag
The Public Speaking
1 Who Wrote It?
We are holding an unsigned let-
Iter, postmarked from West End,
I and entitled “An Open Letter to
the People of North Carolina.”
j We’d like to prlhit it but can’t un-
lless we know who wrote it. We
will withhold the writer’s name, if
[requested to do so, but we must
I know who the writer is before we
j can put it in the paper.
The letter begins, “I am a sol-
I dier in the United States Army ..”
If the writer sees this, please let
jus know who you are. We want
[to print that letter.
I Keep It Lovely
Word of this town’s victory in
[the Battle of The Three Trees has
I spread.
The Garden Editor of the Wlash-
jington Post, author of a recent
j article reprinted by The Pilot,
[read of the town’s success in per
suading Colonial Stores to save
the two magnolias and the pink
dogwood on the grounds of their
new store and sent congratula-
1 tions.
Said the editor, Katherine Bar-
Irett Pozer: “Do keep lovely
Southern Pines lovely. I drive
through there each winter and
I always stop to admire.”
And she adds a hint that mer-
I chants up there in Virginia “need
much education”. . a bouquet for
the folks in the Carolinas?
Where's The Paper?
We suspect that some readers
who disagree with The Pilot on
editorial outlook, handling of the
news and other counts are actual
ly among our best readers—in
[the sense that, whether agreeing
or not, they read the paper
thoroughly, if only to see what
fault can be found with it.
This is fine with us. We’re not
frying to please everybody. But
Falsely Accused Man
Due t'ull Reparation
I To The Editor:
, On the front page of your is
sue of June 7th there appeared
an article entitled “Case Dis
missed” regarding a painter who
was falsely accused of . theft and
deprived of his liberty for over
Itwo weeks.
The emphasis of this article
I seemed to be upon the loss of
the money and the somewhat un
usual circumstance connected
with the recovery of the sum
I involved. I would be interested
to know what steps, if any, were
taken to make reparation fin
ancially to the accused with re
spect to his loss of a livelihood
during his detention, and partic
ularly what was done to restore
to him the great quality of trust
and reputation upon which such
a shadow was cast. It would
I seem, especially at this time, that
such human values should be
guarded in every way and justice
should be done to the fullest ex
tent possible in repairing so
grevious an error.
(MRS. J. R.)
JEAN S. BUCHANAN
I Pinehurst
The man or woman who does not advertise
does an injustice to himself or herself and def
initely to the town. . . No business man or
woman should Ollow a newspaper to go to press
without his or her name being mentioned some
where in its columns. . . if you dq not use more
than a two-line space. . .
These comments on the value of local news
paper advertising to business are sweet music
to publishers. The tune is familiar; it’s what
we’ve been saymg all along, but it’s good to
hear it from a source outside newspapering
especially from a publication representing the
traditionally hard-headed banking profession.
JEOPARDIZING CHILDREN
A striking report by the Fund for the Adr
vance of Education notes that the deterioration
of the position of the teaching profession in
America has been under way for the last 50
years. Teachers today are relatively worse Off
than they were in 1900.
To allow this deterioration to continue un
checked is to jeopardize the welfare and weU-
being of the nation’s most sacred resource—its
children. North Carolina has been a leader in
education in the past; now she must step for
ward again. —’The Greensboro Daily News
(Editor’s Note: The Pilot is
not in a position to know
whether any steps have been
taken to compensate the de
fendant in this case finan
cially. Our front-page featur
ed item, of course, promi
nently and publicly display
ed his acquittal and so bol
stered his reputation. Unfor
tunately, this same defend
ant, in another case tried the
next week in Recorder s
Court, was convicted of tres- *
pass, malicious destruction of
property and attempted as
sault and was sentenced to
three months on the roads.
Maintaining his innocence of
these charges, also, he ap
pealed his conviction to Su
perior Court. It remains to be
seen what will be the out
come of the case when it is
heard with a jury trial. In
view of these circumstances,
an observer is inclined to
withhold judgment about his
general reputation until after
the Superior Court case is
tried. His acquittal on the
first charge is a matter of
1 record and he received an
apology in court from the
prosecuting witness.)
Chairman Expresses Thanks
I To The Editor:
In this year’s annual campaign
for Red Cross memberships— of
which county-wide results were
reported in last week’s Pilot—the
colored people of West Southern
Pines were assigned a quotaof
$180 for this great cause. 'The
[campaign was conducted in the
[month of March. _
This writer was appointed gen
eral chairman in West Southern
Pines and he in turn secured
agreeigents from some of our loyal
1 and civic-minded citizens that
they would serve as local chair-
. T .L 1
They went to work immediately
and the following report shows
how well they worked and how
cheerfully and enthusiastically
our colored citizens supported
their efforts.
The grand total raised in West
Southern Pines was $272.45.
Following are the local chair
men, who worked through
churches or other groups, and the
amounts that they collected:
Albert Lutz, $25; Mrs. Lillie
Mae Willicuns, $15; Mrs. T. L. Par
sons, $5, Mrs. Alberta Ballard, $31.
Trinity AME Zion Church,
$49.50 collected by Mrs. Rosa Lut-
terlough. Miss Bessie Hasty, Mrs.
O. J. Saunders and Miss Cora
St<60l@«
Church of God in Christ, $31,
collected by Mrs. Lula B. Turner,
Mrs. Daisy Ingram and Mrs. Mary
Hallman.
First Baptist Church, $30.15
collected by Mrs. Lottie Haines-
worth, ArniX'Fraiice, Holly Fai
son, and Miss Bessie Styers.
Harrington Chapel, $38.50, col
lected by Mrs. Dorothy Medlin,
Mrs. Hattie Durham and Mrs.
Beatrice Matthews.
Other individuals helping with
the campaign, and the amounts
they collected, were: Miss Clarie
Wells, $12.30; G. C. Murphy, $7;
and Mrs. Georgia Ray, $8. All
worked through churches.
Our hearty and sincere thanks
to all who contributed in any way
to the great success of our 1956
campaign.
REV. J. R. FUNDERBURK
g.1, „ ,or tour^s i» fine, whj we
but where does that leave for one reason or an-
posterity? If our children areJ;o ^ ^
S? "S Se . dLgfeeing feeder then
Stretching before them a future
as hotel waitresses, bell hops, or,
lucky, night clerks? And this
for only four or five months a
year.
We are not condemning these
occupations, but everyone doesii’t
want to be a waitress or work in
f local hotel or retail establish
ment. And what other opportuni
ties are there in this locality,
what chance for advancement for
the hundreds of graduates Moore
County has each year? This, we
believe, needs a good sound an
swer.
According to the Employment
Security Commission, Moore
County employment has been
falling for the past several years.
Advertising our resort facilities
will not bring it back up.
It seems as though our commu
nity could take a lesson from suc-
an agreeing non-reader.
“When The' Paper Doesn’t
Come” is a bit of versification on
this subject that has been widely
reprinted lately in non-dailies of
the state. The original source of
the item is unknown or lost in
the reprinting proems.
Anyway, here it is and we’ll
bet we have some readers who fit
this description: ^
he
My father says the paper
reads ain’t put up right;
He finds a lot /of fault too, he
does, perusin’ it all night;
He says there ain’t a single thing
in it worth to read.
And that it doesn’t print the kind
of stuff the people need;
He tosses it aside and says it’s
strictly on the bum.
But you ought to hear him ^
holler when the pa,per doesn’t^
come.
Resort Boosting Doesn’t
Provide Jobs In Future
To The Editor:
Sacreligious as it may seem, we
are somewhat disgusted at all the
furor of late to boost up Southern
Pines as a resort town, excluding,
it seems, all else. We think it’s
about time we stopped and asked
ouselves just what a “pure re
sort town means to us and,
more important, what it means to
our children.
Having some nice hotels and
ces'sful business. Today’s key to
good business operations is diver- He reads about the weddings and
sification. Why can’t we of he snorts like all get out;
Southern Pines follow this prov- He reads the social doin’s with a
en example, instead of putting all most derisive shout,
our eggs and our children— in He says they make the papers tor
one basket the women folks alone;
Why don’t we encourage small He’ll read about the parties and
.industry instead of turning a he’ll fume and fret and groan
i shoulder to progress? Why He says of information it doesnt%
not nut forth an effort for an in- have a crumb—
stituUon of higher learning—not But you ought to hear him
necessarily the biggest one we|
can find?
holler when the paper doesn’t
come.
If the owners of the few hotels
in town want to advertise, that’s
fine, but let’s put the Town
money on something to help the
_ .r,,
He is always first to grab it and
he reads it plum clean through.
He doesn’t miss an item, or a
want ad—that is true.
money on want ad—that is true,
people of Southern Pines a ^ know what we
their children, who migit some newspape^
day be the citizens of the town, ^
if we can provide a way for them
to earn a livelihood here
MR. AND MRS.
LELAND M. DANIELS, JR
660 N. Ridge St.
Southern Pines.
FROM THE SANFORD HERALD
End Of Dixie Accent?
, guys;
I “I’m going to take a day some
time and go and put ’em wise;
|-“Sometimes it seems as though
they must be deaf and blind
I and dumb.”
[But you ought to hear him holler
when the paper doesn’t come.
The PILOT
A friend of ours has a four-
year-old son whose vocabulary is
extensive. The other day, for in
stance, he remarked of the am
bition” of two little girls who
invited him, perhaps somewhat
less than coyly, to come over to
their house and play. The barking
of a neighbor’s dog he described
as “annoying.” He has an easy
grasp of such terms as “function
al design,” “superior Product,
“peace and prosperity” and old
chap.” Although his parents are
natives of this soil, he speaks
with a decided Yankee clip.
This child is, of course, a TV
fan—or, as he might describe iL
a television devotee. His speech
is influenced less by the drab
cliches with which mothers and
fathers usually address small fry
than by the glibness of announc
ers, quiz masters, political com
mentators and Sergeant Joe Fri
day. He even says his prayers at
night with a sort of breathless
urgency.
In these speech habits of our
Published Every Thursday by
THE PILOT, Incorporated
Soulhern Pines, North Carolina
1941—JAMES BOYD—1944
Katharine Boyd Editor
in tnese syeci/n — |C. Benedict Associate Editor
friend’s offspring we think there y^nce Derby News Editor
may be significance. We see here Dan S. Ray -
a possibility that the influence [ c. G. Council Advertismg
upon Southerners of the old En
glish drawl and the African’s
musical tones will give way to
the unbraked yackety-yack of
video’s audio. Indeed, we can
contemplate the end of all sec
tional tongues and the emergence
of a truly national manner of oral
communication—perhaps a blend
of John Daly, Hal March and
that baldish fellow who does the
Friday night fights.
If you ask us, there are a lot
of good things you can say about
kids’ comic books.
Mary Scott New:ton Business
Bessie Cameron Smith Sociew
Composing Room
Lochamy McLean, Dixie B. Ray,
Michael Valen, Jasper Swearingen
Thomas Mattocks.
Subscription Rales; -
One Year $4. 6 mos. $2; 3 mos. $1
Entered at the Postoffice at South
ern Pines, N. C., as second class
mail matter
Member National Editorial AssrT'
and N. C. Press Assn.