Page TWO
THURSDAY, AUGUST 11,1960
ILOT
Southern Pines
North Carolina
“In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We will try to keep this a good
paper. We will try to make a little money for all concerned. Wherever, there seems to be
an occasion to use our influence for the public good we wiU try to do it. And we will
treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941.
Poor Time to Slap at Educators
As this is written early this week, a dis-
' agreement between the county commissioners
and the county board of education, as to how
certain funds budgeted for school use are to
be spent, was to come before Clerk of Court
Carlton Kennedy for arbitration at a session
this (Thursday) morning.
The procedure of arbitration before the
clerk of court' is one written into school law
to apply when the two boards are unalterably
opposed on school money allotments in a bud
get made up by the commissioners, either as
a whole or as to certain items in the budget.
Today’s proceeding was the second time
within the past decade that a .school money
dispute between the two bodies has gone to
the clerk of court, but there is a big difference
in the issues on the two occasions.
The disagreement several years ago was in
the capital outlay budget and involved the
total amount of money as well as the need for
certain school projects. The current contro
versy is not over the total amount of money
but only as to how money is to be spent. And
the funds affected are on the current expense
side of the budget, to be used not for construc
tion or remodeling of buildings but for salary
increases of schools superintendent, guidance
director and clerical help and for one entirely
new item, the salarj’ for a trained librarian to
work with all the county schools.
Throughout this controversy, the board of
education has contended—and rightly, it seems
to us—that it should have the privilege of say
ing where the funds allotted to it by the com
missioners should be spent—a principle that
has, indeed, been followed for 10 years or
more, at least on the current expense side of
the budget.
The insistence of the commissioners that the
$9,900 dollars in question not be taken from
building maintenance funds and put into the
four projects outlined would seem to indicate
a peculiar animosity by the board toward
these particular proposed expenditures.
This became more apparent as, during nego
tiations with the commissioners, the board of
education, in an attempt to compromise the
disagreement, withdrew its request for a li
brarian’s salary ($6,000—the largest item in
the $9,900) and asked only for enough to coyer
the salary increases, also cutting in half its
requested increase for clerical help. But the
commissioners, making a" counter-proposal,
would then allow only enough for salary in
creases for»clerical help and guidance director
(the latter a small item of $185 per year). It
then became apparent that the main object
of the commissioners was to block a salary
increase for Superintendent Lee.
The commissioners had been told on several
occasions by members of the board of educa
tion that Mr. Lee had taken a cut of more" than
$2,000 in compensation to leave his post as
principal in Aberdeen to become county su
perintendent a year ago. It had been explained
that he had been given to understand that the
board of education would try to bring his com
pensation as superintendent at least up to the
Aberdeen level. Board of education members
also pointed out that Mr. Lee, by, his efficient
service as superintendent, had saved the coun
ty far more money than the increase asked
for his salary. Figures were presented to the
board to show that many superintendents in
counties with fewer teachers were paid as
much or more than Mr. Lee.
Why, then, did the commissioners go to the
last ditch in refusing to respond to this appar
ently reasonable request? We don’t know, al
though speculation is widespread that political
animosities played a part in their attitude.
We think the commissioners owe an explan
ation to the board of education, Mr. Lee and
the public. The public can draw no other in
ference now but that the commissioners are
using their power over the purse strings in
a very petty and highhanded manner.
With public concern about ,education at a
record high, in Moore County and everywhere,
it seems especially shortsighted of the com
missioners to single out as a target the one
25 Years of Social Security
The Pilot is pleased to pay tribute to the
Social Security system of the nation which
marks its 25th anniversary on August 14, the
date in 1935 when President Roosevelt signed
into law the Social Security Act.
Looking back, it seems hardly possible that
a program which created so much discussion
at the time it was established—it was bitterly
opposed by conservative members of the Con
gress and by business interests generally—
could in 25 years become such an accepted
part of our way of life.
Since 1935, the Social Security program has
gone a long way toward realizing the goal set
for it in the beginning.—to provide basic pro
tection for the families of the nation against
risks that few can meet wholly by their own
efforts: the loss or lack of income when the
family breadwinner is out of a job, is old or
has to quit work because of a disability, or
dies, leaving others dependent on him for
support.
This program, branded as socialism and com
munism by its opponents when it was adopted,
not only is helping families to avert untold
‘‘Ah, Yes, It’s A Shame Kennedy Has Chosen The
Low Road In Politics!”
man, Supt. Lee, who has done more than any
other to hoist sails and pilot the county school
system out of the doldrums.
If this is to be the attitude of the commis
sioners on attempts to improve the schools of
Moore County, we predict repercussions by.
the public.
Never has it been so obvious that the people
of Moore County are determined to have bet
ter schools. Never has there been a poorer
time for the commissioners arbitrarily to slap
down the men who are leading that drive—
the county board of education and Supt. Lee.
Casualness or Neglect?
In the course of the school budget contro
versy outlined in an adjoining editorial, an
extraordinary lack of accepted procedure was
shown by the county commissioners.
Having scheduled a joint meeting with the
board of education at 2 p. m. Monday—it was
actually an adjourned session of the previous
Monday’s meeting—the commissioners made
their appearance at the meeting room 55
minutes after the appointed hour, during
which'time the board of education and press
representatives sat waiting for them, with no
explanation for the delay.
It then developed that the commissioners
had scheduled a hearing with the county airr
port committee at the same hour, as that des
ignated for the board of education. Members
of that committee were kept waiting in a sep
arate room and finally were sandwiched into
the board of education meeting during an
adjournment asked by the board to discuss
and revise their proposals.
During the previous week’s meeting of the
two boards—at a regular first Monday meet
ing of the commissioners—an observer could
not help but note a casualness amounting to
discourtesy and neglect on the part of some
members of the board of commissioners who
left the room several times while the board of
education was making its requests, on one
occasion holding up proceedings until a com
missioner /could be found and called back into
the room to hear an important point being
made by a board of education spokesman.
The casualness of commissioners’ meetings
has always been a rather delightful feature of
first Mondays, with citizens coming in and
out, being greeted and a welcome extended
to all, and with the business of the day trans
acted in a deliberate manner that is preferable
to a cold and machine-like approach. When,
however, the casualness is carried to such an
extreme that members of the board can’t re
main in the room during a vitally important
discussion of school matters, this approach is
being carried too far.
At this same meeting with the board of edu
cation the week before, it developed that the
commissioners had met in a special session
the previous week, without the clerk of the
board present, and had adopted the entire
county budget. No entry of the meeting or the
action was made on the minute book and, dur
ing the intervening week, the board of educa
tion was not informed that the budget had
been adopted and was given no answer on
budget requests it had mdde to the commis
sioners previously.
Board of education members came into the
meeting last week, therefore, thinking the
budget had not yet been adopted, since they
had been checking the minute books and had
found no notation of the special meeting. It
was only during the meeting that they found
they were dealing with a different situation
than they thought, necessitating different ac
tion on their part.
A general tightening of procedure and com
pliance with accepted methods of conducting
meetings and recording their business is in
order by the county commissioners.
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ROOSEVEUf
60LV OU^
H Af I
■t ^
New Images for Republicans
(By E.A.R. in The Chatham News)
The reruns of the Western on
TV will look mighty appealing
now that the polished, suave,
beautifully planned, contrived,
appealing, dignified, decorous,
minus Joe Smith GOP convention
is over.
I learned quite a bit from the
hours spent in watching the sec
ond of our great political conven
tions.
I learned, for instance, that the
past seven-and-one-half years
have not been the Eisenhower ad
ministration. They have been the
Eisenhower-Nixon administration
although I have never heard, for
instance, Truman’s regime refer
red to as the Truman-Barkley ad
ministration. Nor was it the
Roosevelt-Garner administration
or the Roosevelt-Wallace, etc., etc.
You get what I mean.
This latest designation puts the
fatherly image of outgoing Pres
ident Eisenhower into the cam
paign of Mr. Nixon although it is
apparent even to the amateur
that Mr. Nixon has gone out on
his own.
Nixon, too, has a new “image”
—he is suave, easy-going, confi
dent-looking. You don’t get the
idea, looking at him now, that he
is the same free-swinging politico
of 1952 and 1956.
Mr. Nixon gained stature, I be
lieve, by the manner in which he
■“eaicompassed” Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller of New York. Some
of the arch-conservatives in the
GOP are yelling sellout, but this
1 doubt. Nixon realized that he
needed Rockefeller and did was
was necessary to bring him into
his (Nixon’s) camp.
A good many of the political
commentators have become en
amored of a phrase which, I be
lieve, Adlai Stevenson made use
of in earlier campaigns in refer
ence to the Republican Party. The
current crop of writers haven’t
seen fit to give him credit for
coining it. Repeatedly I have read
‘ Nixon dragged the Republican
Party, kicking and screaming, in
to the twentieth century.”
I doubt that there was really
much “kicking and screaming”
involved. The conservatives sim
ply were outnumbered or you can
bet your bottom dollar that they
would have mounted an offen
sive.
By the time September 1 rolls
around the nice-nellie gestures
will be in the background and
we’ll have the wildest slugging
match in the history of American
politics. Unless, that is, there is
some sort of incident that unites
us.
Soviet Russia’s Mr. Khrushchev
is going to be a target of both can
didates. He’s going to get a lot of
tough talk hurled at him although
I’m inclined to agree with Mr.
Stevenson that talking tough is
really not an issue. What is really
involved, Mr. Stevenson says, is
who can marshal the resources in
our country for meeting the Com
munist challenge.
Education ^More Frightening^ Than Missiles
misery and anxiety, but it has drastically re
duced the welfare load. Huge amounts of the
money paid into the system by employers and
employees are now' being paid out, helping
strengthen the business economy of the nation
everywhere.
In Moore County last year, for instance.
Social Security payments amounted to $1,596,-
024, and have averaged more than $1 million
for the past five years.
By extending the range and type of Social
Security benefits since 1935, Congress has met
the challenges of a world in which there are
far greater numbers of old people who other
wise could not be satisfactorily cared for
through family or charitable means.
The nation must stay alert to the changing
and expanding needs that can be met through
Social Security—such as the proposal to ex
tend the program to cover medical needs of the
aged. This proposal, as was the original aCt, is
now being called socialism, yet, if it is adopt
ed, vre pxpect that in another 25 years it will
be universally hailed, as the original Social
Security Act is today, as a major step forward
by the people of the United States.
By RICHARD L. STROUT
in The Christian Science Monitor
One of the big questions of the
day is whether, and how far, the
government should intervene in
private enterprise and the free e-
conomy to maintain competition
with Soviet Russia. A case in
point is education.
Congress left Washington with
out passing an education bill and
will take it up again in August.
How far should Washington in-
creeise taxes, if 'at all, to improve
American schools? The question
can hardly be asked without
glancing at the Soviets.
According to Nicholas DeWitt
of the Russian research center at
Harvard, the Soviets spent seven
per cent of their gross National
product on education, or twice
the percentage of the United
States. The result is that the act
ual amount spent by the two
nations is about the same. Mr. De-
Witt says, “A country which is
less than half as rich as we spends
as much on education as we do.”
Mr. DeWitt’s comments are con
tained in two articles, the cur
rent issues of the “Harvard Edu
cational Review,” and of “School
and Society.”
Last fall the direator of the
Central Intelligence Agency, Al
len W. Dulles, told Congress that
the Soviets are diverting their
limited but expanding produce in
to heavy industry and defense
manufacture with a result that
they are producing about as much
as the United States in these
fields. What Mr. DeWitt now says
is that the Soviets are doing the
same thing in education, in the
fields of mathematics, natural
Science, engineering, and teacher
training. In each case the Soviets
are financially aided by an eco
nomic growth rate about twice
that of Americt.
Here are Mr. De'W'itt’s figures
on engineer graduates.
The Soviets now have a reserve
manpower of professional engin
eer graduates of 974,000, or one-
third larger than the United
States. The Soviets have a pro
jected annual increase of 125,000
in the next five years. This would
be 300 per cent larger than the
United States.
Mr. DeWitt offers similar com
parisons in the health and medi
cal fields—the Soviets are one-
fourth larger at present, with an
nual increment set at 400 per cent
larger than America’s.
On the other hand, the United
States is graduating twice as
many from its collegs as the Sov
iets, Mr. DeWitt finds, and three
UNEVEN
BLESSINGS
■‘The family which takes its
mauve and cerise, air-conditioned,
power-steered, and power-braked
automobile out for a tour passes
through cities that are badly
paved, made hideous by litter,
blighted buildings, billboards and
posts for wires that should long
since have been put underground
. . . They picnic on exquisitely
packaged food from a portable
icebox by a polluted stream and
go on to spend the night at a park
which is a menace to public
health and morals. Just before
dozing off on an air mattress, be
neath a nylon tent, amid the
stench of decaying refuse, they
may reflect vaguely on the curi
ous unevenness of their blessings.
Is this indeed, the American
genius?”
—^From "The Affliienl So
ciety." the book by J. Ken
neth Galbraith, the Harvard
professor who is one of
Presidential Candidate John
Kennedy's chief advisers^
times as many in the cultural and
socioeconomic fields.
How reliable are the Soviet sta
tistics?
In testimony to Congress Mr.
Dulles warned against Soviet ex
aggeration and boasting. Yet after
due allowance he declared that
best information places the Soviet
economic growth at about twice
America’s. In the practical field of
results, of course, the Soviet’s
launching of the Sputniks was
an impressive feat and their pay-
loads are still to be equaled by the
United States.
Dr. Alvin C. Eurich, vice presi
dent and director of the Ford
Foundation for the Advancement
of Education, stressed the high
pay and distinction accorded Sov
iet teachers in an article publish
ed in “Harvard Today,” February,
1958. Dr. Eurich traveled exten
sively in Russia. He found rigor
ous scholastic standards and the
development of a scientific elite.
During the 9th and lOth grades
(ages 16 and 17), Dr. Eurich re
ported, the predicated schedule
for students was a “12-hour day,
six days a week, for 10 mohths
of the year.”
Soviet respect for professors is
. expressed in salaries. Dr. Eurich
reported. In the top category of
“acadamecian” the teacher starts
with a base pay of 5,500 rubles a
month for life, plus other advan
tages bringing a total annual in
come “in the range of $35,000 to
$50,000 at the official rate of ex
change.” In addition he gets con
cessions on rent and taxes, free
medical expenses, and free educa
tion for his children up to and
through the university. His social
position is high.
Dr. Eurich commented: “To me
the accomplishments in the field
of education which Russia has
made in a relatively short time
are much more frightening than
announcements that come from
Russia concerning atomic or hy
drogen bombs or guided missiles.”
Grains of Sand
Worried
There were only three items,
one of which was confirmation of
the minutes of the previous meet-
ipg, on the docket of the town
council’s meeting Tuesday night.
■When the meeting hour of 8
o’clock arrived, all the council
members, Town Manager Louis
Scheipers, Jr., Town Attorney
Lament Brown, Tax Collector
Bud Rainey and Mrs. Ray Mc
Donald, clerk, were in their
places and two reporters were at
the press table—but not a single
chair in the ‘‘audience” section of
the meeting room was occupied.
This reporter, who regularly
covers council meetings, does not
remember when ALL the' chairs
were unoccupied.
Looking at the rows of shining,
neatly spaced metal chairs, with
ash trays arranged considerately
on every few chairs, clear to the
back of the room. Mayor Bob Ew
ing remarked:
“You know, gentlemen, this
worries me. Either everything is
running so smoothly that people
don’t feel they need to come check
up on us, or the public just doesn’t
care whether we’re meeting or
not.”
Record
The meeting went off in record
time—29 minutes after the mayor
banged his gavel promptly at 8,
the motion for adjournment came.
One other item of business, not on
the docket had been brought up
by the town manager and dis
cussed and another item was in
troduced by a councilman.
Still it was all over in 29 min
utes.
Non-Partisan
The politically non-partisan na
ture of the town council main
tained its equilibrium despite a
discussion that could have
brought some bristling.
As most people know, two of
the memibers of the council are
avid Republicans—Mayor Ewing
and Harry Pethick, both of whom
have been or are prominent in
county and state party affairs.
Councilman John Ruggles is one
of the town’s most ardent Demo
crats, active in politics for many
years. Councilman Jimmy Hobbs
is a Democrat. The political af
filiation of Councilman Felton
Capel is not known at the moment
of writing, but Town Attorney
Lamont Brown, who sits behind
the big bench with the council
rriembers is chairman of the
Moore County Democratic Exec-
cutive Committee.
"When Mayor Ewing, at the end
the council, asked if any of the
council, the attorney or the
manager had any matter to bring
up, Mr. Brown said, “I’d like to
report on the big Democratic rally
which I attended in Raleigh to
day, but I don’t think this is the
appropriate place. Besides, if 1
did, Harry Pethick might ask for
equal time.”
Mr. Brown did go on to tell one
story about the rally—an inci
dent, he said, about which some
of his listeners may have heard
on TV Tuesday night.
He said that when Terry San
ford, Democratic gubernatorial
nominee. Was speaking, a donkey
in a trailer—on hand for the
State Fair Arena occasion as the
symbol of the party—let out a
tremendous bray just at the
moment Sanford was referring to
his opponents in the primary ear
lier this year.
Mr. Brown said that a group
from Moore County was standing
just a few feet from the donkey,
but looking in another direction
when this happened, and that
they all were badly startled.
“It sounded just about like that
fire horn they have in Pinehurst,”
the attorney related. “That don
key really raised the roof.”
The PILOT
Published Every Thursday by
THE PILOT. Incorporated
Southern Pines, North Carolina
1941—JAMES BOYD—1944
Katharine Boyd Editor
C. Benedict Associate Editor
Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr.
C. G. Council Advertising
Mary Scott Newton Business
Bessie Cameron Smith Society
Composing Room
Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen, Jas
per Swearingen, Thomas Mattocks
and James C. Morris.
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Member National Editorial Assn,
and N. C. Press Assn.