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THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1960 Page TWO ■LOT Southern Pines North Carolina “In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We wiU try to keep this » 8°^ 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 pubUc good we will try to do it. And we wiD treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941. SandhiUs Could Have Own ‘Host School’ .Some interest has been again expressed in The Pilot’s suggestion of several weeks ago that the Sandhills organize its own training program for people who meet the public dur ing the resort season—merchants, store clerks, waitresses, service station operators and at tendants and otheis. Such a course, in fact, would be likely tb attract the interest of a good many citizens who want to learn more about this area and who would then them- selvefe become better sources of information at home and better ambassadors for the Sandhills when away. The reasoning is that, in a resort communi ty especially, everybody with whom visitors come in contact should be able to answer questions about recreation facilities, communi ty character and history, nearby places of in terest, location of public buildings and serv ices, street addresses and other items of inter est to persons stopping here. In addition, the inestimable value of graciousness and atten tion to the visitor would be stressed. The North Carolina Travel Council’s pro gram of conducting “host schools, one of which was held here last year for waitresses and restaurant personnel, inspired The Pilot’s suggestion. We W'ondered then, and still won der, why the Sandhills need wait for a State- organized school to be sent around to this area. Would it be possible for such a school to be organized through the town’s Advertising Committee, with its Information Center as the coordinating agency? Might there not be a possibility that Pinehurst would be interested in joining and partially financing such an ef fort? Much of the instruction and information work could probably be handled by volunteers. Our nomination for the group to sound out sentiment and start the ball rolling would be the Advertising Committee. ‘Town Affiliations’ Promote Understanding The association of Southern Pines with Operation Town Affiliations, Inc. is a prom ising project. For years, this newspaper has advocated all possible people-to-people contacts. Igno rance is the greatest barrier to understanding between divergent groups—whether nations, races or individuals. Contacts that help people to learn more about each other and their waysi of life often reveal the basic si.milarities of people everywhere. This is the first step in that understanding that will enable people to find common goals for joint efforts—world peace of course being the greatest of these. Operation Town Affiliations has a New York office that arranges contacts between towns and cities in Europe and others in the United States. Putting the contact on a basis of towns is an ingenious method that should stimulate iterest in both the towns, since it involves the governing bodies of the two com munities and branches out to include the schools and other special groups, large and small, that share similar interests, no mat ter whether in Europe or the United States. The tentative prospect of the affiliation of Southern Pines with a town in Spain will be a challenge to this community, as it involves one of the lesser known nations of Europe and one with which this town would have, on the face of it, very little in common. So much the greater, therefore, is the need for understand ing. . . The local officers of Operation Town Affili ations are inviting all interested groups and individuals to take part in the project. We hope that there will be wide and enthusiastic participation. School Money Problems: What’s the Answer? ^ «1 At_ _ +V.A /^rtwiTYiiccinriprs. to be extravafiani It is commendable that the county board of education and the county commissioners reached a compromise agreement last week on the spending of certain school current ex pense funds in the new county budget. The compromise permits a salary increase for Robert E. Lee, county school superinten dent, and for C. E. Powers, the schools’ gui dance director, though proposed increases for clerical workers in the school system’s office and the entire $6,000 salary for a trained libra rian, to work with all the county schools, were given up by the board of education as part of the compromise. We hope that, before another year’s budget making time rolls around, the board of educa tion and the commissioners can come to an agreement about the basic issue that lay be hind the money controversy: whether the board of education has the right to make up its own budget, and spend the money allotted to it by the commissioners, in the way it sees fit. We would not take from the commissioners their control over the purse strings, because they are responsible for the entire budget. But we do not see why, once they determine how much money should be given to the county school system, the board of education should not spend it for what they think they need. The board of education is elected directly by the people. We do not see why the board of education should have to clear each item of its budget with the commissioners. A board of education that fails to operate the county school system properly is subject to dismissal by the people themselves, at the polls. As the situation exists now, the board of ed ucation’s program for the schools can be ham strung by the commissioners—but the board of education must take the blame. Possibly there should be more communica tion between the two boards, with the com missioners sitting in on board of education planning sessions, so that they will know more of the background of school money requests. The way it works now, the board of education presents to the commissioners and attempts to justify, in an hour or so, school money re quests that have been months in the planning stage. Without ttie full background, it is quite natural that some of these requests seem, to ‘No Such PossibiKty...’ “Let’s quit talking about the possibility of a Republican Governor in North Carolina. There is no such possibility if we stick to gether and work hard—and we’ll do both of these things. I don’t have to criticize our North Carolina Republican friends personally to say the Democrats have proved for 60 years they can and do give good government,-and the people are not going to take a chance on changing this. “Another reason we are not going to think seriously of a Republican Governor is our own candidate—Terry Sanford. He has dem onstrated he knows how to get nominated— he will demonstrate, with all of us helping, how to get elected. He is a good Democrat, is a good North Carolinian and he will be a good Governor.” —<ioy. Lulher H. Hodges ‘‘What’s In A Name? That Which We Call A Rose, By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet. \ VOLUHTEEW FOR KiaSS®Kl p /is ll" J Y <\VK> SOBER THINKING NEEDED IN CRISIS Are Racial Views Based On Myth? the commissioners, to be extravagant, needless and a waste of money. Finally we would urge that the commission ers hold their budget discussions and make their decisions earlier each year. The cur rent expense request? about which there was disagreement between the board of education and the commissioners were presented and fully explained to the commissioners at the June meeting. They were repeated at the July meeting, with the urgent request that an answer be given that day so far as the salary of a school librarian was concerned, so that applicants for the post could be found and interviewed. Again there was no decision. The commis sioners met July 25 and adopted the full coun ty budget, cutting out the librarian’s salary and the other controversial requests, but the board of education was not informed and did not know until they came into the August meeting, asking what had happened to their requests, that the four current expense items had been denied. The board of education was then forced to admit that the delay had been so long that a librarian probably could not be found, even if the commissioners had changed their minds and revised the budget to include the libra rian’s salary. And all this, be it remembered, had to do with the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. When the matter was placed before Clerk of Court Carlton Kennedy for arbitra tion last Thursday, it had been more than nine weeks since the requests were made. Here again, as noted in an editorial on this page last week, is evidence that ‘‘a general tightening of procedure and compliance with accepted methods of conducting meetings and recording their business is in order by the county commissioners.” ' The Best Plan The Pilot is on record as approving use of the Social Security system to provide for med ical needs of the aged. The Democratic Presidential nominee. Sen ator Kennedy, has spoken out strongly for this method, though some conservative members of his own party ai-e opposed, including six who sit on the Senate Finance Committee that has approved a measure based on federal-state grants outside the Social Security system. We see no reason why a person should not pay and save small amounts all his life to be assured of medical care in his old age. Of primary importance, as we noted in a former editorial on behalf of the Social Se curity proposal, is the dignity this system al lows the older person to maintain. Senator Kennedy referred to “the destructive, degra ding means test’’ that the federal-state system would entail. That should be avoided. Public welfare departments, which have their hands full enough with their regular chores, should not be involved in the medical care plan. The machinery of the Social Se curity system is already cranked up and run ning smoothly. It can be adjusted with a minimum of effort to handle the medical care program. . Sober thinking, not emo tionalism, is what the South and all America need just now in meeting the racial crisis," says an editorial in The Smithfield Herald, a non-daily newspaper pub lished in an Eastern North Carolina city. And The Her ald wonders to what extent some prevailing racial views are based on myth. Objective writing on racial matters is rare, confined generally to books and magarines. News papers, especially in the South, find the question too controversial, too intense, too , complicated for objective comment—yet, as the Her ald's editorial points out, if our thinking is based on myth, net truth, "much of the current debate becomes meaningless." The editorial follows: Americans, even Southerners, do not agree on racial issues. It is argued that the Supreme Court's antisegregation decision of 1954 is morally and legally wrong. It is argued that this de cision is morally and legally right. It is argued that the South should never comply with the de cision. It is argued that the South should comply, but the compli ance should be gradual and slow. It is also argued that compliance should be immediate and com plete. It is argued that the Negro should pay more attention to his “responsibilities” than to his “rights.” It is argued that whites should stop withholding civil rights from the Negro. Debate of racial issues is not necessarily bad. It is bad only when it becomes wholly emotion al and leads to violence. Reason able debate, in a spirit of toler ance and good will, can lead to greater understanding and solu tions we can live with. Basic Question , A basic question in the current debate is: Are colored people in herently inferior to white people? Anthropologists, who have made careful scientific investiga tions relating to this question, conclude that the answer is no. In the first World War, Negro soldiers made a lower score on in telligence tests than white sol diers, but the tests also showed that Northerners, black and white, had higher scores than Southerners, black and white. Anthropologists noted that edu cational standards, housing, diet, and income in the South were much lower than' in the North. They concluded that the differ ence in scores on Army tests did not arise because people were from the North or the South, or because they were white or col ored, but arose from difference in income, education, cultural ad vantages, and other opportunities. Anthropologists also tell us us that progress in civilization is not the monopoly of one race. There were great Negro slave states in Africa when Europe was a sparsely settled forest. Negroes made iron tools and wove fine cloth for their clothing when white Europeans wore skins and knew nothing of iron. All races have made contributions to hu man knowledge. Anthropologists conclude that those who have lived at the crossroads of the world have been the greatest in ventors of tools and ideas, while those who have lived on isolated islands or in remote areas of con tinents have been content to live by traditional methods. Why Crimes? There is the deep-rooted idea that Negroes are born morally in ferior to whites. This is thought to be a valid explanation of why Negroes commit more crime pro portionately than whites. The an thropologists, after scientific studies, have concluded that en vironment, not birth, explains the high rate of crime among Ne groes. Slavery resulted in a low regard for human life. Assault and murder became more com mon among Negroes than whites. Prostitution and “loose morals” among Negroes, the anthropolo gists tell us, are consequences of poverty and weak family bonds that often go with poverty. Slums breed crime, and this is just as true of white slums as it is of Negro slums. Are the anthropologists wrong in their conclusions? Possibly. But their conclusions are based on careful investigation and study. The myths that form the basis of so much street-corner or crossroads discussion of racial is sues are based on neither investi gation nor study. And this fact tends to make much of the curV rent debate meaningless. The Need Myth leads to emotionalism. Careful investigation, whatever it reveals, is required before there can be sober thinking. And sober thinking, not emotionalism, is what the South and all Ameri ca need just now in meeting the racial crisis. Without Rhyme Or Reason (From The Chapel Hill Weekly) Perhaps it has something to do with spots on the sun. Or with the sun baking people’s brains a trifle overdone. Or with a certain lethargy that suddenly explodes of its own accord. Whatever the reason, there are certain times, which sometimes come in bunches, when you get the impression that all the screws have come loose, the world is a fraction out of kilter, and there is no rhyme or reason. A man who sells cars in Chapel Hill found about it this week. “It 'AMAZE YOUR FRIENDS . . . ' (Fromi The Christian Science Monitor)) We are amazed—but not for the desired reason—at the number of ads that start out: “Amaze your friends. ..” or’ “Imagine your neighbors’ surprise when they see your new . . . ” We are amazed, all right—and annoyed. “Be the envy of your nqigh- bors,” says the come-on for chry santhemum plants. “Startle your visitors,” urges another, selling blueprints of guided missiles (presumably ob solete or unsuccessful) to mount in one’s den or playroom. “Mystify other motorists,” crows a third, about a simulated police antenna stuck to a car roof with a suction cup. All this implies that customers should not only buy what they may not need or want, but should do so entirely to affect someone else. doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “I went all through my files of prospects last Friday and didn’t find a live one m the bunch. It looked rough. So on Saturday I move three cars. Every morning this week I’ve been coming to work full of pep and vinegar and I can’t give a car away.” Baseball pitchers know these particular times well. They take the mound feeling loose and right, wing it in there—and get clobber ed in the first inning. Then, lour da^s later, feeling low and sore, slow and uncertain, they float it in there, inwardly flinching at every swing—and pitch a no-hit ter. Young lovers also know these times well. There is the boy who has figured all the odds, carefully examined the shadings of his girl’s every word, and decided that the time is favorable lor a kiss. He gets slapped, of course. Then, at another time, with his mind on spark plugs or a spinning reel, with the girl sitting only in cidentally at his side, he finds her arms stealing round his neck. It’s the kind of time When you try every lure in the tackle box and can’t get a nibble and then accidentally dip a bare hook in the water and a bass practically tears the rod out of your hand. It’s that time when you nurse the stuff in the garden and noth ing will grow and then you say the devil with it and leave it alone and the back lot turns into a horn of plenty. It’s that day when a carefully prepared cake sinks miserably in the center and a hodge-podge of left-overs, thrown carelessly to gether, turns out to be delicious. So the crabgrass is thriving and the bermuda is a dying brown. "Water the crabgrass. Grains of Sand Full Circle A story in The Christian Science Monitor is headlined: “Suburbanites Move to Farm. Community, Find New Satisfac tions.” It tells how a family from the New York area moved to a “real” farm in New Jersey and is finding the new life very accept able. Over the past two decades, first there was surburbia and then “exurbia” where the people who were tired of the suburbs moved farther out but remained urban in their outlook. Now will there be a trend for the exurbanites to go on to the farm—which is prob ably where a lot of them origina ted, back in Illinois, Iowa and all the rest of the inland places that supply so many of the people of big cities? Parents in the family described in the Monitor article were de lighted when their second grader came home from his first day in their rural community’s school. “We didn’t do anything but reading, spelling and arithmetic and stuff like that,” he declared with disgust. “What did you expect?” he was asked. ■'Well, we used to have the art teacher and the music teacher and folk dancing and sometimes a movie. Sometimes we didn’t have time for arithmetic,” the child explained, referring to the program at his former suburban school. Next step: back to the one-room school house and a two-mile walk to school through deep snow, like ’ grandfather used to talk about. Then maybe everybody will be happy again. Quandty When a communication came to The Pilot on Monday morning from The Wall Street Journal, ad dressed “Att: Vice President- Sales,” it was quite a problem as to whose piece of mail that was. We’re not used to that sort of terminology around this organ ization. The letter was an invitation to subscribe to the Journal: •'■. . . I dreamed I belonged to a good club where I sat in a big leather chair reading The "Wall Street Journal. . .” That was a little too rich for Monday morning fare at The Pilot. The humble editor who had presumed to Open the “Vice President-Sales” letter let it slip downward into the waste basket, along with a bright and cheery release from the North Carolina Division of the U. S. Brewers Foundation, notinfe that “Con sumption of malt beverages by residents of North Carolina in creased last year from the 1958 level. . . Records for sales and production were shattered. . .” 'That, too, is not the thing to read on a Monday morning. “Shattered’’—that’s the Monday morning word, all right. And so, we dreamed we sat in a big leather chair, sipping a malt beverage, anti that Monday morning.? were abolished forever. Published Every Thursday by THE PILOT, Incorporated Southern Pines, North Carolina 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 Foresight? Heard a man say the other day that he’s going to cut down three trees in his yard because he is already dreading the job of raking leaves next fall. (Note to tree lovers: he’ll, still have plenty of other trees left, but not of the leaf-dropping variety.) Definitions Two definitions from The San ford Herald’s sprightly “Rambling in Central Carolina” column: Mason-Dixon line: The line which separates the “youse guys” from the “you-alls.” Alarm clock: an invention to wake adults who have no babies. The PILOT 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. Subscription Rates: 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 Assn, and N. C. Press Assn.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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Aug. 18, 1960, edition 1
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