Page TWO
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1961
4i
ILOT
Southern Pines
North Carolina
“In taii-ing 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 will try to do it. And we wUl
treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941.
The Kennedy UN Speech
Listening to President Kennedy’s
speech beiore the United Nations Gen
eral Assembly Monday it seemed there
should not have been any in that great
audience who were not convinced, there
was such evident sincerity behind his
words, such power in the ideas he ex
pressed, marching step by step with such
unassailable logic. It seemed certain his
words must reach their mark.
And what was their mark? The whole
world that wiU live or most probably
die if the arms race is not stopped. Speci
fically the speech was perhaps aimed
most pointedly at the small nations new
ly come or coming to independence; at
the Communist bloc and, though to a
much lesser degree certainly, at the op
position in this country that has been
raising the cry of “appeasement” against
the President’s insistence that negotia
tions must go on.
Some of the things Kennedy said have
been said before—“we will never negotia-
ate from fear but we will never fear to
negotiate”—but there was a new look to
this speech that added to its forcefulness.
This was the emphasis on disarmament.
Kennedy spoke of the new disarmament
agency being established in Washington
and went on to outline proposals which
might lead other nations—all nations—
toward general disarmament. He spoke
of this as the only possible, practicable
way to bring about the end of war, that
nuclear war of today in which, as Presi
dent Eisenhower himself had said, there
could be no victory, but only defeat and
destruction for all.
Kennedy envisioned this aim, to bring
about the end of war, as the primary
purpose of the UN. Reviewing the UN’s
many accomplishtnents for peace and
human betterment, he came back to the
fundamental question: whether all man’s
hopes shall live or be destroyed. “In the
development of this organization, he
said, “lies the future: the question of life
or death for our civilization.” And he
called on che nations “to join in dismantl
ing the national capacities for waging
war.” , o •
Kennedy’s condemnation of the Soviet
suggestion of a three-man or “troika”
leauership for the UN brought quick
applause. “Even the troika,” he said, “does
not have three drivers going in different
directions.” He referred in moving words
to the tragic loss to the world in the
death of the Secretary General and urged
prompt action in finding his replacement.
Most closely noted probably were Ken
nedy’s references to the Berlin situation.
He spoke of the next ten months as being
a crucial period, implying that negotia
tions could be expected to continue, and
reminded his hearers that this nation is
pledged neither to commit nor to provoke
aggression. He also made unmistakably
clear the reasons behind recent moves to
strengthen U. S. security.
What must surely have impressed the
smaller nations was Kennedy’s attitude:
he spoke not as the leader of the most
•powerful nation-laying down the law for
the ixest, but as the head of one
nation talking to the heads of ninety-
eight other nations. He pointed out that
we do not maintain that the whole world
should be run the same way—“confor
mity can be the jailor of freedom, the
enemy of growth”—but rAen must be
free to choose the government they want.
Kennedy was not truly eloquent: this
man’s words seldom show the flash of
his great inaugural address, but this
speech showed the same firmness, the
same conviction that in the search for
peace with freedom lies the salvation of
the world.
As an aftermath of the Cuban fiasco,
confidence in Kennedy had wavered con-
' siderably. It seems likely that this speech
to the UN has strengthened the people’s
faith in his leadership. The feeling that
the people are behind him should be of
inestimable help in the tough days that
lie ahead.
Readers, Emotions and News
A journalism professor who has had
wide experience as a counselor and has
studied the psychological value of read
ing periodicals comes up with some ideas,
in a “Publishers Auxiliary” article, that
seem particularly valid in the field of
community journalism.
Speaking of newspaper and periodical
reading in general, the professor, James
W. Carty, Jr., of Bethany (W. Va.) Col
lege, says that comprehensive coverage
of news events by newspapers has the
effect of calming persons in a crisis—
making for adjustment, rather than, as
has been* charged, inflaming readers and
unsettling them emotionally.
He goes on to say that Americans are
realists and want to know the truth:
“They do not mind insecurity as long as
they are kept informed quickly and com
pletely of the changing scene. . . Con
tinual, frank, candid reassessments of
their insecurity give readers the only true
emotional security they are to possess.”
This article is concerned primarily with
national and world news and the reactions
of readers to it, yet we feel that the
point is applicable—perhaps even more
applicable—to the readers of hometown
(“community”) newspapers.
Verbally related “news” in small towns
is so often mixed with gossip, personal
prejudice of the speaker, desire for pub
licity, desire not to have publicity, in
completeness and inaccuracy, that it is
easy for emotional reaction to take over
—often when such emotional reactions
are unjustified by the facts.
if there is a newspaper that can be
counted on the tell the facts, without
bias or distortion in its news columns, and
evaluate the facts and draw some con
structive conclusion from them, on its
editorial page, we think that newspaper
is performing a valuable community
service. Certainly the readers of such a
newspaper can get from it, if they trust
it, “security” in the sense that this word
is used by the journalism professor.
In another sense, there is satisfaction
in living in a community which has a
conscious image of itself, whose residents
take pride in its shops, its landscaping,
its cleanliness, its hospitality or what
have you. Here again, a good newspaper
can contribute to individual and com
munity “security” by being articulate
about a community’s material and in
tangible assets, and, of course, on the
opposite side, its needs and lacks, thereby
challenging citizens to make their com
munity worthy in all respects of their
affection and support.
Neglected but Not for Long
The forlorn little figures in today’s
cartoon by Bill Sanders will not forever
remain out in the cold or in the ashcan.
Federal school aid and federal health care
assistance through Social Security are
far from dead issues.
Although the Republican national plat
form last fall pledged a program of federal
aid for school construction (nearly 700,000
American children are attending school
in split-shifts), 96 per cent of the Re
publicans in Congress voted against Pre-i-
dent Kennedy’s bill for aid to schools.
North Carolina thereby lost nearly ten
and a half million dollars—one of the
eight highest allotments among all the
states.
Though other issues have crowded
health care legislation off the Congressi-
ional calendar this year, we can look
forward to a battle on it next year—and
we feel that time is working for the
Social Security solution for health care
problems of the aging.
A recent Wall Street Journal report
showed increasing grassroots pressure for
a Social Security-based bill, citing “polls
of the homefolks” conducted by several
lawmakers from supposedly conservative
districts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and
Cahfomia, aU showing better than 50 per
cent approval of the Social Security plan.
For the nation as a whole a-Gallup poll
indicated two-thirds of all adult Ameri-
The Untouchables
■M. V
• « *9- if*
Crains Sand
Warm Welcome
If it’s any comfort to anybody:
it’s a lot hotter in New York than
it is here. Also in Princeton.
In New York the hot air rises
from the sidewalks and hangs
about s.ioulder-high in the close
canyons between the new t'.n
skyscrapers. The sun blazes n
the whole thing, reflecting back
from the tin, or aluminum or
bronze. You might just as well
sit under the electric broiler.
In Princeton, a green and shady
spot, known for its charming
leafy lanes and cool alleys, the
heat is just as bad. Perhaps be
cause you know it oughtn’t to be.
All that greenery ought to have
some moderating effect.
Well, it doesn’t. It j,ust makes
you feel stuffed into a jungle, in
stead of scorching at the bottom
of the Grand Canyon of the Col
orado.
A VETERAN PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR^S ANSWER
What Are the Goals of Education?
But while in New York people
are resigning themselves to Fate,
including blatant disregard of
signs saying BOMB SHELTER
and airraid sirens moaning in a
testing operation, in Princeton the
word goes round that the group
of nuclear scientists who live and
work there (including, we pre
sume, Oppenheimer himself),have
got things all fixed up for them
selves and families: shelters built
and completely stocked with all
necessities.
Except maybe one. There’s
been such a run on Geiger coun
ters that none are to be had for
love or money.
Well, all in all it’s mighty good
to be home where it’s (compara
tively) cool an{J the pines have
no jungly atmosphere and the
only reminders of the world’s
present horrors are a few mild
bangs from Ft. Bragg. And
everybody’s used to them.
Hi, Everybody!
—KLB
By JOHN COREY
Education Department
Appalachian Slate
Teachers College
Practically everyone, from Ad
miral Kickover to Marilyn Mon
roe, has taken a turn at telling
schools what they should teach.
Right or wrong, the comments
serve a good purpose in focusing
sharper attention on education.
In fact, the critical noise may
even prompt interested parents
to ask the professional educator
what he thinks. Such a question
is welcomed, of course, by the
competent schoolman.
His answer would probably ap
proximate that given by an old
master, Dr. Newton Edwards,
member of the famous University
of Chicago School of Education
staff for 30 years before his recent
retirement to his old homeplace
in Liberty, (near Greensboro).
Edwards, no ivory-tower theor
ist, supports his .educational phil
osophy with a wide background,
including childhood on a farm,
laborer in a sawmill, student and
teacher of Greek and Latin in
public schools.
This expert, who still Leers in
touch with the educational world
by teaching a graduate class each
Wednesday at Duke University,
boils down the public school job
to seven key tasks. Rickoverites
find it difficult to crack Edwards’
logic. This is it:
KNOWLEDGE—to equip each
youngster with as large a work
ing command of knowledge as
possible. This capital of human
experience, as. Edwards calls it,
■ includes traditional English,
mathematics, science and history,'
as well as certain vocational
skills.
CORE VALUES—Certain loy
alties, such as respect for indivi- .
dual liberty and truth, must be
woven into each citizen’s person
ality if we are to hold American '
society together. Without com
mon values, a nation crumbles.
INDIVIDUAL GROWTH AND
CULTURAL ADJUSTMENT—In
fants come into the world as raw
material that can be manufactur
ed into many different personal
ities—good or bad—through en
vironment and training. It’s . the
school job to help provide a fac
tory of life in which his experi
ences will transform each young
ster iinto a mature social person.
INTELLIGENT DECISION
MAKING—New ways of life are
being forced by technological
revolution (including the H-bomb
and automation), democratic rev
olution (suppressed peoples want
the good things of earth) and pop
ulation explosion (twice as many
human beings in 70 years). Youth
must be prepared to make the
right decisions in meeting the
changes.
CRITICAL THINKING—In the
words of Sgt. Friday of TV’s
Dragnet, this means first, “get
ting the facts.” The capacity to
think critically on the basis of
facts enables a person to divest
himself of prejudices and to
avoid premature conclusions.
Faith in the unknown is neces
sary. But it must be recognized
as faith.
SOCIAL SKILLS—Not the so
cial graces but the important abil
ity to secure, cooperation between
individuals and groups. Numer
ous brilliant persons fail in work
because they never learn to “get
along with others.”
VOCATIONAL OR PROFES
SIONAL COMPETENCE — A
‘“well-rounded personality” is not
enough, of course. One must still
know how to do something.
Schools strive to put each indivi
dual on the road toward some
professional competency.
MAYBE IT MIGHT COME IN HANDY TO KNOW
How to Make Soap in Oldtime Mountain Way
cans favor the plan.
We would not be surprised to find some
powerful influence on behalf of the Soci
al Security health plan coming out of a
series of hearings to be held over the
nation by the Senate Special Committee
on Aging, starting in Florida, October 9.
How could an oldster in North Car
olina, for instance, speak a good word for
the extremely limited Kerr-Mills Bill,
passed by the Congress in 1960 (this is
the law that would distribute old age
health benefits through the already over
worked public welfare departments),
when the North Carolina legislature fail
ed to implement the bill and not a nickel’s
worth of Kerr-Mills aid has yet been
received in this state—and many other
states as well? Yet this is the system that
the American Medical Association calls
adequate for the job.
Sen. Pat McNamara, chairman of the
Senate Special Committee on Aging,
charges that the Social Security medical
aid program has rim into “the fiercest
kind of oppostion from an unholy alliance
of the American Medical Association,
some of the big insurance companies and
the Republican Party.” And, he said,
“They have used every kind of misinfor
mation to discredit the program.”
Yes, school aid and medical aid through
Social Security are far from dead or
abandoned issues.
By DOTT W. GRYDER
In The Robbins Record
You might wonder why one
needs to know how to make soap
in this day when that product has
become advertised and glamor
ized to such an extent that it is
one of the world’s leading indus
tries. But I still contend that
everyone should know how soap
was made in the olden days in the
North Carolina mountains. You
just never can tell when the in
formation might come in handy.
First choose a plear day in
early spring because the whole
operation is carried on outdoors.
Set up your ash hopper—Don’t
know what an ash hopper is!—
Well, I’ll tell you.
Take a 4-foot length of hollow
log about 18-inches in diameter.
Any kind of log will suffice, but
you are more likely to find a hol
low sweetgum. Saw one end
straight, and the other end slant
wise. Build a platform about 18-
inches off the ground with the
top slanting. Set the hollow log,
slant end down on the platform.
(Do you follow me?) This, now,
is your ash hopper.
Straw and Ashes
Next take an arm load of gold
en ripe wheat straw, freshlv
threshed, and place it in the bot
tom of the hopper. Then take half
a bushel of wood ashes, prefer
ably those made by burning white
oak wood in the fireplace, and
pour into the hopper on top of
the straw.
Now pom: two gallons of clear
spring water on the ashes. Place
an enameled bucket under the
lower edge of the slanted plat
form to catch the drippings. As
the water runs through pour it
right back into the hopper. Re
peat this fifty times, or until the
tail feather from a white leghorn
rooster disintegrates when drop
ped into the solution. By this time
the resulting ash lye will be about
ten times as powerful as any Red
Devil—lye, I mean—that you
ever saw.
Now go to the smokehouse and
collect all the fatback skins, ran
cid lard, and fat meat scraps
which have accumulated during
the past winter. Put all this in a
larg.3 iron pot and build a fire
around it. (During the cooking
stage it will look like one unholy
mess but never mind.)
May Take Hours
Take the drippings which by
now have come through the hop-
pre looking like nothing less than
ambeer—(Oh, come now, surely
you know what ambe-sr is!)—and
pour the potion into the cauldron
—I mean pot—^and stir constant
ly with a long paddle made of
hickory wood. This may take
hours but when the mixture has
eaten the paddle down to a jtagged
core it is usually done.
At this stage it should be a
rich brown color with the con
sistency of chocolate fudge mix
ture. Pour the concoction into
shallow galvanized pans to cool
and set. (Note to linotype opera
tor: That’s what I said, COOL
AND SET. Change those words at
your own risk.
Wait 24 hours for the soap to
set and then with a long butcher
knife slice it into squares. . . Um-
m-m. Looks like smooth creamy
chocolate fudge.
Wet your clothes thoroughly
and rub them liberally with the
ash-lye soap. (Of course it will
take the hide from your hands,
but that’s all in the day’s work,
so pay no attention to that minor
detail) Put one piece of laundry
at a time on the battlin’ bench—
What’s a battlin’ bench?
(I must say that your education
needs to be taken back to date
on many fine points.)
Beechwood Paddle
A battlin’ bench also comes
from a log from the woods, this
time a solid 3-foot length of white
pine, which gives more “bounce.”
Stand the log on its end and, as
I said, place one piece of laundry
at a time on it. With a flat paddle
made of beechwood, start beating
it, turning with each lick.
This not only gets out all the
dirt, (along with most of the ori
ginal color of the garment) leav
ing your clothes cleaner than any
new-fangled process you can im
agine, but it has wonderful thera
peutic value also, especially if
perchance you are on the outs
with Pa and it is his pants you
are battlin’. Just pretend he is
still in them and give vent to all
yoxm pent-up ire. . . You never
heard of nervous breakdowns
back when they had battlin’
benches. . .
As I said, who knows when you
might need this information? With
science progressing at the present
rate, and people shooting at the
moon, and little home-made
moons in orbit all about us, who
knows when we may be richo-
cheted right back into the 18th
century?
Then won’t it be good to know
how to make, and use, soap!
Millions and Millions
Reading recently that John Mot
ley Morehead, the 90-year-old
benefactor of the University of
North Carolina, had given the
Morehead Scholarship Fund sev
en million more dollars (for a
total of $13 million), we couldn’t
help wondering how any individ
ual could amass all those millions
(presumably he also has a few
million left for himself and oth
er projects). His gifts in all fields
to UNC run to about $17 million.
Just how the millions were ac
quired we cannot determine, but
Pete Ivey, head of the Univer
sity’s News Bureau, relates a fas
cinating tale of how they began.
(Readers will recall that the gift
announced the other day consist
ed of 50,000 shares of Union Car
bide and Carbon Co. stock.)
Writes Pete: ‘‘‘A Chapel Hill
chemistry professor examined the
stuff one of his former students
sent to his laboratory at the Uni
versity.
“Prof. Francis F. Venable
wrote a letter to young John Mot
ley Morehead at his father’s mill
in Spray. Yes, the material w^s
useful calcium carbide. It could
be valuable. It could be easily
changed into gas—acetylene gas.
(This was still the 19th century.)
“That exchange of materials
and messages was historic. From
it was established the knowledge
that eventually built the giant
Union Carbide and Carbon Co.”
The story, says Pete, was told
by Mr. Morehead himself when
he announced his latest gift at
Chapel Hill.
Cool
Clever publicity were the cards
sent out this year by Eseeola
Lodge at Linville, the N. C.
mountain summer hotel operated
by John Pottle of Southern Pines.
’The cards show the lodge covered
with snow, but with spring flow
ers bursting through—an object
lesson for the sweltering lowland-
er.
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
Maiy Scott Newton Business
Mary Evelyn de Nissoff Society
Comiiosing Room
Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen,
Thomas Mattocks and James E.
Pate.
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Moore County
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Outside Moore County
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Southern Pines, N. C.
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