Page TWO
THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1961
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 tor all concerned. Wherever there seems to ^
an occasion to use our influence for the public good we will try to do it. And we will
treat everybody alike.**—James Boyd, May 23, 1941.
Keep Stevenson in the UN
A great many Americans must have
been startled and appalled as they read
in their daily newspapers the statement
that Adlai Stevenson might decide to run
for senator in Illinois.
The thought that the nation and the
world might lose the services of this man
as representative of this nation, from his
present vitally important position is deep
ly disturbing.
Stevenson is doing a job for which he
is ideally suited. His subtle, clever mind,
his skill in debate, coupled with his dedi
cation to the cause for which he works
is obvious; furthermore, he has the human
touch, quick imderstanding of the pro
blems of others, a completely democratic
approach, but, at the same time, the keen
perception of what may lie behind the
personalities and problems with which
he is dealing. Beyond that, as U.S. Am
bassador to the UN, he is utterly dedicat
ed to the aims and hopes implicit in the
position he holds and all that it entails.
But there has never been much doubt
of Stevenson’s convictions and remark
able qualifications for this post. To hear
him in debate, to hear how the atmos
phere of any session rises as he starts to
speak; to hear how subtly, how cleverly,
how tirelessly his brilliant mind fxmc-
tions—put another way: to note how the
debate flags and the U.S. cause falters
when he is not present—this is to be ut
terly convinced that Adlai Stevenson as
head of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. is
irreplaceable.
President Kennedy has a grave respon
sibility to keep this man where he is
and it is a responsibility not only to the
United States but to the United Nations
itself. The President should take steps
immediately to quell any Adminstration
disagreements or jealousies or any state
political moves which may lie back of
this current news story. He should make
unihistakeable clear his firm determina
tion to keep Ambassador Stevenson right
where he is.
As this page was going to press
Tuesday, Stevenson announced that
he would remain with the UN. Ob
viously, we are pleased with his
decision.
Strong Case Made for Saving Trees
is unique among roads of the state and
is greatly admired.”
With the cooperation of Mayor John
S. Ruggles, this newspaper last week car
ried a front page box relating the fact
that, following a tragic accident on Mid
land Road, in which two young men were
killed and a third seriously injured,
several people had suggested to the
mayor that it might be well that the
trees planted in the center dividing sec
tion of the road should be eliminated. The
mayor said that he would be interested
to know how others felt about it. And
The Pilot said it would welcome letters
on the subject.
Letters in favor of keeping the trees
appear on this page. The mayor says that
he personally does not favor cutting the
trees and that the majority of those per
sons who told him their opinions agree
with him. The mayor quoted some of
their reasons as:
“That it would just make the road into
a speedway.”
“That it would destroy beauty which
“The destruction of the trees would do
no good: any car going at such high speed
as to run into the trees would Simply
continue across the narrow strip, striking
trees on the further side of the other lane,
with the grave possibility of crashing
head-on into an approaching car.”
“To eliminate the trees would not lessen
the danger to the wild driver and would
increase it greatly for others.”
Another voice favoring retention of the
trees adds: “The belt of trees makes night
driving much pleasanter and safer as it
helps to dim the glare of approaching
cars.”
The Pilot adds its disapproval of the
tree-cutting suggestion and feels that,
with the letters and the opinions express
ed to the mayor, defenders of the trees
have made a successful case. We feel sure
that most residents of the area agree.
Itinerant Crooks: Get Big-Shots, Too
Moore County law enforcement officers
showed commendable alertness and per
sistence In tracking down and arresting
a member of a magazine subscription
sales crew who had persuaded an old
man in upper Moore County to sign a
check for $184.50 for many years of maga
zine subscriptions, some of them extend
ing more than 15 years into the future.
The man is now over 80 years of age.
Fortunately, one of the crew members
was apprehended before she had been
able to cash the check. Arrested and jail
ed, she was released on a $500 cash bond
posted by a prosperous-looking man who
said that he was a.district manager for
the subscription company whose home
office was listed as in another state. The
following week, when the case was called
in court, nobody appeared and the bond
was forfeited—a welcome financial wind
fall for the county.
No matter how happily the case turned
out for the intended victim, or for the
county, we do not think the matter should
be dropped there. If the crew attempted
to cheat somebody in Moore County (they
said the subscriptions were for the benefit
of veterans’ hospitals), wouldn’t they at
tempt to cheat elsewhere, in this or other
states? If they are operating from another
state, isn’t the situation subject to investi
gation by the FBI? Most important,
shouldn’t some effort be made to get
at the leaders of such an enterprise—to
be prosecuted if guilty of encouraging
fraud by their underlings or to be inform
ed, if they don’t know that their employ
ees are trying to cheat people? Here, as
so often in the shadowy world of crime,
the big manipulators, who no doubt also
take most of the “profits,” may be man
aging to go free while little people take
the rap.
Everyone has a stake in this process
of tracking down and putting out of
circulation itinerant crooks who prey qn
gullible or stupid persons, usually those
least able to afford the loss, not only in
the field of magazine subscriptions but
in home repairs, termite-treating, con
tributions to non-existing charities and
so forth. Suspicious persons of this sort
should be reported immediately to police.
And law enforcement organizations,
everywhere, should make an effort not
only to rid their own communities of
such crooks but to cooperate, state-wide
and nation-wide, in tracking down any
big-shots who may be directing their
operations.
Fight the Good Fight, Chapel Hill!
Taking special pride in their town’s
trees and shrubbery, as well as in all
sites of natural beauty in the area. Sou
thern Pines people feel much sympathy
for residents of Chapel Hill as they face
the possibility that a line of high tension
electric transmission towers may be run
through one of that community’s most
sheltered and beautiful sections.
In a letter to the Raleigh News and
Observer, Phillips Russell of Chapel Hill
—joimnalist, historian, author and con
sistent fighter for individual rights—
points out that every town in the State
has a stake in the Chapel Hill controver-
versj?^. “The power company,” he writes,
“by matching eminent domain (its legal
right to take over the land it needs for
the power line) against due process of
law, threatens the good looks of every
town, city and community. . . ” The 14th
amendment, Mr. Russell notes, demands
that no such property be taken without
due process of law. He writes vividly
that the power company proposes to come
in “by hobnail boots. . . to throw an
uglifying line of transmission towers
across one of the most beautiful sections
of the community.”
Southern Pines is not so remote from
Chapel Hill, either geographically or in
The Farm Problem
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The Public Speaking
Citizens Oppose Suggestion to Cut Trees on Midland Road As Safety Measure
Police Supervision
On Midland Rd. Best
To the Editor:
Many of us have been deeply
upset about the suggestion that
the trees on Midland Road be cut
down, to help prevent accidents
caused by speeding car drivers.
Such a proposition puts the
blame where it does not belong.
That road is one of the very beau
tiful spots in this area. It is a
pleasure to drive there, to enjoy
the beauty of the trees all thru
the year, the relief from glare
and the feeling of protection
and the oneness of Nature. . .
The trees are not to blame. In
fact, they protect. The fault is
with the reckless driving, the dan
gerous speeding. That is where
the pressure should be. If there
were no trees, speeding cars could
easily swerve across the parsway,
undeterred by the trees, and pos
sibly crash into other cars, caus
ing injury or death there, too. We
need the trees as a safeguard.
I think that continuous, rigid
supervision of that area, begin
ning a half mile on Broad St., is
at present the only feasible way
of control. That would throw a
great responsibility and added
burden on the police force.. But—
isn*t it worth it? I speak for
many
GRACE E. THWING a!
to have those trees dividing the
two lanes. Otherwise what would
stop wild drivers, when they are
crossing this dividing area at full,
speed, as a result of losing con
trol of their cars? Nothing; ex
cept probably an oncoming car in
the opposite lane. So instead of
two people killed, we might have
other people killed in the other
lane.
It is highly improbable that a
person who cannot control his car
at high speed on the road would
be able to take mastership of it
on the narrow strip of grass be
tween the two lanes. Most prob
ably he will end in the opposite
lane. If, at the moment, no other
car is approaching he will pos
sibly come out of the adventure
not too badly. But only IF. When
in such doubt, it is much better
tor the trip to end against a tree
than against another car.
But now, what happens? People
suggest: Down should come the
trees! Seed grass on the dividing
line! May I suggest: to lay down
a carpet, also, across the grass?
It would be more inviting to the
speeders, i may say: why build
nice highways for speeding?
Your editorial last week right
ly said: “The sort of driving };hat
kills people must be viewed as a
positive evil.”
What rriust be counted first of
is the driver’s attitude. Mech-
the realm of common community in
terests, that its residents would qot be
justified in actively expressing their out
rage at the proposal and their sympathy
with those who are leading the fight
against it.
Preservation of the beautiful and tradi
tional—a concern of Mr. Russell’s for
many years, in addition to his other in
terests—has no geographical barriers.
Just as on the national scale, people from
all parts of the nation take part in legis
lative battles to create national parks,
wilderness areas and nation-wide protec
tion for certain types of wildlife, so here
in the state, it seems to us, the voices of
residents of the state outside Chapel Hill
may justifiably be raised in the Chapel
Hill controversy. And they may well
prove effective in influencing the out
come.
COMPREHENSION
'There exists a passion for compre
hension, just as there exists a passion
for music. That passion is rather com
mon in children, but gets lost in most
people later on. Without this passion
there would be neither mathematics
nor natural science.
—ALBERT EINSTEIN
(Editor’s Note: Using the
town’s “speed watch,” local
police made 10 arrests for
speeding on Midland Road in
one evening, a day or two
after last week’s fatal acci
dent.)
Tragic Accident is
Lesson—But Save Trees!
To The Editor:
Commenting on the suggestions
made by interested citizens on
the advisability of cutting down
the pine trees in the center section
of Midland Road, I would greatly
appreciate it if you would allow
me the medium of your newspa
per to express my opinion on this
matter.
Is the cutting of trees really a
safe measure? I think: no. For
several reasons, but I limit my
self particularly to one.
Usually people, who smash
their cars against trees are pay
ing for some kind of grave infrac
tion of the law they themselves
are committing.
In the case of the two boys kill
ed a few days ago, these were:
(1) travelling at 65 in a place
where the allowed speed was 35;
(2) at a time, 9 p. m., when even
the allowed speed should be re
duced sensibly; and(3) in a place,
a curve, where even without using
the two safety rules mentioned,
one should have common sense to
remember something ■ about cen
trifugal force.
I would say we are fortunate
anical limitations and other meas
ures of control are certainly com
mendable and should be enforc
ed, but first of all the driver him
self should be educated.
If cutting down trees between
lar..2s is a safety measure, it might
be asked why so many modern
highways are using the center
strip for plantings. This is done
with a purpose of relaxing the
driver, easing the monotony of
PERFECT BEAUTY
The vision of perfect beauty is
the particular contribution of
Gnsece to the Christian tradition.
Without it we are nothing. The
vision implies that men should
live abundantly and nobly in
cities that are worthy of them,
and with a sense of awe before
the ghostly beauty of the earth.
^ In the Iliad the anger of Achilles
▼is “terrible as the morning star”;
that was how the Greek imagin
ation worked. They saw in the
morning star a tarrible divinity,
who was very beautiful.
They saw holiness wherever
they walked. They saw it in little
things. It was in the girl singing
in the cornfield and in the young
woman going down to the well
and in the child riding for the
first time on his father’s shoul
ders; and there was the same
holiness in the shape of the Par
thenon, for that too was beauti
ful.
—Robert Payne in “The Splen-'
dor of Greece.”
driving, protecting his eyes from
glare. Not everywhere is this
done but in many places. Where
it exists, somebody, some kind of
intelligent authority, planned it
after careful study of the whole
question..
Let us all hope that this tragic
accident will be a lesson to all of
us and a warning. The tree into
which the car crashed may have
saved my life or yours or the
lives of any of the interested cit
izens who want to have the trees
cut down. At that paricular mo
ment any of us could have been
driving in that opposite lane; and
if the tree had not been there. . .
FERDINANDO SAMUELLI
Southern Pines
Cutting Trees Would
Increase Road Danger
To the Editor:
I should like to very strongly
oppose the removal of the trees in
th.3 center section that divides the
two lanes on Midlajid Road.
The removal of those trees
from the center strip would not
lessen accidents but would create
the most deadly highway hazard
W.2 have today; namely, the head-
on collision. It is bad enough to
have these young men maim and
kill themselves because of exces
sive speed, but at least they
smash themselves up against
trees and not other cars across the
medial strip.
Present day double or dual
highway design calls for (1) wider
and wider separation of opposing
traffic to prevent cars out of con
trol crossing over to the opposite
lane; (2) opposite lanes on differ
ent levels where topography per
mits; (3) the planting of the sep
arating strip to create a barrier
to crossovers; (4) the ditching of
the center strip to stop cars from
reaching the other lane. Where
these safety measures are not
feasible the practice is to build a
curb, guard rail, or a low concrete
wall between lanes.
All of this is done to lessen the
hazard of cross-over head-on col
lisions.
Removal of the tree barrier be
tween lanes' on Midland Road
would increase that hazard, par
ticularly since the center strip is
so narrow in most cases.
ARTHUR B. COZZENS
405 Crestview Road
Don't Cut Trees; Raise
Money For Drag Strip
To the Editor:
As an alternate to the proposal
te cut the trees in the center of
Midland Road, as a traffic safety
measure, let’s “make Straight the
way” and raise money for a drag
strip to enable youngsters to get
■'“from there to here” in 60 seconds
flat—or even . . from nowhere
to somewhere!
D. A. DREXEL
Southern Pines
Grains of Sand
Oh Christmas Tree!
Our Mary Logan’s five-year-
old nephew Gary over in Ger
many with his parents, came
home from school recently in
some excitement.
“We’re going to sing German
Christmas carols!” he told his
mother.
“How nice,” said she. “Can you
sing me one?”
“Sure,” said Gary. “The best
one goes like this:
‘O ’tomic bomb!
O ’tomic bomb!’ ”
Where's Rounds?
The state press is slipping.
’That story, now, about Glen
Rounds receiving the American
University Women’s prize, last
week, for the best juvenile book
of the year. The Greensboro
Daily News and the News and
Observer both had him from
Pinebluff and everybody knows
he and Margaret and Bill have
been living down on the corner
of Pennsylvania and Ridge for at
lease four years. We hate to say it
of our colleagues, but four years
behind the news is going some.
The Charlotte Observer didn’t
even let him live in North Caro
lina. Had him from Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey. Phooey, Ob
server! “Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey!” Who ever heard of
Englewood Cliffs? Or New Jer
sey?
And what was that book that
won the prize? “BEAVER BUSI
NESS .” They should have had
that beaver kit there to write up
the occasion. At least he would
have known that his pal Rounds
lives in Southern Pines. And al
ways will, we hope, hope, HOPE.
Not Worth Hearing
From Norwich, England, comes
a sad tale about a certain Fred
erick Wilkinson, 67-year-old
milkman, who is rather deaf.
It never bothered him much,
apparently.
“After all, these days, what is
there to listen to?” Frederick
would ask his friends, not expect
ing to hear their answer.
Recently, however, the police
summoned him to court on a
charge of reckless driving. This
worried Frederick. He had been
hauled up for careless driving
nine months ago and, as he ex
plained later:
“I’m so deaf I couldn’t hear
the evidence and the first thing
I knew they fined me 5 pounds
($14).”
Frederick decided not to get
caught that way again. So he
armed himself with a hearing aid
which cost him 64 guineas
($188.16) and showed up in court,
recently, prepared to do battle.
Whereupon, the judge dismiss
ed the case because the sumrtions
was not served within fourteen
days of the alleged incident, as
required by law.
“And,” said Frederick sadly,
“the only way I can get my
money’s worth out of the hearing
aid now is by going around lis
tening to people.”
Two Firsts
Moore County feels a sort of
half interest in two honors be
stowed on two Moore County his
torians at the recent Culture
Week Whoopla, (1) The man
elected president of the Society
of Local and County Historians
is Blackwell Robinson, author of
Volume 1, “The First Hundred
Years of Moore County,” and (2)
the man who won the Peace
Prize, this year, for county his
tories is Manly Wade Wellman,
now engaged in writing Volume
2, the next hundred years of
Moore County’s history.
Manly won his award for his
“History of Warren County.”
'This was the book upon which
the local committee largely based
their choice of Manly to do the
second hundred years of Moore
County. Largely. And small-ly
because Manly still calls Moore
County “home.”
The PILOT
Published Every Thursday by
THE PILOT, Incorporated
Southern Pines, North Carolina
1941—JAMES BOYC-^1944
Katharine Boyd Editor
C. Benedict Associate Editor
Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr.
C. G. Council Advertising
Mary Scott Newton Business
Mary Evelyn de Nissoff Society
Composing Room
Dixie B. Ray, • Michael Valen,
Thomas Mattocks and James E.
Pate.
Subscription Rates
Moore County
One Year $4.06
Outside Moore County
One Year $5.06
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Southern Pines, N. C.
at
Member National Editorial Assn,
and N. C. Press Assn.