Page TWO
THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina
ILOT
“Hi-Ho, Pro-Blue Awayyy!'
p' s V y North Carolina
“In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We will try to keep this a go(^
pfpe? wVwS S .0 make a UWe moke, 1,. eU conceroei meje.er
an occasion to use our influence for the public good we will try^ to do it. And we win
treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23,
The Governor’s Call
If North Carolina were hit by a major epidemic, a heavy hurricane
and a strafing by enemy planes from the coast to the mo^teu^, we wou
suffer no more than we suffered froin traffic accidente “ „ ^^s
The casualty list on North Carolina roaj nif^tiaTllVo^miUiorin
killed, more than 34,028 persons injured and more than $205 miUion in
^^^This^ terrible toll came despite the excellent efforts of an
Denartment of Motor Vehicles and its law enforcing agency, the State
Highway Patrol. It came despite the safety features being built i^^o om
Sghwa/s by the State Highway Department engineers. It c^e despite
aU the traffic safety work done by private and 'hard to
That traffic safety work, of course, was not in vam, for it is nara to
estimate what our losses would have been without these efforts, but ob-
I called on leadep ot
industry business and the public agencies concerne^ith traffic safety to
nrepar/a program of public education, through the Traffic Saftey Coimcik
in all-out effort to reduce accidents and the resulting suffering. , ^ ° ^ T
tivforthe TrlS^^ Safety Council is to reduce deaths through a crash
'’'TcS'AStyftfliople of Nopth Carolina will determine the
success of this program and I solicit that cooperation at this time.
—TERRY SANFORD
Governor of North Carolina
‘We Must Do Something More... ’
In answer to “The Governor s Call,
appearing above, the Institute of Govern
ment at the University of North Carolina
has published, as a special issue of its
magazine, “Popular Government, ^ im
pressive outline of the state s traffic
problem and of some of the things that
can be done to meet it. •
This summary of the state’s shocking
accident record, with its inspiring chal
lenge to every motorists’s personal res
ponsibility in stemming the fatal tide, is
being sent not only to newspapers and
radio and television stations but to
tv and municipal officials, to students lb
ykrs old and older in the 800 or more
high schools of the state and to^ members
of civic and professional organizations-
Along with it is going a letter asking
each group to outline for the Institute of
Government what it is doing or expects
to do about safety on the streets and
highways in its own community. Such
safety information will be correlated and
reissued by the Institute of Government
so that every community may profit by
the experience of every other community
in working out its program for cutting
down killings, injuries and accidents.
The Institute of Government study gets
down to fundamentals in a way that we
do not recall having seen' the traffic pro
blem approached previously. i
The traffic peril, the study points out,
threatens and often violates two rights
due every man, woman and child in
North Carolina: the right to freedom
from fear of bodily harm and the right
to freedom from aggression on his pro
perty—both rights that have come down
to us through centuries of common law.
And, in proposed action, the study also
gets down to fundamentals. It sees the
traffic threat as a crisis of charact^:
“We must take its measure or it will take
ours.” ^ ^ t A
The threat is seen also as a test ot de
mocracy, a form of government that
assures personal freedom, but demands ■
also, to keep that freedom, personal re
sponsibility.
And, finally, the traffic threat is
uniquely and teUingly interpreted as a
challenge to religion. Recalling Cam s
age-old question, “Am I my brother s
keeper?,” the study says, “ . . . There
is no dodging the responsibility coming
with the fact that on the streets and
highways of North Carolina, every driver
at the wheel is in every other driver s
keeping. . . ”
To further point up the traffic threat
as a challenge to religion, the study
notes:
“The kingdom of safety, like the king
dom of God, is not in traffic laws alone,
nor in traffic enforcing officers alone,
nor in driver licensing nor in driver
training alone, nor in accident records
and reports alone ... It is in \ou. And
the keys to the kingdom are in the hands
of -every driver at the wheel. . .
Many Pilot readers will ho doubt come
in contact with the special issue of “Popu
lar Government.” We urge that all our
readers attempt to see a copy.
Sharing Governor Sanford’s belief that
the traffic safety problem is one of North
Carolina’s priority concerns. The Pilot
will from time to time bring to readers
more information from the Institute of
Government’s detailed and inspiring
study. And we pledge our continued ef
forts in this great cause.
Good News for the Business Section
It is good news that local merchants are
organizing for the upbuilding of the busi
ness section and that the Jaycees, who are
concerned about deterioration in the
downtown area, are pledging their co
operation in efforts to improve the situ
ation.
Both developments are reported in
news stories elsewhere in today’s Pilot.
After preliminary organization under
a temporary chairman and a steering
committee last year, the Merchants Coun
cil will be formally set up at a meeting
February 19. The Jaycees, who as young
men in business here are especially con
cerned about the future of Southern
Pines, met Tuesday night of this week
with town council members to ask ques
tions about plans for the future develop
ment of Southern Pines, state their views
on the urgency of action and offer their
cooperation.
It is obvious that the Southern Pines
busineiss sbction is at a point of crisis.
There are a number of vacant store or
office facilities, the town’s only depart
ment store has closed and the pace of
business generally does not seem to be
keeping up With the growth of the town,
new home construction and other evi
dence of expansion and prosperity.
Alert merchants are aware that too
much trade is going out of town and
that something must be done to keep
more of it at home, if only, as a start, to
give better service to customers, keep
shops cleaner and make them otherwise
more attractive and try to build up stocks
so that local shoppers can get more of
what they want here.
There are observers of the Southern
Pines business section who say that this
is the merchants’ last chance to revitalize
the downtown area. While we do not
U. S. HAS REJECTED SPLINTER GROUPS
2~Party System Good for Nation
The “North Carolina Demo
crat,” official newspaper of
the Democratic party in this
state, has been running a
series of articles by prominent
party TOembers, dealing with
the significance of the party,
why they are Democrats and
such topics. One of the De
mocrats quoted is Walter
Davenport of Pinebluff, a for
mer editor of Colliers maga
zine and co-author of “Ladies,
Gentlemen and Editors,” pub
lished several months ago. Mr.
Davenport goes to bat for the
two-party system in the
United States:
thinlj that a proposed shopping center
between Southern Pines and Aberdeen
will necessarily be a knockout blow to
in-town business, it is clear that such an
installation poses still another challenge
to town merchants.
Unless merchants show more inclina
tion to cooperate for the development
of the business community than they
have during past ill-fated attempts to set
up and keep going a vigorous Chamber
of Commerce, Southern Pines has reason
to be gloomy. The reception accorded the
new Merchants Council will be a test
of whether local business people have
finally learned that they must work to
gether for the common good if this com
munity is to attain its potential in shop
ping appeal.
Having the energetic and interested
Jaycees—a younger generation coming
along in business—behind the new effort
should do much to promote its success.
There is another side to the coin—and
it’s just as important. If Southern P nes
merchants make this community a better
and pleasanter place to shop, residents of
Southern Pines should reward such an
effort by trading here. No merchant wil^l
enlarge his stock or redecorate his store
or train his employees carefully, unless
customers appear and buy. The merchants
do not propose to make improvements
to please each other but Jo please custo
mers-
It is the buying public, the residents of
Southern Pines, who in the end will make
or break the program of the Merchants
Council and the Jaycees.
Here, then, is a chance for everybody—
merchants and customers—to rescue and
revitalize day-to-day business in Southern
Pirtesi
BY WALTER DAVENPORT
To clear the immediate fore
ground of political debris let’s
write off that tribal hula-hoop
called the multi-party system of
government. At best it is a fox
hole complex further befuddling
the voter who is never quite sure
what’s going on anyway. Ask
France. As for providing the in
dignant voter with the identity
of the legislator resp'onsible for
his woes it is as futile as a prayer
for rain in the Sahara or a search
for truth in Pravda. Let Us grate
fully forget it. Here anyway.
We are left then with two
strong party contenders for world
government domination-—the two-
party routine, the true republican
form of democracy deriving all
its powers directly or indirectly
from' the people, versus dictator
ship by a single tough politician
who has been nourished on gun
fire. In the not-too-dimly foresee
able future this beatup world of
ours may be called upon, perhaps
peremptorily, to decide which
system is going to prevail for
what’s left of us, a prospect as
cheerless as a rainy Monday mor-
But let’s stop wondering before
we’re as bemused as the citizen
rummaging through the multi
party maze for the reason he is
not getting his money’s worth. It
is true of course that in a few
of the United States of America
a dictatorless orie-party system
obtains as a social rather than an
actual political way of life but I
have not been able to rationalize
the belief that those states would
be purer or richer or even more
democratic were they to add a
really challenging second party to
their political snake dances nor
whether the two-party device
would promote the general wel
fare. After all an Alabaman, for
example, would be an Alabaman
regardless of party registration.
Political philosophers have
written permanent cures for in
somnia with analyses of why the
United States has reject^ the
splinter party—^the multi-party
system. Here, there is neither the
space, demand or inclination to
review them. Third, fourth and
fifth parties have, burgeoijed but
never bloomed. They have been
bom of discontent, personal am
bition, special privilege and a de
sire to make holy if not free.
Some died aborning, others in in
fancy and all, insofar as our na
tional elections are concerned,
vanished because the path they
urged us to walk was too straight
and too narrow. As a lot, they
were as alluring as cold hamburg
er. Only one had a magnetic
Grand Marshal—the Bull Moose
Party.
We recall the names of a few
that emerged fromi gloom and
vanished in fog; The Locofocs of
1835, the Freesoilers of 1844, the
Know Nothings of the mid-fiftids,
ihe Greenbackers of 1876, the
Populists who raised hell and
com too from 1890 to 1908, the
Farmers Alliance, the hapless
Socialists and, oh yes. the peren
nial Prohibitionists. There were
many more.
None had roots deeper than a
creeper’s. None had what Hamil
ton gave to what was to be, fifty
years later, the Republican Party.
None had the humanitarianism of
Jefferson nor the warm cunning
of Jackson. All of them were
Johnny-One Note Bands and al
most all of them were presently
and sometimes quickly absorbed
into the universality of today’s
miajor American parties—two. The
catch-all Democratic Party did
better than ninety-nine percent
of the absorbing, leaving to the
opposition the futile job of Gold-^
watering faded flowers and stum-
blind through old marble halls
looking for the door to the,
twentieth century.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1962
I Grains of Sand |
Coincidence
It isn’t althogether expert tim
ing on the part of the Sandhills
Music Association that brings the
North Carolina Little Symphony
here February 15, just as Music
Week is coming to a close. In
fact, as Governor Sanford only
recently announced the creation
of this new Week, you’d have to
admit it is just a lucky coinci
dence that brings the state orches
tra here at such an appropriate
time.
Be that as it may, it’s coming,
and Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin
Swalin are coming along with it
to visit, for the umteenth time.
Southern Pines and the Sand
hills which they have come to
know so well and where they
have made so many wanmi friends.
Welcome back, Ben and Maxine,
and the Little Symphony players!
As always the orchestra will
play for the school children of
the county as well as the evening
concert for the adults. Music for
the young folks is a most im-
portant part of the state orches-
tra’s program.
Hi. Grosbeaks!
Page Miss Wintyen. Doubtless
inspired by her words, as publish
ed a few issues ago in this paper,
saying that she was making a
record of the yellow-and-black
birds’ visits hereabouts, the little
masked bandits have arrived.
First word came from Louise
and John Faulk who called in
Tuesday to announce there were
eight evening grosbeaks drink
ing lustily from their birdbath.
More grosbeak news, anyone?
Hen, Egg Or Grower?
A lively discussion among
Moore County’s Commissioners
MondEiy, ably led by Farm Agent
Allen, on the subject of restricting
the supply of broilers—quotas for
each grower, for instance—came
to a grinding stop on the ques
tion; How?
How and also who?
Said Mr. Allen: “Everybody
knows you’ve got to cut down on
the supply or the business will
go to pot. Yet every grower is
just rarin’ to go!”
“Trouble is,” commented Com-
rmissioner and chicken expert
John Currie, ’’Everybody is ex
pecting everybody else to do the
restricting.”
To which GRAINS meekly of
fers the suggestion: What about
the Hen? Couldn’t she be persuad
ed?
Must Wildlife Be Sacrificed ?
From "Wildlife in North Carolina"
Official Publication of the N. C.
Wildlife R^ources Commission
Waterfowl hunters and conser
vationists statewide and nation
wide have been up in a roar aver
since last fall when the U. S. Air
Force first proposed leasing fifty
square miles of land in Hyde
County for a practice bombing
range. Everyone agrees that fight
er pilots neetj practice to become
effective’in combat. But tempers
and blood pressure rose when it
was learned that the practice
range would^e within four miles
The Public
Speaking
Citizens Should Protest
Town's Dog Ordinance
To the Editor:
Have been much interested in
letters referring to the drastic
proposed ordinance which seems
to have stirred up so many “dog-
lovers.”
Recently a letter to The Pilot
asked if the editor cares to name
10 such “special citizens,” listing
kind of dog and manner by which
they intended to keep their pets
within bounds. It does not seem
feasible to ask that this be done,
but I do not hesitate to say that
all “dog-lovers” would no doubt
be very proud to stand up and
be counted, and the same goes
for “cat-lovers” also.
They would also deny that they
wish the town to be “run for the
dogs” rather than for the good
of its citizens. All they ask is
that a fair and workable law be
put into effect and not the in
humane proposal approved in the
council meeting some weeks ago.
“Grains of Sand” brought out a
very good point in regard to de
linquency and dog-loving children
—which seldom go together.
(Did “Lassie” ever lead Timmy
astray?)
Here’s hoping there is enough
more protest over the ordinance
so that our “city fathers” will be
compelled to re-write same.
MRS. DAN R. McNEILL
of Lake Mattamuskeet National
Waterfowl' Refuge.
The reason? It costs $2,000,000
yearly to send jet fighters to Nev
ada for bombing practice. That
looks like a lot of money on the
face of it, but it is about'the cost
of one expendable and easily re
placeable jet fighter. It is about
forty-four ten-thousandths of one
per cent (.0044) of our defense
budget! By comparison, that is an
infinitesimal cost. ’
Our defense program is set up
to defend- our country, its people
and its natural resources. But
somewhere along the line there
must come a point of diminishing
returns—a point where we must
cease to destroy natural resources
in the name of defending them.
There is no question in the
minds of conservationists that es
tablishing a bombing range at the
back door of Mattamuskeet, re
gardless of how small the “dum
my” bombs are, will disturb or
disperse a vital segment of the
wintering migratory waterfowl
population of the Atlantic flyway.
The “boom” of a sonic shock
wave is almost as loud as the de
tonation of a World War II block
buster. The problem resolves to
a choice between spending a
couple of millions of dollars and
jeopardizing a population of
waterfowl that, once extermina
ted, is gone forever.
We do not pretend to have more
than a newspaper reader’s
knowledge of military tactics and
strategy, but it seems strange
that fifty square miles more land
is needed for a bombing range
in a section of North Carolina
where there are already eight
Navy bombing ranges and three
operated by the Marine Corps.
It would seem that a technolo
gy capable of tripling the speed
of sound, putting a man in orbit,
and sending a missile around the
sun, would be able to find a
place where practice bombing
would not need to jeopardize a
major segment of the wild goose
population of eastern North
America.
Signs of the Times
A number of families in Moore
County value a television set
higher -than they do running
water, a flush toilet or bothtub
or shower. And this comes
straight from the horse’s mouth;
the Bureau of the Census.
The Bureau’s 1960 census in
Moore County listed a total of 11,-
259 housing units (9,866 of them
occupied).
No less than 7,226 of these had
TV but: 7,002 had running water
(hot and cold), 6,992 had a flush
toilet and 6,842 had a bathtub or
shower.
Suggestion
A number of persons have spok
en to The Pilot about ice on side
walks in the business section be
ing a hazard to pedestrians, par
ticularly older residents. (This
was after the snow of a fev/
weeks ago.
Most of the ice, it was pointed
out, was formed by snow that
had melted during the day and
then frozen at night. V’lth no
sun and sub-freezing weather all
the next day, it remained danger
ous.
Point is, if store owners had
shoveled their sidewalks when the
snow first fell,' there wouldn’t
have been any slush to freeze into
ice. Another suggestion made was
that store owners adjoining va
cant property split up the task of
clearing off the intervening siae-
walk.
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
Mary Evelyn de Nissoff Society
Composing Room
Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen,
Thomas Mattocks, J. E. Pate, Sr.,
Charles 'Weatherspoon and John
E. Lewis.
Subscription Rates
Moore County
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Southern Pines, N. C.
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and N. C. Press Assn.