Page TWO
THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15. 1962
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 Uttle money for all concerned. Wherever there seems to be
an occasion to use our influence for the public good we will fry to do it. And we will
treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23. 1941.
Better Not Split Opposition to Kitehin
May primary opposition to Rep. A.
Paul Kitehin of Wadesboro, the “conser
vative” Democratic Congressman who
votes against his party’s program more
than he votes for it, seems assured, with
two possible candidates in the current
news—C. B. Deane of Rockingham who
had a distinguished record in the House
of Representatives for several terms be
fore he was defeated in the 1956 primary
by Rep. Kitehin, and State Rep. John P.
Kennedy of Charlotte, a brainy young
legislator whose star in politics appears
to be rising.
This newspaper has long admired Mr.
Deane for his party loyalty, political
courage and strong humanitarian and
spiritul convictions. Though less familiar
with Rep. Kennedy’s record, we have
heard much to recommend him. As this
was written early this week, neither
Deane nor Kennedy had formally an
nounced his candidacy. Rep. Kitehin is
on record with his intention to run.
We most earnestly hope that the race
does not develop into a situation in which
loyal Democrats will have to choose be
tween Deane and Kennedy in a three-way
primary contest, splitting the “liberal
vote” and likely assuring the renomina
tion of Kitehin.
We hope that District and State leaders
of the loyal Democrats can consult with
Deane and Kennedy and their supportears
and work out an agreement for the can
didacy of one or the other. We would not
like to play Solomon in such a decision
but, somehow, we think such a decision
should be made, preferably after a care
ful survey of the vote-getting potential
of each man.
The objective is to provide the 8th Dis
trict with a candidate who can give
loyal and enthusiastic Democratic leader
ship, both in the November election
against the strong Republican threat of
Charles R. Jonas, and, after victory, in
the Congress.
Two Big Ifs’ in Civil Defense
The Southern Pines High School stu
dents who are circulating a questionnaire
about fallout shelters and other Civil De
fense matters are to be commended for
stimulating public interest.
center o*f attack.
There are two bi^ “ifs” that are the
keys to attitudes on shelters, it seems to
us
A copy of the questionnaire appears
elsewhere in today’s Pilot, with a re
quest from the students that readers of
this newspaper fill in their answers in
order that an even wider cross-section of
local opinion can be obtained. A report
on partial results of several hundred
answers already turned in appeared in
the . high school news column of last
week’s Pilot.
Arguments about fallout shelters tak
ing place in street corner conversations
are duplicated in disagreements among
the top scienj;ists of the nation—some
thinking that shelters are futile against
nuclear attack and even dangerous if
they lull the populace into complacency
about the possibility of war, others think
ing that it is grossly negligent not to do
anything possible to assure protection,
from radioactive fallout especially, to
those millions who would not be in a
1. IF a private individual undertaking
to provide himself and his family with a
shelter works equally as hard to assure
public shelters for the many who can’t
afford private ones or who for some other
reason must continue unprotected—then
we think that a private shelter is justi
fied.
2. IF the search for peace, for an alter
native to an unthinkable nuclear war,
inspires as least as much energy, effort
and action, by governments and individ
uals, as does the Civil Defense effort, then
CD and shelter program is morally
acceptable.
We think that something along the
lines of these two “if” propositions— a
compromise between the extreme views
of pro- and anti-shelter groups—is work
ing toward acceptance by the American
people.
We urge Pilot readers to let their opin
ions be known via the students’ question
naire.
‘Responsible Action’
North Carolina’s Senator Ervin is to
be congratulated for his decision to sup
port the Administration’s suggestion of a
bond issue to help finance the United
Nations. The Senator based his decision,
he said, on his conviction that as the
United Nations “is the only organization
pledged to preserving the peace, we can
not afford to permit it to die for lack of
financial sustenance.”
It has not been often that this news
paper has agreed with Senator Ervin’s
voting record. And even in this state
ment, in which he admits that he has
many resfervations about the UN, he
makes at least one assertion that gives a
that
Hail to the Horses!
There’s a big week-end coming up for
the Moore County Hounds, the many
visitors from out of town and others in
terested in horses.
There are so many horses arriving for
Saturday’s Hunter Trials, out Youngs
Road at Scotts Corner, that there is a pro
blem of finding stable space for them,
we’re told, and people coming in are
happily occupying hotel and motel faci
lities, as well as the guest rooms of pri
vate homes.
Most of the riders are arriving today—
so many that there’ll be a special hunt of
the Moore County Hoxmds tomorrow (Fri
day), to be followed by the Himter Trials
Saturday afternoon, the Hunt Ball that
night and a schooling horse show for the
entertainment of all who want to watch,
Sunday afternoon—all events that are
listed in detail in today’s news colums.
It looks, in fact, like a big late Whiter
and Spring for horses in the Sandhills.
The annual Point-to-Point Race was held
recently. Coming along on March 16 and
17 will be the Fifty-Mile Ride, sponsored
by the Town of Southern Pines, with co
operation of the Moore County Hounds,
and then, on March 24, the Stoneybrook
Steeplechase whose chairman said this
week that no less than 10,000 visitors are
expected for the day. It’s pointed out
that this gaila week-end is a wonderful
time for residents of the Sandhills to en
tertain friends, take them to the races
and introduce them to this area on one
of its liveliest and most colorful occasions.
The Pilot welcomes this weekend’s
visitors and salutes participants in the
Hunter Trials and all the hard-working
people who are making this and other
horse events successful in the Sandhills.
“Extra! Capitalist Spy Released For
Humanitarian Reasons!”
Grains of Sand
li. S
^5
ft
4 HiJ
‘ 4 K
-V
Those Close-Mouthed Doctors
Hospital Telephone Talk:
“Hello. Is this M. M. (or St. J.) ^ ,
Hospital?”
“Yes, m’am.”
“I’m calling to ask about Mrs.
Brown in Room 604. How is she
getting along?’’
“Mrs. Brown? Jpst a moment—
Oh, she’s getting along just fine.
Who is this calling?”
“This is Mrs. Brown. You know
the doctor never tells you any
thing, so I thought I’d just check
with you.”
A il
**/.
.'I'
Swamp Industries
From a review b-'^ Country
Bookshop’s Lockie Parker of
IT’S A BIG CONTINENT, by B.
L. Burman: “The first stop was
Okefenoki Swamp chiefly inhabit
ed by alligators and Hard-shell
Baptists. Its products are; moon
shine and good yarns.”
Well, Bantists are noted as ra
conteurs of high degree, and sour
mash dished up by the ’gators
should be pretty powerful home
brew. . .
Is that the way it is down there,
Lockie? Do tell; which did which?
It Depends
Then there was this lady who
went to a pet shop to buy a can-
ary. She picked out what seemed ^
a nice little bird but when she •
got him back home and unicacked
the cage she was much unset to
discover that he was very lame.
In fact, he had only one leg
Back to the pet shop she flew
in a huff.
“This is outrageous,” she storm
ed, “You’ve sold me a canary with
only one leg,”
“Weeelll,” said the proprietor,
“that’s not bad canary.”
“Not bad! With only one leg?”
“It all denends, lady,” said the
prenrietor. “Did you buy him for
a linger or a dancer?”
A Close Look at the Meaning of Work
(From The Chapel Hill Weekly)
manifestly false picture. He says
“the deficit incurred by the UN was
largely caused by acts of aggression
against the Congo’s anti-Communist pro
vince of Katanga,” but he knows quite
well that there was a great deal going on
in Katanga, from the recklessly irrespon
sible departure of the Belgians to the
meddling of the .mining interests and tri
bal feuds, to deeply complicate the
picture.
But, without even such reservations,
we are glad to note that Ervin saw
through all the talk and the politics to the
essential issue; the UN must go on.
This vote of a Southern senator is
particularly Avelcome in today’s news
when, in the very next column, we read
the story—another of those stories—
about Senator Strom Thurmond of South
Carolina. And what is Thurmond doing
this time to muddy the waters in his ir
responsible attempts to create 'trouble
for this administration? He is asking that
Francis Gary Powers be summoned be
fore a public session of the Senate Armed
Services Committee-
Of all pieces of presumptuous insanity!
Powers belongs in one place and one
place only right now, and, we’d say, for
some time to come. "That place is the in
nermost chamber of the CIA. There he
will presumably be interviewed by the
right people, people who are trained to
evaluate his report and, above all, to keep
their mouths shut. Powers may have little
to say, but, it may well be that impress
ions gained during his incarceration in
Russia could be extremely valuable. Cert
tainly whatever he has to say should be
said only in strictest secrecy.
In making his statement to the press
of his reasons for voting as he plans to
do on the UN bond issue. Senator Ervin
used a deeply pertinent phrase: he said
that, though he had had some doubts he
“reached the conclusion that responsible
action on my part obliges me to vote for
it.”
“Responsible”—that’s the key word:
“responsible action.”
It may seem a little startling that a
U. S. senator should feel oblig^ to ex
plain about “responsible action.” But
Senator Ervin may rest assured that he
has done us a service in using just those
words. In fact, in view of what Thurmond
and a good many like him in both House
and Senate are doing, it might be a good
idea if those two words were written up
bold and clear on the wall of the two
chambers where all might see and heed.
Sunday afternoon the oil man.
came churning up t’ne driveway
in his truck and filled the furnace
tank. I
“The other m.an’s got | pneu
monia,” he said. “1 jusj; thought
I’d get in a few licks to; keep up
with the orders.”
It was a little shocking, because
in New York the electricians
have pared their workday down
to five hours. At Cape Canaveral
the, carpenters wail as if stuck
with tenpenny nails when they
are asked to remove metal bands
from crates before dismantling
the crates. Metal bands are for
metal workers, they sav. and idle
until their pique is soothed.-
We seem to have lost our '
on the meaning of work, posdbly
because the dividin.g line ’o-etween
work and play has been furzied.
The coffee break, background
music, eye-ease paint, .iota apti
tude tests; specialization—all the
artifical appurtenances of a
workday’s activities—have sullied
the name of labor with a huge
mirage of contentment.
It seems as if work, these days,
is supposed to be less work and
more play with pay. Like the van
ished artisans, who produced their
best with tbeir hands because
they felt embarrassed in front of
themselves if they didn’t, the man
is rare now who considers his
work more a productive occupa
tion than a necessary task. Now
adays too many people seem to
feel trapped by the necessity to
earn a living. People used to have
a widespread pleasure over the
, fact that they could make money
doing what they liked. Now, ap
parently, a job has to be gaily
fringed with benefits before a
roan can be persuaded to do it.
In company with the fuzzied
boundary between work and play.
think a good deal more of money
than^you would if you were left
alone in peace.
is a frequently noticeable
shift of emphasis from t’ne value
of a job to the value of the job’s
remuneration. In a way this is un
derstandable. 'If you’re being bled
white by taxes and at the same
time driven by television to be
one of the Mad Aves instead of
one of the Mad Ave Nots, you
But the balance between bleed
ing and driving has, it seems,
swung to the point where work
is a means and the benefit is the
end. Fantastic though it may
seem, the situation used to be,
not exactly reversed, but certsfin-
ly differently emphasized. The
number of people in Chapel Hill
who actually say they don’t really
like what they do but they have
to do something is disturbing. It
seems there are a lol of people
who are spending their davs do
ing not what they want to do, but
something which earns them more
than anything else.
A comedian ' on television said
recently that when he was poor
he needed things he could not
buy; when he got rich he acquired
those things, and having acquired
them no longer needed them.
What a sad commentary on the
only animal equipped with both
a reasoning mind and a prehen
sile thumb.
Sav What?
George Jones was so devoted to
his mother-in-law that when she
moved to the West Coast he was
terribly upset. He decided to send
her a present. She was crazy
about birds, so he looked around
until he found just the thing: a
parrot of most remarkable pow
ers: he could speak seven lan
guages.
“How much?” asked George.
“A thousand dollars,” said the
storekeeper.
“What!” said George.
The storekeeper shrug,ged: “He
can talk seven languages.” And
the end of it was: George bought
the parrot and had it sent out to
his mother-in-law.
He gave it tim.e to get there
and then he called up the fplks^
“Well,” he asked, “what about
the bird? How did you like it?”
“Oh, George,” said the old lady,
“It was just delicious!
“Delicious!” squeaked George.
“Do you mean to say you ate it?
Why that bird could speak seven
languages!”
‘Tie could?” said his mother-m-
law, “Well, for heaven’s sake, why
didn’t he speak up?”
NO .MORE SAMPLING IN GROCERY STORES
The Plastic Age: Wrappings Threaten Humanity
By R. M. SBEAR
In the Madison "Messenger"
grocer weighed up the order,
sometimes keeping his thumb on
There are clear indications that
Ihe Plastic Age may well be the
last age of man.
During his sojourn upon earth,
man has survived the rigors of
the Stone Age, the Iron A"p. the
Bronze Age, the Ages of Steam
and Electricity; but, he has come
upon something very different in
the Age of Plastics.
Since the dawn of recorded his
tory, man has been a trader; and
he has always believed it to be
his inherent right as a human be
ing to feel, sniff, thump or taste
. the wares he buys.
To simplify, let us narrow the
problem before us, to the specific
one of the procurement and use
of food.
Within the memorv of most
adults, it was possible for a man
to go into a store and sniff, feel,
taste or thump the goods offered
for sale, before committing him
self to a trade or a purchase.
Few men would ever buy
cheese for example, without
tasting a fair sample from the
grocer’s hoop before buying. As a
matter of fact, I remember one
old boy in my home town who
made regular rounds of the gro
cery stores sampling cheeses.- He
used to declare that a cheese that
didn’t have sufficient strength to
walk across the counter under its
own power,- was no cheese at all.
When this old boy found a cheese
that suited him, he bought the
whole hoop.
It was the same way with other
items of food, for many people.
People went to the grocery
stores and sampled the wares be
fore they bought. When they
found what they wanted, the
Are Nighthawks Becoming
Rarer in The Sandhills?
To the Editor:
Enclosed is a newspaper clip
ping sent by a friend in which the
early extermination of the night-
hawk in certain parts of the
country seems to be indicated.
Until reading it, I had not rea
lized that last summer we did not
see or hear a single nighthawk
around our place; although we
have always had them previously.
Could it be that they are affected
by poison sprays along with the
smaller, low-flying birds that are
killed by the thousand?
We would be interested to know
if any of your readers in South
ern Pines have noticed a decline
in the bird population since the
practice of town spraying comi
menced.
JEAN (MRS. JAMES)
BUCHANAN
Pinehurst
(Ed. Note; The clipping, from
the Arkansas Gazette, published
at Little Rock, Ark., reads, in
part: “Although nighthawks es
cape the perils of night travel,
have no lack of nesting sites on
city roofs and in fields and ceme-
eries, and by catching insects high
in the air, would supposedly not
be affected by the poison sprays
that have killed thousands of
ground-breeding and tree-feeding
small birds, several observations
indicate that this species, like
many others, has suffered serious
losses in recent years.”)
the scales to make up for the
sampling. The customers felt free
to sample; the grocer felt free to
add an ounce or two to the bill.
Everybody knew .the rules and
nobody ohjiected.
The pattern of buying food
stuffs changed overnight, when
the Plastic Age dawned. The sam
pling was over, like a shot. Every
thing was forthwith displayed in
plastic wrappings. Every purchase
became buying a pig in a poke.
The admirable old custom of
sniffing, thumping, feeling and
tasting was out forever. That ele
ment of free selection is gone.
Today everything is purchased
on faith or, more accurately, hope.
And that is not the worst of the
situation by any means. It Is only
the beginning. The plastic wrap
pings themselves are the work of
the Devil. Not only are they
tough in themselves; but also
they enshroud the modern prod
uct with the impenetrable cun
ning of a Gordian knot. I have
seen strong men faint in attempt
ing to extricate sandwich meat
from a recalcitrant cellophane
wrapping.
The cigarette manufacturers,
alone among our bright and pro
gressive inerchandizers, have seen
the problem in its true light and
done something about it. By in
serting a simple rip-strip in their
packages tl?ey make it possible
for the customer to get at' their
product. All others go blindly on,
sealing their products in plastic
integuments the Lord Himself
couldn’t open.
In the face of this situation it is
easy to predict the day will come
when man, smoking cigarettes by
the carton, will literally starve to
death amid mountains of plenty.
The Plastic Age may see the end
of us all.
All This And Stories, Too
GRAINS salutes a noble guest
who not only played the viola like
ten angels but suppUed enough
stories to fill a column Or col-
umns, if we could pri^t them all.
Reluclanl John
Great Britain is approaching
membership in the European
Common Market these days like
a confirmed bachelor approaching
a marriage of convenience. He
will go through with it if “suit
able arrangements” can be made,
but there is no love in the old
boy’s heart. Even worse, he can’t
quite get over the idea that there
is something ridiculous in the
whole thing; like a marriage be
tween John Bull and Brigitte
Bardot.
—James Reston
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 Ne-wton Business
Mary Evelyn de Nissoff Society
Composing Room
Dixie B. Ray, Michael Veden,
Thomas Mattocks, J. E. Pate, Sr.,
Charles Weatherspoon and John
E. Lewis.
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and N. C. Press Assn.