Page TWO THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina ‘‘Free That One And You Get All Those” THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1962 Southern Pines Carolina •In taking over The Pilot no changes are conienipiatea. We will try to keep this a go paper. We will try to make a Uttle money for aU concerned. Wherever there seems to ^ an occasion to use our influence for the public good we will try to do it. And we will ••eBt everybody alike.”—James Boyd. May 33. 1H41. The Pilot welcomes the candidacy of John P. Kennedy for the Democratic no mination for 8th District Congressman. After meeting him at Monday night’s press conference here, when his candidacy was formally announced, and after hear ing him outline his “positive and for ward-looking” attitude toward govern ment, we are convinced that Mt. Kennedy is the man not only to unseat the 8th District’s Democratic, incumbent. Rep. A. Paul Kitchin, but also the man who can beat the Republican candidate, Charles R. Jonas, in November. Recently, in these columns, we noted that the forthcoming Congressional cam paign, in both its primary and, general election stages, offers real issues—issues which have been created for the most part by the generally negative approach of Rep. Kitchin as well as Rep. Jonas to both domestic and foreign affairs legis lation. Democrats of the 8th District may well be thankful that Mr. Kennedy has chosen to challenge the incumbent’s record and to give voters an opportunity to nominate a leader who has more than a one-third loyalty to the majority position of his party. Mr. Kennedy pointed out in his talk to the press Monday night that, in the 1961 ‘Willing to Run Forward’ ■ session of Congress, Rep. Kitchin voted against the majority position of the De mocratic party 67 per cent of the time, while “not another Democrat in our de legation, in the House or Senate, voted against the majority position of his party even as much as half the time.” Moreover, Mr. Kennedy pointed out, in the last two years of the Eisenhower administration, in the field of foreign policy where Mr. Eisenhower generally received bi-partisan support, Rep. Kitchin supported the foreign policy only 15 per cent of the time. “The basic consideration,” Mr. Kennedy said, “is an attitude toward government and the world.” What does Mr. Kennedy mean by a “basic attitude?” Here’s a quotation from his .speech Monday night; “Tf the free world is to survive and m-e- vail. if the South is to move out into the forefront of America, if the Eighth Dis trict is to build UP its industrv and agriculture, then we must plan for the future and run forward to meet the future, not shrink from it and look long ingly back toward the l*lth centrmv.” That is good talk, -n+i-intr a tone and pace that will, we beH<=ve: insnir^ in creasing response from Democratc nf the district as the campaign progresses. We sympathize with the bemused citizen in Bill Sanders’s cartoon on this page, who seems in something of a quan- dry about the Gape Fear Basin water resources project—whethef to accept the bird in hand (the proposed New Hope dam on the Cape Fear which will flood 9,400 acres and cost over $25V2 million) or to wait for the birds in the tree—the series of smaller dams as recommended by the Soil Conservation Service. Congressman Cooley, whose Fourth District includes Chatham County in which most of the flooding would take place, is for the SCS proposal, the small er dams. Senator Jordan, Governor San ford and the Army Corps of Engineers who planned it are for the big dam pro ject. 'There are good arguments on both sides of the controversy, it seems to us after reading the engineers’ report, the speeches of the big wheels involved and Hang on to the Bird in Hand ■ accoimts of the Congressional hearing Chatham and other meetings held m County. If we were one of the 112 home- owners whose land and dwelling would be taken over for the big dam’s lake, we expect we’d be objecting. On the other hand, everylfcdy who thinks objectively in terms of the safeguarding from flood ing, the development of industry and re creation and improving water supplies for the entire Cape Fear Basin (in which one-third of the population of North Carolina lives) is for the big dam pro ject. It would admittedly be years before the SCS plan could be perfected and authorized. The Engineers’ plan is ready to go, once it gets Congressional approval. We think maybe the puzzled little man had better hang on to the bird he has. Rounding up and coordinating all that crowd in the tree looks like a risky, un certain and frustrating task. Was This Death Necessary: The suicide of a 15-year-old boy in a jail cell at Fayetteville last week renews public concern about such deaths that occur too frequently around the stdte to permit complacency. According to news stories, the boy was being held as a federal prisoner on charges of parole violation. A check was said to have been made on his cell at 2:30 p.m. and at 3:20 a cook passing the cell saw the boy hanging by a bedsheet. He was dead. This account reveals no apparent of ficial negligence. Yet, as always in these cases, there are questions. Should a boy of 15 ever be confined in jail for several days (he died Thursday and had been in jail since Tuesday)? Shouldn’t there be some other facility to accomodate such cases? A crucial point, of course, is whether the boy showed signs of emotional dis turbance. If so,, shouldn’t extra care, such as removing potentially lethal tools like bed sheets, have been exercised? For that matter, can’t it be assumed that any boy of 15 in trouble with the law is emotional ly disturbed? Judgment is difficult without all the facts—and seldom do news stories probe beneath the surface. Yet we cannot help but see the death of the boy in Fayetteville, or the deaths of other disturbed persons that have oc curred in North Carolina jails, as a blot on our system of justice and a warning that the system could be improved. There must have been considerable hollow laughter heard at breakfast tables over the state a few days ago as veterans of World War II, especially those who had served in the enlisted grades, opened their morning papers to read that one of five New Hampshire National Guards men arrested in Wake County for a series of break-ins at grocery stores told of ficers that he was forced to steal “to make ends meet with the $72 per month he gets from the Army.” Poor old New Hampshire! Did ever a state get such a bad press as it has since its National Guardsmen were called to active duty at Fort Bragg? First there was all the hullabaloo about unsuitable quarters and other complaints and the Governor came rushing down to see what was wrong. Then came the “hunger strike” because nobody would tell them Disciplinary Grits how long they’d be in uniform—what a laugh that was, too, to ex-C and K ra tion diners. Then, the classic complaint of the accused robber: “I couldn’t make it on my $72 per month” (plus food, clothing, medical care and so forth). A retired World War II combat officer, bitterly pondering such antics by the military this week, came up with the perfect solution to bring recalcitrant New Hampshirites back into line. (And The Pilot well knows they are a minority of the Guardsmen from that state.) “First of all, move ’em out into the field,” he growled. “Move ’em out and then”—grinning fiendishly—“feed ’em grits. Grijts. Three times a day. Grits. That’s probably the one thing they can’t stand to eat. That would bring around.” em Dangerous Neglect It is hard to account for the neglect and lethargy shown by large sections of the North Carolina populace in the use