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Page TWO
THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina
THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1863
Southern Pines vNorth 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 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 will
treat everybody alike.”—Jaimes Boyd, May 23, 1941.
Strong Support For Sign Ban Indicated
Heartening support for legislation re
stricting billboards along Interstate high
ways in North Carolina has come from
an unexpected and significant source.
The N. C. State Motor Club, which has
100,000 members in all 100 counties of the
state, made a survey to get members’
opinions primarily on the five “action”
items that the Traffic Safety Council has
proposed for consideration in the upcom
ing General Assembly, to tighten motor
vehicle laws, in the interest of public
safety.
Also included was a query of members’
opinions on billboard restriction. Replies
showed an overwhelming majority of 82
per cent in favor of and only 15 per cent
opposed to billboard control. (Presumab
ly the other three per cent had no opin
ion.)
Here is striking testimony, from a
group of people who are all motorists and
highway users, that there is indeed wide
public support for billboard restriction
on Interstate highways. Such restriction,
if authorized by the General Assembly—
readers will recall—would qualify North
More Good Fortune Than Good Planning
When the county commissioners decid
ed at their meeting last week to authorize
the taking of bids on the first half of an
agriculture-library building at Carthage,
there seemed to be relief, if not rejoicing,
that the two-story plan formerly adopted
would not be carried out and that another
site had been chosen for the structure.
The long-discussed project was former
ly designed for a sloping site, so that the
agricultural office section on one floor,
and the library-auditorium section on
another floor, would both have ground-
level entrances.
Why the relief? Lo and behold, it came
out at the meeting that extremely soft
ground on the lower part of the two-
story building site would have required
an expenditure of an estimated $10,000
to $15,000 just to get down solid founda
tions—and one commissioner said he had
been informed it probably would have
cost more than that.
One of the officials also pointed out
at the meeting that the extreme dampness
of the site might have been expected to
make the whole building damp, with a
likely deleterious effect on the thousands
of volumes of the Moore County Library
to be shelved there.
It is all very well now for the com
missioners, the farmers’ committee and
everybody concerned with the project to
express satisfaction that such a problem-
fraught site has been abandoned. But
what if Moore County voters had ap
proved, not rejected, the $175,000 propos
ed county bond issue for the building, last
November? Presumably, it would now be
under construction, with six to 10 per
cent of the money (or more) going into
an attempt to put down supporting piers
in a bog—and the possibility looming that
the site would prove to be unfit for
library use.
Although we had sat in on several dis
cussions of the agriculture-library build
ing during the two or three years it had
been a continuing bone of contention for
the commissioners and the farmers, we
had not before heard any mention of the
foundation-dampness problem. Yet when
the plan was abandoned at the commiss
ioners’ meeting last week, the officials
present spoke as though the difficulties
had been well known previously. Once
the former plan was rejected, it seemed
that everybody had something to say
against it, like the worried parents of
a daughter who has finally broken an
engagement with a suitor they hadn’t
really liked but had tried to accept with
the best grace possible.
Te err is human—but public officials
erring to the tune of $175,000 or so of
public funds poses a striking object lesson
for the commissioners themselves and for
other officials planning public projects
in the future.
‘A Place To Start In This Struggle... ’
Although all readers might not agree,
it was to us front page news last week
when the Moore County Mental Health
Association outlined the need for a mental
health center to serve this area and placed
efforts to obtain such a center as its top
priority project for the coming year.
Practically all literate persons now
acknowledge that mental health is not a
concern confined to institutions—yet after
a half century of intensive education on
this subject, it is a matter that most of
us tend to think of as a public, not a
private, responsibility.
And often those persons who think of
themselves as least in need of mental
help, who feel that they are every inch
a “normal” person, conforming admirably
to the current customs and beliefs, are
the very ones who are spreading mental
sickness in our society, and are them
selves victims of the notions they most
honor.
breakingly frustrating it is to sit in a
courtroom (an experience that good citi
zens should undergo periodically to shar
pen their sense of humanity) and see
husbands, wives, young people and others
caught in traps that might with mental
aid or counsel have been avoided.
Only a portion of the persons needing
mental counsel end up in court where
their confusions and hostilities are pu
blicly displayed. There is no telling how
many others are weakened, misled or
tormented by the modern demons Dr.
Prewett cites—persons who could be
steered into a “zestful and productive
life” through the services of such a clinic
as that sought for this area by the Mental
Health Association. Similar clinics are
operating successfully at more than a
dozen locations around the state.
We conunend to readers a most im
pressive article appearing on this page
today, identifying some of the “modern
demons” that work against our having a
“zestful and productive life” and castigat
ing the “fun morality” and the “activity
complex” of which we are often so
foolishly proud.
Our comment on this personal every
day aspect of mental health, touching
most of us in mid-20th Century America
in one way or another, is a digression
from the publicly-oriented efforts of the
Mental Health Association, in its work
toward a clinic to serve this area—though,
of course, the two are related.
Purpose of Dr. Prewett’s article on this
page is to stimulate persons whose lives
have not gotten too drastically out of
kilter to examine the values by which
they are living. Purpose of the mental
health clinic is to provide aid and counsel
to persons willing to acknowledge that
they are losing their grip on reality and
are injecting misery, waste and loss into
the lives of themselves or others.
We have noted here before how heart-
We hope that Dr. Prewett’s observations
will make clear to Pilot readers the
awesome personal responsibility incum
bent on us all—^most especially where
children are involved—in the realm of
mental health. And that responsibility,
as we see it, includes, firstly, a critical
examination of our own attitudes, actions
and values; and secondly, giving support
in all ways possible to efforts such as that
being undertaken by the Mental Health
Association.
“All of us have a place to start in this
struggle,” Dr. Prewett writes.
After reading his calmly devastating
analysis of contemporary hypocrisy, com
placency and blindness in the matter of
mental health, who can escape this con
clusion: the place to start is within my
self?
CRITICAL NEED
“The critical need today in education
in the South is for a universal belief in
education, what it can do for people, its
power and its importance. Even now,
we need obedience to Jefferson’s com
mand to ‘preach a crusade against ignor-
‘They Have A Weakness For Carrots... 1 HopcI”
Carolina, under federal law, to receive
additional funds for highway construc
tion.
Those of us who have been calling for
years for restrictions on advertising signs
on roads where they are in conflict with
natural beauties or create or add to con
gestion and ugliness have often felt like
voices in the wilderness. We have sensed
that there was considerable approval of
restriction but have never really known
its extent. The billboard lobby has been
well organized and effective and some
how has inferred that all sign opponents
are dreamy idealists or cranks, if not
downright un-American in their attempts
to stifle free enterprise.
To learn from the Motor Club’s strong
endorsement of billboard restriction that
there is really a broad, popular base for
our convictions is good news indeed. We
hope that the wide extent of this feeling
will be clearly brought to the attention of
the legislators in Raleigh this spring and
urge that proponents of the sign ban add
their personal endorsements of restriction
by writing Sen. W. P. Saunders and Rep.
H. Clifton Blue to that effect.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN MENTAL HEALTH
Productive Living Must Be Goal
By CLINTON PREWETT
Director. Psychology Departmenl
East Carolina College
In "North Carolina Education"
ance.
-GOV. TERRY SANFORD
Some half century ago, in a
most powerful piece of writing,
Clifford W. Beers set forth in his
dramatic and fiction-like autobi
ography, A Mind That Found It
self, the essential needs to be met
in mental health work for fifty
years. Slowly at first, but aided
by strong and capable voices from
other disciplines, the mental
movement gained momentum in
every state of the commonwealth.
Better care became an obligatory
function of civilized states. Hos
pitals for the psychotics and clin
ics for the neurotics were provi
ded and staffed. The progress
started by such men as Beers in
this direction has been astound
ing.
After fifty years of real pro
gress, however, where are we to
day? As we seek an answer to
this question, we find facts that
are still highly disturbing. Pa
tients are no longer chained in
stables as in the days of Dorothea
Dix, but there are perhaps seven
million alcoholics in the United
States. Child labor laws prevent
the exploitation of children, but
schizophrenia still takes its dead
ly toll; peptic ulcer now reaches
down into the lower teen group
in alarming proportions; migraine
headaches make millions miser
able.
Living Threat
The remorseless statistic, “One
out of ten will need help from a
psychiatrist” is a living threat to
all people greater than that of
the thermonuclear bomb. We ap
parently accept as immutable and
unchangeable the statement that
“one marriage out of four will
end in divorce.” We turn our
heads when someone says that
one child out of eight will be bom
out of wedlock. We wonder
what has happened to our youth
programs when we see the inex
orable rise of juvenile delinquen
cy.
We pity the victims of traffic
accidents while we patronize the
drag strip races. We watch a man
beaten to death on nation-wide
television boxing without feeling
any sense of being an accessory
before the fact.
Here in North Carolina, we ask
the manufacturers to make bas
ketballs with shorter bounces
when the betting scandals hit us.
Voting is something that you can
do if you don’t need to go fishing
or mow the lawn.
Modern Demons
This bill of particuleirs is too
long, but it seems to me that if
we are serious in our representa
tions about mental health we
need more than clinics and hos
pitals, important as they are. The
modem demons that work against
our having the zestful and produc
tive life that is our rightful heri
tage must be identified, both for
ourselves and our children.
In the first place, I feel that it
is the responsibility of mental hy
gienists to help destroy some of
the false gods and temples that we
have erected in our time. We have
made conformity and together
ness goals to be achieved regeud-
les of the price to be paid. Par
ents no longer make individual
decisions in terms of the capabili
ties and needs of their children;
enterprising organizers in the
community set up a list of “group
rules” to which all parents sub
scribe except those who are
“squares.”
Thrill of Chase
Since horse racing or dog rac
ing is illegal in many states, par
ents have resorted to the use of
their children as substitutes. The
thrill of the chase is deep, and it’s
hard to see anything wrong in a
sixteen-year-old having a 'Thim-
derbird, or a nine-year-old having
a formal party at the Moose Club.
Someone needs to rewrite Law
rence K. Frank’s “Fund2unental
Needs of Children.” He is so ob
viously old-fashioned. Such
things as love, security and af
fection are trite. What the mod
ern child needs is a parent who
never says “no,” a credit card,
and an MG!
In other days, fun was a luxury
that you had alter you had done
the necessities associated with
living. Now that we have embrac
ed completely the ethic of “fun
morality,” having fun has become
obligatory. And furthermore, it is
necessary that one display the
signs that he is having fun in his
life. Memberships in clubs, unus
ual cars, and boats in the yeud,
are all characteristics of the fun-
bound.
Catered Living
In the second place, we need to
re-examine our feelings about
“catered living.” Future histori
ans may treat us a bit roughly
when they reflect that the four
major contributions Americans
made to general culture during
the twentieth century were the
Sears, Roebuck Catalogue, The
Twist, Bubble Gum, and the In
stitution of Baby Sitting.
It is practically impossible for
youth to develop a sense of indi
vidual responsibility in situations
where “hired caterers” make all
the decisions. The little league
baseball game may proceed more
smoothly as a ball game with
three adult umpires calling the
game on the field, but it is doubt
ful if the children themselves are
First, we need to re-think what
the home can offer in our battle
for the production of a citizenry
which is not only free from crip
pling emotional forces, but is also
endowed with a sharp dynamic
toward true self-actualization. In
deed it does take more than a
house to make a home; it takes
a father and a mother and chil
dren who understand and appre
ciate each other, both individually
and collectively.
THE GREAT MAN
It is easy in the world to live
after the world’s opinion—it is
easy in solitude to live after your
own; but the great man is he
who, in the midst of the world,
keeps with perfect sweetness the
independence of solitude.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Our schools, too, have to offer
more than longer drills on funda
mentals. Our children are not to
be denied their rightful birth
rights to live their lives as happy
youngsters despite various pres
sures being brought upon them,
sometimes even under the rubric
of quality education.
Role of Church?
Finally, then, what of the role
of the church in mental health?
Our modern thinking must not
allow us to view it as a relaxed
substitute for a clinic. A church
is a place for a person to re-exam
ine his basic value patterns, and
we can help each other most by
understanding and appreciating
those unique human qualities that
we all possess.
If we can harmonize these three
basic institutions—our schools,
our churches and our homes—so
that all contribute to living that
is more fruitful, more zestful
more productive and more in
character with our hixman drive
toward self-actualization, we will
have gained a giant step on our
problems in mental illness.
Perhaps most important, how
ever, is the need to recognize that
all of us have a place to start in
this struggle; all of us have a per
sonal interest in this fight; and
all of us will share in the conse
quences of our actions.
Grains" of Sand
"We All Thank You"
Excerpt .from .a Christmas
thank-you note: “Katie races
through the house, wheels clatter
ing behind her, distributing as
she goes the contents of her mail
truck, which now includes all
manner of revolting odds-and-
ends that she has picked up. Julia
races in the opposite direction
with her ambulance. . . and the
morning passes quickly.”
Doubtless culminating in one
of those tragedies when the
speeding ambulance with the crit-
ically-ill patient is hit by the
speeding truck. After all, the mail
must get through.
It’s likely fingers were firmly
crossed when that note was
written.
“Thank you?” Well, yes and no.
Christmas Some More
Out in the Knollwood Apart
ments section Christmas is going
to keep right on Christmassing, if
the children have anything to do
about it. (And does any parent,
cowering after the holidays, doubt
their capabilities for doing?)
The Derby children started it,
but it didn’t take a second for
the Brogdens and others to join
in.
It aU began when the Derby
Christmas tree was thrown out in
the trash pile and rescued—im
mediately—by the children. Cast
ing indignant glances in the di
rection of home, they dusted the
tree off, prospected for the site
where it would be most visible,
and then proceeded to plant it. By
that time other Christmas trees
were being rescued from other
yards and these were dragged
over alongside the first. They
looked pretty fine all holding
their bedraggled heads a little
higher as they came into line.
There have been a few family
hassles about the advisability of
retrimming the trees, won, to date,
by the parent side, but we are
told that the cause has simply
gone underground for the time be
ing. Meantime old ornaments are
being collected from trash piles
for future use.
developing much other than a lit
tle muscle on their throwing
arms.
The third demon that deserves
some straight talk is the activity
complex of our age. We have
eulogized the man with “get up
and go.” We have made “be
prompt” an adage, and a person
without a watch to keep him
aware of the passing of time is re
garded with cold caution. It is
not surprising, therefore, that
everyone has to “go” on a vaca
tion. The thought of staying
home and enjoying life in its nat
ural rhythm is preposterous. We
have tried to transform into our
households the tempo of the car
nival barker and the two-second
spray deodorant.
By-Product
Brought up under an “automa
tion ethic,” is it any wonder that
children from an early age ask,
"What is there to do aroimd
here?” In a larger sense, there
never is anything to “do.” Happi-
nes is not to be sought directly by
“doing” anything; it is simply a
by-product of productive living.
Female Bluebeard?
The first bad news of 1963
comes from Hollywood.
They tell it that Liz Taylor will
star in a new movie in which the
girl marries six millionaires (suc
cessively not simultaneously. . ,
though we wouldn’t put it beyond
her.) You may not be surprised to
learn that each husband dies soon
after the honeymoon.
For her appearance in this role
La Taylor will receive one mil
lion dollars and 10 per cent of the
profits.
Even granting the possibly ex
haustive angle of this role the re
muneration appears to be exces
sive. In fact—(pardon us while we
reach for a dramamine.)
More Power To Them
The story beneath Sunday’s
headline, “Cold Fighters Report
Progress,” isn’t about what you
think. It has nothing to do with
snow or shovels or even insula
ting your house against wintry
blasts.
Id’s aboud your gold. You dow;
dad gommon gold id de haid.
Dey dingue dey bay have god-
den hold of somdingue do helb.
Bud as der are 150 viruzez, brob-
ably, to logade and dey only have
logaded 50 so var id looks ligue
we’ll have a good bany bore years
of catchoo and snuvle, snuvle.
So hi-ho, dose liddle whide bills
and shods in de arb or, if you
hrever, de bosterior.
Birds Again
Ever had White egrets grazing
around your feet?
That was Carl Bradshaw’s ex
perience last summer when eight
of the birds appeared among his
cattle. They were amazingly tame
and, when the cattle wandered
over to watch him mending his
gate, the birds came right along.
This was out on his farm off
Route 211. The white strangers
stayed a couple of days and then
flew on their way.
The PILOT
Published Every Thursday by
THE PILOT. Incorporated
Southern Pines. North Carolina
1941-^AMES BOYD—1944
Katharine Boyd Editor
C. Benedict Associate Editor
Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr.
C. G. Council Advertising
Bessie C. Smith 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
One Year $4.00
Outside Moore County
One Year $5.00
Second-class Postage paid at
Southern Rnes, N. C.
Member National Editorial Assn,
and N. C. Press Assn.