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Page TWO
THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina
THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1963
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 mon^ for all concerned. Wherever thei-e 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.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941.
Home Folks Help Home Folks
Moore County’s most thoroughly home
grown charity holds its fund drive this
week.
Saturday is the day: Tag Day, to be
exact. On that day the small white and
green tags with the picture of the mother
and baby will be placed on sale in the
towns of the county by the Moore Coun
ty Maternal Welfare Committee.
The “sales talk” for touching the hearts
of potential givers to the many causes
that come before the public repeats the
time-worn phrases: “your pennies will do
so much. . . you may be able to save a
life if you will give . . . this child (or
old lady or blind man, or amputee) needs
your help.” Each plea is one more in the
multitude of calls upon our sympathies
and our pocketbooks. And so we figure
up where we stand and dig down, doing
the best we can.
The work of the Moore County Matern
al Welfare Committee came to life some
thirty years ago in response to a dire
need. It was, in fact, an emergency
measure—we’d call it a “crash program”
today and the primary aim was simply:
to save lives. The mortality rate among
Relax, Study, Speak Up
Rep. Cliff Blue hit the nail on the head
when, in one of the recent meetings of
school officials, he said that decisions on
school consolidations, locations and so
forth should be based on what is best for
the children involved—how they can get
the best education and be afforded the
most opportunity.
This is the same goal that is pointed
out in a letter on this page. It is one that
we all should keep in mind.
At Monday’s county commissioners’
meeting, when representatives of all
three school administrative units met
with the board to make capital outlay
fund requests for the 1963-64 year, there
was general approval for a meeting of
the three boards of education with the
commissioners to talk about the future
of the schools and the proposed Com
munity College. The atmosphere was
generally relaxed as though everybody
realized that Rome was not built in a
day.
The public, by interest shown in the
future of the schools and in the college
project, holds the key to what will be
done. We don’t believe there is a school
official in Moore County who would de
liberately flout clearly demonstrated,
strongly expressed public opinion.
Relax, study and speak up—that’s our
advice to the public at this stage of Moore
County’s somewhat controversial but by
no means chaotic school situation.
Shameful News From Alabama
The news from south of us is that
negotiations are being carried on between
the State of Alabama and the Federal
Government.
Well, if you have a situation that pre
sents problems about which the parties
cannot agree, presumably the time comes
when negotiations are in order. In the
present case, however, it is hard to see
what there is to negotiate.
It was decided nearly a hundred years
ago, that, while state lines were useful
geographic boundaries, many of historic
significance and practical under the pre
sent governmental set-up, they were non
existent in a good many ways; certainly
when it came to people going about. We
can understand that it would sometimes
be convenient for some people if this Were
not so. It would undoubtedly be a source
of comfort to some if people of another
way of thinking, people liable to be
“troublemakers,” perhaps, could be kept
out behind the boundaries—pushed back
across the state line into somebody else’s
state—if they become obstreperous.
It would be nice, some may feel, if
such other people could just vanish. But
how? The Bolsheviks, when faced with
such a situation, pushed people way off
into Siberia. The Nazis, not having so
much room, herded them into concentra
tion camps, where most of them conveni
ently passed out of the picture in short
using savage dogs, tear gas, fire hoses,
against Americans peacefully protesting
against infringement of their rights.
They are also using prod rods.
This is a new gimmick in storm troop
er tactics. The three-foot rods, equipped
to administer an electric shock, are, how
ever, familiar in such rural sections. They
are used to drive cattle to the slaughter
house.
oraer.
Such practical arrangements were used
by the leaders of totalitarian govern
ments come to power through conspiracy
and revolution. The methods they used
were the methods of tyranny: police
brutality; the power of armed might and
cruelty tightening the stranglehold of
tyranny over individual freedom.
Down on the borders of Alabama, down
there in Birmingham, the police are
Could anything be more revealing of
the depths to which human beings cah
be brought when their evil passions are
aroused? That is what is happening in
Alabama and let no one fail to grasp its
full significance. In refusing to treat
with the marchers as human beings and
as citizens, in encouraging the brutality
of the police and the mob spirit of that
mountain area. Governor Wallace and
those behind him are playing with a fire
whose fuel is from the same source that
fed the fires of Dachau. The lure of
cruelty, of brutality, that lies so terribly
close beneath the surface of the human
character is a constant and fearful danger
in times like these. The Birmingham
police are not to blame; they are acting
according to their training. It is those
who give the orders who must be held
responsible.
What do these men hope to accomplish?
The further they proceed down this path,
the harder they will make things for
themselves and everybody else. The
harm they have done their nation is in
calculable, as it is. It will be long indeed
before the pictures of the last few days—
of charging dogs, of little children drench
ed with water carted off to jail, of police
men with full armory of helmet, hose,
prod rod, gas bombs fade from the me
mory. Americans are sick at heart, dis
couraged and ashamed, at what has been
going on down in Alabama.
Farming: As Hazardous As Battle
. «T» 1_ _1 1-l_ • M - _ __ _
According to “Research and Farming,”
the quarterly magazine published by the
Agricultural Experiment , Station at
State College, “wireworms are thumbing
their noses at once-deadly insecticides in
most North Carolina tobacco growing
areas... Last season they survived broad
cast applications of aldrin, dieldrin,
heptachlor and chlordane—chlorinated
hydrocarbons that had proved effective
in the past ...”
Tobacco wireworms—the larva form of
the insect known as the “click beetle”—
feed and tunnel in plant roots in the
spring, stunting or killing the plants.
What then? Experiments are made
with stronger insecticides—parathion, a
fantastically toxic substance derived from
a German nerve gas formula, and with
diazinon,: another organic phosphate
considered “considerably safer, but must
be handled carefully.”
The “Research and Farming” article
warns that parathion should not be mixed
with transplanting water for plant setting
by hand, but said diazinon can be so
used, “but one should avoid as much skin
contact as possible.”
Certainly, a tremendous responsibility
devolves upon farmers in the use of these
substances which are so lethal that they
can cause a man’s death by only slight
contact with the skin. And one wonders
whether even a responsible man could
assure safe and proper use of the chemi
cals by hands in his employ.
Tilling the earth, traditionally one of
the wholesomest, healthiest occupations,
characterized by a deep emotional bond
with the eternal mysteries of fertility,
life and growth, has become a game of
tag with potential poisoning and death,
with all the hazards of a battlefield.
‘‘It Operates On Promises^
needy mothers and babies of the county
was shockingly high, as high as that in
some of the most uncivilized and poorest
parts of the world.
The public, well-read, probably, on con
ditions in less-favored lands, was com
pletely unaware of the situation at their
own doorsteps. It needed only the ener
getic approach of a group of their own
people, women of Moore County, combin
ed with the dismaying shock of the con
ditions of child births among the needy
mothers of the county, and the response
was quick and generous.
This has always been the case with this
charity. A do-it-yourself project from the
start, carried on by the people and for
the people of the county, the cause has
appealed strongly to all.
Changing times have brought a change
in need. The funds of the committee are
now concentrated in the support of the
free bed at Moore Memorial Hospital
where a needy mother and baby may be
cared for through the funds collected on
Tag Day. The committee now operates
under the sponsorship of the hospital’s
auxiliary.
Uti
0m
MacMILLAN, KHRUSHCHEV SEE ADVANTAGES
To The Summit Once More?
By JOSEPH C. HARSCH
Staitf Correspondent
The Christian Science Monitor
(Reprinted by permission)
London
As in 1959, summitry and Brit
ish politics are walking hand in
hand again through the tulips of
spring.
In 1959 Prime Minister Harold
Macmillan got summitry going
by traveling to Moscow himself.
Th.2 summit which ensued a year
later was a foreign-affairs disas
ter, but in the meantime the Con
servatives had won a startling
100-seat maojrity in the House of
Commons and another five years
in office.
Mr. Macmillan is not planning
another personal mission to Mos
cow, but he has succeeded in or
ganizing a joint visit to Soviet
Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev by
the British and American ambas
sadors in Moscow on the subject
of nuclear testing, and it would
be a mistake to dismiss out of
hand the possibility that this will
burgeon, before summer is out,
into a full-blown and three cor
nered summit.
It will take three to make a
summit in 1963. Standard sum
mitry as evolved during the Tru-
man-Eisenhower era involved
four countries, namely the United
States, Soviet Union, Britain and
France. That ended with the
Paris crash landing of 1960, fol
lowed by the blackball France
cast against Britain for the Euro
pean Common Market.
At the present moment it is as
sumed that French President de
Gaulle would decline anyway, so
why ask him? Besides, since the
British currently are not showing
an interest in common market
ing, they are not concerned about
French sensibilities. France could
be left out of this round.
But Mr. Macmillan could not be
left out. He was left out of the
second phase of summitry, which
was the two-sided Kennedy-
Khrushchev confrontation of 1961
in Vienna. That fitted the needs
and moods of that time when the
gr^at question was whether the
new frontiersman from Washing
ton could coexist with the old
backroomsman in Moscow. They
had to meet together and alone.
It is different now. The real
impetus for a summit this time
grows out of the mutual current
political needs of Mr.; Macmillan
and Mr. Khrushchev. B'oth need
a summit for local status-symbol
purposes.
Mr. Macmillan’s Conservative
Party is toying with the idea of
seriously trying to win its fourth
straight general election. By
standard Eiritish political rules it
should relax and accept a turn in
opposition, there to refresh itself
for a return five years later.
Mr. Macmillan himself would
like to break all, precedents and
win his own second and his
party’s fourth election. His prin
cipal followers, are increasingly
willing to let him try, on the
theory that they have nothing to
lose and possibly sornething to
gain.
If the serious effort is to be
made, then the Macmillan and
Tory images, need to be dressed
both with most modern domestic
clothing and the tried-and-true
raiments of the indefatigable
seeker for, peace. ,
Another Kennedy-Khrushchev
confrontation would be useless to
1963,
The Public Speaking
The Goal: Best Education
For The Most Students
To the Editor:
MANY DEAD DRIVERS
HAD BEEN DRINKING
Items of interest in the Pilot
of May 3 were a statement issued
by the Southern Pines School
Board and the editorial opposing
the purchase of the Southworth
property. The leading editorial
from the Moore County News
also relates to the problem of add
ing to our schools and the Com
munity College.
Many facts of public interest
are now beginning to make an
overall clear picture. One of the
most significant is that to pro
vide East Southern Pines with
adequate high school facilities in
the next few years, a rather large
sum of money would be required
beyond that required to consoli
date Southern Pines, Aberdeen,
Pinehurst, and West End High
Schools.
From N. C. Traffic
Safety CouncU, Inc.
•'Tn Maryland and Connecticut,
where the blood of all drivers kil
led in accidents was tested, near
ly one-half had alcohol in their
blood. In North Carolina where
reports of alcohol as a factor in
accidents are based on superficial
observation, at least 19 per cent
of drivers in fatal accidents had
been drinking, and in an addi
tional 28 per cent the presence of
alcohol was either not stated or
not ascertained.”
There are two important unan
swered questions, however: First
—^Would this money provide
BETTER education for Southern
Pines High School students? Sec
ond—Would this extra expendi
ture endanger passage of a bond
issue which will be necessary for
our Community College?
Mr. Hodgkins has presented
the side against consolidation in
a statement in the Pilot.
Proponents Of consolidation
say that a consolidated high
school would provide a better
curriculum, greater choice of
courses, better teachers (since
the better teachers want to teach
in larger schools where they can
teach only the classes for which
they are best qualified), a full
time guidance counselor, a more
comprehensive business course
of which Southern Pines has only
a meager offering, more advanc
ed math classes, four years of
language, more than one lan
guage, more trade and vocation
al courses of which Southern
Pines has none and other advan
tages.
If the proponents of consolida
tion are correct in these advan
tages, one must in honesty eval
uate the expenditure of a large
sum of money for a separate
Southern Pines High School for
250 to 300 students against a con
solidated school for approximate
ly 800 high school students.
I am sure our County Commis
sioners will take the overall view
of doing what is best for the ma
jority of students. Perhaps,an in
dependent survey of our high
school needs in the county, with
comparative costs to the taxpay
ers, would be in order, prior to
the expenditure of these large
sums of money.
Of the issues involved—^local
control, transportation, quality,
cost and integration, only one
stands out—QUALITY. Are we
getting the best education for the
most students?
CHARLES PHILLIPS, M. D.
Southern Pines
Maytime: WhaFs Coming Up?
The lists have been made, the
seed catalogues and their glossy
unbelievable colored pictures put
away, and the seeds have been
long in the ground. Now they’re
beginning to sprout. This is the
exciting time: what’s coming up?
The volunteers from past years
are already high, having come
through the drought surprisingly
well; the perennial phlox and
other hardy friends are sending
out sturdy shoots: with this con
tinued cool it ought to be a good
year for perennials. Now come
the tiny seedlings, bravely strug
gling up and, in some of the more
eccentric, hit-or-miss gardeners,
the hundreds of tiny, tender
shoots prompt boundless curiosi
ty.
“What did I put in there?—Did
I just scatter them broadcast—or
maybe the packet spilled”—and
the wails: “It looks like that aw
ful pinky-mauve phlox and, right
next it, the label says: ‘Zinnia,
Mexican, orange to brown’—
that’s a help in the color scheme,
all right, all right!”
Do they do all this better in
England? A recently come-across
poem would indicate as much.
Windflower, Asphodel,
Fritillary, Thrift,
Bee Balm, Pimpernel,
Snowdrops adrift.
Spikenard, Meadow Rue,
Speedwell, Thyme,
Primroses wet with dew.
Bluebells to chime.
Rose of Heaven, Cherry Pie,
Love-in-a-mist,
Indigo to match the sky.
Myrrh to round the list
Plait a wreath of flower words.
Wear it as a crown.
Flocks of small and singing birds
Perch on every noun.
—Fanny DeGroot Hastings
the inventor of summitry,
Harold Macmillan.
As for Mr. Khrushchev, he has
had so many setbacks, failures of
policy, and just plain defeats over
the past two years that he must
welcome anything his propagan
dists in Moscow could present as
being a grand and glorious thing
to the various plain people of the
Soviet Union. The two things
they do apparently always like
are consumer goods nad peace.
Consumer goods are a bit short
right now.
It can be assumed, therefore,
that both Mr. Macmillan and Mr.
Khrushchev, for their respective
domestic political reasons, want
a summit and are arranging
pieces on the chessboard of di
plomacy toward that end. But to
date President Kennedy of Wash
ington has yet to commit him
self.
With two of the three who
would meet already working for
it, the question really is whether
Mr. Kennedy wants to exercise
his veto.
He has one. He can use it pro
viding he uses it promptly. He
had better do it promptly, be
cause otherwise he is likely to
wake up some spring morning
and discover that it is already
too late to prevent it.
So THAT Was Why-
Jokes about the ruling family
of the moment are in vogue these
days. Everybody’s telling them,
so here goes:
It seems that one evening Jack
came in tired and slumped down
in his chair. Jackie decided to
lend a hand.
“Dear,” she said, “I’m calling
off the engagement for tonight.
We’ll just have a lovely quiet
evening together.”
“M-m-m-m,” said Jack.
Jackie got up and fetched a
pillow, a little soft One and put
it behind his head. She decided
to let him rest while she slip
ped into something more comfort
able: those new lounging 'py
jamas she’d picked up at Berg-
dorf’s last week. When she came
back, she brought his slippers,
the ones she made for him, and
the dressing gown she gave him
at Christmas. It felt soft as silk
as she slipped it behind him and
he sank into it. “You haven’t put
it on for ages,” she said reproach
fully.
The president relaxed, let his
head drop back, sighed deeply.
He slipped a hand into one of the
deep pockets of his dressing-
gown. There was something in it.
Slowly, unwillingly he drew it
out.
It was a small card: a memo
marked “from JFK:” It said: “Re-
memiber to remind McNamara
about that air cover for the Bay
of Pigs.”
The most recent discovery in
the frightening world of automa
tion is an electronic cherry sort
er, capable of handling 3,500
cherries per minute or almost a
ton an hour.
It has an electric eye that scans
each cherry, held in a suction
cup, against a special background.
If a cherry has a bruise or other
mark, a jet of air kicks it out of
the cup into the discard.
This will not particularly in
terest those, if any, who do not
like cherries. But take watermel
ons. That will be the day when
a suction cup can hold one and
when a jet of air can kick it out
of the cup into the discard.
The PILOT
Published Every Thursday by
THE PILOT, IncorxJorated
Southern Pines, North Carolina
1941—JAMES 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.
Subscription Rates
Moore County
One Year $4.00
Outside Moore County
One Year $5.00
Second-class Postage paid at
Southern Pines. N. C.
Member National Editoried Assn.
and N. C. Press Assn.