North Carolina Newspapers

Page TWO THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1964 Southern Pines HOT 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 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.” — James Boyd, May 23, 1941. Fitted For The Post He Seeks The Pilot welcomes an opportunity to reprint on this page an item endorsing Rep. H. Clifton Blue of Aberdeen, Moore County’s representative in the General Assembly, for the office of Lieutenant Governor which he is seeking this year. A newspaper in the home county of a candidate seeking high office can be ex pected to support him in his effort—as The Pilot does support Cliff Blue—but a reader scarcely knows whether such support is rendered as recognition of merit or as a matter of local patriotism: towns and coimties like to see native sons climb the ladder of achievement as far as they can go. An outside opinion, therefore, often carries more weight. In the case of the item reprinted today, the opinion is so intrinsically well reasoned and so obvi ously sincere that we consider it a quite remarkable tribute to Mr. Blue. Editor Tom McKnight of the Moores- ville Tribune reached into the teeming grab-bag of words that is slung over every writer’s shoulder and came up with just the right one to fit Cliff Blue and his bid for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor: he DESERVES it. He deserves it because of long experi ence (18 years in the House), because of demonstrated ability in dealing fairly with men and issues, and because he has a genuine desire to serve the people of North Carolina. While the office of Lieutenant Gover nor is theoretically assigned to the ex ecutive branch of government, it is in reality a key legislative post. 'The Lieu tenant Governor presides in the Senate and appoints its committees. And it is in the legislative field that Cliff Blue (Speaker of the House, chairman of sever al important House committees over the years) has won his spurs and won them deservedly. There’s that word again! In asking the people of North Carolina to give him their votes for Lieutenant Governor, Cliff Blue is asking that they return only a tiny fraction of the devo tion he has given to the State for two decades. Indeed he does deserve it—and, like Editor McKnight, we have little doubt that it will be conferred on him by the people he has served so conscientiously. Seldom has a man been more clearly fitted for the office he seeks. Geared To Actual Needs The “involuntary dropouts” in today’s cartoon symbolize a condition that’s been in the news lately—the' increasing difficulty of getting into college and the prospect that more and more young people trying to get in will, for both lack of space and lack of ability, come tumbling back home again. In this area, the cartoon can’t fail but inspire thankfulness that the new Moore County Community College has been launched, even though not a brick has yet been laid. The people of Moore at least had the wisdom to start the machi nery turning. However, we must realize that the ccmmimity college also will have limits on the number of students it can accept, though the elimination of dormitory requirements will enable it to expand much more rapidly in response to need than a boarding institution can. The “comprehensive” aspect of the Community College — the provision of technical, trade and other courses in ad dition to the traditional academic cur riculum—strikes us as having a most im portant bearing on the upcoming pro blem of “involuntary dropouts.” It has been wisely opined that, of the vast numbers of young persons under taking academic college courses in recent years, a considerable proportion should not really be in such lines of study. We are not endorsing a Europeanized, educa- tion-of-the-elite-only approach, but we are recognizing the truth that many a youngster has learned the hard way by flunking out of college: everybody is not a scholar in the academic sense. Establishment of comprehensive col leges such as the one slated for Moore County will permit many young people a mid-crurse between ending their edu- action at high school and acquiring a four-year college degree. A lot of the involuntary dropouts will be eliminated, therefore, when facilities are provided for them to drop in at two- year, community colleges. And what all this makes us realize is how badly we have, in the first half of the 20th century, geared our facilities for education beyond the high school to the needs of all kinds of people. Isolationism - Old and New An appeal for subscriptions from the isolationist publication “Human Events” offers ground for encouragement to all those, and they are many, who are in strong opposition to the policies cham pioned by this magazine. Describing the high cost of present- day publishing, the writer states that “Human Events” gets only an insignifi cant sum from advertising “ ... so you can understand the urgency of this ap peal . . . The need is very, very great.” The appeal recalls the founding of the publication in 1940 by a group of fanati cal isolationists including Lindbergh, who prophesied that Hitler would win the war, McCormick of the isolationist Chi cago Tribune, T. S. Hammond and oth ers; General Robert E. Wood, elderly founder of “Human Events” and “The America First Society” is chairman of the present effort being carried on as a memorial to the magazine’s late director. Many persons today will recall those tense days while the United States wavered as to what its course should be. Isolationists such as those now backing this magazine were on the rampage. Col. Lindbergh, back from Germany where he received a royal welcome, sold on the Nazi organization, was making speeches lauding the German war effort; our military men here and attached to the Berlin embassy were praising Ger man efficiency and dash, were openly contemptuous of the Allies. Meantime on land and sea the Germans swept forward; the Allies suffered their ghastly losses and bombs rained down on Britain. But a wider, deeper view was growing here. Interestingly, its start was among the intellectuals, the writers, the artists, and the professors and students of his tory. Leading the way were organiza tions Like 'The Friends of Democracy and The Free Company with its roster of playwrights, actors, and radio people, all contributing their time and talents free in the struggle to wake up America to the task that faced it.. And so the reali zation came that if the Germans won, this beloved country was in the gravest possible danger. As more and more information reach ed this country of the mass slaughter of Jews and the unspeakable cruelties of the prison camps, the moment of deci- ion came: this nation could not stand on the sidelines in such a fight. Does it not now seem extraordinary that there are Americans today who wear a Nazi badge, who spout the Nazi slogans? Does it not seem incredible that the old America First crowd should be once more in the news, peddling the same old isolationist, anti-British, anti- “foreigner” talk, labelling as “un-Ameri can” all who disagree with them? After the glaring errors of their judg ment at the time of the last war were so vividly displayed, that anyone should now have confidence in it, and follow them, is beyond comprehension. Midland Road Wrecks There is little indication of what hap pened in the one-car accident that took a man’s life this week on Midland Road —-the two-way drive between Southern Pines and Pinehurst. Here is a stretch of road that would seemingly be among the safest in the clearly marked with speed limit signs—35 inside the Southern Pines town limits and 45 all the rest of the way. No driver has to contend with on coming cars on his side of the road. There are no sharp curves, scarcely any curves at all, in fact, once the road leaves Southern Pines. Yet this highway has been the scene of several fatal acci dents in recent years. There are, of course, the trees in the median strip: if a car leaves the road on that side of its lane, it is, for a large part of the distance to Pinehurst, almost bound to strike a tree. Yet, going in either direction, the median-strip trees are on the driver’s left. He has to cross clear over his own lane from right to left, to get into the trees. In a sense, all traffic fatalities are attributable to human failings, but the observer seems especially justified in drawing this conclusion as to Midland Road accidents. And the lesson for drivers who are still alive is that paying attention to speed limit and warning signs is the surest method of ending a journey safe ly- Involuntary Dropouts ISgiS. (£3 . .»/// WT-/// if4 ' ' j ^ I ‘ i /,f s'' V' ; 'Z’SC.WtESC.UH' 3 CANDIDATES FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR Cliff Blue Deserves The Office (Editor's Note: Mr. Mc- Knighlt, publisher of the Mooresville Tribune, one of the state's best weekly news papers, recently wrote the following item ifor his person al "Community Chaff" col umn in the Tribune.) By TOM Mcknight Three candidates are seeking the office of Lieutenant Governor in the Democratic primary in May. We want to discuss them in the order in which they announc ed their candidacy. ' John Jordan, long-time state senator from Raleigh and Wake county was the first to formally announce. He did it in a manner characteristic of the way he ap proaches the affairs of state. He announced that he would conduct a “give them Hell” campaign. Jordan, in our opinion, is by far the least qualified of the three men seeking this post. It is also our belief that he will finish far down at the bottom when the votes are counted. Jordan, it seems to us, is the perennial champion of a great deal of odd-ball and screw-ball bills in the state senate. A long time member of the General As sembly remarked to us yesterday that “if all the legislation John Jordan has supported or intro duced in Raleigh had been passed. North Carolina wouldn’t know which end was up.” Prison Bill He has, for instance, fought a great deal of the legislation rec ommended by George Randall to improve our state prison system. In the last General Assembly, for example, he backed a bill that would have required the prison cannery to stop selling its prod ucts to other state institutions supported by taxes. The bill didn’t get anywhere, but had it passed it would have crippled a part of Randall’s rehabilitation program for prisoners. We certainly would assume that Randall hopes Jordan doesn’t win, basing it on fear for what might happen to one of the best state prison systems in America should he be elected. Frankly, we would rather see the office remain vacant as see it filled by John Jordan of Raleigh. Robert Scott was the second candidate to announce. Bob made a two-month tour of the state in H. CLIFTON BLUE an effort to line up support to seek the Governor’s office. When he found he was too late with too little, he announced his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor. Stop-gap Approach Bob, son of the late Kerr Scott, is an able and personable guy with some built-in support from the rural areas. But the people of North Carolina will not buy his stop-gap approach to this office. His residence. Haw River, is close enough to the center of the state for him to run for Governor eith er from the west or the east, and Bob will run for Governor in 1968. If we are still around, we might support Bob for Governor in 1968, but we can’t go along with his motive in running for Lieutenant Governor. This office is important because the Lieuten ant Governor presides over the senate and names all the senate committees, in short practically controls the senate. It is far too important a responsibility to be held by a candidate who is merely using it as a means to keep his name before the public until it is time to run for Govevrnor. We can’t buy Bob’s stepping-stone ap proach, dont believe the people of North Carolina will buy it. This brings us to H. Clifton Blue, last candidate to announce, and in all probability the next Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. Known and beloved as “Cliff” from Murphy to Manteo, he de serves to win this race, will prob ably do so going away in the first primary. For more years than we can re member, Cliff has been the pub lisher of the weekly Sandhill Cit izen at Aberdeen in Moore Coun ty. Doubtless God could make a better country editor than Cliff, but doubtless He never has. The Public Speaking Saddened That Piney Woods Are Melting Away To the Editor: Last fall I had a lot of trouble hearing the deer dogs out east of Southern Pines, due to the power saws in the woods and the heavy traffic on the nearby roads. There have been a lot of changes in recent years in all of that area lying between Southern Pines and the Fort Bragg line. It seems only yesterday that when you passed the old Ark School building, you were in the back- woods. Now the area is being “de veloped.” I am saddened to realize that the piney woods are melting away. I had figured that there would always be the good pre serves provided by the Camp Mackall reservation and the Sandhills Wildlife Management Area. I’ve been hearing lately, however, that plans are being made to “develop” Camp Mackall. I guess the worst blow of all is the news that they’re going to de velop the Rockfish Creek area. I think how many bearded deer- hunters have stood on that reser vation line and shivered from ex citement and the early morning cold as the sound of a far-off hound-dog caused their hearts to jump. The turkeys were increas ing in that area also. They won’t be there long now. I must surely be accused of be ing a stick-in-the-mud in the river of progress, but when I think of the many hours I have spent since my boyhood, wander ing through our beautiful piney woods, and when I look at my son, who was born too late, I feel compelled to say at least a few reminiscent words in passing. JOE MCDONALD 307 Park Ave. Wilson, N. C. Crains of Sand Served 18 Years Quiet, self-effacing, modest, humble, he has served all the peo ple of North Carolina for 18 con secutive years in the General As sembly, was Speaker of the House in the last term. Cliff has, through the years in Raleigh, fought vigorously against what he thought was bad legisla tion, and fought just as hard for legislation he believed was good for the people of North Carolina. But these battles have been char acterized by a high note of decen cy, fairness, even kindness. Cliff has that happy ability and talent for disagreeing with his fellow- man upon occasion without be coming disagreeable about it. De spite his 18 years in the General Assembly, and despite the fact he has always spoken his piece for or against an issue, it is said of him that he has no enemies, only ad mirers, among North Carolina lawmakers during the past two decades. Working Knowledge His eighteen years in the Gen eral Assembly have given him a working knowledge of state gov ernment acquired by few, and a keen perception into what legis lation will work for good or bad for the state he loves. The qualifi cations he has for the Lieutenant Governor’s office have been pos sessed by few men within our memory. Being the able and noble sort of man that he is, it is not strange that his support crosses all fac tional lines in the Democratic peu-ty. Preyer supporters, Moore supporters. Lake supporters—all are found in his camp. Hello? The new telephone book is out. This is always an exciting event: is your number stiU the same? Or changed into something absurd or hateful? Are those many numbers tucked away in your head still there in the book? When you want to get, the Folleys do you still start on 5 and keep on going till you get tired and then whirl 1? Are the Strattons on that same line where every body else comes joining in so friendly-like, only you can’t hear at all, practically? Amette has a two-party line now, she claims, praise delawd, instead of ten or whatever-it-was. Gertrude is still the same; nobody better try to switch her; and trust many others to resist any change strongly. The politicoes are mostly the same, we see; and the lawyers and, of course, the doctors. Who wants to have to look up a doctor at a time like that! The telephone book has grown, like the Sandhills—just about busting right out of its britches. This 1964 book has more South ern Pines pages than the old one. ’There are four more pages in the yellow business part and that huge list of Mes and Macs is five names huger. Some Old-timers have moved on. Not “up the road;” never that. Just some where; here or there; around; you still feel you will meet them, around the corner. If you called the number: would a voice an swer? The right one? A telephone book is a nostalgic thing; one of ours is a funny thing: a few towns are standing on their heads in it. Now that’s a position a good many folks have probably assum ed more than once when it came to that essential, important uten sil, the local telephone. After an ice-storm, say, or if the lady tells you “Sorry: they’re working on the line;” or when 0 won’t an swer, no matter how hard you click. Well in this particular book several pages of Aberdeen- ers, Pinebluffers, and Robbins- even a page or two of Pinehurst —O My!—have gone into a fren zy, ending up right on their heads —it’s a laugh! Our new directory is a fine, fat, slick, shiney job. Welcome, 1964 Book! Suspicious Inquiry- Old Pappy Broomstraw from Sour Mash Hollow came into the post office one day walking kind of soft-footed. He slunk up to the window, cautious-like, and peer ed suspiciously in at the clerk: “Any letter for me?” he asked. Clerk: “Well, let’s see? What’s your name?” Pappy: “Ain’t tellin’. Why you’ want to know?” Clerk: “So I can see if you have a letter.” Pappy fixing him with a hard eye: “If I ain’t got a letter,” he said, “you ain’t got any call to know what my name is; if I have one, it’ll be right thar on the letter.” Pappy reaching back toward his hip, glares through the bars; “Now: you look!” Coaching On The Sidelines After the folks leave the court room, the Judge comes down and shows the Prosecutor how to hold and manipulate a kingpin most effectively. Kingpin taken from recently convicted young fellow. Sure can learn a lot of things if you hang around court. Operation Over-Eat DUFFIELD, Va., Feb. 16 (UPI) —Civil Defense officials have completed stocking a limestone mine here with enough supplies to sustain more than 40,000 per sons for two weeks. The population of this remote southwest Virginia town in less than 100. THE PILOT Published Every Thursday by THE PILOT. Incorporated Southern Pines, North Carolina 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 Katharine Boyd C. Benedict Dan S. Ray C. G. Council Bessie C. Smith Editor Associate Editor Gen. Mgr. Advertising 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, Clyde Phipps. 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.