North Carolina Newspapers

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS is entitled to the exclusive use of all news stories appearing in The Wilmington Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1940 Star-News Program Consolidated City-County Government under Council-Manager Administration. Public Port Terminals. Perfected Truck and Berry Preserving md Marketing Facilities. Arena for Sports and Industrial Shows. Seaside Highway from Wrightsville Beach to Bald Head Island. Extension of City Limits. Sb-Foot Cape Fear River channel, wid er Turning Basin, with ship lanes into industrial sites along Eastern bank south of Wilmington. Paved River Road to Southport, trio Orton Plantation. Development of Pulp Wood Produc tion through sustained-yield methods throughout Southeastern Forth Carolina, Unified Industrial and Resort Pro motional Agency, supported by one county-wide tax. Shipyards and Drydock. Fegro Health Center for Southeastern North Carolina, developed around the Community Hospital. Adequate hospital facilities for whites. Junior High School. Tobacco Warehouse for Export Buyers. Development of native grape growing throughout Southeastern North Carolina. Modern Tuberculosis Sanatorium. TOP O' THE MORNING Every noble work is at first impossible. CARLYLE Guard To Mobilize Adjutant General J. Van B. Metts’ order mo bilizing the North Carolina National Guard at its home stations on September 16, prepara tory to encamping for a year’s training, brings to Wilmington the first direct effect of the na tional defense program. At the same time it stirs a variety of emotior3, according to the individual relationship tc the order. Among the men sui imoned to service, it is fair to believe that the reaction is a feeling oi honor. No militiaman who has worn his mili tary uniform and shouldered his gun in times of unquestioned peace can fail to thrill at the thought that he is to perform valuable service when the nation’s peace is threatened. Par ents naturally, will feel the honor, too, but it will be tinged with foreboding. They may take comfort in the thought that by yielding up their sons now they are doing their bit to keep war from our shores, for it is in preparedness for war that our national hope of avoidance of war lies. Nevertheless, the handkerchiefs they wave at their departing sons will not be devoid of tears. The business community of Wilmington will be proud to send the boys on their way to camp with an earnest God-speed. It is gener ally understood that employers are to save the positions their guard-employes leave for them when they return. There should be no excep tion to this rule. Surely the boy who willingly goes into training to be ready to preserve his employer’s business from a foreign foe is en titled to his employer’s favor, at least to the extent of having his job back when the emerg ency passes. If Wilmington business houses declare a moratorium on guardsmen’s debts, contracted in honorable transactions, they will further fulfill their obvious^ duty. Clubs have already relieved their guardsmen members of obligations fon dues and other assessments. Private business should do no less. With the National Guard gene, the American Legion and other veteran organizations must take over as a home guard. The job can be the better done if all able-bodied veterans are mustered in. The Legion is in the midst of a membership campaign, that it may be fitted to m-st its obligations with par performance. If the non-member veterans have a proper sense of their duty, they will see that the Wil mington post’s roster is 100 per cent complete the day the National Guard entrains for » , School Opens -- Some increase in enrollment was noted at New Hanover county schools on opening day, over the 1939 opening, with attendance in the elementary grades falling behind and the gains made in the first grade and in high school. The lag in the one group of grades is not fully accounted for, and, in fact, may not long exist. Many youngsters in rural school district^ may not have been able to attend on opening day because of home duties—schedules are not well maintained sometimes ih the back coun try_and it may take some time to get the youngsters off to school. Before many weeks pass attendance in these grades may top last year’s. The encouraging fact is that general school attendance is up. The cruel situation of the world at large and America’s military prob lems have had no perceptible effect on the educational system in this county or elsewhere in the country. This year there will be 32, 285,000 pupils in class rooms. According to federal educational authorities, 21,000,000 chil dren will attend elementary schools; 7,160,000 high school; 1,425,000,000 colleges and univer sities, and 1,950,000 children and adults will go to night school or take part-time training. In addition, 50,000 persons will take special trade training, 75,000 training in nursing, and 75,000 will attend business colleges. As far as America is concerned war and threats of war will not interrupt school courses this year. In fact, the warlike conditions will be an aid to education in the United States in that they will stimulate more intensive study of Americanism, of democracy—what it stands for and the duties it imposes—and the finer things of life Americans have enjoyed because of their freedom. The Road Situation New Hanover county’s secondary roads have long been neglected and are now in such bad shape that rural residents bitterly complain of the disregard of the state highway commis sion for protests and appeals for improvement they have made at Raleigh. The situation was brought to the attention of the county board at its Monday’s meeting in the hope that the echo of the proceedings then may penetrate to the offices of the state high way authorities in the capital and bring cor rective action. The county board is powerless to act but it is possible that it may be able to bring suffi cient pressure to bear at the capital to get something done to improve the county’s mi nor, but still important, roads. The people of Summer Hill, Buena Vista, Seagate and Masonboro are justified in de manding that the state highway commission give them better roads. They deserve the support of the people of Wilmington, no less than of the county board, inasmuch as Wil mingtonians use the roads quite as much as residents of these districts. Perhaps a united appeal, backed by. the power of the county board and the support of legislators, could turn the trick and bring read crews for repair and maintenance work on these roads. There is no assurance, of course, that it would. But there is a chance that it might. It will be worth trying at least. If it fails, an appeal to the governor, setting forth the reason for complaint and indicating the definite need for improvement, will be in order. Poor Carol Former King Carol’s search for an asylum is not particularly interesting in itself, but one sidelight cannot fail to interest the rank and file of Americans. Facing almost certain refusal from France, the errant Rumanian is said to have concluded that he could not live in the style to which he is accustomed in the United States on the income he has been granted by the nation he was so successful in bringing to the verge of ruin and complete dismemberment. That amount, though not officially revealed, is un derstood to be $60,000 a year. Many Americans are managing to get along very comfortably on smaller incomes. We don’t know the style he is accustomed to, of course, but we suspect that $60,000 a year could be made to maintain quite an outfit, even for such a spendthrift as Carol. Thousands of good American families are doing well on $60 a month. For many $100 paychecks represent luxury. Thousand-dollar yearly incomes maintain many a home in humble comfort and two thousand is wealth, since the depression. Heads of families blessed with larger incomes are able to set aside a little surplus for investment. But maybe, Carol has no idea of thrift. Cer tainly he showed no sense of this fine Ameri can attribute, either in Paris during his for mer abdication, or as ruler of his nation whose resources he did so much to dissipate. Besides, paramours are expensive luxuries. It is just as well that Carol turns from the United States as a possibly asylum. He would not find a cordial welcome here. The Vice Crusade The campaign on vice in Wilmington, which Judge W. H. S. Burgwyn launched by instruct ing the grand jury to investigate conditions and recommend remedial measures, even if it requires the services ol state aides to clean up the bad situation, is an important move ment, not only because moral filth is always a menace to any community but because Wil mington has too vital a duty to perform in the national emergency to allow a canker to re main in its midst. If this nation is to carry its defense program to its proper limits, there must be moral and spiritual no less than military rearmament. The minds of the people must be trained to function for security. There must be mobili zation for right living, as well as mobilization of industry, of troops, airplanes, tanks, muni tions and guns. The two efforts must move side by side, if we are to place ourselves in a position to ward off national disaster. Moral softness, spiritual indifference, are blamed as much as military weakness for the collapse of France. Unless we are willing to share France’s fate, we must avoid France’s blunders. Judge Burgwyn put his finger one one of those blunders when he pointed out to the grand jury that immorality is not under con trol in Wilmington. In correcting this, Wil mington will prove its right to serve the na tion it did so much to create in its present great emergency. Editorial Comments From Other Angles MR. WADSWORTH STANDS FIRM (N. Y.) Herald Tribune It was typical of Congressman James W. Wadsworth Jr., to say of the Fish amendment to delay the putting into force of the Burke Wadsworth bill that “it only throws a monkey wrench into the entire program.’ Mr. Wads worth is one of those few Republicans in Con gress who have consistently worked for a sound military policy, and who, in the present emergency, have put party politics behind them and fought for what they believe to be the best interests of the country. On neither count is Mr. Fish his peer. In fact, just as it is in keeping with Mr. Wadsworth’s record to rise above politics in matters of defense, so Mr. Fish has consistently taken the narrowest partisan view on every question. His record of putting himself on the wrong side is almost perfect. Unfortunately, Congress this time seems to have preferred Mr. Fish’s temporizing meas ure, delaying the effectiveness of th.e selective service law for two months while authorizing the President during this period to push the drive for recruiting. The avowed purpose is to permit the voluntary enlistment system to be given a “thorough test” before the drafting of young men is resorted to. The most effec tive argument against this was put forward by Mr. Wadsworth when he said: “The alarming tendency of the young men of today is that the volunteer idea, the belief that others will volunteer to acquire the military training nec essary to afford the country a sufficient amount of trained soldiers to defend it in case of need, has relieved those who do not volun teer from any sense of responsibility what ever.” Mr. Wadsworth used these words not in the present Congress, but speaking in December, 1916. In April, 1917, he said on the floor of the Senate that he did not think it was possible to get 500,000 men by volunteering without letting down the bars of efficiency, and added that “the burdens of this war should fall equally on everybody capable of bearing that burden. We should be fair and democratic in this ideal of service, but we should so contrive our de fensive system that it would be employed in the most efficient way. That is why we advo cate selective draft—selection of the best ma terial for the particular duty.” Because Mr. Wadsworth at that time spoke so soundly on military policy, and because, after the last war, he endeavored to have put into the military bill of 1920 a provision for selective service, his opinion on this subject deserves special consideration. To the credit of the House be it said that when, on Wednes day, he spoke in behalf of the Burke-Wads worth bill—before Mr. Fish had brought for ward his enfeebling amendment—he was greet ed with applause from both sides, and when he had finished his plea for prompt action the House rose in tribute to him. His speech had the strength of candor—the frank admission that a year ago he had not fully realized the dangers that lay ahead of us as a result of the war, but that with the invasion of the Low Countries and the destruction of France he saw the light. This is why he took up the cud gels for the selective-service bill that bears his name. In pushing it despite the opposition of many Republicans he has shown that same courage and independence which has been characteristic of his long career of public service. In this present instance he is doubly right and Mr. Fish is, if possible, doubly tirmncf NOW WE MUST PAY (The Asheville Times) President Butler of Columbia University places the blame for the Nazi revolution anu the world disaster it has created on small minded men in Washington and their shocking disregard of moral and political obligation. In other words, having helped to win the. first World war, America would not aid in win ning the right stort of peace—indeed refused to accept any responsibility for any sort ot European peace. And Senator Lodge, Borah, Johnson, and Democratic James Reed and some others were the prime agents in that great and fatal rejection of moral and politi cal responsibility for the kind of world the America of 1940 might have to live in, per haps wage war in. , A skeptic may interpose that such condem nation takes a long jump to the assumption that United States membership in the League of Nations would have guaranteed a juster live-and-let-live order of affairs in Europe. Dr. Butler and those who believe with him that no nation liveth untp itself do not have to defend that speculative assertion concern ing American influence as an adherent of the League. Dr. Butler need go no farther than to declare that America accepted responsibility in large degree for the world’s peace and wel fare, but put her hand to the plow and then turned back after Versailles, attempting to ab solve herself of all the high obligations al QUOTATIONS j When a man is so ill as to believe he is ill when he is not ill, he is very ill indeed.—Eng lish psychologist in a recent book on psy chotherapy. » * * Those who have carried on into graduate study include 10 times as large a proportion of radicals as those who have barely finished the eighth grade.—Prof. Goodwin Watson, Colum bia. * * * I have my. doubt whether Trotsky was mur dered in Mexico at the instigation of Stalin, as is widely assumed. The Nazis could have wished it.—Charles Benedict, in the Magazine of Wall Street. * * • This is the moment and the United States is the place for us to revive again the faith and power of freedom. - Frank Kingdon in the Survey Graphic Man About Manhattan By George Tucker NEW YORK Sept. ?J — When Andy Anderson got ready to write that murder novel of his, “Kill One, Kill Two,” he went tack to the Blue Ridge section of his boy hood North Carolina for a back drop. In the book there is a moun tain on which, at various times, mysterious lights appear. There is a legend among the Indians who inhabit the region that these lights mean death. When they ap pear, someone is certain to die. We asked Andy if there really is such a mountain in North Caro lina. “Yes, sir,” he replied, “in the Linville section, near Asheville. Only, we call it Brown moun tain. I’ve heard about the Brown mountain lights all my life.” “Did you ever see them, Andy? Don’t lie now.” “No,” he admitted, “I never did. But I know plenty of people who have. The government even has investigated them. And a number of scientists in the south have made studies of them. They’re some sort of phenomena, but they don’t really mean that somebody is going to die. Sometimes there’s just one light; and sometimes J}iey come in clusters. It’s a very funny thing.” * * * Funny isn’t the word for it. If you know any mystery writers, you’ll know what I mean by that. Take Andy, for instance. Here is a tall (well over six feet), extraordinarily thin young man with prematurely grey hair. He speaks with a softly flowing North Carolina drawl. He has knocked about the south, middle west, and the metropolitan district as a newspaperman for twenty years. This is his first book. “I wrote most of it in an apart ment on 14th street between 5th avenue and Union Square, and ii you don’t think that is a peculiar environment for a murder mys tery you don’t know what it means to hear Communist brawls, shills screaming insults at taxi drivers, and shoe-string salesmen squabbling with the cops. It’s Coney Island and Hell’s Kitchen wrapped around Sugar Hill, with a blob of the Bowery thrown in. ‘Finally I went out to Jackson Heights and finished the thing in comparative peace. But nobody wanted it. One night we ran out of tally sheets during a hot bridge game and I kicked over the man uscript, looking for some extra paper. Sitting in the game was a literary agent. He said, ‘What is that thing?” Which was a super lative question, as anybody who has ever seen a manuscript can tell one a mile. The upshot of this was he took the manuscript. Twenty-four hours later it had been submitted, and accepted.” We also asked Andy if he, him self, was a mystery novel fan. ‘‘I eat ’em up,” he admitted. "I’ve read a thousand of the things. They get you. All great men read mystery stories—Win ston Churchill, President Roose velt, Henry Ford. . ... Don’t you?” We told him that, strange as it may seem, we never had read an out-and-out modern mystery nov el, but that, come midnight, we were a cinch to get started on the right track, as a copy, neatly au tographed, of "Kill One, Kill Two” was even then tinder our arm and we were all set to get going. 3 WILL OPEN BRIDGE WINSTON-SALEM, Sept. 10.—UP) —A new temporary bridge over the Yadkin River between Winston Salem and Mocksville, erected to replace one washed out in the flood last month, will be opened to traffic at noon tomorrow, state highway officials announced to day. 3 HOEY TO RETURN TO LAW PRACTICE Laughs When Questioned About Reports That He Will Enter Senate Race RALEIGH, Sept. 10.—(■£•>—Gover nor Hoey plans to return to the prac tice of law in his home town, Shelby, when he leaves office at the end of this year, he revealed today. The chief executive who was 62 last December, only laughed when questioned about reports that he would run against U. S. Senator Rob ert R. Reynolds in 1944. "Four years is a long time,” the governor said. "Right now I think I’ll go back to the practice of law. I like it and I made a living at it for 30 years before I became governor. "Right now I’m concerned with completing the job of being gover nor.” Hoey has been mentioned here, and in newspaper editorials in sev eral pewspapers, as a possible oppo nent for Senator Reynolds when his term expires. Discussing his tenure of office, the governor remarked that he had grown slightly greyer and had added 10 to 20 pounds to his weight since he toe office in January, 1937. "I normally weighed about 165 pounds before I took office,” he said, "but my weight is now between 175 and 180. I was slim—six feet and one inch tall — and 15 or 20 pounds is right much to add. How ever, practically the only people who notice it are those who haven’t seen me in several years.” The Merry Wives Of Windsor Ays#' \ \ \ r ^ e OUR COUNTRY Old Bill Dock—And Why, Like Jonathan Harrington, H er s A HeroToCar I Carmer Second of 24 articles on “Our countrymitten exchsMy for NEA Service and The Wilmington Morning Star tty the nation's most famous authors. By CARL CARMER Author of “Deep South.” "Stars Fell oil Alabama,” "The Hudson,” etc. “The Wilson Farm at Grovers Mill was mistaken for the ‘Wil muth farm’ of the play. Two of the three tenant families on the farm were at home when the false alarm spread. Mr. and | Mrs. James Anderson . . . switched over to Orson Welles' pro gram and heard the ‘bulletins’ on what was happening right in their own back yard . . . Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt Fenity and their two children, who also live on the farm, were in bed asleep . . . William Dock, 76-year-old resident of Grover's Mill, heard it and got out his shot-gun.” From the New York Herald-Tribune for Oct. 31, 1938. Uid Bill Dock had had a pretty, hard day for late fall. There’s a lot to do at Grover’s Mill in middle Jersey between har vest-time and the beginning of win ter. Bill ate his supper and rest ed easy by the radio. He was listening to some music when he dozed off. When you’re 76 it’s easy to fall asleep. Bill couldn’t have slept very long before an Carl r excited voice waked him. One Carmer of those news fellows was hot about something. At first it was hard for Bill to get the drift of it but when he did he jumped up quick enough. Some mean-looking strangers had land ed an airplane on the flat meadow that’s part of the Wilson farm. The foreigners had got out of their plane and begun to act nasty, and pretty soon Bill could tell that they meant business. The radio pretty soon Bill could tell that they meant business. The radio' man said they had killed off most of the state police that had showed up, and the governor was calling the militia. mu aian t hesitate after that. Jim Anderson and that nice wife ol his lived up on the Wilson farm. So did the Wyatt Fenitys and their wo bright kids. Bill went out to the woodshed and took down his shot-gun. When he came back through the house he opened the pantry cupboard, found a couple of aoxes of shells, and stuffed them w his pants pockets. Then he went out the back door and started across the fields toward the Wilson farm. A lot of folks made fun of Bill the next day. They laughed at him tor having been taken in by a play actor pretending to be a news iroadcaster. But Bill Dock has -,®en one of my heroes ever since that October night. I couple his lame in my memory with that of Jonathan Harrington and for a jood reason. Jonathan was also asleep one light when he heard an excited /oice on the air. It said a thousand toreign soldiers were marching lown the road to town, and Jona than got up and took his musKet ind walked out to the village green where he found John Parker, Bob VIonroe, Sam Hadley, Ike Muzzy *nd more of his neighbors. A fe lours later Jonathan (who was nuch younger then than Bill Dock f---- ■ was on the night he set out for to B Wilson farm ) crawled back hone fl across the grass with a bullet is I his belly. He reached his steps B and died just as his wile came oil B of the door. fi Now the point that I'd like l make is that none of Jonathan HnjB rington’s companions of the fatef-B morning on Lexington villa? B green ever attested that Jonathan B had said to the man who «B waked him: “Mr. Revere, this is B obvious propaganda on the parh-B imperialistic moneygrubbers wts B would sacrifice my life on the ai B tar of self interest.” B And as for Bill Dock there is n B record of his having said, when M B started out to help Jim Anaerso ■ on the Wilson farm, that Jim's ^B cestors had established a gree .'B empire that was no better than ■ B should be, and therefore Jim «"B fend lor himself. We know fr ■ B what Bill did that he said not»>B to himself. Perhaps the mam 1 • B ing Bill had was that the kind B life he lived—work that he liken'* the sun and talk by night be. ■ the stove, trading ideas on runrtB the government with Jim And - B and Wyatt Fenity - was end»B gered by men who. if they ■ would tell him what he sho ■ work at and what he should"-■ and who wouldn’t let him -P ■ his mulct any moie. I’m not saying that Bill and -- a than did the wisest thing P° ■ under the circumstances. • had no experts to tell ‘hern to do, and so they just did t ' they could. Perhaps they have acted more wisely « , had considered sending beef lets to help their neighbors thmselfes. That question « i to be left to men of experienc such things. ,, But Bill Dock told the world that autumn evening that the of Jonathan Harrington sun rf In an age of the questioning most accepted values B. ■ s proved there are certain of that are not questioned by & good will—the values 0 *Locratic friendship and a free de j life. Fighting among ourselves £ one proof that we are n0 ia generate, writes John =t beck in the next article o , series on “Our Country. According to reports, the ^ Ministry of Transport rl» ' ,jn Eorces a rule that no . i* iluding war materials' 1 ■ • j} :arried by road for more | mi1— Hollywood Sights And Sounds By Robbia Coont" ■ — ■■<» .. .J HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 10. — The girls in the blue flannel shorts and neat striped sweaters were going through a dance number. A dance number is what their mentor, Miss Merriel Abbott, called it. It looked to me like a routine designed for slightly mad persons who wish to knock them selves out spectacularly. The girls, nine of ’em, were doing a conga affair embellished by "splits” and "aerials” and other contortions and when they landed resounding ly on the floor, all together, it hurt. Me, not them. They just bounced up and kept on dancing. You’ve seen them before, these Merriel Abbott Dancers, in t h e Jack Benny movies. You’ll see them again in the Benny-Fred Al len piece, “Love Thy Neighbor,” wherein this conga number will be one of their specialties. The Abbott Dancers don’t have to dance. They’re taught dancing by a woman who doesn’t have to teach dancing, either. They dance, and Miss Abbott teaches dancing, because the whole she-bang just plain likes dancing. “My girls—I mean most of them —could live at home very com fortably without working,” says Miss Abbott, a nice-looking matron ly type with steel-gray hair. “My lusband is a successful orthopedic surgeon in Chicago. So there’s really no reason for our working except that we all love it. I’ve bought of giving it up, but I can’t —like it too much.” * * • Miss Abbott is the touring “fos ter-mother of all the girls, whose ages range from 18 to 21 She snows every boy who “dates” each E- l. She knows where they’re go ing and what time they’ll be in, ant, she takes care 01 d.em just as they would be looked after in their goqfi Chicago homes. Each girl is assigned a weight beyond which she must not go on pain of a fine. Weigh-in day is Thursday. The girls c„n eat all they please and what they please during the week, but come Thurs day they must be on the scales at the prescribed weight. When any girl protests about a -enalty for a mere three or four pounds, Miss Abbott hands the rebel a four pound sack of sugar and com mands, "Now let me see you do an aerial carrying this sack.” (An “aerial” is a terpsichorean stunt, like' a handspring don^ without touching hands to floor. You must try it some time, heh, heh!) * * * Many of the girls have been in the Abbott school in Chicago since childhood. There’s Jean Guest, who '/as four when she enrolled, and Valerie Thon, who was seven. Aside from the salaries they earn, they get travel. Miss Abbott has taken trcu ^es to Europe and South America and had them in several Broadway plays. She herself used to be a kinder garten teacher, with a suppressed desire for the dance. Her parents thought no decent girl went on the stage. By the time Miss Abbott declared her independence she thought jt was too late for her to dance professionally so she did'the next beset thing—took up dance in struction. She still dances, though not all the acrobatic, aerial, ballet and ballroom steps her pupils under take. “But I can still do a split,” she chuckles, "and at 47 that’s pretty good'” , j :