EDITORIALS RELIEF WHERE NEEDED MOST »• Chairman Merrill Evans of the High way commission made a speech at N.C. State college a few days ago and in the course of his remarks, said that in all of his experience in highway work he had found only one man, just one, who did not want a paved road in front of his home. Chairman Evans did not iden tify the man, but we would certainly like to know him. He is, we would say, one in four million. The main objective of the chairman’s talk, however, followed the line that everybody and every section of the state are asking for more and better roads and the only way, if there is an other way, to satisfy the requests is to find a method of building better roads for less money. Mr. Evans said he was not-suggesting new taxes to meet the demands and I neither was he intimating an increase of the current tax. He came straight to the point on one matter when he said that the 18 mem bers of the commission do not always agree on highway problems and that there, is no hope that the state’s four million people could be expected to reach common agreement on how high way funds should be spent. He admitted that the people in the Coastal Plain “have a good case” in their assertion that this section has been forgotten and that development of the area is being retarded because of the lack of adequate highways. Southeastern North Carolina does not wish to aggravate the highway problem but-it would like to know that it is be ing-retnembered in plans to bring relief where relief is needed most. LAG IN FOOD PROCESSING Wade Lucas, veteran publicity man for the Department of Conservation and Development, has raised some interest ing questions about the state’s progress in farm production and processing plants. Mr. Lucas feels that there is room for improvement in both fields and cites figures to prove his conten tions. Take meat, for one. He says there are 150 livestock slaughtering and meat processing plants in North Caro lina and these houses handle about 300 million pounds of livestock every year. Yet, the state must import two thirds of its meat requirements despite the fact that three years ago North Carolina ranked 11th in hog production, 33rd in sheep and lambs, and 38th in cattle. lit one commodity, however, we are first: the curing of country hams. It is his belief that more processing plants and better marketing facilities will bring further advancements in this phase of the state’s economy. Gross in income from farm products in 1961 was $1.2 billion but, quoting Agriculture Commissioner L. Y. Ballentine, the po tential is $1.5 billion. While Mr. Lucas did not get into the subject which his comments suggest, it is the thinking in some parts that lands converted to the growing of trees, through the federal $10 per acre per year for 10 years plan, could serve the state’s four million people better if such lands were retained for year-to-year food production. At least, more live stock and similar types of farming would provide more jobs to keep North Carolinians at home. Migration has al ready imposed a heavy toll on our population. LITTLE FOLK, PETS AND NEWS Once every year the Goldsboro News Argus publishes a special edition cover ing the whole of its Wayne county and containing news about everything from feeding a lonely pup with a nip pled bottle of milk to big Seymour Johnson Air Force Base where jets and flop-winged B-52’s are based. At the helm of the January 30 edi tion are Gene Price, managing editor, and the inimitable Henry Belk whose editorials about barbecue, hush pup pies, sausage canned in fat and chicken broth to season greens never fail to merit “first reading.” But about the puppy and bottle. Up at the top on page one is a picture of a lady and her pets. She could be about four. She’s wearing a floppy straw hat and a jumper, a jumper that’s easy to slip on and take off, and the kind that’s convenient when little folk get in a hurry as they do sometimes. There’s a shoe on one foot, can’t see the other, and she’s sitting on a one-seat bench, the kind of bench that you just kick yonder when it’s in the way. There’s a sort of pleased grin on the little lady’s face as that hungry pup with soulful eyes gets his dinner from the bottle held at just the right angle. At her feet a grown-up pup and a black and white kitty dine from the same bowl. Messrs. Price and Belk call this: “Feed-Up Time In Rural Wayne.” That’s the News-Argus, and how proud we are that they, too, remember that little folk and their pets are the biggest story of all. Plug For Old North State The Christian Science Monitor says history is on the rise. More people want to know what happened where, and why Uncle John and Aunt Susie went West when they could have brought up their brood at home along the Atlantic. Says The Monitor: “They are finding that history is not just Plymouth Rock and Independence Hall, but also is Olathe, Kan.: Stutt gart, Ark.; Bertie County, North Caro lina, and their own small communities.” Thanks for the plug. WESTERN EUROPE 'GONE AMERICAN' Western Europe has “gone Ameri can” and it is all due to the $40 billion in aid the United States has poured into those countries since World War II. In a recent article, the Saturday Evening Post says youngsters have been converted to blue jeans and T shirts, farmers are coming to town, city folk are becoming suburbanites, the supermarket is catching on like a prair ire fire, and the neighborhood cat has grown so prosperous that he’ll hardly stop to say hello these days. In fact, the article observes, Old Tom is even The State Port Pilot Published Every Wednesday Southport, N. C. JAMES M. HARPER, JR. ........ Editor Sintered as second-class matter April 20, 1928 at the Post Office at Southport, If. C., and other Post Offices, under the Act of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES Brunswick and Adjoining Counties and Service Men . $2.00 per year Six Months .... 5J1.5Q Elsewhere in United States — $8.00 Per Year;—-6 Months_$2 00 snubbing the garbage pail now. Aside from American dollars, an other American contribution, the auto mobile, is having a lot to do with the rebirth of those countries which so late ly were torn by war’s ravages. The gro ceryman is seen about the countryside Sunday afternoons giving his family a spin along flower-lined paved high ways, lakes are dotted with sailboats, whole families are flocking to beaches and the barbecue grill is standard equipment for everything outdoors. Consumer buying is on the boom. Customer demands are growing, and in this appears another American import: credit, installment buying. The average Englishman today owes $.‘>3 on install ment purchases, the German, $22, tiie Frenchman, $16, this compared to $212 owed by the average^ American for such purchases. Savings, however, are said to be high and there is no runaway in flation. People are not afraid to lose their lives, but they are afraid to lose their licenses. — Connecticut Police Captain, William A. Cruber. If the w’eather is cold enough an over coat as heavy as a horse blanket seems as light as a nightshirt. An open mind often sifnifies an entity one. “Miss Smith! How Many Times Must I Tell You Not To Put Minor Calls Through This Green Phone!” Enough To ^ Insure Security Save the amount of six months of your salary to tide you over when you’re short of in come. Save here! SAVE HERE WHERE SAVING PAYS! Have It Ready! Save It Steady... Southport Savings & Loan Asso. W. P. JORGENSEN, Sec’y.-Treas. SOUTHPORT, N. C. FINANCED BY SAVINGS AND LOAN