North Carolina Newspapers

Page Two The Chapel Hill Weekly Chapel Hill, North Carolina 11* E. Rwtatry Telephone 9-1271 or M<l Published Every Tuesday and Friday By The Chapel Hill Pwblwhinr Company, lut. Louis Gravis Cowtn bating Editor Joe Jokes Managing Editor Billy Arthur Associate Editor Chuck Hauser Associate Editor Orville Camprell General Manager O. T Watkins Advertising Director Fro Dali Circulation Manager Charlton Campbell Mechanical Supt. Enured u *econd-<U» matter FeOruary XS ItZlei the postafftrt* at Chape! Hlli. North Carolina undeT the act of March 3 lrh> SUBSCRIPTION RATES In Orange County, Year 14.06 (6 months $2.25; 3 months, $1.50) Outside of Orange County by the \ear\ State of N. C-, Va-, and S. C. Abe Other States and Dist. of Columbia 6.00 Canada, Mexico, South America _ V.OO Europe 1 There Should Ik* No Division in (iraniif In the Contest for Congressman: All Os I s Should Vote for Carl Durham Tomorrow. Saturday. May 26, is pri mary day. The voting is to decide who shall he the candidates of the Democratic party, but. because in this county and in this congressional district and in the state the Democrats are in the overwhelming majority, it is the primary, riot the election in November, that decides who shall hold the offices. The familiar po litical campaign jargon used to describe this situation is that winning in the pri mary is “tantamount to election.” All the rival candidates for county offices have their adherents, and all these adherents have what they regard as good reasons for their choices. But there should certainly he no division in this county on whom to vote for in the contest for Representative in Congress. Carl Durham is Orange county's, and Chapel Hill’s, own candidate. There is much more than neighborly goodwill, however, that should move us to sup port him: that is, his faithful service and the remykaoh ability he has dem onstrated in his nine terms since he was elected it 1928. AH of us should be proud to for Carl Durham.— L. G. .Ylr. Houghs Booh About Thoreau Building a cabinip the wood with hh own hands ado living in it alone for two years strengthened in Henry David ThoreauV neighbors in Concord, Massachusetts, the opinion that they had already formed about him l namely, that he was a queer one And since it is the subject of Fils book, "Walden," )t is the part, of his career that is most familiar to the ordinary- run of readers and the reason why the picture of him that has come down through posterity is mainly that of an eccentric. The better informed and the dis cerning have recognized in him quali ties on a much higher plane than ec centricity, but the episode of the cabin in the woods has so dominated -the world’s thought of him that the re cti y’ published book about his life, the author of which surely belongs among the better informed and the dis cerning, has the name of the woods in the title. J have been suspecting it was put there as a concession, or a lure, to the mass of people like me, so that as many of us as possible would know at the first glance whom we were being in vited to read about. The book is “Thoreau of Walden: The Man and His Eventful Life,” by Henry Beetle Hough, editor of the Vine yard Gazette, the celebrated newspaper on the Island of Martha’s Vineyard. The merit of any biography depends mostly upon the ’biographer’s gift for selection, knowing what incidents to put in and what to leave out, and, if his subject is a writer, what to quote and what not to quote. By this most important test Mr. Hough has revealed himself a master artist. His anecdotes are lively, and he knows just when to cut off a direct quotation for brevity’s sake and finish it in his own indirect discourse. This makes the narrative move along briskly. It will cause no yawns and no postponements. One feature of the book that makes a specially strong appeal to me is the abundance of passages about Thoreau’s association with Emerson, Bronson Al cott, Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and other notable figures of his day. These passages are so illuminating that when you have finished the book you feel that you have read not just one biog raphy but a dozen or more. I am grateful indeed to Mr. Hough for the pleasure he has given me.—L. G. A Miraculous Preservation of Documents j By Arthur Kruck in the New York Ti*e« \ The ceremonies in Staunton, \ a., in : commemoration of Woodrow Wilson, co incided with an announcement that { would have particularly gratified 'Wil son as a historian. The announcement was that the University of North Caro lina, in twenty-five feet of cubic space, has assembled a mass of hitherto scat tered public documents that contain many of the primary source of the early history of the United States. Henceforth researchers and authors can insjtect these documents on a roll of microfilm that is equivalent to B,’’.'>2 books with a total of 2'- million pages, and all in one small room Prof. \\ illiam Sumner Jenkins of the University, di rector of the establishment, spent 20 years ir. the 48 states and in Great Britain photographing these doc uments, which were found in 300 dif ferent archives and libraries. The mi crofilm product is the first great ency clopedia of the nation’s sources, a virt ual blood-bank of the vital life-blood of research. When Wilson wrote his “History of the American People,” and indeed un til now, such a facility was unknown. The result is bound to be the first « thorough presentation of the documen tary materials from which the continu ing story of the Republic is derived. These include early court calendars, the files of state mental institutions, gov ernors’ letters, municipal treasurers’ re ports, manuscripts of the original Thir teen Colonies. Most of these have been out of the reach of students, and some will be entirely new to the leading au thoritiies. It is even possible—though this is a venturesome supposition—that the microfilm collection will improve the teaching of American history in the schools and turn out new generations of Americans adequately informed about the beginning and evolution of our governing system. If so, the Library of Congress and the • University at Chapel Hill, which sponsored the project, and the Rockefeller Founda tion, which financed it with $25,000, will share the credit. Not only have these source materi als bseff% Ambled on microfilm; they have been so edited and arranged that a specific item may be obtained in a few\ minutes instead of requiring much time and travel to locate. De Tocqueville, when he wrote his famous “Democracy in America” (1835- 1840), looked with extraordinary pres cience into the American future. Many of ins prophecies have been borne out by events. But the task just completed at Chapel Hill has proved him wrong in at least one prediction. “I am con vinced,” he wrote, “that in fifty years it will be more difficult to collect au thentic documents concerning the social condition of the Americans at, the pres ent day than it is to find remains of the administration of France during the Middle Ages; and. it the United States were ever invaded by barbarians, it would be necessary to have recourse to the history of other nations to learn anything of the people which now in habits them.” De Toequeville went on to say that “no one cares for what occurred before his time (a trait unfortunately still highly prevalent), no methodical sys tem is pursued; no.archives are formed; and no documents are brought together when it would be easy to do so. Where they exist little store is set upon them. * * *” But, as the Library of Congress and the University of North Carolina have demonstrated, Yfiuch of this data was miraculously preserved in some form. Miraculous it is, considering that the proposal by an early American scholar, Francis Lieber, that the Government establish a collection agency for his torical documents was disregarded by Congress for more than a hundred years. He thought only the Government .could assemble this material because of its scattered and distant locations, and the time, money, travel and authority that would be necessary. But Lieber did not foresee the effective twentieth cen tury combination of University scholar ship, foundation money, and the Library of Congress that would produce what he thought only government could do. Thomas Jefferson, replying to a question somebody asked him about his religion: “Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone/ Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the re ligion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.” THE CHAPEL HILL WEEKLY f Like Chapel HIU Picked up lines and gags from here and there: Two drunks went out to the golf course, and when one of them teed up his ball, he said, "Hey, 1 don’t know whish ball to hit?” The other drunk said, “Aw, go and swing, holding enough clubs to hit ’em all.” • • * * Household hint: If you want double the closet space in your house, bum half of your clothes. * * * * A politician is a man who works his gums before election and gums the works after. He approaches every question with an open mouth. * * * * Money isn’t everything. With all his money, Henry Ford never owned a Cadillac. * * * * What this country needs is someone who knows what the country needs. * * * * Two fellows went lion hunting in Africa, and Al vin bet Clyde a dollar that he’d be the first to kill a lion. Alvin left and about an hour later, a lion poked his head in the tent and asked, “You know a guy named Alvin?” And Clyde said, “Yes, I do, why?” and the lion said, “Well, he owes you a dollar.” \ * * * * The best way to open a conversation is with a cork screw. * * # * The editor of a newspaper received a letter from a Scotchman, reading: “If you don’t stop printing jokes about Scotchmen being stingy, I’m going to quit bor rowing your paper.” ~ • * * * * > In olden days a girl blushed when she was ashamed. Today she’s ashamed to blush. * * * * * Some folks go to church only three times in their lives—when they’re hatched, matched, and dispatched. ♦ ♦ * * Then there’s the one about the undertaker who closes his letters with “Eventually yours.” His license plate number is U-2. * * * * With all the modern conveniences, housewives no longer will complain of dishpan hands. Instead they’ll have push button fingers. * * + * Several weeks back I advertised my portable type writer for sale. A few days ago, Jack LeGrand passed me and remarked, “I’m surely glad you’re gonna sell your typewriter and not write any more.” ♦ * * * Carolina Inn Manager L. B. Rogerson is passing out the following cards: TO ALL EMPLOYEES Due to increased comjietition and a desire to stay in business, we find it necessary to institute a new policy —effective immediately. We are asking that somewhere between starting and quitting time, and without infringing too much on the time usually devoted to lunch periods, coffee breaks, rest periods, story telling, ticket selling, vaca tion planning and the re hashing of yesterday’s TV programs, that each employee endeavor to find some time that can be set aside and known as “Work Break.’’ * * # * "Big John” Rogers tells about a girl trying to .sell a Carrboro colored woman a poppy last week. "Lan’ sakes,” she said, “i don’t need any. 1 got a whole back yard fuR-ef'em.” * ♦ ¥ ¥ Mrs. C. >S. Logsdon has received from friends in Columbus, Ohio, the following clipping from the Co lumbus Dispatch: Raleigh, N. C.- (APj—-North Carolina Motor Ve hicle Department judges, helping out in a traffic safety contest, came across this entry from a Chapel Hill listener: “First remove all speed limits and second, raise en gine horsepower to a minimum of 500. “Then all the inferior (and therefore dangerous drivers) would be in a ‘survival of the fittest’ period and the superior and safe driver alone remain.” To us it’s news and maybe not a bad idea after all. * * * » Skipper Coffin has been moving gradually to Ra leigh, taking a few things now and then to his sister's, with whom the Coffins will reside upon his retirement from the University. “Cot to do it gradually,” the Skipper tells friends, “so my sister will take to me.” Chapel Hill Chaff (Continued from page 1) when one and all make a con certed move to clear the prem ises, is justified in being, well, perhaps not joyful, but at least reconciled, to have them go through with the project. Well, every interruption comes to an end after a while, and so did this hailstorm. It was from the east and even while jt wa3 still in progress the company trooped over to the west end of the porch to see, in the clear sky, two bril liant stars. I heard somebody say one of them was Jupiter, but their names don’t matter; they were a perfect spectacle to end the evening. The last I saw of the party was Mrs. House in the door. She was smiling. I am not go ing to Nay she looked like a brave survivor. She looked like a happy one. * * * Not being able to remember the word you want, whether a person’s name or any of the parts of speech, is one of the most irritating punishments of advancing age. When Charles E. Rush and I were at the inn together one day last week 1 asked him: “How did you like flying over Los Angeles in the .... ?” I stopped. 1 had in my mind a perfectly clear picture of the thing I wanted to ask about, but I couldn’t think of the word for it.” “Oh, you mean the . . And Mr. Rush stopped for the same reason I had: he knew what I meant but he couldn’t name it. Mrs. Wyncie King was sitting near us and I appealed to her: “What is it you call that fly ing machine that will move straight up and down?” And she answered “Helicopter.” Mr. Rush and I were glad to get the information but it made us feel foolish to have to ask for it. Robert M. Lester, who was with us, said he would go to tally blank on things that ought to be the easiest in the world to keep in mind. “I can’t even remember my telephone number,” he said. Mr. Rush (who is 71) and I (who am naaring 73) rebuked Mr. Lea- The Roundabout | Paper* mmmm J- A. C. Dunn as ammZ FOR THE BENEFIT of that minute trickle of people who are so liberal (nay, tolerant!) as to actually look forward to the Roundabout Papers twice a week, this is the last column. Within 48 hours I shall leap springily into my car and whirl off for South Carolina; when 1 yet home I shall droop mug yily out of my car, wearily empty it of all the tons of possessions which I have ac quired since 1952; that done, 1 shall leap sprinyily into my car and whirl out to the beach, where I will stay for as many hours out of the twenty-four duriny the next week or so as is manayeable; that done, 1 shall leap sprinyily into a Trailways bus and ride in air conditioned splendor to Fort Jackson, S. C.; that done 1 shall tiptoe into the enlistment center there and announce tim idly that I should like very much—well, I would be inter ested, thouyh possibly not avid ly—to learn to be a soldier. So there you have a one parayraph resume of my fu ture for some time to come. I rather suspect that I am more interested in my future than you are, but there it is any way to answer any questions that miyht enter your mind. * * * 1 HAVE DISCOVERED, in the course of a year of small town newspaperiny, that journ alism on the Weekly’s scale is much like bioyraphy. Such as writiny up the milkman, the policeman, the lawyer, the judye, the alderman, the pro fessor, the hiyh school stu dent, the retired Navy man, the merchant, and the little boy in a public waitiny room who keeps the immediately surroundiny population in stitches on a hot day; after all these people arc written up, other people know about them, and there .s nothiny like know ing about people. And thereof course there are people who yet in trouble, and people who do extra-ordinary thinys, arid people who do yood Denys, and people who do noth iny at all and still have a yood time, and people who do every day, commonplace, routine thiriys; people like to know about those areas of human ac tivity too. Also there are thinys one doc s oneself, and hears one self, and sec-, and find.- out, and likes, and doesn't like. of the time, if th«-. . latter items are properly sugar-coat ed, readers find themselves Deling the bettei foi haviny found them out. if if -t AFTER ONE GETS through with a year of this sort of business, one finds one's finyer to be rather sensitive to what goes on iri a small town. 1 have developed a sort of 24 inch screen teleview of Chapel Hill as a whole; haviny delved into everything 1 could manaye that had anythiny to do with what went on around here, 1 find that almost everything that anyone does matters not in a nosy sense, you under stand, but simply because 1 have been so identified with the activities, of the town as a whole in my own daily hither and-yonniny, that just about every event alters my 24-inch screen picture somewhat. It is interesting to watch the pic ture change, and fade, arid take new shapes, and add or subtract colors, and so on. I could go on in this vein for some time, but I shall stop here because if I continue too much longer the whole column will turn to soup. * * * WITHOUT MORE FRIB BLING around and lacing my fingers and coyly crossing the toes of one foot over the toes of the other, 1 shall haul right off and say that I wonder if as much pleasure in small-town newspapering could be gotten in any other town in the coun try? Probably. I would like to find the town, though. V School Row in Dare (The Coast land Times) We are having another big school row in Dare County. One group has gone to court in hope of accomplishing what ■they want. They say the Dare County Board of Education hasn’s dealt on the ' level with them, and by this means they hope to bring them in line. Results will probably be to ter, declaring he was yetting to! be a forgetter before he had any right to Abe (at 66). “Well, anyway, after this warning,” I said,, “if I ever start to introduce anybody to either of you, or to you, Mrs. King, and forget your name, you’ll know enough not to be offended.” •" LOn the Tou'n Mmermem By Chuck Hauser v-v” RALEIGH, May 23—Well, here I am in politics again, and while I can't say I don’t enjoy it, I must admit it’s a lot harder work than I’m accustomed to. In case it’s not clear just what I AM doing here, let me explain. In spite of the fact that Julian Scheer of the Charlotte News and several other ears-to-the ground news-hawks across the state reported that I was scheduled to go to work in Governor Hodges’ cam paign headquarters here, I am at present esconced be hind a typewriter in the Carolina Hotel political hub of Congressman Harold Cooley’s campaign. As a matter of fact, I WAS scheduled to go to work on the Governor’s campaign staff, but as the weeks went by and election day neared, it rapidly became apparent that my services would not be needed: Luther Hodges was a shoo-in. However, things weren’t so clear in the Fourth Congressional District campaign between incumbent Harold Cooley and challenger W. E. Debnam. Debnam, a long-time radio commentator in Raleigh with a wide rural following, was waging an all-out campaign based on the race issue. The chief chunk of ammunition for Debnam’s red shirt rantings was thje fact that Congressman Cooley had refused to sign the so-called “Southern Manifesto” challenging the Supreme Court’s decisions in the school segregation cases. This Fourth District fracas is undoubtedly the roughest political fight seen in this state since the Graham-Smith battle in 1950. The main difference be tween the two campaigns is that in 1950 the dirt was kept undercover until the closing days of the campaign, and in 1956 it’s been splashed across these seven coun ties openly for many weeks. I attended a YDC candidates rally at the Wake County courthouse last night, and saw Jim Farlow of Chapel Hill very much in evidence, shaking hands and acting like a candidate who knows where he’s going. Farlow is campaigning to oust Frank Crane as state Commissioner of Labor, and he’s got a rough fight on his hands. There seems to be quite a tendency in this state to retain incumbents, especially if they are serv ing in one of the numerous administrative offices (La- , bor Commissioner, Insurance Commissioner, etc.) which should be appointive rather than elective in the first place. The rally didn’t attract a big crowd. In fact, it seemed to me that about the only persons in attendance wore either candidates, members of the YDC, or re porters. J guess Raleigh is getting to be too big and sophisticated a Jown to pay much attention to a good old-fashioned political rally. Or maybe it’s the TY r cover age. After all, why should someone leave his living room to hear candidates speak when he can flip on his TV set almost any night and see the same people on the flicker ing, aluminized, electronic, 21-inch screen? And while I’m on the subject of the rally, I might mention that the courtroom in the Wake County court house is undodbtedly• the filthiest, dirtiest, most de pressing hall of jusice in the state of North Carolina. This courtroom looks as if someone started a huge bonfire right in the middle of the floor at some time in the dim past, and no one ever got around to cleaning the soot off the walls and the ceiling. Dozens of dreary oil portraits of (1 presume) lung dead jurists are on the walls, and every one of the pic tures, as Marion Harden of Chapel Hill pointed out to me at one point in the evening, are hanging crooked. drive them harder the other way. No matter how meritori ous the cause be, we have not ed numerous school rows in Dare County went into court, with the plaintiffs usually winding up on the losing end, but too often not content with the decision as having been arrived at in the democratic manner. We have noticed also that the real losers in all these school rows that get into court are the children. When school rows are in their early stages, often motivated of course by community zeal and local pride, good leadership if we have it might find a solution with ev eryone going his way in peace and harmony. But once the dis sension gets heated to boiling point, the needs of the children are too often completely for gotten. It’s purely a fight of the elders bent on carrying their own points on either side, and little else counts then, be yond being able to say “I beat you.” To continue the fight takes a lot of money out of the pockets of the plaintiffs that they need for other things, and on the other hand out of the pockets of the taxpayers which were better spent for things already needed in the school fights, and both sides are usually the wrong sides. The side of the children, which we supposed was all that real ly matters is often completely forgotten. Perhaps the reason there are soo many school fights in Dare County is that the schools fought over have for so many years been donated for the greater part by outsiders. Since the public school system began in this state, most of the school money has been sent down from Raleigh from funds collected from all over North MUM* M ?l I If fi ; , • t- tv c* it-{»TT v V AIRPORT . / . * y v, <HAMt HSU HOME OF CHOICE CHARCOAL BROILED HICKORY SMOKED STEAKB-FLAMING BHIBKEBAB—BUFFET EVERY SUNDAY Friday, May 25, 1956 Carolina, and of that money little was contributed by a county which until a few years ago paid nothing in direct in come taxes. Os the share that was collected in ad valorem taxes each year in Dare Coun ty for school purposes, only a small part was paid by resi dents whose children went to •school. For many years the larger part of our share came from owners of timberlands and hunting clubs, who shared in none of the educational bene fits. As the timberlands shrank in value, and the hunting clubs went out of business, a far greater source of taxes came from the rapid boom in beach property developed by people who came in the summer to en joy the seashore. It still goes on, with the State sending the larger part even now. It, is to laugh for any of us to point out how much we pay in taxes for schools. In fact it is to the shame of any of us to ever mention how much we pay. it’s only a small part, for the greater part is paid by people who don’t live here the year round, and don’t have any children to go to our schools. In fact when we nar row it down to what we actual ly pay ourselves, who enjoy the benefits of the schools, there would not be enough to buy the fuel to keep them warm. Surely not enough to i# it over, so perhaps why we are fighting is because we have so much given us. If we had to shell it all out ourselves we would he so busy sweating blood to get the dough we wouldnt have time to think about fighting. WAVES “‘" 1, 30 ’, 19 “’ the WAVES will observe their J4th anniversary.