Newspapers / The Chapel Hill Weekly … / July 3, 1963, edition 1 / Page 12
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Page 4-B I The Chapel Hill Weekly | : "If the matter ml important and you are aura of your ground, never fear to be in the minority.” ORVILLE CAMPBELL, PubUAer JAMES SHUMAKER, General Manager Published every Sunday and Wednesday by the Chapel HIU Publishing Company, lac. 128 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill, N. C. P. 0. Box 271 Telephone 967-7045 Subscription rates (payable in advance and including N. C. sales tax)—ln North Carolina: One year, $5.15; six months, $3.09; three months, $2.06. Elsewhere in the United States: One year, $6.00; six months, $4.00; three months, $3.00. Outside United States: One year, SIO.OO. One Thing The Special Session Could Use: The Former Gentleman From Orange If all goes as expected, and the Legis-. lature is called back to Raleigh in special ■session by Governor Sanford, Orange have had three Representa tives in the 1963 General Assembly. This is a right rare feat for a county which has but a single seat in the .State House. Orange’s political version of musical chairs began early in the 1963 session when John Umstead gave up his seat to take £are of his health. Judge L. J. Phipps, chairman of the Democratic Ex ecutive Committee, ,was appointed to succeed him. This coming Sunday, Judge Phipps will be installed as Department Com mander of the North Carolina American Legion. In order to serve in the Legion post, Judge Phipps had to resign from the Legislature. The Legion bylaws do not allow the Department Commander to hold elective office. Governor Sanford is expected to call the special session of the Legislature for September. Sometime shortly prior And Still As Pretense-less As Earth Don Matheson retired Sunday after 34 years as Orange County’s farm agent, still as simple and pretense-less as earth. Even in his last “County Agent’s Col umn” there wasn’t a word atout his de parture from the official agricultural scene. The last item in his last column is about small grain. You might think a man as apparently impactless as Don Matheson had spent half his life sitting behind an old desk S in Hillsboro totely telling Orange Coun ty’s farmers \vhen to sow and when to reap. Mr. Matheson’s gaze from behind his spectacles was as patient as a cow’s, as wise as an old hound’s. When you walked into his office there was no breast-beating about Orange crops blast ing out of the eartfy4ike ICBM’s, turgid with vitamins and impervious to beetles. There was no flag-flapping about Orange cattle turning into mountains of beef and rivers of milk, crusted with blue ribbons and gorging themselves on pas ture rich as custard. Mr. Matheson just looked at you in a distant, kihdly way that made you feel Air-Conditioned Voice In The Land The voice of the air conditioner is abroad in the land. All over the neigh borhood a low, whirring hum sounds. In the late afternoons and, unfortunately, in the early mornings the voice of the power mower is added to the mechanical chorus. At midday the humidity muffles the sound of cars. The heat moves aimlessly through the house, hazing spectacles and making tabletops sticky. The pages of slick mag azines hang limply in the hand. Ice cream is about as easy to keep as snow in a boiler room. Every time you park the car the hot motor hiccoughs a few times after the motor is turned off, and the windowsill is too hot to rest your arm on when you come back. The A & P looks like a mirage shimmering across the Eaistgate asphalt frypan. A newly paved stretch on Franklin Street smells heavily of hot tar, even though the pave ment is not melting. The men working on Hil|sborp Street are all shirtless and shining with perspiration. Policemen retreat to the shelter of awnings, shifting their caps and mopping their brows. Drooping dogs lie where they cap and would look dead but for heaving rib* *»d dripping tongues. Stu dents jgo candidly barefoot. You remember when Hie wind swept dpwn Franklin Street piling snow in the gutters and freezing the naked limbs of Wednesday, July 3,1963 to its convening, the Orange Democratic Executive Committee will name a suc cessor to Judge Phipps. We would like to suggest that the Executive Committee appoint John Um stead to his old seat. We have no idea whether Mr. Umstead’s doctor would consent to his undertaking legislative duty, ;or whether Mr. Umstead would consent to serve, even with his doctor’s permission. But if it could be consum mated, this would be an appointment that .would serve the best interests of both Orange County and North Caro lina. Although he has made no public com ment on the matter, we feel certain Mr. Umstead could be counted on to use his considerable Influence in helping repeal the Legislature’s misconceived “anti communist” gag law. If he didn’t hit another lick in the Legislature, the tripe would still have been eminently worthwhile. We hope the Executive Committee will offer the appointment to Mr. Um stead preferably on a silver platter. like a "plant that had responded hand somely to mulch, and asked you how you and your friends were. Behind the quiet pleasantrias, how ever, was a man who was partly re sponsible for bringing rural electricity and telephones to the County; who per suaded a livestock market to establish .near Hillsboro; who instigated new pro grams of diversified farming which bene * sited the County’s dairy industry; arid who was particularly interested in help ing young farmers. Don Matheson had that tweedy look about him that reminds you of a coun try squire. He will probably retain the tweedy loqk in retirement. Three and a half decades of accomplishment hasn’t changed him, and won’t. At a gathering in his honor in Hillsboro Sunday.Jhe even said that the wrong man was be ing honored. This is what honorees are supposed to say, of course. The farmers themselves deserved the honor, he said, but there was something about the way he saidjt that made you feel he really meant it. * trees? When the furnaces roared their hearts out and you came indoors with your ears stinging? It’s unimaginable. And when the furnace starts roaring again and the wind sweeps the sleet down Franlfln Street we’ll all long for the unimaginable sound of the.air con ditioner and the smell of hot tar. t Bats In Our Belfry We discovered this week that a local firm dealing in foreign cars drives an International truck, which seems to be at least near the peak of diplomacy. This brought to mind a few other things we observed last w*ek about this Town. You can buy shirts in a grocery store. You can buy groceries at a filling station. You can buy furniture and guns at a record store. Considerable real estate information can be had at one of the local movie theaters. There is actually a place in this Town where you can get a shot of (illicit) liquor sold to you across a bar. *fhe radio station rents an apartment on its premises. Quite a Town, this is. We might be persuaded that any of the above could happen anywhere, W for one item: among a shelf of recommended children’s books in the Intimate Bookshop is a copy of the writings of Machiavelli. ce Gee Whiz, Dad/ Don’t Be So New-Fashamed!” Letters: Desegregation, The Gag Law Dear Sir^ Frances Wood Crawford’s let ter to this column (6/26/63) sug gests that her fellow citizens of the Committee for Open (Business think of their work toward com pleting the surface integration of Chapel Hill as “valiant.” While our movement is no more free from purple rhetoric or weary cliche than most social agita tions, I don’t recall our having termed ourselves valiant. In fact, a fairly objective view of our concerns and the ways we have gone about expressing them would reveal that our motives are as mixed as any human be ings' short of the saints are ahd that our methods have been con fused, inefficient, and haphazard a share of the time. Press ac counts of our open meetings fre quently make us sound consider ably more organized and parlia mentary than we" in fact have been. There has been about our confabs and marches that healthy confusion that usually suggests a good many people are partici pating quite individually, free ly, and whole-heartedly in what a group is doing. Reader Craw ford's view that we are some grim, sinister force leveling threats, calling ourselves val iant. and being ugly in general begs correction'in point of fact. BILLY ARTHUR REMEMBER, ALL OF YOU folks who are preparing to spend July 4th at the shore or in the mountains, the only person who is qualified to handle a pint and a quart and drive is the milk man. We remind you that automo biles have claimed a number of lives in North Carolina already this year, and that you can be of great assistance to the press if you will heed the request of the Charlotte Observer. In the Thirties it carried this box story on page one the day before Mem orial Day, but it applies (jpst as well to July 4th: “The Observer asks that “•per sons who intend to mix liquor with automobiles in their Mem orial Day celebrations please leave typed obituaries and photo graphs or one column cuts?with the city editor before beginning the day’s observance. The clear ing of the accident stories thus will be facilitated for the news staff.” ALREADY GARAGE MEN are gassing and oiling their wreckers. Like fanners, they expect a bumper crop this Inde pendence Day. Os motorists, that is. Well, you call them motor ists until they scare the day lights out of you. Then you name them properly. You try to give them half of the road, but you can’t tell which half they want. NOT ONLY ARE VACATION ERS difficult. Take the fellow described by H. H. Brimley in a 190 i! edition of the Observer. He determines to spend “A Day in the Country” this way: “Along the streets he drives his car with caution. (The cops have stop watches and know the miles); He guides it in and out with gentle torsion Moving to theory, Frances Crawford and I differ in our defi nitions of ugliness. Where she finds pickets, boycotts, and dem onstrations esthetically unpleas ing. quite a number of Chapel Killians find these devices the only remedy left us for the total ly offensive evil of men, wonten, y and children’s being denied the dignity of human beings regard less of their individual qualities or abilities simply because their skin is darker than Frances Crawford’sivAnd she will not have to walk about very long in our “broadminded and tolerant” Chapel Hill to. find that dignity arrogantly denied Negro Chapel Hillians. A picket tine is not ugly if it is there for the right reasons, nor does anyone taking time out from his other duties and pleasures to do reader Craw ford’s work for her consider him self a member of a mob Tilled with “hot animal violence." Why does it not offend her sense of moral beauty to see a child sent into the street to sweep dust in to the shoes of a Negro' lady on the picket line (Colonial Drug Store, Sunday, June 23, 6:30 pm., five witnesses) or the owner of that store on the side walk . . . calling a mature Ne gro student “boy”? What are the “moderates" do- And, heading for the country, gently smiles. "Through suburbs wide he feels her moving faster. Though still within the limit set by law; No pitfalls here to bring him sad disaster— No police to stop him with up held paw. And then he’s in the country— “ The chickens scatter as he rushes through them. At least some scatter, though a few remain; ■A bolting pair of mules gets all that’s due them, A calf is left behind to nurse its pain. “Returning homeward by a dif ferent routing— He eats the miles when roads are smooth and hard. And into town he slows her, ever hooting, Alert to stop—’gainst accidents on guard. “Dismounting from his chosen speed charmer He finds her flecked with fea thers, bones and ha’ir; Such a pleasant day spent with honest farmer Repays him well for all his skill 'and care.” THAT’S ONE TYPE. There are others, and they are popularly classified in a single category as Sunday and/or holiday drivers. I think you’ll find that most of the accidents on the highways are caused by these so-called Sunday and holiday drivers get ting on the roads other days in the week. They also include the men who parks his car all week, then takes it out on Sundays and holidays and makes all his mistakes. THEY ARE THE PEOPLE who spend liolidays on the highways and the rest of Jhe week in the hospital. And you, the rest of jour life ia ibt cemetery. ing to make Chapel Hill a com munity that can genuinely be beloved by more than those privileged white persons who can go in any store they wish, expect to be hired for jobs on the basis of their ability, be called by their full names with Mr. and Mrs. or Miss attached, and enjoy the other freedoms of first-class citizenship? We are pledged to the whole of Chapel Hill to win our struggle; and if foggy, romantic sentiments sup porting unlimited freedom for bus iness enterprise at the expense of freedom for persons force us to win it in the streets, we shall have to win our fight there. We are in the streets to appeal to the conscience of this town. We are there to demonstrate that' Chapel Hill’s Negroes want more than picturesque flower ladies in a sweet engraving of the mythical good old days in the Southern Part of Heaven when everything was calm and pleas ant. I am concerned about beauty, too, Frances Crawford, and you can hear a little bit about that Tuesday and Thursday evenings tills summer on Channel 4, but beauty, harmony, and peace bought at the expense of the dignity of human "beings is a tin sel, tarnished beauty.. We shall be in the streets in increasing numbers with increasing fre quency until that point is brought home. The only choice up to the so-called moderates is a choice of how soon we can get off the streets and into the harder work of full social integration. James W. Gardner Dear Sir: Some Englishman said during World War II that Hitler was the scourge of the Lord on the democracies. I venture Jo say that the communists are the scourge of the Lord on the Birch ites and Goldwaters as well as on the landed gentry of South America who live on the fat of the land while the peasants live on the level of animals* Os course the rich people in the ? eities and the landlords are not going to do anything about the situation because they like it as it is. The communists are about the only people left who are dedi cated to changing the order of things. We just did escape by a hair’s breadth, one vote in the State Legislature, having the Tennes see Monkey law foisted on this State in the 19205. Anyone would think that we would be so grate ful that we were spared that fate that there would never be an attempt, of that nature again in our Legislature. When did we become so afraid of the merits and superiority of democracy that we doubted it could stand up in a debate with a communist? What President Kennedy said in Berlin the other day Let anyone who thinks that com munism is the wave of the fu ture, look at the wall applies equally well to this country." What ideas ate the rightists afraid of debating in a free and open society? The Berlin wall is the single biggest indictment of communism. But who wants to build a wall in America? Evi dently, it ts not the communists. Let’s build no walls on our State campuses. * Otelia Connor —Looking Back— From the Weekly’s files: l < i * i IN 1923 Old East May Have to Go “The Old East, the first build ing greeted by any state univer sity in America, may have to come down. In tearing out the interior to remodel it for the uses of a modern dormitory, the construction forces found the out er walls out of plumb several inches. The bricks are soft and the plaster crumbly. For the sake of safety, the workmen have had to be ordered out, and the public is kept away by railings and signs. A special meeting of the trustees’ building committee has been called for next Monday, to consider what shall be done. If the building can possibly be saved, it will be.” “Ptomaines were present in force at a party on Rosemary Street the other flight. With the gay abandon for \hich they are famous, decked ouKin the full panoply of war, they romped up and down the interiors of the guests, feasting joyfully upon the choicest tissues and greeting the pain of their victims with cruel taunts. Their raid was poignant ly remembered for three or four days.” IN 1933 The Inn’s Beer Garden ‘The Carolina Inn is to have a beer garden. Or, if you prefer, you may call it a tea garden, or a lemonade of coca cola gar den. For all these beverages will be served, and any others—per missible under the law —for which there is a popular de mand. “Mr. Holmes is arranging to place tables on the lawn in front of the In®* overlooking Cameron Avenue. Colored electric lights will be strung over them, and in the afternoon they will be sheltered from the sun either by awnings or by gay-hued umbrel las of the sort seen on bathing beaches. . . .” “There is a report that the State School Commission is try ing to work out a plan for con stituting Chapel Hill a special administrative unit under the new law, so that this community may hold an election on the question A Classic Maneuver i 4 * * *■* The Gag Law’s Background By ED YODER In the Greensboro Daily News Every state official’s night mare is the palmy June season when legislative tempers fraz zle and political skies darken with zany causes. But what was unseen on the horizon as iaie as the day before it passed—even in this humid ses sion was the bill to keep "known Communist” speakers away from state campuses. Raleigh observers now agree on two aspects of this absurd bill: The first is that in a rou tine legislative week it would have scarcely survived an initial committee hearing, had it even gained one. The other is that the stormy tensions over "states rights” that blew up during the session made such an outburst nearly inevitable—in hindsight, that is. * • * Already it looks as if the anti communist speaker law will prove the classic example of the little bill that nobody wanted and nobody, in fact, really spon sored. But it is possible to piece together some of the background. The bill itself was brought up so stealthily that even college and university heads directly af fected by it knew of it only after the House had shouted it through and it was on its way to an un suspecting Senate. • • * The history is sketchy. Some time back, Jesse Helms, Raleigh television pundit and daily guardian of North Carolina’s political chastity, extolled a sim ilar bill pending before the Ohio • legislature. Secretary of State Thad Eure, who now admits drafting the North Carolina ver sion, wrote off at legislative re quest to his opposite number in Ohio. Mr. Eure has shown the correspondence to Raleigh news men, not without chagrin ap parently-boasting. however, that he “toned down” the bill. Mr. Eure claims that he drafted rf as e courtesy to two Eastern legislators. Representatives Dela mar of Pamlico and Godwin of Gates. What is so far mysteri -.ously undocumented is who first '■ was set atingle by the Helms broadcast • • * Whoever pushed the plan, the strategy was a model of politi cal tiptoeing: The bill came up in the House while the rules were suspended to make a transmis sion belt for rapid passage of koftl bills. of supplementing the State allow ance.” IN 1943 - New Gasoline Coupons "A new type of gasoline ration coupon known as TT coupons will be issued to commercial vehicles from now on. The new TT cou pons will take the place of the T ration stamps formerly used. “Moody Durham, chairman of the Ration Board, says that the purpose of this new type of gaso line rations for commercial ve hicles is to take up ‘slack’ mile age and to remove potential sources of black market gasoline. “ ‘Rumors have been persist ent,’ he says, ‘of the sale of gas without coupons, and the holders of the old-type T stamps have often been pointed to as the pos sible source of this ration-free supply. The TT coupon will re duce the possibility of such leak age, and from now on we should hear less and less of black mar ket gasoline.’ ” IN 1953 - Wild Dogs * “Repeated forays by wild dogs in the Morgan’s- Creek low grounds near the Pittsboro Road were climaxed one night last week when the dogs pulled down and killed a calf in Eben Mer ritt’s herd of beef cattle. “The next afternoon Mr. Mer ritt and Ben Williams were in vestigating the incident when one of the dogs charged Mr. Williams and was only a few steps from him when he killed it with a shotgun. Mr. Merritt said that about a dozen dogs had been killed in the area in recent months while making raids on poultry and livestock. He said the dogs are mongrels that seem -to live well and reproduce plenti fully in the brushy meadows along the creek. “Jack Andrews told Mr. Mer ritt last Friday night that he had seen a dead calf when he was frog-gigging. The next morning Mr. Merritt saw that the calf was from his herd and began hunting its killers. That after noon he and Mr. Williams ap proached the sandbar from op posite directions. A big dog that looked like a German shepherd charged Mr. Williams as he near ed-the dead calf and Mr. Wil liams shot and killed it. Several other dogs that were feeding qn the calf fled when he fired.”* It hit the Senate soon after while several key senators, in cluding the chairman of the Higher Education Committee, Senator Robert Humber, were locked in committee debate over redistricting with Pause con ferees, , *• * * Os one thing most observers are sure: Sen. Clarence Stone, the presiding officer whose prac tices are surely the strangest variation on Robert’s Rules in 30 years, had been briefed be forehand and knew all. "'lt looks like a good ’un,” he commented as the bill ground its way through three rapid readings. It was an understatement of his feeling. Indeed, Stone is the key tot the matter. Senate observers now trace his vehement performance in the bill's behalf to his keen disappointment of two weeks ago at defeat of a ‘super-court” constitutional amendment. ”‘I think Clarence felt more strongly about the super-court than about any measure the Senate had before it this ses sion,” commented one senator. There was even a hint that many senators who might have voted to recall the vote on the anti- Red speaker measure refrained so as not to upset Stone. * * * Clarence Stone apd his floor lieutenant, Sen. Tom White, had staked all their prestige on the “super-court”, amendment, only to see it riddled in debate and finally expire by a pnessMed vote. Since that day, the bitter ness among the “super-court” advocates hss been noticeable. Thus, at hoy rate, were the frustrated advocate* of plates rights amendments” abfe “lick their wounds at the expense of freedom of speech on college campuses. And most of all, it was sweet vengeance for Sen. Clarence Stone. * • * The crowning irony, of course, is that the last tune there was a fuss about a Communist speak ing on any North Carolina cam pus, it was when Chancellor Rob ert B. House shut Chapel Hill doors to John Gate*, then edi tor of the Daily Worker. Stu dents insisted on hearing him. however, and Gates ended up speaking from a makeshift plat form on franlrtip Street, just off the . campus. The moral m ay well fae that students wiU continue to expose themselves to controversy, wheth er the Legislature likes It or not
The Chapel Hill Weekly (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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July 3, 1963, edition 1
12
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