North Carolina Newspapers

Page Two Th6 pilot, Aberdeen and Southern Pines, North Carolimt Friday, August 5, 1931, THE PILOT Published every Friday by THE PILOT, Incorporated. Aberdeen and Southern Pines, N. C. NELSON C. HYDE, Managing Editor BION H. BUTLER, Editor JAMES BOYD STRUTHERS BURT RALPH PAGE Contributing Editors Subscription Rates: One Year $2.00 Six Months $1.00 Three Months •’’0done Address all communications to The Pilot, Inc^ Aberdeen,' N. C. Entered at the Postoffice at Aber deen, N. C., as second-class mail mat ter. his committee is making some inquiry into the situation, and that he is not much concerned with what can’t be done, for there is not much of that kind of thing in existence. It appeal's to be his notion that if the peo ple of Moore county are in earn est about wanting to do almost any reasonable thing a way to (10 it will be found, and certain- Ij' it is more likely to be found, dnd certainly it is more likely to be foun^ by looking for it than merely saying it can’t be One thing Mr. Page re marked that may be worth re membering. “These Bensalem people, who started this thing, Are not emotionalists,” 'he said. “They move deliberately, but only when they think they have a reason, and country folks don’t as a rule go off half-cocked. So far they have only started some thing. Now we were looking into their proposition. May be it can’t be done, but lots of things THE BRIGHTER FINAxNCIAL OUTLOOK All signs point to a brighter financial outlook. Money is eas ier, factories are taking on morejj^at folks have said couldn’t be hands, the government projects i ^one have caught the eye of for stimulation of business are | some rattle-headed fellow who having an effect, and a general whirled in and did the impossi- air of hopefulness, which is the jjig our committee has been in- main thing, all work together tojgtructed to show the commis- clear the skies. As the clouds, sionera how to make the reduc- roll back probably we will real- tion. May be it can’t be done, ize that the scare has been * ^re going to know it greater than the real danger.; can’t be done before we sav it While many men have been out can’t. And to tell you the truth of work, no doubt some have not'some of us are foolish enough to been as wild about gettmg in. believe that mav be it can be work as might have been desir-! done. We have not got far able, and another class has pre- enough into the matter yet as ferred to be out of work rather ^ committee to see any serious soak the rich without soaking the poor a little and everytime a factory shut down some of the poor folks who work there get a crack in the eye. It is a lively matter, this soaking the rich, and it seems they are pretty well soaked. They are so well soaked that taxes, instead of bringing in tons of revenue, are getting soaked themselves. The job has been the most beautiful success that could have been asked. Now, if we will get to work and dry out some of this soaking, business will gradually pick up again, but while the picking up goes on we are going to eat corn bread and molasses and help the commis sioners find how to cut that 25 per cent in taxes, which can be done as soon as we know we have to do it. We are beginning now to soak the spenders, and you can make up your mind that will do the job. THE FATE OF THE NORFOLK SOUTHERN The announcement that the Norfolk Southern railroad has gone into receivership is not surprising. Railroads all over the country have been stood up with their backs to the wall, their traffic taken by vehicle moving over roads built by pub lic funds, their hands tied in every way to prevent them from doing business in a business way, their incomes 'restricted by government limit, and their taxes piled up to the breaking than to work for the wages that obstacles and we have a rather ' p Vv. mio-ht hflvp hPPTi nhtfli-TipH Pnv; aiiu we nave d lainer pQ,nt. Both the principal roads Swy be?„re thtefarr"- ge"- r/’lhTinfemg nt ZSe Sn "7 I" eral motion wage adjas.menLMtinVa Ly to do “ ‘ will have to be made, for it is | thing that deserves to be done.’ doubtful if we are to return to | That seems to be the temper the plane on which we soared to if Tax League. And inas disaster. This thing had been coming for a long time. Now that it has come, and that we are seemingly starting to recov er from its bad effect it is easy much as the principal thing is the ability of the people to pay the taxes now bearing dow'n on them in every quarter it is well to remember that the big force to believe that v/e will get on' ^^at old proverb that ^ays you a better basis, and tnat we will,,^j^,t of a turnip, have a more substantial prosper- , Page’s committee intimates ity although not so profligate a ^^at people can’t pay seventy- , ,, , . , : five, or twenty-five or any other Probably the farmer is to be five per cent if they lack the the man who will come out ofimo^ey, and a thing that can the storm in the best shape, for , that way automatically settle it- he has his ground and the ^elf can be settled in other w'avs means of making a livehhood, jf the people choose. MooVe even though he doesn t sell as | county taxes. North Carolina much stuff at as high prices as taxes and United States taxes he had been doing when fthe ^e reduced twenty-five per high wave rolled. We will all dis- j^gj^t any day the people so elect, cover that we can live right well j^d in orderly and honest man- on smaller expenditure of money: Qj^jy thing requii'ed is Tu u to find out how', which is what debt than has been the recent Page’s committee is under- nabit. Another thing we v will taking now learn and profit by is to pay as we go. Still another is that „ money is plentiful enough and that if we pay as we buy we RICH will have much less need for! We are finally noticing some money that we do not have. It'action on that good old battle has not been a lack of money in 1 cry of soaking the rich. Julius the past, but the inability to get Rosenwald, a rich business man credit to the limit of our notions | left a large legacy for schools after w'e spent the money we in the South, something like a had. We were passing credit i million dollars coming to help around regardless until one day education annually. But Julius the settlement was called l|:)r; Rosenwald’s estate has been and the house of cards tumbled.: properly soaked by the depres- The same old money still exists, j sion. and the contribution this and the man who is not entan-iyear is practically nothing. The gled with debt will be ready toj.^^oaking has been effective. The go, and is going now, w’hen the, Duwke endowment is exposed to skies grow' brighter. The dol-' shrinkage from the same source, j lar he gets will be availabl'^ to which will no doubt cheer all; buy something for his needs in-1 those who like to see the rich! stead of paying debts. Gradual- soaked, for if soaked enough it! ly we are going to climb out of, would knock the hope out of j our present Slough of Despond, i hospitals, asylums and a lot of | The common impression it; that | things that Duke provided for. we are past the low spot, and I All along the line of the rich heading upward, but we are go- j it is the same w’ay. The income ing to walk part of the wMy up- taxes that were to be .soaked out ward. We will not slide as wejof the prediatory wealthy have did in coming down. If we will:not been soaked, for when put adjust ourselves to the ronds as in the soaking pit it seems that to be their fate is a problem But w'hat will be the fate of Moore county if the roads are throttled is easy to guess. The question concerns the roads, but it concerns the whole county even more. The raib’oads are not guiltless in th(> matter. They have been operating at an expense that is too high, which has been forced on them by political influences by high labor costs, by high prices' of materials and by high price pf everything they use, and with no power to maintain prices of transportation that will pay the high costs. No bus iness concern on earth can suc cessfully operate under the re strictions that have hog-tied the railroads, and they can not hope to recover unless they are grant ed some sensible concessions as a right to live and do business like business has to be carried on to thrive. Were the railroads a strictly private business it might be another matter, but as their service is wholly a public one it is the public whose knuckles are skinned in this matter. The railroads have to be given an honest chance to live and operate, and the ener getic backing of. the people or they are headed for state own ership and operation, and that is about as near hell as can be imagined in a republic. This is purely a matter for the people, with only one way out, and that is to demand that things be made such that the roads can live and thrive, not for the rail road workers, nor for the rail road security holders, but for the people, who are served. benefit of any section, busines.s | but a more economical govern or per.son. To organize the cit- j ment. A membership fee of a izens to enforce the immediate! quarter is a^ked, and an an- reduction of the expenses of i nual fee of another quarter. county and state and to exercise the utmost vigilance to keep these expenses within the means of the people.” Every citizen is eligible to membership and every tax psy- er. No strings are attached, no politics, no favoritism, no object This is probably cheap enough if the movement makes any stagger at all, for it can’t do much without giving back to the taxpayer the twenty-five cents as asked. The signs say the movement will be backed by the people enthusiastically. GRAINS OF' SAND One of the bold members of the Tax League committee at Carthage last Monday said he could take the county government and run it com pletely for $30,000 a year, or at a reduction of far more than 25 per cent, but when another asked him if he was making a proposition that he wanted considered he hedged by say ing he would look into matters a little farther. Norfolk Southern railroad goes into the hands of receivers this week. We seem to have soaked another of the biggest taxpayers of the county, and apparently are finding another reas on why tax reduction is threatening to work out its own solution. Rains came along in time to chirk up the peach crop, and the weather man will probably earn his salary on this job. ✓ The farmers around here could tell the Bonus army that ?00 afliies of timber land will not look like a very big source of maintenance for an army of several thousand men at the present price of farm stuff and lum ber. the sun will appear to be covered to about 85 per cent of its diameter, making almost a total eclipse. The cat says'the effect will be to darken the sky to a deep twilight, with the grote.sque coloring that follows the separation of some of the light col ors of the spectrum and the wierd- ness that comes from the fading light which is no longer governed by the influence of the sun’s fierce bril liance. The cat says to smoke a piece look at the eclipse with the naked of glass, and by no means try to nearly total to be seen in this sec- eye. This will be the last eclipse so tion in a long time and if the rain holds off it will be worth watching from start to finish. “We have taken the State number, 50 from United States Route No. 1, because the public was already famil iar with that marking, but we have decided to retain dual marking on other routes for about ohe year lon ger in order that there may be com plete familiarity w’ith the Federal numbers,” declared E. B. Jeffress, chairman of the North Carolina Highway Commission. “But when people learn that they tan go clear across the entire United States on a highway with a single The office cat has been ca.sting the number they will prefer the Federal horoscope and notes on August 31 the numbers. Incidentally, there are three most interesting eclipse of the sun Federal highways, each more than seen in this section in a long time. 2 000 miles long, converging in Ral- To tell the truth the cat has been eigh and two of the three begin in sleeping on tht table where the Nau- North Carolina. Most people know tical Almanac lies, and probably that about U. S. No. 1 which begins at is where she gets her information, the Canadian border in Maine and But her forecast is that about half extends to Miami, Fla., but there is past two in the afternoon, (actual less known about U. S. No. 64, run- standard time says 2:13, but we are ning from Lake Landing, N. C., to seventeen and a half minutes slow, Sante Fe, N. M., of which N. C. 90 being west of the 75th meridian that is a part; and about U. S. No. 70, much) the sun will begin to drop be- which begins at Atlantic and follows hind the moon. The movement will X. C. No. 10 across this State and continue until 4.40, when the face of goes on to El Paso, Tex.” Let us operate a universal state wide six months school. Pay our teachers a living wage on a twelve niohth basis; and require them to show results or step aside. Discontin ue all special tax district. Discontin ue all athletics during school hours. Discontinue the teaching of music, expression or dramatics during school hours. Discontinue home ecoTJomic courses. Discontinue business courses. Dicontinue chapel or other exercies during school hours. Ddvote at least five and a half hours each day to actual study or recitation. Elncourage and require home study. Discontinue holidays except those observed by the Government forces. Elect our State, County and Local school boards by popular vote. In short, cut out the frills and furbelows— the unessen- tials, in this time of want, and oper ate on the theory that our children will not pass this way again; that their time for schooling is limited, and that our schools are primarily for the purpose of giving them a book learning. These extras; as de sirable as they may be in other times, I shall not interfere as they have in the past with the acquisition of the bed-rock of all knowledge—the abil ity to read, with understanding, write with legibility, to figure with accur acy, and the yearning for further knowledge. —R. E. WICKER. Pinehurst, N. C., July 28, 1932. ^Editor’s Note—Mr. Wicker writes to say that his letter may be regard ed as a copy for Will Rogers’ arti cle in last Sunday’s papers. Mr. Wick, er’s article was in type in The Pilot office before Will’s article was pub lished.) Correspondence we climb, and don’t get into our heads that we have to insist on everything in right, the travel ing will not be bad. The bottom has been reached if we have the nerve to buckle down and work like thunder to go upward. But no one is com ing after us with gold-plated flying machines to take us there. We will have to saw some wood and squeeze the nickle on the way up, and work our elbow joints and our legs on the road. LIKE THE INDIAN’S GUN During the week Jesse Page of Bensalem, was in Aberdeen, and naturally, as he is the head of the committee of nine of the Moore County Tax Payers’ Lea gue, he was confronted with some questions, atid likewise shown that the twenty-five per cent tax reduction asked could not be accomplished. But Mr. Page has been around a good many years and heard it thun der pretty often, so he merely answered to the wise ones that their incomes have played tag.” “They ain’t no income.’ ’ The stock markets have got plenty of soaking. Once was a time when if a man wanted to borrow a little money he could put up some stocks of a good concern for security and get the money, because the stocks could be sold if he failed to meet his payments. But with the depres sion dividends were failing, and the good stocks ceased to be re garded as good security, for with no dividends nobody want ed to buy stocks that were sold as securities for debts. That meant nobody would lend money on stocks as security, w'hich also meant Chat stocks held as security were offered present ly for rapidly lowering prices in hopes of realizing something from them before they got too low, and stocks went into the dump along with dividends. So the rich were soaked some more, and along with them the little folks who had held some stocks and bonds in what were looked on as good securities. You can’t ARRAIGNS SCHOOL SYSTPJ.M school all but wasted. ——— The rank and file of our citizenry F:ditor The Pilot, have unwittingly had thrust upon Sometime ago the Director of the them this modern educational system. Budget of the State of New York, in Fostered by self-styled educators, this a radio address, said that the rural insiduous scheme, shot through with section of that state had all but bank- half baked theories, has been advanc- rupt themselves by bond issues for ed as the open sesame to knowledge, unnecessarily elaborate public school By the legerdemain of child psychol- buildings ai;d equipment. He stated cgy and complicated, abstract men- that the co.'st of education in that tal analysis, they profev^.® to admin- s-tate had advanced from sixty-eight ister learning in sugar-coated doses dollars per pupil in 1921, to one hun- to an unsuspecting child. The old dred and seventy eight dollars in maxim that there is no royal road to 1931, and, that in his opinion, the learning, along with many of the old .vouth of New York State was being continually discarding their theories stuffed with a heterogeneous collec- essentials, has been relegated to ob- tion of superficial information at the livion. The fact that these men are expense of a nearly destitute citizen- for others .still more hare-brained ship. i seems not to pha.se them in the slight- It is not popular among the intel- «st fiegree. Our notorious Text Book ligensia to criticise our schools, but' Commission; dictated to by the .same the writer suspects he hasn’t far to forces, se’eot text books in accord- fall in their estimation anyway, and flnce with the prevailing theory, and- it should be kept in mind that the by their own admission, contract for criticism is directed, not at educa- , them in five year periods at a top tion, but at the schools as operated price. Yet one member of that com- under the pressent system. mission had the efficiency to make A workman is judged by his prod-1 the statement that the books required uct, and a system of education should , for a certain grade cost only one dol- be valued by the same standard. Our lar and seventy-five cents, when, as cost of education has more than dou-, a matter of fact they cost nearer ten bled, while our income has decreased dollars, and I speak from experience, to near the vanishing point. We have ‘ This is not an indictment of the modern equipment; modem methods j school teacher. Hedged about with of teaching; hundred thousand dol-4he dictums of an educational olig- Press Comment THE MOORE COUNTY TAX LEAGUE The executive committee of the Moore County Tax League held a meeting Monday in th court house to hear a prelimi nary report from its subcommit tee appointed to gather some in formation as to possible tax re duction. Preliminary sugges tions were offered, which w’ill be confjidered at a meeting next! Monday after the township com-! lar buildings; playground equipment archy; frightened by the bugaboo of mittees have conferred with the I gymnasiums; athletic and dra-1 “repeaters,” underpaid and overwork people in meetings recommend-| matic coaches; business courses; home ; ed; forced to spend their meagre ed this week. The sentiment of | economic courses, and other courses j savings in summer school where; un- the committee at Carthage was &d infinitum. that a twenty-five per cent is not only possible, but highly probable before the matter is dropped. Many unsuspectid phrases of procedure were dis cussed, one especially appealing 'being that of a county manager and a reduction of the functions of government in county, state and nation as now practiced. The statement of the purposes of the League, printed else where, shows the set of the wind in this affair. “To make a steady and faithful endeavor to eliminate all unnecessary and pa ternal.functions of government, all forms of graft, privilege, sub sidies, and free distribution of money to any business, groups or individuals and to be taxed the minimum for the legitimate functions of government, and to contribute no money for the For the past twenty years the cit izens of North Carolina who raised their voices against the tremendous loans necessary to finance these things have been accused of treason, and have been ostracised by the self- styled intellectuals of the State. The day of reckoning is now at hand, and the debts which “our grandchildren” were to pay are being collected from those responsible for them. We are operating ten thousand dol- lar schools in hundred thousand dol lar buildings, which are turning out far too many thirty-cent “Graduates.” Well grounded in basketball, dancing, modem social practices and “wise cracks,” they are being sent out; a bla.se, sophisticated army into a be wildering world, to sink or swim, to tally unprepared for the business of living, and insufficiently advanced in the fundamentals of education to suc ceed in college; their year's spent in oer the tutelage of these self-styled modern educators, and tact or natural ability for teaching they happen to have is submerged and obliterated by a maze of half-baked theories; they are to be commended for their faith fulness and congratulated for their occasional success. ' To wreck and rebuild a machine of this magnitude is a tremendous un dertaking, yet just that must be done if We are to get back to the funda mentals of education. We have made our bond that we will repay the cost of our buildings, and unless from dire poverty we are forced to repud iate it, it will be paid. But during these days of unemployment and low prices, which are going to be with us a long time, let us first destroy this domination by self-appointed leaders which so vitally affects the future of our children, and get back to the one fundamental of knowledge —STUDY. FROM NORTH CAROLINA An editorial published recently in a little North Carolina weekly paper. The Pilot, of Aberdeen and Southern Pines, is a good, fresh example of the change which has come over rural sections of that state in the last few years. WTie nit was mainly agriculture was common. Hostility to faptalism its outlook wa.s narrow. Radicalism was pronounced. Its financial affairs were in a bad mess. It was regarded generally as a rather weak sister. Now it is largely industralized. Its financial system has been brought up to date. It has invited investments! from the North. In 1928 it startled the country by giving Hoover a ma jority, and the Republicans look for another victory there this year. It is gaining a reputation as a highly pro gressive commonwealth. Essentially southern, it has acquired a northern and more liberal outlook. Attacks by Mr. Gamer on capital ism and “pet Republican interests,” and Gov. Roosevelt’s comments on “the forgotten man” are not likely to win many votes there, .^s The Pi lot says, emplo.ved capital means em ployed men. Idle capital or a lack of capital means a return to those con ditions under which North Carolina lagged in the rear with other back ward states. North Carolina is discov ering the truth of what Calvin Cool- idire said in a speech .some years ago, when he remarked: There is just one condition on which men can secure employment and a living nourishing, profitable wage for whatever they contribute to the enterprise, be it labor or capi tal, and that condition is that some one make a profit by it. That is the sound basis for the dis tribution of wealth and the only one. It cannot be done by law, it cannot be done by public owTiership, it can not be done by socialism. When you deny the right to a profit you deny the right of a reward to thrift and industry.—Boston Herald. TRAIL LONGINGS By W’illiam V. Carter, Jr. To hit the trail again for days and days And take my time along the way in search • Of sweet content and peace of soul; to blaze New trails again; to make a bed of birch; To cook beside a running stream; to count The stars and sink to sleep upon the sand; To swin a swift and roaring stream or mount A log and drift til dawn, or sit and land A catch of fish; to climb the highest peak And throw a rock far down the clift to where A cloud is hid; to watch the moon— to seek In dreams a face of one I love most dear; To hills and streams I’re known and paths I long To tread—to life, itself, I pen this song. Aberdeen, N, 0.