Page Two
THE PILOT, Southern Pines, North Carolina
Friday’, March 14, 1947.
THE PILOT
PilBUSHEP EACH FRIDAY BY
THE PILOT. INCORPORATED
SOUTHERN PINES, NORTH CAROLINA
1941
JAMES BOYD
Publisher
1944
KATHARINE BOYD, - - - EDITOR
VALERIE NICHOLSON ASST. EDITOR
DAN S. RAY - - GENERAL MANAGER
BERT PREMO - - - -ADVERTISING
CHARLES MACAULEY - - CITY EDITOR
MARY BAXTER - - SOCIETY EDITOR
a highway patrolman; in fact, one
may drive for days and days and
not see one.
This is the true handicap Sen
ator Currie will have to face in
making his bill effective. It is to
be hoped that when he introduces
it he will also introduce a
measure to increase the number
of traffic policemen on our high
ways.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
ONE YEAR .....
SIX MONTHS
THREE MONTHS 7S
ENTERED AT THE POSTOFFICE AT SOU-
THERM PINES, N. C.. AS SECOND CLASS
MAIL MATTER.
THE CURRIE BILL
Senator Wilbur Currie pro
poses to introduce for passage by
the Legislature a bill entitled
“An Act to Make the Streets and
Highways of North Carolina Safe
for Pedestrians and the Motoring
Public.”
This is a bill which should have tioners that
the backing of every citizen. To
read through some of the “where
ases” with which it opens, is to
be overcome with a conviction of
the need for its adoption.
“Whereas: The total cas
ualties in United States
World War II. were 1,070,524,
as compared with 3,394,000
traffic casualties in the U. S.
for the same period: and
Whereas: during the month
following the end of gasoline
rationing almost three times
as many Americans were
killed in traffic accidents as
died in the bloody battle of
Tarawa: and
Whereas: only two states in
the Nation had a higher traf
fic fatality index in 1945 than
did North Carolina: and
Whereas: the adoption by
one state of remedies similar
tot he ones herein proposed
reduced in one year the
motor vehicular fatalities
from approximately 7%
above the national average to
33% below the national av
erage ”
Several more equally striking
“whereases” make up the list
with which Senator Currie pre
faces his bill and drives home the
point.
It is a point which does not
need to be emphasized to most
drivers on North Carolina high
ways. One can not drive ten
miles without seeing somebody
taking a chance on passing an
other car on a hill, rounding a
curve, or at some other danger
ous spot on the road. One can not
take an all-day’s trip without
seeing at least one wrecked car
by the roadside or standing bat
tered in front of a garage, or be
ing hauled by a wrecker, while
no driver is so careful that he
can himself escape having a few
close shaves. In fact, the careful
driver is too often the victim of
a speed demon, rather than the
offender himself.
Senator Currie proposes some
good remedies in his bill. He
would have cars inspected twice
yearly: he would have operators
subject to re-examination every
four years, and chauffers annu
ally. He would increase the fines
for unlawful driving, especially
driving under the influence 6f
liquor. He would increase the
penalties for speeding and reck
less driving.
Section #17 of his bill deals
with these proposed speed restric
tions and Senator Currie has ex
pressed himself as feeling that
this is the most important point,
but also that it will create the
most controversy. He asks that a
limit of 20 miles an hour be en
forced in business districts: 25
in any residential district; and 50
on the highways.
The Senator’s recommenda
tions for changes in the licensing
regulations and for stiffer pen
alties should be adopted. They
are thoroughly sensible and have
proved their worth elsewhere. As
to the speed limit changes, which
contain the heart of the matter,
there is not a doubt that if the
lower limits were enforced they
would help reduce the number of
fatalities in the state. IF they
were enforced. . . !
Splendid as this attempt is to
reduce the toll of accidents in
our State, it will get nowhere
unless our law enforcement
agency is correspondingly
strengthened. Though, as we said
above, one can not take a short
trip without seeing the evidence
of some bad crash by the road
side, one may drive all day long
in North Carolina and never see
TILL LATER
John McLeod, chairman of the
group who are pressing for a
county-wide referendum on the
$3.00 liquor question, is to be congrat-
$1.50 ulated on his tactics. Exercising
fine control over the delegation
which he headed at the recent
meeting with Senator Currie and
Representative Blue, McLeod
kept the discussion firmly on the
point at issue: the people’s right
to a referendum, and cut to a
minimum all discussion of the
liquor question itself.
That is smart politics, and this
is one case where smart politics
and correct procedure go hand in
hand. At an earlier meeting Sen
ator Currie replied to this ques-
he could think of
no reason why there should not
be a referendum, under the law.
The case is still the same: there
is no reason. This must be the
opinion of anyone who has
studied the law. In sticking to the
referendum. Chairman McLeod is
sticking to a sure thing.
As John McLeod said: there
will be time for discussion of the
actual question at issue: wet or
dry, afterwards. Agreeing with
at least that part of the chair
man’s sentiments, the Pilot be
lieves that after the referendum,
if there is to be one, rather than
before, will be the time for com
ment and letters on this subject.
Therefore, from now on we will
hold for publication, until that
time, any letters which may ar
rive, as well as our own gunfire.
fes, that coronary disease is
twelve times as high among doc
tors as among agricultural work
ers. He would point the interest
of his colleagues to the discovery
and analysis of such facts. He
looks to the time when the stu
dent’s chief interest will “no
longer be in the rare or difficult
and too often incurable disease,
but in the common and more un
derstandable and preventable
disease,” when the question on
his lips will be not just “What is
the treatment?” but “What are
the causes?” and “If preventable,
why not prevented?”
Education in Rural America
THE CAUSE BEHIND
THE ILLNESS
In China, they say, it is the
rule that a doctor is paid only
when his patient is well. As soon
as the patient gets sick, the doc
tor’s pay stops.
While hardly going as far as
that, it would appear that west
ern medical rnen are beginning
to think somewhat along those
lines. A strong feeling has been
growing, during the past few
years, that too much emphasis in
medicine has been placed on the
actual disease and too little on
the causes behind it; too little,
also, on the need for broadening
the basis of medical education.
At a recent meeting, opening
the New York Academy of Medi
cine centennial, Dr. George
Baehr, president of the academy,
conjmented on the group’s con
cern with the continuing educa
tion of doctors and announced
that, in line with this thought, a
new “Committee on Medicine
and the Changing Order” had
been formed. He explained that
this committee would “pursue
studies of the social and envir
onmental factors responsible for
illness and mortality and of
changes in medical practice and
education required to make cur
ative and preventive medicine
available to all the people.”
Dr. John R. Ryle, professor of
social medicine at Oxford Uni
versity, guest speaker on the pro
gram, elaborated the sam§
theme. He explained how sociall
medicine extends the search for
the causes of disease from the
clinics and the laboratories to
man himself and what keeps him
healthy or makes him ill.
For thirty years. Dr. Ryle said,
“I have watched disease in the
ward being studied more and
more thoroughly—if not always
more thoughtfully—through the
high power of the microscope;
man in disease being investiga
ted by more and more elaborate
techniques and, on the whole,
more and more mechanically.
Man, as a person and a member
of a family and of much larger
social groups, with his health
and his sickness bound up with
conditions of his life and work—
in the home, the mine, the fac
tory, the shop, the office and the
land—^has been inadequately
considered in this period by the
clinical teacher and hospital re
search worker.”
Relating the search for basic
causes of illness in man’s habits,
anxieties and environment, to
medical education. Dr. Ryle
noted the sort of facts every stu
dent should know—that rheu
matic heart disease has close cor
relation with poverty, that mor
tality from gastric and skin can-
cets is twice as high among work
ing as among professional class-with the
IMPRACTICAL IS PRACTICAL
The World Government Boys
are considered to be impractical
dreamers, but it is extraordinary
how events play into their hands,
bringing conviction that instead
of being impractical, theirs is, in
fact, the only practical solution
for the world’s troubles.
If we consider the various
dilemmas which face us at the
present time we find that in al
most every case what is needed
is sorne overall body to which
they could be referred. This body
could be, obviously, the United
Nations, and the World Govern
ment people hope that this will
be the way the United Nations
will grow, but at present it is
far, far from being the World
Government which they desire.
Take the Atom Bomb. Russia
refuses to adopt the Baruch-
Lilienthal plan for disarmament
and inspection until 'we have jet
tisoned our bombs. We refuse to
give up our advantage until we
are convinced that an interna
tional control system is in work
ing order. Impasse. But suppose
there were a true World Govern
ment in existence. . . clearly we
would turn over to it our stock
pile of bombs: it would have
charge of the regular inspection,
to see that the countries were
obeying the rules. This solution
would be satisfactory to both
ourselves and Russia.
Take the various dilemmas in
which we are being Involved by
the crumbling of the British Em
pire. We are being thrust into an
impossible situation because
there is nobody else to take over.
Here, again, the U. N., with true
international power sqch as it
would have were it a World Gov
ernment, would be the obvious
answer. Features of the British
Empire. . . in fact, the whole
over-all picture, has always had
a fantastic side. Why should one
tiny country, or even a big coun
try, control the strategic gate
ways of the world? For all the
talk of freedom of the seas in
dulged in by Britain and our
selves, we have condoned a sys
tem which made such freedom
a joke. The only way to have
freedom of the seas is for the
gateways of the world-wide high
ways to belong to everybody. Im
practical? Difficult to achieve?
Certainly, but the only practical
way in sight.
Take another aspect of the
present situation as regards Brit
ain and ourselves. We are being
asked to take over problems
which we had no hand in start
ing, which we don’t like, and
which we don’t want. The
thought of using American man
power or cash to bolster up
crumbling royalties or to impose
unwanted rulers here and there
in the world, is fundamentally of
fensive to most Americans.
Greece, of course, comes most
quickly to mind right now.
It is, of course, necessary to do
many disagreeable things in sit
uations such as this one, but
there is nothing much more dis
agreeable to Americans than the
feeling of their being called upon
to do something of which they
thoroughly disapprove, like back
ing an unworthy ruler.
As there is no World Govern
ment, and as the United Nations
is apparently not considered
strong enough to take any part
in the present difficulties involv
ing the British Empire, we shall
probably have to be the goats and
step in; but the situation high
lights again the confusion in
which the whole international
pictures stands at present, and
the need for some sort of clear-
cut attempt to go ahead with
these seemingly impractical plans
for World Government. Until we
do get something along, these
lines, the confusion in which we
stand now will certainly con
tinue. More dilemmas, such as
this one, will crop up: in fact,
we shall flounder from this one
to the next in a succession of dis
tressing crises.
We should not listen to those
who caution against meddling
United Nations. To
By Prof. John K. Norton
(Extracts from an address by
the Professor of Education,
Teachers College, Columbia Uni
versity, at the fifteenth annual
meeting of Save the Children
Federation, Inc.)
In a very real sense, the rural
regions of the United States are
the seed bed of our population.
Although only 43 per cent of our
people live in rural areas, more
than half the nation’s children
are born in these areas.
What do we do with this most
valuable of our resources — the
children born on the farms and
in the open country of the na
tion? Let us look at some of the
facts.
We pay the teachers of rural
children $1,200 a year, while
those of urban children are paid
$2,400 a year. As a result, coun
try schools generally get teach
ers with the least preparation for
their jobs and with the least ex
perience in teaching children.
The best financed school sys
tems of the United States expend
$6,000 or more a year for each
classroom unit of 30 children. The
poorest financed schools literally
expend less than $100 a year per
classroom unit of 30 children.
Some 38,000 children were in
school systems financed at this
poverty level according to the
latest available figures. Another
1,150,000 were in classrooms cost
ing less than $500 a year.
Unequal Opportunities
Money, of course, is not every
thing in a school. Some differ
ences in expenditures are doubt
less justified as between city and
country. But is there any place
in the United States where de
cent schooling can be provided at
the rate of $100, or $500 or even
$1,000 a year per classroom?
Six thousand dollars a year be
hind each classroom in some
school systems (such classrooms
are found in urban areas), and
$100 per classroom in other
school systems (such classrooms
are found in rural areas)—^these
are the extremes. Therefore,
some children get 60 times as
much educational opportunity to
others—insofar as cost affects op
portunity, and it does to a very
considerable degree. Inequality,
rather than equality of opportun
ity characterizes the organization
of public education in the United
States today.
This 60-to-l measure of educa
tional inequality, however, takes
account only of children who are
in school Are there children who
do not go to school in the United
States? The 1940 Federal census
enumerated nearly 2,000,000 chil-
strengthen the United Nations, to
push it forward into the World
Government which it must be
come, is not “meddling” ... it
is simply striving to keep it alive
and to make it function as it must
for our survival.
SCHOOL INTEREST
Food for thought is the account
of a discussion meeting held before
the PTA in Chapel Hill last week
by five citizens of that town, edu
cational authorities in their own
right, according to Editor Louis
Graves. Subject of the discussion
was: “What Constitutes a Good
School.”
“It was agreed,” writes the edi
tor, “that a close relationship be
tween the school and the com
munity was of primary impor
tance.” The board of education,
(school board) was said to be the
most important factor in creating
and maintaining that close rela
tionship. “The board should be
of the people, by the people and
responsible to public opinion and
community needs. It should be
subject to recall by the people if
it fails to produce the kind of
school the people want. Gener
ally speaking a school will be no
better than its school board.”
The speakers also agreed that
education must be a cooperative
enterprise between the parents
and the teachers. One speaker is
quoted as saying: “Parents
,^ould help the teachers plan
the kind of program most useful
to the children. The teachers
need and want the help of the pa
rents.”
With the type of people who
live in Chapel Hill, many of
whom are professors, almost all
leiqjerienced in the educational
field and wanting their children
to have the best, it is no wonder
that the Chapel Hill schools
should be noted as superior to
most in the state. The fuct that
they are so famous gives the
views expressed in this article a
double weight.
dren six to 15 years old—ages
when it is agreed all children
should be in school—who were
not in any kind of a school. It
has been / estimated that there
are at least 3,000,000 children in
this country who by any reason
able standard should be in school,
who are not in school. This means
that one child in seven is being
seriously short-changed as to ed
ucational opportunity.
The educational and social lia
bilities generated by the denial
of decent educational opportuni
ty to millions of children reveal
themselves at many points. The
great mass of native-born illit
erates in the United States—and
there are millions of them—grow
up in rural areas.
General Hershey—head of Sel
ective Service—had this to say at
a critical time in World War Two;
“With the great pressure
On our manpower resources
it is regrettable that we lose
so many physically qualified,
Who must be rejected be
cause of illiteracy.”
Of the 5,000,000 rejected under
selective service for physical,
mental, and educational deficit
ency, a greatly disproportionate
share were from our rural areas,
and especially from sections
where education is maintained
at a low leved of support and ef
fectiveness.
It is no accident that it is in
the regions of our educational
slums where only a minor frac
tion of citizens vote that the most
menacing of our political dema
gogues arise.
We who live in the more favor
ed areas of the nation might be
less concerned with our rural, ed
ucational slums, if underprivileg
ed citizens would stay at home.
Unfortunately, however, we are
a very mobile population. Igno
rance cannot be quarantined. It
spills over from, its points of ori
gin to all parts of the land.
Traditionally, we have thought
of public education as the great
instrument of that most Ameri
can of ideals—equality of oppor
tunity. Actually, public educa
tion as it operates today, and es
pecially in many rural areas,
threatens to promote inequality,
rather than qquality of opportim-
ity.
No. 1 Educational Problem
What shall we do about this
number one educational problem?
Its solution is the great oppor
tunity and the great responsibili
ty of educational leadership to
day. And it is about two thirds
a rural matter. First, to solve this
problem we must recognize its
existence to the point of being
willing to do something about it.
Second, after getting the prob
lem clearly in mind we must pro
vide the funds which will permit
some decent minimum of finan
cial support in literally every
school system in the United
States. This will require better
State and somq Federal aid if
a minimum of financial support is
to be provided everywhere, suf
ficient to purchase the kind of
education which our complex
culture demands.
Third, leadership must be pro
vided so that the money spent
for education in the rural areas
of America is focused on the real
needs of American life. One of
the discouraging things about the
country schools in many parts of
the United States is that they are
too much concerned with mean
ingless ^ill and content with
little or no relationship to the
real life problems of present-day
rural communities. The diet of
the people, the kind of houses
they live in, the clothing they
wear, and the farming practices
they employ are shockingly and
unnecessarily bad in many rural
areas.
During the past generation, the
world has had dramatic demon
strations of the enormous power
of educajtion. It is beside the
point that this great power of ed
ucation has too often been focus
ed upon evil ends. It is up to our
great democracy to find equally
effective means of using educa
tion for the achievement of pur
poses and aspirations worthy of
a free society.
TluPintUfftlb
FOOD
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GOLF
The number of U. S. marriages
in 1946 was approximately 35
percent higher than the niunber
in 1942.
Prompt, Honest Rep^r
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Next to Hotel Vase, N. CJ
Attention All Veterans
YOU ARE INVITED TO VISIT
V. F. W.
VETERANS CLUB
Now Open Over Rex Billiard Room
and we will be glad to have you as members.
—^All Men in Uniform Invited—
Open 3 O'clock to Midnight
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