Golfers! Gei Set For Weathervane Tournaments Golfers! Gtet Set For Weathervane Tournaments VOL. 34—NO. 21 TWENTY PAGES SOUTHERN PINES. NORTH CAROLINA. FRIDAY. APRIL 10. 1953 TWENTY PAGES PRICE—TEN CENTS '4 Nearly 700 Come For Garden Tour. Largest In History Visitors From All Over Throng Homes And Gardens Nearly 700 garden lovers pour ed into this town Wednesday to make the 1953 Homes and Garden Tour the best in its four-year his tory. With the affair sponsored and managed by the Southern Pines Garden club, of which Mrs. James S. Milliken is president, the tour was in the hands of Mrs. B. F. Kraffert, Jr., chairman, assisted by all members of the club, most of whom acted as hostesses during the day. Evidence of the importance the affair has come to have in garden circles was shown in the presence of State News Bureau personnel here for the first time to cover the event. Miss Miriam Rabb and Gus Martin, photographer, of the Bureau, and Glen Hazen of Tele- News, were on hand to give cov erage in the press and on the tele vision screen. The visitors came from all over the state, as well as beyond its borders, to stroll-among the blos soming azaleas and dogwoods now at their height of beauty. For many it was a “repeat” experi ence, a source of special satisfac tion to garden club members. “That pleases us more than any thing else,” Mrs. Milliken said. “It is so good to know that peo ple enjoy it so much they want to come back.” Some, from Char lotte, were here for the third time, they said. Shaw House Headquetrlers The tour started from the Shaw House, where tickets Were pur chased from Mrs. Milliken and Mrs. "N. L. Hodgkins, seated at a table under the trees. Starting with the white clap board cottage of Miss Mildred Hatfield on Morganton road, the accent of informality set the tone of this year’s event. Here there was much color in the plantings of azaleas, closely surrounding the patch of green lawn. Inside, old pine paneling made a dusky con trast to soft deep blue trim and draperies. The glint of Stafford shire caught the eye. From there the line of march followed th eold road to the J. R. Marsh home. Here the Wild gar den was the attraction, with the house a close second as visiting ladies exclaimed longingly over the innumerable gadgets, racks fContinued on Page 51 Headlines Bring Hope Mrs. Bradford, with Gail and “Tinkie”—and the Christmas doll, all dressed for when “daddy comes home.” (Pilot Staff Photo) Negotiations For Prisoner Exchange Arouse High Hopes of Bradford Family Hope is filling a Southern Pines Mayor Loekey, All Ineumbents Are Renominated Citizens of Aberdeen in bien nial caucus Tuesday night renom inated their Mayor, Forrest Lock- ey, for a seventh term; renomi nated also their entire five-man board of town commissioners, and, for good measure, three alternates in case any of the incumbents de cides not to run. Nominated for reelection to the board were J. B. Edwards, Dr. E. M. Medhn, M. B. Pleasants, N. A. Pleasants and A. J. (Jack) Smith. Nominees in case any of those drop out of the race by the April 27 deadline are L. C. Lawhon, W. S. Taylor and FerreU H. Brown. Additional candidates may also file before the April 27 deadline. Mayor Loekey, who was elect ed to the board in 1939 and first elected Mayor in 1941, reviewed the town accomplishments lor the two-year period now ending, and highlighted some of its problems, n2uning the biggest of these that of enlarging the water supply. He stated that an engineering survey and consultations with the State Board of Health and' Local Gov ernment Commission have indi cated that the answer would be a treatment plant, with 1,000,000- gallon daily capacity, to cost ap proximately $180,000. This would entail a special election and bond issue, which, said Mayor Loekey, the town officials hope can be ac complished without a raise in taxes. J. D. Ar^, Jr., served as cau cus chairman. Mrs. Evelyn Pleas ants, town clerk, read a report on the town’s financial condition. At tendance at the meeting was small. home With an anticipation that cannot be stemmed today. Every morning Mrs. Henry Bradford gets up early to listen to the news—every night she sits up late to listen some more. In between, she scans the headlines in every newspaper! Through the house rings the cry of her four-year-old, “Tinkie”— “My daddy’s coming home” And IN WHITEVILLE Read about 'Whiteville in the story below. Population, property evalu ation and town budget are all slightly smaller than South ern Pines'. The tax rate of $2 is lower. With no increase in taxes since the council-man ager plan was adopted six years ago, the police force has been increased from five to nine men; a full-time recrea tion director is employed at $5,000 per year; $2,500 annual ly is given to the library; many civic improvements have been wrought. 'Whiteville adopted the stat utory form of council-man ager government—^"Plan D" by a vote of the people in an election exactly like the one Southern Pines will hold Wednesday. Visiting Officials Give Information On Manager Plan “If you have an axe to grind, or if you hope to wangle a few favors, don’t vote for the Council- Manager Plan!” So said Willard Cole, White- ville’s famous fighting editor, speaking at Weaver auditorium Wednesday night before the pub lic meeting in behalf of the Coun cil-Manager pihn. Mr. Cole was one of three speakers, the others being White- ville’s city-manager, C. D. Picker- rell, and R. W. Flack, city-mana ger of Durham. The meeting was presided over by W. Lamont Brown, local at torney, and attended by a group of about 40 people who, from the questions that followed the speeches, appeared to hold views both pro and con. Only town officials present were Commissioner Lloyd Clark and town attorney Hoke Pollock. The town board stuck to its regular meeting date and was in monthly session at the city haU. Mr. Cole, introduced by Mr. Brown as “the man who helped (Continued on page 5) her other child, Gail, a poised and gentle 13, smiles to herself in hope. The opening of negotiations for the prisoner exchange with the Chinese communists in Korea, even though only the sick and wounded are being talked of now, and the delays continue to drag on, has filled them with the feel ing — hardly daring to call it hope — that Cpl. Henry Bradford wiU soon be home, and the long waiting over. Thanksgiving Letter A letter came from him Wed nesday, written last Thanksgiving day—one of a thin trickle of brief penciled messages which have kept the ir hopes alive, since the first one came in January 195^. This is the first in about two months. “Maybe I will be seeing you soon, but I’m afraid not this year. . . Give my regards to the folks at church, maybe soon I will see them again. . . By the time you get this letter you’ll be work ing in the garden—I certainly would enjoy working in it! Kiss the kids lor me.” Corporal Bradford has been a prisoner of war since July 1950, captured within a week of his' landing when the Korean war was i hardly three weeks old. Since' then season after season has roll ed by. Hope sprang up in his home here when his name was read on the first prisoner list re leased by the communists in De cember 1951. The letters—giv- (Continued on page 5) FIREMEN'S BALL An event which has been red-letter in the town's his tory for 20 years is coming up Tuesday night, and the whole town will turn out to have Jun and to honor the fire men.. The event is the annual Firemen's Ball, staged by the Southern Pines Volunteer Fire department for the ben efit of the Firemen's Fund. It will be held at the South ern Pines Country club from 9 till 1—admission by couples only. Bob Smith and his Or chestra will provide the mu sic. Dr. Hollister Is Reelected To Head Music Association Dr. William F! Hollister was re elected president of the, Sandhills Music Association at the annual meeting of the organization Thursday evening at the Library. Also re-elected as directors were Mr. and Mrs. Bill Benson, Mrs. Ralph Chandler, Mrs. W. F. Hollister, Mr. and Mrs Voit Gil more, Mrs. N. L. Hodgkins, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Howerton, Mr. and Mrs. Bert Premo, Mrs. James Boyd, E. C. Stevens, Charles W. ' Picquet, Mrs. Paul Barnum, Mrs. , Hoke Pollock, Dr. and Mrs. Fred Langner and Mrs. John Dundas, all of Southern Pines, and Dr. Dwight Nettleton, Mrs. Stuart Cutler and Mrs. Adam Craig of Pinehurst, Mrs. Henry Page Jr. and Lawrence Johnson of Aber deen, Miss Rozelle WiUiamson and Mrs. Colin Spencer Jr., of Carthage, and Dr. William M. Peck of McCain. Newly elected to the board are Mrs. I. C. Sledge, Miss Sara Wil son and Mrs. Roscoe Prince of Pinehurst, and Mrs. W. D. Sabis- ton of Carthage. Officers elected to serve for this coming year are, besides Dr. Hol lister, Mrs. William Wood, secre tary, and Dr. Bruce Warlick, treasurer., Mr. Gilmore and Mr Premo agreed to serve again as (Continued on Page 6) Mills Renominated In Pinebluff Meet Mayor E. H. Mills was renomin ated without opposition at Pine- bluff’s town caucus held last Fri day night at the town halL Nom inated for the three-man board of commissioners were Gordon Keith, incumbent, Harold Payson and Cad Benedict. Clay Parker and Harvey La^ than, incumbents, declined ito be candidates again. David Packard and 1. L. Meaner, also nominated, declined to accept. Additional candidates may file with the town clerk, Mrs. Ade laide Schnell, before April 25. Before the opening of nomin ations at the meeting. Mayor Mills reviewed the financial condition of the Town of Pinebluff, noting an increase in taxes collected, from $7,042 in 1949-50 to $12,- 404 in 1952-53. He cited a number of heavy expenditures of recent years, including a new fire truck, and went on to say that “the fu ture is much brighter from a fin ancial outlook.” Mrs. Tilghman Resigns After 22 Years As Tax Collector; Scheipers Employed The town board, in regular ses sion Wednesday night at the city hall, made formal acceptance of the resignation of Mrs. J. H. Tilghman, tax collector, April 1 and instructed Howard F. Burns, clerk, to write her a letter of com mendation for her service of more than 20 years. Mrs. Tilghman resigned for health reasons, said Mr. Bums. Her husband was formerly tax collector, and she succeeded him in the office 22 years ago. To take her place, it was learn ed, Louis Scheipers, Jr., had been hired and is .expected to go to work on or about April 15. Mr. Scheipers is now in the em ploy of the VFW. He was recent ly elected commander of the John Boyd post. In a redistribution of the work load at the city haU, he will serve as full-time tax collector and also as assistant to Mr. Bums in hand ling the many details of his office as town clerk and treasurer. The meeting was led by Mayor C. N. Page. Present were Town Commissioners C. S. Patch, Jr., H. L. Brown and W. E. Blue, Town Attorney Harry Fullenwider and Mr. Burns. Toward its close the meeting was joined by the other town attorney, Hoke PoUock, whp had attended the public meeting on the council-manager plan. Municipal Center Discussion was held on the prO'j gress of plans toward securing property at New York avenue and Bennett street, according to the proposal of the Municipal Plan ning Board recently accepted oy the commissioners. Several talks with owners have been held, though no prices settled on, and Mr. Burns was instructed to pro ceed in the securing of options for six months or longer. In the discussion of the poten tial cost of the property, in the (Continued on page 5) Eight Glee Clubs In County Contest For Picquet Cup Public Invited To Kiwaiiis Event At Auditorium Eight high school glee clubs, possibly more, will compete in the annual Moore County singing con test, to be held at Weaver audito rium at 7:30 Wednesday night for the award of the C. W. Picquet cup. The largest contest in the eight- year history of the event, it is be ing moved to the auditorium and thrown open to the public by its sponsors, the Sandhills Kiwanis Club. There will be no admission charge. The trophy was established by Mr. Picquet, theatre owner of Southern Pines and Pinehurst, in 1946. Several years ago sponsor ship was undertaken by the Sand hills Kiwanis, of which Mr. Pic quet is a longtime member. As the Moore County High School Glee Clilb contest, it has been an annual program feature of the club in April. This is the first time it is being held as an evening event, for the public. Norris L. Hodgkins, Jr., chair man, said Wednesday acceptances had been received from eight of the county’s 10 high schools, and that 100 per cent participation is hoped for. Usually, only three high schools have competed, though once there were four, and last year there were five. The first contest, in 1946, was won by the Southern Pines High School Glee club, as was also that of 1947. Pinehurst has been the winner four times—in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1952. Its third-time win in 1951 retired the Picquet cup and a new one had to be provided. Aberdeen was the winner in 1950, only a few weeks after their beloved young director, Bobby Whitesides, was killed in an auto mobile accident, and the direction was taken over by J. E. Swanton. Each glee club wiU sing not more than three numbers, of their own choice. Musicianship, bal ance of voices, program content and appearance will all be deter mining factors in the judging. Neighbors Aid Stricken Family; Appeal Is Issued Good neighbors went into ac tion in the Needham Church com munity, Robbins Rt. 2, over the Easter weekend, when 47 people gathered to start building a new house. The home is for the Ralph Wil liams family—father, mother and six children—whose dwelling and all belongings were completely burned up Thursday afternoon. The welfare department got to gether an outfit of clothing for each school-age child, so their school attendance would not be interrupted, but they need prac tically everything. The Red Cross chapter house is opening its facilities to receive do nations. Besides the youthful pa rents, there are four boys, aged 12, nine, seven and five; and two little girls, one two years old, one nine months. Clothing, furnishings for the new home, which wiU soon be completed; kitchen utensils, bed ding—anything, everything, will be appreciated and used. People Will Vote On “Plan D” Wednesday In Sonthern Pines WINS, LOSES The Southern Pines High school baseball team won one and lost one this week—the loss being its first in the ini tial four games of the spring series. Playing Aberdeen here last Friday, the local lads defeat ed Aberdeen 11-6, with Da vid Page as winning pitcher. Two home runs, first of the season, were scored by Jimmy Barber and Donald Van Ben- schoten. Wednesday afternoon the local team lost to West End, there, by a narrow 8-7 score. Outhitting the other teams all the way. they lost through a succession of errors. David Bailey was on the mound. Citizens of Southern Pines* will go to the polls Wednesday to vote on whether to adopt the council-manager form of city government, or retain the present form, a modification of the mayor-commission. Voting will be at the fire house from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mrs. Grace Kaylor, reg istrar, will be in charge of the books, with Joe Garzik and N. L. Hodgkins, Jr., as judges. Unusual interest in the elec tion was shown by the addi tion of 171 new names to the books during the seven-day registration which ended last Friday. While lackadaisical at first, the registration became extremely active during the final two days, Mrs. Kaylor said. The total of names now on the books is 1,217. The form of government to be voted on is the statutory Plan D, so-called because the N. C. Gen eral Statutes present four general plans fqr municipal government, known as Plan A (mayor and council elected at large); Plan B (mayor elected at large, council by districts); Plan C (mayor-com mission) and Plan D (council- manager). Plan D, as outlined in a good many pages in the General Stat utes, too lengthy for presentation here, is that by which the people elect a five-man council, which then hires a city manager to oper ate the business of the town. The council sets policy; the city manager operates with full au thority within its framework, and is responsible to the council, while the council is responsible to the people, for the efficient run ning of the town’s affairs. May Be Modiified Under the statutory form, no one is elected mayor, as the coun cil elects one of its number to serve as its chairman and titular head of the town. Many towns have seen fit to modify this pro vision so that a mayor is elected, as are the councilmen. Members of the council have ho power outside of meetings with a quorum present, and all busi ness is conducted in open meet ing. Provisions of the original town charter, town ordinances, etc., are not affected by the change ex cept in the administrative proce dure, according to the General Statutes. Once adopted, the simplified form may be modified to suit needs of the community as requir ed, or desired, by vote of the peo ple or by a special act. (Continued on page 5) Four Events Will Benefit Palsy Fund An exhibition by Paul Hahn, world famed trick-shot golfer, will be held at the Mid Pines club at 5 p. m. Sunday as the Mid Pines’ participation in the Weath ervane events for the United Cer ebral Palsy Fund. Miss Jeanne Cosgrove and Tom O’Neil of Golf World will be in charge of the ex hibition, proceeds of which will go in their entirety to the United Cerebral Palsy Fund. This is one of four events sched uled at local golf clubs, acebrding to Bob Harlow of Golf World, Pinehurst, national director of club participation for the Fund. Incidental expenses of all the events are paid by Alvin Hand- macher of New York City, origi nator of the famed Wathervane cross - country tournaments. The clubs lend their facilities and per sonnel; the golfers pay modest amounts to take part; the victims cf cerebral palsy benefit. Elsewhere on this page is the story of the tournaments to be held at the Southern Pines Coun try club Saturday and Sunday. The Pine Needles is scheduling a blind-bogey tournament for Sunday, April 19. At the Pinehurst Country club a painting of the Cathedral Hole by W. U. Stephenson, famed golf er-artist, is on display, and bids will be, accepted throughout the month of April. Donated by the artist, the painting wiU go to the highest bidder. Editors^ Letters From NC Cities Give Full Story The Pilot this week presents one of the most unusual informa tional features on a civic matter it has ever been privileged to car ry- In an effort to get an all-round and objective viewpoint on the council-manager plan of munici pal government, on which the people of Southern Pines will vote Wednesday, Mrs. James Boyd, ed itor of The Pilot, wrote to other editors, asking questions. She wrote to the editors of newspapers in towns having the council-manager plan, asking them if it had been good for tne community from (1) the tax angle; (2) civic improvements; (3) poli tics and (4)general efficiency; also if Plan D as set up in the General Statutes had been the forip adopt ed, or if the change was made through charter amendment, or how. Unbiased She felt the newspaper people were the ones most apt to give a fully unbiased view, also to know well their community background and problems, and to judge on the evidence alone. Through Wednesday of this week, 27 letters had arrived. These had to be scattered through the paper as space could be found, filling in without any picking and choosing, and may be seen on Pages 2, 3 and 11, also the third page of the second section (un numbered). While no one letter tells it all, in sum they present just about every angle of the question. Taken all together, thejl com prise a pretty full education on the council-manager plan, and no one reading them, carefully could ever be caUed uninformed. "Plan D" Few of the letters answered all the questions, only about half tell ing what plan they adopted and how. Of these, however, it is worth noting that Dimn, Sanford, Lumberton, Washington and Charlotte editors say their towns adopted Plan D; that Gastonia adopted Plan D, though a vote re cently restored the ward system;, that Greenville adopted “the pure statutory form” which will gq in to effect May 5, with no modifica tions to be made for two years; that Winston-Salem adopted tne plan through charter amendment, and two years later went to the (Continued on Page 5) Weatjhiervane Tournaments At Country Club Weathervane Club Golf Tour naments for the benefit of United Cerebral Palsy will be held at the Southern Pines Countny club Sat urday and Sunday, Phil Martig- netti, club pro, announced this week. The tourneys are open to all club members and guests, both men and women. Two silvbr tro phies, one for men and one for the ladies, which have been do nated by Alvin Handmacher, of . New York City, will be offered as prizes. The number and types of tourneys, hours of play, and so forth, will be determined as soon as an estimate can be made of the number of participants, Mr. Martignetti states. Minimum entrance fee will be $1, but participants may give any amount above this, with the as surance that all proceeds will go to United Cerebral Palsy for aid ing crippled children. Bob Harlow of Pinehurst, well known throughout the golfing world, is this year’s national man ager for the Weathervane Toim- naments, and he is collaborating closely with Phil Martignetti to make the event at Southern Pines an outstanding success. Mr. Mar tignetti, on his part, expressed ' hopes that the many golfers now enjoying the Sandhills courses will enter the tournaments this weekend. and help the cause along.