Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / Sept. 4, 1953, edition 1 / Page 2
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FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 4. 1953 North Carolina Southern Pines “In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We will try to keep this a good paper. We will try to make a little money for all concerned. Where there seems to be an occa sion to use our influence for the public good we will try to do it. alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941. And we will treat everybody For Reconsidering Driver Education The percentage of schools offering driv er education for high school students m each state of the union ranges from 4.2 in Arkansas to 100 in Delaware. In North Carolina 19.9 per cent of the state’s schools had the courses in the 1952-53 yg&r, ac cording 10 a tabulation made by an insur ance company. For the nation, the average is 43.1 per ^ent of the schools with such courses. Nearly 800,000 students took safe driv ing courses in more than 8,500 schools- over the nation in the last school year. By next spring the total number of men and women who have received high school training in driving will run to at least 5,- 000,000. During the past six years, driver educa tion programs have risen in number and importance, in North Carolina and in the nation as a whole. V/'hen he spoke on traffic safety in Southern Pines recently Motor Vehicles Commissioner Ed Scheidt called high school driver education one of the most important steps that must be taken to cut the toll of death and injury on the state’s highw'ays. He did not say we ought to have more such courses. He said we must have them. We note that the program is being insti tuted in the schools of Laurinburg this year. Tho Phot would like to see the county commissioners, in cooperation with the county board of education and the trustees of the Southern Pines and Pinehurst school systems, restudy the matter of driver edu cation to determine if such courses can be instituted' in Moore county. Start of such a program would probably have to go over to the 1954-1955 school year, giving ample time for investigation and study. The Pilot would not advocate throwing on the school systems a burden they can not bear, but it now seems (1) 'tha,t public opinion is turning more and more in favor of the courses and (2) that, begun on a modest scale with cooperation from auto dealers and police departments, a driver training program ought to be financed reasonably enough to get it started. Dogs—Recurring Problem A hews story from Roxboro tells how 60 armed men went on a hunt for wild dogs in Person county, killed four and “captur ed” tw'o females with 13 puppies. The dogs, says the news item, have been roaming a section of the county, killing livestock and chickens, and there have been some re ports of attacks on people. The Roxboro correspondent, as though reporting a big game hunt from the wilds of Africa, went into these details describ ing the demise of “a beautiful collie”: “A couple of hunters were driving him back toward the main party when Luther Dixon shot him with a shotgun and knock ed him down. But then the dog got up and leaped across a creek bank toward Dixon and Carl Coats. 'The dog was shot again, this time by Coats with a .22 rifle, buVhe was not stopped. He dived in between the two men and charged in front of the other hunters who then fired on Him and killed him.” The condition of dogs everywhere is a reflection of the condition of human be ings. Dogs do not choose to run wild; kill stock and become a menace until the possi bility of life with man—their natural con dition—is utterly lost. A situation such as that in Person coun ty is not an indictment of the dogs but of people who forced them into it through lack of food, care and regard—on only a little of which a dog will remain eternally Not-So-Unwilling Scholars School days wake up a town like nothing else we know. Our communities would be dull indeed without children—and opening of school makes us realize again how great an influ ence they have on the tone and pace of community life. Business people going to work are bound to be refreshed as they pass groups of children on their way to school. There is no tonic for that late-aftemoon letdown like children flooding from the schools, laughing, talking, running, spreading to every corner of the town. They pass our homes and offices like a fresh breeze and we more willingly adjust our efforts to the balance of the day’s toil. Tradition has it that all youngsters face the opening of school with distaste, revolt and dread. The picture of the unwilling scholar, reluctantly laying aside his fishing pole or baseball bat, to commit himself to the persecution of a school’s foup walls and a knuckle-rapping teacher is a stock char acter in our folklore. But we don’t believe it’s true. Like all people, children like routine, for one thing. Regardless of all complaints, we think happier going to loyal beyond the capability of any other bOSrSt. Once a situation has gotten as bad as that described, perhaps there is no other way to solve it but mass slaughter. Cer tainly stock and people must be protected. But it is a sickening thing. The dog problem is always with us be cause of the unwillingness or the inability of human beings to look out for all the dogs that nature produces. The lesson in the Person County incident is that control measures must be available before stray dogs form into packs. This is a big problem for small towns and rural areas which cannot support dog wardens or humane societies that handle* the matter in more populous areas. ; In line with legal machinery set up by the state, some counties are trying a dog warden, dog pound, humane destruction method on a county-wide scale, which seems about the best answer for a county like Moore where neither towns nor rural com.munities can afford to employ or main tain individuals to catch and properly dis pose of stray dogs. The starving stray dogs that we all see frequently in both towns and rural areas show'^ that there is a need for better con trol measures in this county. Without control, a situation like that in Person county is always a threat. With control, we doubt if it could develop. most youngsters are happier going Bond Election Calls For Thought About a month now remains before Tar that are now history—and Heels go to the polls in a special bond elec tion to decide whether or not the state will issue bonds to the value of $50 million for school plant construction and $22 million for state mental institutions. While The Pilot will have more to say about this proposed bond issu6, we want to go on record now as favoring the bonds. Miiin reason is clear: the bonds offer the best and quickest way for the state to maintain its forward march in providing essential services to its people. Some rumblings and grumblings about the bond proposals have come to our ears and there is indication that the school and hospital bond program is not as ixjpular as were the road and school bond issues By MARQUIS CHILDS Washington Calling ... WASHINGTON. — The Admin istration is allowing itself a pause for optimism in the light of the latest budget review. Income and outgo have been brought within a half billion dol lars of balance and for govern ment in terms of the, deficits of recent years that is practically perfect. What this means is that the level of govern ment spending has been cut for the current fiscal year by $2 billions more than the original Administration estimate. The drop in spending with this addition has been from $78.6 bil lions, the estimate in the Truman budget, to $72.1 billions. It will be well to get all the pleasure that is possible out of this plateau of optimism. For in actual fact the Administration is caught in a bad squeeze between the demand in the Republican Party to cut taxes and balance the budget and the growing ap prehension in the country thafde fense expenditures are being re duced below the level of mini mum security. What makes the squeeze so cruel is the fact that income and excise taxes up to $9 billions ex pire in the months ahead begin ning on January 1. The bulk of this is in the excess profits levy and in an automatic reduction of 10 percent in the level of personal income taxes, both of which the Administration is pledged to sur render. To re-enact wartime ex cise taxes on furs, cosmetics, en tertainment and so on in an elec tion year will be difficult if not downright impossible. So the budget for the fiscal year beginning next July must be cut another $7 to $8 billions un less new substitute taxes can be found. Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey has said many times that he is considering every kind of substitute including a na tional sales tax. But again to adopt such an unpopular measure with the narrow Republican ma jorities in Senate and House chal lenged in a Congressional election seems not merely improbable but impossible. An immediate deadline is just ahead on September 15. By that date government departments must submit to Budget Director Joseph M. Dodge preliminary es timates for spending for next year. While it is being emphasiz ed that these figures are hardly more than informed guesses, nev ertheless Dodge means to review them with his stern banker’s eye. In a letter to the heads of all departments. Dodge put the facts of life as he sees them squarely on the line. You must, he said, cut spending below the minimums al ready agreed upon. If you do not do this. Dodge said in effect, then you will not be prepared for the cuts which must be made in the light of the loss of revenue in the next fiscal year. This means that you must review every service provided by your department and if it is not absolutely essential then it must be dropped. The only place where really big cuts can be made is in the Depart ment of Defense and it is here .that the squeeze is toughest. For the current year Congress knock ed $6.7 billions out of the Truman defense budget, bringing it down to $34 billions. Dodge and his economy allies expect further large savings from greater cuts in the defense budget next year. They pin their expec tations on the “new look” which the new, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Arthur W. Radford, will give to Ameri can strategy and the defense es tablishment. Their argument runs that in recent years no one has done a thorough appraisal; new military projects were simply piled on top of those already in operation. Now the new team will find much that can be discarded and reduced. This puts a tremendous respon sibility Oft Radford who sold him self to the President and Secre tary of Defense Charles E. Wil son. If after the “new look”, which will follow the Soviet an nouncement of the H-bomb, he comes up with estimates showing that more and not less money spot. Of the total current defense cut, $5 billions was taken out of the amount proposed for the Air Force. That has caused wide crit icism jvhich Kyes and his as sociates put down to the “Air Force lobby^” But in the last anal ysis the defense team must accept the responsibility. This is a return engagement of a drama that played here once be fore. President Truman’s Secre tary of Defense, Louis Johnson, cut the defep^e budget back to $13 billions, acting, he has insist ed privately, on Truman’s orders. But Johnson went out. {Copyright, 1953, by UF Syn. Inc.) DRIVE CAREFULLY — SAVE A LIFE I school than repeating-an endless round of play without the purpose and direction that school gives to their lives. ^ Important, too, is the nature of today’s schools. We do not see how a first-grader entering school in one of today’s modern buildings, such as those at Southern Pines or Aberdeen, could fail to be charmed. Such a school room, with its little chairs and tables, its toys, pictures and colorful furnishings is a more .fascinating place than the homes of most children. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and, we understand, most children entering school these days take to it like a duck to water. While schooldays . still involve their portion of drudgery and confinement—as what part of living does not?—^the whole atmosphere of school now is vastly differ ent from the folklore picture of the class room where a blackboard and the teacher’s threatening ruler were the chief items of equipment. As we count our blessings in the present time—something we tend to forget to do —we can include the change for the better that has taken place in schools and their standards and administration during the 20th century. whose fruits we are now enjoying. It is not so easy for the average man to become interested in better mental insti tutions as in better- roads, but the need, comparatively, is as great. As to schools, we cannot stop with the school job partly done—and schools are still inadequate and crowded. Importance of bringing all Negro schools up to equal standards with the white schools cannot be overestimated. Deciding to vote “yes” on the proposed bonds will take, we admit, more thought and more imagination than did the vote on roads, but we cannot see how the people of North Carolina, after due thought and consideration, can vote otherwise. will be needed, his sponsors will be distinctly unhappy. In current Pentagon gossip, a cut for next year of $6 billions is reported^ This would reduce the defense budget to $28 billions. But Deputy Secretary of Defense Roger Kyes, acting as secretary Wilson’s absence, denies that money enters into defense calcu lations. He insists that the objec tive is to get the most security for the country with waste and frills eliminated. Both in New York and Wash ington reports have circulated that Wilson, unhappy in his job, would resign to be replaced by Kyes. Those close to both men in sist this is not true. These reports have gone so far that other can didates are mentioned for the top Hebrides Islands Population Declines; Skye Loses 15,000 In Past 100 Years All 27 Inhabitants Abandon One Island; Fisherman Buys It Are the remote, misty Hebrides Islands—spread fan-like along Scotland’s Atlantic coast—losing their fight against depopulation? The Hebrides include the Isle of Skye, location of Dunvegan castle, residence of Lady Flora MacLeod, chieftain of the Clan MacLeod, who wiU speak at the Old Bethesda Church homecom ing near Aberdeen Sunday, Sep tember 30. Scots ancestors of some residents of this area came to the New World from the Heb rides Islands. Latest of the island chain to be deserted by its inhabitants is Soay, near Skye. Soay’s entire population—27 men, women and children—recently migrated to Craignure, 40 miles south on the Isle of Mull. This was the second of the He brides’ • 100 inhabited islands- there are several hundred other barren reefs—to be abandoned in recent years, says the National Geographic Society. In August 1930, the 35 residents of St. Kilda in the Outer Hebrides moved to Lochaline on the Scottish main land. Today only wild mouwflon sheep and sea-fowl live perma nently on St. Kilda. Shark Fishing Soay is more' fortunate than St. Kilda. A Newfoundland fisher man bought the island and has set up housekeeping there with his London wife and small son. He plans to offer shark fishing as a sport for tourists, and hopes that other English families will join him. Decline of Soay’s lobster fish ing—a chief source of support— prompted residents to foresake their homeland. Poor soil, inade quate links with the mainland, and absence of medical attention were other factors which led to their emigration. The lobster decline was a prob lem peculiar to Soay, but the oth er deficiences are common to all the Western Islands, as reflected in dwindling population figures, Soay had 70 homesteaders in 1936. On Skye, largest of the Inner Hebrides, there are only about 8,- 000 people, compared with 23,000 a century ago. “Our main exports are young men and young wom en,” Skyemen say ruefully. The Hebrides’ rocky moors are scenically rich but physically poor. Soil is scanty and difficult to drain. Trees are few, and pas ture extremely limited. Most of the people are crofters—^tenant farmers who rent house and acre age. Fishing, cattle-breeding, weaving and the tourist trade are the other major industries. Gaelic Spoken Norse place names are evidence of Norse domination of the isles from the 8th century to 1266. The islands’ people are a blend of the Nordic and the darker Celtic types. Gaelic, the old language of the pighlands, is still spoken in the Hebrides. The climate is wet but not cold, with frequent fogs. Main tourist pursuits are salmon and sea-trout fishing, and rock-climbing. Skye’s CuiUin range is the barest and most precipitous of British moun tains. Its jagged pinnacles re semble diminutive Alps, Eilthough the highest peak is only 3,309 feet above the sea. The PILOT Published Every Friday by THE PILOT. Iiicorporaled Southern Pines, North Carolina 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 Katharine Boyd Editor C. Benedict News Editor Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr. C. G. Council Advertising Mary Scott Newton Business Bessie Cameron Smith Society Composing Room Lochamy McLean, Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen, Jasper Swearingen Subscription Rates: One Year $4. 6 mos. $2: 3 mos. $1 Entered at the Postoffice at South ern Pines, N. C.. as second class mail matter Member National Editorial Assn, and N. C. Press Assn. PINEDENE, Inc. EVERYTHING ELECTRICAL ZENITH SERVEL HOTPOINT FURNITURE TELEVISION AIR CONDITIONING U.S. Highway No. 1 South—Southern Pines. N. C. Phone 2-8071 ITT Open Till 9 P. M. FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE 52 Dodge Diplomat 51 Ford 2 door, radio heater and overdrive 50 Dodge 4-door 47 Buick Roadmaster 52 Chevrolet 4-door 51 Chevrolet 2-door .. 50 Pontiac 2-door - 41 Ford like new 40 Ford Convertible SPECIAL THIS WEEK 47 Oldsmobile Sedanette-Hydromatic $295.00 PHILLIPS MOTOR CO., INC "Where Prices Are Born—^Not Raised" CARTHAGE. N. C. The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States MYRA SCOTT BOES, SPECIAL AGENT Phone 2-7693 Box 381 Southern Pines Send your children off to school properly equip ped to make the year a successful one. We are stocked with Grade “A” values in every selection. Make our shop your SCHOOL SUPPLIES HEADQUARTERS HAYES BOOK SHOP N. W. Broad St. Southern Pines WILLIAM A. WRIGHT SECURITIES Member National Association of Securities Dealera Inc. Specializing in KEYSTONE CUSTODIAN FUNDS "A COMPLETE INVESTMENT SERVICE*' P. O. Box 528 Pinehurst, N. C. Tel^bene: Pinehurst 2151 HAVE YOUR CLOTHES CLEANED D. C. JENSEN Where Cleaning and Prices Are Better!
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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Sept. 4, 1953, edition 1
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