FRIDAY. JUNE 25. 1954
PAGE TWO
■ j
Southern Pines
North Carolina
“In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We will tiy to keep this a good
paper. We wiU try to make a little money for all concerned. Where there seems to be an oc^-
Ln to use our influence for the public good we will try to do it. And we wiU treat everybody
alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941.
A New Church Is A Great Event
Forni'ation of a new church congregation and
construction of a new church building is, to our
mind, a great event fcr any ^ommimity.
We have noted with interest and will follow
with attention the plans for a Methodist con
gregation, church and educational building here.
The Pilot joins the entire community in wel
coming the Rev. E. E. Whitley and his family to
Southern Pines. His is a task that would, it
appears, be a welcome challenge to any minis
ter. Speaking from outside the ministry, we
would judge this to be a unique privilege, from
a professional point of view, certainly a some
what rare privilege in these days, especially in
a community the size of Southern Pines, and
with a church of a major denomination.
Most towns comparable to Southern Pines
have long-established churches of the major de
nominations. No one seems to know just why
Southern Pines has never had a Methodist
Church. Regardless of the reason, this very wel
come development is now rapidly becoming a
reality.
Most of us had fathers, grandfathers and
even more remote ancestors who had the rare
privilege of being charter members of a new
church organization and builders of a new
church structure. This privilege is something
that was enjoyed by countless men and women
for 300 years during the settling and develop
ment of the United States. There is in this a
thrill that is part of the fascination with which
we look back on that mighty struggle across
the face of the nation. Most of us, therefore,
have been denied participation in the actual
founding of a churgh because our ancestors did
such a good job of church building in former
days. .
But the Methodists of So.uthern Pines and
nearby area can now assume the welcome task
of becoming foimders and builders. Our best
wishes go with them in their efforts.
Best Traffic Safety Program Yet
Southern Pines and other Sandhills towns
are preparing to launch the most intensive
period of the “Operation Impact” traffic safety
program—starting Saturday and running
through the July 4-5 holidays.
Proclamations are being signed and publish
ed by the mayors of Sandhills towns; the spon
soring organizations in each community—^here,
its the VFW and Auxiliary—are passing out
windshield stars to safe driving pledge signers;
and the USAF Air-Ground school continues to
provide the spark of enthusiasm tRat is carrying
Operation Impact through an even more suc
cessful campaign this year than it had last sum
mer.
This is the way to get at the traffic accident
problem—at the local level where personal par
ticipation and personal pride can be invoked in
the cause of accident prevention.
At the White House Conference on Highway
Safety, held in Washington last February, with
a local man. Jack Younts, as one of the dele
gates from over the nation. President Eisenhow
er emphasized that traffic accidents have been
taking 38,000 American lives annually. This, he
said, is “a national problem of first importance.”
Purpose of thq Washington conference was
nc^t primarily to get the delegates to Washing
ton, but to get them to go back home and make
“an effort to mobilize public support at the
community level.”
“Operation Impact” is the most successful ef
fort we have seen so far for this “community
level” action.
We urge readers to investigate Operation Im
pact, get their star and sign their pledge at the
VFW post home or the Air Ground School—and
then go cut on the streets and highways as
a conscientious member of this great safety
effort.
Gifts At Work Before Our Eyes
People who like to see the funds they con-
'tribute to charitable organizations go to work
before their eyes can look toward West End
where the annual Speech Improvement School
of the Moore County Society for Crippled Chil
dren began this week.
If you bought Easter Seals last Spring, you
are helping the boys and girls from throughout
Moore Coimty who afe going daily to West
End for assistance with their speech difficulties.
And, incidentally, that assistance is being given
by two Moore County teachers who live here
the year around. The Society didn’t have to go'
outside the county to pull in “experts.” But
these capable persons in the county have taken
special training and are, we feel sure, doing as
good a job or better as if visiting teachers had
been employed.
To be a child and not be able to speak so that
others can understand you or not be able to say
clearly what you want to say must be a hard
row to hoe. It doesn’t take a textbook on psy
chology to tell us that this predicament can
have a most unfortunate influence on such a
child’s attitude toward living and on his
chances for happiness in this world where so
much depends on our ability to communicate
with each other.
We comrriend the Speech School project and
its devoted teachers, Mrs. Shields Cameron of
Southern Pines and Miss Blanche Monroe of
West End. The school wiU flourish so long as
people of the county keep on buying enough
Easter Seals.
Solidity of Relationship With Britain
This seems to be a time, one of those periodic
times, when friction flares up between Britain
and this country. That there is cause for it, on
both sides, is a fact; no use denying it. But the
far greater fact of the need for harmony. Of the
utter impossibility of either country getting
along without the other, and of the fundamental
solidity of the relationship between the two
outweighs, by a million times, their current or
past differences.
A recent statement and another, of almost ten
years ago, emphasize this fact. The first is a
restrained and reasoned editorial, entitled “The
Americans,”- that appeared in the Manchester
Guardian, leading British weekly, on May 1.
We print two excerpts therefrom;
“If one thinks in broad terms of the role play
ed by the United States in world affairs since
the war, three things stand out. First, the United
States has done more than any other country
to guarantee peace in the world. Secondly,
America remains the foremost country in the
world whose ideal, in the -words of its own
Constitution, is to “promote the general welfare
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves
and our posterity.” Thirdly, the United States
has done more than any other country iik the
world to help others and secure their health,
prosperity and welfare.
“Proof of the first point lies in American
help which saved Greece from falling to rebel
lion, in the swift reaction to the Berlin block
ade and the saving of that city from being
strangled by Communist pressure, in the guar
antee given through the North Atlantic Pact
to Western Europe and the backing of the guar
antee by troops and aircraft now stationed in
Europe, and in the American resistance to Ag
gression in Korea. . .
“There are many valid grounds for criticising
American policy and methods. . . and for alarm
over the apparent tarnishing of America’s own
ideals. But the broad soimdness of purpose, and
worth of the role America has been playing in
world affairs ought not to be in doubt.”
To that current statement we would add an
excerpt from the famous Guildhall Speech of
President Eisenhower when, in 1945, he was
presented the Freedom of London.
“We should turn to those inner things,
call them what you will—I mean those in
tangibles that are the real treasures free
men possess. To preserve his freedom of
worship, his equality before the law, his
liberty to speak and act as he sees fit, sub
ject only to the provision that he trespass not
upon similar rights of others—^the L/ondoner
will fight; so will the citizen of Abilene.
“No petty differ^ces in the world of
trade, national traditions, and pride should
ever blind us to identities in priceless val
ues. If we keep our eyes on this guide-post,
then no difficulties on our road of mutual
co-operation can ever be insurmountable.
Above the Average
.i'.
The Public Speaking
1 "1
PORTION OF A BEAVER DAM at Powell’s Pond on the Be-
thesda Road, not far out of Southern Pines, is pictured here,
showing at right the mass of sticks and branches that covers the
face of the dam and the mud-plastered water-line that extends
from left of photo diagonally upward in the picture, with the
water of the pond visible through the leaves at upper left. In
the “Grains of Sand” column below, a Pilot representative tells
of an expedition in search of beavers that are working at the head
of the Pinebluff municipal lake. Also see item and photo on
front page. (Pilot Staff Photo)
Facing Present Realities
To The Editor;
Since the Supreme Court- out
lawed segregation in pubhc
schools, the people in the South
ern P.in'es area have refrained
from publicly expressing a lot of
threadbare racial theories that do
not in any way help solve the
problem involved.
However, the June 18th issue of
The Pilot contains a letter to the
editor which quotes the Bible in
support of racial segregation. The
writer quotes Acts 17;26—“God
hath made of one blood all nations
of men to dwell on the face of
the earth and hath determined the
tinjes before appointed and the
bounds of their habitation.”
If God fixed the limits of habi
tation for each race the place of
the African would logically be in
Africa, and the place of the Euro
pean would be in Europe, and so
on. Did the Africans voluntarily
come to America, and thus delib
erately violate the limits set by
divine edict? They did not.
White men, the ancestors of
those who are presently crying to
high heaven for the observance of
God’s racial limits, deliberately
and for their own personal gain
forced the Africans to leave their
native home and endure many
years of cruel slavery in this land
cf the free and home of the brave.
But maybe the slave . traders
didn’t know that* God had fixed
the limits of habitation for the
races of men, and maybe the lan
guage of Acjt^ 17;26 was put into
the Bible after 1619. Maybe!
The writer further notes that
“black birds don’t mix with red
birds, etc.,” meaning, I presume,
with white birds, either. 'True,
but I do not find any evidence
that mjaje white birds ever took
advantage of enslaved female
black birds to produce a race of
speckled birds.
The millions of mulattoes in
America are eloquent testimony
to the fact that somebody waited
too late to separate the races.
There are far more Negroes in
America today with white blood
than there are Negroes of pure
breed, through no fault of the
Negro.
Shedding tears over what might
have been will never solve the
realities that all of us face in the
mighty present. “The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the chil
dren’s teeth are set on edge.”
Ezekiel 18 ;2. A careful, prayerful
human approach, tempered with
justice and righteousness, is prob
ably the only way to master the
present situation for the best in
terest of all concerned.
J. R. FUNDERBURK
Southern Pines
A Look At McCarthy
Residents of Southern Pines have been chosen
recently to head state-wide or large organiza
tions of which they are members.
It is unusual in a town of this- size to have
two citizens elected president of state-wide
groups within two weeks, but that’s what hap
pened.
Week before last Garland A. Pierce was chos
en president of the North Carolina Chapter,
National Postmasters Association. Last week,
Russell J. Lorenson was elected president of
the North Carolina Society of Accountants.
Also, last week, Harold B. Fowler, chief of the
local volunteer fire department, was re-elected
president of the Sandhill Firemen’s Association,
an organization of over 40 fire departments in
central and Eastern North Carolina.
These honors reflect credit not only on the in
dividuals but on the community. The appoint
ments bring the name of Southern Pines into
the news and must lead observers to conclude
that this town is above the average in its quota
of outstanding citizens—a conclusion we would
vigorously affirm as correct.
Beavers and Green Heron
“Come down to the lake early
some morning,” said a Certain
Character,” and I’ll show you
something.”
So we did. And he did. Really
something, too.
First we got in a two-ended can
vas boat, that draws practically
no water and headed for the upper
end of the lake. The water was so
still, every tiniest leaf was reflect
ed in the mirror surface. Ahead
the swamp bays, water oaks, bog
myrtle, magnolia and gums stood
deep in the lake, forming a close
stand, almost like a hedge across
the water, with just one long nar
row channel showing.
As we reached the opening, a
big long-legged bird came sailing
low overhead; A dull grey-green
with a white patch under its
throat; a green heron.
Gradually the trees came closer
Emd closer together, till there was
just space for the boat to pass. We
pulled ourselves along ^ by the
branches, that shut down in a cool
green tunnel. The reflections were
so intense, so perfect; it was a
magic world; everything jewelled
in clarity of color and form.
Everything still, with an expect
ant quiver.
The water was dark amber,
clear and luminous; everywhere
clumps of narrow dark green
leaves sprang lance-like, from the
surface; the gleam of felled tree-
trunks, under water, whitened by
the years, showed where not to
go.
We threaded our way from one
channel to another, sometimes
having to back the boat out, when
there was no room to turn, a
handy process with the two-ended
craft.
From ahead came a harsh
breathy croak. Then we saw him,
standing up on top of a dead tree.
His big grey-green shoulders
were humped, his long sharp beak
thrusting this way and that, as he
surveyed his fishing grounds.
Every now and then it opened.
‘Kwaaak!”
A yoimg heron blundered off
through the scrub and then we
saw the nest. It was cleverly hid
den, back from the channel, in
a low oak standing in the water,
as all the trees do. It was like a
big collection of twigs dumped
together and at the top was the
narrow sharp head, white throat
patch just showing. She sat still as
if frozen. Even when we rattled
the oar against the branches, she
didn’t move. The Character said
when he first went out there
she would hop up on the edge of
the nest and fly off a few feet,
but now she was used to his car
ryings-on and paid him no mind.
Part of her strange green world,
he was.
Beyond the heron’s tree, the
channel narrowed again in the
path the beavers had cut up to
their house. We passed the boat
along from tree to tree, just
squeezing through in places.
Then there was a sound, a quiet
little splash, and down the chan
nel toward us came a little row
of bubbles. We looked over the
side but the water was too dark
or—no, he went another way!
Suddenly we saw his flat wide
head break water. His fur was
dark reddish brown, Uttle flat ears
laid back, broad muzzle just
showing black. You could follow
the line of his back and he look
ed enormous, as big as an aire-
dale. He puffed along like an old
scow, leaving a wake behind him,
and we watched him take a few
slow turns this way and that, and
then, sloop!—down he went, his
flat hairless tail, like an extra
paddle, just showing as he slid
into the cool, dark depths.
And then, there ahead of us
was the house, or lodge as the
Indians call them. It was a big
mound of sticks piled together.
Architecturally we’d say it was in
Eskimo style, or perhaps Navajo
hogan; tent-shaped but no doors
or windows. The entrances are all
under water and, as we edged up
close, there was a sharp move
ment inside and a rushing noise
of water and then the telltale line
of bubbles showed that Ma Beav
er, or maybe a child or two, had
slipped out and was heading
downstream. Later, as we came
out into the lake again on the
way to shore we saw one of the
family swimming along the farth
er bank.
Poking around in one channel
alter another we came on signs
of beaver work. Little newly
trimmed branches were every
where, and sizeable raw stumps
Jf ^ 1.^1 >3 r.* c* ^1 T'
(From The New Yorker)
The Senate, by a simple major
ity vote, can remove a committee
member from the chairmanship of
his committee. We think the Sen
ate, when the proper moment
comes, should take a vote on Sen
ator McCarthy. We don’t know
whether he ought to be removed
for malpractice, but he certainly
ought to Re fired for incompe-.
tence. His conduct of hearings, as
chairman of the Senate Perma
nent Subcommittee on Investiga
tions, has succeeded only in mak
ing the country less secure, and
his concept of internal security
has kept America in an uproar
just when it should have a firm
grip on itself. He has tried, with
some success, to change the na
ture and function of Congressional
investigation, giving it almost ju
dicial significance and almost ex
ecutive force. He has become a
lone-m'an FBI, with his own
I ........ Viic rtfjm
showed the blademarks of their
wide teeth. Beavers have massive
equipment for handling timber,
broad wedges for teeth and heavy
jaws that shut with the clamp of
a bull-dozer. Their muscular
shoulders wedge and tug as they
squat on their solid behinds and
hold the trunks with their fore
paws, nibbling them round and
round. They are expert lumber
men, guaging with accuracy the'
fall of a tree, slanting their cuts
to make it go where they can get
at it to haul it down to the water.
As for dam-building, they
rival the TVA in engineering skill.
So ’tis said. And not a thing about
creeping socialism, either. Just
good solid beaver work, even if
it is done as a tribe and one for
all, all for one. Or does that at
titude make them'suspect? Could
be.
But the beavers weren’t think
ing about socialism, creeping or
otherwise, or even about work.
Only about water, and swimming
way out and feeling it between
their toes and behind their ears
and all the fresh, pungent coolness
of it. And aren’t we all, these
days?
No Way To Do
Some folks were driving
through Georgia a while ago and
stopped at a little town where
they’d been a year before at elec
tion-time. Things had been very
hot then, with the vote finally go
ing to a certain man because of his
influence over the highway com
missioner. “If you want roads,
said his supporters, “you vote for
John Jones.” So they voted for
Jones.
When these folks got there they
expected to find everybody happy
but this was not the case. “What’s
the matter?” they asked. “Didn’t
Jones get elected after all?”
“Oh sure. He got elected all
right,” was the answer. “But we
voted for the wrong man. We
haven’t gotten a single road out
of Jones.”
A few of that sort of arguments,
were going round at this last elec-
sources of information, his own
stable of informers, his own set
of rules governing what a senator
is entitled to have in his posses
sion in the way of documents. He
is by temperament a sleuth, not
a legislator, and he should join a
private-eye squad and leave law
making to men of thoughtful
mien. I
Whether the Army resorted to |
blackmail, whether McCarthy and
Cohn used improper pressure, are
questions that interest everybody.
But one thing is quite clear; this
is no “squabble” (as it is often
called) between the Army and
McCarthy. This is the showdown
on the country’s top problem in
internal security. It involves the
infiltration of Communists into
places where nobody wants them
to be, and it involves the infiltra
tion of Senator McCarthy into the
institutions that he doesn’t ap
prove of and would like to rear
range; the Constitution, the
White House, the Army, and the
Department of Justice; the press
and other forms of “extreme Left
Wing” dissent; the two-party sys
tem (in which you can call the
other side anything you want to
I except “traitor”); the delicate bal
ance between the three main
branches of government; due pro
cess; and the nice old idea that
a citizen isn’t guilty of anything
just because someone “’names”
him as guilty.
The hearings in Washington are
structurally bizarre. The commit
tee sits in solemn style, investi
gating itself, like a monkey look
ing for fleas. The members some
times listen thoughtfully to the
testimony. At other times, one of
them takes the stand, adds to the
testimony, then returns to his seat
and broods silently on what he
has sworn to. Senator Mundt, pre
sumably a conscientious modera
tor, has a political stake in the
hearings. As far as that goes,
every senator on the committee
does. The Democratic senators,
obviously intoxicated by so gaudy
a display of Republican embar-
tion, and seemed about as child
ish. As if a good man would make
his plans for building roads in the
county depend on how the folks
voted, instead of whether the
roads were needed.
Maybe that’s the trouble with
Congress, though. Too many folks
went up there because the folks
at home depended on them build
ing county roads instead of trying
to help run the United States.
Mi&ht be the trouble with some
of the roads, too, come to think
of it.
The PILOT
Published Every Friday by
THE PILOT. Incorporated
Southern Pines. North Carolina
rassment, have recently been
challenged on the score of kias,
and Symington has been asked
to disqualify himself—as though
there had ever been a remote pos
sibility that a committee consist
ing of Democrats and Republicans
could investigate itself dispas
sionately. Perhaps something use
ful will emerge from this har^le-''
quinade, but if it dees, it simply
means that this country is, as
usual, sort of lucky.
Although everyone is interested
in the specific charges. Army vs.
McCarthy, it seems to us IJiat peo
ple are even more deeply concern
ed with finding the answer to the
permanent question about the
permanent chairman of^that per
manent subcommittee; namely,
must the country continue to be
torn to pieces, day by day, week
by week, merely because one
quick-witted senator has discover
ed a way to do it and a reason for
doing it? That’s what America
wants to find out, and only the
Senate can come up with the an
swer.
If McCarthy were a medium
sized threat to internal security,
if he were a bush-league dema
gogue, if he had done three or four
naughty deeds, involving three
or four innocent people, perhaps
the Senate would be justified in
keeping him on in the job. But the
senator’s score is imposing and he
is not medium-sized—as he well
knows.
The twenty-years - of-treason
junket, the use of the word
“guilt” in hearing rooms where
nobody is on trial and where no
judge sits, the Zwicker inquisi
tion, the willingness to shatter an
army to locate a dentist, the sly
substitution of the name “Alger”
for the name “Adlai”, the label
ling of the majority of the press
as “extreme Left Wing”, the dis
tortion of facts and figures, the
challenge of the power Of the
White House, the use of the grand
elision in the phrase “Fifth
Amendment Communist,” the
queer notion that he, and he
alone, is entitled to receive raw
information that it is illegal for
others to have in their possession,
the steady attack on national con
fidence and national faith, as
though confidence were evil ai^d
suspicion were good—^the score is
familiar and need not be recited
in its long detail.
Whatever else can be said for
and against the senator, it has be
come obvious that he dislikes a
great many things about our form
of government. To disapprove of
these well-loved principles and
rules is not a crime, but neither is
it a help in performing the duties
of a committee chairman in the
United States Senate.
1941—JAMES BOYD—1944
Katharine Boyd Editor
C. Benedict News Editor
Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr.
C. G. Council Advertising
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Composing Room
Loehamy McLean, Dixie B. Ray,
Michael Valen, Jasper Swearingen
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