Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / June 30, 1955, edition 1 / Page 2
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PAGE TWO THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina THURSDAY. JUNE 30, 1955 ILOT Southern Pines North Carplina “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 ocm- sion to use our influence for the public good w€ will try to do it. And we will treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941. School Study Commissiont A Good Start The Moore County board of education is to be commended for setting up ,a study commis sion to investigate the racial integration prob lem in the schools of the‘County system which includes all the schools of the county except the white and Negro schools at Southern Pines and Pinehurst. We feel sure that the city school unit officials also are studying the integration problem in the light of the two Supreme Court decisions and the lines of approach recommended recently by Governor Hodges and his special study group. It is noted, however, that due to geographical distribution of the races in the Southern Pines and Pinehurst districts, there will likely be fewer problems than in some of the county dis tricts, especially rural areas, where the white and NegrC' populations are more dispersed and mixed in the location of their homes. The county board of education did well to in clude Negroes on the study commission. There should certainly be Negro participation in any planning group on the school segregation mat ter. Adequate preparation, both by school officials and the public, appears to be the key to a smooth-running de-segregation process, accord ing to information from the “border state communities where the change-over has actual ly been attempted. We hope that the study commission, as well as officials in all the school districts,, will keep the public informed of their activities and the scope of their planning. A little later, public information meetings for interested parents of both races will be in order. However the city and county boards of edu cation in Moore County decide to handle the school segregation problem, their decisions should be given wide publicity and should be explained openly and in detail to the public. Without general public understanding, ac ceptance of decisions—whatever they may be— will be much more difficult. A Good Word For Backyard Recreation From a professional director of parks and recreation in Raleigh comes a comment that has a certain bearing on Southern Pines’ problems as it looks toward expanding its recreation fa cilities. The gentleman who was talking is dependent icr his job on a lively interest in recreation facilities, so we don’t think he would minimize the importance of the subject. Surprisingly, therefore, he warned against “spending $7 million for the best recreation building in the country and then asking a youngster tO’ come five miles to get to it.” Commenting on these remarks, the News and Observer pointed out the virtue of the old fash ioned back yard as a recreation spot. Mama, the newspaper noted, did net then have to go into the business of chauffeuring in order to meet the needs of recreation and could serve as rec-' reation supervisor without ceasing to be a housewife. Specifically, the recreation director was ad vising the use as recreation facilities of schools and churches within walking distance of the child’s heme. Southern Pines is not yet so large a city that any facility (swimming pool, recreation center, etc) built here would be much beyond walking distance—except for small children—^yet the common sense of dispersing recreation facilities should not be lost. We’d like to see, for instance, a string of small neighborhood parks, with modest play ground equipment and maybe a wading or splashing pool for little children, constructed at accessible points throughout the town. We’d like to see church rooms and grounds and school rooms and grounds opened as much as possible for recreation purposes—with vol unteer neighborhood mother directors spelling the duties and sharing the work. While we are waiting for the council to de cide whether or not to ask us to vote on a $250,- 000 recreation bond issue for elaborate swim ming pool and structure facilities, we’d like to see some busy fathers take an afternoon off and superintend the building of a back yard tree house or Indian camp or frontier fort and then let the kids and their imagination take over from there. It is easy enough for an old-fashioned parent to recall with misty eyes the alleged joys of back-yard gaines when there was such a thing as a back yard—not to mention a back pasture or woodlot—but we realize that the pattern of living has changed and that public recreation facilities are becoming more necessary, even in small towns. However, we would hate to see private imag ination and ingenuity and simple backyard pleasures give way entirely to public facilities that may not in the end (terrible thought) even provide as rnuch fun. Statistics Tell An Inspiring Story For some years, Moore County has ranked high among the 100 counties of North Carolina in respect tO' infant and maternal death rates as compiled by the State Board of Health. Statistics for 1954 reveal a state-wide infant mortality rate of 30 per 1,000 live births, based on 113,840 births and 3,411 deaths. The Moore County rate is 14.9 deaths per 1,- 000 live births. The Mocre rate is bettered, so far as we can see by examining the statistics, only by two counties in the far west, Mitchell and McDow ell, and by two in the far east, Jones and Dare. Mitchell’s 8.8 rate is apparently the lowest in the state. | The Moore County figure is testimony to the value of available medical care and hospitali zation—and the use of that care by all segments of the population. As we have commented in former years when enviable figures in maternal or infant death rates in Moore County have been published, we credit the Moore County Maternal Welfare Committee program with helping to save the lives* of mothers and infants in this county through making available pre-natal and post natal care,ithrough training of licensed|midwives to serve when necessary those families on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder and most of all in creating an interest in and awareness of the need for better care of mothers and infants. ' While figures are available for North Caro lina in 1954, comparative figures with other states are available for not later than 1952. In that year. North Carolina’s infant mortali ty rate was 35.7 deaths per 1,000 live births— showing incidentally that the rate for the state as a whole is improving. Yet the 35.7 rate is to be compared with a national average Of 28.4 for 1952. Only five states of the 48 had higher infant mortality rates than did North Carolina that year. Lowest infant mortality rate of any state jn the nation in 1952 was Connecticut’s 20.7 per 1,000 live births—a rate that we note is some what higher than Moore County’s 14.9 rate for 1954. The lesson in all this, if there be a lesson, is tliat we in Moore County should continue to maintain our record as a leading county in looking afer the welfare of mothers and in fants, meanwhile doing whatever we can to im prove the state-wide picture. Essentially, it is a task for county and even neighborhood effort. There is probably not a county in North Carolina that could not better its infant mortality rate if a small group of de voted persons, such as the Moore Maternal Wel fare Committed, would with the cooperation of Health and Welfare Departments set about the task. Now, when people tend to look more and more to government to carry on social welfare projects, it is inspiring to review the experience of Moore County where private effort has done so much to save the lives of mothers and in fants. Crains of Sand "yol/ you /uus^'ns> /rv^ - 'A Striking And Important Decision" Mental Disorder And Crime Studied (Writing in a recent, issue of “Popular Government”— the publication of the Insti tute of Government at Chap el Hill—James C. N. Paul, an assistant director O'! the In stitute, probes throughtfully the problem of mental disor der and crime. His article is prompted by a decision of the Court of Appeals of the Dis trict of Columbia, a court which he,, a trained lawyer, ' calls “certainly one of our most influential and compe tent Federal tribunals.” Re printed betow are portions of Mr. Paul’s article which chal lenges the whole system of judging mentally disordered persons as it now exists in most of the United States.) How does the criminal law deal with the “insane”—or “mentally disordered” (to use a word less offensive to modern medicine)— offender today? Our law hasn’t changed much since the early 19th century. 'The basic ideas might be stated as follows: Some “right and wrong.” If he “knew” his harmful act—killing, stealing, raping or whatever it was—^was “wrong,” then he was to be found guilty. If he did not “know” his act was “wrong,” then he should be acquitted. Very simple. Very appealing at first blush. And perhaps because the “right and wrong” test was so simple, and because it had come out of the mouths of some of the most exalted judges in England in one of the most celebrated cases of the age, the test was quickly imported to this country. All state courts decided to use it. In North Carolina, as in a major ity of other states, it is still the sole test. Right now, today, if we have a defendant who claims he is too mentally disordered to be treated as a criminal—if that’s his defense—we call in the doctors; they examine the defendant; and then they must tell the jury whether this man “knew” that his act was “wrong.” More Lightning Damage One of 'the rwo flashes oi light ning that struck Southern Pines just as The Pilot was going to press last Thursday entered the Carolina Theatfb building and knocked out of operation the brand new Worthington air con ditioning equipment that had been installed and put in opera tion only a few days previously. Charlie Picquet, owner and manager, said that he was in his office in the front of the building when the lightning hit, and did not know then that any damage had been done. A window air con ditioner in his office continued to operate and it was not until the big new equipment was turned on later in the day (there was no matinee Thursday) that the dam age was discovered. Electricians worked all night attempting to repair the equip ment, but SO' many delicate and intricate parts had been burnt out that it had to be enirely re placed. A new unit arrived promptly from Charlotte Friday and it re quired all day to get it going, but the “show went on” Friday night. There were no less than nine fuses protecting the new equip ment, Mr. Picquet reports, but the lightning jumped all of them and hit the switch that turns the unit on. Early this week, Mr. Picquet did not know whether or not he was covered by insurance for the loss which was considerable. It’s also reported that lightning entered the 'Tew sheet metal shop near the rear of the theatre build ing and that a ball of fire raced around the shop. A bulletin in last week’s Pilot reported hew one of the flashes of lightning had entered the Bel vedere Hotel and had set on fire the television set of Arthur C. Reed, hotel proprietor. Dual Highway Regulation School is out now, but for the record. We take note of a memo randum from the State Motor Ve hicles Department that traffic on both sides of a dual or separated thoroughfare must come to a standstill when approaching a stopped school bus. Introduction of more dual roads in this area, such as the new highway from Aberdeen to Drowning Creek, almost comple ted, will bring up the subject of er his conduct was “right” or “wrong.” Emotions Involved perhaps, in a rough way, it is this sort of lesson the doctors are trying to teach the lawyers. Peo- i this regulation when school opens pie don’t—they can’t—control all next fall. With more and more their actions just by acting on dual highways in the state, it is abstract inteltectual knowledge.'f good regulation for motorists to Our everyday decisions, our overt travel around Tar conduct, are the product of all neelia. Doctors Hate Method The doctors—^^most of them— cordially hate this procedure. mentally disordered offenders'Nearly all who have written on . ought never to be punished as the subject damn McNaughten’s a major city with many slum criminals; it would be barbaric to ^ case in no uncertain language. o r- punish a man who, through no They also, often enough, say fault of his own, can’t control his some unkind things reflecting on sorts of stimuli—some emotional. Unless our “emotional know ledge—along with our abstract intellectual gnowledge—tells us that something is wrong, we don’t really appreciate the “wrongness” of a given act. A mental disease often impairs one’s “emotional knowledge.” The sick person becomes unable to let his abstract intellectual know ledge of right and wrong govern all of his conduct, but the law still treats him as a criminal. New Test Explained The Court of Appeals in Wash ington, D. C., has attempted a new test. This experiment will bear watching in the next few years because Washington, being actions; it would be useless, be cause you can’t deter others suf- jfering from a like condition, since by definition people who can’t stop themselves from engaging in crime are not deterrable; it is THEY^RE SAYING Trees And Tyranny A Raleigh citizen traveling in New England sends back home a clipping from a Boston newspaper; HEARING TONIGHT “The Cambridge City Council will hold a pub lic hearing tonight to air the petition of the Mormon Church, 100 Brattle Svt., seeking'permis- sion to remove two maple trees at 11 and 15 Hawthorne St., in order to move the present church to a new site on Hawthorne St.” This is from the section where much of the American fight for freedom began. It may seem to some that tyranny has returned when a man or a church can’t chop down a tree with out signing a petition, having a public hearing and getting permission of the city council. Maybe old Cambridge is toO tough on those who want to cut trees down. Some cities—including Raleigh—are certainly too careless about the matter. The destruction of a tree in a city is never merely a private matter but a loss to all who have enjoyed its green presence. Certainly some must come down in the service of that well known thing called “progress.” But any city which is moving toward with intelligence will guard the trees which add to the pleasant ness of its life. —^Raleigh News and Observer senseless to jail a mentally sick to barbaric, or at least unscien man, because prison would only |tific, results. aggravate his condition. | ij/^rhy are the doctors displeased? The most important criticism is the intelligence of lawyers and judges—who seem to the doctors to be mulelike in their insistence upon following a “test” which modern medicine says is a mean ingless jumble of words leading The McNaughten Case So in early times the criminal this: if psychiatrists have come to agree on anything, they are law sought to identify and excuse' agreed that it is impossible to say some sorts of mentally disordered in many, many cases whether a wrongdoers. And in 1843 the highest court in England sought to settle the issue by putting to gether some words which would comprise a single, uniform “test” to be applied in all cases where “insanity” was raised as a de fense. This was the McNaughten case. Reading it today, no impar tial observer can fail to note that the judges who promulgated the opinion were not too sure about the subject with which they were dealing. Even the grammar is atrocious, and some of tlr^ reasoning stumbles all over itself in a jumble of contradictions. But because the McNaughten case was one Of those “big” or ’’cele brated” events in history, the law promulgated (out of very little precedent or medical knowledge) by the judges stuck. And the up shot was that a short, simple test came to be used in determining whether a mentally sick man was to go to jail or to go free. j Did Defendant 'Know'? The test had to do with the defendant’s ‘(knowledge” of sick law violator “knows” wheth- The Public Speaking An Ideal Location To The Editor: May I commend you on the ex cellent argumentative type edi torial, “Where Better Than South ern Pines?,” which appeared in the June 23 issue Of The Pilot. It is a masterpiece of fact and merit; surely it will wield great influence in molding public opin ion to have the envisioned insti tution of Christian education in Southern Pines. Having been actively interest ed in educational fields for over forty years, I too feel that this town is an ideal location for a college. May your efforts crystallize into reality in the near future! Sincerely yours, MRS JAMES B. BOYLE 920 E. Massachusetts Ave. areas and other problems of ur^ banization, has a crime problem as important in magnitude as that of many states. Very briefly, the court there has declared that in all criminal cases where signifi cant mental disorder is apparent, the doctors will simply testify as to all that they have observed about the defendant’s mental condition. The jury will then be asked to decide: in the light of that testimony. . . was the defend ant’s action—his allegedly crim inal behavior—“caused” by his mental disorder? In other words, did his mental condition play a substantial part in producing his criminal conduct? If so, he is not to be punished as a criminal. To repeat here what is so prob ably true—that many offenders are mentally disordered people— is not tO' indulge in sentimental ism. Far from it. It focuses right on the heart of the problem; what should we do with these people? In theory the answer seems obvious. The “cause” test is probably a good one. We should substitute it, or something like it, for McNaughten’s test. Another Change Advised And along with this change we should make another. We should not acquit, outright, people whose crime was “caused” by mental disorder. Instead we should auto matically hospitalize them; we should put them where they will be treated and cured—and above all kept off the streets until, judged by bur imperfect medical knowledge, they are no longer suffering from the condition which did “cause” them to com mit crimes. The PILOT Published Every Thursday by THE PILOT. Incorporated Southern Pines, North Carolina The Motor Vehicles Department admits there is little danger to children discharged from a bus on a dual lane highway separated by an “island.” But under current laws, traffic both ways must stop, irrespective of highway layout. Abel's Work Recognized C. R. (Bob) Abel, a member of )the class of 1931 at Southern Pines High School and now work ing as an engineer at Gl-ensboro, is one of two engineers who con ceived and developed for the Brick and Tile Service at Greens boro a type of reinforced brick masonry swimming pool that was featured in the American Home magazine for May. Economy of the pool is stressed by the Brick and Tile Service. According to the magazine article, a pool 22 by 55 feet in size can be built for approximately $3,600, including filtering equipment and all accessories. Bob has travelled the state for the Brick and Tile Service for several years, occasionally com ing through the Sandhills and stopping briefly to look up old friends. It is hard to believe that it was a quarter of a century ago when Bob, John Chisholm, Clifton Cameron, Bill Woodward, Carl Thompson, Constantino and Tony Montesanti, the present Pilot news editor and others used to quail before the scholarly de mands of the late Professor Allen and play volleyball and munch home-packed lunches during re cess. 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 Katharine Boyd Editor C. Benedict News Editor Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr. C. G. Council Advertising Mary Scott New:ton 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. 1 and N. C. Press Assn.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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June 30, 1955, edition 1
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