North Carolina Newspapers

Page TWO THE PILOT—Southern Pines. North Carolina THURSDAY. AUGUST 23. 1956 ^ North Carolina Southern Pines “In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We will try to keep tto 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. And we will treat every y alike.”^—James Boyd, May 23, 1941. Shooting Star Becomes Steady Light The triumph of the party leadership of Adlai Stevenson, so effectively won at Chicago last week, offers a bright promise of Democratic vic tory in November. More unified than it has been in the past de cade, the party is now in a position to regain many of the votes that went to Eisenhower from party members who had been disgruntled'with the Tniman influence or who distrusted the shooting star that was Stevenson in 1952, assum ing that its brilliance could not last. In 1952, the shooting star that was Stevenson contrasted with the calm, steady light that was Eisenhower—a benevolent light that flooded the nation to the strains of martial music in the background. This is not to say that the Eisenhower light has faded clean away, though it would be dreaming to deny that it has lost some of its 1952 power. What we are faced with now is that the Democratic candidate can'also be if airly described in terms of his own bright steady, light. The steadiness comes from the sweeping nom ination victory at Chicago and the independence he maintained in gaining it. The brightness comes from his vision of the “new America that renews itself with every forward thrust of the human niind.” The selection of Senator Kefauver for the vice-presidential nomination gives Stevenson probably the; most effective running mate that the convention could have named. The qualities and varied appeals they bring to the campaign as a team are vastly impressive. So—there is brightness in the air, a very real sense of impending victory for the Democrats. Not an easily won victory. Not a certainty. As compared with 1952, the difference is something like this: where there lyas hope then, there is coniidence now, a confidence that we think will lead on to victory in November. Trash On The Highways: Problem and Suggestion Governor Hodges spoke the thoughts of many Tar Heels when, at a tree-planting ceremony in the Elizabethan Garden at Manteo last week, he said: “I have another project in mind, one, which I wish the North Carolina Garden Clubs would sponsor. That is a campaign to make our high ways more attractive. I wish you would spon sor a movement that would educate people not to throw trash and rubbish from their automo biles.’’ Having backed the cause of highway beauti fication in all its aspects for many years. The Pilot offers a rousing second to the Governor’s motion. Trash and rubbish along the road form only part of the highway beautification prob lem, but this could be the . most easily remedi able part, with cooperation from the traveling public. Driving along most any highway, the motorist is appalled to see the amount of trash that is tossed out along the road: paper cups, beer cans, bottles, boxes, cartons and paper of all descrip tions. Consideration of this problem leads to a con clusion that we don’t think we have heard voiced before: shouldn’t automobiles have built- in waste basket space? Why, out of all the help ful gadgets that^ have been built into cars, have the manufacturers not realized that riding all day in an auton;obile is just like living in a room at home: people read newspapers, open pack ages, munch candy, peanuts and crackers, smoke the last cigarette in their packages, enjoy a soft (or otherwise) drink—but what can they do with the resulting waste products? No automobile we have ever seen makes ^ny provision for this problem, except an ash tray. A paper cup half full of cracked ice, or one enclosing the sticky remains of a milkshake, is not the kind of thing you want to keep in a car —so that’s where the trash comes from. There’s nothing much you can| do with such an article except throw it out the window. And that’s what most of us do. An automobile waste basket built so that the container could be removed for emptying and cleaning, would be a blessing to the motorist and a real contribution by car manufacturers to the cleanliness of the national highways. Pending such a revolutionary development, the garden clubs or any other organizations or individual who will get behind the movement suggested by Governor Hodges would be doing a 'service to the state. ‘A Ship of Glasse Toss’d In A Sea of Terrour’ The trial that last week dominated the term of Superior Court at Carthage, in which a State College student was accused of rape by a young school teacher, rightly commanded front page coverage in the daily newspapers of the state. The human interest, the dramatic tension of this trial could not be denied. Its outcome in a hopelessly hung jury and an order of mistrial only adds to the interest. Truth, that elusive quality that is sought in aU cases that come be fore the bar of justice, apparently had not been proved and recognized. The two protagonists in this essentially tragic real life drama must now again appear in court —onei would, surmise before a new jury chosen from a venire summoned elsewhere than in Moore County. Unless a special term is called, the case will not be tried until November. The defendant remains in jail, accused of a crime for which the penalty, on conviction, is death. Lesser verdicts could, of course, be brought in. There was a spell-binding quality about last week’s trial. Was it really happening? Were these two young people who are both esteemed highly in their communities really involved in a terrible conflict of criminal justice? What strange fate had led them—who were both seemingly destined for normal, unsensational and reasonably happy lives—^to this shattering crisis, this explosion of the tranquil world they knew? At this stage of the legal proceedings, it would not be in order to comment on the guilt or inno cence of the accused or to speculate on what the verdict should have been or should be. Suffice it to say that, once the charge was made, it is proper—though no matter how har rowing to the parties concerned, their families and friends—that the outcome be determined in the courtroom. The majesty of the law over shadows aU human frailty and, oiice a conflict such as this is joined, the majesty of the law, abetted by a judge and jury committed to all the wisdom and conscience they possess, must take command. And there is this too: the case, whatever the truth of the matter, is a potent, even terrifying, object lesson to young people. This, we might point out to young folks, is what parents are talking about when they say, “Be carelful. Take care of yourself’’—an admo nition that so often is met with spoken or un spoken scorn. But the wisdom of the ages, as this case well proves, lies behind the warning: there could hardly bfe two unlikelier candidates for tragedy than thei accuser and the accused in this case— sensible, intelligent, educated, successful in all endeavors so far as their short lives had run— yet the explosion came, their pleasant world dis integrated. Nearly 300 years ago a poet wrote: “. . . Poore man, what art! A Tennis Ball of Errour, A Ship of Glasse toss’d in a Sea of terrour . . How slippery are thy pathes, how sure thy fall. How art thou Nothing when th’art most of all.” This is not quoted as a specific comment on either of the young people in this case. It is a comment on human nature, on life—a confirma tion of what has been called the “darker under side of life” from which, without constant vigi lance by man, terror and tragedy erupt. Recognition of that truth is the lesson in the trial at Carthage. THEY'RE SAYING Moments of Memory You never know when something unforget table is about to happen to you. It doesn’t have to make history. It doesn’t even, have to make headlines. A little boy romps through a sloping hillside meadow up to his waist in the tall grass. He sees his young mother sitting amid wild flowers and gazing from under the broad brim of her hat across the valley’s churning foliage to misty mountains, beyond. Nothing is said, and nothing visible happens. But half a century later the boy still remembers. And the man stiU treas ures the moment. Riding in a railway car, a traveler sees a young family, father, mother, child, looking with a sort of noncommittal wonder on the strange frontier that, is to be their home. They speak to one another of the new world about them with an accent that bridges oceans to reach back to the “old country.” The traveler feels, the tide of their hope and the imdertow of their doubts. “Whooooopeeeee c a ■// > -I: y .c- Cry I FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL CONCERNED How To Get Along With Editors Long after they have in all likelihood forgotten their first train ride through the semiwilderness he will remember, and cherish the sentiments the memory invokes. Sometimes it is only a high window in a' row of city houses, the one with its blind askew. It may be the nonchalant security in which a great black cat stretches itself for a nap on a front doorstep. It could be the humorous rejoinder with which a bus conductor restores some pas senger’s sense of proportion. It will be hardly noticed at the time. But the impression will endure through the years, unex pectedly enriching some quiet moment when the memory plays pleasant tricks like a genial ma gician. —Christian Science Monitor. ON APATHY “The apathy of the modern voter is the con fusion of the modern reformer.” —Judge Learned Hand The head of the news bureau at I the University of North Carolina, the personable Pete Ivey, who also has a good many years as a work ing newspaperman behind him, undertook recently to give the N. C. Council of Women’s Organiza tions, some advice on how to pre sent their club publicity to news- I paper editors. The advice has been widely re- I printed over the state. Editors were happy to publicize informa- Ition that might help club leaders -not to mention the editors them- 1 selves—in their own-towns. At least one newspaper jumped Ion Mr. Ivey because he had re ferred to the hypothetical editor used in his illustrations as “the I man in the baggy pants.” From personal experience, we’d Isay that Pete is more often right than wrong in this respect. Any body who stuffs his legs under a typewriter table and slipsl in and out of this position 50 times or so a day, often with no time to think of the matter of carefully hoisting pants legs like gentlemen do in the movies and sometimes in real life, too, will affirm that this is no life to foster sharp trouser I creases. Best To Be Pest? The same newspaper that didn’t I like the, “baggy pants” designation also disagreed with the conclusion that persons approaching an edi tor should be considerate in their demands. In effect, the dissent ing newspaper’s suggestion was that persons seeking publicity make themselves so disagreeable and such a pest that finally an editor would give in to their de |mands just to get rid of them. With this point of view, too, we I disagree, believing, with Mr. Ivey, 1 that a vast amount of wasted time, misunderstanding and hurt I felings could be avoided if the public knew more about an edi tor’s problems and how to ap proach him so that news mater ial would get the best possible I treatment Heart of Advice Here is the heart of Mr. Ivey’s I advice to the ladies — and of course it applies every bit as well to men who have to deal with edi- Itors: “Don’t argue with the newspaper editor and try to insist on his printing your club news or printing it ex actly as you have written it. Don’t be insistent. Don’t talk back. “The editor knows his own newspaper needs, and the best thing to do is write the news briefly, accurately, and fully and let him be the judge of whether it’s news and what space it will get. “Study the needs of the newspaper, and find out what best suits the newspapers. “Be the kind of press agent who is so helpful and non demanding that when the editor sees you coming he will greet you with a cordial smile and seem genuinely glad you have brought some thing to the newspaper.” Then came The Chapel Hill iWeekly, picked up Mr. Ivey’s recommendations, approved them and added some more of their own, all of which we commend to the attention of persons bring ing news to The Pilot or any other newspaper. The Weekly’s advice listed sev en good points: 1. Take the publicity or news of the meeting to the ed itor’the next morning, early. Don’t wait. Yours is not the only story he has to prepare the editor makes a sincere effort to put in the paper first the hottest news he has. 7. Don’t ask him to put your story on the front page. If you don’t believe the inside pages, specially of the Week ly, are avidly read, just let us make one little teeny, weeny error on one, and we’ll refer the calls to you. UNHAPPY EDITOR ... The public can help . . . (Nole baggy pants) or get in the paper. You’ll get a better story if your copy is in early. 2. Make certain all names are correct. Give both first and last names, and, in the case of married women, use the husband’s initials or first name. Don’t write only “Miss Jones;” there are hundreds of them. Make Miss Jones happy by giving her first name. 3. Don’t ask the editor to run a story of a forthcoming event or benefit in every is sue of the paper between the time you bring it in and the day of the affair. Buy some advertising—if you want it plugged that often. 4. If you want to promote a cause or benefit, discuss the complete publicity campaign with the editor. He can help you think of possible stories; then, get them to him. 5. Don’t tell the editor if he dosen’t give you a long story, you’ll take it to the other paper. He knows you’ve already been there or are going anyway. 6. Don’t ask the editor when the story will appear. He’ll try to get it in the very next issue. Again, yours is not the only story he has to think about, and although his judgment is c not infallible. News, Not Opinions AH' this advice assumes that the editor is a reasonable and conscientious person. And, strange to say, he or she most usually is. Most news, in most newspapers, gets about the treatment it de serves. And we mean news, not expressions of ideas or opinions. These are often accepted or re jected according to the editor’s particular convictions or policy. If persons fail to get their ideas or opinions into a certain newspaper, they should try an other, because they may then ifind an editor sympathetic to their way of thinking. This is altogether different from news, however. News has its own values, apart from ideas or opinions. And real news, well presented to the editor, always gets printed. In A Nuishell A memorable phrase left over from Democratic Convention week was that used by a Swedish newspaper correspondent during a discussion that appeared on TV. Said he, referring to how the Swedish people felt about Adlai Stevenson after he was defeated by Eisenhower in 1952: “Steven son was the best President the United States never had.” At this stage of the 1956 cam paign, with Stevenson again the Democratic nominee,,- that “never” has a very unpleasant sound, at least from our point of view as a Stevenson rooter. Striking as the phrase is, it has a gloomy turn in this new situa tion of 1956. We’d like to alter it to read: “Adlai Stevenson was the best President the United States did not have 1952-1956 and is the best President the United States could have, 1956- 1960.” Poster Out Again The Pilot’s big color photo graph poster of Adlai Stevenson, featuring his 1952 statement, “We must look forward to great to morrows,” has been brought out of its resting place behind a filing case and is again on display as it was during the 1952 campaign and for some time afterwards. The poster has been used at several occasions siqce 1952—at events held during the visits of Governor Stevenson to the Sand hills and also at the organization meeting of the Moore County Stevenson for President Club. The photo on the poster re mains one of the best ever made of the candidate, we think. It shows a serious face but there is no doubt from the expression that the man knows how to smile and often does—a rare combination and hard to catch in a photograph. Respect For The Law- One of the instructors in the Highway Patrol school says that back when the Patrol was first organized, people were really in fluenced by the sight of an offi cer. For exaimple, he said that when he moved into a small town which had not had patrolmen be fore, people went out and, for the first time, bought state license plates. The patrolmen, in only three months are taking up many col lege-level courses such as Con stitutional law, geography and history. And on top of this, they are also expected to learn to handle a gun and use judo in get ting their man. Inherent Honesty A past president of the Associ ated Credit Bureaus of America said recently that the “inherent honesty of the American public is the prime factor of our high standard of living.” In other words, A. B. Buck- ridge went on to explain, this honesty has resulted in the es tablishment of the credit system, and the credit system has result ed in the high standard of living. Don't Get Alarmed There is no need to get alarmed at the unusual number of shoot ing stars during this season. They are only a part of the annual Perseid showers. Every year about this time, the earth encoun ters large numbers of meteors. Middle Age: Is It Glamorous? Writing in “Look” maga zine, Russell Lynes com ments on a subject of wide interest: middle age. He is the son of Mrs. J. R. Lynes who for many years was hostess at the Carolina Hotel in Pinehurst and who has made some wise and witty comments on life, particular ly its later years, in commu nications to The Pilot. Mr. Lynes’ remarks follow: Now take my generation, or at least those men of m.y generation who are graying'at the temples, flattery, who exude confidence without arrogance, whose charm is hydra- matic and who have got to the age where their features don’t matter any longer so long as they are “interesting.” We have a few advantages over the younger men. If we are lucky we have a little money and a lit tle position and an air, at least, of experience. The most success ful among us are the prototypes of men in today’s most exclusive ads. We wear our beards and our eye patches with an air of gen tility and savoir faire. We are re laxed (outwardly) about our fea tures because we believe in the new longevity statistics, or at least tell ourselves we do. We take heart from the women of our generation whose glamor is persistent—the Marlene Die trichs and Joan Crawfords and Gloria Swansons who go on being beautiful and active and as at tractive as ever. We susnect (and we have very real medical and sociological evidence to back us up) that the middle aged are in fact younger than they used to be by every measure except the cal endar. Or it might be, and this is a disconcerting idea, that adver tisers are merely trying to con vince us that we have glamor. We are, after all, the age group with the fattest bank accounts. Unfortunately, it isn’t just our bank accounts that show a ten dency to swell. There are our heads, for example, and our chil dren’s clothes allowances, and we are at the ripest age of all for The PILOT Published Every Thursday by THE PILOT, Incorporated Southern Pines. North Carolina ’ 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 Katharine Boyd Editor C. Benedict Associate Editor Vance Derby 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 Thomas Mattocks. 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.