Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / March 14, 1957, edition 1 / Page 2
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THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1957 Page TWO ■LOT ‘‘We Want To Make It Sort Of A Package Deal, See” r. ■O' V North Carolina Southern Pmes — “In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We wiU try to keep this a good paper ^e S t^to make a little money for all concerned. Wherever there seems to be arocc JonTo use o^ influence for the public good we will try to do it. And we wiU treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941. Farm Contest Important In This Area _ . - irtpomfi hv imDrovemer The Pilot is proud to be a co-sponsor of the Raleigh News and Observer’s Farm Income Contest, a competition carrying money prizes, open to farm families in 54 counties of eastern North Carolina. This contest comes as a rejuvenating rec ognition of effort on the part of farm families of whatever income classification who are be ing hit by this year’s 20 per cent cut in the acreage of their chief money crop, tobacco. Especially to small farmers, who are hard est pressed economically by the tobacco squeeze on their already reduced little acre age allotments, this contest could mean much. The actual money prizes are only a minor factor in the contest, it seems to us. What counts at this point is that thousands of farm families are, because of the contest, having their attention turned to supplementary in come projects that can save them from finan cial disaster. In the contest, half of each family’s point score will be awarded on the basis of new en terprises, adopted on the farm this year. Thir ty per cent of the score will be given for in creasing income by improvement of old en terprises; and 20 per cent of the points will recognize general. farm and home manage ment. Moore County, an area of small farms and hard-hit tobacco growers, is eminently suit able for entering and making an admirable record in this contest. Almost one-third of this county’s people, live on farms—about 2,500 farms on which the average number of acres in cropland is only 25.6. More than 40 per cent of the farms of Moore County have less than 20 acres in cropland. It can be seen from these figures that what happens to the small farmer in this county during the coming year is of immense impor tance to the whole county economically.- The farm contest of which this newspaper is now a sponsor is not a mere entertainment feature or a gamble for money winnings. It could spark economic developments that will mean better business throughout the county. We urge farmers to enter this contest which was announced in last week’s Pilot and which is described further in today’s paper. Highway Reform Off To A Good Start The unanimity and speed with which the highway commission reorganization bill pass ed would seem to be a clear indication of the great need for the sort of change in this body which the new set-up represents. That change was needed was evidently as apparent to the legislators as it must be to anyone who has come into close contact with the workings of the highway authorities. The only proposal in the bill which came to naught was that urging a ban on political ac tivity by all highway employees. To some it will seem unfortunate that this clause did not go through. There is no department of the state in which political activity has been so rife, nor does there seem to be any depart ment which so lends itself to this sort of thing. It has always been claimed that each commissioner on the 17.-man board has tried to build more roads than any of the other commissioners. This is probably an over-sim plification of this recognized position, and, anyway, the reduction of the board by 10 members should do much to help. But as for a cdmplete ban on politics by employees, it seems evident that no single department should be singled out in such a way. Until the people decide that all state departments be so restricted, the highway department will have to depend for such restraining influence on the leadership it gets. However, the fact that this amendment was introduced and re ceived serious consideration shows the way the wind has blown. Few will deny that there , was need for it. That being the case, it must be hoped that the personnel of this new commission will be carefully selected. The calibre of these seven men can do much to remove the taint of “pol itics” from the highway department. It is to be hoped that Governor Hodges will be able to find, for this body, men who know the road business in the state, but who know it also elsewhere, or have the inclination and educational qualifications to explore the ex citing new things that are being done in this field everywhere. Only so can they do the best possible job, from a technical standpoint, for the state. But, even more important is the need to find men who have, in their past ex perience, kept free from politics—and from “politics”—and would therefore be at least in clined to continue to do so. We would hope that the Governor would go outside his regular entourage; seek new talent; bring into this highly important posi tion new blood and new vision. To do so will surely be the best way, and perhaps the only way, to assure to this state highway program a status of the greatest use and the highest integrity. ‘Goodwill’ Nixon And Darkest Africa It is reported that Vice President Nixon greatly alarmed his guards on his trip to Africa by rushing about in the crowd, shak ing hands. It is a fair guess that he alarmed more than his guards on the spot. By so con spicuously calling attention to the United States, in his role as representative of this na tion at the festivities surrounding the estab lishment of the free land of Ghana, the Vice- President may well have started the ball roll ing towards further and deeper involvement in the affairs of a continent, even more com plicated than those in which we already find ourselves involved up to the ears and over. Nixon’s trip to Africa, like his trip to Hun gary, is a skillful political move to win votes for himself and for the Republican Party. Unquestionably, his actions and words, while among the African peoples, are attracting, and are meant to attract wide attention among the colored races everywhere, not least in the United States. The Negro vote played a powerful role in the last election. It could weU tip the scales in the fight for the Repub lican presidential nomination towards which Nixon is heading. In acting as he ha^ done on this trip, with out care of consequences, Nixon is running true to form. It was back in April, 1954, that he made the famous proposal that, if the French withdrew from Indo-China, United States troops should be sent in. The sugges tion was promptly disclaimed by both the State Department and the President but it It ’ I / ^€J>€PAL FAIR REPRESENTATION IS VITAL. SAYS JONES Making State Government Better Editors' Note; Weimar Jones, editor of The Franklin ]^ress and one of the state's most distinguished newspa permen, is a member of the _ North Carolina Commission on Legislative Representa tion. This challenging article is excerpted from a speech he delivered Friday night to the League of Women Voters. Held at the Civic Club, the meeting aroused much inter est and discussion in which both Democrats and Republi cans took part, in line with the League's non-partisan policy. was then too late to halt the wave of hope Nixon’s words had aroused and the angry re action that followed when this seeming offer of aid was withdrawn. A year later, during the hassle about neutrality—was it “moral” or “immoral,” and so on—Nixon took the oppor tunity of his “goodwill trip” to the leading neutral nation, India, to tell his views and criticize severely its leader’s foreign policy. The New York Times’ India correspondent re ported: “Mr.^ Nixon is regarded with almost public dislike by Indian officials.” There is no doubt that Nixon’s words did much to heighten that dislike and aggravate an al ready serious situation. Nixon has been acclaimed by his supporters for these so-called goodwill tours but perusal of the foreign press gives ample evidence of the suspicion and distrust with which the Vice President is regarded: his flashed-on smile has won him few true friends for this country. As for his standing here, it would seem likely that, by his hand-shaking and back- slapping and his words suggestive of closer ties with darkest Africa, Mr. Nixon may have succeeded in raising hopes and in deeply em broiling his country in the affairs of this com plicated and unhappy land. If this is the case and this nation is now to catch hold of the bear’s tail which Britain has so wisely and, apparently, so thankfully relinquished, the Vice President will have done his country a very ill turn indeed. For Cooks, Diners And Others Publication of a Moore County cook book, announced this week at a meeting of the Moore County Historical Association, is fur- evidence of interest in. this area s way of life—now and in the past. Following on the coimty history—publish ed as p project of the Historical Association— the cook book helps round out the picture of the way people lived by making known one of the basic factors in daily existence: the preparation of food. While all the recipes are not strictly of Moore County origin, many do recall local traditions of cookery. This is of continuing in terest, both as a reminiscent or historical rec ord and as a source of information for the housewife and her eternal problem, the prep aration of three meals a day for her family. Information on cookery formerly—and to some extent still does—passed from mother to daughter and so from generation to gener ation. Sometimes it was written down, some times not. However the information was ac quired, the new Moore County Cook Book is both 8 window on the past and an item of practical daily use in the present. We congratulate the compUets of this col lection and commend it to those who cook and those who dine. And if there be any who neither cook nor eat, let them examine it for its social and historical interest, its charming drawings and photographs and its distin guished typographical make up. Legislative representation. The very words sound dull, complicated, forbidding, don’t they? Well, let’s get away from those polysyllabic Latin derivatives, and speak in plain Anglo-Saxon. When we talk about North Caro lina’s problem of legislative rep resentation, what we really are doing is to ask some questions— questions like these. _ Should our servants in Raleigh play the game by the rules? Should your vote count for three times as much as mine, or a third as much, or just the BSTITC? What is right and fair and honest? . ' Finally, if we are going to change the rules, how can we make them fair and just—and clear and simple? On this matter of legislative representation, those are questions that face the 1957 Gen eral Assembly—the only impor tant questions. Rights Of Citizens Now let me recite a few facts about legislative representation that is, about your right to a say-so as to what laws we shall have; as to what we shall be taxed for, and how much; as to what proportion of our tax money shall go for our children s schooling, etc., Fact No. I: The Constitution of North Carolina provides for a General Assembly—or legisla ture, as it is more commonly call^—of two chambers. It says that 100 members of the lower house shall represent the county units; that is, that each county, no matter how small, shall have one member. Complex Formula But it adds that the^ House, to a lesser extent, shall Represent population, too; that is, that 20 of the total of 120 representatives in the House, shall be distributed among the bigger counties ac cording to population. Then it sets forth a rather complex for mula for the distribution of those 20. The method of alloting the 50 members of the upper chamber is simple. The Constitution says each senator shall represent, as nenrly as possible, the same number of people, period. Pact No. 2. The Constitution also says the General Assembly “shall”—not “may” or “should,” but “shall”—^reapportion the ex tra 20 House seats given the big ger counties and redistribute the 50 Senate seats, after each de cennial census, in line with changes in population. Plain Mandate Fact No. 3. This plain mandate of the Constitution was ignored by the General Assembly of 1931; it was ignored in 1933; it was ig nored in 1935; it was ignored in 1937; and it was ignored in 1939. After 20 years, the constitution was obeyed in 1941. But once again in this decade, it has been ignored—in 1951, in 1953, and in 1955. Fact No. 4. The census of 1950 showed marked shifts in popula tion since the reallotment of leg islators in 1941. That fact, plus the failure of the last three Gen eral Assemblies to heed the Con stitution, has led to some weird results. Two contrasting figures illustrate the point: Some Comparisons One group of seven senatorial districts contain only one-sev enth of the population of the state. But those districts elect one-fourth Of the senators. Another group of seven dis tricts contain one-fourth the state’s population. But they elect only one-seventh of the senators. One-seventh Of the people elect one-fourth of the senators; one- fourth elect only one-seventh. Put in terms of population, ap proximately 650,000 people, through their senators, can out vote nearly a million—and by a margin of almost 2 to 1. Now when 650,000 people can out-vote 1,000,000 by two to one, we have the spectacle of one vote in one district out-counting three in another. Old Truth And this in the legislative chamber the Constitution says shall represent population alone! Remember, too, this is true not just for this General Assembly; it was true in 1951 and 1953 and 1955—and bids fair to be true in 1959 and 1961. Now we come to Fact No. 5, perhaps the most significant of all. I’m going to state it in the form of a question. Have you seen, in any North Carolina newspaper, a letter to the editor protesting against this situation? Among all our four million people, it seems, not one man or woman has become angry enough at this repeated flouting cf the state’s Constitution, angry enough at the injustice of having one vote out-count three, angry enough at having his own ballot reduced to a third of a vote—not one has become angry enough to write a letter to the newspaper. Maybe these things don’t mat- Maybe it doesn’t matter that our legislators refuse to play the game by the rules. But how can we have respect for law when the men who make the laws you end I must obey, themselves re fuse to obey the basic law, the Constitution? Unimportant War? Maybe it doesn’t matter that one man, if he happens to live in a “right” senatorial district, can outvote three who happen to live in a “wrong” district. But if this is unimportant, then we fought a war, 175 years ago, about some thing unimportant. For the only difference between taxation without representation and tax ation without fair and honest representation is a difference of degree. And maybe it doesn’t matter that the average citizen makes no complaint about these things. Maybe-ibut you and I know bet ter. This thing is fundamental. Be cause you and I know we can have a government of laws only so long as we have respect for law. And we can have respect for law only so long as we have • government that is really and honestly representative. And we can have freedom only so long as we make representative governr ment work. The second half of Mr. Jones' talk—^in which he fells what the average cifeen can do about the situation outlined above—^wRl appeM on this page next week. It is of interest that representa tives of the State League of Women Voters will testify for reapportionment and re districting at a General As-^ sembly committee meeting, in Raleigh. Tuesday of next week at 9 a. m. . I Grains of Sand Drinking Parly It’s o.k. It’s only robins. And good town water^ Bath water, of course, but that doesn’t stop them. ^ First they drink; then they get in and bathe, then, they drink some more. Once there were ten around the rim of the bird bath, and one plumb in the middle, yammering at all the others. It looked as if they were, per haps, tanking up for a long jour- ^ ney, these robins. There was a huge flock of them in the pines over the St. Francis bird bath; the air was loud with their twit tering gossip. Or maybe it was all a tense discussion of the trip to come. And there was a con tinuous “standing room only” at the watering place. One even stood on St. Francis’s head, till he got shoved off by another. They swo.oped down, elbowed their way in, and drank and drank. Pilot Birdman, ahoy! Is this a preliminary to the flock taking off? Or had they been feeding on something dry and salty? Or what? The Dear N. C. The town advertising cam- ^ paign, as outlined elsewhere in today’s Pilot, has brought very good results—^much interest ex pressed by a host of people writ ing for information about South- rn Pines. One of the most interested and certainly one of the most recipro cally informative of these replies came addressed to the City Clerk from Homer B. Outland of Hors- ham. Pa., who typed a missive as follows: “Gentlemen: “Please send booklet of the dear N. C. and any map that cov ers Woodland, the Uraha Swamp, Potescasi Creek, Creekville, Manola, Eagletown. and oblige. I was born in Woodland, Northampton Co. and came up » here 8th mo. 1898 and finished school in 2d Mo, 1900 and now on The Retired List of the United States Navy Yard and have mo tored down there several times and spending much time in writ ing a book OUTLAND as my forefathers came from Amster dam, Holland in 1732 and bought property at auction as was sold by King George II and M by Auctioneer to the highest bid der at Edenton, N. C. (then Ed- enton. Province of Carolina) 6th Mo. 1739. The property was knocked off to you and pointed his gavel to the bidder, come up and make settlement of 436 pounds ($1,910.00) for property along the Roanoke River begin at a post about 9 miles S. W. of Jackson and down the River forj|| about 18 miles to a post and East for 14 miles and 18 miles to a post and back to post no 1 as had been surveyed. Etc. “Do you want any further in formation? Please say so in send ing me any map or any informa tion. To “Homer B. Outland 235 Broadway Ave. Horsham, Pa. (Signed) HOMER” Mr. Outland ought to get to gether with Inglis Fletcher. Sounds as if there could be an other novel about coastal Caro lina in the making. First American Censorship Fight The first Amerifcan fight against censorship occurred when James Franklin, older brother of the famous Benjamin, defied regulations with an edi torial critical of the government, in his New England Courant. James was arrested and forbid den to engage in the publishing business. Benjamin assumed edi torship of the Courant. John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, was arrested in 1733 lor printing an attack upon the policies of New York’s governor, Crosby. He was brought to trial in 1735, and —in a precedent-shattering ju^ decision—was acquitted of vio lating the libel law. The law was not repealed but a precedent for Freedom of the Press was ir revocably established. Following the American Revo lution, censorship of the press was attempted but once. In 1789, the Federalist Party, then in con trol of Congress, passed the “Alien and Sedition Laws. These laws attempted to prevent publication of material critical of the government. The laws were repealed in 1801. Today, Freedom of the Press is taken more or less for grant ed hi English-speaking countries. Freedom of the Press is enjoyed to a lesser degree in parts of Western Europe and South America. But most of the world still lives in the darkness that comes from rigidly-censored, government controlled dissemin ation of news and comment. The PILOT _ ——— 1 Published Every Thursday by THE PILOT. Incorporated Southern Pines, North Carolina ig41_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 Businesdl 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 Mraiber National Editorial Assn, and N. C. Press Assn.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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March 14, 1957, edition 1
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