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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1958- Page TWO “Fe! Fi! Fo! Fum! I SmeU The Blood Of A Congressman’^ Southern Pines North Carolina “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. Wherever there seems to be an occasion to use our influence for the public good we will try to do it. And we will treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941. Tufts On Resort Cooperation In May of 1948 a meeting was held in Southern Pines to discuss the resort business and, as principal speaker, they chose a man who knew his topic well: Richard S. Tufts, president of Pinehurst, Incorporated. Mr. Tufts spoke primarily on the need to coordinate the entertainment efforts of the two resort towns, and, as introduction to his words, he remarked that he had made just about the same speech, with the same plea, in 1929. “I didn’t get very far then,” he said, “and probably I won’t now either, but I’m go ing to keep on trying. This is something I be lieve in.” There were two points the speaker empha sized most forcefully: the need to lengthen the season, and to set up a joint committee to plan an entertainment program for the entire area, taking special care that there should be no conflicting dates. But what Richard Tufts stressed most of all was the need for' true cooperation by both towns in each other’s projects. This ideal has never been approached; in fact, it has hardly been attempted, yet it is as sensible as when Mr. Tufts voiced i^ ten years ago, and almost twenty years before that. The season has been lengthened by the construction of new air- conditioned accommodations for tourists and, in Pinehurst, by keeping the hotels open for conventions, but, as far as we know, there is little coordination of plans for entertainment. This is a two-way affair, necessitating good will and good work on both sides. Given those two essentials and the basic good sense of this plan, as presented by an expert in the field, it’s a foregone conclusion that its results would be good. Like Mr. Tufts, we believe in it. Why Not Raise Junk Mail Rate First ? One of the town’s thoughtful citizens set our phone to buzzing a few d.ays ago with an in quiry in which we could do nought but heart ily join: instead of raising first class mail post age, as proposed, from three cents to five cents,' wby not ease the burden of the post office department by placing higher rates on “junk” mail—the mountains of advertising and other ma+erial that comes unsolicited to everybody all the time? Well, '.vhy not? There may be a reason, but we car see nothing but added peace, happi ness and prosperity ahead, were this flood of ■material cut down. We would of course, ad vocate an exception for newspapers which travel under the same class of mail. And we think such an exception is justified, as news papers a-e items that have been duly ordered and paid for by subscribers. What we’d like to keep out of the mailbox is all the stuff that we didn’t ask for, don’t want and are then forced to dispose of. The plea for lightening the burden of both the postman and the householder was ruc- cintly put by Wallace Irwin in his guest Grains of Sand column on this page a couple of weeks ago: “Give the morning mail a strict treatment for girth control. Then, maybe, if you had written asking about something you really want to buy, or know about, you’d get something sounding like an answer.” The indignant citizen on the telephone says he and his wife have gotten as many as 10 copies of the same piece of advertising mat ter—sent to them as individuals and as a couple, to their present and former addresses in town. For this, we note sadly, trees are crashing to the ground in the north woods to provide pulp for paper that is thrown away daily in millions of homes. Not much sense in that, so far as we can see, nor in charging people more for the mail they want to receive. All Right, It’s Cold — But / The twenty-second of Decem.ber is the shortest day and the longp.''t night of the year, says the Almanac. We always find it hard to believe. There’s the whole winter stretching ahead. Colder and colder, day by day, it grows. The dark seems to come just as early: You huddle around the fire and pile the fatwood on; the thick curly smoke puffs up the chimney. The sun drops quickly behind the pines, quicker and quicker, you’d say. Winter, never-ending winter, keeps on lengthening out. Then suddenly one evening. . . well! The sunlight’s wavering across the grass, sending the long shadows slanting. . . still shining! What thne is it? After six; well after six. You stand stockstill. Has anybody noticed? ■ A tcwhee swoops from a bush and swings up to the dogwood branch. It’s just as cold as ever, colder maybe: only 10 above, they say, this morning, but he sits there as the chill wind ruffles his feathers, bravely facing the sun. His glossy red-brown breast catches the red gleam of the light, his white bars shine. ,He puffs his chest. “Towhee! Chewink!” he shouts. Day lasts lor.ger, night is shorter: spring ahead! Just the same it’s too cold to stay up there on that bare branch. He dives back into the thicket. You follow suit but, as you tuck in, too, in your thicket by the fire, you have that good, warm, feeling:, the days are starting to grow longer: spring ahead! Slow To Wake Up The newspapers, the magazines, and the ra dio are full, these days, of stories about the troubles of the young people and the schools. The way they go on, you’d think this was something new. Actually, drastic warnings of this situation have been issued again and again for a good many years. It is humiliating that it should have taken the Russians to bring the nation to its senses. The reason for the almost complete apathy of people towards this situation can be traced, probably, to several factors of which three successive wars would certainly be one. But much of it, we submit, comes from the mis taken theory, widely spread by som,e psychi atrists and educators, that children must, at all costs, be happy. Mistakenly interpreted by parents in general, it evolved into the con fused theory that the way to make the child happy is not to have him do anything that makes him unhappy. Not even if, by being a little unhappy now, he might end up a better, more intelligent, and far happier fellow later on. A teacher in a school built to hold 700 stu dents and now crowded with almost twice that many writes to the Christian Science Monitor how she feels about all this. Here is what she says: “I like these youngsters. They are alive, alert, interesting. . . the problem is not one of lack Of discipline, it is the resistance to hard work. “Most of these youngsters are in the hard grip of a mental concept impressed by the ‘group.’ They take orders froml the ‘group’ and not from their teachers, preachers, or pa rents. The concept is that life is for fxm, pleasure, going steady with its mirage of se curity, enjoying one’s self in school while chatting away hours which should be for mas tery of work. “Our teachers are dismayed by the students’ almost pathological concern with boy-girl re lationships, the emptiness of their TV watch- Ik A % WHAT IMPRESSION DOES OURS MAKE? Bias Against Small Towns Noted Whether we who live in small towns know it or like it, millions of Americans hate—or think they hate—small town life. In a pro vocative editorial, “The Publish ers’ Auxiliary,” a trade paper designed primarily for non-daily editors and publishers, points out the impact such a prejudice can have on a community or a news paper. The editorial, which is of general interest to small-town residents, follows: We'think it is time that the smaller communities of America face up to the fact that to many thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans, small town living is a fate comparable to sleeping sickness. They Don't Know These Americans don’t read your newspapers. They don’t knov/ of the increase in cultural activities in your small towns. They know only what has been the classic concept of the smaller community since the 1920’s and the novels of Sinclair Lewis. For example, in a recent speech Dr. Wallace S. Sayre, professor of public administra tion at Columbia University, said that small town society is “par ochial, introverted, rigid, dull, complacent and somewhat mon olithic in its decision-making.” True or not, the statement was made and it is thought, at lea'st, by millions of other Americans who want no part of small town hying. How Important? How important is this feeling that the small town is the stalk ing ground of the dull and in spired, the hick and the rube, the lout and the unskilled? To our way of thinking it is quite important. For among the millions of Americans who have a bias against small towns are many decision makers. . . people who decide not to locate their plant in your town and pick a nearby large community; young people of talent who do not want to work in, and enrich, your community and many people in control of national advertising accounts who are dazzled at the prospects of color pages in the big magazines and network tele vision shows and want no part of the advertising service offered by the community newspapers of America. If your newspaper and com munity can survive without out side help, then read no 'more. You have no problem. But if your town wishes to at tract outside industry and out side labor and if your paper wants national advertising, this may be the time to adjust your sights. We think too many smaller community presentations — both for industrial newcomers and by hometown papers for national advertising—are a trifle on the unprofessional level. Sell your town and your paper on its merits. But remember, that while peace and quiet may be the reasons you like your com munity, for the urban American it may not be enough. You Can Help If you think your community is not a “parochial, introverted, rigid, dull, complacent” place to live, and that your paper is a professionally edited and pro duced publication, teU your pros pects right away—you may sweep away an objection, a silent one, perhaps, but a deep rooted one in the thinking of many Ameri cans, people whose decisions can help you prosper. Crains of Sand He Won't Forget Carlton Smith of West End went into the Chamber of Com merce office to byy license tags for a car and a truck the other day. The car tag number he drew was “345.” Then he bought his truck license. The number? “678.” We’ll bet Mr. Smith doesn’t for get his license numbers. Are You 'Bite Prone'? You can’t say a mean thing about a dog and get away with it, if what you say comes to the attention of the Gaines Dog Re search Center which boasts a Park Avenue address in New York City. The GDRC is one of our most faithful correspondents (one-way, that is: we’ve never written them but it’s a slow week when some thing doesn’t come to us from them). When we read about Postmas ter General Summerfield cutting off mail delivery to homes with biting dogs, we couldn’t wait to see what GDRC had to say about THAT. So pretty soon in came an “immediate release” news bulletin with even a nice head line already written for us: THINKS P. O. STATISTICS REFLECT UNFAIRLY ON DOG So guess what the GDRC has figured out: Some persons, it’s stated, are •■‘bite prone,” just like some per sons are known to be “accident prone”—^meaning that 6,000 bites (one to every 20 mailmen) cited by the postmaster general im- doubtedly “include cases of two or more bites” on the same letter carrier, “but not necessarily by the same dog,” quickly adds the GDRC. So what they are saying is that if letter carriers get bitten, it’s their own fault, at least so far as some of them are concerned. The postmaster general, con cludes the GDRC report, is “en tirely unfair to the overwhelm ing majority of dogs.” Wish that somebody were as busy sending out timely releases in defense of people as the GDRC is about dogs. • \ Johnny’s Father Hasn’t The Time To Read ing, the lack of religious training or its influ ence on their daily behavior, the fuzziness of their thinking and values concerning state, national, and international affairs, the lack of real life goals beside gettig a big car, find-, ing a soft job with pensions and security, and getting married, with four children as the minimum.” The teacher continues: “Then too, there is the problem of avoiding controversy in our conformist society. . . we have freedomi of speech and assembly but hardly anyone uses it. I wonder if many of these proposals to improve education by spending billions are going to change the situation. I have a feeling that unless there are fundamental changes in attitudes, less 'worship of pleasure, personal satisfaction, material security ... we will not improve much in the next few years, so cru cial to our survival.” All this sounds much like the conversations of parents and teachers in these parts. We submit these are topics that should have been discussed long ago. We are not only late in fostering the study of science, about which there has been such a hullabaloo, we are late all down the line. Now that the realization of this tragic error has come, with it must come the realization, also, that no quick change is possible. Children who have been accustomed to think that their ease and happiness is about all that matters cannot change that viewpoint over night; nor can the parents who failed to give them the guidance so sorely needed. Yet somehow a start must be made in build ing up self-discipline and perseverance, for getfulness of self and an understanding of true values . . . instead of “popularity” and “security” and “going steady.” Without such fundamentals of character, the youth of the land can never come to its rightful maturity as individuals capable of carrying their re sponsibilities in a world that calls for the best they have in them. (From The Smiihfield Herald) Why Johnny’s father doesn’t read may be the truly basic ques tion that needs more probing than why Johnny can’t read. There have been surveys galore showing that the United States is not a book-reading nation. And now Jonathan Daniels tells a group of Rotarians that we don’t even read magazines. North Car olina, he says, has 2.6 per cent of U.S. population but only 1.3 per cent of magazine readership. Why don’t more of us read books and magazines? Or why don’t we read more than we do? It has been popular in recent years to brand television as the culprit that kills the reading hab it or prevents the habit from ever developing. Television under standably is suspect, but maybe television deserves acquittal after all. Gmlty Culprit The guilty culprit may well be meetings—community meetings. There must be 57 varieties of them in Smithfield alone. At one community meeting in Smithfield the other night, the •chairman explained why several persons who were supposed to at tend the meeting couldn’t attend. They had to attend other meet ings. Before this particular meet ing adjourned, one man showed up late. He had hurried over The Public Speaking Clinic Not At Addor, Now At St. Joseph's To the Editor: The Pinebluff Maternity Wel fare Committee was pleased and grateful to find its work'hiention- ed most generously in last week’s Pilot. To bring this kind Com ment up to date the statement about clinic service should be al tered. In October, 1956, the County Health Officer closed the monthly Addor clinic, which for twenty years had been staffed by Public Health Nurses, with Dr. Francis L. Owens as attending physici^, serving a large rural community in this corner of the county. At first this seemed a serious blow. The Aberdeen clinic would be available for health cards, im munization shots, and such serv ices as the Public Health Nuree could render, but the attending Health Officer could not prescribe for patients, many of whom would be unable to afford visits to a pri vate physician. However, on consultation with Dr. Owens, we found that a week ly clinic was just opening at St. Joseph Hospital, which would be served by Dr. Richard J. Dough erty, assisted by a Sister of the Hospital staff. To this clinic we have been transporting patients ever since it opened. Many advantages have resulted from the change—the weekly in stead of monthly consultations, the hospital facilities immediately available for every kind of exam ination and treatment, consulta tion on surgical cases with Dr. Owens, and the atmosphere of un selfish service which pervades the medical and nursing staffs of St. Joseph Hospital. Yours very sincerely, MARION C. MacNEILLE, Chairman, Pinebluff Ma ternity Welfare Committee from another meeting as soon as he had opportunity. There was another community meeting the next night. And once again absences were due to con flict of meetings. It’s the same story just about every night. And there appears to be no end to the string of com munity meetings. Indeed the strings without end are multiply ing. There may be uncivic souls among us that escape to another world night after night through television. And maybe some of these souls used to find outlets through books, or even magazines. Meet or Read But take a look at our civic- minded residents—the community leaders and those who respond to leadership’s appeal for help in civic enterprise. They don’t read, certainly not as much as they need to read or perhaps would like to read—for the obvious rea son that one cannot read and meet at the same time. And one had rather meet than read, or feels that the obligation to meet has priority over the obligation or desire to read. Just where a readerless leader ship will lead us is not quite clear. Since reading is the fountainhead of ideas; it seems that a commun ity led by meeters rather than readers could in time find Its stream of ideas as dry as a desert. And there would be nothing at all to bring up at meetings. Chain Reaction Perish the thought! And pray that Johnny’s father will wake up before any such calamity. If Johnny’s father starts reading again, he may even set in motion a chain reaction that will blast away the causes of Johnny’s ina bility to read. Gene Is Right A note from Gene Stevens, so journing in Florida, reminds us that a reviewer in The Pilot’s ‘"Some Looks At Books” column erred in noting that Muriel Jer- nigan, author of “The Two Lives of An-Marie,” and her husband “are now residents of Raleigh.” Paul Jernigan, her husband, died several years ago in Florida. The Jernigans did, as Gene re minds us, live in Southern Pines for some years, on Ridge St, across from the Episcopal Church. We recall Paul Jernigan as wearing white shorts in warm weather—a much more daring innovation in male dress then than it is now. He was, as we re call, active in charitable drives and other civic work. Of Time and Mars— Also Augustus It seems the Roman Em'beror Augustus, who was a Christian, who lived when there were no watches, used to tell time by how long it took him to read cer tain passages in the Scriptures. Only thing was: he’d fall asleep reading occasionally and then he’d be mixed up about the time for days and days. Maybe in times ahead we’ll envy Augustus. His confusion won’t be anything to the day when the world begins to get palsy with Mars and some of those other places. Just how do you synchronize with these folks when it’s 10 a. m., Jan. 30, 1958, here and 5:30 a. m., Oct. 12, 3642 up there? (Not according to GRAINS, folks. W;e wouldn’t touch those figures with a ten-foot diameter stopwatch. They’re the Christian Science Monitor’s calculations, who, being both a Christian and a scientist, or anyway Scientist, must speak with definite author-. ity.) 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 Rales: One Year $4. 6 mos. $2: 3 mos. tl Entered at the Postoffice at South ern Pines, N. C., as second class mail matter Member National Editorial Assn, and N. C. Press Assn.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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Feb. 13, 1958, edition 1
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