Page TWO
THURSDAY. MAY 1. 1958
“I’m Stuck—It Just Ain’t In The Cards To Win”
ILOT
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.
A Town - Supported Public Library
Directors of the Southern Pines Library As
sociation have decided to put before the town
council the request that the town take over
the institution and operate it as a public li
brary. .
The reason for this request is simple: the
library can’t make a go of it financially un
der the present system.
This is no particular adverse .reflection on
the people of Southern Pines. Few libraries
anywhere, unless heavily endowed, can exist,
thrive and grow on private funds alone. Pub
lic ownership and operation, with all taxpay
ers sharing the cost, is a logical method of
operation.
Support of the library has devolved on a
relatively small group of people. It is too
much to ask that they continue to attempt to
keep the library going indefinitely for the use
of hundreds of other readers who contribute
little or nothing to its cost. That is too pre
carious a method for both the library and the
public. More important, it results in prevent
ing the library from fulfilling its potentialities
in the community.
While the library has shown a steady rise
in book circulation, it has steadily had to cur
tail book purchases because of lack of funds.
It is a situation of more demand and less
supply. This obviously‘can’t continue without
disaster for the library or an intolerable bur
den on its Association members.
Just what public ownership would mean as
to taxes, we don’t know. We are given to un
derstand that it would not impose any great
increase in the rate. We presume all this will
be brought out when the request for assump
tion of public ownership is made to'the coun
cil.
The library directors have acted wisely and
for the best interest of the institution in mak
ing their decision. We trust that the council
will also see the wisdom of the plan and will
welcome the responsibility to rescue and
maintain this valuable public service.
Mental Health Group Needs Support
During this nation-wide Mental Health
Week, The Pilot recognizes the activities of
the Moore Cotmty Mental Health Association
and urges support of its current membership
campaign.
The Moore County group is aligned with
the National Association for Mental Health,
Inc., which has brought the fight against men
tal illness to nation-wide attention in recent
years.
The National Association has brought home
to the American people the fact that “mental
illness remains the nation’s number one
health problem,” with 750,000 mentally ill
persons hospitalized and 16,000,000 Americans
suffering from some other form of mental dis
order.
Local mental health associations, such as the
one now conducting its fund campaign in
Moore County, form the key to progress in
efforts for mental health. A local association
provides a reliable source of information and
assistance for the troubled. Here, organization
and support have not yet reached the stage
wjiere operation of a counseling clinic—the
long-range goal of the local group—is pos
sible, but through the local association al
ready hundreds of persons in Parent-Teacher
and other groups have been given a better un
derstanding of the importance of mental
health and of some of the situations involved
in or causing mental illness.
The physicians and laymen who are giv
ing their time and efforts in the cause of men
tal health in Moore County deserve the ap
preciation of all our people. Any one interest-
' ed in membership in the Association or in
supporting its work should communicate with
the campaign chairman, James S. Baird at P.
O. Box 145, Southern Pines.
Humane Slaughter Law Should Pass
Adding its voice to the many that have been
raised in recent weeks on behalf of humane
slaughter legislation before Congress, The
Pilot quotes herewith from an editorial in.
The New York Times which succinctly sums
up the purpose and the status of this legisla
tion:
“If you have beef, pork or lamb for dinner
today you may be interested to know that the
animal fromi which it comes was very prob
ably slaughtered in a process so revoltingly
brutal as to nauseate you if you stopped to
think about it. :
“There is no good reason why the American
people should put up with the kind of need
less cruelty practiced in most—though not all
—of oxm slaughterhouses. It is a hopeful sign
that, in reporting a moderate humane-slaugh
ter bill, the House Committee on Agriculture
noted that, ‘the volume of mail ... on this
subject is the largest the committee has ever
received on any single matter.’
“This measure (H. R. 8308) recently passed
the House. It is admittedly a compromise; but
it does establish for the first time as national
policy that livestock should be slaughtered
only by the ‘most humane practicable meth
ods.’ It requires the Secretary of Agriculture
to determine such methods, and it provides
that the Federal Government shall purchase
meat only from! packers who use such irieth-
ods. This kind of pressure should eventually
force the entire industry to abandon present
cruel practices.
“The House bill is now awaiting action in
the Senate Coiiimittee on Agriculture, of
which Mr. Ellender of Louisiana is chairman.
Alternative measures to provide for addition
al ‘study’ of the situation are merely devices
for delay and are entirely unsatisfactory. The
humane slaughter legislation ought to be re
ported and passed as is. And after that, an-
'other mild bill (S. 2489) providing for humane
trapping deserves equally favorable consider
ation, to put an end to the unspeakable agon
ies suffered by millions of fur-bearers every
year in the merciless jaws of the steel trap.”
The treatment accorded animals is said to
be an index of civilization.
Can the United States be content to reifiain
on a barbaric level in this respect?
The Highway Meeting And Local Needs
L^st week’s English Division highway
meeting at the headquarters building in Aber
deen was an interesting aspect of North Car
olina’s new deal in highway administration—
and we must say we like this out-in-the-open,
question-and-answer method of doing busL
ness.
Certainly the meeting brought to attention,
through press reports on the session, more in
formation about proposed highway work and
highway problems than has ever been public
ly aired before.
This is not to imply that highway folks pre
viously have been secretive, as we have found
them always cooperative in explaining projects
or giving out information. We simply mean
that such sessions as the one held last week,
when county and town officials from four
counties were present, with the press invited,
bring out and put before the public a greater
amount of information about road matters
than has been the custom heretofore.
We got from the meeting a much
clearer idea of the magnitude of the tasks
faced by the highway folks. The necessity for
them to evaluate requests and assign priori
ties was amply apparent. And we believe that
the current highway administration is sincere
ly trying to do road work on the basis of es
tablished need.
• * •
So far as the two matters brought before
the meeting by Mayor W. E. Blue of Southern
Pines, The Pilot goes on record as according
these requests our heartiest support.
Something should be done in the cause of
both safety and sightliness at the Morganton
Road-Broad Street-Old No. 1 highway inter
section at the Shaw House corner. And the
paving of West Pennsylvania Avenue Exten
sion, running northwest from West Southern
Pines, is an improvement long overdue.
Town officials have received a number of
complaints about the Shaw House comer sit
uation, where two streets, S. W. Broad Street
and Morganton Road, enter the old highway
on a curve, with highway traffic into South
ern Pines having to turn left into Broad St.
across a north-bound lane of traffic and, inSi-
mediately thereafter, across the Morganton
Road intersection.
Removal of No. 1 highway through traffic
to the new parkway has alleviated the situa
tion somewhat, but traffic on the old highway
remains heavy and often fast.
Coming into the intersection from the west
on Morganton Road, there is poor visibility in
either direction, creating another dangerous
situation.
So far as the sightliness of this intersection
is concerned, every effort should be made to
make the area of the old Shaw House—one Of
the town’s most interesting attractions for vis
itors—as good looking as possible. The inter
section is also one of the main entrances into
to^n from the South, as the directional sign
at the southern entrance of the parkway
sends Southern Pines traffic into town by
this route.
Beautification of the area and a safer, niore
efficient traffic control method at the inter
section could and should go hand in hand.
Carrying out of any such plans appears to
depend on the cooperation of nearby property
owners—a cooperation which, it is hoped, will
be forthcoming in the public interest.
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BETTER NOT RUSH CAREER DECISIONS
Liberal Arts Education Defended
(From "Belter Schools," a
nationally circulated publica
tion devoted to the interests
of education.)
As the high school graduate
and his parents cope with the col
lege decision, the career question
usually arises, and it is reason
able that it should. But career
considerations are of limited rel
evance in choosing a college, and
the limits should be respected.
Career considerations should not
be ruled out, but they should not
be controlling.
Many parents fear that
youngsters delay too long in set
tling on the one thing that they
wish to do. But the opposite er
ror is at least as common, per
haps more common: they close
too many doors too soon, and fail
to keep open a sufficiently wide
range of possibilities. Most young
people have potentialities in
more than one direction. No one
has the wisdom to know precise
ly which of these potentialities
should be encouraged and which
left uncultivated; no one is wise
enough to say that some of the
doors open to the young person
should be closed at this early
stage of his career. The great
strategy with young people is to
keep their development suffi
ciently broad so that when they
become mature enough to make
a choice, it may be a choice
among many significant possibil
ities.
Full Range
This is not to say that it is
wrong to make career decisions
early. Many distinguished and
creative men have made early de
cisions. It is simply to say that
indecisiveness is not to be de
plored. The young person has the
time and opportunity, of which
he will have little later on, to
scan the full range of human ac
tivity, review his talents, and
come up with a variety of
choices.
One of the great arguments for
a liberal arts education is that it
enables the young man or woman
to move in any of a great variety
of directions. Parents bent on a
vocational course for their boy or
girl are apt to think of a liberal
education as an experience that
fills the youngster with ornamen
tal but useless cultivation—ad
mirable, no doubt, but a waste of
time. Nothing could be wider of
the mark.
Basic Fields
A liberal arts education en
ables the young man or wohian to
range widely over the fundamen
tal fields of knowledge. These
fields are basic to all effective
use of the mind, and must pre
cede all sound professional edu
cation. These are the fields that
equip a man not only to be a
more intelligent wage earner but
a more valuable member of the
commimity. They are the fields
that aid a man to understand
hipiself, to comprehend the
world around him, and to be wor
thy of the responsibilities democ-^
racy thrusts upon him.
Every young person should ex
pose himself to as much of the
liberal arts as is possible within
his limitations of time and
money. If he concentrates nar
rowly in his vocational specialty,
he may be slightly more market
able in the first year of his work
ing life, but this is by no means
certain. In any case, the proper
role of college is not to prepare
him for the first year of his work
ing life. It is to prepare him for
an adult lifetime.
More Important
Job skills will be only a part
of the equipment which he will
need for that voyage. And any
job skills he acquires in college
may be out of date by the time
his career is in full swing. Much
more important will be his cap
acity to use his mind effectively,
his xmderstanding of himself and
of human relationships, his com
prehension of his heritage and
the world he lives in.
The more able the young per
son, the more insistent he should
be upon the liberal arts ingredi
ent in his education. The fact
that he will go on to advanced
work in a special field is added
reason to receive a broad expos
ure to the basic fields of know
ledge.
In the transition from high
school to college most young peo
ple are ready to take a long step
in , the process of growing up.
They are prepared to put behind
them a whole world of adoles
cent fads and fancies and to as
sume a more adult role. They ar
rive at college ready to adopt
new attitudes, new values, new
ways of looking at the world.
Such a time of rapid growth is
immensely important in the life
history of the individual. 'The
youngster may take great strides
toward maturity in a short space
of time. He may also stumble and
take some rather bad falls. If he
is emotionally immature or at the
mercy of impulses and traits
which he cannot control, it may
be important that he be assisted
through this period by friendly
hands (not necessarily those of
his parents).
Under Own Power
But under normal circum
stances, parents will not wish to
interfere with this process of
growth. Every intervention by
them is an invitation to return to
an earlier and more dependent
role, a reinvocation of the web
that the youngster should have
broken out of. To the extent that
parental pressures are successful,
growth will be minimized. If the
youngster is to move to a new
level of maturity,, it must be un
der his own power.
Going in the Not-Raising-Hog Business
(From The Tar Heel Banker)
Sometimes it takes a bit of hu
mor to comprehend how silly
we’re being in our attempts to
solve our problems. Here’s a let
ter written by an Arizona farmer
to his U. S. Senator regarding a
part of the government’s farm
program:
“Dear Mr. Senator: My,friend
Bordeaux over in Pima County
received a $1,000 check from the
The Public
Speaking
Dogvvoods Inspire Verses
To the Editor:
Maybe I can share “The Public
Speaking” in writing this verse
about our gorgeous dogwood scen
ery, and in this way I answer the
request of friends for the follow
ing poem:
MOONLIGHT MAGIC
The dogwood in the moonlight
Is such a lovely sight
In Southern Pines it seems to me
’Tis God’s most wondrous
might;
There’s nowhere else that I can
find
His handiwork so free and kind.
He hangs this lace of snowy white
For everyone to see and know
He lives and loves' above the
night.
This Dogwood pattern, all
aglow!
MRS. DAN R. McNEILL
Southern Pines.
Government this year for not
raising hogs. So I am going into
the not-raising-hog business next
year. What I want to know is, in
your opinion, what is the best
kind of farm not to raise hogs on
and the best kind of hogs not to
raise? I would prefer not to raise
razorbacks, but, if that is not a
good breed not to raise, I will just
as gladly not raise any Berkshires
or Durocs.
“The hardest work in this busi
ness is going to be in keeping an
inventory of how many hogs I
haven’t raised. My friend Bor
deaux is very joyful about the fu
ture of this business. He has been
raising hogs for more than 20
years and the best he ever made
was $400 until this year, when he
got $1,000 for not raising hogs.
If I can get $1,000 for not raising
50 hogs then I will get $2,000 for
not raising 100 hogs.
“I plan to operate on a small
scale at first, holding myself down
to about 4,000 hogs, which means
I will have $80,000. Now, anoth
er thing: These hogs I will raise
will not eat 100,000 bushels of
corn. I understand that you also
pay farmers for not raising com.
So will you pay me anything for
not raising 100,000 bushels of
com not to feed the hogs I am not
raising? I want to get started as
soon as possible as this seems to
be a good time of the year for not
raising hogs.
“P. S. Can I raise 10 or 12 hogs
on the side while I am in the not-
raising - hogs - business—just
enough to get a few sides of ba
con to eat?”
Crains of Sand
Super Progress
Gadgetry (if there is such a
word) never ceases.
While peopledike us are sitting
on their porch steps watching
bees \vork over the azalea flow
ers and feeling more or less at
peace with the world, somebody
is thinking up another fiendish
way to make life easier, yet at
the same time a great deal more
complicated;, for simple souls.
The fruit of some such gadge-
teer’s efforts was illustrated in a
New York department store ad in
Sunday’s papers: an electric fixe
lighter.
Can you beat that? It’s a ring of
metal on a handle. You plug it in
and the metal gets red hot and
lights your wood fire “every
time.”
Well, reckon some folks would
like it. For our part, we wouldn’t
swap a few lightwood splinters
for any fire lighter that was ever
manufactured.
Questions
Sets you to wondering. Where
would you keep the electric fire
lighter—on the hearth along with
poker and tongs? You’d probably
have to have a new baseboard
outlet installed within reach of
the fireplace. Would you hang the
gadget from the mantel, like a
broomstraw hearth bmsh? Or
would you keep it furtively hid
den away, so nobody could see it?
If you left it out, wouldn’t you
get sick to death of explaining to
visitors what ’ on earth it w^ls?
And, of course, they’d want a
demonstration—even in summer.
They’d say it was marvelous, all
the while looking at you as though
they thought you a mite touched.
Which is exactly what you would
be.
And suppose, some time, the
lighter didn’t work. As with any
thing mechanical, there’s always
that risk.
Big Moment
Picture a beautifully clad host
ess, guiding her guests to the liv
ing room for coffee after a lovely
dinner. The fire is laid, but not
lighted, on the hearth. The big
moment has arrived.
A dutiful husband, dressed for
the purpose of our fancy in a
well tailored dinner jacket, stoops
to plug in the Little Gem electric
fire lighter and hands the
precious instrument -to his spouse.
Guests gaze in awe.
Milady flicks the switch, bends
gracefully to apply Little Gem to
the awaiting paper, kindling and
logs. She smiles mysteriously.
The rite that will make her
unique as a modem hostess is
about to be performed.
But—nothing happens.
Nonchalantly, she clicks the
switch again, glances to see if it
is in the “on” position. Little
Gem stays cold and lifeless.
Ruined Evening
■ Then, to climax the humilia
tion, some oaf steps forward with
a match. The fire blazes up. Mi
lady, blinking back tears, excuses
herself and flings Little Gem in
the garbage can. The evening is
ruined.
The first of May is a poor time
to write about fire lighters any
way. Let’s forget the whole thing.
Really Fresh
It’s being told how one of the
winter visitors to the Sandhills
stopped at a roadside stand in
the country to buy eggs.
The woman in charge told him
that they were sold out but that
her husband had gone to get
more. The buyer then asked if
she were sure they would be
fresh.
This really amazed the woman
who at that moment saw her hus
band come rapidly out of the hen
house.
“Well,” she said, “he’s a-run-
nin’, ain’t he?”
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 Tear $4. 6 mos, $2: 3 mos. f 1
Entered at the Postoffice at South
ern Pines, N. C^ as second class
mail matter
Member National Editorial Assa
and N. C. Press Assn.