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Page TWO THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1958 ILOI 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 seenis 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. I Good Precedent On Park Property A step that we hope will be treated as a ” precedent by the present council and future councils was taken by town legislators last week in their vote to purchase a 40-foot strip of private property on the park block. The council’s action (with one dissenting vote) indicates that members do not approve encroachment by business on the park block, a point of view with which we thoroughly agree. The park land is valuable and it may be a temptation to councils in the near or distant future to dispose of some of it for business purposes. Once some lots along Broad Street would be thus let go, however, the town wouldn’t have a park. It would have the backyard of a string of business buildings. Readers may recall that we didn’t think much of putting even the town hall on the park property. What makes a town park a park is open, landscaped land, green with trees and shrubs and flowers, in contrast to the pavements and buildings around it. Southern Pines is most fortunate that it has this park block, or nearly all of it, adjoining the business section. This shows the foresight of the donors who gave it long ago and the town officials who have maintained it in tact. Rather than dispose of any park property, we hope that officials will plan some day to acquire the entire block for the town. Future residents will thank us if we are determined now to hang on to the park. Too Many People Leaving State ■ I * _ ? The U. S. Department of Commerce, in pub licizing its “County and City Data Book” which is available to the public, points out that there has been an out-migration from North Carolina of 30,000 persons since 1950. In this period. North Carolinians over 65 years of age increased 27 per cent. Practically no increase was recorded, however, in those aged 18 to 44. This, says the Department of Commerce, is the principal income-producing group who have been migrating with their families out of the state. Presley Melton, manager of the Department of Commerce’s Greensboro field office, draws this conclusion: “It is evident that North Carolina has been exporting the State’s most valuable asset— energetic and well educated young men and women. These young men and women would stay in North Carolina if they could find good jobs here. To keep them at home, there is needed an increased industrial expansion pro gram, together with increased farm diversifi cation.” This is not a startling new story to those who have been following Tarheel affairs in the past decade—but it is a situation that af fects practically all residents of the state and deserves the attention of all thoughtful citi zens. No racial division is made in the out-migra tion figures quoted here. It would be inter esting to know what proportion of the 30,000 persons leaving the state since 1950 were Ne groes—and why they made the decision to go. With both white and Negro migrants from the state, the primary motive was probably increased employment opportunity. Whether this worked out to be as golden an opportuni ty in actual practice as it was in prospect is beside the point. These North Carolinians went—and not many of them will return. Industrial expansion and farm diversifica tion, the remedies suggested by the Depart ment of Commerce spokesman, are basic, but we also believe that increased employment opportunities for Negroes would not only stem much of the out-migration, but would also result in a general increase of economic welfare in the state. We sometimes think that Negro leadership would have done better to concentrate on a drive for wider and better employment op portunities for Negroes than on the school in tegration matter. As we pointed out soon after the Supreme Court’s first school deci sion, much of the opposition by white people to school integration is based on a cultural gap between the races—a gap that is slowly being closed already and that would close more quickly if Negroes were permitted to earn incomes that can provide for them the housing, medical care and other items that would bring their average standard of living more in line with the average standard in the white community. 'This is a matter on which the white South must move forward voluntarily—a procedure that the South, if it looks at the matter clear ly, will find that it can’t afford not to begin. Georgia Revives McCarthyism One of the most extraordinary documents that has come to our desk in a long time is a booklet titled, “Communism and the NAACP” which arrived with a covering letter on the stationery of the Georgia Commission on Education (complete with a reproduction of the seal of the State of Georgia thereon). The letter states flatly that in the booklet the second such one that has been sent out is listed “the Communist affiliations of the national leadership of the NAACP.” This ma terial is said to have come from the Florida Legislation Investigation Committee. The let ter concludes, somewhat mysteriously, “These materials should further contribute to your understanding of racial problems.” In the 101-page booklet, without a single word of explanation or documentation other than the brief citing of various letterheads, magazine articles and other such items, are listed more than 50 persons, most of them white, who have some connection with the NAACP, largely members of the organiza tion’s advisory “Committee of 100.” The persons listed include Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Archibald Macleish, poet and for mer Librarian of Congress; Dr. Frank P. Gra ham', former U. S. Senator and longtime pres ident of the University of North Carolina; Van Wyck Brooks, literary critic and histo rian; such nationally known and respected clergymen as Harry Emerson Fosdick and Methodist Bishop G. Bramley Oxnam; Max Lerner, columnist and professor; and other distinguished and unquestionably loyal Amer ican citizens. Beneath the names of these persons are list ed What the booklet calls •’‘incidents’’—organ izations they have belonged to, articles they have written and so forth, during the past 30 years. There is no evidence whatever that the organizations or articles had anything to do with Communism. They are simply cited, like a criminal record, and would be meaningless, in themselves, to the great majority of per sons who might read the booklet. The booklet is full of the type of smear that was used against Dr. Graham in the Smith- Graham Senatorial primary campaign of 1950, to the everlasting disgrace of North Carolina. One of the 37 “incidents” listed under Dr. Graham’s name in “Communism and the NAACP” is, for instance, the fact that in 1938 he signed a letter for the Committee of Boy cott Against the Japanese Aggression—cer tainly a thoroughly patriotic act—^but the let ter happened to appear in the Communist newspaper, “The Daily Worker.” Dr. Graham “Ha! We Made Sure He Can’t Lend You A Hand, Buster!” 1^ mA — I \ \ \ NATURE'S AWESOME HANDIWORK Mountains Offer Strange Sights is or was a member of the NAACP’s “Com mittee of 100” as were or are many fine American citizens—^but the fact that he sign ed a letter that was published in The Daily Worker in 1938 goes into the Georgia Com mission on Education’s booklet in 1958 as il lustrating a link between Communism and the NAACP! Here are McCarthyism and “guilt by asso ciation” at their worst, revived and dressed in all their fraudulent finery, in the name of “understanding of racial problems,” and by an official agency of the State of Georgia. What a terrible disservice such a project as this which Georgia has undertaken does to genuine racial understanding and to the South! One expects to find ignorance and big otry at the KKK level, but not, of all places, in the office of a State Commission on Educa tion. The letterhead accompanying this booklet bears the names of the Governor of Georgia, the Attorney General, the Chairman of the State Board of Education, the State School Superintendent, the Chancellor of the Univer sity System, 10 Congressional District repre sentatives oir the Commission on Education and other state officials. “Communism and the NAACP” is a sorry comment on leadership in Georgia today. William S. Harrington The Pilot, along with many other friends, mourns the death of William S. (Bill) Harring ton who followed the printer’s trade during a long lifetime, operating his own shop here for many years. In this shop at his home on Bennett Street, Bill Harrington, assisted by his wife, worked in the tradition of the old, independent Amer ican craftsman, turning out skilled and con scientious work in a trade he had learned well over many years. Mr. Harrington’s answer to hard times and short hours in his chosen trade, back in de pression times, was to set up a business of his own. The business prospered—a tribute to his ability and* ambition at an age when . many men who have worked for wages all ) their lives have given up any idea of inde pendent business enterprise. The printing shops of Mr. Harrington and of The Pilot have had long years of, cordial relations. We feel that we have lost a good friend and we know that Southern Pines has lost a fine citizen. ' Going to the mountains for your vacation this summer? Writing in the Asheville Citizen- Times, John Parris, famed for his books and articles about Western North Carolina, lists some of the remarkable sights provided by Nature in that area. Pilot readers may want to clip this listing to help guide a vacation tour: To roam’ the mountains is to see what the world was like when it suffered the travail and spasms of its youth. This is particularly so in the Balsam and Blue Ridge moun tains of Jackson County. Here nature has built rock bridges and dammed lakes. She has moulded gigantic fig ures in stone. Eons before Nubian slaves built tombs for the Pharaohs, she sheared a mountain in half to make an 1,800-foot high granite wall. She gouged deep into the earth to release smoke from a smoul dering fire. Divided Waters She divided the waters of a single spring between the Atlan tic Ocean and the Gulf of Mex ico. She channeled a river along a mountain crest and then sent it cascading 411 feel to form the highest waterfall in Eastern America and the seventh highest in the country. She wrapped another waterfall in a rsdnbow that is almost ever visible. Her first tool was a prehistoric ocean and when its waters re ceded slje used glaciers to cut grooves in the earth’s crust. For instruments of polishing, she has relied on the icy waters of mountain streams, the wind and the rain and snow, and some times sleet and hail and light ning. Best Map The best map for locating and identifying them is the Western North Carolina-Great Smokies- Blue Ridge Vacation Map. This is made easy both through the use of names and symbols. Once you have the map, locate N. C. Highway 107, then the crossroad village of Tuckasegee. Turn north at Tuckasegee on Highway 281 and proceed six miles to Anvil Tongue, a great rock hanging over the Canada prong of the Tuckasegee River. Ahead two-tenths of a mile turn right on a dirt road to Nat ural Rock Bridge spanning the prongs and Wolf Creek Falls. Right from Tuckasegee on a logging roal for three-and-a-half miles is the Smoke Hole where passersby often warm their hands in the vapor when the tempera ture is low. Cherokee L^end The Cherokee Indians used to say the smoke came from the townhouse of the Nunnehi, im mortals who dwell beneath the mountains and the rivers. South of Tuckasegee, N. C. 107 passes through and up a winding gorge where the mountains over hang the river, houses perch pre cariously on the hillsides, and waterfalls—such as Grassy Creek Falls—spring from the mountain towards the highway. Once out of the gorge, the trav eler is in the land of lakes. The first is Lake Thorpe. Beyond Lake Thorpe is the crest of the Blue Ridge. And there beside the road, right on ^ top, is a gurgling mountain ' spring that divides itself. Cashiers is the intersection of NC 107 and US 64. Here you can follow NC 107 for two miles, just beyond the entrance to High Hampton, and turn right down into Whiteside Cove. Claim To Fame Down in the cove is the com munity of Grimshawes whose claim to fame is that here once was the smallest post office in the United States. To the right drops tne massive Hiffg of Whiteside Mountain. It is the highest in the east and has one sheer drop of 1,800 feet. By turning right at Cashiers on US 64 and heading toward High lands, the traveler comcs to a toll road leading to the summit of Whiteside. From the parking area just be- Jow the summit a trail extends half a mile to Devil’s Courthouse, a jutting rock formation on the east side of the mountain. Also on Whiteside is a spring that divides its flow of water be tween the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Spanish Writings There’s a boulder on the Sioun- tain with mysterious Spanish writings that may have been the work of one of De Soto’s Dons when they came through the area back in 1540. The most impressive waterfalls in Eastern America are^ in the region. The grandpappy of these falls is beautiful Whitewater Falls, which has two levels. The upper falls cascade 411 feet. Whitewater is reached by a good gravel road by turning off US 64 near Oakland, between Cashiers and Lake Toxaway. A 10-mile road from US 64 to Whitewater passes four other falls—^Horse Pasture, John’s Jump, Thompson’s and Rainbow. Rainbow is 200 feet high. Rock Formations There are several rock forma tions in the county resembling figures. Of these, the most impressive is four miles east of Sylva on US 19-A. It resembles an Indian lying on his back along the crest Of the Plott Balsams and is north of the highway. There are some who say it is Judaculla, the Paul Bunyan of the Cherokee. Judaculla was the mythical god of the Cherokee Indians and his home was in the Caney Fork Halsalms, three miles left from East LaPorte. There above East LaPorte on the Milas Parker farm is Juda culla Rock, whose soft sandstone is covered with mysterious trac ings which never have been in terpreted. Mythical Giant Cherokee legend relates that the marks were made by Juda culla, the mythical giani, in leap ing from his home on the moun tain top to the creek below. And east of Cherokee on US 19, just as the road begins the climb up Soco, there on the right —hanging like a grim prophecy above the highway—is the per fect nature-carved head of an Indian. Yes, nature has carved away at the terrain of Western North Carolina and left many oddities as well as magnificent attractions. And to roam the mountains is to see what the world was like when it suffered the travail and spasms of its youth, atha HAVE A SAFE VACATION! Grains of Sand speech Differences A Cornell University professor of phonetics has figured out 10 ^ different speech 'areas of the United States and has also dis covered that, as to/<s)eech habits, it doesn’t matter greatly where a person lives as an adult. What counts, 'the professor says, is the speech a person learns as a child from other children. Readers may recall the exerpts printed in GRAINS some time ago from Ashley Cooper’s die- ^ tionary of Charlestonese (exam- ^ pie: “Sex: three less than'noine”) and maybe also our own attem'pt to compile a few definitions using some Sandhills pronuncia tions. The professor, we believe, would have a tough time check ing on word usage and pronunci ations in the Sandhills, because of the'variety of accents here, in- eluding those of children with W Northern parents and Southern playmates—a * combination that results in some strange speech mixtures. Disappearing Commenting on the professor’s investigations. The Richmond News Leader deplores the fact that regional speech differences are disappearing. No reason is as- ^ cribed for that, but probably the main reasons are the influence of TV and radio and the large number of inter-regional mar riages that took place as a result of the war and later as a result of the mobility of young people: young Southerners going North to seek thir fortunes and young Northerners coming South with new industrial and business en- terprises. It's A Ctimel Speaking of speech and words, we like this statement made by James Thurber in an interview during which he said he is dedi cated to defending the English language against the decline it it has suffered in this century and particularly since the end of the last war: “If we went out in- • to the streets dressed the way we talk, we would be arrested for indecent exposure.” Academic Report A news release in the mail a couple of weeks ago reported that J. Pance Rowe, Jr., had attended a fishing school at Nags Head. We used the item in The Pilot. We’ve just this week learned that the sender of the release got his •■‘J” and “S” twisted. It was J. Vance Rowe, Jr., had attended versally referred to hereabouts as Judge Rowe because of his many years on the bench of Moore County Recorders Court, who attended the school. Judge Rowe said this week that he’d had a fine time and, to boot, had caught a big fish, while at ^ Nags Head. We were still curious however, as to why Judge Rowe would go all that way to a fishing school. Then he explained: he has a farm pond that he knows is full of bass and bream, but they’re hard to catch. So—^what better way to catch them than to go to school to learn how? We haven’t heard yet how sue- W cessful Judge Rowe has been since his return. ’Tip to the judge: if you still can’t catch those bass and bream, send the fish to school to learn how to bite. Maybe that’s where the trouble has been all along. Well-Informed It’s easy to spot a well-inform ed person. His opinions are just ^ like yours. School's Out Now that school is out, reports a parent, educational problems are really hitting home. The PILOT Dangerous Summer Driving By BILL CROWELL Vacation travel is one of the state’s chief industries, with our vast network of picturesque high ways and thousands of vacation ers exploring the countryside and seeing North Carolina first. But, judging from the experi ence of past years, many of the vacationers already on the road and many of the others getting ready for the takeoff v/ill die in traffic accidents. Still others will be crippled. Families will be broken, and grief will enter many an otherwise happy home. Disturbing picture, isn’t it? The great tragedy is—these deaths and injuries are unnec essary. A little more time given to planning before the takeoff. . . a little more alertness and atten tion to safe driving rules along the way... would bring these va cationers home safe. But vacation travelers are usu ally in a hurry to get where they’re going. They are not will ing to spend that “little more.” They pile the car full of vacation miscellanea, plan a grueling schedule, hit the road ready to do or die. Sometimes it’s die! You can help stop this mass suicide. It’s simple. You can re fuse to be a part of it. The formula for a safe trip doesn’t cost a thing. Plan your journey ^ead of time. . . allow plenty of time for leisurely driv ing. . . pack safely. . . stay alert every minute you’re on the road . . . obey traffic laws and the dictates of common sense and courtesy. That’s it! If you follow it, you’ll have a safe, sane, and enjoyable vacation. . . one that won’t cost you your life. 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 a Mary Scott Newton Business ^ Bessie CamercMi Smith Society Composing Room Lochamy McLean, Dixie B. Ray. Michael Valen, Jasper Swearingen Thomas Mattocks. SubseripRon Rales: One Tear $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.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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June 19, 1958, edition 1
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