Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / Jan. 15, 1959, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page TWO The Challenge THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 1959 ■LOT 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. 'Cf&O mM School Consolidation Proposal From a discussion of high school consolida tion, at Monday'night’s Parent-Teacher Asso ciation meeting, it is apparent that merger of the high schools of the Southern Pines, Pine- hurst and Aberdeen districts would be expen sive, legally complicated and subject to a number of unknown factors on which the success of the project would depend. This consolidation proposal is one made from time to time by Sandhills residents in terested in education. The reasoning is that a large school could offer a wider range of sub jects and more adequate facilities, such as laboratories, than can any of the schools alone. And now this viewpoint is backed up in the preliminary report on Dr. Conant’s nation wide survey which states that no high school graduating less than 100 pupils can provide the best of which a high school is capable. Happily, we in tbs Sandhills are not faced with a crisis in education: there is no imme diate pressure to decide this question of con solidation. The three districts all have supple mentary school taxes (30 cents on $100 of property valuation in Pinehurst and Aber deen; 50 cents in Southern Pines), enabling all three districts to raise the quality of teach ing, employ extra teachers and otherwise lift the schools above the average. Not the least of tiie “unknown factors” men tioned above—although there is no “on the record” public discussion of it by school ad ministrators—is the course to be taken by the drive for racial de-segregation in the schools, a drive that has, apparently to the satisfac tion of all concerned, not yet had an impact in this area. Were the consolidation project launched, the alternatives obviously would be to construct an equally adequate consolidated Negro high school or to accept a fully integra ted institution. While we are content to let the consolida tion proposal remain for the present in an exploratory, wait-and-see state, we hop.3 that investigations in this field will not be aban doned by the school officials involved. Logi cally, at least, it would be the most effective answer to problems of both space and quality in education for the three communities. A ■9‘^K imt The Town, The State And The Future Edwin Gill, speaking at the dedication of the ne'w Southern Pines municipal center (we were pleased to hear him call the structure the “town hall” which is our favored name for it), made his listeners thankful they lived in a small town and in North Carolina as well. The State Treasurer, eloquent as always, pointed out that the next 10 or 15 years would be critical ones for the cities and towns of America. Many of them, he said, have grown rapidly without plan or purpose and today are faced with growing pains because they were not well planned in the beginning and are now the victims of overcrowding and con gestion. This applies especially, he noted^ to the municipalities of the East “where it would take millions of dollars to correct the mis takes of the last 50 years.” “In my opinion,” said Mr. Gill, “within the next ten years, the face of urban America will North Carolina, which has preserved more of its rural, small-town flavor than any state in the union, according to Mr. Gill, is there fore in an “infinitely better position to plan for the future.” We have fewer slums to be removed and many cities ev.'>n have within their corporate limits open areas that can be used for shopping and civic centers or housing projects. Mr. Gill then urged Southern Pines and all Tar Heel cities and towns to “take inventory of your unique assets—natural, cultural and spiritual—and do what you can to preserve them. Do not try to make your community a carbon copy of others,” he said, “but strive to give expression to your unique inheri tance.” For many years this newspaper has tried to define what is unique in this community—not siniply what is seen by looking backward but how our civic inheritance here can and should IvC! ' i'Adtfriir '*>111 HOW DOES THE U. S. COMPARE? Study Of Language Takes Time “Better Schools,” the publica- we live as close to any other tion of the National Citizens country as Europeans of a gen- Council for Better Schools, was eration ago did to each other. ^ literally rebuilt in order to give the people guide development in the present and future, in cities more air to breathe, better places to We thank Mr. Gill for so forcefully express- work, and more suitable homes in which to ing the points of view that should influence our town, area and State. Parents Must Do Their Part We are pleased to see professional agree ment with our contention that the best way to get children to read more is for parents to read more themselves. The director of the reading clinic at Appal achian State Teachers College, whose name is Uberto Price, advises via an education fea- story after reading, but don’t “critically quiz,” th|e expert advises. Then comes some advice that seems like very good sense to us, but is not often heard in this connection: “Stop family fussing and quoted on this page last week as to why foreign language study has reached “its present deplor able state” in this country. And it was noted in the same article that there is a new interest over the nation in these studies, par ticularly in elementary schools. A brogram of exposing children in elementary grades to the use of foreign languages was begun in the Southern Pines school this year. In another article, “Better Schools” attributes the skill of many Europeans in foreign lan guages to the longer time chil dren in Europe spend learning them, as compared with the study of languages in the United States. This article follows: Americans often say, rather The truth seems to be that the main reason Europeans can out talk us in several languages is that they spend more time learn ing them. ’They start earlier and stay at it longer. Minimum In a report prepared for the State Department in 1954 (“The National Interest and Foreign Languages”) William Parker said: “The minimum (length of study) tolerated in nearly all civilized nations is four years.” Some examples cited: “In Western Germany . . . about ten per cent of the chil dren prepare for university work, and all of them (from age ten or 11) study their first foreign lan guage (English or French) for nine years (five or six times a other unpleasantries at home. Most reading l^niely, that “Europeans have a week, 40-50 minutes at a time); problems stem from n emotional troubles. ture column that teachers know this is true Smooth things out at home and they’ll go but sometimes hesitate to say so for fear of of fending parents. “Make reading the most convenient thing for Junior to do,” advises the educator. He says parents should have plenty of magazines, newspapers and books all over the house. (They seem to all end up in the middle of the natural ability for languages,” or “their countries are so close to gether they have to learn more than one language.” Changed Picture The second point is xmdoubt- edly true. What has changed the picture for Americans, what has WniiiriTi’f t i . made verbal isolationism as ob- Wouldnt It be well for parents to try out solete as any other isolationism. smoother at school for Junior.” Teachers vouch for the truth of this state ment but it’s even harder to discuss this point with parents than it is to suggest that parents set a better example along' the read ing line. living room floor just before guests are to suggestions, consistently and patiently is the fact that, in today’s world’ arrive for dinner, but we won’t go into that problem here.) Some other advice from Mr. Price: Make a big deal out of going to the public library—make it appear a special treat and favor to the child. Buy him books of his own, ones in which he can write his name. If a word stumps Junior, just pronounce it for him. Don’t insist on his spelling it and trying to figure it oilt for himself. That squelches incentive if overdone. Discuss a over a period of time, before blaming all read ing troubles on the schools? Maybe the test would show that there is teaching trouble, too. But it’s up to parents, first, to do their part. Finally, we’d recommend more frankness between parents and teachers—and it’s up to parents to break the ice there, to ask teachers to tell them, not only about reading but about any other flaws, failures or personality traits on the part of the child, so that parent and teacher can work better together ’ for the child’s accomplishment and welfare. their second, begun two years later, for seven years.” “In France,” Parker continues, “where approximately nine per cent of the children finish sec ondary school, foreign languages are begun at age 11 and the min imum requirement is English or German five hours weekly for the first two years, then three hours weekly for four years, then one and a half hours weekly for a final (seventh) year. Most stu dents in secondary school, how ever, take additional language study; English or German three hours weekly for six years and one and a half hours weekly for one year, plus (a) Latin for the same seven years, or (b) Italian or Spanish, begun two years later (at age 13), for three hours' weekly for four years.” Such examples could be con tinued for some 16 countries, but these suffice to show that it is not- necessarily the average Eu ropean who excels in foreign languages, but probably a select group. This group, however, does acquire real fluency in two or more foreign tongues, not be cause of any innate genius, but because the student begins early and continues his knowledge long enough to make his know ledge really useful. Same Trend Russia follows the same trend (all schools begin foreign lan guages in the fifth grade) and American schools are moving in that direction. The U. S. Office of Education recently recom mended—on the basis of the 1957 conference previously cited—that American schools should provide a ten-year program, beginning with third grade and. extending through high school. Grains of Sand No Picnic Getting out this paper is no pfcnic. If we print jokes people say we are silly. If we don’t, th.^y say we are too serious. If we stick close to the office all day, we ought to be around hunting material. If we go out and try to hustle, we oug^t to be on the job in. the office. If we don’t print contributions, we .don’t appreciate* genius. And if we do print them, the paper is full of junk. If we edit the other fellow’s stuff, we’re too critical. If we don’t we’re asleep. If we clip things from other papers, we are too lazy to write them ourselves. Now, like as not, some guy will say we copied this frOm some magazine. We did. From our esteemed contemporary publication at Pinehurst, Golf World, which copied it from National Airlines Star Reporter, which copied it from Interstate Power News, which copied it from. . . And Trees, Too The interest of State Treasurer Edwin Gill in literature, art and things cultural was well known to us, but we were surprised and pleased to hear him—at last week’s town hall dedication—in dicate an unbounded enthusiasm for trees. Noting that the new town hall was “in the midst of trees,” Mr. Gill, in his dedicatory address, went on to saj'^: “I do not wish to get started on the subject of trees because, if I did, I am sure that would take all the time allotted to me, and more, to emphasize the im portance of trees and other grow ing things to the well-ordered, healthy, well-balanced communi- ty. “As long as I can remember, Southern Pines has been famous for her trees, and for an unre lenting program of protecting them and defending them from the depredations of so-called progress.” Amen, Brother Gill, amen. The Pilot is proud to have played some part in that “unrelenting program”—but we must in fair ness say that the people of Southern Pines, by and large, have been remarkably foresight- ed in this matter of preserving our trees. Prudent People in trouble with the law sometimes come to newspapers to ask that their names be left out of the court news (we don’t do it), but a letter received by The Pilot from one prudent man attempted to take care of this matter in advance: “Please give me no write-up in your Pilot Paper on any court proceeding in which I might be involved within Moore County, N. C., near future, and oblige— HERE’S HOW TO MAKE IT, IF YOU WANT TO TRY There's Not Much Demand For Lye Soap Now People Want Their Newspapers The recent period in which there were no newspapers published in New York City re emphasized a fact that has been proven in other such strikes in the past: people miss their newspapers when they can’t get them. The same thing has cropped up in the non daily field. Small town newspapers that have had to miss publication because of a fire, flood or other disaster (we’ve never heard of a non daily being closed down by a strike and hope that we never will) have reported a flood of complaints. This kind of complaint, of -course, is music to an editor’s ears. Again, when a small town newspaper fails financially or closes for some business reason, it is not unusual for business people of the town to take the initiative in either getting the newspaper on its feet or financing a new publication. A newspaper aeems to provide something that a town doesn’t want to lose, both in advertising and news columns. Ralph McGill, distinguished editor of the Atlanta Constitution, noting the situation in New York, commented after the strike: “The fact was, and is, that while radio and television do a splendid job, and have earned a place for themselves which they sometimes fill magnificently, they serve as supplemen tary agents in the field of communication. They have not replaced the printed word which, for all its gossamer qualities, is tan gible. It can be reread and passed along to others for perusal. It can be mailed, copied and pasted into scrapbooks.” This realization leads Mr. McGill to ask what is the purpose of a newspaper, and he writes: “There are many well-known ones. One which, for all its glib facetiousness, comes close to the truth, is that one saying, ‘A news paper should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’ ” Then he quotes this paragraph from the New York Times on its resumption of publi cation after the long strike: “We are happy to be back. As we watch the folded newspapers coming off the ma chines we rededicate ourselves to the cause of public information, discussion and debate.” Until a better statement of purpose comes along, Mr. McGill comments, that one will serve. So, at the beginning of a new year. The Pilot also rededicates itself to “the cause of public information, discussion and debate.” We are thankful that the loyalty of our read ers need not be tested by a cessation of pub lication. And we are proud to be a small imit in the great American newspaper business— a business that appa.rently the American peo ple can’t do without. (From The Greensboro Daily News) Homemade lye soap was to us, growing up in depression days, another sign of being poor. People with money bought their kitchen soap; people without mon ey made lye soap in the back yard. People with money also had new furniture—not uncomfortable old sofas and straight back chairs. (How were we to know these an tiques had graced plantation houses for two or three genera tions, and that one day we’d spend hundreds of dollars and infinite time trying to buy pieces like them?) Disappearing 9“^. thoughts began running in this direction the other day upon seeing an article in the Baltimore Sunday Sun Magazine about the fast-disappearing art of soapmak ing. A Mrs. Harriet Showman, who lives 10 miles south of Hag erstown, Md., is one of the few rugged individualists who still prefers her own to the scented manufactured product. But even Mrs. Showman doesn’t stick to the strictly old-fashioned ways. She no longer has an ash hopper into which she put straw and cooled wood ashes from the kitchen cookstove, then, when full, poured boiling water in the top. What filtered out at the bot tom was lye water—one of the two ingredients for soap. Now these ash hoppers are so rare as to be museum items and old- timers never leach their own lye any more but use the “store- bought” variety. Frankly, we had forgotten—if we ever knew—exactly how to make country style soap, but Mrs. Showman demonstrated for a Baltimore Sun reporter. For the other ingredient, fat, she uses practically any lard from hog killing time, leftover grease from fried and roasted meat dishes, butter turned sour, bacon rinds, fatty ham scraps—kept in tightly covered lard stands. Here is her recipe, as reported in the Sunday Sun Magazine: , Six gallons of water in an iron UMPIRE NEEDED “At the head of the judicial sys tem stands the Supreme Court of the United States, and the deci sions of that Court must be ac cepted as to the meaning of the Constitution. You can’t have even a baseball game without an um pire to interpret and apply the rules, and you can’t have consti tutional government without the authority somewhere to interpret and apply the Constitution. “Final authority to do this is vested in the Supreme Court, whose duty it is to apply the great principles of Government which the Constitution embodies to the changing conditions of the times, with power on its part to overrule even its own decisions, when in the light of better understanding or changed conditions they are deemed by it to be erroneous.” —From a speech by the late Judge John J. Parker of North Carolina. kettle, brought to a boil. Six 10-ounce cans of lye, pour ed into the water and stirred until dissolved. Thirty pounds of fat, added to the boiling lye water gradually. (Most farm women use only five cans of lye to 30 pounds of fat, but Mrs. Showman likes her soap with a little more “bite” to it.) Boil for an hour or so—until the lye has dissolved (“eaten up”) all the fat solids, including the rinds. The mixture at this stage will have thickened to a creapiy, pud dinglike consistency. Mrs. Show man then adds three pounds of table salt. The salt quickly sep arates it into three layers—lye water on the bottom, salt water in the middle, soap on top. Cut Into Cakes She then douses the fire and allows the kettle to cool overnight. Next morning the soap—a disk of it as big as the kettle and from six to eight inches thick—can be removed from the kettle and cut into cakes, ready to use. The other day we saw a news paper photograph of a mule- powered molasses mill. It belongs' to a farmer in lower Anson Coun ty who says he can’t begin to sup ply enough “sorghum” for his customers. There doesn’t seem to be as much demand for homemade lye soap. More consumers are con tent with “store-bought” deter gents .than with manufactured molasses. Still, that Anson County mule, circling that molasses mill, is a lonely creature. There aren’t many like him, and soon there won’t be any. There’s a man who really tries to look after his own interests. No detail overlooked when plan ning an escapade. Interesting and Illuminating At a recent League of Women ■Voters meeting the subject was international relations. Lockie Parker was talking: She told how at the opening Of the Bandung Conference in Asia, there had been a recitation of Longfellow’s “Ride of Paul Revere.” Lockie, who has lived in the East a lot and whose brother Frank heads the work with In dian villagers under the ECA, said: “The principles of the American Revolution are as tonishingly well known in Asia, especialy in the small countries. These people have a great admir ation for America and Americans. But for us THEN rather than now.” The PILOT Published E'^ery 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 Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen, Jas per Swearingen, Thomas Mattocks and James C. Morris. 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 : Press Assn.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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Jan. 15, 1959, edition 1
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