Page TWO
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1959
“Damn Th’ Cranberries... Full Speed Ahead!
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 Bbydi May 23, 1941.
Blood Program Needs Strong Support
throughout the nation, may be felt by millions
Local Red Cross officials are trying hard to
make clear how important it is to the people
of this area that the county iheet its quota in
blood donations. People respond more readily,
-it seems, to a patriotic appeal—which support
ed the Red Cross handsomely during and af
ter the war—than to one which is based on
personal and family welfare.
The current appeal precedes blood collec
tions at Aberdeen on November 30 and at
Southern Pines on December 1, as outlined in
detail in a news story today.
For donating blood—regularly and in t ie
fuU quota set for each collection—will enable
a system to continue that becomes for many
of us, sooner or later, a most vital and press
ing matter.
The Red Cross blood bank system, in fact,
ends the hectic search for blood donors that
burdens and distresses a family—no matter
how much help it receives—when blood is
needed for a family member in an emergency.
If the people of Moore County give the nec
essary amount of blood when the collections
are made periodically in this county, the two
hospitals of the county can draw from the
Red Cross blood bank at Charlotte any kind
of blood they need, pn short notice. If the
county continues to run short in its collecti&ns
quotas, at worst, the blood bank system will
break down and, at best, Moore County will
be dependent on the generosity of persons
outside the county to get the blood needed
here.
That, if fact, is what has been happening in
recent weeks.
Mrs. Audrey K. Kennedy, in making a re
port recently to the board of directors of the
Moore County Red Cross Chapter, of which
she is executive secretary, said that at the Red
Cross National Convention which she attended
last summer as a member of the National Reso
lutions Committee, it was evident that some
Red Cross chapters want to pass on to the re
cipient many of the costs of the blood pro
gram. Thus, it appears that a lack of generosi
ty in giving blood, in Moore County and
Again‘Progress’
Efforts of members of the Garden Club and
other individuals to save two large magnolia
trees which are slated for destruction (as this
is written early this week) near N. W. Broad
St., between Connecticut and Vermont Ave
nues, are to be commended.
These trees are on private property, sever
al feet in from the property line, so the Town
is powerless to control their being removed.
Though the town council can’t exercise any
legal power in the matter, we are pleased that
the mayor and council have been informed
that there is a force of public opinion strongly
behind them in backing up any pressure they
can exert on the oil company that owns the
property.
It is our understanding that the lot in ques
tion, where an old residence is being torn
down, will be used for a service station park
ing lot. It would seem that letting the trees
remain, perhaps with bumper-height guard
rails around them to protect both the trees
and automobiles, would be compatible with
the purposes for which the lot is to be used.
As was discovered at the Colonial Stores
of families in the pocketbook as well as in
terms of the worry and inconvenience of the
private donor system—which the blood bank
system eliminates in most cases.
Mrs. Kennedy’s report to the local directors
indicated that the National Red Cross is wor
ried also about “perilously low” disaster funds
and increasing difficulties in running success
ful. fund campaigns.
This means that in all phases of Red Cross
operations—but particularly in the blood col
lections here in Moore County—people must
take more seriously and more personally the
needs of the vast, varied and proven Red
Cross program for the promotion of human
welfare and meeting of human need.
Good Work, Kiwanis Club!
The Sandhills Kiwanis Club’s new project,
an educational foundation that will make loans
to enable Moore County students to get col
lege, university and professional training,
merits strong support. ■
This project should appeal to' persons who
think too much is being given to modern
youth. These “rugged individualists,” we find,
are often persons who themselves had to work
hard when young to attain education and suc
cess in their occupations and professions. When
this is the case, we accord respect to their
opinions.
Certainly, there is a big responsibility—the
first step toward maturity and good citizen
ship—thrust on any young persons who accepts
a loan for educational purposes. Not only must
the young person make good as a student to
maintain his loan privilege, but he must some
day repay the money.
These stringent requirements will eliminate
frivolous applications at the start ahd should
bring forth applications from some very de
serving young people.
We wish the Kiwanis Club all success in
this endeavor and urge readers to back it as
generously as they can.
Threatens Trees
parking lot, where efforts by the Garden Club
preserved trees, the shade offered by them is
welcome—even from the point of view of the
nearby place of business. Drivers prefer to
park in the shade in hot weather. In addition
greenery and shade make any site more at
tractive to the passing public.
Garden Club members have been in touch
with executives of the oil company and, as
this is written, the effort to save the mag
nolias does not appear totally hopeless.
Though it is true that trees had to be cut
down to make way for every business struc
ture in town, the N. W. Broad St., situation
seems to be one in which there could be a
reasonable compromise between the business
usage to which the lot is to be put and the
wish to maintain all the trees possible in the
business section.
Certainly, it would seem possible for the
company to allow the trees to remain on a
trial basis. We don’t believe they’d hurt busi-
nes a bit—and the company would earn the
lasting gratitude of many residents of South
ern Pines.
Mr. McGill Tosses A New Hat
The Raleigh News and Observer carried an
article in its Monday issue that must be of
interest to all Democrats. Their columnist,
Ralph McGill, the distinguished editor of the
Atlanta Constitution comes forward with the
suggestion of another name than those hither
to mentioned as Democratic presidential can
didates, Mr.-Gill offers: Chester Bowles.
Mr. McGill comments that, at a time when
the Democratic Party seems to be giving such
an unenthusiastic welcome to most of those
who have thus far tossed, or seem about to
toss, their hats into the ring, it is an odd fact
that Chester Bowles, “whose compass,” says
the writer “has always pointed in the right
direction, is not being vigorously advanced as
a possible nominee.”
In the article that follows, Mr. McGill offers
a strongly convincing plea for his choice. He
points to the record of Mr. Bowles’ public ca
reer: as ambassador to India where his repu
tation for wisdom, justice and intelligence
spread throughout Asia his own name and
that of his country. Nehru himself told Mr.
McGill he considered that Ambassador Bowles
had rendered immense service to his country
and therefore to India. The good relations be
tween the U. S. and India, which have un
doubtedly helped to prevent the Eastern na
tion from turning towards the Iron Curtain,
are largely due to the efforts and personality
of the American who then represented the
United States at New Delhi.
Mr. McGill describes Mr. Bowles, who is now
serving as a Congressman from Connecticut,
as having been a most successful state gover
nor and, before that, a business executive and
war-time administrator of exceptional ability.
Since his return here from India in 1953, he
has been a good many steps ahead of his col-
. leagues and leaders of thought in general in
concern over the emphasis on materialism, the
“aimless drift” of national aims Which he
found here. He has been in agreement with
Adlai Stevenson in speaking out strongly
against the decline in morals and education,
the lack of vision and the complacency that
seem a mark of present times. Like Stevenson,
he insists that the American attitude must be
an affirmative, not a negative one.
The more you think about the possibility of
Chester Bowles as a Democratic candidate, the
more the idea grows on you. Here at last is
something new and more than a little exciting
to think about. Here is a fine man, and one
who has demonstrated in his work and his
words his deep belief in the democratic ideal;
here is a man who may indeed, as Ralph Mc
Gill contends, be well-suited to lead the
Democratic Party.
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CAN RED UNITY SURVIVE?
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The Crisis In Communism
By JOSEPH C. HARSCH
Special Correspondent of The
Christian Science Monitor
Reprinted by special permission to
The Pilot
(First of two parts)
If I read the signs of the times
around us correctly, we of the
Western world are now in the
unusual position of being spec
tators of a very real crisis in the
, Communist world—perhaps the
decisive crisis in the history of
this movement which has played
such a large role in this era.
The crisis was precipjitated near
ly two years ago when the party
leadership in Peking elected to
undertake the vast double experi
ment of the communes and the
great leap forward. Ever since
then, strange and unpresedented
things have been happening in
the Communist countries. We see ,
the impact of these things in
Communist China’s pressure on
India, Soviet' Premier Khrush
chev’s apparent search for easier
relations with the West, Moscow’s
extraordinary neutrality between
China and India.
Lesser Aspects
And there are many lesser as
pects of the matter. Communism
currently is getting tighter in Po
land for no reason which is either
visible or would seem rational to
any Westerner. Moscow continues
to be as friendly as possible with
United Arab Republic President
Nasser’s Egypt while Peking
makes that same place a major
target of its vituperation. Mos
cow^ continues to maintain mini
mal relations with President Ti
to’s Yugoslavia while Peking de
nounces it savagely. Moscow’s
agents in the West are just as
active as ever in spite of Mr.
Khrushchev’s “good neighbor”
policy toward tl^e West.
We cannot surely know what
lies behind all this, but we must
do our best to weigh and assess
it as accurately as possible be
cause, although spectators, our
attitude and behavior toward it
could'have the most violent con
sequences. It may well be that
our behavior toward this phe
nomenon will involve the most
important decision we of the West
will have to make in this genera
tion.
center is obviously in Peking
where since August a campaign
of denunciation against “right
ists” has been unleashed in party
publications.
. Experts in communism, read
ing the Chinese press, have found
evidence that this is more than
a monolithic party organization
denouncing those among the plain
people of the country who find
life growing intolerable under the
exactions and vacillation of high
policy. There are overtones which
increasingly suggest that the is
sue is within the central commit
tee of the party between two
schools of thought about how to
make communism work in the
most populous country on earth.
Two Groups
One group—rlet us call it the
cautious men — contends that to
set unrealistic targets for the
Chinese people and to claim un
realistic achievements is the path
to failure of communism in China.
The other group—the zealots or
Stalinists—contends that to lower
the sights arid relax the pressure
would mean that industrializa
tion never would catch up with
population increase, which, in
turn, would mean failure of com
munism in China by the other
route.
The sights were lowered this
summer and the pressure was
relaxed momentarily, but those
responsible for the relaxation are
the ones now being denounced
with a degree of violence which
is Reminiscent of the period in
Moscow which broke with the
execution of Secfet Police Chief
Beria and continued until form
er Premier Malenkov had been
decisively overthrown by Mr.
Khrushchev. There are even hints
that it may be as tense as in Mos
cow in the days of Stalin’s worst
purges.
And the campaign against the
“rightists” has coincided with the
■pressure on India.
* Disaster
The reasonable deduction is
that the element now in domi
nant position has manufactured
again this year, as it did last year
over Formosa, a danger of war on
the frontiers as an excuse for its
domestic policies and as an instru
ment against whatever opposition
still may survive in the higher
echelons of the party.
When Mr. Khrushchev went to
Peking from Washington in late
September, the zealots were plain
ly in control, for they paid little
heed to his pleas either for mod
eration against India or in domes
tic policy. For Mr. Khrushchev
the situation must be truly agon
izing, for the failure of commu
nism in China would be for him
a disaster only one degree short
of the final disaster of an intoler
able strain on Peking-Moscow re
lations. World communism would
be destroyed equally by a failure
in China or a break between
China and the Soviet Union. In
either event the Soviet Union
would be separated from its only
powerful ideological ally.
CHANGING ATTITUDE TOWARD NEWS
Do We Really Want To Know ?
School Board Poll
Ther.9 is not much point in the poll of resi
dents of the Southern Pines school district—
asking their opinions of how the school board •
should be selected—if there is not a large re
sponse.
It is well known that there are small groups
vociferously in favor Of both appointment and
ejection. What the town council hopes to learn
frOm the poll is how a broad section of the
district’s residents feel—the people who nor
mally do not engage in public discussion of
such matters. We urge, therefore, that citi
zens indicate their preferences and return
the self-addressed, post-paid cards which by
now have reached nearly every home in the
school district.
I Difficulty
The stake is,' I believe, no less
than the survival of world com
munism as a unified political and
ideological movement. The possi
bility at the moment is that
Communist unity will not survive,
which is the essential reason
why there is a crisis vitally af
fecting every Communist coun
try. The difficulty for us is that
anything we do to influence the
outcome of the crisis might turn
out to have been the wrong thing.
If we try to -abet the disintegra
tion, we might discover that that
effort had been the decisive ele
ment ih preventing it.
But let us first consider the
crisis itself and then revert to
our attitude toward it. The storm
By RUSSELL M. SPEAR
In the Madison Messenger
One of the most alarming de
velopments in recent years is the
changing attitude of the Ameri
can people toward news.
Our democratic process is built
on the proposition that govern-
pient is the business and the
property of the common man. It
is further predicated on the right
of the common man to know
what his government is doing. If
the democratic form of govern
ment is to survive, it must do so
on the basis of keeping the com
mon man informed on every
phase of its far-flung activities.
This is understood; yet almost
daily we hear: “The press should
be curbed” ... or, “We’re playing
hell letting the press tell the
world about our missile failures,
etc., etc.”
It is sufficiently alarming that
door after door in Washington
has been closed to the press in
recent years for “reasons of se
curity,” or, more often, for no
sound reason at all.
When the people themselves
clamor for silence, our democratic
form of government has reached
a sad pass indeed.
There are imperfect reporters
and imperfect newspapers, just
as there are imperfect lawyers,
doctors, theologians; but the
American press, as a whole,
stacks up as honest and respon
sible. It has done a terrific job
of keeping the American public
accurately informed about its
government, in spite of the in
creasing news barriers laid down
by the government.
But when the press has to face
a public that is either afraid to
know the truth or doesn’t want
to know the truth,- where in
blazes are we?
The American people, living in
a self-governing community, are
entitled to know how their com
munity is doing, be it good or ill.
The Americkn people 'cannot
think or vote sensibly in the ab
sence of true information. As
partners in a community enter
prise, every' American citizen has
the right to know what his gov
ernment is doing, or is not do
ing.
Once this right to know is tak
en away from the people of
America, by government, by the
people, or by the press itself—
our citizens, and their assigns,
have taken the first step toward
communist merry-go-round.
Grains of Sand
Not Much
. A classic story of the Sandhills
opens an article ab^ut Pinehurst
appearing in the current issue of
the magazine, “Golf.”
Ronald Green, Charlotte News
golf writer who is the author of
the article, begins by telling how
one resident of Pinehurst, asked
if he had been playing much golf
lately, replied, “No, not much.
Only in the afternoons.”-
The “Golf” item is illustrated
with photos by John Hemmer.
(Who says Southern Pines
won’t give Pinehurst publicity?)
'Near Here'
Not denying, of course, that
there has been, and maybe still
is, a certain amount of Southern
Pines-Pinehurst rivalry.
Brings to mind a classic in the
realm of Sandhills newspaper
lore, as regards Southern Pines
and Pinehurst.
One time, 10 years or more ago,
something was going on at the'
Highland Pines Inn, the resort
hotel in Southern Pines that later
became the home of the USAF
Air-Ground Operations School
and then burned to the ground
a few years ago.
A zealous Pinehurst news corre
spondent sent out a story about
whatever it was that happened at
the Highland Pines Inn.
It was datelined PINEHURST
and began: “At the Highland
Pines Inn near here today ...”
The sputtering among the
Chamber of Commerce folks up
and down Broad Street the next
day sounded like the start of a
motorcycle race.
Friday the 13 th
“The Cracker Barrel,” the
sprightly daily information bul
letin published at Pinehurst (here
we go talking about Pinehurst
again), came up with some in
teresting information for statis
ticians about Friday the 13th of
November.
It was pointed out that it was
the third Friday the 13th in 1959
(the others were in February and
March), but that there will not
be another year with as many as
three Friday the 13ths in it for
400 years.
Just the sort of question that
might have been asked Charles
■Van Doren in happier days.
Definitions
The Pilot’s joke man, Advertis
ing Manager Clyde Council, toss
ed these off as he passed our desk:
Genius—A screwball who
knows which way to turn and
when.
Yesterday men used to run into
debt. Now they drive in—in a
two-tone car.
Gentlemen?
A winter resident just arrived
in town from the North says he
has noticed that Virginia drivers
are more courteous in dimming
their headlights at night than are
Tarheel motorists.
Says h.s can notice the differ
ence almost as soon as he gets
across the border.
Being a loyal part-time Tar
heel, he says he thinks there are
just as many gentlemen in North
Carolina as there are in Virginia
—but many of them don’t show
their good qualities on. the high
way.
Allotment
What’s this rumor about one of
the local merchants putting in
for a tobacco acreage allotment to
grow the wonderful weed in his
Garden Club window box, in
preference to ivy, pansy plants
and so forth?.
Now, if Southern Pines had a
tobacco market, like Aberdeen or
Carthage we’d take the idea seri
ously—at least for the summer
months: wonderful advertising.
’Then, merchants could plant
ivy for a winter “cover crop,” to'
prevent soil erosion and build up
the land.
How about it, tobacco market
towns?
The PILOT
Published Every Thursday by
THE PILOT, IncoriMraled
Southern Pines, North Carolina
1941—JAMES BOYD—1944
Katharine Boyd Editor
C. Benedict Associate 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 mot. $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.