Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / Dec. 31, 1959, edition 1 / Page 2
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1959 Page TWO 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 aU 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. Serving The Community’s Conscience , i 1 QTxnnin+.oH trt ffiiard- Tt is conc6 W.3 commend the Moore County sheriff’s de partment for conducting a full investigation, with expert professional help called in, of the Midway fire in which three young children lost their lives. The investigation established that there had been no negligence on the part of the young ’mother, as had been rumored in. stories traced to persons in the community. Without the investigation, a shadow might have lain over the life of this young woman for many years to come. Rumor is powerful and persistent, but—with an expert, official inves tigation on record—rumor will not prevail. To the great credit of the investigating offi cers is their regard for justice and human life as such—which, of course, is what they are appointed to guard. It is conceivable that the fire and the deaths, once ruled as accidental by the coroner, could have been forgotten by the officers, no matter what rumors flew. The persons involved were humble people of no special influence or power and what was said about them might have been disregarded. In the annals of race relations, it is fitting to record such instances as this case in which many hours were devoted by white officers to trying to determine if any person was respon sible for the deaths of three little Negro chil dren. The conscience of this community—its re gard for human life and for truth and justice was well served by the officers who made the fire investigation. Travel Council Surveys Tourism spent nearly two years on the North Carolina North Carolina’s third largest industry— travel—is summarized in a 20-page pamphlet just issued by the Travel Council of North Carolina. The Council, a non-profit organization de voted to the development of the travel indus try, calls the survey “the most comprehensive ever made of the travel industry in North Carolina, and probably in any other state.” The digest reveals that the dollar value of travel in North Carolina in 1958 was $360,- 000,000, an increase of 135% in 10 years, and that the total revenue of the travel-serving in dustry (including non-transient business) was $723,000,000 in 1958. ' The survey was made for the Travel Coun cil of North Carolina by a nationally recog nized authority in the travel field, Dr. Lewis C. Copeland of the Department of Statistics of the University of Tennessee. Dr. Copeland project. He had previously direct.-?d surveys for the states of Tennessee and Arkansas. Copies of the digest are free on request to th.3 Travel Council of North Carolina, P. O. Box 2719, Raleigh. The survey is proof of the value of adver tising the advantages of a State, a county or a town to travelers, as well as to industry and home-seekers. 'This is what North Carolina is doing and whaC on a small scale. Southern Pines is doing with its Town Advertising Committee, operating through the Information Center and ads in Northern newspapers. The survey is also a powerful argument for Southern Pines to step up its advertising pro gram. The Advertising Committee is aware of this, but it needs the encouragement of other citizen^ who recognize the tremendous value of travel to a community. Loss Of A Valuable Citizen It is a rare occurrence for a young person to write a letter to a newspaper, paying trib ute to an older person who has been taken by death. Such a letter appears on this page today, offering evidence of the special admira tion and affection in which Lt. Col. Herbert J. Dietenhofer was held by young people whose activities he had supervised and in spired. Such an attitude toward the man who died only a few days before Christmas is held, of course, by many other persons of all ages, throughout the Sandhills. Colonel Dietenhofer worked enthusiastically in many fraternal, civic and religious capacities. The extent of his counsel, influence and accomplishments was only realized after his death,, by those who had been closely associated with him and by others to whom he had been known casual ly. The quietness and modesty with which he went about his many activities for betterment of the community can be judged from the fact that this newspaper found, after his death, that it did not have an engraving or photo of him in the files. His interest in the communi ty was completely unselfish and was render ed with no desire for personal recognition. The sympathy of the Sandhills goes out to Mrs. Dietenhofer and their four children. Col onel Dietenhofer’s record of community serv ice is one of which they can be proud. A Town Can Keep Village Charms It has been often said that Southern Pines would be the ideal site for a university; that it possesses many qualities sought after by academic circles. Occasionally people say: “It’s like a little Chapel Hill in its beauty and restful atmosphere and the kind of commu nity it is.” The editorial printed below is from the Greensboro Daily News, commentng on an ex cerpt from the Chapel Hill Weekly. Certain aspects of Chapel Hill which it examines and evaluates call strongly to mind some of the same kind of things here in Southern Pines. The editorial seems to hit the local nail on the head and for that reason, as well as for the ■views expressed, is. well worth reprinting. The Greensboro piece is entitled; AN AGE-OLD BATTLE When is a village? Bill Prouty, writing in the Chapel Hill Weekly, says size has nothing to do with it; “To me a village (there are many def initions) is a community made up of peo ple, not necessarily a ‘homogenous’ group, most of whose lives, livelihoods and loves center around one predominant interest. It’s not a matter of population, but rather of direction, though, by my very defini tion, most ‘villages’ would necessarily be of somewhat limited population.” You can guess what has happened. The peo ple in Chapel Hill intent on making it a town are clashing with the people who want to keep it a village. This is an age-old fight. In America we have seen it fought time and time again. It follows a definite pattern. The town builders win from the villagers; the city builders win from the town builders. They win by sheer mass of weight. They cut down trees. They turn parks into parking lots. They widen streets so more automobiles can pile on top of more automo biles, until finally somebody builds a subur ban shopping center. Then a new factor enters the picture. The city builders, who want to chop down trees so their village would look more like a city, begin to plant trees and open parks to keep people from deserting dowmtown. Chicago dug up all the trees in Grant Park, put a park ing lot under the park, then replanted all the trees. Philadelphia is razing the slums around Independence Square to provide a pleasant vista, once readily available to Ben Franklin “Us Doves Stick Pretty Qose Together!” r vv. V ■W • k f i- 4 The Public Speaking et al. Should Chapel Hill duplicate the conven tional blunders of town and city builders? We hope not. Perhaps there is tme to learn fromi the experience of others. A town can keep its village charms if it tries. But it must try hard. The most danger ous adversary is the shopkeeper of little im agination and less vision; his mind revolves around the business office; he cannot see beauty or profit in a tree; he sees progress only in brick and asphalt and credit ledgers. Chapel Hill has such shopkeepers. But it has the other kind too. Many of them recognize both profit and beauty in a tree. Along with Bill Prouty and the professors, they know that a village can remain a village in heart and spirit even though it welcomes newcom ers and understands that growth is the theme and pattern of all life. Chapel Hill is too beautiful and beloved to become a victim of the conventional city builders. Let its great elms overarching Franklin Street and its stone walls built by Elisha Mitchell remain as symbols of unique ness and individuality which Chapel Hill and North Carolina honor. The Book Fair Project One of the events to which we look forward with interest, in 1960 is a “book fair” to be held in the big new War Memorial Coliseum at Greensboro in connection with the State’s observance of National Library Week, April 3-9. Community observance programs for this week will he held in many sections of the state, but the state focus will be on the bopk fair which will be a non-commercial exhibit of over 5,000 adult and juvenile books recent ly published. Authors will appear and there will he a nationally known speaker for a special public occasion. The North Carolina Library Association has pledged its support. Representatives of its public, school, college and special libraries will work with the steering committee. All this is something new in North Carolina. It may appear silly to some observers to try to promote the cause of libraries, books and reading by such an observance—^but we think that it will be effective in arousing interest by persons who otheryrise might not give books a second thought during Library Week. Mr. Dietenhofer Helped Demolay, Rainbow Girls To the Editor: The passing of Herbert Dieten hofer has touched many of us c-eeply. Mr. Dietenhofer was one of the kindest men I have ever known. I became acquainted with him when the Order of Rainbow for Girls was organized in Southern / Pines. He was a pillar for us, a young organization. And he con tinued to be an inspiration and a help, always ready to give his time or belongings for the im provement or good of Rainbow. Mr. Dietenhofer as a Mason was also greatly interested in Demo lay. Without his help, they would never have gotten their start here After All, Your Own Bed Is Best W. E. H. in Sanford Herald There’s just nothing like sleep ing in one’s own bed. No matter how many inner- spring or rubberfoam mattresses there are in hotel and motel rooms, and regardless of how thick and smooth, they’re never quite the equal of the bed in which you normally get your rest. For 15 nights recently I slept in a variety of beds in a succes sion of countries and cities. Two whole nights and the better part of another were spent in seats on trans-Atlantic planes; these are fairly restful and with backs re clined and a small pillow edged behind your head, always provi-, ded you either have the gift of complete relaxation or are weary enough, you can get at least fit ful sleep. Isn’t as restful as stretching out full length but bet ter than nothing. Hotel beds in the cities I slept: London, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Munich, Zurich and Paris, were comfortable. Most of the time these boasted feather filled coun terpanes, several inches thick and as large as the bed, to keep off the cold. Most places the sin gle rooms had two beds, and as noted in other writings, the chambermaids always carefully prepared the second bed for oc cupancy. The mattresses were good; usually double innerspring and the beds were long enough for a fellow to stretch out full length. Enormous pillows were provi ded and at Munich there was an extra gimmick under the mat tress: a wedge shaped affair about 30 inches wide, tapering from zero inches to eight, which elevated the head of the bed like a hospital bed raised up. These were, mercifully, detachable; if you took it out the first night, as I did, it wasn’t replaced. Still, none quite came up to the bed I sleep in about 340 nights a year. in this area. But it wasn’t just an obligation because of his position. It was because of his earnest be lief that Demolay and Rainbow would help the youth in this area, that these organizations would further the Christian lives of the young people in this community and similar ones all over the United States. He will be missed, really miss ed, not only by his family but by the Rainbow Girls who depended on his guidance. We loved him, and his memory will always re main with us. JAN MCDONALD Past Worthy Advisor Order of Rainbow for Girla Assembly No. 40 Southern Pines War Memorial Board 'Disgrace To Town' To the Editor: Best congratulations to The Pilot on its recent editorial in re gard to the “so called” War Mem orial located in front of the Li brary. In its present dilapidated con dition it is an eyesore and in fact a disgrace to the town. It is dirty, unkept and falling to pieces. It should be tom down and replac ed, as The Pilot suggests, with a permanent structure. I’m sure the funds to build such a struc ture would soon be forthcoming. 1st Lt. JULIAN T. BISHOP (Ret.) Southern Pines Footlog Across The Creek (From Winston-Salem Journal) Mrs. Lillian Cover, Cherokee County’s representative in the General Assembly, has asked the State Highway Commission to put “at least a log” across a creek near Andrews. Twelve children now have to wade the creek every day on their way to and from a school bus stop, she said. This request will arouse inter est and curiosity among the state’s older citizens and set some of them to wondering just how many pedestrian footings still span small streams in rural North Carolina. There may be quite a few old footlogs across rural creeks in the state. But one rarely sees the logs nowadays, either in driving through the countryside or in walking through rustic areas. Most of them apparently have gon.3 the way of the little one- teacher schoolhouse, the old cov ered well, and grandma’s milk- house down by the spring. The footlog provided a cheap, quickly constructed means of spanning a creek for the benefit of pedestrians. Usually the log was the trimmed trunk of a large, tough oak, or hickory tree. It was firmly staked or nailed in place on each side of the stream. To prevent walkers from slipping. when the log was wet, losing their foothold and plunging into the stream, “hand poles” were usually extended across the stream about waist-high above the log. One could hold to the pole as he went along or grab it if he started to slip. These old footlogs gave grow ing boys a chance to show off. Some of them liked to reveal their prowess by walking the en- • tire length of the log without once touching the ^convenient “hand pole.” This was indeed quite a feat if the log happened to be timber and wiggly. Sometimes over-confident youngsters made a misstep and landed up to his knees in the middle of the creek. Nowadays when the art of walking seems almost lost and nearly everyone hops in a car, even to go just a few hundred yards, perhaps there is much less need for the old country creek footlog. But those crude pedes trian bridges have a noble tradi tion of public usefulness. Thus old timers to whom the word footlog brings back nostal gic memories find something pleasant in the news that in Cherokee, at least, the value of these old walkways is still appre ciated. Long may the footlog re main a feature of the Carolina rustic scene! Grains of Sand Silly Santa Five-year-old Gregory was much attached to the myth of Santa Claus. Although a con scientious mother had carefully # explained to him that Santa Claus was an idea rather than a reality, he still remained a real figure to Greg—the man who came down the chimney and put the presents under the Christmas tree. Even when Santa Claus chang ed his program and brought the presents on Christmas Eve this year (to accommodate the grown ups who hoped to sleep the next ^ morning), Greg’s faith was firm. “He has a lot of places to go,” said the youngster, “and he had to start early.” When it was found later that Santa Claus had absent-minded ly left one present down in the basement on top of the deep freeze, Greg explained that, too. “Isn’t that Santa Claus silly?” he said. “He thought the deep freeze was the North Pole.” ^ Consolation Possibly to console a Pilot edi tor in a recurring struggle with Monday Morning mail, about which complaints were made re cently in this column, the follow ing verses were sent to GRAINS: When Monday’s mail seems drab and gray And fragrant flowers There are—n’t Children’s laughter is unheard. No singing birds Appar—ent, (Zlonsider Mondays such As much a pleasure As a chore— When an oyster builds a lovely pearl The irritant came Be—fo—re. No magic wand has yet ' been made To transform mornings Mon—day. But one good way to climb to fame Is pondering this each Sun—day. This bit of cheering philosophy, with its very practical self-help suggestion, arrived signed “Dan Shaw” and postmarked Pinehurst. We are suspicious about the val idity of the signature, though not the postmark. We think the in itials of the poet would more likely be N. H. than D. S., though of course we aren’t sure and what difference does it make? If all mankind would heed the poet’s advice, there’d be no more “blue Mondays”—and think what a world THAT would be! (Since writing the foregoing paragraphs, we have cornered N. H. in his den at the offices of the Pinehurst Outlook and Moore County News and he swears he is not the author. To whomever the author is, then, our thanks—and' an invitation to , favor GRAINS with more verses when inspira tion strikes.) What is a Farm? The U. S. Census Bureau, now engaged in taking the 1960 Cen sus of Agriculture, has come up with a new definition. The new specifications call for either more acreage or higher farm product sales. For a place of 10 acres or more, farm product sales must be $50 or more a year to qualify as a “farm.” Where the acreage is less than 10 acres, ac tual sales must exceed $250 a year. Since 1950, the Census Bureau had labeled a “farm” any proper ty measuring three acres or more, providing it produced $150 worth of agricultural products a year. Property smaller than three acres qualified if actual sales total $150 or more. It’s estimated that about 4 mil lion farms in the U. S. will qual ify under the new label. This will be a significant decrease from the number now listed as “farms.” So, although you think you’re living on a farm now, you may not be when the census is com pleted. The PILOT Published Every Thursday by THE PILOT, Incorporated Southern Pines, North Carolina What Do Children Think About? ig41--JAMES BOYD—1944 (From New York Herald-Tribune) According to a survey just pub lished by the Office of Education in Washington, children nowa days have more feai;s, anxieties and worries than children of for mer years. Well, the same can probably be said for most adults, even without a survey. What ■everybody is so worried about, we don’t know. But we are in trigued by the confidence with which this survey reports on what children think about. From time to time we ourselves have asked the nearest child what was on his (or her) mind. but the information we have elicited invariably deals with such things as the imminence of Christmas (it’s nearer than most patents think) or the various reasons for postponing bedtime an hour on any given night (the variety is astounding). If the Office of Education has additional information, we shall be happy to consider it. For our selves, we would gladly add the way of a child’s mind to. those three other eternal enigmas, the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a man with a maid. 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 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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Dec. 31, 1959, edition 1
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