Page TWO
THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina
THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1962
ILOT
^My Dear-We Were Meant For Each Other!”
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 tor 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. ,
The DAR and the Nation
We are sure that numerous members of
the Daughters of the American Revolu
tion are not wholly satisfied with the
DAR’s heavy-hand^, humorless obses
sion with the status quo (or preferably
even with a departed status), but we sup
pose they are inclined to drift along, often
ignoring on the local level certain of the
atavistic edicts of the top management.
Mrs. Ernest Ives of Southern Pines, des
cendant of one of the founders and early
leaders of the DAR recently solved the
problem of divided allegiance (to the
organization versus what she felt is in
the best interest of the nation) by re
signing from the DAR. The Pilot com
mends her action which, by the national
publicity given it, may inspire healthy
debate on DAR policies, if not actually
leading to policy revision.
Mrs. Ives’s disagreement with the DAR
involved the group’s opposition to various
aspects of the United Nations, primarily
the Children’s Fund to which millions of
Americans contribute in Halloween
neighborhood collections and which dis
penses food and medical care to millions
of the world’s children who otherwise
would be denied these saving services.
Certainly the majority of Americans
Trees Belong to the Town
As has been made abundantly clear in
many issues of this newspaper, the trees
that adorn the streets and shelter the
homes of this town are very dear to the
hearts of its people.
It is gratifying, even a bit amusing, to
find that visitors seem to catch the tree
fever, along with the spring fever, as they
wander about our streets. One often over
hears the exclamation: “But this is such
a GREEN town! Your trees are so beauti
ful. How did you ever keep it this way?”,
and there will sometimes follow the
comment: “It’s such a contrast to the aver
age town of this size.”
Such comparisons are odious, as every
one knows, evoking vainglory and sinful
pride, but how is it possible to refrain
from gloating at such gratuitous and
delightful appreciation of what every
body knows. When the visitors actually
takes up cudgels in the cause of town
trees, local hearts must truly rejoice.
This happened during one of the recent
“weeks” when the town was full of
teachers or garden clubbers or shriners
or some other cohorts of welcome visitors.
It appears that several members of a
group were lunching at one of the Broad
Street restaurants just when a large tree,
growing in the parkway, was being cut
down. Details of the incident are unclear
except that this was done at the request
of the owner. The visitors saw the deed
and were indignant. “It almost spoiled our
lunch!” one said, adding the question:
“Why is this allowed to happen?”
Echo answers “why.” Certainly trees
that need to come down for valid reasons
should be taken down, but if vigilance is
the price of liberty, sp it is—at the risk
of twisting an aphorism out of shape—
the price of looking out for the trees.
Destruction and maiming of valuable
trees has happened over and over again
in the past, and it is likely that this one
town problem is as hard as any other to
watch out for and handle properly.
From much that has passed at Coxmcil
meetings of late it seems certain that the
members are •^ell aware of the problem
and the need for vigilance. That this will
involve occasional hassles goes without
saying. There are alweys people who
want action for the benefit, as they see
it, of their yard regardless of other
people’s or the parkways; and there are
always the sometimes reckless activities
of those over-active gentlemen, the “tree
trimmers”, (see GRAINS). But, with the
splendid results accomplished here by
those who have gone ahead as a constant
inspiration and a staunch precedent to
lean against, it should be possible to pre
serve what we have and go on to foster
greater beauty for tomorrow.
Means ta What End?
It seems evident that any day, now, we
may expect to hear that this nation has
resumed nuclear testing.
The papers over this last weekend and
the magazines have been full of articles
on the subject. It almost seems as if
there had been a concerted last effort to
alert the people to keener awareness of
what this step may mean. Along with the
stories of the coming test and its implica
tions have been articles on the “lightray”
or “deathray,” now, it is said, on the
drawing board and—one of the most un
nerving—an article by Hanson Baldwin
describing the attempts to build an “anti
missile missile” with its satistics, among
them: 95 million slain by the burst of the
two or three enemy rockets which, it is
said, would inevitably penetrate whatever
number of these “protective” missiles we
might possess.
To the peoples—and there are many,
who fear the United States just as much
as so many others fear Russia—^the re
sumption of nuclear testing brings fear
and to the Japanese who survived the
Bomb it holds despair. Two of the Japa
nese women from Hiroshima have been
touring the coimtry to protest against the
testing. They say: “Our bodies are radio
active now. Fifty of us survivors died
after the last blasts set off by the
Russians. If this planned testing takes
place our degree of radioactivity will
soar above the safety mark and we will
die.” We have seen no denial of this prog
nosis.
We, who are responsible for resuming
testing, try to believe what is told us by
the authorities: that testing will dis
courage and cow our enemies; that it
will make us stronger and that we cannot
rely on the weapons, the vast stockpile
of bombs these same authorities had re
cently assured us were enough. In all
official writing these so-called advant
ages and necessities are stressed but never
any disadvantages. But the writings of
scientists and the flow of articles recently
released show that there are many dis
advantages and many wise men who be
lieve they outweigh the advantages.
The disadvantages of continuing the
arms race which this testing will inevit
able stimulate can be reduced to only a
few: one is the factor of fear which drives
men to desperate action. The fear that
the other fellow is getting ready to attack
will drive a man and a nation to attack
first, and that fear may come for valid or
invalid reasons: for instance: though
inacciu-ate intelligence. This nation has
made grave mistakes through bad intelli
gence; it could do so again and the result
would be nuclear war. And the spark
could be lit, not through any intelligence
—after all, both countries are in a state
of complete alert—but simply because
tension had become so high and pressure
to act so great that the fatal move be
came inevitable. Again, the spark could
be lit by the troubles in other nations,
such as this present slowly increasing
warfare in Vient-Nam and in half a dozen
other potential powder kegs where the
East and the West are gradually coming
face-to-face.
So the question becomes in a way sim
ple, though its answer is far from such:
is it actually safer to continue the arms
race, this escallation of tit-for-tat testing,
or would it be safer to stop?
One of the New York Times’s wisest
commentators. Max Frankel, writes an
article of unrelieved pessimism, in which
his own opinion may be read between the
lines:
“Cruel April is going to end with a
bang, the bang of Western thermonuclear
tests in the Pacific .... The bang will
demonstrate a total disregard of world
opinion .... It will underscore a cold
decision that if an arms race is what the
Russians want, Washington will spend
and spend in proportions that even Mos
cow will find chilling ... 'The new round
of tests will be proof, at an as yet in
calculable cost, that there is not much
this country can ‘do’ about the Russians.”
Such unalloyed gloom was the tone
of most of the articles released to the
public over Sunday. Tough fare for an
Easter weekend!
support this activity of the UN, just as
the majority of Americans feel out of
tune with the DAR’s Far Right opposition
to progressive, forward-looking or hu
manitarian U. S. policies in other fields
of action. Moreover, most Americans do
not so easily as the DAR become hyster
ically enthusiastic over anyone who
waves the flag and denounces commun
ism, such as Sen. Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina. Other qualifications for
patriotism, some of them in fields de
nounced by the DAR, seem to many
Americans not only essential but far more
in tune than the DAR’s viewpoints with
the spirit of the nation’s foimding fathers.
This is a big nation, whose citizens have
many and varied opinions—and the Con
stitution says we are all welcome to them.
We would not have DAR members muz
zled, any more than we would have
spokesmen for more liberal and forward-
looking points of view muzzled. But we
agree with Mrs. Ives that a long, clear
look at what the DAR stands for is in
order—as compared with what most
Americans think is good for the nation,
and as compared with what the patriotic
ladies’ revered ancestors were fighting
for, too.
ANTICIPATING THE TERCENTENARY
Our Long Look At Yesterday
BY DORIS BETTS
In February, Mrs. John F.
Kennedy opened the White House
to a huge television audience, and
for many it weis one of those rare
moments when history is directly
experienced. Sometimes we need
to hold one rusted musket ball in
the hand before we can believe in
old battles, previous pains or
heroism, and earlier deaths.
Gertrude Stein’s rose may be
a rose may be a rose; but the
bed Lincoln slept in has somehow
outgrown the word “bed.” The
sight of it touches the imagination.
Here a real man lay, had dreams,
had insomnia, offered prayers.
When the precise majesty of the
Gettysburg Address is read aloud,
we believe in the abstract Lin
coln; but when we walk the floors
he in-(Ust have paced with worry,
we believe in that man, that per
son. We believe the lines in his
face and a tilt of his head and
the sharp look of appraisal from
underneath those brows.
'That Feeling'
Something of this feeling we
should preserve in all the plan
ning and details of this state’s
300th birthday. What we should
think of creating is never just
some granite marker, but that
feeling someone may sometime
get reading the words off that
marker.
We of this Commission are not
spinning the thread which unites
man across time and generations
—that thread is already there—
but we are helping it to be visible,.
traceable. We are helping our
fellow citizens to see it and feel
pride in it.
Sir George Carteret? Sir Wil
liam Berkeley? Who were these
Lords Proprietors?
First of all, they were men,
huiman beings as we are. Only
if we remember that can we con
clude they are of use to us now,
that we can reach back three
centuries and wonder about them
and feel glad in our state’s be
ginnings.
And King Charles II with his
financial and political debts to
pay—can we see him clearly?
Can we say to ourselves:
“This is our yesterday,” and
add that it is good to remember
and value yesterday, as it is also
good to create a “today” which
another generation may find
worthy of memory.
Excilement
The life of one man is short, a
flickering; but the life of Man
builds on himself and lies behind
us like a road traveled to this
point. What we hope to impart
to fellow Tarheels is not merely
a list of dates, facts, testimonials;
but a certain excitment.
Do you recall how, when you
drive up into the Blue Ridge and
the Great Smoky Mountains, you
The Public
Speaking
John P. Kennedy Has
Warmth, Forcefulness
To the Editor:
We would like to suggest to
those people in the Eighth Dis
trict who are not familiar with
the forceful John P. Kennedy
'that they learn more about him
and give him their support in the
approaching Democratic Primary.
In fact, we urge them to know
this man who has the interest of
North Carolina at heart. What has
he done? Look at his record in the
N. C. General Assemblies of 1959
and 1961.
1. He fought for and won exten
sion of the State’s minimiun wage
law.
2. Worked diligently for im
proved educational facilities.
3. Opposed the food tax.
4. Took an active part in pass
ing court reform legislation. He
(served on many committees dur
ing the two sessions of the Gen
eral Assemibly. No novice has
made more friends in the Assem
bly than John Kennedy, nor has
anyone grown so quickly in stat
ure and influence in Raleigh. This
man has warmth, sincerity and
forcefulness not demonstrated by
the opposition.
KAROLJ5 BLUE
Eagle Springs
Agra Revisited In Verse
An odd coincidence brought to The Pilot the poem, printed below,
whose author is Mrs. Wallace Irwin. Mrs. Irwin, whose late husband
honored GRAINS with some of his light verse, had been reading of
the visit made by Jacqueline Kennedy to the Taj Mahal in India.
She herself had spent magic hours there, wandering through the
rose gardens, gazing at the famous tomb, the extraordinarily beautiful
building constructed for the Indian queen. Not long after, looking
through some old papers, she came across a poem she had written
about the Taj Mahal. The story of the love of the Indiem monEirch,
called “Mad” by his people, and of the cruel fate he inflicted on the
architect of the marble edifice, so that he might never build such
another, are here given lyric expression by this author and student
of the Orient, now returned to live in the Sandhills.
IN THE ROSE GARDEN
Jehan, the Mad, on your commands
Beside the placid Jumna stands
A dreamstone built by
Black slave hands
Forever to proclaim
That here immortalized lies she
Who lit your flame of dynasty.
Who bore your princes, ten and three.
And, dying, blessed your name.
Splendor in the sunlight.
Magic in the moonlight.
Crying love undying
To the winds of the world
Beyond the skies.
Yet to genius who taught dead stone to fling
A bubble of grace on a rainbow’s wing.
That never for another king
Should marbled prayer with passion sing.
They say you did a damned thing '
And burnt out both his eyes.
Splendor in the noonlight.
Magic in the moonlight.
Crying love imdying
To the winds of the world
Beyond surmise
Of Paradise.
concentrate on curves and oncom
ing cars; and then at last stop
and look back—and the breath
suddenly swells up to the throat
at the panorama of where you
have been, and are! Our perspec
tive on that mountaintop gives us
unity of view, coherence; and
peering downhill at an ant-sized
car we think in wonder, “There’s
a real man in there as big as I
am, going to buy eggs for supper.”
So looking back at the pano
rama of yesterday, we need to
remember there are real men in
there, doing errands, having loves
and hates, learning and quarrel
ling and changing.
“They were real men. I wish I
knew more about them all!”
If we can help our fellow citi
zens feel that stirring of curiosity,
then they will learn more about
them, and our long look at yes
terday will be an enrichment to
us all.
(Mrs. Betts, feature writer
and novelist, lives at Sanford.
She is a member of the North
Carolina Tercentenary Com
mission which is supervising
the state's forthcoming obser
vance of the 300th annivers
ary of the granting of the
Carolina Charter in 1663.)
AGRA
—LAETTriA IRWIN
Crains of Sand
Not So Lovely*.
I think that I shall never see
A lightpole lovely as a tree,
But if those “trimmers” soon
don’t stop
'There’ll be no tree that has
a top
—Jett
Ding-aling-aling
A certain bank telephone came
in for a lot of ringing last week,
according to reports. The conver
sations were one-sided and went
something like this: ^
“Hey! You been to look at the
windows of that old building you
rented down on Pennsylvania?”
(Silence) “We all worked so hard
to get them to use old brick and
put in those nice windows and
now—! Well, they’re all the col
ors of the rainbow and you
ought to go and look!”
Ding-aling-aling!
“Hey! What about those ibam- ^ I
boos? Your new place grown a
fringe? Or What?? You mean ’em
to stay like that?”
Like the tarbaby, that tele
phone ain’t sayin’ nothin’. Glut
the bamboos got themselves de-
fringed, (except for a clump of
real pretty ones. Hope they stay.)
Speaking of Operations
First Lady: “My dear, it was the
most terrific operation. They took *'
a foot out of my intestines!”
Second Lady: “Gracious! But
how did it ever get there?”
"Loud! Groans Dept."
John G. Puller, who has added
a new department of that name to
his column in the Saturday Re
view, must have had his readers
groaning louder than ever this
week. Best of the lot—or worst— <41
was this:
TTiere’s a legend that when J.
S. Bach was comixising his mas
terpieces he always worked up a
huge appetite. So he got in the
way of packing a lunch and tak
ing it to his studio every day.
“From that time on,” states Mr.
Fuller implacably,” it was known
as a Bach’s Ixmch.”
Cheery?
Know what “laser” means? Ac
cording to Neal Stanford of the
Christian Science Monitor, it
stands for 'Tight amplification by
slimtilation of radiation."
This formula embodies the se
cret of the weapon of the future
upon whose construction, it is hap
pily stated, both Russia and the
U. S. are now engaged. Mr. Stan
ford says: “it will make nuclear-
tipped ballistic missiles look like
sling shots.”
Well, well. And we always
thought the monitor was such a
cheerful paper.
Worser And Worser
According to the Monitor’s
staff writer. General LeMay,
chief of the Air Force, says there
is no limit to the destruction of
which this light-ray weapon will
be capable. He says the Russians
are working hard on it and so are
we. “It could change the balance
of power and knock us out and
we mustn’t let them get it first.”
And while General LeMay is
saying this, Nikita’s generals will
be saying: “It could change the
balance of power and knock us
out if the Americans get it first
and we mustn’t let them. . .”
Oh hush.
Two Letters To a 'Draft Board
Dear Sir: Please at once sent
me a letter showing I was reject
from the Army on my left ear—
(signed) Silas G.
Dear Draftsmen: I want to in
form you that my status has
changed. My wife gave birth to a
baby and I want to thank every
member of the local board, (sign
ed) Robert S.
The PILOT
Published Every Thursday by
THE PILOT, Incorporated
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
Mary Evelyn de Nissott Society
Composing Room
Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen,
Thomas Mattocks, J. E. Pate, &.,
C!!harles Weatherspoon and John
E. Lewis.
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One Year $4.00
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Southern Pines, N. C.
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and N. C. Press Assn.