Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / Jan. 9, 1964, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Page TWO THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1964 Southern Pines ‘‘Burns Good I^ike A Statistic Should ...” ■LOT North Carolina “In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We will try to keep this a goo paper. We will try to make a little money for all concerned. Wherever there seems to e an occasion to use our influence for the public good we will try to do it. And we wi treat everybody alike.” — James Boyd, May 23, 1941. ^ ‘little Federal’ — Wrecker, Not Builder As next Tuesday’s voting on the pro posed “Little Federal” constitutional amendment draws near, we find our long- held opposition to the plan enhanced by a growing resentment against those mem bers of the General Assembly who foisted this perplexing, divisive and unnecessary decision on the. people of the State. The elements in the Assembly who exacted the amendment proposal as their price for approving the Senate redistrict ing bill were, generally viewed, those stubborn, power-jealous, short-sighted, backward-area legislators in spite of whom, rather than because of whom. North Carolina has made such remark able progress. The very fact that the amendment goes to the people as a kind of pay-off to this group (again we speak in general terms and recognize that there are distinguish ed supporters of the amendment) should make citizens of the State suspicious of it, if not downright disgusted with it. Under these circumstances, voters have a right to wonder if Little Fedefal is not indeed an attempt to undo the good that the 1963 Senate redistricting and the 1961 House reapportionment have done, because the group (again, in general) sup porting Little Federal is of the same stripe as those who failed, all through the 1950’s, to redistrict and reapportion, as required by law. Representaton is the issue. To our mind, a vote for Little Federal is a capitu lation to elements of the General Assem bly who, for selfish reasons, fear what the State now—with no further changes— will get: the fairest and potentially the most responsive and positive representa tion it has ever had in Raleigh. The Pilot has previously stated its op position to Little Federal and now en dorses and commends to readers the specific arguments against it, listed in an article on this page—an article that also notes what those who favor it say. We urge an “Against” vote on Tuesday. Welcome To Dr. Raymond Stone Last week’s news that Dr. Raymond A. Stone of Raleigh had been offered, and had accepted, the presidency of Moore’s new community college was most wel come. We commend the board of trustees on their unanimous and excellent choice, which, like most important decisions, has implications far beyond the immedi ate task in hand. It shows the trustees, organized barely one month earlier, mean business and are moving full speed ahead; that they work together well, that they are out to get the best, and that they are alive to the challenge of the times. Dr. Stone is the embodiment of the new generation of educators which is spur ring enormous progress, almost a revolu tion, in that field. Only 36, he has already rolled up a record which has caught state wide attention. The brilliant promise he has shown will, we predict, move far toward its fulfilment in Moore. A telling point: Dr. Stone helped step by step in preparations for this col lege. In his acceptance, he indicated that the spirit which he found here had much to do with his decision. He said, “I have been much impressed by the attitudes and actions of the people of Moore, their unified support of the college and their singleminded efforts to get it. With their continued help and support, I believe we can have a college second to none in the State.” We believe he will have cooperation in full measure, and that the people of Moore are eager to share in the adventure and challenge of creating a superior in- sitution which will outlast us all. College Buildings: Seek ‘The Best’ When the idea of a community college was first advanced, Moore County people set their sights high: if we were going to have a college, then it must be the best college. We must get the best man to head it, we must have the best teachers, the best buildings. We must have the best of everything, or as near as possible. Well, thanks to the county’s sturdy pledge and the State’s encouragement, we are going to have the college. What’s more, it is to be the first one in the State’s plan for the establishment of a selected group of community colleges. Pretty good for a starter. At the close of last spring’s enthusias tic meeting in Carthage, Dr. Dallas Her ring, chairman of the State Board of Edu cation, had been asked: “If we should get the college, how can we get a good faculty? How can we get the best man for president?” Dr. Herring replied: “We will help you. This college in Moore County seems likely to be the first one. It will be our show window. We’ll help you to find the best man to head it and a good faculty.” And so, with the appointment last week of Dr. Raymnod Stone as president, a third “best” joins the first two. Going on at what seems like whirl wind speed, things are moving toward another step: the college buildings. What sort of buildings will they be? Obviously they must be practical, ef ficient, easy to maintain. Less obviously but no less surely, they must be appro priate from an aesthetic standpoint to the purpose for which they are built. Their appearance, the impression made, is as important as the plan itself. ' This college must look like a college, not like a factory. It must look like a place where growth of mind and charac ter may take place, young minds expand, ideas burgeon. It must look like a place where Wisdom is the host—a welcoming host. There must be something of this in the actual appearance of the buildings, so that all who come will feel it and quicken to the call of what they will find within. So, though there may be great simplicity, there must be in its appearance dignity and the sense of loftiness and light that speaks of vision. Along with the good contemporary planning of this age of automation, there must go a sense of history, of the past, of the great architectural tradition in the unremitting search for knowledge, for beauty and the truth that is beauty. There must be beauty in this Moore County College. A large order? Yes, but our boys and girls rate a large order. The best is none too good for them. We who are responsi ble must see that this college we are building will be worthy in every way of the great purpose it is destined to fill. Basic Schooling: A Debt Long Past Due have been in school and weren’t, or drop- Governor Sanford’s planned attack on illiteracy cannot help but have the sup port of all North Carolinians. It is this affliction of deep basic ignorance of 17 per cent of our population which contains the seeds of poverty, crime and other ills, af fecting not only the State’s progress but the life of every citizen. The Governor’s project of a residence school for concentrated work with some of the illiterates is undoubtedly an im portant part of his plan, probably neces sary to get many such students over the hump. However, we believe that schools in every county and community could and should be used for night classes, and that the communities and counties should work with the State, to see that every individual requiring such instruction gets it. In announcing plans for the residence school, the Governor noted it would take care mostly of young people, though could take in older people catch up.” jng people illit- the law Crains of Sand >/ H esctec\te_ THE 'LITTLE FEDERAL' CXJNTROVERSY ...- Pros, Cons On Amendment Liste ped out before learning the first things. The law simply was not enforced. This is an outstanding example of the penny-wisdom, poimd-foolishness into which a poor State will take refuge. At tendance officers cost money. Getting them was for years the counties’ responsi bility. Welfare departments were on star vation rations. Child welfare workers were, and are still, all too rare on welfare payrolls. What the State owed these people as children, it still owes them. Whatever it takes, using the school buildings and equipment, school buses for transporta tion, additional teachers, counselors and administrators, must be provided. What ever it costs, it’s a bargain. And while the plans are being made, it must be noted that even today, too many children aren’t in school and not enough is being done about it. In Moore County schools, for example, one white attendance officer, added just this year, and one Negro, added three years ago, are doing their best but cannot cope with the whole situation. (The city administrative units have none.) Let us watch out that, jg to cure the illiteracy born neJlM^e aren’t building rro\ Here are the major arguments for and against the constitutional amendment, known as the “Lit tle Federal” plan, on which North Carolina voters are scheduled to express their approval or disap proval next Tuesday, January 14; For The Amendment 1. The amendment would make possible a legislative body like that of the Federal government (hence “Little Federal”) in which the North Carolina House would be comparable with the U. S. Senate, based on geography, and the North Carolina Senate would be comparable with the US House of Representatives, based on population. This plan, say its pro ponents, would make the North Carolina legislature “conform to basic principles of representative government.” 2. A State House of Representa tives based purely on geography, with one legislator from each of the 100 counties, no matter what a county’s size, would assure fair representation for the widely di verse sectional interests of the state and would act as a check on hasty legislation not of benefit to the whole state—especially im portant since the Governor of North Carolina has no veto power. 3. The 20 “extra” House seats, which are now allotted, according to a constitutional formula, to growing counties as they add population and would be lost un der Little Federal, would be com pensated for by 20 added Senate seats, the Senate then becoming a body based “purely” on popula tion. 4. Little Federal would prevent control of either house of the General Assembly by a “concen trated population majority”—but populous counties would have the power, in the Senate, to control legislation they deemed for or against their best interests. 5. The amendment makes re districting of the Senate inevitable after each decennial census, pro viding that if the General Assem bly does not redistrict at that time, a commission whose mem bers are specified would be em powered to accomplish the task. Proponents note that this would prevent the failure of legislatures to redistrict (the N. C. Senate was not redistricted from 1941 until 1963.) Against the Amendment 1. Opponents of the sunendment say that the comparison between the U .S. Congress and the North Carolina General Assembly is not valid. For nearly 100 years, the North Carolina Constitution, while guaranteeing that each county has at least one member in the House, has seen both the House and Senate as representative bodies, limiting neither to purely geo graphical representation. Amend ment opponents see this as a healthy approach, suitable to the state, if not to the nation, and see no reason to change. 2. Moreover, opponents say, the counties of North Carolina are not legally comparable to sovereign States of the Union. Counties owe their existence and derive their A "FOR" Vote Would Mean . . . rom ccard- 100 members in Ihe House of Representatives, one each county. 70 members in the Senate, to be allotted in distri(§s that would be set up by the 1965 General Assembly, ing to a formula based on population. The plan -would go into effect for the 1967 General At ^mbly. An "AGAINST" Vote Would Mean ... 120 members in the House'<Jf Representatives, at from each county, and the rest on the basis of tion of the counties. 50 members in the Senate, one each from the senatorial districts, the rest on the basis of pop of the districts. This is the plan now in effect as a result of redl accomplished during the special session of the Genera' bly in October. ew tion feting ssem- powers from the General Assem bly and may be “altered, changed or abolished” by the Assembly and do not therefore bear toward the legislature the same relation ship as the States to Congress. 3. The N. C. Senate has just been redistricted according to the constitutional formula that each senator represent “as near as may be an equal number of inhabit ants,” and the Senate now stands The Public Speaking Kennedy Memorials Have Been Overdone To the Editor: Since no further reference to a local John F. Kennedy memorial has appeared in the last-issue or two of The Pilot, is this. an in dication that the idea has been dropped? My opinion is that the whole thing has been overdone, but I realize full well the futility of trying to convince those swept along in the Niagara of emotion that has followed President Ken nedy’s death. Perhaps, though, some may be influenced by these excerpts from recent articles, concerning Jacque- line Kennedy’s feelings about the matter: , Newsweek; “For all her zeal in memorializing her husband, she is aware that such gestures as nam ing things for him—however well intentioned—can be carried to excess.” Drew Pearson: “Embarrassed over the number of memorials to President Kennedy, according to intimates, is the serene Jacque line Kennedy. She thought it would be nice to rename Cape Canaveral after her husband, but the reaction to this was sour in some quarters and she now fears so many places are taking his name that it may cause an ad verse public reaction.” As for the suggestion to rename a street here “Jacqueline Boule vard,” I agree on one point: I, too, would have chosen to remain anonymous, as did the writer of that letter! MRS. J. H. CARTER, JR. Southern Pines as fairly districted as it ever has. The addition of 20 senators under teh Little Federal Plan would require another redistricting and the new plan, it’s pointed out, abolishes the “as near as nw be” formula and substitutes a*stipu- lation that there can be a Varia tion of 25 per cent above or below the population norm in each senatorial district—meaning that one district could vary as much as 50 per cent from another in population, permitting gerry mandering tactics. The much- touted “pure population” .aspect of the Senate’s makeup, th^efore, is not nearly so “pure” fes the amendment’s proponents 'would like to ha-vfe Us believe. No such variation, opponents point out, is allowed in population of districts represented by members of the U. S. House of Representatives, to which the proposed N. C. Senate is being compared. 4. In actual fact, under the Little Federal plan—with the 20 “swing seats” abolished and the 70-member senate redistricted— the House could be controlled by members representing 19 per cent of the people and the Senate by members representing 37% per cent of the people. 5. The plain fac^ is that' all axeas and interests in North Carolina ARE now represented in the two bodies of the General Assembly, amendment opponents stress. The House was reapportioned in 1961 and the Senate in 1963. Each coun ty has at least one representative in the House to act exclusively, when needed, in the interests of that county, and the 20 extra seats give a healthy flavor of more diverse representation to the deliberations of that body and accord proper representation to growing counties. The adequacy of the General Assembly as it now stands is recognized, by ex perienced and level-headed old hands in Raleigh, notably Moore County’s own Speaker of the House H. Clifton Blue who said, after he cast the tie-breaking vote on the combined Senate-redlstrict- ing and Little Federal-amendi^nt bill, that he would vote ag^st the amendment, adding, “I lieve our present constituj taking everything into consic tion, offers a better and souj approach to fair represent! for the State as a whole thai proposed amendment.” Too Bad Jimmy, spending his third year in the second grade, felt so sorry for his teacher, that nice lady. Miss Jones. He seemed resigned to his own. fate, but, said Jimmy: “It’s too bad for Miss Jones, she has to spend three years in the Second Grade, too.” Byronic "Poetry" For some reason we’ve never credited the poet Byron with a sense of hxunor. But imder that dramatic swashbuckling exterior, he must have had a good one. For one thing, he loved to make up and tease himself and others with horrible little rhymes. Such as these; “What men call gallantry and gods adultery. Is much more common where the climate’s sultry.” And another: “But, oh ye lords of ladies intel lectual. Inform us truly, have they not hen-pecked you all?” Words Are Fascinating Here’s an interesting thing about a word, as told in John Moore’s good, book, “You English Words”: He says that the word “SMOG” was an ancient English word that went out of use long ago. It was quite forgotten until that time out in Los Angeles when the city was first badly blanketed by smoky, tainted fog. Then L. A. combined the two words and call ed it the old word: “SM(Xr.” It was only a few years later that the same thing happened to London, only much worse. It was in December, 1952, that a similar fog and smoke combined over that city. It choked to death a number of frail, elderly people and also a lot of entries in the Fat Stock Show then being held at Smithfield, a suburb of Lon don. It was only the enterprise of the Scottish herdsmen that succeeded in saving the lives of those animals that did survive. How? They gave them huge drinks of the best Scotch whiskey. ■Thereby creating a prodigious but happy uproar. So that’s how come “SMOG” came back into the English lan guage. The Certain Naval Person Read in that charming book, “My Darling Clementine,” that after she’d been married to Wins ton Churchill a few years, Lady Clementine decided' she was mar ried to a hurricane. Force 200 at least, we’d say. For The Birds Christmas was for the Birds, this year as far as GRAINS was concerned. And that’s not meant in the way you think. Now why should that expres sion be taken to mean that the thing referred to is no good? The person who invented it certainly didn’t know anything about our birds. Ours turn up their beaks at trash. They’re as pernickety about the quality of the eats we supply as the most high-falhitin, mustachioed gourmet. We’ve given up trying to get rid of inferior goods by means of the birds. Put out a dried up old piece of apple—and many of the books actually recommend such —and they flirt and twerp, pick ing and pecking here and there, eventually shoving it off the edge of the feeder. “It’s for the bugs!” they screech in that unattractive nasal high C. Our birds had good fresh seeds with lots of sunflower mixed in Christmas morning and they real ly put it away. The Squirrel was apparently at home eating the Christmas dinner he’d been stor ing away, because for once he didn’t show up and the birds took full advantage of it. THE FiLOT Published Every Thursday by THE PILOT. Incorporated Southern Pines, North Carolina 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 Katharine Boyd C. Benedict Dan S. Ray C. G. Council Bessie C. Smith Editor Associate Editor Gen. Mgr. Advertising Advertising Mary Scott Newton Business Mary Evelyn de Nissoff Society Composing Room Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen, Thomas Mattocks, J. E. Pate, Sr., Charles Weatherspoon, Clyde Phipps. Subscription Rates Moore County One Year $4.00 Outside Moore County One Year $5.00 Second-class Postage paid at Southern Pines, N. C. Member National Editorial .Assn, and N. C. Press Assn.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 9, 1964, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75