Newspapers / The Roanoke Beacon and … / Aug. 2, 1956, edition 1 / Page 4
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The Roanoke Beacon AND WASHINGTON COUNTY NEWS Published Every Thursday in Plymouth, Washington County, North Carolina The Roanoke Beacon is Washington County’s only newspaper. It was estab lished in 1889, consolidated with the Washmgton County News in 1929 and with The Sun in 1937. North Carolina i m . --—,3Q t WESS ASSOCIATION^ © \y Winner of North Carolina Press Association Awards for General Excellence in 1940, 1941, 1946 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (Strictly Cash in Advance) In Washington, Tyrrell, Hyde, Beaufort. Bertie and Martin Counties: One Year_$2.00 Six Months_$1.25 Single Copies, 5 cents Outside Washington, Tyrrell, Hyde, Beau fort, Bertie and Martin Counties: One Year_$2.50 Six Months_$1.50 Special To Men in the Armed Services of the United States: One Year_$1.50 No Subscriptions Less Than Six Months Advertising Rates Furnished on Request Entered fit the post office in Plymouth, N. C., as second-class matter, under pro visions of the act of Congress of March 8, 1879. Thursday, August 2, 1956 The Last of Summer The last full month of summer is upon us. The thought brings many considerations to the minds of millions of Americans. Fur the young, who go to school, August is the last month of vacation. Tt is the last month of ocean house-parties and vacations, mountain hikes and various pleasure and va cation trips to lakes and parks and other facilities throughout the country. Many a youngster will not forget that Aug ust is the last month of vacation on even one day of the month. Bitterly fighting against time, losing battle thought it is, the youngster who hates school will live every minutes of August. For others, the arrival of the last month of summer brings about thoughts of hurri canes, fall, football and many other reflect ions. By the end of August, the days will be considerably shorter than they were in June, and the fall equinox will only be about three weeks away. In the northern latitudes of this country, the first cold snaps will have possibly whistled in through the drying leaves of the trees, al though in the southern latitudes, the weather will still be hot and oppressive, in typical summer fashion. But it will be the last such month, even in most southern latitudes. For political candidates, August is the first free month for members of Congress, as far as campaigning is concerned. State ayd county fairs also begin in August in various sections of the country. r roiessonai woman Degms late m .vugusi and August has now become the last full month of major league baseball, although the season runs well into the last days of Sep tember. The first hurricanes of the year usually come in August, and, by the time you reat this, the first warnings of trouble spots ir the Caribbean may have been reported. Bui today’s problems, and longings, are not at serious as those just a few years ago, anc all Americans feel a little better when they consider the fact that fourteen years ago in August, the Japanese advance in the soutl Central Pacific had not yet been checked, am Japanese troops were just about thirty mile: from Port Moresby, which was only an hour'? flying distance from Australia. In that month also, Hitler's armies wert bidding for victory in Russia, drivng toward: Stalingrad, and Rommel stood at El Alamein where he would remain before being defeater by Field Marshal Montgomery. -o End of The Circus? Several of the few remaining circuses hau gone on the rocks in the United States in re cent years. The newspapers carried the story of another failure this month. It is also reported that this may be the last year for Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus. It is said that the day of carry ing along tents, for huge shows under the big top, is at an end. It is even said that Rangling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey, which has lone been recognized as the No. 1 circus attraction in this country, will next year perform in air-cooled, indoor auditoriums. If this is true, it is the end of the big top as many Americans have known it for de cades. It will be the end for many things, and the vast traveling assemblage which has char acterized the circus in America for so many years will fade for the scene. The smaller circuses have not been able to make it in mod ern times, competing with television and oth er forms of enteratinment. They are now selling their animals and the show will never again go on the road. Now the giant among them closes down. Let's All Hang Together The so-called Pearsall Plan presents some grave questions for North Carolina voters to consider before they vote on September 8th on amending the state constitution to put the plan into effect. The amendments would do two things. First i it would authorize grants by the state for pupils whose parents do not want them to attend mixed schools. Second, it permits in dividual units to vote on suspending operation of its schools in case of “intolerable con ditions." Most objectionable feature of the Pearsall plan, as we see it, is the threat to our state wide school system. While the smaller, poorer counties—and Washington is one of them—do not and cannot have schools as good as those in the larger, richer counties, there is a mini mum below which we can’t drop—and that minimum is far superior to anything we ever had when the schools were operated as sepa rate county or local uints. If one school unit should vote to suspend operation of its schools for any reason, then we no longer have a uniform state-wide school system. It would be up to “local initiative” in that one unit to devise some method of educating its children, and it is not reasonable to suppose that the present minimum standard could be maintained by any desperate spur-of the-moment substitute that would be devel oped with the means available. Certainly, there would be no great amount of state-wide concern over the fact that one unit, or two units, or even six units, had no schools as long as the remainder of the state was operating its schools in a normal manner. And just as certainly, the one unit, or six units, could not set up and operate any ade quate system of private schools on the basic grant of S13S per pupil per year, as propos ed in the Pearsall Plan. Not even “in the back of Moose Halls,” as Governor Hodges is sup posed to have remarked, in rather bad taste, we think. In the early thirties, North Carolina schools were in a bad way, operating on the individual unit system back to which it now seems we are headed. Many counties, and this was one of them, could not collect enough taxes to meet teacher salaries, and “scrip” was used to pay them off in some cases. The State came in and assumed the burden of operating all the schools for a minimum six-month term. This was later moved up to eight months, and the system has since been im proved and stepped up in many ways over the intervening years. Is it now seriously proposed that we scrap all this progress and return to operation of the schools by individual units? It would seem that our state administration and educational leaders could have come up with a better proposition than this, which can only result in a hodge-podge of half-baked ideas being carried out at the expense of our children’s future. And the smaller, poorer counties will come out on the shortest end of a very short stick. Supported by the governor, the state ad ministration and the legislature, we have no illusions about failure of the amendments be ing carried on September 8. The amendments undoubtedly will be adopted, because our people generally will vote for anything that promises to retain our present system of segre gated schools. Personally, we regard it as a forlorn hope. Eminent lawyers disagree as to whether or not the plan will stand up in the courts. As far as we are concerned, it would seem that the NAACP and its cohorts should have a far easier time breaking down our school system on a unit-by-unit basis instead of hav ing to take on the whole state at once. If we are going to close any schools, let us close them all at once. By the same token, if North Carolina is going to operate any schools, let it operate them all. It was Benjamin Franklin, we believe, who said something like “If we don't hang to gether, we’ll all hang separately.” That advice seems as good to us today as it did when they were signing the Declaration of Independence. . -■ o For a Safe Vacation Vacation travel is big business these days Tourism, according to the Department of Con servation and Development, is the state's third largest industry. Our vast network oi highways are dotted with vacationers explor ing the countvside from the mountains to the sea. But judging from the experience of past years many vacationers already on the road and many others getting ready for the take off will die in taffic accidents. Many others will be crippled. Families will be broken, and grief will enter many an otherwise happy home. Doubt what we say? Well, you can’t doubt last year’s death toll—1105, or 17,869 injur ed. It's part of the record. The great tragedy is—-these deaths and in juries are unnecessary. A little more time given to planning before the takeoff ... a little more alertness and attention to safe driving along the wav . . . would bring vaca tioners (and others) home safe. But vacationers are usually in a hurry to get where they're going. They're not willing to spend that “little more.” They pile the ( car full of vacation miscellanea, plan a gruel ling schedule, hit the road ready to do or die. 1. Who was Secretary of State under Presi dent George Washington? 3. Name the 7th President of the United 3. Who was the youngest President of the U. S.? 4. How old was President Truman when he first took office? 5. What religious affiliation claims the most Presidents? 6. Name the first Secretary of the Treas ury. 7. What are the two branches of the Treas ury from which we get our chief Federal in come? 8. Under wlat Department is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing? 9. Name the present Secretary of the Treas ury 10. What is the President’s salary? (See “Answers” at Bottom of Column) -o l|A Few SMILES! Costly Course A rich old lady was paying her nephew’s college bills, and her visitor asked her if it was expensive. “Well.” said the aunt, “languages run pretty high My check this month covered $10 for English. S20 for Latin and $110 for Scotch.” It Worked The proprietor of the little country store was extolling the virtues of a bottle of spot re mover to a doubtful lady customer. “Are you sure it works?” she asked. “Had nothing but satisfied users of it, ma’ am,” replied the merchant. “The Widow Brown was mighty pleased with the results she got by mixing it with a little whiskey.” "What did she remove with that?” inquired the lady. “Mr. Brown,” replied the storekeeper with a sly chuckle. Hard Lurk An author was telling a friend of the worst experience he had ever had. “I was in San Francisco,” explained the au thor, “and without funds. I received a money order for S50 from home. I looked around for someone who could identify me at the post office.” He paused a moment and his face took on a look of great sadness. “Do you know what happened?” he con tinued. “The only man I could find to identify me so I could collect the sorely needed $50 was a man to whom I owed $48.” Sheer Waste A tight-fisted Scot who won a shiny new car in a raffle didn’t appear to happy about it. A friend approached him and said, “Jock, you've had good fortune and yet you go mop ing around. What's wrong?” “Well I keep wondering,” replied the man from the Highlands, “why I bought two tic kets!” Good Reason Woodrow Wilson was the son of a minister. His father, who was tall and extremely thin, would often take young Woodrow with him on his parish calls, which were made in a horse-drawn buggy of their era. One day on one of these calls a parishoner asked: “Reverend, how is it that you’re so thin and gaunt while your horse is so fat and sleek?” Before his father could reply, young Wood row burst forth with: “Probably because my father feeds the horse and the congregation feeds my father!” The Difference A Northern visitors was making a purchase in a small shop in a Florida town. Noting all the healthy tans about, he casually remarked, “It’s pretty hard to tell who's a tourist around here.” “Not when you know how,” replied the store keeper. “The tourists are the ones who dress up like natives.” Had Its Advantage A man who was continually losing his collar button while dressing complained to his wife about it. With an ingenuity born of the use of hairpins, she told him to hold his collar button in his mouth. The next morning, she was startled by an unusual commotion. “What’s tfie matter?” she asked anxiously. “I’ve swallowed the collar button,” said the man. “Well,” responded his wife, “there’s one comfort; for once in your life you know where it is.” Polite P. S. An old crossroads merchant wrathfully wrote a debtor who had promised time and again to settle a long-delinquent account. “You arc just a mule-eared liar. If you don’t settle up, I aim to clobber you until there won't be nothing left but a pair of suspenders and a wart. I want my money and 1 want it now.” He signed his name with a flourish, re-read the letter with grim satisfaction, then added the postscript, “Please excuse pencil." Why They Subscribed A reporter from a big city newspaper was passing time of day with an old friend, the editor of a country weekly. “What puzzles me,” he said, “is how you manage to keep up circulation in a small town where everybody knows what everyone else is doing.” “That's easy,” the country editor replied, “they all read the paper to see who's been caught at it.” The ANSWERS 1. John Jay. 2. Andrew Jackson. 3. Theodore Roosevelt, 42. 4. 60. 5. Episcopalian—9. 6. Alexander Hamilton. 7. Customs Service and Internal Revenue Service. 8. Treasury Department. 9. George M. Humphrey. 10. 100,000. OPENING THOUGHT — Chil dren generally hate to be idle. All the care then should be that their busy humor should be constantly employed in something that is of use to them.—John Locke. TODAY’S CHUCKLE — Of all sad words of tongue or pen we hear them over and over again: ‘ And now, a word from our sponsor.” ORIGIN — Origin of the balaam box, a round file for rejected man uscripts. is in the Bible at Numbers 22:30, where Balaam's ass spoke; with the voice of a man. The ex pression has been defined as “the cant name for asinine paragraphs about monstrous productions of na ture and the like, kept standing in type to be used whenever the real news of the day leaves an awk ward place that must be filled somehow.” It is said that at first the balaam box was a receptacle for old jokes, anecdotes and such. Now it means simply “waste bas ket.” BACK ANYWAY — “My, I’m glad to hear that your son is on the college football team,” the neighbor lady my'ed. “What po sition does he play?” “I’m not sure,” hesitated the proud mo ther, “but I think he said he is one of the drawbacks.” JUST COMPLAINT? — See in the papers where the Tuscarora Indians are going to seek damages from the federal government for their lands along Roanoke River which they allege they were de prived of by the whites when the Indians departed for New York State following the Tuscarora War. I remember well the scare that Indian Woods Township landown ers got hack in 1929 when a party of the Tuscarora—Darthmouth-ed ucated in the law—came down to Coniott and announced they would | camp there until their lands were returned. Several big landowners rushed to Raleigh to see what could be done toward safeguarding their holdings. The Indians got nothing but failed to carry out their prom ise to stay until they did. I remember back in 1939 read ing in the county records of Ber tie two leases between Indians and whites, one for 99 years and the other—for 150 years—superseding it. It is also said that the land was sold by the Tuscaroras for a pitt ance. At any rate, it seems to me, any argument the Tuscaroras might have regarding the land could be shared by all the Ameri can Indians. It reminds me of something a young high school de bater said in rebuttal during a de bate on the question of Phillippine independence on the UNC campus back in 1931. It was my good fortune to be on the negative team from Windsor High School with my older brother. Arriving Daily! For Men, Young Men And Boys NEW FALL SUITS SPORT COATS Topcoats — Sweaters DRESS PANTS SPORT SHIRTS SHOES - SOCKS NECKWEAR Smartly Styled and Made By Nation's Best Manufacturers PRICED RIGHT — STYLED RIGHT College Men and High Schools Students USE OUR LAY-A-WAY PLAN FOR PUTTING UP YOUR FALL CLOTHES GANDERSON'S SUMMER CLEARANCE ON AT GANDERSON'S Prices Cut 20% to 40% Off All Summer Goods For Men and Boys We advanced to the semi-finals in the statewide competition for the Aycock cup at Chapel Hill and it was during this time that I heard an alert young debater from Ker nersville who took the negative side of the question state in rebut tal that an opponent argued the United States was morally obligat ed to grant independence to the Philippines. “If that be true,” the young boy shouted, “then we ought to give this country back to the Indians!” Food for thought there. PARTING SHOT — It is hard er to be poor without complain ing than to be rich without boast ing.—Chinese Proverb. Brief Notes On The World Front - The highest automobile road in the United States winds up to the 14,260-foot summit of Mount Evans in Colorado, says the National Geo graphic Society. There scientists study cosmic rays in a University of Denver laboratory. Far better known and more traveled is the second loftiest highway, which climbs to the top of Pikes Peak at 14,110 feet. Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd has made five visits to Antartica between 1928 and 1956. Even to day, however, scarecely more than half of the continent’s 6,000,000 square miles has yet been seen by man, the National Geographic So ciety says. The sands of Arabia’s deserts sometimes reach a temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Until an accurate seagoing clock, or chonometer, was perfected in England in 1735, navigators had no reliable way of determining longi tude. On voyages beyond sight of land, ships customarily sailed north or south until they reached the latitude of their destination, then east of west until landfall was made, the National Geographic So ciety says. Cyprus has been ruled by the Egyptions, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, the Bysantine Empire, England, Venice and the Turks since its written history be gan about 1,500 B. C. -1 Hatching Record Chickens hatched by commercial hatcheries in North Carolina dur ing December attained a total of over 1\ million—an all-time record for the month. It's An 111 Wind That Brings No Benefits Hinton, Okla. — Three blocks of Main Street here were accidental ly paved recently, A truck, load ed with 4,000 gallons of hot as phalt, overturned in the business district. City officials promptly threw in some sand and spread the mixture evenly over the thorugh fare. SAVE 1% BY PRE PAYING YOUH 1956 TOWN TAXES During August A discount oi 1% will be allowed for pre-payment of 1956 Town of Plym outh taxes during the month of August, based on the new tax rale of $1.80 per $100 worth of property valuation. The rale of discount drops each month. See me during the month of August for maximum savings on your tax bill. P. W. BROWN TAX COLLECTOR TOWN OF PLYMOUTH "Down the drain" otten sadly describes the money Inal dis appears so completely between one payday and another. Best time to put a quick STOP to this "disappearing act" is at the START. Be fore you do anything else with the money in your pay envelope, make a deposit in your savings account here. The dollars you save in the beginning can't go "down the drain" in the end. The Time To Open a Savings Account Is Now! 2 PER CENT INTEREST PAID ON ALL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS Branch Banking & Trust Co. TELEPHONE 202-1 PLYMOUTH, N. C. mfmrfr federal deposit insurance corporation id
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 2, 1956, edition 1
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