North Carolina Newspapers

ew* - journal PR ASSOCIATION Published Every Thursday at Raeford, N. C. 28376 119 W. Elwood Avenue Subscription Rates In Advance Per Year - S4.00 6 Months - S2.25 3 Months - SI .25 PAUL DICKSON Publisher-Editor SAM C. MORRIS .General Manager LAURIE TELFAIR Reporter MRS. PAUL DICKSON Society Editor Sccond-Clasi Pottage Paid at Raeford, N. C. Your Award - Winning Community Newspaper Welcome4Knit-Away, Inc.' On behalf of all the citizens of Raeford and Hoke County, we hasten to extend a warm welcome to the new industry which this week announced its plans to join our community. We commend them for their good judgment in choosing Raeford as a place to make their home, and promise to work to see that in the years to come they will be even more convinced that coming here was good judgment. At the same time we take the opportunity to commend Mayor John K. McNeill and his associates in the town administration and President Palmer Willcox and his associates in the Raeford Chamber of Commerce for their work and hospitality in cooperating with President Richard P. Bruce, Jr., and his associates of Knit-Away. The area already has a fine and diversified industrial family, all of whom contribute substantially to the economy and the civic improvement of the area. We feel that President Bruce and his company, in locating their first entry into the growing field of double-knit fabrics here, will enjoy and profit by becoming members of this family. The outlook for some 200 more jobs by early next year when the plant gets in gear can certainly be classed as a happy thought, and we know local people look forward to extending a personal welcome to Bruce and the other members of this new organization. So, Welcome, Knit-Away. Glad to have you aboard! Leaving all moral considerations aside, there is one thing just about all of us here in Hoke County would have to admit right now. That is, we've got to be somewhat better off than the 10 school districts in North Carolina who have just the rest of this week to come up with a plan for reorganizing their systems, which will have to be opening for another year in little more than a month. You don't know if they're really bombs until you drop one #) ? *>* % ? v L? it_ et ? Hems Cause Hullabaloo For Both Him And Her By Laurie Telfair Women's fashions are creating an uproar this year, with the demise of the mini ? skirt being bitterly lamented by girls and girl - watchers alike. Clubs are springing up around the country to save the mini and women are vowing they won't wear the long skirts. But they will. The revolt against the New Look of the late 40's is chronicled in social psychology books, when women angrily protested Dior lowering the hems to ankle length. But the protests didn't stop the fashion and fey the next season, nearly everyone was wearing the long, full skirts. There were probably a few fashion hold ? outs who stayed with the old styles. I remember when pointed - toed, spiked heeled shoes became fashionable. My mother swore she'd never wear them and she avoided them for years, relying on red tennis shoes. But since the needle - nosed shoes were in style for about ten years and finally even tennis shoes had pointed toes, she at last gave in and bought pointed toes and spiked heels ... just in time for them to go out of fashion the next year for round toes and chunky heels. Another fashion that produced a ruckus was the sack dress or chemise of the late 50's. That little lovely was based on the styles of the 20's. with no waist or bust about it. Some of the uglier models featured pleats in the back from a back yoke to a band about the knees. The pleats ballooned out, giving the wearer an instant advantage in any audition for the part of the hunchback of Notre Dame Sometimes the sacks were belted at the lups with a straight skirt and sometimes they fell straight to knee length and then were pleated to about three inches below the knee. The sack didn't stay around too long as a fashion, but it's dependents ? the A-line, the shift and such ~ are with us still. Dresses haven't had waists in years. In fact, 1 read that the waist demensions on a size 10 dress has increased two inches during the year that clothes have been waistless. Before that, waists were an important portion of the longed ? for hourglass figure and any girl with a mid ? section rounder than 22 inches needed to watch the calories. There were, however, "waist cinchers", a band of elastic and boning about six inches wide that would squeeze the middle into the desired circumference. Skirts were long and full then, and worn with a minimum of four starched petticoats. The object was to get the dress stuffed out as far as possible and a multitude of gadgets were used toward this end. Some wore wire hoops. These were three rings of thin wire covered with cotton and attached to each other with strips of cotton webbing to make a very open frame. It. never worked ver\ well, as the skirt could droop between the rings and even if the hoop were covered with petticoats, the entire arrangement was easily bent and prone to poke out at odd angles. Permanently ? stiffened "horse - hair" crinolines were also popular. These eliminated starching, but they also bent into permanently - stiffened shapes and so were unsatisfactory. Probably the best undergarments were the full petticoats of nylon net. These weren't starched so they didn't rattle, but it required about six of them to extend a skirt to the fashionable fullness. Girls rustled when they walked then and their skirts swayed so violently that they could clear a coffee table with one pass. So it will be interesting to see what new curiosity the fashions of the next few seasons will introduce. Recently 1 read that a woman proposed skirts for men, after visiting the Fiji Islands and admiring the skirts worn by the traffic policemen there. This led the editorial writer to remark that he was thankful the lady didn't visit Australia where in some out-back sections the men only wear loin-cloths. A skirt is an inherently impractical garment. At any length, it is uncomfortable. II it is short, then one's legs are at the mercy of the furnitur< when one sits. It it is long, il bunches and wrinkles. Skirts are cold too. It makes no mor? sense to go about in th< winter with one's leg! uncovered than it does to gc out without a coat. Pants foi both sexes are much mort sensible, and more attractiv* also. But there would be one advantage to skirts for men Men would then be able tc worry about the length of theii own dresses and wouldn't hav< to concern themselves with approving or deploring women's fashions. Paper will probably be a major building material of the future, reports the Southern Forest Institute. Already, paper houses are being manufactured from corrugated paperboard. The paperboard houses are treated to resist water, fire and vermin. One of the basic housing units now on the market measures 20 by 21 feet with an eight-foot-high ceiling . The unit can be hauled to the construction site in a station wagon and takes three men only half-a-day to erect. For more spacious living, two or three of the paperboard units can be combined. A factory manufactured central core provides all the necessary plumbing, heating and wiring plus a stove and refrigerator. Irreplaceable national asset In this age of guaranteed security, it is well to be reminded that for one group of citizens the words have little meaning. These are the millions of investors whose earnings and assets have been jeopardized by inflation. There are no government programs to bail them out, and they are not asking for any. They have faith in the country's ability to weather economic adversity and go on to brighter times. J. Paul Getty, one of the world's richest men, has some good advice for young businessmen that applies in many respects to everyone else. Among the points he makes: "....No matter what happens, do not panic .... When things go wrong, it is always a wise idea to pull back temporarily .... In the opening stages of any developing adverse situations, it may be necessary and advisable to give some ground, to sacrifice those things which are the least important and most expendable. But it should be a fighting withdrawal .... All available resources - cerebral as well as financial, creative as well as practical ~ must be marshalled. Counter moves must be planned .... Once everything is ready, action should be taken confidently, purposefully, aggressively - and above all, enthusiastically...." These words of advice represent the spirit of the builders of great industries, as well as of the investors and the savers who are the foundation of the nation's productive effort. In a very real sense, they are an irreplaceable national asset. Now to moore the boat President Nixon used the metaphor of letting a boat coast into a dock to characterize his economic strategy in his last state - of - the - cconomy talk. The fear he was trying to handle then was that the administration's inflation-fighting power may already have been kept running too long, and that the cconomy might hit the dock hard with a bad recession. The Commerce Department's figures for the second quarter have about laid the notion of crashing into the dock to rest. The gross national product, with effects of inflation aside, rose by 3 percent. Not much, surely. And even the slight gain might disappear when the preliminary figures are adjusted later. Still, it shows the declines in real GNP of the previous two quarters (.9 percent last fall, and 2.9 percent the first quarter this year) have been about halted. Other good news was that the rate of inflation dropped from the first quarter's 6.4 percent on an annual basis, to 4.2 percent the lowest of any quarter since the third quarter of 1968. Further, housing starts were picking up, and factory inventories were getting larger last quarter both signs that the economic upturn the administration forecast might be turning up on the horizon. Bvit if disaster has been averted in ?towfht down the economy, realiatically one must admit that it will be a long time yet before the economy will be moored. Unemployment, for example, will continue to get worse through the rest of the year. Many moderate economists think it could hit 6 percent easily^It must be remembered that the economy has to be expanding at a moderate rate just to keep up with a constantly expanding labor force. The faint real expansion in GNP expected for the rest of the year won't do the job. And while a lack of openings for, say technical workers, which exists, might not have more than political significance in the fall elections, the fact that male joblessness in the inner cities is triple the national rate produces dangerous social tensions. Still, this was the price the nation agreed to pay when it gave the administration general backing on it policies to contain inflation. It now appears that the inflation rate might slow to at worst 5 percent in the second half of this year, and to 4 percent early next year. It is hard to say how Americans will react to whut they will have gotten for this backing. Unemployment and a sluggish economy, costs of housing nearly out of sight after long tightening of the money supply ? these may not earn the administration any gratitude despite a modest consumer price downturn. And there may be resentment that some workers - like the truckers and construction unions - won't have been made to pay their share of the inflation- stopping costs. But cautious optimism should be the economic note of the day. - Tht Chrtitlan Scltnce Monitor Creek7 Philosopher Dear editar I was temporarily out of newspapers again yesterday and got to thinking about what I was thinking about last week and decided there's no use in Frenchmen making all the money out of women's fashions. I may have missed some of the details, but at I understand it the dress designers' main problem of deciding how long a skirt ought to be. and after ye?r'? of practice they've found it ought to get shorter or longer every year or so. never stay the ume. Also, they've found there's more mone> in coming down than going up. as any woman can shorten last year's drew but few can lengthen It. Right now. according to what I've read, the hemlines ?re coming down, which means of course new wardrobes for everybody. But the big question is, just how long should they be? You drop from the thighs to the ankles in one year and there's no way to go next year but up, and women will get out their scissors instead of the purses. No money in that. Hemlines should come down gradually over the next few years if you want to guarantee annual wardrobe changes. Consequently I have thought up in idea I'd like to sell to the dress designers. There's no use in their guessing what length ought to be high fashion. Say for example they decide hemlines ought to come down 8 inches this year. Just by looking, few can tell whether it's actually 8. It could be 10 or 6. and no woman could be absolutely certain she was in style. To avoid all doubt, style ought to be an exact science. What the designers ought to do is sew a tape measure down the side of every drest made for the new season. Whack off every dress at say the 24 ? inch mark. Any woman who can read figures would then know whether she's in style. At a party, all she'd had to do It glance around to tell who's in style and who's out. Next year, drop it to 26 inches, 28 the next, etc. When they've run out of tape measure they know it's time to start back up again. I intend to patent thia idea but I'm afraid to come to town now to see about it. Some women don't have a sense of humor. Yours faithfully, i.A. Just One Thing After Another Bv*Carl Cocrch Here's a little story sent us by John 0. Wood of Raleigh: "In the summer of 1945, my son and 1 were on the highway between Canton and Atheville. We saw in front of us a very black cloud, and soon a brilliant rainbow appeared. (Remember this was at night.) We gradually approached it and soon the very end of the rainbow was on the railroad track about twenty yards to our right. The other end of the rainbow was on a little ridge to our left and slightly in front of the car, and the place where it touched the ground was liidden by the front of our car. We then passed under the bow and, of course, it immediately disappeared. "1 have told of this experience to at least two hundred persons and have not yet heard of anything like it." A few weeks ago I read somewhere that William Waldorf Astor once stopped at a small hotel in some unromantic spot - maybe some small town - and was so struck by the home-like atmosphere of it, and was so warmed by the attention given him by the young man who was the manager, that he told the young man he ought to have a large hotel to manage, and that he would build it for him in New York. The young manager was named George C. Boldt. Astor kept his word, built the Waldorf-Astoria and that is how Boldt became the best-known hotel man of his day. The late Hallet S. Ward, congressman from the First District and a new resident of Washington, North Carolina at the time, was quite a character. He married rather late in life and had a son, Hallet, Junior. Hallet, Jr. turned out to be one of the stars on the Washington High School basketball team a number of years ago and the Washington team won the conference that year, taking it from Edenton 40-12. A group of us gathered at the local drug store the morning after the game when Hallet Sr. came in. Harry Paul sighted Mr. Ward and called out, "Mr. Ward, did you go over to Greenville last night to the game?" Mr. Ward snorted, "No, 1 didn't go to Greenville!" I said, "Well, you ought to have been there!" He turned on me, "You didn't go!" "No sir," I admitted. "1 could not go last night, but if I'd had a son on the team playing like that boy of yours plays, I'd have been there." "Let me tell you something. I don't care a tlung about these games. In 1902 I went with high anticipation from Plymouth to Richmond to sec a football game between the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia. I saw it. I enjoyed it. But 1 knew every other game would be just like it, and I never have been to another one since." Somebody sent us a clipping from a Georgia newspaper recently. Seems that a man was sentenced to prison for removing money from a corpse. That was the charge brought against him, but lie was set free when he appealed his case. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that since corpses cannot legally posses anything they cannot legally be robbed. A group of men were talking together the other day and the conversation had to do with taxes and money. "Do you know what makes a man poor?" one person in the group inquired. 'He's poor because lie doesn't make enough money." someone spoke up and said. The first speaker shook Ins head. "That isn't it at all," he said, "It may apply to some individuals, but the majority of people are poor because they can't resist buying things which they really should do without" CUm1 BLUE ? ? ? People & Issues! N.C. PRESS - Last Friday and Saturday we attended the 98th Annual Convention of the North Carolina Press Association at the Blockade Runner Motor Hotel at Wrightsville Beach. We always enjoy getting together with fellow scribes and craftsmen and swapping notes and opinions. Dave Whichard II concluded a good year as president and to succeed him another fine newspaperman was elected -? our close friend, L.T. (NudyJ James of Troy. Howard White of Burlington was named vice president and Mrs. Margaret Harper of Southport was reelected secretary-treasurer. All are highly respected members and leaders in the Tar Heel fourth estate activities. WILMINGTON ?? When the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad picked up and moved its operational headquarters from Wilmington to Jacksonville, Florida several years ago, cituens of the Wilmington area felt that it was a powerful and heavy blow to the area's economy - and it was. But the leaders of the Wilmington community didn't lie down and whine - they started a movement to bring other industry to the community, and this they have done in a most exemplary manner, and today it is one of the state's most thriving and forward ? moving communities. People point/to Wilmington as what can be done to overcome a big industry moving away. NEWSPAPERS - A good illustration of Wilmington's "on the move" program ii the Wilmington Star and the Wilmington News - the morning and afternoon newspapers of which Rye B. Page it president publisher. The newspapers have recently moved into a brand new plant with brand new equipment from beginning to end and the dedication of the new and modern plant took piace Saturday morning. The dedication took place with Mrs. Daisy Page Hutaff. co - publisher and vice preaident of the newspapers unveiling a plaque, dedicating the building to the memory of her late husband ?? Rinaldu Burrus Page who headed the Star ? Ne*s Newspapers for nearly a Quarter of a century until his eath in 1955, since which time his son Rye has guided the newspapers to their present high rank in Tar Heel journalism. BALD HI.AD ISLAND -- Wrightsville Beach is close to Bald Head Island and as a result many of the newspaper people visited the island about which so much has been written and said in recent months. Bill Henderson was on the island and discussed the proposed project with newsmen. Henderson doesn't seem concerned with Bob Scott's opposition to the project despite the fact that the governor indicates thai lie will block any road or bridge ? building to the project. Scott's term as governor has only a little more than two years to run and a new administration will be coming to power before much work can be done on a project of the magnitude the Carolina Cape Fear group has in mind, and if necessary, it could be an island reached by air ? lift or chair or sky ? lift transportation! While the island is reported to have been sold for about S5'/i million, rumor has it that the island was purchased not so many years ago for between S6.000 and S10.000 BELKS ?- A popular couple at ?ny Tar Heel press meeting are Mr. and Mrs. Henry Belk of Goldsboro. Mr. Belk is editor ? emeritus of the Goldsboro News ? Argus but still contributes a lively and interesting column for the editorial page which is also frequently carried by the Greensboro Daily News. ASHELY FUTRELL -- Ashley Futrell, editor and fiubliiher of the Washington N.C.) Daily News, a former State Senator, and now the Democratic nominee for the Senate in the 2nd District and unopposed in the fall election was In attendance.