■i: : i!v
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EDITORIAL & FEATURE PAGE
Chapel Hill News Leader
Leading With The News in Chapel Hill, Corrboro, Glen Lennox and Surrounding Areas
VOL. II NO. 101
The Growing Body Of Ignorance
"l.os Aii^elcs is in Missouri: Dciner and
Ilosion arc in ^\’isconsin; the Appalaciiitin
Mountains aje in llte Oklahoma Panlitincllc,
and Ohcstipcakc Hay is in the (juH oI Mex
ico."'
J'lie DaiK Ihir I leel cites these rrs answers
to (piestions propounded to a class in (jCoIo-
.itA til the rni\ersitv. They h;i\e enra^^ed the
R i c h in o n d 'l imes - Dispatch, which asks:
"Tonid idiocy lie more complete? What are
mr secondarv schools reaching the yotuh ol
the hind when such answers tis these come
Iron) college students?
It cannot he said that the schools, second
ary or otherwise, ;nc wholly to hlame. It has
been the steadv complaint ol'college teachers
lor years that the students coming up each •
lall For entrance hate no body ol general in-
I'ormation.
’I'hc\ don't know the liible. they don't
know Kngiisli. they don't knotV .Mathematic:s.
\\'ho'.c is the Fanil?
'I'hc schools, tvith enormous demands made
on them and with elForts thus spread thin.
m'a\ be jiarlb to blame, btit the primary guilt
must lie laid on inlluences that work against
Pervasive Throughout
'Idle sererest ihing recently said about the
jiresent lanatical pressure, on the University
in connection with the choice ol athletic
coaches was said by (Fordoii (dray in a pub
lic report issued just Jielore his withdrawal
tis jiresident. Said' he:
I must report my continued concern over tlie
ejuestion of -the influence of intercollegiate ath-
. letics in the University. I refer, not to athletics
\as such or even to great interest in athletics, but
father to the fact that the demands of athletics
yoften become perca.sive throughout the institution
and have an adverse effect on other and more cen
tral parts of our program. Athletics, particularly
‘big time’ athletics, 'have a way of becoming an
issue in other areas of our work. On occasion, the
the pressures ^sfl’iliTorting athletics activities in
seeking to def6¥fi1"'fih athletic operations create a
threat to the morale and effectiveness of admin
istrative and faculty action.
I would refer in this connection to the action
of the recent G.', literal Assembly. At the same
time when it was cutting revenues and raising
student fees, even cutting appropriations for the
libraries, it was in effect subsidizing athletics by
not requiring any out of state scholarship students
to pay the general increased rate. This was over
the slated opposition of the President, and was not
in the best interest of the University.
Jt i.s to be noted that .Mr. Grav empha.si/.ed
those demands that '‘oFten become per\asive
throughout the institution".
'This is :i iva\ ol saying that, the tail often
tries to run the dog, and that the Uni\ersity
has to struggle to maintain those jiarts ol its
educational program ivhich are central and
\ital.
■Athletics exist For the purpose ol g'i\ing
growing boys the exercise and recreation
suited to their time oF life.
II their elders cannot control the attempts
to use athletics For other purposes, how about
turning the management and direction of
athic'tics back to the bovs? b
Should Be The Penishment?
Wrmv
.\ man i n j nrs kerosene oyer his
wii rtd^bhln in their Fied and sets
V;/ u; '
yoniy,
lire to th
The First reaction to this abhorrent story
i.s that th ) I I n i.s a Fiend and should
be treated like one.
^'ct second thought will .say that no nor
mal hitman Iteing could be capable oF sndi
a deed.
I'lie man is jiossibly Far gone in a dtinger-
ous type ol illness, or is a sick tinimal ivho
attacks anyone tonchtng him.
Older beFiels, will say that instant execn-
tion should follotv such a deed, in order that
the punislnneur may act as a deterrent to
other wicked men.
'I'ct we are (onFionted with the cold Fact
that drastic. c\en horrible. pnnisFnncnts have
not tleterred men From crime, but base rtith-
cr atiraett'd a, cert.iin loiin ol svmpaths For
tluan that has acted ;v.s an encouragement to
Further ( rime.
Retaliation sinijily does not ivork. Death
holds no Fear For abnormally crazed and Fear-
Fnl men. Tlien tvhat .should be done in such a
case?
In the First place, it seems esitlcnt that
such a (lime is the result oF an emotional
storm. The treatment tlicit should come From
a psychiatrist. The legal aspect should be
dealt with by a Lnvser. .And since the Famih'
concerned was not a jtrosjtei'oiis one, an econ
omist might be ctilled in.
So that instead ol hasing the usual indil-
lerenl jury ol twebe men, the jury sitting on
'the case might consist ol the tliree specialists
just mentioned.
This solution would not be perfect, but
tt might be a step out ol. the routine ptniish-
ments that so olten It.il oF the desired el'lccts.
Water And Sun To Run Car
Robert C. Bowen in Christian
Science Monitor
Plioenix, Ariz.
Let's stop a. moment and look
into the fairly' distant future.
The time may be coming when
you can use water and sunshine
to run the family car.
Solar scientists Ftave not men
tioned this specifically, but.
at the recent World Symposium
on Applied Solar Energy here,
they said Lie use of sunlight to
turn water into a high grade fuel
for lighting your home and run
ning viur industry is one of
their long range hopes for the
future.
This is what these experts call
■'artificial p'lotos.vtithcsis.’’ It is
one way of fixing the energy of
.sunshine in a highly useful form
—in this case by u.sing it to
break water into hydrogen and
oxygen gases which later can be
burned together.
The - other kind of photisyn-
thesi.s.—the kind used by green
plants to make food and fuel—
is also a higlily effective way to
use sun power. This is another
process the solar scientists hope
to learn how to control. They
are already well on their way
to understanding it. and may
.someday be able to use it to pro-
(hico food in a factory.
FUEL RESERVES EBB
There are the long range pros-
pccLs which the solar scientists
have in mind for what they call
••engineered 'photosynthesis.”
For countless millenniums,
plants have been carrying on
this process of turning the ener
gy of sunlight into edible food
and burnable fuels. And they
have been doing it quite well, if
you should ask your local farm
er. But the solar experts say that
the needs of men are beginning
to outstrip the ability of the
plants to supply them. At the
same time, the reserves of coal,
oil, and gas are, in the long
range view of this story, running
low'.
The answ'er, according to these
experts, is to be found in the
twin energies of the atom and
the sun. But, if sun power is to
take its place beside atomic ener
gy on any significant scale some
means will have to be found to
store it in a hThly useful form.
LABORATORY STAGE
This is the job of photosyn
thesis, both artificial and bio
logical. It is the reason W'hy the
solar scientists in Phoenix called
it the most important long range
process in applied solar energy.
At the moment, both types of
photosynthesis, used in the w'ay
needed to meet large scale de
mands for food and fuel, are very
much in the early laboratory
stages. But the solar scientists
have a good research grip on
both proce.sses.
Already, some limited experi
ments have used .sunlight to
constitute gase.s oi h.vdrogen and
oxygen. This is the way to turn
it into fuel, for these gases can
be burned t().gether to give a hot
ter flame than any present day
furnace can handle.
Some of this wmrk, as carried
on at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, was outlined at
the conference by Prof. Law
rence J. Heidt.
The difficulty w'ith the experi
ments to date, he explained, is
that they require special auxil
iary chemicals and an expensive
kind of quartz to filter the sun
light, since only one small part
of the sunlight spectrum can be
used in the reactions being stud
ied in his laboratory. Also, he
said that almost all the common
impurities in w'ater inherit the
reaction so that only assuredly
pure W'ater can be used.
These are the kinds of hur-,
dies that any successful develop
ment of this method of using so
lar eneigy must overcome. So
far, Professor Heidt said, they
have been discouraging.
But, he added, “the process is
still very much in the research
stage. We still think . . . th^t
it may eventually be of economic
importance. . .
•St Ji: tK
Jesse E. Hobson, director of
Stanford Research Institute, said
that he agreed with this esti
mate. The prospect of splitting
W'ater into hydrogen and oxygen
with sunlight is one of the big-
Too Many Ahead Of Him
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1955
U4-i1PR
llie .Aiiiericaii lioiirc.
■Any obsciNcr cun testily iliat the lioitie is
IK) loii'ger a tenter For tetvrliiiio'. For learning'.
For eultiire, or For the genertvl inlormatiou
w liieli a \{)nn,).srer imisl lia\ e in order to meet
llte deniands ol eiirrent lile.
'J'lie Forces that once operated in the US.A
were centripetal—that is, they tended to make
sonlh seek its normal center, the home. Now
adays the Forces tire centriFiif>al and dispersiv e.
I'lie antomohile and other tvgencies ttike the
yonnj)' people away From the piano and the
center table out to n.iwht clubs, honkytonks.
and other resorts, while the ptirents either sit
tilone or ,^0 out themselves in setirch ol anitise-
ment.
I'o maintain a home which will act as a
center ol inlormt iion and development means
a constant stru,>',wlc with interests which tend
to nullilv its iiiFluence or break it ajrart. The
schools are not entirely to blame, nor are
jiarents. .Modern inlluences make For disper
sal, which is the enemy oF concentration. Hut
without concentration, v\hat learning' can
there be?
,FC>5.’I5
- :'i ^
■Ji
il.
mi
Christian Science Monitor
A Human County History Chips That Fall
There has been, in recent
years, a big improvement in the
w'fiting of county histories. There
is less emphasis on dry facts and
more on people.
“Zeb’s Black Baby”, a short
history of Vance County, N. C., is
an example. Tae author of it is
an old Chapel Hillian, Samuel
Thomas Peace, who w'as once the
only employee of the only bank
in Chapel Hill and who used to
lake the funds home with him
nights for safekeeping. He came
here from Oxford but has irveil
many years in Henderson,
Vance County w'as named for
Senator Zebulon B. Vance, who
looked kindly on a politicab, ma-
■ neuve'r w'hich formed the county
out of ‘Granville, Franklin and
Warren counties. Because it w'as
likely to go Republican, Vance
named the new county “Zeb’s
Black Baby” according to a leg
end cited by Peace.
This book is rich in legend
and not a little folklore, which
give life and color to the whole
narrative. People who like good
historical reading will enjoy this
book. Legend is plainly labelled
in such a way as not to confuse
it W'ith documented history. The
human factor is uppermost.
For example, there is a chap
ter on the Nut Bush Presbyterian
Church, which on January 20,
1868, convicted and excommuni
cated a girl for becoming an un
wed mother. “She and her babe
W'cre put in a two-horse wagon
(but not by the church) and pro
vided W'ith a Negro driver. The
mother of the young girl stuck
by her daughter and went along
too. When the wagon arrived at
the footnill’s of the mountains of
West Virginia it w'as met by a
young man who took charge of
the wagon and the colored nran
was told to get back home the
best way he could. And that was
the last the folks back home ever
saw of , the young gitl and her
child”:
Peace’s book is evidence that
the good old days were not good
for everybody. There were qruel-
ty, crudity, and much drinking
of corn liquor. But there was al
so /much humor and practical
joking. At the battle of Mechan-
icsville in June, 1862, a private
wanted to be excused on the
ground that he was sick. “Yes,
damn it”, said the captain, “I
know' you are sick. But it's only
the battlefield colic. Ill not ex
cuse you.”
Peace gives considerable space
to the old homes of the tow'n and
county and to the people who
lived in them; likewise to the rise
of business and industry./
Ti-ie biographical sketches re
veal some of the strange things
that can happen to a human life.
In fact, the whole book of 446
pages is a record of the strange
things that can occur in a seem
ingly small and ordinary com
munity. It's a good job done with
affection and humor.—P.R.
INSULTED
The fancy-dress dance was over
and the local gossips were com
paring notes.
“Mrs. Smithington-Smyth looks
upset, don’t you thinks?” said
one, gloatingly.
“Yes, my dear, she came as an
Hawaiian beauty, w'ith grass
skirts and all—and they awarded
her first prize in the humorous
section as “The Old Thatched
Cottage, ”—Srnithfie Id Hera Id
gest research hopes for the fu
ture, he said, and added that he
hoped the Phoenix conference
would help interest industry ' in
carrying on this line of research
on a bigger scale than either the
MIT project or his ow'ii labora
tories have been able to do to
date.
The same estimate holds tine
for photosynthesis in green
plants. Knowledge of this pri-
cess too is still “very much in
Lie research stage.”
As explained by Dr. F. A.
Brooks of the University of Cali
fornia’s: Agricultural Experi
ment Station,, natural scientists
have ■ goiie';:'’fa.r toward tracing
the "steps of photosynthesis, but
they still need to unlock four
fundamental phases of the basic
process — the. production of
chlorophyll, carbohydrate.s, and
proteins, and the growth and
flowering of plant cells them
selves.
Yet, already enough has been
learned in the laboratory to givc
encouragement for the-' future.
Many of the steps of photosyn
thesis have been run in a test
lube using just one or two of the
materials that still only the plant
is able to make.
THE
[7
UNIVERSITY
NATIOKAL
1
BANK
j
OF
1
CH.\PEL HILL
1
NORTH CAROLINA
1
A
Boy Relates , Japanese
There i.s one coniFort
which the winter solstice
brings in today t he sun has
reached its southerninost
point in the trojtics and to
morrow begins its swing back
to the north. Hence the days
will he longer and the nights
shorter. This means spring
is on its ivay. It's a slow
march—90 thus—hut sure.
.Another comfort is the Fact
that the pre - Uhristinas sea
son h.'s produced mlicit cold
tveather, indicating that Jan-
narv may try to compensate
by being somewhat milder
than usual. The signs jxtini
to some snotv hut also to
warm spells next month. 'I'he
jessamine is already bloom
ing around the circle between
the Playmakers' theatre atid
Uarr dorm.
l^etjple with radio and T\'
sets are already complaining
about interferences and in
terruptions. Fhe troiiljle
comes From sun spots. The
sitngazers say the spots are
large but have not yet reach
ed their greatest .sprerd. I'hc
larger the spots the greater
the interlerence.
(By our Tokyo Correspondent)
KEIZO HATTORI is a Tokyo
boy who w'orks in the same build
ing as I. His income is devoted
primarily to putting himself
through college. We talk a good
bit about politics (one wishes the
students in Chapel Hill could rep
resent themselves as well with
opinions as the average Japanese
student) and recently the boy
wrote me a note with his opinions
part of which follow:
“I hate communism and not
socialism.
“I never will agree to all of
the Socialist Party’s platform
particularly such parts as getting
rid of the United States Army im
mediately, opposing rearmament
in my country and joining with
Lie Communists (in Diet maneu
vers, he means).
“Major parts of the platform
with which I agree:
•‘1. To attain a self-supporting
economy for Japan by rectifying
the trate structure and promoting
export. We cannot continue our
life without trade.
“2. To establish a National
Land Ministry and a 100,000-man
peacelul construction corps.
“3. To nationalize mountains
and forest areas and guarantee
economy in rural commuities.
Japanese farmlands are distin
guished by their small area and
their crops do not defeat pov
erty. I think that scientific power
should be used by national pow
er to help here.
“4. To establish a democratic
food control system.
“5. To establish a minimum
wage sy.stem. Some Japanese
commit suicide rather than con
tinue their struggle in poverty.
Others can even buy imported
motor cars.
“6. To build concrete and steel
Apartments in cities and to im
prove the farmers’ dwellings.”
IT IS useless to cite the United
States as an argument against
socialism to the Japanese. Here,
they are overpopulated, under
nourished, imbalanced in trade
and lacking in natural resources
—liabilities in the U. S.
Nothing else in government
has been -cure enough for their
ailments. Maybe Socialism is it.
They intend to find out.
JAPAN SEEMS sure to be the
world’s next major country to go
Socialist. There is a strong So
cialist Party in the country (two
wings have just united) and
though they hold less than a ma
jority in the Diet, Japanese of
whatever political persuasion are
convinced that in a few years
Socialists will, I
ernment,
people’s
Socialism is hn
belle,
sel,eL*««'l
The
nave
the student,
ber in
P^rticuiaj
f'Knos;
1‘acy exceedrtj'!''
and is 1-
in the I
INTHEij]
t^Ofing the q,,
injuries in
C‘> °bna .Medical
injuries resnltim «
missile-throwingt‘j
■^^t serious Of the,
bo medical gco„,,,(
" ‘th a metal tip is re, "
the most restructive
tvith nibht J
have caused seriojsjJ
‘eyeball and in ati,'^
''®P°‘ted, a detacha
‘■otma of the eye, j
most toy counters a I
that has a proiertii.
possible]
After looking ovetl
ing gifts, a bride saiJil
nty friends apparently
going to live onadifil
nnd bu;ter."_Grii,
Chapel Hill New4
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PLAN YOUR CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS P(
RANCH HOUSE-PHONE W091
To All
From University
Christmas
of You
National
This is the time of year when everyone is filled with the Cliiis
and we folks at the University National Bank^ are no exceptions-
looking forward to Christmas, too.
It’s a very special Christmas at the University National because
we're almost two years old and already Chapel Hill and CaiT
growing bank. We want to take this opportunity to wish cm
Christmas and a Happy New' Year.
-o's laslt^'
veryone
, Jlcrt!
And in the years ahead you can count on
forward to washing all of you many more
the fact that we
Merry Christmases
'11 be lo
and
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