PAGE romTHE DAILY REFLECTOR, GREENVILLE. N. C

Tuesday. December 15. 1959

Tuesday. December 15, 1959

Americans Are A Friendly People

Private Citizens Play A Role. Too

North Carolinas Industrial Newsletter, edited by the Division of Commerce of the Department of Con-ser\ation and Development, asserts in its December edition the importance of individual citizens helping to sell their communities and methods by which they help or hurt community development.

Some of the^pciints made by the release should be considered carefully by citizens in every community of the state.

Securing an industry for a community is not an easy task. Governor Hodges has repeatedly said that at least 90 per cent of the effort made to secure industry must be made at the local level. But how many of them (local citizens) really help in such endeavors?

Too many citizens seem to show' little interest in what is being done to help strengthen the economy of their home towns.

They do not seem to realize that they, private citizens though they may be. can play important roles in the industrial development of their communities.

What, for example, kind of attitude do they display when strangers begin to ask them about their home towns? Is it an attitude of pride in their home tow'n, or do they give strangers the feeling they just dont care too much about their schools, their local governments, their churches or the other good qualities every community possesses?

Are too-many private citizens prone to take the

time to talk in disparaging fashion about how their town is governed, its schools and other aspects of its every day life when talking to complete strangers? Do they realize they are giving such strangers impressions that may be lasting ones and ones which organized development groups find difficult to erase from their minds?

Most citizens are genuinely proud of their home communities, but as often as not they readily find fault with the community and its assets. It is well they are not satisfied w'ith the status quo and are anxious to see more improvements, but often this is not the impression that is conveyed to a stranger. Often the stranger gets the impression that the community is backw^ard, without a progressive atmosphere and therefore without the attributes of a developing town.

While a few people may be officially or unofficially charged with the responsibility of community development, in a very real sense, this responsibility is shared by every citizen of a community. The larger the percentage of citizens who contribute to the total development effort even in a small w'ay, the greater results the community can expect from its development program.

State Might Have Use

For Scrapped Ships

'Overlooks For

Outer Banks?

By LYNN NISBET

OVERLOOKS - Many people think that the State Highway Commission and the National Park Service are missing a good bet by not providing elevated overlooks on the highway down the Outer Banks through tJ>e Halteras Seashore National Recreation Area.

One of the most attractive features of the Blue Ridge Parkway and of several State high-waj's in the mountains are the drive-out overlooks, where travelers can park for a few minutes to view the magnificent scenery which they cannot properly appreciate while driving along.

There is now a good paved highway through the Halteras Recreation Area from Whalebone to the Oregon Inlet ferry and thence down Hatteras Island to the Ferry across Hatteras Inlet to Ocracoke Island, and a fairly decent road the length of the island to the village of Ocracoke. where a ferry service across Pamlico Sound to the mainland near Atlantic is scheduled for service next spring. For most of the approximate 75 miles that road runs scape, with only rare chances to see the ocean on one side and the sound on the other, neither more than half a mile or so

the route. It is not probable that the Hatteras Area will ever be W'orth as much to North Carolin as the Smoky Mountains Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, because access to it is limited by the ocean. Butwith a bridge across Oregon Inlet and inauguration of adequate ferry servioe to the mainlandboth of which projects are underwayit can be a tremendously valuable drawing card to bring travelers from all over the world to Eastern North Carolina.

More people will comeand come back for repeated visits if they are afforded facilities for viewing the unique landscape sand dunes and sea oats on the beach, big vessels plying the shipping lanes out in the ocean beyond the breakers which have made the area famous as the Graveyard of the Atlantic; and on the other side through a screen of multiplied thousands of waterfowl in flight, the placid waters of Pamlico Sound against the background of North Carolinas mainland.

away.

There are three or four places where travelers can park and walk from 300 to 3,000 feet across the sand to see the ocean, a chore which few visitors think worth the effort. Consequently most of the people who travel that road are completely unconscious of the unique opportunity they might haveif there were occasional elevated platforms, only ten feet or so above the road level, where they would drive up like they drive out on the mountain overlooks, and get a view of the Atlantic Ocean expanse on one side, Pamlico Sound on the other, wdth the mainland some 15 to 20 miles in the background.

UNIQUE - The Hatteras Seashore Area is unique. Just as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park embraces the largest 4snd mass in eastern America and the best surviving example primitive forest, so the Hatteras Area embraces the last aurnvlng example of its type of terrain and waterfront. Yet one driving down the road from Whalebone to Hatteras gets no concept of the pristine spectacle. Expenditure of a few dollars to build elevated overlooks would add many fold to the attractiveness of the driveand go a long ways toward accomplishing the purpose of the park area.

The amount involved is so small it makes little difference whether it is underwritten by the Plate or the national Park Service. It seems certain that the project would pay dividends to both by increasing travel along

MONOTONOUS Supporting the idea for something to break the monotony of the 75-mile Outer Banks road Major Leo Murphy of Kill Devil HUls tells this story. Couple years ago he and his wfe. Mrs. Isabel Murphy, editor-publisher of the sprightly Surfslde News magazine, devoted to publicizing the Dare county beach area every summer, took a transcontinental tour. They had been driving for hours across the great southwestern desert country, and were getting very tired. Tempers were getting (hort, and there were no filling stations or other service facilities in sight. Then loomed a big roadside sign, and when they got close enough to read it it said Aint it monotonous? They laughed and tension was relieved.

North CarolinavS quest for a practical and financially attainable method of helping to stabilize its Outer Banks might possibly be solved by the recent federal government announcement that it will scrap a large number of old Liberty ships now quartered near Wilnjington.

Would it be practical for the state to attempt to build a reef of sunken ships off some of the more vulnerable strips along the Outer Banks? If so, would it be possible to work out some arrangement between the state and the federal government whereby North Carolina could acquire a number of the ships of the Wilmington mothball fleet?

State officials and citizens alike have repeatedly expre.'ised alarm at the erosion storms have caused along the sand strips that separate North Carolinas sounds from the Atlantic. Many suggestions for constructing dykes, artificial reefs, breakwaters and other devices have been advanced as parts of a program to save the Outer Banks. The extremely high cost of any of these approaches has been one of the stumbling blocks in the way of getting any real program underway.

As we understand it, the mothball fleet at Wilmingtonor at least a part of itprobably will be sold for scrap. How' much competition between bidders there will be for the old ships is questionable. Perhaps North Carolina could make some arrangement with Uncle Sam to get some of the ships to use in helping to stabilize the Outer Banks.

In addition to forming a breakw'ater to protect the beaches at some points, sunken ships near the beaches might well provide better fishing which would enhance the tourist attractions along the coast.

Whether such a plan is practical, the experts w'ill have to decide; but it may be that use of these old ships could provide at least one workable answer to North Carolinas problem of stabilizing its priceless Outer Banks.

By DON SCHLIENZ

A Band That Has Stayed.

Name bands are showing up in Greenville with increasing frequency. This, I like.

Tonight of course it is Guy Lombardo and his orchestra playing for a private dance at the local Moose Lodge. Only a relative handful of peopjle can attend . . . which is a ' crying shame: because over the years Guy Lombardos name and music has become know wherever there were people who enjoyed dancing.

lasting quality.

No one knows this better than

I

Back in the grim gray days of grammar school a friend and I were wont to twist a radio dial to listen and dream. Two bands, so distinctive they could be recognized before an announcer spoke, might highlight the fvening. One was Lombardos the other was fronted by the late Isham Jones. Remember him?

have played together for a long time are apt to acquire an unconscious quality of blend that otherwise couldnt be duplicated. This might help explain the Lombardo sound; six of the original Royal Canadians are still with the band.

If, by some weird combination of events the Lombardo band set up ibs music stands at Five Points, I dare say the local police and Highway Patrolmen would be up against the most nightmarish traffic jams ever seen.- People from all over eastern North Carolina would be converging on the scene, and

But enough of that.

One Coulc.

^na

Guessina Game

Other musical aggregations have flashed across the contemporary scene like occasional comets. Here today, gone tomorrow. But the sweetest music this side of Heaven has a

Another year . . before being freed by diploma from high school ... the writer was playing with a dance band ( you never heard of it); and the continuing Lombardo success was occasionally mentioned by the older and wiser heads in our group.

One such told me youd never know It when one of his musicians is a shade sharp or flat; the band has been playing together so long that is just automatically adjusts itself into harmony.

As to whether or not they ever by chance sharp or flat a passage Ill never know. Sometimes I think that older and wiser head was just trying to appear a little older and wiser than he was entitled to be.

Well, the Lombardo style survived a depression. World War II and the post-war years; it remained consistent through phases of plain jazz, swing, be-bop, progressive jazz, and rock n roll. And having survived all that, theres little reason to doubt itll be around for a long time to come.

The reason?

You can understand how this might be. Instrumentalists who

Friend: when all Is .said and done, the dancing public wants musicianship, melodious music, dependable music, good taste in music.

The Murphys concur in opinion there is no occasion for such a. sign anywhere in North Carolina, if just a little bit of ingenuity is exercised to show what we have.

And that reminds of a story which Sam Weems, superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, likes to tell about the mountain gal who went to Florida on a visit. When she came back all the neighbor gals wanted to hear her story. They thought she must have had a marvelous time. She wasnt at all enthusiastic about It and when her friends asked Why she didnt enjoy the trip she told them in .simple mountain lingo: There wasn't nowhere to stand up on to see nothin from.

That is almost the situation on the Hatteras Seashore Area road. Why not provide somewhere for visitors to pause and look over the unique land and seascape, which no other place in America can offer?

The Daily Reflector

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By JAMES MARLOW

WASHINGTON (APOne way to find time for other things Is to stop guessing about the 1960 elections and the presidential candidates until 1960 is half over.

There are too many unpre-dictables between now and next summer when the political parties open their conventions. For Instance:: in what Congress

does and in what happened in foreign affairs.

Democrats and Republicans in their 1956 campaign platform pumped out promises far more elaborate than their perofam-ance. Three years later neither party is in position to much boasting.

Both parties, therefore, will be under political compulsion to build up a record they can cite to the voters in 1960.

The Republicans. because President Eisenhower is in charge of foreign affairs, have an advantage in that fieldif the performance is good.

The Democrats, since they have a majority in Congress, might seem to have an advantage there for claiming things accomplished. But not quite.

Eisenhower will be in a position to dilute any claims they make if he dominates Congress, a.s he did this year and proposes programs which have voter - appeal and are acted upon.

Possibly the 1960 elections will be more influenced by what happens in the foreign than in the domestic field. Eisenhower has a busy schedule next year in foreign affairs.

Right now. as a result of his meeting with Premier Nikita Khrushchev, there Is a little less frigidity in relatioiis with

the Soviet Union. Next spring he has a summit meeting with the Soviet leader.

If there is any real achievement there, the Republicans will take credit.

In Congress, which comes back to w'ork in January and W11 try to finish before the conventions, Democrats and Republicans are pretty much agreed on acting In at least a couple of fields which have political importance.

Sen, Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, leader of the Senate Democrats, and Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois, the Senate Republican leader, are agreed on bringing up a civil rights bill around mid-February.

Dirksen and Sen. Mike Mansfield of Montana, assistant Senate Democratic leader, both have said Congress is likely to pass a general farm bill.

Johnson, considered a conservative by northern Democratic liberals, may endear himself to them a little more if the civil rights bill has any meaning at all.

Other Editors Saying . School Tax Supplement

Aside from making a career in music, the maestro has captured speedboating trophies with his Tempo series; he is resta uranteur; he recently scored as a producer; and they say he is also highly regarded in the oil business.

(Goldsboro Xews-.Argus)

There is a new stirring among the people for enriched educational opportunities for their children.

that this can be brought about only by assuming a greater portion of the cost.

Johnston county people have voted preponderantly in 14 of the 15 school districts of that county for a tax supplement for school purposes. In other words, Johnstonians are not content with the bare minimum from state support for their schools.

With this new spirit to make reeded funds available we believe there will come a new spirit which requires that every family help create a friendly atmosphere in whichh igh educational accomplishments are advanced.

He used to play the violin: tut these days Guy just waves his magic baton . . . and Presto! Its music.

By their own decision, arrived at carefully and judicially, they have authorized that they be tax an additional 5 cents to 25 cents on the $100 of valuation for special tax purposes for Ten of the districts had added this enrichment plan previously. In a recent election the Issue was before the other five districts. Four out of the five gave generous approval to school tax supplements.

Such an attitude will insist that every child go to school regularly. That he arrive at school on time. Such an attitude will insist that a full day at school be given to study and instruction. Half holidays for special or sports events will be fewer. Half holidays because of weather conditions or shows or fairs will be fewer.

It also is possible that the Democratc partythrough the anger of Southern Democrats will suffer as a re.sult of a Souther, fight against civil rights.

If its much of a fight, it may carry over into the Democratic convention, where the last thing the party wants Is a split.

The farm bill has a special significance of its owm, since the Democrats have been banging away at the Eisenhower farm program for years and the Republicans in 1960 are anxious for the farm vote.

Only Four Oaks people voted against the supplement. And there the election was very close. Only five votes separated the Yeas and the Neas out of 341 cast. Our people are slowly but surely reaching the decision that their children must have schools at least equal to the national average. Slowly but surely they are reaching the decision

GraduaUy the family that fails to require its children to fully do home work and assignments will lose face in the community.

The church, the community club, the Ruritan club, the Grange, the Farm Bureau and the Parent-Teacher Associations, all of them, will become groups which support high standards.

Johnston has voted extra money for its schools. Now let Johnston carry this spirit Into full support for high quality and scholarship.

with

Christmas

Seals

Season Affects s All

By HAL BOYLE

NEW YORK (AP)-Christma changes everybody.

Look around the plac where you work. You are sure to find among your fellow workers the following typical Yuletlde characters:

1. The yearend orphanChristmas always makes him feel sad. The happier other folks feel the sorrier he feels for himself. If you tell him to brace up, he breaks Into tears.

2. The human marshmallow Christmas always makes him feel glad gooey-glad. He drips so much cloying good will around the place he resembles a beehive leaking honey.

S. The calculating cutieThis is the pretUest girl In the stenographic pool. All year shes been snubbing the low-aid Joes. Now she smiles at everybody, hopefuT theyll bombard her with gifts.

4. The croonerHe sang baritone In his high school choir end was voted One Most Likely to Succeed Bing Crosby.

5. The public bleedershe trots around the office taking collections for causes ranging from the office boys retirement fund to an education^ program for the Mau Maus.

6. The bonus brooder His Christmas spirit is measured by the fize of the Christmas bonus. If it isnt big enough to suit him. he says Kilroy was here, but what happened to Santa Oaus?

7. The head starter He is shirking his work because, like everyone else, he is too busy shopping. But theres difference. Hes buying for Christmas in 1960.

8. The big spenderNoel widens his heart like an accordian, but it cant do the same thing to his pocketbook. Your own kids have a smaller Chrlstms because he borrows money from you.

9. The wistful dreamerTh* old maid bookkeeper comes early to work the day before Christ-mast and puts a spray of mistletoe above the office doorway. Everybody grins and kisses everybody else but her until the boss, that gallant man, leads her personally under the mistletoe, and boldly busses her.

Then the boss says. Well, nobody will get any work done today anyway, so you might as well go home. A Merry Christr mas to all.

And so it Is.

Opinions In

Dont be alarmed when Jus ior picks up a new cuss woi at school. His father and granc^ father did the same thing b fore him. Sparta (Ga.) Ishmaelite.

For all its shortcomings, the extension of the Soviet-Ameri-can cultural exchange agreement Is one of the most hopeful auguries of friendlier relations between the two countries.* 'The Washington Post.

In the business world, an executive knows something about everything, a technician knows everything about something, and the switchboard operator knows everything. Worcester (Mass.) Telegram.

The schools, If they cannot de-emphasize the extracurricular, would do well to emphasize the necessity of book learning.** Wllllamston (N.C.) Enterprise.

Governments and people who repudiate their debts do not long enjoy public confidenoe. Oakville, Ont. (Canada) Record-Star.

Bivalry In The Field Of Tourism

Strength For Today

By EARL L. DOlGLA.SS

WOULD WE BE HAPPIER?

It may oft^n seem strange to us that the Bible tells us so little about heaven.

But how much better off. spiritually, would we be if we knew more in detail about what heaven is actually like? Would it make us more devout? Would it help us better to resist temptation? To be sure, we need to know that there Is a glorious life after death a.s the consummation of oim earthl.v careers. But details are not necessary--or at least not so necessary as we may think.

Probably the greate.st rea.son why the Bible ha.s little to .say about heaven Is becau.se the human mind could not understand the truth about beaveu even

if it were explained. In the concept of heaven, we are dealing with something far beyond human categories of thought. In the flist place, we are dealing with another world to which no one has ever gone and returned, excepting Jesus Himself. Also we are dealing with a spiritual order, and we as physical beings are trying to find out what this spiritual order is like. We simply do not have the mental capacities whereby we can reason out , and comprehend such .spiritual icalitics as the heavenly world.

Hr re we have to reply upon revelation. And we .should not complain that revelation gives us only a few details about .something of which indeed we may be very curious We probably could not understand more.

By ELMER ROE.SSNER

The East-West battle wlH be fought in a new field next year-It will be waged in the field of travel.

The Russians, following a long period during which visitors from foreign countries were discouraged, if not actually kicked in the pants, are broadening their tourist inducements.

This year, nearly 1,000,000 tourists from Western nations will have visited behind the Iron Curtain. Next year the Communists hope for two or three million.

And next year the American travel industry, with governmental a.ssists, Ls promoting Visit The U.S.A. I960.

HISTORY OF COMPETITION

During the 1930s, the Ru.s.sian government encouraged a limited kind of travel in Ru.s,sia. Rus.sia wa.s feeling the backwash of the rece.s.sion in the Western vorld. By encouraging travelers, it could add to its foreign exchange or, as the Russiatu* called

it, valuta: it could there

by gain funds to finance propaganda and espionage in. the West; it might influence some American vlsitois who would return as protagonists for the Red state.

Then as Stalins blood pressures and suspicions rose, travelers were discouraged. Policy has changed again and the Khrushchev government is now encouraging tiavelers from the United States and other Western countries, and new travel records may be set in Russia next year.

Reasons for the new policy are obscure. Perhaps it is because Russia wants to increase its holdings of dollars, pounds, marks and francs to finance fresh trouble in Western nations. Perhaps it is because Russia seeks friends in the West. Or perhaixs Riussia sincerely seeks peace and wants to encourage person-to-person contact with the West.

A.MERKAN REASONS

In the year ahead, the fnt

fully national campaign to get people to visit the United States wiltecome into bloom.

In the past, state and regions have encouraged foreign tourists, but never has the Federal government so fully co-operated with the travel industry.

Our reasons aie stated much more frankly than those of the Russians. In general, they are:

1. As a supplement to foreign policy, America wants as many people as possible to see life in America for themselves.

2. The Administration, accepting the principle that truth is the finest propaganda, wants people from allied nations as well as the Iron Curta.in countries to see life as it really is in the U.S.A.

3. The government wmuld like to see more travel tourists flow in to help balance our foreign fxchange Statistically speaking, bringing in from Europe a mi-tor with $200 to spend Is equivalent to selling a $200 hog to Eui'oyt. Ho oUemm

Our exchange of payments is running $4 billion behind this year. This means foreign people and governments have that much more of American credits. We vdU be happy to have them spend part of it here as travelers.

The fact that foreigners have so many blUions of dollars stacked away makes them prime prospects for tours in America. They can afford it.

BITS AND PIECES OF BUSINESS NEWS

Paul Steiner, author of Useless Information. a book recently published by Citadel Press, New York, says that a penny Invested at compound interest in the year A.D, 1 would today, be worth $250 followed by 45 zeros. . Life magazines on Pennsylvania Turnpike stands have been sprinkled with powder that glows purple when under an ultra-violet light. This has helped to capture thicve.s . . .Tough competition has led to bargain prices for electric razoi's this Christmas season.