Auffust 22, 1262

A Challenge In Farmings Future

Mechanization of tobacco farmings according period of drastic transition to which^ the section will experts, will make great strides during the next have to adjust. It will not be a situation altogether 10 yeaw and create a degree of efficiency never unfamiliar to this section of the state, but it may

No Samson

befoi^ known in the tobacco regions.

Through tnechanization the number of man-hours required for harvesting the crop will be greatly r^uced as machines will take over many of the jobs that for decades have been done by fa^m w'orkers.

This prospect holds out the hope for more efficient and more profitable farming operations. But the prospect of a high degree of mechanization on the tobacco farmcomparatively speaking likewise presents major problems for the eastern area of North Carolina.

According to some estimates, mechanization in tobacco farming during the next decade will eliminate jobs of more than 200,000 people who now

be more ^r-reaching in scope than any similar transition period in the past.

If the size of the farms are increased, if may be expected that a larger number of people will move off the farms into the cities and towns to seek other forms of employment. The elimination of some 200,000 farm jobs, even at the harvest period, will force those people affected to seek other forms o employment for their livelihood.

Eastern Carolina experienced a period of seri^ 0118 readjustment several years ago when over a brief span drastic reductions in tobacco allotments forced many families off the farms. The area was not prepared for the situation, and it took consid-

machinery for efficient operations will require greater utilization than can be made on a few acres of tobacco.

For Eastern North Carolina the decade of mechanizing tobacco farming will bring with it a

!Nio One Wants Mystery Solvec.

By WILLIAM A. SHIRES JONAS RIDGE There arc mny mysteries in the mountains. But iKMie are more intriguing this August than that of the lablcd Brown Mountain lights.

It may be reported, if anyone is interested, that there is rather conclusive evidence about the origin oi the lights. The truth is, however, that no one really wants the mystery solved.

The few reasaiably sound and Rcientifcally plausible theories which had been advanced to explain the phenomena through the years suddenly were cast aside this slmmcr. In lae past two months, dozens of new explanations, strange supersti-tutions and fantastic stories about the lights exploded like a star shower through the hills.

And the truth about the lights, the scientifically correct ex-planatioo of them, appears to have been forgotten entirely in the rising excitement and thnmgs of curious people swarming to the mountain itself or to vantage points on the parking overlooks of the roads eight miles away.

COMMERCIAL - The dancing. glowing lights which history says were noticed on summer nights as long as 1^ years ago have gone commercial.

Soft drinks and sandwiches are haaiced rran the back of a pickup truck on the top of Brown Mountain. Parking spaces at Wisemans View and Cold Springs Lodge are at a premium, and a price.

And now comes word tlu^ a business syndicate at Johnston City, Tenn., has purchased frontage on N. C. 181 facing Brown Mountain and plans to build an observation platform. Undoubtedly with concessions stands and .souvenirs.

Moreover, heretofore friendly relation between ]^ke and Caldwell Counties are becoming strained by a suddenly - de-velt^d dispute over which county owns the mysterious lights. ^

STORIES Despite the strange and fantastic stories; the new legenda gnd revived of flying saucersand things from outer space, nothing new scien-tiftcally has been added this summer.

Local stories to the contrary, there have been few is any encounters with the lights by the observers who a few weeks ago built a 40-foot tower on the flattened of Brown Mcnrntain.

There are no confirmed stories of the lights themselves having been seen fipm the mountain itself.

There are stories by some who claim not only to have seen the lights but that they were

chased by automobile siiKd glohs of fire which appeared to have some kind of intelligence. Another story Is that a witness on the mountain saw four of the huge balls of light flitting and fighting with each other, bouncing around like big, bright basketballs.

Another story is that when the lights are seen, they float and fade away when anyone approaches.

SCIENTIFIC ~ Scientifically-established data indicates that the lights are seen, but always 'from a distance across the valley and goi^e, always on a warm summer night, usually after a rain. They are known to change color, from deep orange to yellow, then white with a blue tinge. They always fade after a few seconds.

There is little, if any, evidence of gases such as hydrogen sulphide which might glow upon contact with a substance such as lead o.xide, found in paint and in some rocks. There Is also no evidence or radioactivity in the Brown ^ fountain area, or in the rocks of the cliffs on the steep north side.

It is not, scientists say, any such phenomena as foxfire. St Elmos fire or even Ughtoing. There is no similarity.

SUPERSTITION Superstition. of course, plays a large part in the rise of legends, especially in dealing with the mysterious and unexplained. There are all sorts of superstitions, ranging from the ghosts of in-diui maidens and faithful old slaves, to the ghost of Frankie Silvers who was hanged a century ago.

A writer of science fiction some years ago dealt with light from mo<Mi rays activating forces deep within pools of water when these rays shone through small holes at correct angles.

LIGHT The bending of light, refractiwi, by glass or by passing through materials of varying densities is a well known scientific prtnch;>le. and is of course the explanation that scientists assume is the correct one for the Brown Mountain lights.

The,.refracting materials are different air masses, or different temperature and density. Cooler air from the mountains is heavier and, at night, flows down into the Catawba Valley.

It collided with the wanner air mass in the valley, causing the warmer air to rise. Light rays from beyond Brown Mountain thus arc bent over the top of the mountain and this light appears to flash and move on the mountain itself.

No. Virginia, flying saucers do not come (Hit of the crevices below the cliffs of Brown Mountain.

tion from the farms.

If the area is now on the threshhold of a new period in which additional thousands of farm jobs will be eliminated, steps should be taken immediately to plan for creating other jobs for these displaced farm workers. Equally important, plans must be made for training these people for new kinds of work in order that they will be qualified for off-the-farm jobs that may be available to them.

It may be difficult at the moment to imagine tobacco farms of the state being able to get along with 200,000 less workers than they now use. But it was difficult a few years ago to imagine the migration that took place when tobacco acreage was sharply reduced.

Counties such as Pitt, where employment in tobacco farming is such a big economic factor, should immediately give serious attention to meeting the new challenges and the new problems that r/T^xir\r a

t\ull come with greater mechanization on the farms. By HEInRY HOWARD

It will not be enough to begin thinking about ^ ^ the problem when farm jobs are eliminated by the hundreds throughout the county.

HcX tucht S]rndicte. InA

Record Debt Is Hardly A Proud Achievement

A new record high was reached in mid-August, but it wasnt an altitude record for a supersonic plane, or a new limit for a spacecraft, so it attracted little public attention.

The new record was set by the national debt which for the first time in history broke through the mythical $300 billion barrier. On August 15 the national debt stood at $300,133,027,610.51.

ot Day In Warehouses

MERCURY climbed past the 93-degree mark as the opening day of the 1962 tobacco market auction season wore on Tuesday. Humidity was high. The familiar aroma of cured bright leaf was heavy in the atmosphere.

With the sale of loose leaf underway for the first time in the Eastern Belts modern history, there was a considerable amount of uncertainty among tobacco-folk.

lengthening day and the fall of the water level in the keg-cool-ers placed around the floors c! the w'ai'ehouses.

That equation was workable. By the time sales were completed, the ice-water kegs were bone-dry.

flow through town smoothly enough. Absence o the Please pardon the lnc(xivenience. . . signs was a factor.

Soon it was apparent there was but one equation to be developed.

It was tough to make open-ing-day predictions. Officials reminded the danger in compar-In most instances when a new record high is Tuesdays sale vith past

reached, it is an occasion for rejoicing a time to factora to'VeTrTthey

point to progi'ess and proclaim even higher goals said, to be reached in the future. Our reaction to the new record national debt is just the opposite. It is not a time for rejoicing over the new record, but a time for takini' stock of our situation and which way we will go ii^ the future. It is time to resolve that the

figure vvull not continue to go upward, but will be systematically lowered to a more realistic level.

The high figure of the national debt is not a mark of achievement, but rather an indication of our shortcomings in the inability of the federal government to live within its means.

There tlon, It rise of

was a diiect propor-seemed, between the temperature with the

INFLUX of tobacco and the added street-traffic load It brings brought to mind a recent request by GreenVUle Utilities Chaiiman Charles Home.

Horae, during an early-Aug-ust meeting, had reflected: It seems like every time the market opens we have some of the main streets torn up for Installing water mains or something.

He pleaded for relief from that predicament this year in asking that projects on main thoroughfares be delayed until market-stimulated traffic subsides.

Tuesdays traffic seemed to

Other Editors Saying... Nation On The Move?

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By JAMES MARLOW WASHINGTON lAPj-i-Ameri-cans are living it up, up, up.

The national debt has reached $300 billion for the first time in history, the Treasury announced Monday.

Its been quite a climb. Li 1849 the debt was only $63 million.

By the end of the 19th century the debt finally got over the $1 billion mark. It was $1,-000,000 over 1916.

It has never dropped below the biUion-doUar figure since Yet. it never got up to the $2 billion mark until 1917 the year America got Into World War I when it became $2,-976,000,000. a jump of $1.751,* 000. 00 over 1916.

That was peanuts compared with what was to come. By 1919 the debt had risen to $25.483,-000.000, thanks to war costs.

With the war over, the United States tried to whittle dowm the debt and did so, steadily. Prom 1920 to 1930 the debt decreased every year until in 19) it was down to $16,185,000,000.

In every one of those years the government wound up with a suiplus but never enough, of course, to pay off the debt at one crack.

All the years mentioned here are fiscal years from one July 1 to the following June 30. So that low mark of $16,185.000 -000 in 19.30 was for the fiscal year which began July 1, 1929.

Its a memorable date. The great depression began with the market crash in October 1929. In the last fiscal year of President Hoovers administration 1933 the debt had Inched up to $22,539.000,000.

Still, looking back, even that figure seems Insignificant because two tremendous changes in the years ahead w'ere to take place in American thinking, and all of them cost money.

One under President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the decision that the government had a responsibility for the general welfare. It fo((nd Its voice In the Npw' Deal. That, and the general effort to get out of the depression, cost money.

The other - and this still lay some years ahead was the American declaion to abandon its isolationism, which had been its viewpoint throughout most of its history, and become an international leader.

This meant getting into World War II and. later, foreign alliances, foreign aid, nuclear weapons and the space race.

And tills is what happened:

- Under Roosevelt, with 13 million people unemployed and the country desperate, the government really had to go into hock. By the end of the 1941 fiscal year the debt stood at $48,961.-000.000.

Even that was nothing compared with what was to come. In December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was in its second world war. The roof blew off.

The war ended in August 1945

which was in the 1946 fiscal year and for that fiscal year the national debt was $269,422,-

000.000.

Under President Harry S. Truman the public debt went down steadily every year until the country got involved in the Korean War, Up went the debt because of the new need for spending.

President Eisenhower took over in the middle of the 1953 fiscal year. The debt for that year was $266,071.000,000. It climbed steadily under Elsenhower, except for one year, even with the Korean War ended.

If there's any satisfaction from the money the United States has to spend in the contest with Russia, its the iact that Russia has to spend too. and the Americans, living standards arc far better.

President Kennedy inherited this contest, and all it involved. when he took over in the middle of the 1961 fiscal year The debt for thiU year reached $288.971.000,000.

And now, with the 1961 fiscal year nded, the Thftsry says the debt is a little over $300 billion. No one even dreams of wiping out the debt. The best anyone can suggest is to try to reduce it a bit.

The real emphasis is on trying to keep the American head above water by trying to keep expenses lower than Income. Eisenhower wasnt very successful in that and Kennedy probably wont be, either.

Quote

The mother of several children who goes out lor the afternoon without taking one of them with her, looks like the mdst relaxed and relieved person in- worH for an hour or so. Then she brglijp to look worried Ouiinisun (Colo.) Ncws-Chanipion.

(Rocky Mount Telegram)

The U. S. has often been called a nation on the move, and this idea has always been accepted as the truth. But a survey just completed would indicate this belief is just a myth. A representative cross-section of nearly 4,0(X) Americans and their travel habits turns up some interesting items. For example the survey found that surprisingly few of them have the traveling habits attributed to them.

The survey was conducted for four airlines and two plane manufacturers. They wanted to find out if it was possible to divert people from private autos to air travel. The net result of the survey shows that this effort by the airlines Is difficult, that people don't want to be diverted.

Half the people in the U.S. seldom budge from home in a year. No less than 80 per cent own autos but 52 per cent never take a trip of more than 200 miles. Only 38 per cent of the population takes as much as a single overnight trip on a vacation In any given year. And about 14 per cent have never taken a round trip of 400 miles or more in their entire lives.

This is fantastic In view of the wide-spread reputation Americans have of being traveling folks. Of the 48 per cent that do travel, 42 per cent go by car, only eight per cent by air. Thus, the surveys first lesson is that the traveling market alone Is more limited than anyone suspected.

So the airlines face their main question: is it possible to divert people from autos to planes? Only 10 per cent of those interviewed in the survey even considered air travel. The reason given by most was the convenience of having a car. The ignorance of most Americans on travel matters is appalling. For example, about half didnt have any idea what It costs to ride planes. For that matter, most dont know how much it costs to drive a car on vacation.

Possibly the main reason Americans have been depicted as traveling folks is the oft-used pictures and Jokes about the family taking off in the family station wagon, overloaded, ready for come what may. There are some families who vacation that way, but they are in the minority.

The job of the airline in luring travelers from the highway Is formidable. To divert a motorist to an airline requires at least a 600-mile roundtrip, there can be no more than three in the party (to keep down expenses), and the traveler must not have to stop over once en route.

The survey emphasizes the difficulty In persuading more than one per cent to try air travel unless fares were brought down to a level many airlines consider unprofitable, even with full loads. As much, the survey seemed to add some ammunition to arguments that the vast untapped market of the non-flying public is as mythical as the notion that this is a nation on the move.

PRICES offered (m the market Tuesday were viewed by many. There were widely-contrasted opinions.

Tob'-eco growers, in some cases, said companies were paying good prices for the loose leaf offerings. Others expressed dismay at cash returns for their untied leaf. Bundled tobacco, sold without benefit of government support prices, brought a substantial return, based upon quality.

It w'as Interesting to note this morning that government reports for Tuesdays untied offerings listed price declines for 12 grades of lugs, primings and t nondescript.

Allowing for the six-cent-a-pound price support differential, there were two grades in the list (fab* orange lugs and fine lemon primings) held their own in comparison with last years opening. One grade (substandard, N2) was only $2 Jbelow 1961s opening level.

Except for the N2 decrease of $2, all grades Usted were down from $6 to $11 from last years opening on the Eastern Belt.

Senator Thurston B. Morton says the federal government spent a billion dollars in Kentucky last year, and I helped to get some of that money. All right. Senator, now tell how much jrou took away from us in taxes. Did we break even?Lexington Herald.

Science

Now

Elite

By GEORGE E. SOKOLSKY

Copyright. 1962, King Features Syndicate* Inc.

Small boys, when I was a inna.li boy, talked base-ball and such. Now, they seem to be technologists. They know about space, about rniMsUea, how to hot' rod an automobile, and so on. Parents -listen in astonlsh-meat at junior small talk which is really out of this w(urld.

The fact of the matter is that the heroes f the day are Astronauts and to most, it matters little whether they are Americans or Russians or anything they are the men who are doing the unbelievable. Also even kids know that science is a matter of team work. Nobody could get up there all <m his own'r he has to have a sup-porUnj team and lots of boys expect to be on that supporting team.

What President Elsenhower called a scientific-technological elite, President Kennedy has incorporated Into a government office, The Office of Science and Technology. The federal government will spend $12,-000.000,000 (bilUon) on research and development this year. This does not Include what private industry is spending on R & D, as businessmen call it. Science has become a major government operatl(i.

This is characteristic of a changed world. In fact, so technological have we become that our politicians, before they decide on their behaviour, have surveys made and polls taken and the whole summarized by mechanical computers so that no one need think about right and wrong and morality and virtue.

It Is like my mail. For something like 30 years, I have spent my Summers up here in BerlB-shire County in Massachusetts where I can read and study and renew myself. And during all those years, my mail was forwarded by the New York Post Office. But lo and behold! This year improvements were made and the Post Office Is becoming mechanized and It is using more automatic machinery an(I also the Post Office wants more money for stamps.

But on Wednesdays my mall does not come. On Wednesday, my mall goes to Falmouth in the Cape Cod area, about 160 miles away from here. Why does the mall go to Falmouth instead of to Otis? Because the Otis Air Force Base is there.

I telephone to the mail clerk at the Air Force Base, at my own expense, and he very kindly forwards my mail to me.

Apparently somebody <m a train or In Springfield, Massachusetts, cannot read on Wednesdays. He reads all other days, but Wednesday Is his off day. Or maybe, it is all done by a machine which refuses to work on Wednesday.

I have a teletypewriter up here and one day It came a message which I though I should not have. I broke In to tell the sender that he had the wrong place. The sender had no sense of humor. It took a telephone official to convince him that either he or the machine or perhaps a pixie had made an

error.

The real trouble with science is that it is difficult to evaluate. It takes a scientist to

read the stuff and while he

may be full of knowledge, he may have no wisdom. The

government lets contracts to universities, contractors and to think companies, as someone calls them. The universi-

(Continued on page 5)

Strength For Today

By EARL L. DOUGLASS WHAT MEASURE SUCCESS?

Is the United Nations succeeding or failing?

A little of both perhaps. For if we are expecting the United Nations suddenly to turn a discordant world into a veritable kingdom of God, then the United Nations is failing. It is not doing that and by its very nature It cannot do that. It can help in many ways to stabilize the worlds life. Probably its greatest advantage comes from the fact that world leaders meet at the United Nations, get to know one another personally, and have a chance to talk out many difficulties over which they would otherwise brood and grow bitter.

The League of Nations failed, and one reason why it did was

because we expected of It more than it could furnish. The US is a hopeful youngster. It may grow into stalwart manhood. It wiU have its day and years of folly, when like the child and adolescent it will make stupendous mistakes. But there is more honesty in the world than dishonesty. The heart of man Is desperately wicked, but man also is a child of God and as such has spiritual potentialities.

It is the hope of all of us who believe in the United Nations that it will be able to accomplish much. It will not accomplish everything its founders hoped it would accomplish; but if it accomplishes much, if It holds us steady when the world begins to tremble, then It will have fulfilled in large measure the basic ideals of its founders.

^Russia To Bid For Oil Markets?

By ELMER ROESSNER

Evidence indicates Russia is planning a giginTfe drive To wrest the oil markets of the wcrld from the West.

It is increasing its production of oil tremendously.

It Is expanding its tanker fleet. The Soviets orders are bringing fresh, red prosperity to the shipyards of the World. Even American yards are building tankers with a capacity of 449,000 tons for the Soviets.

Glimpses of Russia's drive to increase petroleum production are offered by Ferdinand F. Pir-lialla. Department of Commerce expert, in the August 6 issue of International Commerce.

The 1960 production of about 148 million tons Is more than four times the 1949 production, he reported. Although the United States leads in crude production, Russia is fast narrowing the pap. he .said. In 1946. the Soviet production was about 10 per cent of the U. S. output; by I960 it was 42 per cent.

It became apparent in 1958 that the Soviets had begun a drive to increase exports to the West, Pirhalla wrote. In that year, a 50 per cent Increase over 1957 was noted. . .In 1959 exports jumped about 54 per cent over the previous year. . .Most of Soviet oil exports to the West have been going to the industrialized countries of West era Europe.

The Soviets have been aggressive in broadening their markets. In 1953, 20 countries were supplied with Soviet petroleum, whereas In 1960 there were 32 countries.

Even more significant in Russias frantic drive to get more tankers with which to export oil.

A total of more than 1.3 billion deadweight tons of o tankers were, under construction or on order for the Soviet at the nd of 1961, according to a study by Sun Oil.

GAINING ON U.8.

Soviet orders were almost three times that of the 449,000

tons being underwritten by American companies. The Rua-ian ordera are prospering Western shipyards, the Sun study showed.

While Western orders for more tankers have been declining, the Soviet orders have been rising. Italian and Japanese yards are building 570.000 of the deadweight tons Russia Is busing.

The situation may be nearing a crisis. Russia iis Increading its oil production at an enormous rate; It Is constructing a huge fleet that can carry it to all parta of the world: free, neutral and red.

PurtheiTnore, Russia has tremendous advantages over American oil companies. Labor costs are controlled: the government pays workers what It wishes. Shipping costs are lower for the same reason. Russia operates without overtime, giving an added advantage.

Furthe^ore, Russia does not need land stations. The Ceylon government hak seized part of the Western oil establishments;

Cuba has seized all of them. Thus Ruaaia, without investment, has shore facilities that are darned efficient. We built them.

The aituatl(Hi Ix critical and growing worse.

J

STRANGE BUSINESS ITEMS ON THE NEWS TICKER

The crin vegetal Industry In Morocco is having difficulty and Is asking for government support. Crin vegetal, ^ of course yoil knew, is curled palmetto fiber uaed in stuffing and padding. . .Despite White House assurance that the price of gold will not be changed, prices of collectors items have risen. A $20 gold piece, with $^.86 worth of gold brings $55 today, and more if It Is in good condition. . . .Twice as many Americans went abroad last year spending the equivalent of gold) than foreigners visited this country, the National Industrial Conference Board reports. (Canada and Mexico figures are not included.)