University of South Carolina Libraries
I i POLITICAL FOOTBALL Judging from the pronouncements reported in the press, it appears our state governmental leaders are doing us a disservice in the handling of the school desegregation orders. The Greenville and Darlington schools should have been assisted by all of our state leaders, from the gov ernor’s office to the U.S. Senate, work ing together. Unity could have been the backbone of that effort. Instead, our leaders split along party lines and the issue quickly became a political football When our public school education is threatened with mid-year disrup tion; it is no time for our governmen tal leaders to revert to political types. They appeared more concerned with name-calling, blame-placing and credit-taking than they did with edu cation. MUDDLED PICTURE With each passing day, the truth of what accurred at the bridge on Chappaquiddidk Island on July 18, 1969, seems to drift deeper ;ind deeper into mysteries which are murkier than the muddy water below. At ev ery turn the youngest of the Kennedy boys proclaims that he is interested only in having the truth known. And at each opportunity he has his army of lawyers ready with a legal smog machine aimed right in the eyes of the public. His original story to the Edgar- town, Massachusetts police was at odds with his dramatic television dis play. His lawyers opposed the at tempts to have the young girl’s body exhumed for an autopsy. His lawyers fought — successfully — to ban the press and, in so doing, the public from the inquest. THE MANCHESTER, N. H., UN ION LEADER reveals that the driv er’s license, taken from the Senator pending investigation, was not water- soaked, nor was the ink of the signa ture smeared by exopsure to water. One explanation offered is that the wallet containing the license had been lost prior to the accident. But, we cannot find any report that charges have been filed for operating a motor vehicle without a license. If the driv er did not have his license, why have charges not been filed? If the driver did have his license, how come it didn’t get wet? Denials are being made on all sides concerning what is or is not being done to learn the true facts. As news men, we want the truth because we believe the public—our readers—de serve the truth. We cannot but won der if the Kennedy machine is being oiled merely for the purpose of a re- election to the U.S. Senate. It is en tirely possible that the machine is be ing geared to a run for the White House. Should this be the case, a can didate will be presented to the voters who has shown a blatant disregard for the public and the press and the truth. If the man is innocent of wrong, the truth would help him. If he is guilty, he deserves equal treatment under the law. right along with the rest of us. SALUTE TO TAPS We salute the Clinton young peo ple who recently raised over $1,000 for the March of Dimes. Led by Kathy Frady and Gene Simmona and advised by Mrs. Tony Benson, these young people came up with some imaginative projects and worked hard to make them successful They collected contributions in a mo bile bath tub and they staged a com petitive “walkathon” across town. Other projects include a cake sale and a dance. The young people raised a lot of money for a worthy cause and we’ll bet they had a ball doing it. NOTED AND PASSED a Dr. Arthur K. Burns, new chair- jnunZitCtH* Federal Reserve Board was of Jan. 31) told the 32nd annua) (iinner of Tax Foundation, Inc., that pne Federal program requires more khan 100 different forms and reports; Lnd that a state official counted 120 different reports he must submit to Lne Federal agency. Dr. Burns said jttollka. ““expenditure reform” |s.needed,mjore than tax reform. At cast the new Chairman has the right dea. Now we wonder how much he Will be able to do about it. * • • * • Crime report from the Nation’s Capital: “more people were robbed, ilain or raped in Washington last If ear than ever before” . . .291 mur- iers, up from 209 in 1968; armed rob beries, 7,071, up from 4,460; rapes, 326, up from 260. If President Nixon is going to follow through on his cam paign promises to reform the “crime capital of the world”, he had better (as our youthful offspring would say) “get with it, and sock it to them.” Last June a group of 43 Soviet citizens brought a petition to the Mos cow office of the United Nations call ing attention to repression of civil rights in communist Russia. The UN response: refusal to resognize the pe- titioin, followed by an order from Sec retary General U. Thant to all UN of fices throughout the world to reject any such petitions. Whatever hap pened tS v the Four Freedoms the UN was supposed to espouse? McCormack's Reaper Local Library Program Designed For Children BY NANCY PARKS During numerous trips to the Public Relations office at Pres byterian College, I kept noticing an attractive bulletin board for a library. Knowing that the college library was downstairs, I as sumed the bulletin board was the responsibility of its staff mem bers. But the material struck me as unusual-trains and astronauts for college-age people 0 !? I wondered . . .it wasn’t until this week that I found out the whole story behind the bulletin board. THE LADY responsible for the bulletin board is Georgia Young, Children’s and Young People’s Librarian. (You didn’t know there was another library in Clin ton did you?) Located on the se cond floor of the Administration building at PC, the library op erated as a special branch of the Laurens County Library and serves primarily children. The small library is not a conglomeration of books for all types of people, but is planned and decorated especially with children in mind. For example, as you enter the cheery, mint green room designed for child ren ages 3-8, you immediately know you’ve entered a child’s world. On the right, the book shelves are easy to reach and labeled with pre-schoolers in mind. MOST CHILDREN who use these shelves haven’t yet learned how to read or are at least new to the reading process. Georgia has solved this prob lem by putting upenchantingpic- tures to represent the letter of the alphabet with which the au thor’s name begins. The pictures of apples, ice cream cones, jack in the boxes and fish are made of construction paper and have been attractively colored. “This method," Georgia said, “helps the children to find the books themselves if I’m busy and helps teach him his ABC’s." MOUNTED ON the wall a- bove the shelves is a parade of nursery rhyme characters-Mary Had A Little Lamb, Jack and Jill, Little Boy Blue and others; even the tables and chairs are children-sized. But books aren’t the only things this library has to keep children busy. There is a Snoopy Reading Club for boys ages 9-13 in which they read toward a certificate, and for the younger children there is a story hour held Tuesday af ternoons for 3:30 to -1:30. DURING THE story Lair, the youngsters see film strips and movies, hear stories illustrated with flannel board characters, and take part in seasonal acti vities. Sometimes an entire cr> >up will journey Gthe Laurens Coun ty Library for some special acti vity. Although the library caters to younger children, the older nes aren't forgotten. An adj ining room contains books •-specially for children ages eight and up. In this room are the reference books such as the Book of Know ledge, Britannica Junior En cyclopedia, and the 1 Book of Popu lar Science. THE SHELVES contain titles such as “Atoms, Energy and Ma chines,” “The Bo .k of Scout ing," “101 Toys Children Can Make," and biographies of such people as Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Dag Hammorskjold, Pope John XXIII and Eleanor Roosevelt. As a special service to scout troop members, the li brary has the “Merit Badge Se ries" to help the youngsters ob tain various badges in their scouting activities. Even college students majoring in elementary education frequent the library. For a Children’s Lit erature course taught by Dr. Dorothy Brandt, students are re quired to read a certain numter of Newberry and Caldecott Award books, and this library is the most available source for these books. Other college students participating in tutoring and help ing with day-care centers check out books to read to their young friends. FEW PEOPLE realize that such a children’s library exists or if they are aware of its ex istence, they believe it a part of the cohege library. The facts are that it is a branch of the Lau rens County Library and any book that isn’t available there is ob tained by the librarian there from the Laurens selection of books. The hours have changed, too, ac cording to Mrs. Young. “In the past, it’s only been a- vailable for children to come up at set times only. Now there is someone available to come at any time if called on, to provide ^ service for special groups who "come to the library. FOR EXAMPLE, just recently the Camp Fire Girls wanted to come to the library for a special program. The arrangements were easily made and I talked to them about using the card cata logue and showed a film strip also. This is the kind of service the library enjoys offering, * she said. For anyone who would like to visit the library, the hours are from 2:30-5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the story hour on Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30 and on Saturday hours are from 9-12. Keep your eyes open, though, as a library patron, your picture might be on the bulletin board if you’ve been in the news recently, a special added attraction on one of the interior bulletin boards. County Library Provides Some Fine Services Dear Sir: To correct an impression which may have been left by my recent remarks to the Planning Commission (reported last week), I would like to call at tention to the fine services which have been for many years and are now being provided through the Laurens County Library System. In particular, there is the Children’s Library, which serves the children of the community under the very capable direction of Mrs. Georgia Young. It is lo cated on South Broad Street, on the second floor of the Library bur ling, and if there are child ren who have not yet discovered this interesting place, they are missing a treat--especially dur ing story hour on Tuesday af ternoons. In addition, the County Book mobile--a brand new one, in fact—makes stops in Clinton and in Joanna, including some house stops. We value these services great ly. My point, however, is this. If a broader library program can be developed, including services such as these, the entire com munity will be served more ade quately than is now being done under the present college/com munity arrangements. Since an opportunity for expanding publii library service in Clinton doe: exist, it deserves to be explored Lennart Pearson Presbyterian College There seems to be no such thing as peaceful assembly anymore. And those who “march for peace” appear to be the most violent of all.— H. F. Doherty, The Cavalier County (N.-Dak.) Republican. It takes 2,000 bolts to hold a car together and only one nut to scatter them all over the highway.—James E. Pat terson, The Big Sandy and Hawkins (Tex.) Journal. //>£ Oldlom&z, “When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.’’ 2-B—THE CHRONICLE, Clinton, S. C., Feb. 5, 1970 South Pulls Itself Upward BY THURMAN SENSING Executive Vice President Southern States Industrial Council The progress the Southern states have made in the last three decades can be attributed in part to changing attitudes toward the region amongpeople elsewhere in the nation. For many decades af ter the Civil War, the South was ♦he poor relation of the rest of the country. It was treated in a discriminatory fashion. No "for eign aid” or anything of that sort was granted to the South in the late 19th and early 20th century as it struggled to regain its eco nomic place in the nation. The benefits known by such defeated nations as Germany and Japan were never lavished on tlie part of the United States that had known civil war. Pulling itself up by its own bootstraps, the South rebuilt its financial institutions and com mercial organizations. It per suaded national manufacturing companies to invest in the region. It was a long, slow process, but m the 1940s the South began to surge ahead. The quality of its state government improved dra matically, and the Southern states, with tlieir strengthened economies, started to devote a much larger share of their re venues to education, Lith basic and higher. The vexing problem of freight rates, which retarded commerce, was eased. The fed eral government paid more at tention to Southern ports. Indus trialists elsewhere in the coun try gained a new appreciation of the ability and responsibility of the region's laNir force and re cognized that Southern legisla tures Mere industry-minded and eager for progress through in vest' ir-owned enterprises. The result Jail this has tieen a wonderful forward movement n the part f the Southern states continuing from tlie 1940miou into the 1970s. Patterns f Soutliern industrialization are changing, with m Te highly skilled and com plex industries relocating in this region and making letter use f the schools, colleges and uni versities of the South. One reason the South has pro gressed is that its people lie- lieve strongly in local govern ment and in ther basics f th>- American political traditi -n. This regi n has few hippies and ther dissenters fr m American ideals. The universities are not fac tories f ideological unrest, winch, tragically, is tlie caso in some areas such as the North east. State governments are not dominated by tlie union Bisses, who are virtual political czars in some Northern states. Thus opportunities for further ad vancement, through the free en terprise system, are extraordi narily good in the Southern states. Unfortunately, there are ele ments in the nation with a pro found sectional bias against the South. There are those who want to radicalize the South and to punish it for not taking the ultra liberal tack espoused in some in fluential intellectual circles. These elements have urged a dou ble standard of judgment and jus tice. They would make the South’s lut far harder than the lot of any ntlier area. We see this today in the de termination to impose on the Southern states requirements for teacher transfers and busing of school children that are not made elsewhere. W'e see Southern school districts ordered to meet disruptive and virtually impos sible timetables which are not imposed elsewhere m the na tion. It is tragic, shocking and al most incredible that after so many years of Southernprogress there should be an effort made to plunge Southern sch'>ols into chaos while the schools of otiier regions, with the same mix of students, should escape serious government interference. Several Southern governors have made this point in recent days, and their appeal for equal justice should be heeded by fair- minded Americans inevery state. The governors aren't refusing to alter school systems according to r urt order; they are simply say ing that if one type ofscIkxjI sys tem is to le made mandatory for the South, tlie same system should le nJered for Massachusetts, Illinois, Calif nua and the otiier states. If a time-table is set for Atlanta, it should tie set for Bos ton and Pittsburgh. The United States can't have two sets of federal laws -- "he ppressive of the Southern states and one leaving the other states to do as ttiey please in sch'xil arrangements. Constitutionally, the schools are tlie business of the states and local government. But tlie feikral courts have ruled ottierwise. It is intolerable how ever, t • see court orders Esued that deprive the'8JHb#nllstates f equal justice under the law -- that impose conditions T chaos n this region while leaving tlie schools in ttier areas virtually free of interference. The unequal Triers issued by the courts in recent weeks threat en to undo much of the progress made in the South over a perirjd of many decades. Tlie situation should offend tlie sense of fair play -f the entire American peo ple. PARSON JONES SAYS Preacher Gives Insight On Sin Dear Mr. Publisher: We had a visiting preacher last Sunday and he really give us a new insight about sin. Rev. Wright Now allowed as how sin, like everything else, has changed over the years. He said sin now- a-days was such things as over population and air pollution. Dr. Now emphasized that if we don’t soon cut down on people and pol lution, there wasn’t gonna be any society a hundred years from now. It was a right good sermon- at least it got me to thinking. Since Sunday I’ve been giving a lotta thought to these two sub jects, and have reached some conclusions. First, I’ve about decided that neither the government nor in dustry is gonna do anything about pollution. So - I’ve come up with a little scheme of my own. We oughta manufacture nose filters to fit in everybodie’s nose holes. Folks would be made to wear these just like they do clothes. The filters should be changed at least twice a day. They would come in different sizes, so’s a fella could buy a fit. Otherwise he might sneeze and blow ’em out. Now about over population. I think we’re going about this whole thing backwards. We’re trying to limit the population by using birth control pills. As I see it though, the problem in this country ain’t too many people, but too many automobiles. The space a car takes up would allow at least a dozen people. Then if you add all the highway space, you see why we ain’t got room. So - I suggest we invent a birth control pill for automobiles. Well, so much for over-popu lation and air pollution. I gotta close and get this thing in the mail. If I leave now I can avoid the 5:00 o’clock traffic rush. On the way over I’m gonna stick some pipe filters up my nose, just to see how they work. Parson Jones * * * WORTH ABOUT A thorough appraisal of the record will reveal that the na tion’s business community— both on its own and in concert with government—is develop ing. underwriting and imple menting viable efforts to solve the problems which you right fully say demand attention. In terms of responsiveness to these needs and increasingly effective solutions, I think a noteworthy record is in the making, with expenditures ranging in the billions. With out profits, this money would not be available for those pro grams, which offer no mone tary return to industry what soever. Russell DeYoung, Chairman of the Board The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company $ W % .r