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>>■ ' .. i ■ mu il ' i———— East Side -By P. D. Certainly seems that in the Cow Palace last week there was a lot of Bull. i On March If, 1956,1 ran what has since been dubbed “The Jackass Page.” On May 17th, because of requests for additional copies of the page, I ran it a second time. Today, for the same reason as of May 17th, I am running it for the third time, both press runs of March 15tn and May 17th being exhausted. The exact number cf states from which requests have come fcr the page, I don’t know, having not kept up with them, but my guess is around forty. At any rate, I am indeed sorry to inflict the page again on my regular subscribers, but it is my hope they will understand . . . you know, anything to make a dollar. $1000 Reward for anyone proving any connection between me personally, or this paper, and any organization whatso ever, with the exception of the Methodist Church, to which I was at one time a member. True, I don’t have a thousand bucks, but I can of fer it safely because there is no connection, no subsidy, no affiliation in any way with any person, place, or thing and myself or my paper. The reason for this tirade is the eternal accusation by some of being the local mouthpiece for the NAACP, the Republican Party, certain monied in terests, and God only knows what else. In the hope of getting across (to a few at any rate) the fact that I do not repiesent anything or anyone except myself, I would like to print an exchange of letters between a gentlemen at TIME and myself. ★ ★ ★ TIME The Weekly Magazine May 21, 1956 Mr. P. D. East The Petal Paper Petal, Mississippi Dear Mr. East: As a public relations consultant to the NAACP I get to see many newspapers from across the country. But never have I seen anything that startled me as much as the March 15 issue of the Fetal Paper with its incredible rediculing of the White Citizens Council crowd. I’m referring specifically to the full-page ad I assume you wrote headed, “You Too, Can Re Superior.” I hope I am not congratulating a dead man. This must have taken courage and I hope you are still with us. I’m mighty curious to know what happened after you ex ploded this blockbuster in vour community. There may be material in your experience for a magazine article. Certaily when a Southerner can stand up and tell the Councils off with such wonderfully barbed language — and get away with it — the rest of the country ought to hear about it (because, as you know, the rest of the country holds the intransigent South in greater awe and fear than you apparently do). Although I’m not on the elitorial staff of TIME magazine I’m sure I could, through my affiliations with people here and in NAACP, get this story to the public, if it adds up to the kind of story I hope it does. Can you give me some details? Cordially, Don Gross ★ ★ ★ Petal, Miss. May 24, 1956 Dear Mr. Gross: Suh, what y’all mean by writing down here to a solid citi zen of the South and indicating that he may not be appreciated to the fullest by his fellow citizens? Heavens! Etc. I’d like y’all know, suh, that I was awarded the Corn Pone Society’s Annual Medal, with four Magnolia clusters, for my efforts in behalf of the Pure, White Citizen’s Councils of this heah progressive state. Seriously, Mr. Gross, your letter is appreciated greatly; it was nice of you to take the trouble to write. No, truth is, I’m not yet dead: After next week it may be so, for I am running a rather praiseworthy editorial on our beloved Senator James Eastland. As to the “Jack Ass Page which ran on March 15th, I was not bothered as much because of that as I have been for other things in the past. For the most part I work at home, going to my office only when necessary. And here at home we have something of a telephone policy, especially on each Thursday and Friday. It is this: I do not answer the telephone at all. Anyone calling is requested by my wife to state their name before she says whe ther or not I’m in. It is not that I’m a big shot, but is a simple matter of good judgement. I do not argue with anyone what soever, and from experience I’ve learned that a person calling and refusing to state his name has a hankering to argue, an I think it’s foolish to discuss anything with an anoymous cal •lor* At any rate, following the issue of March 15th, we had half dozen calls, and not one would identify himself. I did not talk with them. One person told my wife to tell me not to stick my head out the house for at least six weeks. My wife said, You sound like you’re about as big as he is, why don’t you tell him7” The lady calling replied, “I won’t, but my husband is going to.” To date I haven’t encountered the fellow. Another person called, A LADY, and laid down the law to my wife for my individual understanding, referring to me as a “nigger lov ing bastard.” (My wife agreed with the latter reference.) On the whole, Mr. Gross, not much was said. Of course, a little something was done. Since March 15th I’ve lost over two-hundred« subscriptions. Naturally, I can’t prove it, but I have good reason to believe that there is something resembling an organized effort to stop advertising with my paper As I said, I can’t prove it . . . I’d be the last person who would know, “o previous trouble with my fellow citizens relative to my editorial policy, let me tell you about an experience last summer. I stopped for a traffic light in Hattiesburg and a man walked up to my car and invited me out, saying that if I d get out he’d mop up the street with me. Naturally, being a coward, I declined, telling him that he’d have to offer more inducement than that. That’s one minor incident. I have received unsigned letters in which I was called (Continued On Page 2) ' Local Schools Open Tomorrow; Faculty For This Year Is Named _——--— John A. Johnson Superintendent For 1956-57 Year The Petal Schools will officially legin the 1956-57 school session it 8:30 a.m. on August 31, 1956, ccording to Mr. John A. Johnson, Principal. All patrons and friends jf the school are invited to be iresent at the opening exercises. All Juniors and Seniors are re vested to register on Thursday, \ugust 30 at 9:00 a.m. School lusses will not operate on Thurs lay, and Juniors and Seniors will e expected to provide their own ransportation for this registra ion. Classification and registration or all other students will be held .n Friday. A short devotional pro gram will be held in the senior ligh apditorium from 8:30 to 9:30 i.m. and all junior and senior high chool students are requested to ie present. All bus drivers will cover their oute in ample time so as to reach he school by 8:20 a. m. on Friday, \ugust 31 and will be requested o remain on the campus until ■egistration has been completed vhich should be about 11:00 a.m. Attention is especially directed o the fact that all beginning pup ls (those that are enrolling in the -.chool for the first time) must pre ent i birth certificate as we can iot enroll any student who will lot be six years of age on or be ore January 1, 1957; and all other tudents must present their old look cards before they can be is ued a set of books for the next chool session. (Continued on Page 5) Dr. Wimberly Opens Offices In Hattiesburg Dr. M. N. Wimberly, chiroprac or, has opened offices for practice n Hattiesburg at 901 West Pine St. Dr. Wimberly is an Army vet >ran, having served with the 36th Division from 1940 to 1945. He is i graduate of the Palmer School jf Chiropractic of Davenport, owa, having practiced for five 'ears in Oakdale and Alexandria, La. Dr. Wimberly served for two years as president of the Louis iana Chiropractic Association, is former member of the First Bap ist Church, Oakdale and Baptist Temple Church of Alexandria, past Worthy Patron of Eastern Star of Golden Rule Chapter No. 78, past member of Athletic Asso ciation, Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, Oakdale, and is pres ently member of all Masonic bodies including El Karubah Tem ple A. A.'O. N. M. S. of Shreve port, La., and is member of the international Chiropractors Asso ciation. Dr. Wimberly, his wife and two children, Mike, age 8, and Patsy, age 12, reside at 901 West Pine St. where they have established offices. (Continued on Page 7) Letters Pace Oil Co. Magee, Miss. Aug. 22, 1956 The Petal Paper c/o Editor P. D. East Petal, Mississippi Dear Editor: Please send us ten copies of your August 23rd issue and en close the cost of same. It goes without saying that we are grateful to you for this article and the direct reference to my father, M. M.Pace, who has been in the Service Station business only a year. However he seems to have gotten off on the right foot by the sound of your feeling ref erence to the treatment you re ceived in his station. Articles like yours reaffirm our faith in our fellow man. Kindest personal regards, Sincerely, JACK PACE. , v TELEVISION: Not The Hand That Feeds Us — But What Does It Take Away? \ i No doubt based on the ancient saying that one picture is worth ten thousand words, television and some newspapers appear to be fighting a picture-word battle. That is, TV shows ten thousand pictures and news papers feel obligated to print a hundred thousand words. To us this has all the ear marks of high humor. If television shows ten thousand pic tures, it seems newspapers would do better to print only one thousand words — the sti pulation being, of course, one thousand choice words. When WDAM-TV entered business a few months ago a newspaper in Jones County did print something like a thousand words — in our opinion, no so choice. Obviously, in the eternal pursuit of the dollar bill, the newspaper was'prompted by ignorance or fear (And the two may well be the same thing.) to print a brochure to be given to their advertising accounts in which they stated: “Here Are THE FACTS on what your Advertising Dollar ACTUALLY BUYS when invested in T-V.” In our opinion, with some concrete evidence to support it, the bro chure misrepresented the whole concept of TV as a media for advertisers. (Here and now let us make clear that we are not selling TV advertising. We’ve got problems of our own, which, incidentally, were not caused by TV coming to town. But we feel that a newspaper has an obligation to present facts, and analyze them to the best of its ability.) With reference to the newspaper printed brochure under discussion, they presented the number of homes, the nur *or of televis ion households, and percentage of TV set£ to household. Two things seemed unfair about iheir presentation. 1. The estimate was made in June of 1955, over a year ago. 2. They present 6 counties in this area, instead of the 29 ac tually served by the television station. Now, with reference to the number of homes in which television is present, we have talked with dealers in Hattiesburg and have approximated the additional sale of TV sets since June of 1955. The estimate, from the report by dealers, amounts to 3800. And remember this, Hattiesburg is only one town in bne county. The brochure states that in the 6 counties presented there are 10,000 TV sets. Actually, in the 29 counties served by WDAM, the fig ure in June of 1955 was 44,480. And with the Hattiesburg sales estimate to base the increase on, our estimate would be that in the 29 county area there is somewhere near 60,000 TV sets presently. The brochure is misleading in its pre sentation of program ratings. The Trendex TV ratings are, we understand, based pri marily on televiewing in the East, which, most certainly has more to offer a person in the evening, which is the time of the greatest audiences for television. Thus, with fewer, indeed, practically none, attractions here in Mississippi, the audience watching TV would, it seems logical to us, be greater than in the fftast, not necessarily percentagewise, but more important, in actual numbers of per sons. The brochure hastens to point out that with the presented percentages to the total number of sets in the 6 county area there would be 3940 persons watching the best rated TV program. And in addition to that misrepresentation, they point out that their town has three stations to choose from, all presenting good reception. They ask: “Just how can you tell WHO is watching your T-V advertising? Do they pre fer the top shows or canned film?” Admittedly, those two question deserve a small amount of comment. First, let us ask this question: “Just how can you tell WHO is reading your ad in the newspaper?” Ad vertising men, Dr. Gallup, phychologists, and countless others have tried for years to ans wer that question. Frankly, no one knows! Too, we sort of resent a negative question of that sort. It reminds us of a sign which might read: Dr. Bohunk’s Baby Food Won’t Poison Your Baby. That leaves the impres sion that all other foods would bring im mediate death. As to the second question about what a person prefers, that leads a person to believe that the local TV station carries only canned film programs. That, of course, is far from true, as anyone who ever watched the sta tion knows. We conclude that the newspaper which put out the pamplet is suffering from a rath er common malady; that is, instead of adding strength to their argument they have just raised their voices. It is our opinion that there is no compe tition between newspaper and television. It is our opinion that, generally speaking, ad vertisers with an increased sales volumn in creases their advertising budget. Too, it is our opinion that newspapers and television can work together 10 mutual advantage. Our opinion is that each media supplements the other, insofar as news coverage goes. True, newspapers are out of the running insofar as entertainment goes; however, by the same; token, television is out of the running inso far as editorial comment is concerned. We believe, and this from experience, that television has added to newspaper cir culation. For example, we have watched TV newscasts and gone out immediately and bought a daily paper to get fuller details and to see what editorial comment was made, if any. It is our opinion, too, that the brochure printed to add a low blow to the new TV station is the result of ignorance, which, as we know too well shows itself whenever any kind of change is coming about in our so ciety. ' We have panned TV programs numerous times in our paper. We are likely to con tinue doing so when they stink. But, for Hea ven’s sake, those of us in the newspaper business should take a good look at ourselves before we condemn TV. Commercial tele vision is only 10 years old and it is far su perior to most of the newspapers in the state, some of which are a century old! In conclusion we have only this to say: Ignorance is the greatest enemy to progress the world knows. We are aware of the fact that TV is not the hand that feeds us in the newspaper business. At the same time we hold firmly to the conviction that we won’t starve because of the coming of WDAM-TV to the community. Well, to be sure, we just sit back and en joy it practically every evening of our life — naturally, after we’ve read the newspaper for the day. J-■----- ' WHAT! And A Santa Claus, Too? — f The Open Shop “What is all this talk that’s in the papers about the open shop?” asked Mr. Hennessey. “Why, don’t you know?” said Dooley. “Really, I’m surprised at yer ignorance, Hin nessey. Whut is th’ ’open shop’? Sure, ’tis a shop where they kape th’ door open t* accommodate th’ constant stream of min corn in’ in t’ take jobs cheaper thin th’ min that has th’ jobs. ‘Tis like this, Hinnessey — sup pose wan of these free-barn amerycan citi • % zens is wurkin’ in an open shop fer th’ prince ly wages of wan large iron dollar a day fo’ tin hours. Along comes another free-bam son-of-a-gun, an’ he sez to th’ boss, ‘I think I could handle th’ job fer ninety cints.’ *Shure,’ sez the boss, an’ th’ wan-dollar man gits th’ merry jinglin’ can, an’ goes out into th* crool wourld t’ exercise his inalienable rights as a free-bam Amerycan citizen an’ (Continued On Page 7) Optimist Notes — Committee Reports On Park Site; J. L. Jordan Discusses 4-H Work rs Members of the Petal Optimist Club heard a committee report on the possible location of the park at their regular meeting last Thursday night. Members of the Park Location Committee, Burrell C. Young, R. B Nelson, Jack W. Burks and E. M. Carter, reported on an approx imate 20-acre tract of land owned by O. R. Mozingo, located a half mile from Petal on the Old Rich ton Road. The club members approved the purchase of the site. Plans now call tor a' complete survey of the area, with the placement of park equipment in mind. In addition to the committee re port, Mr. James L. Jordan, Assis tant County Agent of Forrest County, spoke on the work he was doing with 4-H groups throughout the county. In his talk, Mr. Jor dan pointed out the fact that Op timist work went along with 4-H work, both serving boys in the county to the best possible advan tage. Club guests, in addition to Mr. Jordan, wer^ David Swandt and L. C. Guess. Dr. O. N. Ashcraft, club president, presided at the meeting. Southerners Getting Set For Season Mississippi Southern’s 1956 foot ball hopefuls will begin two-a day practice sessions when they report on Sept. 1, Head Coach Thad (Pie) Vann announced to day. Vann, who’ll begin his eighth season at head taskmaster of the Southerners, and his staff of Clyde Stuart, Roland Dale and C. J. Taylor expect “about 75” can didates to report. “We have close to 40 ‘old men’ coming back and we have invited 35 new' candidates.” Vann said. “All of them have been told to report in good physical shape be cause we plan to get dowm to hard work from the start.” Pre-school practice plans call for the working day to begin at 7 a.m., w'ith breakfast at the train ing able. The day includes three lecture-rocm sessions for squad and staff, three separate meet ings for the staff and tw'o work outs on the field. The aspirants will report Thurs day, August 30 and will spend Thursday and Friday drawing equipment and undergoing phys icals. Of the 1955 squad-members re turning, 16 are lettermen. Line men in this group are Don Owens of St. Louis, Mo., and P. W. Un derw'ood of Cordova, Ala. (shifted from guard); guards Dave Fitz gerald of McKeesport, Pa., A1 Tre (Continued on Page 5) Ira Hall Opening The Jewelry Shop Saturday, Sept. 1 More indication of potent i;.J , Petal progress i* seen in the. an nouncement this week by Ira P>. Hall of the opening of his new jewelry store here on Saturday, Sept. 1st. The Jewelry Shop will be locat IRA B. HALL ed next to Nelson’s Shoe Store, in the new Mathis Building, on Main Street. The store is completely new in every respect. It is air-conditioned and will have a large stock of nationally known names in the jewelry business. Ira Hall, the owner of the new store, has been in the retail jew elry business for the past ten years. He besan his experience with Joyce Jewelry Company of Mobile. Ala., where he spent three years. For the past seven years Mr. Hall has been with The Dia mond Shop in Hattiesburg. A native of Alabama, Mr. Hall is married to the former Inez Jeter of Monroeville, Ala. They have two sons, Larry, age 9, and Gary, age 5. The Halls are mem bers of the Baptist Church; Mr. Hall is also a member of the Ma sonic Order. “For sometime I have watched with interest the growth of Petal,” stated Mr. Hall, “and to put in our store here wasn’t a hard decision to make. I have great faith in the continuing growth of he town. “The Jewelry Shop will carry a complete line of merchandise. We will featuie such famous names as Elgin, Bulova, Gruen. Our stock of diamonds will be com plete. Also, we wall have birth stones, costumes jewelry, Sun beam household appliances and complete facilities for all watch repairs, major or minor. “It is my sincere hope that our store will add to the growth and prosperity of Petal. And to every one I extend a cordial invitation to drop in and visit with us at 108 Main Street.” concluded Mr. Hall. Now That School Is Near — Inexpensive Eye Test Program Can Give Many Children Better Sight 4 Condensed from Town Journal Magazine Kansas school children are about like school children any where—and one out of every five has some eye defect serious enough to interfere with his school work. This fact was proved in a state wide program that so far has giv en nearly 400,000 school children a real eye test— not just a run through the old Snellen eye chart with the big E at the top. The test, which was started by the Kansas Optometric Associa tion in 1940, has saved literally thousands of children from fail ure, or near failure in school, life long vision troubles due to neg lected eyes, and even blindness! I it could be duplicated here, in iny state, or even in any local school, for remarkably little money. The test is divided into three parts: (1) A set of 12 cards, each designed to show up a distinctly different eye trouble; (2) the old fashioned Snellen test, still one of the best ways to detect near sightedness; and (3) a personal examination, by an optometrist, to verify the “stereoscopic” find ing and check for signs of disease in each child’s eyes. When the test was given in the Yates Center, Kansas, high school gym last year, more thad 300 of the 1200 children tested showed eye defects never previously diag nosed; and another 60 showed troubles serious enough to require (Continued on Page 7)