The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-11-23
P~0sc0gouIo, Progress
and Industry

ana In0uStfy
The other day, while studying the prob
lens Of city planning, a field in which the
city falls short of real achievement, we be-
gan to think of some of the things in which
our community makes a better showing,
even to the point of excelling most of its
neighbors in Mississippi, and we decided to
set them down here. AS readers of these
pages know, we do not believe in idle and
empty flattery and self-congratulations. Con-
structive criticism of a community's short
comings seems to us a better policy for any
newspaper that wants to exert a stimulating
influence upon the city's growth. And yet
there is a great deal here that we know merits
honest praise, and this week we should like
to set down some of our convictions along
this line.
In the first place let us say that from our
own experience we are convinced that this
war-born community of Pascagoula, which
for so many years was a quiet lumber port
and fishing town, right now is the most
stimulating community in the state of Mis-
!. sissippi. We hope that this does not sound
, too much like the do-or-die loyalty of the
: professional booster-because it is not con-
ceived in the booster spirit, but is a convic-
ton that has grown up of itself after a long
period of having closely observed many of
the communities in this part of the country.
We are not as lively and stimulating as
metropolitan like New Orleans or Atlanta
or New York Of course, and we are not claim
ing to be. But there is more doing in this
town, the people are more alert here, buster
with hopes and plans for the future, more
sensible in the use of their leisure time, than
in any other community in Mississippi. 1t
is not only q question of clubs, little theaters,
square dancing associations and the like. 1t
is a quality based in the feelings of great
numbers of our people themselves-not all of
course, but a large proportion; it is a feeling
that exists up and down the streets of East
lawn as we'll as in the older sections of the
town, and along Delmas avenue.
Children whose parents faced the sew
crest educational handicaps back home"
children of men and women who could
only leave the cotton fields or the aw.
mills for a few months of schooling each
year in dilapidated country schools. are
walking our streets each morning on the
way to some of the finest schools in this
part of the country. They carry free
school books beneath their arms and they
enter at the door of modern and well-de-
signed institutions. and the quality of
teaching they get by comparison with
country teaching that their parents knew
is impressive. The Pascagoula high
school is probably as good as any in the
state. and we rejoice that the new Junior
high school was far enough along to war
rant completion as a federal project when
the war ended. We still do not have the
best along these lines. but our young
people are going to have. for some years
to come. a lot more than most of US had.
and that is one of the best outlooks for
the future.
There are probably more public auditor
iums, and more active church. social and
entertainment groups in Pascagoula than in
any city of its size in Mississippi. The square
dancing organization that assemblies each
Friday to put on a public dance at the 18th
Street Auditorium is only one example.
The Paspoint Little Theater group, al
though it has only completed its first pro-
duction, carried that off with a surprizing
competency which could come only out of
a stimulus and interest of a sizeable group
of people. An amateur theater is more sig
nificant as a symptom perhaps than for the
money it makes or the property value it
represents. But we will warrant that the
Delta with its feudal cotton economy can't
put up anything to compare with the local
group. And neither can Jackson. Capital
city though it is, there is twice as much group
activity here, and a livelier outlook by far.
The activities of the Arts and Crafts club,
which gives competent instructions in paint
ing. water coloring. fug-making, flower ar
engagements ana other subjects, are the be-