news in this publica
tion is released for the press on
the date indicated below.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau ot Extension.
OCTOBER 20,1915
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. I, NO. 48
A EC Branson, J. Q. deB. Hainiltdn, L. R. Wilson, L. A. Williams, R. H. Thornton.
editorial • •
Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the postoffloe at Chapel Hill, N.O., under the act ofJAugust 24,1912
north CAROLINA CLUB STUDIES
jjORTH CAROLINA LEADS
TheUanville Refrister is peevod ovo'T
p f.xct tliat the registration of students
' the University of North Carolina runs
t^vnndllOO this year; while the Univer-
Virginia lags behi^l «-ith only
972.
large demand and LOW
PRICES
During the eight months ending with
August of this year we shipped abroad
6 099 927 bales of cotton, against 3,734,-
444 bales for the corresponding months
ending with August 1914
Moreover, these six million bales were
invoiced to foreign purchasers at an aver
age of 8.76 cents a pound. The growers
of cotton would have been happy over
prices like this during the lean months
of the last year, '
Only self-financing farmers can hold
jtheir cotton; and self-feeding farme s aie
self-financing.
papers break into the every-day, work-a-
day world of wealth, welfare, and well
being.
The great Y>roblem in a democracy is
the conversion of wealth into common
wealth. The church needs to capture the
whole realm of wealth—the producers,
tlie processes, and the jiroducts; and to
work into and out of the work of the
w'orld the spiritual significance of life.
ENGINEERS, READ!
Do elec.trical and steam engineers n-
ftlize that they can get instruction in
their, specialties through correspondence
courses at the University?
The Bureau of Extension, through the
Correspondence Division, is ofTering two
courses in electrical engineering. The
(ost is-small, the benefit great.
Many a man in this state needs but a
year’s instruction to nuike him_ an effi
cient engineer, drawing twice the w ages
be now gets. Who would shovel coal all
life long when work more congenial anl
more remunerative awaits the exSrcise of
a little gumption?
Write the Bureau, of Kxtention for full
mforination.
BETTER START NOW
Better start that marketing association
right now. Here is a gooi example for
co-operati\'e marketing reported to us the
other day. Said a farmer:
‘About two or three months ago I was
in town and saw one of my farmer neigh
bors sell soin(‘ hay to a store.. I asked
him what lie was getting for it and he
told me $12 a ton. This week I was at
that same store and saw another farmer
buying some of that same hay. I vvas
curious to know what he was paying and
when I ask(nl hiui he said $25 a ton.
Moral: Isn’t it time for farmers to
learn more about fiuying and selling?
And' isn't it time for farmers in your
county to begin organizing a ‘marketing
association,’ as farmers in many progres
sive counties fiave done and are doing
fhvdn’t you better speak to your neigh
bor about this?-Ltaleigh Christian Ad
vocate.
OUR
PROGRESS IN HIGH
SCHOOLS
According to the forthcoming report of
Dr. N. W. Walker, State Inspector of
High Schools, 8,986 country boys and
girls were enrolled in the State-aided
high schools last year; or two and one-
half times as many as were enrolled se\-
eu years ago when this system of schools
was established.
There are at present 214 stati' high
schools in operation. Only five counties
are without such schools—Chowan, New
Hanover, Ptisquotank, I’erquiinans, and
Watauga.
These schools have opened the door of
opportunity for high school training to
thousands of country boys and girls, and
it is good for the State that these young
people in such large numbers are taking
advantage of the opportunities thus af
forded them.
ORGANIZE THE TOWN
SHIP
Dr. Clarence Poe
Our township serves no purpose in
the world, ami is not organized except
to have a deputy sherift' or constable
to serve as policemen. It has voting
boundaries, but it has never been or
ganized anywhere in this country so
far as L know, except in New Eng
land.
A great part of the progress that
New England has made, and the great
influence it lias wielded in the develop
ment of this nation lies in this town
ship system.
Just one great American statesman
saw this situation, Thomas Jefferson.
He said: “As long as I have breath
in my body I will reiterate it time and
again. I am going to_fight for just
two things: one is the education of all
the people and the other is the subdi
vision of counties into wards, the de
velopment of the New England system
of township government.”
His idea was to give every country
community about six miles square a
government of its own, its own free
alderman or commissioners who could
occupy the same relation toward the
(ievelopment of that community that
your Town Board of Aldermen holds
to the town government.
UNIVERSITY SCH00L50F EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 47
PROMOTION BASIS |
A teacher was heard to say last sum
mer that she had been promoted bec'ause
this year she had been promised a fifth
grade room while last year she had been
teaching the fourth grade. It took con
siderable time and argument to convince
her that she had not, necessarily, been
promoted.
Why Not?
The viewpoint of the teacher is a com
mon one, but it is not a t rue one. In
fact, the opposite would be more nearly
the truth. It reciulres skill, training,
experience to teach the first four grades
of our public schools. When pupils
reach the upper grades they will suffer
little from the clumsy teaclier, especially
if they have Ih'cii in’the deft hands of an
expert teachcr during their piiiiiary school
years. The unskillful primary teacher
will put more wrong kinks into the
thought life of little children than a
lil’etime of study can set right.
Why?
A child in tlie first years of school life
needs to be set right, guiled correctly, in
ways of thought. The facts taught during
these years are fundamental to later ac
quisition of knowledge. An error of fact
in number w'ork, for example, will make
for mathematical blunders throughout
the child’s entire life. An error in the
interpretation of printed symbols will re
main to hinder and vitiate one s reading
for all time. During the primary years
children are becoming acquainted with
the tools of learning. It is vitally nec
essary that they secure a corrcct know
ledge of them and of their iLes.
A New Basis
(Certainly teachers cannot think of
promotion as the act of parsing them on
to a higher grale,—rather it is demotion.
Some other basis must be considered for
judgment as to professional i>roinotion.
SANFORD AND LEE COUNTY
Sanford is generally interested in Lee
county and its Commercial Club is doing
county-wide thinking these days.
Twenty thousand folders, setting forth
the advantages offered to home-seekers by
Lee county and its brisk little capital city,
will soon be giv’en to the State and coun-
try-at-large.
AVhen the farmers, bankers, and busi
ness men, the preachers, teachers, law
yers, and doctors of a community get to
gether to thresh out the problems of
progress, as they have been doing so
earnestly of late in Lee, the future of that
community is doubly assured.
Wlien really great things happen any-
wdiere and you look about for the explan-
atioUj you find it always in some one
man or little group of men w'ho sensibly
and bravely stepped into leadership.
AVhatever I^e county’s resources may
be, her largest asset will alw'ays lie in
such men as Duncan Mclver, Monroe,
Pardo, Teague, Buchan, Hoyle, Reaves,
Spence, Wicker, Jones, Pelton, Hut
chins, Judd, and the rest; an uncommon
ly long list of public spirited citizens.
COMMUNITY NURSES
mission, raised these averages to 64 cents
in one case and to $19.99 in the other.
If the taxpayers in this • county weie
acquainted with their tax list these in-
efiaalities and injustices would doubtless
be adjusted. It is a local family matter
so to speak.
PaVilicity and wide-spread competency
of citizenship are a cur., for most of our
civic and social ills.
I while the money we paid our public
^ school teachers and superintendents was
! only $3,428,000. It costs more to run
lour automobiles than it doea to run our
I schools.
I What we spent for automobile tires
alone was $1,575,000. What we invested
in school buildings and supplies last year
was only $1,412,000.
As a matter of fact we are not (]uite so
poor as we feel in North ^arc.lina in
assessment years.
STRANGERS LOOKING THIS
WAY
Mr. li. (i. List, Minneapolis, Minn.,
wants information regarding a good farm
for sale in North Carolina.
Mr. E. S. Fontaine, Home, Pa., writes
to know about a position as creamery op
erator in this State. We W'rote that our
own tixcellent dairy school at the A. &
M. college was graduating butter makers
probably as fast as we need them in the
State at present.
Recently we referred to Mr. Hugh Mc
Rae in Wilmington, an inquiry from As-
bury Park, N. J., about the lands along
the lower Cape Fear region.
The University News Letter is receiving
such letters in increasing numbers.
Our office ought to have complete tiles
of the county booklets and bulletins is
sued in North Carolina from time to
time. We treasure them and use them as
occasion ofl'ers.
So far we have learned of community
nurses in five cities of North Carolina
Statesville, Goldsboro, Newbern, Greens
boro and Wilmington.
But also we have not yet learned of a
community nurse supported by a church
or a union of churches. This kind of
gracious benefaction seems to be left to
the nranicipalities or secular organiza
tions. And still we wonder why.
During September the district nurse in
New Bern made 191 visits into necessi
tous homes, nursing the sick, instructing
the households in case of the afflicted and
insanitary matters, helping to lay away
the dead, and- comforting sorrow stricken
homes—at a total cost of $25.00 a week
per case.
It is great work, but ought not the
church to be doing it with overflowing
philanthropy?
SELF-SUPPORTING UNIVER
SITY STUDENTS
The study-courses in a college try out
the qualities of a student’s mentality. If
he happen to tie dull or mediocre, they
help him to find out whether his spinal
cord is a cotton string or a steel rad.
But what Andrew Jackson called the
pluck-and-poverty courses try out the
■itudent’s disposition and character. He
soon learns whether lie .is built with a
back-bone or a wish-bone. If he scuttles
along bravely, earns his own money,
pays his ow'n bills, and sweats his back
while he sweats his brain to win his diplo
ma, the chances are that he has had a
multiform preparation for success in after
life that other students miss in their
college careers.
These self-help students at the Univer
sity are a perennial marvel and inspira
tion. They serve as waiters and dish
washers in Swain Hall, forty of them.
They work gardens, cnt grass, pile w'ood,
milk cows, build fires, and look after the
churches in the village. They clerk in
the stores and the post office. They col
lect bills, set type in the printery, aud
mail out the University News Letter.
They are half-time stenographers and
typewriters. They report for newspapers.
They run 1)oarding houses, barber shops,
and pressing clubs. T^hey solicit launder
ing, and sell or act as agents for pen
nants, athletic goods, shoes, clothing,
phonographs and records. They are
keen to turn an honest penny at . any
kind of odd jobs.
It is an heroic band of some 200 heroic
students from year to year, brisk and busy
all the time; and everywhere they chal
lenge and receive the wholesome respect
of the student body and the faculty.
and $10.45 in Nevada. The figures for
all the states were given in The Universi
ty News Letter, ;March 24, 1915.
Our state tax burdens are light; but
the ine(inalities are many and grievous,
aud they still exist, both within county
lines, and among the counties within
state lines.
They were not wiped out the other day
!jy the State Tax Commission.
POOR IN TAXABLE WEALTH
How poor we really are appears from a
study of the 1915 tax list in an average
North Carolina county that is able to own
103 automobiles, or only one tf> every 32
families.
Farm land in this particular county is
worth $7.22 an acre—on the tax books.
The farms are being operated w ith im
plements and tools worth 52 cents an
acre. They are equipped with work-ani-
nials, meat and milk animals worth $277
per farm; or barely the price of one good
mule.
The wealth in dogs is encouraging,
however. There are 1474. They out
number the sheep more than two to one.
The real estate and personal property
of the four banks amounts to $15,312.
The culture of the county is represent
ed by libraries, scientific instruments and
the like worth 79 cent:a per inhabitant.
The ability of the people to get down
to a cash basis in their business rests up
on money in hand amounting to $1.85
per person.
The investment in automobiles, motor
cycles, bicycles, pleasure boats, sailing
craft, fishing tackles, nets, seines and the
hke is $3.70 per inhabitant.
The homes of the county are equipped
with household and kitchen furnitures
worth upon an average only $49.41 each.
THE CHEAPEST YET
A Narrow Business Basis
RICH IN AUTOMOBILES
Xb0FC were 16,410 autoniobilea in
UNUSUAL AND HOPEFUL
The following item was clippeil from
&e Raleigh Christian Advocate the other
day; a rather unusual kind of item in a
church paper.
The editor evidently believes that the
children of light can afford to make
friends of the mammon of unrighteous
ness: and to give attention to the puzzles,
problems and perplexities of the life that
now is.
It would be grand to see our church
Editor Clark of the Statesville I^and .■ gbovvn by the figures
townships within county tines. I ,78 horsepower for productive pur-
I„ 0i th.
pi^aent an Item ta e.i ^'^1^, . around 410,000 horsepower, mainls b'lt
list of a county m his neighborhood. ™ ’ purposes,
one township 88,264 acres of land assess-, not^ent^^^y^^ |9,000,000 in-
ed for $49,445. cents vested in automobiles, and only $9,078-
This is to say for an average of 56 cents property.
an acre. In another townshii , counting chaffeur salaries and
‘^Tiri^” fTs" per cent in this' garage rent., our annual biU for the
comi:y,“by tl/state Tax Com- upkeep of motor cars w.s $3,-26,000,
The 1967 farms, 1:he 178 stores, and the
13 domestic corporations had on hand
last May agricultural products, goods,
wares, and merchandise amounting to
only $15.00 per inhabitant; and this sum
includes office equipments and furnitures
and the watches, jewelry and all other
personal property of tlie 3244 homes of
the county. It is a small basis upon
which to live and to do business.
The 1915 tax digest reduces wealth to
its lowest terms in this county, and but
for the brave exhibit in dogs and auto
mobiles the people might well be in des
pair about their worldly goods.
And yet this is an average North Caro
lina county. It ranks 49th in total taxable
wealth.
AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
WORK IN NORTH CAROLINA
In North Clarolina the l>eneficiary of
the Smith-Lever Extension Act is the A.
andM. College in Kaleigh. This year
the college will handle $190,515 all told
in work afield among the farmers of
North Carolina, and in home economics
for the farm-wives.
. This total for extension work is greater
than that of any other state m the Union,
Indiana. Iowa, New York, and Texas
alone excepted.
The sources of it are as follows:
Smith-I.ever fund. Federal $ 32,953
Smith-I^ver fund, State • ■ -22,953
Federal Dept, of Agriculture, Far
mers’ Demonstration 41,000
Other Bureaus, Federal .Depart
ment oS Agriculture. 14,220
The State of North Carolina
Counties of the State ^2,715
The A. and M. (College .nothing
(^ther (farmers and commercial
organizations) nothing
C)ur tremendous moves forward m
Xorth-Carolina in recent years show the
immense value of this work.
The Smith-I^iver appropriations tor
1915-16 under the Federal Ai'.t are$l,080,«
000. They increase year by year until in
1923 the annual Federal fund will be
$4,580,000.
The State funds must increase accord
ingly ; so that the farmers of tlie United
States are in a fair way at last of having
ample help from the government in the
production, protection, -preservation and
sale of the wealth they produce.
Thirty-three states in the north and
west are this year spending 42 per cent of
the Smith-Lever fund in direct work with
the farm W'omen in behalf of their homes
and children—a fundamentally impor
tant part of the farm-life problem.
The Simple Fact
The simple fact is, the people of North
Carolina pay smaller taxes for state sup
port than the people in any other state
of the Union, South Carolina alone ex
cepted.
In these two states the per capita tax
for state support in 1912 was $1.46; the
cost, say, of two or three circus tickets.
Per capita state taxes in 1912 in the
United States ranged from $1.46 in North
and South Carolina to $7.98 in California
SCHOOL BULLETINS
Many of the schools are issuing a bul
letin this fall previous to the opening
day giving information as to the cours
es, text-books required, the list of holi
days and vacations, tuition rates, names
of teachers, organization of work, etc.
The idea is worthy of emulation. It
helps to avoid confusion the first day, it
takes the community into confidence, it
begets interest in school affairs, it helps
systematize the entire year s work.
One of the best bulletins so far sent to
the University News Letter, has come
from the Hertford Graded Schools, Per
quimans county, L. R. Crawford, Super
intendent.
Teaching agriculture without a school
farm, is like playing Hamlet with Hamlet
left out.