The news in this publica
tion is released for the press on
th« date indicated beiow.
the university of north CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
APRIL 19,1916
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extenston.
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. II. NO. 2J
«.l.orU. Bo^d. B.O. p. ^eR. Hamdtou, L. K. VViLs.,.., a. W.maru,, K. H. Thorn.«„,
n. M. M.-Kie. K it«red h,s ^«,ad-cHw8 matter November M. 1914, at tbe.postofllce at Chapel HUl, N.C., under the»et o/ August W,
NORTH CAROLINA CLUB STUDIES
OUR CAROLINA HIGH.
LANDERS
\)ur 243,000 Hitfhlandershiive.an inning
at the University — on Monday night,
April 17, 7;30 nV-loek., room No. 8
Peabody Huilding. Tlio mountain men
in the Fniversity and tlie t'^neral public
are conlially invited.
I The projirain of Tiie North Carolina
^hrb at this session is iis follows :
Our (.larotina Highlanders: (1) (ieo-
•ijniphic Conditions and Influences, D.
-N. Edwards, Wilkes'county, (2) feo-
uomic Status, Agricultural, Industrial,
and Educational, 0. C. Miller, Watauga
■county, (3) Social Statas, Classes, Condi
tions and Attitudes, .1. H. HufF, Madison
county, and (4) The Lifting Power of
Onr Hill Couniry, W. E. Bird, .Taclwon
loounty.
I proix-r organization to control infant
I mortality. The cities with poor health
programs are invariably the cities with
scant appropriations.
A GREAT EVENT
As we go to [>ress M'itli today’s issue
the High Si'-hool host is gathering at the
(University for the final debate^ on The
iPolicy of Greatly Enlarging Our Navy.
They are the victors in the local trian-
;gular debates during the last six weeks
:among 1300 girls and boys re[)resenting
.325 high schools in 94 counties of the
;State. In the school and inttjr-school
■debates and the fi,nal contests at the Uni-
‘.versity, these young people will have
reached 100,000 people in North Carolina
witli their arguments on this timely sub
ject.
No single event at the University year
by year is more significant or important
than the High School Championship De
bate for the Aycock Cup.
These young people in these debating
contests are getting and giving vital
schooling in matters of great importance
•in a democratic country.
^^CHILD LABOR, NORTH AND
SOUTH
IREDELL AND YADKIN
M. E. Robinson, Wayne County
Here are two nieghboring counties in
the foothills of North Carolina. In per
»pita country wealth, they are not very
far apart. Imlell with $377 ranks 10th
among the counti&s of tJie state; Yadkin
with ^i314 ranks 27th.
But in Inxlell 29 of the 97 white sta-iool
districts levied special taxes for school
support, and the amount raised in this
way in 1913-14 was $22,417. In Yadkin
only 4 of the 55 white school districts lev
ied such a tax, and the total raisel was
only 11,110. The per capita investment
in white rural school property was
$2.27 in Iredell, but only $1.08 in
Yadkin.
A Low Tax Rate
The per capita tax burden in Yadkin
in 1913 was the smallest in the state.
There is urgent need in this county for
larger public revenues, especially for roads
and schools.
Th ! children are eager for schooling,
and in this particular the county ranks
10th among our 100 counties. Her 1,822
native-born white illiterates ten years of
age and over, and her 612 illiterate white
voters evidence a necessity for more ef
fective public schools.
The county cannot afford to have 10
districts with log schoolhouses or none of
any sort; nor can she afford to have oM-
fashioned, home-made desks in 56 of her
66 schoolhouses.
The county is now spending $60,000
in road building. Doubtless she will i
soon begin to reconstruct her schools.
They are a splendid people in Yadkin,
and their children would make the best
possible use of better educational advan
tages.
TOO BIG AND GLORIOUS
Bnice Craven
Tiie troubU* with our patriotism in
not that there i« too little oi it bnt
tliat it is too big ani glorious.
ft is easier to lie tor our country
than tfi live lor our town, to ^orvo
God abroad tJian lo rhe devi! at
home, io demand that tortMjjners! hon
or our than to honor it t)tirseU>‘s,
to !*e an American than to bo a ffood
neighbor.
I lie iiatioii never taekn for luToes,
wliile connnunitieft die for want of
good citizenn.
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 70
The Woman’s Municipal League in
ISew Y^ork City reports that 67,614 four-
Jpeii year old children in New York state
left school in 1913 to go to work. These
iflgures indicate the economic pressure or
:the lure of life in a great industrial state,
:In Massachusetts, where educational
:advantages are unlimited, there were
.31,633 children from 10 16 years old,
busy earning a living m the census year ^ together the alert
an mills, factories, trade, transportation, | thinkers and leaders in Education,
•domestic service and clerical occupations, j chm-ch Work, .Vgriculture and Industrv.
■The same year the children of these ages Banking and Business i
wi North Carolina engaged in similar oc-1 Carolina is rep
■eupations numbered 23,!S44. In 1915 the
HOW TEACHERS LIVE
One of the universal ixjinplaints of
teachers in the rural schools is the ina
bility to secure suitable hoarding places
for the year. Many teachers aLso com
plain of the lack of provi>jion made at the
county seat for ft^eding them when they
come to the twichers’ meetings.
Five of the Hoke county teachers are
solving the lirst problem by boarduig
themselves. The school at Bethel owns a
Teacherage and Mr. .Tohnson and his
wife live there. Their board costs them
from $4 to $7 each month. At Arabia,
Miss Dew and Miss Graham are also liv
ing in the Teacherage and report the
same favorable condition,y as at Bethel.
At the last teachers’ meeting in Hae-
ford, Supt. McGoogan reports that the
people of liaeford took the tea(!hers of
the county into their homes and enter
tained tliem free of charge. This might
be a suggested means for solving the se'-
ond problem.
County Teacherages
These two questions are not simply lo
cal in their application. The United
States Commissioner of Education re
ports that one of the greatest problems in
the rural schools all over the United
States is the problem of finding proper
accomodations for the teachers. Some
how folks in the country do' not want to
have the teachers “messing aronnd.” We
sometimes wonder if our teachers knew
more about home-making and house-
NORTH CAROLINA IN THE
SOUTHERN CONFERENCE
’rhe program of the Southern Confer-' there be so much “mes-
ence foi* Education and Industry, | sing-around. Perhaps the present
Orleans, April 16-20 fills a dozen quarto uiovement toward the teaching of the do-
pages. It details the work of the one big i
-children under 16 years of age in our cot-1 0|j,rence Poe
ton mills
than the
numbered 7,
year before.
I in general,
repregeuled b'y Dr, ,1.
Y. Joyner, IIoii, .fames Atkins, and Dr.
oil the executive board; and
,292, or 636 fewer ^ j^y Bnsbee, Miss Mary (i.
''■I''- : Shotwell, Mrs. W. N. Ihitt, Willis .1
Shipman our Labor Commissioner.
The biggest end of the child labor prob-1 committees and in the list of speakers,
iem in North Carolina is in our country j Trinity College is represented on the
regions, where 74,000 children between program of addresses by Dr. E. C.
10 and 13 years of age are farm workers. Brooks; the A. and M. by Prof. W'. U.
mainly on the home farms. But the Camp and Mrs, (r, M. Bayne; and the
•country children of these ages hireil out Universily liy President E, K. (Iraimm,
^or work on other farms in 1910 num-j Dean C. L. Raper, Dr. L. K. Wilson,
'Tbered 11,203; or more than twice the , and E* C. Branson,
number in our mills and factories. I =
This situation largely explains why | ANOTHER SCHOOL PAPER
124,000 or 94 per cent of the native white j Along with other progressive school
illiterates of the state live in the country, i n)en of the state, Supt. I. C. Griflfin of
■ ' I Marion has started a school paper known
DELINQUENT CITIES i »» The School Month.
niestic arts and sciences will help a little
in solving the^e problems. ,\t any rate a
teacher will be able to help herself if op
portunity is given. We may not all be
able to funiish a Teacherage but perhaps
we can make some adequate provision by
which the teacher can keep her own
home.
ROBESON’S RECORD
,\ while ago we cli|iped the following
Cunningham, and D. E. Giles on various iuformation about Robeson county schools
from the Wilmington Star. It is good
reading after these many weeks.
The value of school property in Robeson
county has increased in 12 years from
$15,499 to 1190,656 The average length
of school term for vVhiti^s has been increas
ed from 3 1-2 months to 7 1-3 months
during the same period. The value of
school property has been multipled
by more than 12 in the last 12 years
In other word.s, the average annual in
crease for 12 years has been more than
100 per cent.
Further Facts
I In the foreword of the first issue ap-1 Twelve years ago Robeson’s total school
The Hu.ssell .Sage Eoundation has re | statement. i fund was |23,664. Thisyear it is 1)95,823,
iutly investigated the Health Depart-; “Its purpose is to provide motivation | of which the county itself pays $83,418,
h-
^^^■pently investigated the Health Depart-
^^^B»ents of 219 cities, each having a popu-> composition in the several' and of this amount 136,598 is in special
^^^ation of over 25,000. The highest per | grades, to furnish a medium of commun-1 school taxes voted by the people on
^ 'Capita expenditure for public health was | Ijgtween the school and the home themselves. This latter fact indicates
f ^ cents in Seattle; the lowest was three- j order to bring about a closer coopera- the interest people themselves are taking
ffourtlis of a cent in Clinton, Iowa. The ; these two great factors in in education, as does the further fact that
^average, excluding New' Y'ork City was the development of Marion. The articles there are in the county 64 special school
37.3 cents. The total population of these | written by the children, and the ex- tax districts, including about 100 schools,
^cities is 29,488,321, and the total expen- p^^se of publication is paid by the adver- The interest of the people in education
diture was only ji9,650,515, a sum rather j tjggya ” | and their inclination toward reading, in-
less than the cost of one battleship.
Only one-third of these cities report a
^Jomprehensive control of tuberculosis,
And most of these are Eastern cities
’¥ Jwliere private campaigns have created
i And stimulated this effort.
One-flfth of the cities made no inspec-
ition of school children, and a third did
^ot offer the Ordinary laboratory diagno-
J«is for common communicable diseases.
Nineteen-twentieths of the cities did
j^of consider the hygiene of industry,
^ver six-sevenths had no program against
^ocial diseases, and oue-half had no
The advertisements were written by the formation and culture are further demon
strated by the fact that 75 of the schools
of the county have Ubraries, in which
there are more than 6,000 books.
A Real Rural County
Such a showing would be most credit-
children in a contest as a part of their
work in English composition. The ad
vertisements used in this issue were se
lected by the advertisers from the large
number handed in. It is the purpose of
OUR ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS
A Plague of Death
Nearly everyone who reals these lines
: ba.s sto(xi an examination in either school
or college. ,\t this time of the year all
over North Carolina, onr hoys and girls
are standing examinariouH on their year’s
work, and this anuual examination ia a
plague of death to many who ought not
t« die so young on the road that runs
through tlie schoolhouae to that which is
Viigueiy I'allecl knowledge or litliication.
The general belief is that an examination
is given .solely for the purpose of finding
out just what the pupil ha.^ learned a!*out
the various subjects during the work of
the term. .Vnd yet there are some peo
ple who are Ixild enough to ajsert that the
examination not only shows what (he pu
pil has learned, but ateo shows how well
the t?acher lias done his work, shows how
much of the subject he has failed to prt-
^ sent in la.sting form,—in other words,
shows svhether the teacher has failed or
not. While the pupil is nervously and
fearfully writing answers to the questions
on the blackboard, his tc'acher also, |
through his pupil’s answers, is giving an .
account of his work for the year.
Locating the Cause of Failure
AVho shall l)e blatiK^l when a studious
pupil of aA'erage capacity fails to p.Tss an
examination? Where shall we look for
the cause? It may be safely said that
there are three things iiivolveil in a stu'di-
I ous pupil’s success or failure,—his capa-
! city, the subject studied, and the teach
er’s jKiwer as a teacher. Suppose that the
subject is neither distasteful nor un-in-
teresting to a studious pupil and that still
he fails on examination in spite of his
! application an.l his love fi.r the stibjm,
I whom shall we blame for the failure?
! But supj:io,se that a pupil of average ca-
j pacify does apply himself faithfully and
I that his teacher does his best and that
I yet in spite of honest effort on the part
of Iwth, the pupil, as is often the case,
fails on the examination, where shall we
lay the blame for failure? .May it not be
true that is spite of honest effort on the
part of both pupil and teacher the sub-
je('t itself is so distasteful that failure on
examination is but a natural conse
quence? If this is true what shall be
done with the subject so far as the pupil
is concerntl? It may h that it i.s wrong
to force all to study the same subjects.
A Force That Kills
e know what is done with either the
pupil or the teacher when he fails. If
the t-.acher fails, no matter how' learned
he may be, he losc.s his position. If tlie '
student fails in his studies, he loses place
in his classes and soon has to leave school
disnenrtened and branded, as it were, as
mentally untit to take an eihication. If
then both the teacher and the pupil lose
place in the school, what shall be done
with the suliject in the required list which
bars the "'ay (»1 the studious j^upil in
seari'h of an eihication?
THE PROFESSOR SAYS
There is a heap more goodness in most
nien than there is abihty to see goodness
in other men.
Plow deep and cultivate often is good
^vice for the teacher as well as for the
farmer.
LIVESTOCK FARMING, BIG
AND LITTLE
The table in this issue piesenta the
value of livestock and livestock products
per farm worker in the A arious states of
the Union. The table is based on the
number ol larm workers in each state as
.shown in the 1910 census volume on Oc
cupations, and the total value of (1) ani
mals sold and slaughtered, (2) wool and
mohair, (3) honey and wax, (4) poultry
produc,ts, and (5) lairy products, exclu
sive of milk and cream produced and
used on the farm, as shown in the 1910
census volume cm -Agriculture.
RemarKable Variations
Livestock products per farm worker in
1910 ranged from $27 in South Carolina
and ^36 in Missis.sippi to $796 in Iowa
and $921 in Wyoming.
In the South where per capita country
wealth ranges from $231 in ^Vlabama to
$830 in Oklahoma, livestock products
per farm worker range from |27 in South
Carolina and Ji36 in iMississippi to 1226 in
New Mexico and ,}i228 in Oklahoma. In
South C!aroliiia and Mississippi only a
fifth of the farm income is derived from
livestock farming; in Oklahoma 43 per
cent of it.
The slates iii the Union do not rank in
per capita country wealth uniformly ac
cording to livestock products and the per
cente of income derived from this source;
but it is fairly clear that deficiency in
domestic animals is a cardinal w-eakness
of farms in the South, and is related in a
general^vay to our small per capita farm
wealth."
How North Carolina Ranhs
Livestock and animal products pro
duced in North Carolina in 1910 averaged
154 ])er farm worker, and our rank in
this particular was 43rd. Five states, all
of them in the Cotton Belt, made a poorer
showing.
Considering the total populations to be
fed, our production of livestock products
ranged from il7 per inhabitant in Kich-
mond and Carteret to $65 in .A.lleghany.
Dare is omitted in this statement, because
its population is almost wholly a seafaring
people.
Our bill for pork, beef and mutton,
eggs, poultry, cheese and butter imported
into North Carolina y'ear by year runs
into the millions of dollars; and these
millions would remain at home, for the
moat part, under a better balanced farm
sy-'tem. We have made most wonderful
gains in farm animals of all sorts since
1910; but our average farm income from
this source is still too small—only a third
of the total, ui>on an average, in 1915,
Two-thirds of it is still derived from the
sale of raw croj)s.
LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS PER FARM WORKER
Based on the 1910 Census
s. H. De^'AULT, University of North Carolina.
the school authorities to issue this paper able for a county containing a large city
once a month during the school year. but whtn it is considered that Robeson is
, a, large rural county, containing not a
Good Wishes single murlicipality of 4,000 population.
Rest wishes and success to this raw re- i*- is a record in which both its prople and ,
. . „ ot It® supermtendent may well take pride. '
cruit. May the smell of s there is another county with just such
flrst engagement only help him to shoot a record in the State we happen not to
the straighter. know of it at the present.
Rank States
1 ^N'^yoming
2 Iowa
3 Nevada
Nebraska
Kansas
Montana
Vermont
8 Illinois
9 Missouri
10 South Dakota
11 Indiana
12 W’isconsin
13 Colorado
14 New York
15 Oregon
16 Ohio
16 Massachusetts
18 New Hampshire
19 Idaho
20 Arizona
21 Rhode Island
21 California
21 Pennsylvania
24 Connecticut
Per Cap.
Rank States
Per Cap
$921
25
Utah
$311
796
26
Minnesota
303
742
27
Michigan
279
640
28
Maine
278
630
28
New Jersey
278
597
30
Delaware
248
492
31
Washington
243
471132
Oklahoma
228
455j33
New Mexico
226
413
34
West Virginia
187
395
35
North Dakota
180
394
36
Kentucky
172
386
37
Maryland
171
378
38
Tennessee
153
376
39
Virginia
140
373:40
Texas
139
373141
Arkansas
72
364
42
Florida
59
348
43
North Carolina
54
330
44
Georgia
41
323
45
Alabama
39
323
46
Louisiana
37
323
47
Mississippi
36
314
48
South Carolina
27