The news in this publica
tion is released tor the press on
the date indicated below.
the university of north CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
(or its Bureau o( Extension.
JUNE 21, 1916
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. n, NO. 30
Bditori.1 Board. B. C. Branson, J. ». deK. Hamilton, L. R. WlUon, U. A. Williams, B. H. Thornton, t,. M. MoKie. Entered
a-. econd-olaa.s matter November U, 1914, at thp.oostofflce at Chapel Hill. N.C.i under the act of August 24,1912
I
NORTH CAROLINA CLUB STUDIES
ALL-YEAR SCHOOLS
^ith North Carolina feeling rather
justly proud of having increased the
length of the public school year to nearly
5 1-2 months, on the average, it comes
rather as a blow to realize that for four
years Newark, N. J., has beertvhaving
public schools open and doing work for
12 months in the year! .
Successful
The [)lan ha^ibeen a great succes“8 from
the start. The parents heartily endorse
it and the pupils delight in it. There is
no attendance problem, for the children
■come gladly all through the summer
months. There is an actual leaaening of
the amount of illness among the children
during the summer months. Greater
and more consistent progress has been
made by the children throughout the
school year. The expense is not in
creased, the teachers are pleased and the
whole educational situation in Newark is
iiealthier than it was four year ago.
Dare we dream of such a plan for our
North Carolina school children? Is it
possible anywhere in the state?
NEGRO HOMES IN ORANGE
Nearly nine of every ten dwellings oc-
'cupied by negroes in Orange county are
owned by the negroes who occupy them.
Evidently the negroes of this county be
lieve in home and farm ownership.
The 1915 tax hst shows 583 farms and
224 town lots owned by negroes. The
County Health Survey showed 906 dwell
ings in the town and country regions oc-
'.upied by negroes. That is to say, 89
per, cent of the town and country dwell
ings are occupied by negro owners. The
average for botli races is only 52 per
cent.
Altogether 807 negro tax payers tiw«
}i232,260 worth of real estate in Orange
■county. Here is a gain of ?33,3-i2 or 17
per cent in a single year.
The explanation lies (1) in the negro’s
hist for home ownership, and (2) the
chances that offer in a static population.
The po))ulationof Orange haa increased less
than 150 in twenty-five years, 172,000
acres of farm land lie idle, and 359 farm
lwellings stand empty.
Under these circumstances land is
cheap, and the negro buys. So it is in
Orange and everywhere else, where eco
nomic conditions favor the negro.
A WORD ABOUT STATISTICS
■Facts without opinions are useless, but
opinions without facts are frivolous or
mischievous or worse.
Opinions that are worth while are con
clusions painstakingly wrought, out of the
•facts and factors involved. And never
since Bacon’s day have men been so busy
as now hunting down facts to the last de
tail, inventorying problems, situations,
and bnsine.sses. searching for caused, con
ditions, and consequences, and summing
np results for safe conclusions.
It is dirticult to get a fist around any-
(ihiiig in the world of facts, but it is hard
to respect the man Who does not try to
do it; who spins \iis conclusions as a
spider spins his web—out of the substance
of his own being; who welters contented
ly in a ruck of mere opinions.
The research worker is bound to deal
•with figures, and we are well aware that
■figures are caviar to the popular taste.
Nobody knows any better than the
iinen who deal with figures that statistics
■are at best only a basis for approximate
guessing. But without such figures it ia
guessing in the dark, and stumbhng
about in the dark is a silly performance.
Nevertheless we are human enough to
enjoy the chestnut about the three kinds
of liars—rplain liara, be-frilled liars, and
statisticians; and the remark of O. Hen
ry’s character—that statistics appeal to
■the lowest order of intelligences.
the State shoiild have a uniforui system
of text books. The Higli School Teach
ers’ Aasociation should appoint a Text
book Commission of their number for th(
pur))ose of .selecting books for use iti
their schools. As it is, there is no uni
formity in the books used in these
schools.
We should have such a system in use
that any boy or girl in any high school
in the State could leave the-school he or
she is attending at Christmas, move to
any other place, be able to enter school
after the Christpias holidays and take up
the work where it was left off and also in'
the same book.
Necessities
It is true that this can never be done
successfully until we have more money so
that we can all have the same length of
school term. Uniformity of school term,
uniformity of school books, free text
books and more money to employ teach
ers and better equipment in our achools
are a few of tlie things we need and must
have before we can place our achools on
the same basis as those of Massachusetts
and other states that have long regarded
the educational interests of the people as
of prime importance.
HOME-OWNING MILL HANDS
Some time ago we visited a rare kind
of mill village in Illinois, some >ixteen
miles east of St. Louis. The population
numbi‘rs 670. Every family in it with
only five exceptions owns its own home.
There is no civic organization, no may
or, no policeman, no jail, no bar-room
There is no need and no demand for any
of these luxuries of civilization.
Only two boys born in the village have
ever left it, and one of them has since re
turned. Only one girl born in the vil
lage has ever moved out of it. It is a
stable mill population,
There is no more beautiful village in
America than the village of IjeClaire—and
it is a mill village.
The lake, the boat pavilion, theaniuse-
ment park, the kindergarden, the public
school and the common hall, are the
property of the mill hands, not the mill
owners. They are all maintained in
order by a tax paid out of the mill wages
according to the amount earned by each
oi^erative.
The factory book-keeper keeps the ac
count, and the fairness of it has never
been questioned.
No Hobo Help Problem
But also the mill authorities have in
terestingly concerned themselves with
the settling of their hands in homes of
their own.
They have sold them lots, built their
houses for them, and recovered their
principal and'interest in monthly pay
ments running throughout fifteen or
twenty yeary as the operatives may
choose.
No sturdier, manlier dner body of mill
people can 'ip found on earth to-day,
than these aatne home-owning mill hands
in LeClaire.
Social service work in mill villages will
always be a doubtful matter so long as
mill hands live in houses they do not
own, work in factories with tools that be
long to somebody else, and attend schools
or churches that they do not build or
support. f .
Home-ownership is a finer civilizing,
Christianizing force than benevolent
feudalism, however generous.
THE REASONING ANIMAL
Set in the chimney shaft above the
mantel-piece in Mr. Andrew Carr
negie’a Library, on upper Fifth Ave
nue, is a wooden hook upon which is
carved:
He that cannot reaaon ia a fool.
He that will not reason ic a bigot.
He that does not reason is a slave.
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 79
OUR BANKING FACILITIES
The table in this issue, prepared by
Mr. M. H. Randolph of Mecklenburg
county, ranks the counties of North Car
olina according to population per bank.
The figures are based on the Report of
the State Tax Commission covering the
year 1914,
Number and Resources
The banks of North Carolina reporting
to the Federal Comptroller of the Cur
rency in 1914 numbered 476 and their
total resources were 5:160,317,352: as fol
lows ;
Total Resources
Uniformity ^55 state Banks *57,241,831
fft is important that some plan should j 75 National Banks
ihe adopted whereby the high schools of 28 Stock Savings Banks , >
i
SUGGESTION
Ths Smithfield Herald is always con
structive in its thinking and comment on
school matters. It has the following to
aay about high school textbooks and
other school matters.
18 Loan and Trust Companies 19,099,352
Which is to say, our banka averaged one
for every 4,800 people, and our bank re
sources were $68.50 per inhabitant.
In the United States there wjre 26,765
banks of all sorts with resources totalling
nearly 27 billion dollars. The banks
averaged one for every 3,700 peoi>le, and
the resources $269.70 per inhabitant.
North Carolina ia-|oelow the average
for tiie country at large, both in the
number of banks and in per caiiita re
sources.
According to the 1915 Report of the
State Tax Commission our banks in
North CaroUna paid taxes on capital
stock, real and personal property amount
ing to 23,121,206; but their resources
were more than seven times their capital
stock. Indeed, the savings deposits and
time depo.-rits alone were almost exactly
equal to the total ca])ital stock of onr
banka.
Our Farm Credit Unions |
Our seven Cocperative Farm Credit I
Unions are also learning to organize re- i
sources and manufacture credit in busi-!
ness-like ways. They are all less than
six months old, the members numl>er
less than 300,, and the payments on
shares amount to leas than ^1,800;
nevertheleas the resources on April 30ih
reached a total of 4,883.70.
On ,Iune 30, 1913. there were 19 co
operative credit unions with 547 mem
bers among the Jewish farmers of New
York State, New .Tersey, Connecticut and
Blassachusetts. lOn a capital basis of
$9,665 they loaned to their nieiubera,
5>73,624 during the jrrevious 13 montlis
and netted more than 13 per cent per
unnum on tl;e capital invested.
The Jewsliave long known how t(i as
semble resources, organize a proper cred
it macliinery, and manufactui'e credit for
busuiess purposes. And our farmers are
learning how to do the same thing in
North Carolina.
Outside tlie Jewish Farm Credit Socie
ties of the North, North Carolina leads
the Union in Credit Unions for personal
security loans. .\nd the finest thing in
the story so far is the ready willingnesi-
of our bankers to help the farmers organ
ize these credit societie-.
Where Banks Are Numerous
In proportion to population only 13
counties in the state have more banks
than the average for the United States,
one for every 3,700 people. Named in
descending order they are Gates, Hert
ford, Washington,'Jones, Martin, Gran
ville, Edgecombe, Bertie, Pitt, Moore,
Carferet, Wake, and Rutherford.
Twenty-five counties more are above
the average for the state, which is one
bank for every 4,800 deople.
Banks seem to be most numerous, as
a rule, (1) in tlie older settled portions of
the State, (2) in the well developed man
ufacturing counties, and (3) and in the
cotton and tobacco counties.
In an average year North Carolina
raises |i75,000,000 worth of cotton and
tobacco. These are ready cash crops, and
they are raised largely on a credit basis
under a farm-tenancy, crop-lien, supply-
merchant system. The system calls for
ample banking facilities. In a cotton
growing county it is common enough for
banks to do a busineaa in loans and dis
counts ten times bigger than the invest
ment in capital stock. One bank state
ment shows such a business 15 times big
ger than the capital stock.
Where Banhs Are Few
Forty-seven counties are below the
State average. Among them, strange to
say, are some of our big city-counties.
I Named in descending order are New
I Hanover, Durham, Mecklenburg, Guil-
! ford, Forsyth, and Buncombe.
The prosperous cities in these counties
have not yet learned, or apparently not,
' that agriculture in North Carolina pro-
' duces greater primary wealth year by
' year than manufacture, greater in the
THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
It ia a long, long time from now to the
opening of th§ schools next fall, and be
cause of this fact much that ought to be
done at once by way of organization for
the coming session is put off to some dis
tant day when it cannot be done as ef
fectively as it could be done at the
present time.
Teachers may teach their best, and
pupils may do their l)est, and parents
may rally therr best to the support of the
school, but if those who have in their
control the organization and management
of a school fail to look carefully and
promptly after this organization and
management there is a great loss of
power and efticiency in the work of the
school.
Nearly every pubhc school in North
Carolina has closed for the long summer
vacation, the children have gone back
home, and the teachers will rest or study
in preparation for better service next
term. What has been done by those in
authority for next year’s work?
Hurtful Neglect
It is a hurtful lack of preparation if the
school committee has not already met
and elected the teachers for the coming
session. The other day at a public
school commencement the superintend
ent read a list of those who W'ere pro
moted to the high school department,
and announced that all children in the
lower grades who were to go to a higher
grade had received their promotion cards
and that every child already knew what
grade he would be in when school opened
next fall. It was a fact that these faith
ful teachers and the superintendent had
worked every spare moment for the last
few days to be able to do their part to
close the year’s work with the school
thoroughly organized for the re-opening.
There sat the school committee on the
rostrum in all dignity and seriousness
and yet they had not yet done their im
portant part in the work of preparation.
Not a teacher knew whether she would
be re-elected or not. The children knew
their place in the school for t|ie coming
year but not one blessed teacher knew
whether her work was to be approved by
a re-election.
Good Business
It would be much more business-like if
the school comudttee would meet before
the term ends and on the closing day an
nounce through their chairman the
names of the teaciiers elected for the nixt
term. This is nothing (uit fair and just
and bu iness-like. To do otherwise, un
less there is a very good reason, is to neg-
'ect a public duty. If your teachers
have done well, re-elect them at once.
It is a bad policy to change teachers and
it is poor business to delay the election of
tea(^hers. Hurry up the organization for
next year.
census year by some 80 million dollars;
and that a prosperous farm region is the
surest basis for business development in
trade centers. Manifestly, the best way
to build up a city is to build np the sur
rounding farm territory.
In 10 counties the average populations
Ijer bank range from 10,066 in Madison
to 17,904 in Mitchell. It is a surprise to
find in the fag end of this table such
counties- as Sampson, Richmond, Stanly,
Cumberland, aud C^abarrus. Here are
good counties, big business constituencies,
and great opportunities for bank
dividends.
No Banks at All
There are three counties in North Car
olina that hail no banks in 1914; at least
none that appeared in the Report of the
State Tax Commission. Graham ia a
mountain county. Currituck and Cam
den are in the Albemarle country in the
extreme northeast corner of the state.
BANKS IN NORTH CAROLINA, 1914
M. H. RANDOLPH, Mecklenburg County, University of North Carolina
Banks according to population: average for the State one bank for every 4 800
people; for the United States one bank for every 3,700 people. I‘er capita resources
North Carolina $68.50; United States SS^269.70. ■ ’
Rank County
Population Number
Rank County
Population Number
Per Bank
of Banks
Per Bank
of Banks
1
Gates
2,617
4
50
Pamlico
5,295
2
2
Hertford
2,635
4
51
Tyrrell
5,297
1
3
Washington
• 2,802
4
52
Wayne
5,301
7
4
Jones
2,961
3
53
Durham
5,459
7
5
Martin
3,097
6
54
Swain
5,526
2
6
Granville
3,212
8
55
Henderson
5,654
3
7
Edgecombe
3,377
10
56
Chatham
5,785
5
8
Bertie
3,407
8
57
Chowan
5,K21
2
9
Pitt
3,465
11
58
Mecklenljiirg
5,904
12
10
Moore
3,478
5
59
Randolph
5,980
5
U
Carteret
3,604
3
60
Iredell
6,003
6
12
Wake
3,668
18
61
Bladen
6,037
3
13
Rutherford
3,681
8
62
Harnett
6,046
5
14
Duplin
3,775
7
63
Macon
6,109
2
15
Northampton
3,784 J
6
64
Yancey
6,134
2
16
Montgomery
3,804 ■
4
65
Beaufort
6,466
5
17
Anson
3,805
7
66
Jackson
6,685
2
18
Lee
3,876
3
67
Greene
6,711
2
19
Clay
3,909
1
68
Guilford
6,746
> 10
20
Polk
3,923
2
69
Watauga
6,800
3
21
Alexander
3,933
3
70
Warren
6,876
3
22
Robeson
3,979
16
71
Forsyth
7,318
7
23
Gaston
4,004
10
72
Buncombe
7,370
8
24
Vance
4,063
4
73
Transylvania
7,376
1
25
Scotland
4,069
5
74
Caldwell
7,388
3
26
Alamance
4,243
7
75
Onslow
7,417
2
27
Wilson
4,255
7
76
Caswell
7,429
2
28
Catawba
4,257
7
77
Cherokee
7,437
2
29
Columbus
4,316
7
78
Alleghany
7,745
1
30
Craveu
4,343
6
79
Wilkes
7,847
,4
31
Rowan
4,402
9
80
Pender
8,074
2
32
Cleveland
4,418
8
81
Person
8,787
2
33
Pasquotank
4,419
4
82
Lincoln
8,811
2
34
Johnston
4,437
10
83
Hyde
8,840
1
35
Haywood
4,516
5
84
Nash
9,102
5
36
Davie
4,603
3
85
Ashe
9,537
2
37
McDowell
4,517
3
86
Madison
10,066
2
38
Rockingham
4,688
8
87
Stokes
10,122 '
2
39
Lenoir
4,822
5
88
Sampson
.10,384
3
40
New Hanover
4,867
7
89
Richmond
10,456
2
41
Dare
4,868
1
90
Stanly
10,716
2
42
Franklin
4y938
6
91
Burke
11,306
2
43
Hahfax
4,984
10
92
Perquimans
11,336
1
44
Brunswick
5,003
3
93
Cumberland
12,415
3
45
Union
5,038
7
94
Cabarrus
13,735
3
46
Orange
5,062
3
95
Mitchell
17,904
1
47
Surry
5,178
7
Camden, Currituck, and Graham; no
48
Davidson
5,225
6
banks. Avery and Hoke: no population
49
Yadkin
5,288
3
figures.