North Carolina Newspapers

The news in this publica- I bon is released for the press on the date indicated beiow. the university of north CAROLINA NEWS LETTER Published weekly by the University ^ North Carolina (or its Bureau of Exten^on. JULY 19,1916 CHAPEL HILL, N. C. VOL. H. NO. 34 Board. B. G. Branson, J. G. d«a. Hamiltou, U R. Wilson, L. A, WUUams, B. H. Thornton, (,. M. McKie. Entered as secofid'class matter November U, 1914, at the^postoMce at Ohapel flill, N. C-t under the act of August 24,1918. NORTH CAROLINA CLUB STUDIES MEARLY 30e MORE we go to press with this iSvSiie ] ,026 ^ studeuts are registered at the University Summer School. It is nearly 300 more than last year. Year by year the Univer sity Summer School grows in attractive ness, in range of courses and advantages, in charm and inspiration. Ivast week the Fourth of July Pageants, the Country-Life Institute, and the Con ference of Rural School Supervisors. This week the Conference of High School "reachers. And so on to the end a series of generous conspiracies for the welfare of the children and the people of Jforth Carolina. the country church Is our country church in peril? Is there a country church problem in North CaroUna and the South? What forces are menacing the well-being of the coun try church? Where is the country church flourishing, where marking time, where dying or dead? What can be done about These are some of the enquiries that ■pass un.ier consideration in the nevv Um- versitv Extension Bureau Circular iSo. 1, ^Our Country Church Problem. It will be mailed out on appUcation. Aside from the country church surveys in Gibson county, Tenn., Benton county, irk , and Orange county, N. C., almost nothing has been done in direct field studies to answer any of these questions in exact, definite ways. There is no doubt about the existence •of a country church problem in the^orth and West, and the church authorities there are mightily busy with it-forty rears too late. If we are wise in tlie South we will be busy with our country church problem forty years ahead of time. registered 233 The Country-Life Institute under min isterial leadership, as planned by conference of ministers inations at the Universi y on May the 8th, was held July 5-9 ui (.errard Hall on the University campus. It was a great program; no better any time, anywhere in America! This Institute at the University was simply intended to be an illustration o what any country community can do, and to stimulate the bolding o suclu In itntes all over North Carolina undei ilocal, home-bred 'eaiership. The Coun try-Life Institute Bulletin, which will be b, »r E.u>n,te„ «^n post card request, is intended to make .suih events easily possible. Just as we anticipated, the a^_ upon the University Country-Lite Inst- tute wa3 small. For ten years or so we have been participating m country lif' conferences the whole country - and we know that the country People not Hltend them. But we also kiim that country people themselves can > InstiuiU's in a hundred places ™ ■tiphed thousands in attendance. Ihr^ -such country events are already p The preachers, teachers, doctors fa -ers, bankers, church and sunday schw workers who were in at-tendance ■on during the week, and who registered for the Country-Life CircAilara issu ^ the University, numbered 233. to-day mailing out to them the ^ Life Bulletin, and the C-ountry • circular. . T,„roan Write the University Extension B - iif you want them. They will be sent ■only upon application. CAROLINA STUDIES our Country Church Problems is t e title of a Circular just issued by versity Extension Bureau. Ot ler ^ lars treating fundamental phases o Una life will follow from time Circular number 1 concerns the cou try church in the South in genera , North Carolina in particular. ' -cently the abundant country churt _ ature in circulation has concerned tne dying or dead country church tions of the North and Middle es -some 1,800 in Illinois alone. But we now beginning to study our own ■church problems as the reading hst Sollows will show. The Country Church Circular treats: i The Importance of the Country Church. 2. Menaces to the Country Church (a) The tHtyward Drift of Country Popula tions, (b) Farm Tenancy and Instable Citizenship, (c) Absentee-Preachers, and Once-a'-Month Sermons, and (3) Con structive Suggestions, (a) Realization by the Church Authorities and the Country People that the Country Church is in Danger, (b) Country Church Homes, Resident Ministers, and Living Salaries, (c) Special Training for Country Work ers, and (d) Country-Minded Ministers. This and the other Carolina Circulars will be mailed out upon application to the University Extension Bureau Other University Extension Bureau Circulars ready for issue at an early date are Our Carolina Highlanders, and Wealth, Welfare and Willingness. COUNTRY-CHURCH STUDIES The following country church studies concern the South, or mainly so. Ex cept Dr. Wilson’s book on The Church of the Open Country, they are all pamph lets or newspaper articles that can be had free upon post card request. The Part of the Church in Building Civilization.—Dr. Clarence Poe, Raleigh, N. C. The Country Church; A Country-Life Defense.—Branson, University of North Carolina Bulletin. Tlie Status of the Country Church.— Branson, The Christian Observer, Louis ville, Ky., March 12, 1913. Our Carolina Country Church Prob lem.—Branson, University Extension Bureau Circular No. 1. The Country Church in the South.— Rev. C. L. Greaves, Lumberton, N. C., Progressive Farmer, June and July, 1912. The Country Church: Its Ruin and Its Remedy.—Dr. S. L. Morris. Presbyterian Home Mission Board, Atlanta, Ga. \ Rural Survey in Benton County, Ar kansas, and Gibson County, Tennessee. Presbyterian Church Home Mission and Country-Life Board, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. The Church of the Open Country.—Dr. Warren H. Wilson, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. Reading hst in Social Service.—Federal Council of Churches in America, Rev. C. S. McFarland, 105 E. 22nd St., New York. The Rural Church Problem.—Rev. Charles King, Louisiana, Mo. The Rural Church.-Dr. Henry Wal lace, Home Mission Board, United Pres byterian Church, 704 Publication Bldg., Pittsburg, Pa. t'ountry Church Day Bulletin. Uni versity of Virginia, University, \ a. AFRAID OF NOTHING I am afraid of nothing on earth, or above the earth, or under the earth, but to do wrong. The path of duty I shall endeavor to travel, fearing no evil and dreading no consequences. I would rather be defeated in a good cause than to triumph in a bad one. I would not give a tig for a man who would shrink from the discharge of duty for fear of defeat.—Alex. H. Stephens. wealth of only $322 in farm properties, against $3386 in Iowa. It is well worth the while of the bankers and merchants to help our farmers in crease their wealth by a billion dollars in the next dozen years. UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION LETTER SERIES NO. 82 SOMETHING NEW The post-graduate courses in medicine for practicing physicians, inauguratedT this summer by the University of North Carolina in cooperation with the State Board of Health, have now been going on in the eastern part of the state for about one month, and the work has been attended with signal success and interest. Beginning July 1, the work will be en larged to include certain towns in the western section of the state, the lectures and clinics to be conducted by Dr. Jesse Gerstley of the Northwestern Medical School, on apian similar to that now used by Dr. Louis \\ ebb Hill, of Harvard, in the eastern section. The towns included in the western group are: Greensboro, High Point, Statesville, Mooresville and Winston- Salem. Sixty practicing physicians are enrolled in these live sections or di- \isions-14 in Greensboro, 10 in High Point, 13 in Statesville, 9 in Mooreville, and 14 in Winston-Salem. The lectures will continue for three months, thus giv ing to eacth place 13 meetings. This scheme of bringing the lecturer to the class, instead of sending the class to the lecturer, is something new in medical education. In dollars and cents it means the saving to each physician of between 1300 and |400—the price of a post-gradu ate course of similar length at some standard school. The University makes no profits on these lectures, all the funds being used to defray the expenses arising from the course. THE TEACHER S SALARY The salary of our public school teach ers is one thing that the public ought to be ashamed of and yet the public is not ashamed of it. The young lady who comes from a four year’s course of professional training in our state institutions averages not more than fifty dollars a month for eight months in the year. This gives her $400 on which she is to live for 365 days. This is ])oor return for the services of a trained teacher in the school room teaching the little ones of a community. The Comparison One shrinks from a comparison of the teacher’s wages with the wages paid to the bricklayer, the plasterer, the plumb er, the carpenter, or the day laborer on the farm and in the factory. The teach er like any other day laborer must be healthy and able-minded for her task, but she must also have professional train ing for her work. Therefore, the public must make up its mind to pay living wages to these faith hil people w'ho are earnestly at work training its boys and girls. A String to It Not only does the public pay too sma/ 1 a salary to the teac.lier, but it does wora when it-ties a string to the salary by re quiring or at least implying that she must spend a part of it every year or two for further preparation for the work, without any promise of a larger salary. This further preparation Ls right and necessary, but it would also be very right and just and appreciative on the part of the public if it could arrange to pay the expenses of its teachers at some good summer school every other vacation. This is already done by some communitiea and ought to be done generally. Honor Doe Them All honor is due our faithful teachers who spend their money to improve the quality of their work. More than 2,50* North Carolina teachers are now attend ing summer schools. Are the folks at home thinking about them? Has a single member of a school committee written one of them one word of encouragement and appreciation? Suppose you do tHs! I our county ottices, but the county ex- I hibits published from year to year bring j us to believe that our methods of account I keeping are generally antiquated, and confusing almost beyond belief. MORE COTTON AND LESS GRAIN Under the stimulus of revived prices, we are this year increasing our cotton acreage and counting on a crop of 747,- 000 bales. Our cotton acres are 185,000 more than in 19D9, and our crop as fore casted by the census authorities on June 25issoQie 48,000 bales more than last year- Which is all right, because' we will consume in our own mills all the cot ton we raise this year, and more. But on the other hand, it is estimated our -rain crops will faU behind last year’8 total”nearly 9,000,000 bushels, as follows: corn 5 050,000 bushels, oats 3,170,00U bushels, wheat 665,000 bushels, and rye 88,000 bushels. To move ahead two and three-quarter milhon dollars in cotton is wise, but to fall behind seven and three-quarter mi - lion dollars in grain crops is other-wise, considering that we lack dollars a year in being a self-feeding state. A Billion Dollar Prize If only we could or would produce a sufficiency of bread and meat in ^orth Carolina from year to year and have our cotton and tobacco as clear money crops, our country people would soon be wor^ more man for man than the Iowa farm population. And we need greater co^ try Wealth for churches and schools, roads and health officers, and luxuries, farm extension and equ p ments markets and credits. This simple, single crease the wealth of the state by a bilhon Lllars in a baker’s dozen years. At present we have a per capita country PRIMITIVE ACCOUNT KEEPING Would it be possible to devise (1) a simple, standardized form of accounting for all moneys received and paid out by the county officers of North Carolina, and (2) a uniform exhibit sheet that w'ould show at the end of each fiscal year exactly how each county stood in its finances? If so, each county could be compared with every other in a score or more par ticulars, and ranked accordingly; say, in the average annual cost of indoor and outside paupers, the per capita cost of convicts and work animals in road build ing, the cost per mile of sand-clay or top-soil road construction, the keep of jail prisoners per person per day, and so on and on. The taxpayers could easily see in which county they were getting the most or the least for their money; and where expenses were light or unreasonably heavj. At present, outside the school accounts, no county in the state can be compared with all the others in the expenditure of pubUc moneys. Nobody knows whether his county government is inefficient and wasteful or not. There is no basis for comparison. State Law Requires It New Y'ork State not only standardizes these county accounts and exhibits but keeps an auditing commission busy the year around instructing county otlicials and holding them up to the mark in their record keeping. They act under the di rection of the Comptroller-General. In North Carolina such a commission might be directed by the state auditor or the state treasurer. And ^y^wt? The county is merely a detached agent of the state. The plan does not interfere with local self-government. It helps county government on to efficiency. We believe that dishonesty is rare in NO APOLOGIES NECESSARY The popular mind is mightily exercised these days by war events, politics, and baseball news. These things are so cy clonic and spectacular or so directly ap pealing to the multitudes that the hum drum and commonplace occurences of life are uncousidered trifles light as air. On the other hand, the business mind is cool and calculating. There may be a great deal of heat at present in the busi ness world, but there is a great deal more of light. More than ever, big busi ness is patiently assembling, analyzing, and interpreting economic and social data. The captains of industry, trans portation, aud finance are concentrated upon conditions that bull or bear the stock market. Tiiey study crop acreages, crop conditions, prospective "crop totals, steel orders, interest rates, the output of gold, import and export totals and the like. The Wall Street journals are stick ing to their jobs more closely than ever while popular attention is diverted by spectacular events. The Commonplace It is well to remember that the forces at play in the steady routine of life have a power like that of the sun’s rays. Cy clones are evidence of forces acting in sudden, violent combination. So are wars. But the steady, fateful, pull aud power of the same forces in the everyday, work-a-day ati'airs of life are even more eventful. They are less flamboyant in their results,however, and so they attract less attention or no attention at all. The University News Letter carries no war news and no conmient on war events. It is not necessary. There is ample statesmanship and military genius in other editorial sanctums; so much, indeed, that w^e are left free to puzzle at the abiding problems of life and business in North Carolina. And so, hke Uncle Josh’s Ford, we keep a-chuggin right along. We are sticking to our job of finding out, as far as possible, the fortes, agencies, and influences, the tendencies, drifts, and movements, that are to-day making the history that our children will be studying to-morrow. This, in answer to a reader who com plains that we give no attention to world events. The fact is we are. busy with world forces instead, and these forces are no more real and significant in the big wide world than they are in our back yards, bank offices, and church pews. The world—it is my backstairs, w'rit large, said Talleyrand. And it is easier to be world-wise than home-wise. GOOD FOR OLE MISS. One hundred and sixty-tliree con- sohdated schools in Mississippi employ 515 teachers and keep 389 school wagons busy transporting 6,489 pupils. So re ports Mr. J. T. Calhoun, the State Rural School Supervisor. These pupils are transported daily an average of four miles each at a "cost of 11.65 per month, according to a recent investigation by L. C. Brogden, our State Supervisor of Elementary Schools. It looks like Mississippi is leading the ' whole South in Consolidated Country Schools using stthool wagons to transport pupils. There arr^ no state-wide figures for North Carolina. However, 20 counties in 1916 reported to Mr. Brogden 221 white con solidated schools and 141 pupils trans ported. . It is encouraging to note that our white country schools witli two or more teachers number 2,220 this year. Which is to say, the number of such schools in North Carolina has nearly doubled since 1908. We fall behind Mississippi in- the transportation of children in school wag ons, but we are far ahead in the consoli dation of country schools. GROCERY-SHELF GARDENING As long as the average farmer keeps his garden on the grocery shelf, he sells everything wholesale and buys everything retail. Sidelines such as canning, pre serving, making apple butter, are profit able where the farmer is wise enough to see that the women of his household get all necessary help with their work. Any rea.sonable expenditure for making the home place more attractive is as real and profitable an investment as though the money had been sijent for limestone and phosphate. It is not enough to grow a good crop, or even to grow a good crop at low c:)St. To make a big crop a business success it must be disposed of as efficiently as it ia grown, must be so graded and packetl as to meet market standards and so market ed as to bring the farmer the highest cur rent price. The farmer who is too suspicious to get together with his neighbors in order to do co-operatively what no one can do alone is sure to pay dearly for his inca pacity for teamwork.—Carl W. Vrooman, Assitant Secretary of Agriculture, Federal Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 704. KINDERGARTENS Every day we get new evidence of the growing interest and confidence in public kindergartens. San Francisco has just recently decided to add 20 kindergartens to her school sys tem. Los Angeles has 133 and Oakland has 30. We must begin to think about this question for North ^arolina. Our cities are doing something but not nearly enough. The kindergarten is a funda mental step in the educational ladder. EXHIBIT SUGGESTIONS It will not be long before folks all over the state will be looking about for sugges tions in regard to exhibits for the com munity and county fairs. Some idea of what can be done iu the way of educational exhibits may be secured from Bulletin 1916. No. 1, of the U. S. Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. The Bureau of Extension will be g'ad to send other suggestions upon request. It costs nothing to get aid from both these bulletins.