The news in this publica-
don 13 released for the press oo
the date indicated beiow.
_ UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
lUGUST 9.1916
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
ditarial Bo«rd B. C. Branson, ,T. Q. deB, Hamilton, L. B. Wilson r a Wiiii. o rr
.i^K.Wil3oa, L. A. WUlmms, B. H. Thornton, (,. McKie. Entered a. second.
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
VOL. n, NO. 37
NORTH CAROLINA CLUB STUDIES
class matter November 14,19U, at the.postoffloe at Chapel HiU, N.C., under the act of August 24 1918,
IMPOSSIBLE
Our mails last week brought requests
[rom 147 people wlio want to get on the
regular uiailing list of the University
News Letter.
Our only chance is to slip these names
into our mailing list in place of people
■who change their postofflce addresses from
time to time with without notifying us.
Our News Letter could easily go into
the homes of 15,000 thoughtful people
ivho want it and write for it. At present,
our weekly edition is 9,000, and it cannot
be larger for lack of funds to
ay the expense of printing, paper, press
work, and postage.
A large number of the requests last
eek came from farmers in Chatham
unty; but our circulation is already dis
proportionately large in Chatham county,
ther counties considered.
ENCOURAGING
The University News Letter has too
ittle space to advertise the University or
he News Letter editors. But a recent
letter from Mr. Bion H. Butler, a season-
diand brilliant member of the newspa-
eriprofessiou, is so encouraging to the
aw recruits in our sanctum that we can-
Ot -refrain from publishing it—mainly |
ecause it heightens our purposes and
(ids valuTi to the University in public
“teem.
■‘Good Old Scouts: Your issue on the
chools July 26 is worth to this state all
he News l^etter has cost from the day the
’rst copy was printed.
‘North Carolina has a population of
incere, hopeful men and women who
ant to do the right thing, and the lead
ou are giving them puts them on the
ight track. Don’t ever get it into your
eads that you are not doing a great work
n hfe, for you are and the fruits w'ill live
long after any one of your bunch does.
‘In my enthusiam over your July 26
"ssue I am puffed up with pride over the
ntire University, in every department
nd in every individual connected with
’t.’'
For every word of this generous letter
he bnani of editors is profoundly grate-
ET-TOGETHER INSTITUTES
The 'ederation of country-life forces
ud agencies, in country-life institutes
n the country regions is well under way
'n North Carolina. And in this particu
lar kind of effort our state is setting a
ace for the entire Union.
Our teachers, preachers, farmers, doc-
ors, and bankers have for long years
een meeting apart from one an
ther. Each group has been indulging
n partial views of the whole great, big
ubject of common weal and the Com-
lonwealth. Each has missed a whole-
ome largeness of view. Bach has been
laying the game of Puss-in-the-Corner.
The programs of the Institutes to bi.
leld in Scotland, Union, and Sampson
ounties at an early—4,ate, under the di-
ection of Prof. W. C. Crosby, Secretary
of the State Bureau of Community Ser-
ice, are statesmanlike and inspiring.
Doubtless the communities will actively
iivolve in their programs the church and
'unday school workers and their prob-
lemg. The translation of material gains
nto spiritual assets has to do with the
ighteousness that exalteth a nation.
The country church and Sunday school
re still, or may be, the most important
ountry-life institutions we have in the
'outh.
Jhe University News Letter heartily
ndorses every word of the recent editorial
111 the Western Sentinel. We reproduce
telsewhere.
peojjle in rural d.stricts together with a
view to discussing problems of particular
interest and receiving information of a
helpful nature in connection with such
subjects as rural education, the social
side of community life, marketing of farm
products in most effective manner, as
well as other topics. Speakers of state
wide prominence attend these schools and
participate in the helpful discussions.
At the Charlotte gathering Attorney-
General Bickett, Editor Clarence Poe and
Dr. J. Y. Joyner will be among those
taking part.
It seems to us that there is an excellent
field in the various counties of this state
for such community service work. It is
a comparatively new movement in North
Carolina but the enthusiasm with which
is being received suggests large pos
sibilities. The work is under the direction
of the State Bureau of Community Service,
working in cooperation with the State
Department of Education and Agriculture,
State Board of Health, A. & M. College,
State Normal, State Farmers’ Uuion and
other agencies.
Every county in North Carolina should
have one or more Community Service
schools. They cannot fail to be decided
ly helpful to people living in rural com
munities who are desirous of improving
conditions along various lines.—The
Western Sentinel.
THE PITY OF IT
A young man told us the other day
that when he applied for a certain posi
tion as teacher in the schools he was ask
ed to what church he belonged. He an
swered the question and was told that it
was not exactly what was hoped but it
might do. Then he was asked his poli
tics. He answered the the question and
that settled it! He did not belong to the
right party!
When shall we learn that education is
a bigger thing than any particular creed
or party. It is an insult to a young man
to imply that he has not common sense
enough to keep doctrines and party politics
out of his class-room work. W'ho ever
heard of Methodist Latin or Baptist Alge
bra, Republican Geometry or Demo
cratic Science!
As a nation we do not allow church
doctrines to be taught in our public
^ schools and we likewise discountenance
j the teaching of partisan politics. Why,
I then, may we not exercise charity, com-
; moil sense and broatl-mindedness in
I employing the teachers? We pride our-
I selves on the bigness of the state, and
! justly so. Ijet’s cultivate bigness of mind
and soul to go with it.
ORGANIZING PEACE
The power to make money is the
power to serve. The law of peace is
simply the survival of the fittest to
serve. The man who can have the
brains to serve the most kinds of peo
ple in the most w'ays will thrash every
body in sight. Nobody can touch
him. Nobody will let anybody touch
him. The man who can discover and
invent and expose mutual interests,
who has a creative passion for mak
ing other interests play and work to
gether, who can make all classes
work as one class, who can make em
ployers, workmen and consumers
work as one man—tlie man who makes
money by raising wages, who can get
rich by lowering prices, becomes terri
ble and implacable in this world.
He withers all who oppose him. Only
a man who is more peaceful than he
is can hope to compete with him.
Christ’s statement is a very liberal
one, the meek shall inherit tlie earth,
if by meek we mean people who stop
figliting people and listen, find out
what they want, do it for them and
become a part of them.
This habit, this business-like genius
of mutual self-expression, this in
satiable greediness for team-work, for
living in others and through others
and of having others live in us and
through us—this passion of heaping
up all men’s lives upon our lives—this
is the spirit that is making all men
who have it to-day the masters of the
fate of the world. It is the spirit that,
before our eyes, is taking possession of
America.—Gerald Stanley Lee in WE.
INHERITANCE TAXES
tax on inher-
derived range
and 16,606 in
California acd
i MOVEMENT OF DECIDED
BENEFIT
The movement for the holding of com-
unity Service schools in various coun
ties of the state seems to us to be a good
ne that should result in much benefit,
he first of such schools is to be held for
ve days, beginning Saturday, in a town-
hip in Mecklenburg county, this to be
ollowed next month in Sampson coimty.
till others will doubtless be held from
to time.
The idea of the Community Service
hool, as we understand it, is to bring
GASTON COUNTY’S PLAN
We are surely awakening to the very
unbusiness-like policy in this state of
I closing down our educational plants for a
part of the year. We hear it often con
demned but less often do we find an at
tempt to do something about it.
Superintendent Hall of Gaston county
has been trying out a plan this summer
in the town of Belmont, Gaston county,
which is typical of his progressive spirit
in school matters.
This Is It
With an enrollment of about 100
girls and boys under the direction of Mr.
Ray Armstrong and Miss Laura Watts,
respectively, the groups meet at tlie
school house these vacation mornings
and and receive instruction by way of
story telling and blackboard work.
Much time is spent out of doors in plays
and games in which is found a strong
educational flavor. Nature study is car
ried on by a tramp group through the
woods, which offers undreamed of chances
to illustrate geography, arithmetic, ai d
language.
The work is supported, largely, by tlie
mill men who are powerful cooperative
factors in the school work at Belmont.
It is hoped that the folks themselves, the
taxpayers, are not leaving too much sup
port to private enterprise. If such a
proceeding is worth while it is "'orthy of
public approval, and the plan should be
come publicly supported as well as pub
licly managed, as it doubtlessly will after
Forty-two states levy a
itances. The revenues
from §4,415 in Nevada
Georgia to $3,500,000 in
$8,253,000 in New York.
In North Caroluia the revenue from in
heritances in 1914 was }il9,899. Thirty
two states derived a larger revenue from
this source. Six of these were southern
states, as follows: Virginia 142,000, Texas
$43;000, Oklahoma 44,000, Louisiana
$97,000, Tennes.see $210,000, and Ken
tucky *270,000.
The law seems to amount to almost
nothing in Oklahoma, (xeorgia, Nevada,
and North Dakota. It does not yet
amount to much in North Carolina.
In Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wy
oming the inheritance tax revenues go in
to the county treasuries.
In California §250,000 of the inheritance
tax money went last year into the public
school fund, $175,000 into the pension
fund for teachers, and the balance, Ji3,
075,000, into the general fund of the state
treasury.
The first state to levy a tax on inher
itances was Pennsylvania 290 years ago.
Only six states have no inheritance
tax; South Carolina, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, New Mexico, and Rhode
Island.
These details of information are glean
ed from a speech in Congress by Chas.
F. Curry, Representative from California,
who opposes Secretary MeAdoo’s proposal
to levy a Federal tax on inheritances.
He wants such revenues reserved for the
state treasuries.
a period
worth.
of
experiment has proven its
HELPING THE FARMERS
Only 15 states have established official
Marketing Departments, as follows: Ala
bama, California, Idaho, Kentucky,
Mr.inc, ’liuhigaii, Minnesota, New Jer
sey, North C:irolina, Oregon, Tennessee,
Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West
Virgiaia. bix of these are. southern
states.
What North Carolina Is Doing
A recent bulletin issued by the Federal
Department of Markets and Rural Organ
ization says:
“The State marketing work is done by
the Division of Markets and Rural Co
operation, West Raleigh. William R.
Camp, Chief, Division of the Markets is
in charge and is responsible to B. Wi
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 85
SLAP-STICH COMEDY
As a rule, school annuals or yearbooks
in colleges, universities and normal
schools are a poor attempt at humor and
wit resulting in slap-stick comedy, ap
preciated by a few, disquieting to many,
seldom if ever really constructive, and
rarely elevating.
Of course, such publications tind a
place in student life and likewise, of
course, they become a part of student
contributions to college literature. But are
they really worth while when such pro
ductions become the only form of class
publications?
A New One
The Class of 1916 at the Mississippi
Normal College at Hattiesburg has caught
a vision of what a class book can be.
Someone looked beyond the present and
outside the small school circle, at the
great wide world of life into which the
class members were going and planned a
contribution to the life of Mississippi.
The book is composed of brief articles
dealing with health, hygiene and sanita
tion. The treatment is historical, theor
etical, professional, practical, and social.
Evidently each member of the class made
a contribution and was proud of the do
ing.
There are cuts of student and faculty
groups as well as individual members of
of the class. Student activities are illus
trated and due prominence is given class
officers, library and debating societies.
The book has an appenl. It stands for
something. It is a contribution. It is a
pleasing and suitable variation.
Other Good Ones
The student year books of the State
Normal and Industrial College at Greens
boro, and the East Carolina Training
School at Greenville are well above the
average, and well along towards high
water mark throughout the country. At
the East Tennessee Normal, too, there is
found a student publication well worth
more than a casual glance.
There is abundant proof that with a bit
of guidance and advice, with a little care
and thought, student year books might
easily be made to contribute in a con
structive way to man’s social and aesthet
ic development.
Kilgore, Director of the North Carolina
Agricultural Experiment Station, West
Kaleigh. Work was begun in September,
1913, under authorization of a resolution
of the Board of Agriculture, placing the
division under a “joint committee.”
Chapters 115, 144, 175 of the public laws
of 1915 legally established the division
and provided an appropriation of-$11,000.
‘ ‘The division cooperates with the
Agricultural Experiment Station, and
Extension Service of the State Agricul
tural and Mechanical College, the State
Department of Agriculture, and the Office
of Markets and Rural Organization,
United States Department of Agriculture,
The work includes investigations of tlie
present methods of distributing farm pro
ducts; the pubhcation of lists of farm
products for sale; of partial lists of re
ceivers and dealers in farm products; of
weekly price reports; of circulars, and
quarterly market bulletins. Cooperative
organizations are promoted and super
vised, and the proper grading of cotton
demonstrated.”
Cooperative Enterprise
In addition, Mr. William R. Camp, as
sisted by Mr E. C. Culbreth, is head of
the State Department of Cooperative En
terprise, Cooperative Credit Unions and
the like.
North Carolina has the best cooperative
laws in the United States, and leads the
Union in Farm Credit Unions. Write to
Mr. Camp or Mr. John Sprunt Hill of
Durham for information on these sub
jects.
stripped our mountain slops bare of tim
ber and left the slashes ready for forest
fires from any chance spark. Our Hill
Country farmers have failed to make this
region what Nature intended it to be—a
pasture land paradise, an area of ham
and bacon, beef and mutton produc
tion, a dairy farming region filled with
silos, cheese factories, creameries and
condenseries, a livestock region protected
by permanent pastures to the mountain
tops, and by well-built terraces for crops
that require clean culture.
Inevitable Penalties
These are the causes that have decreas
ed underground drainage in this region
and increased the swift, destructive, over
run in seasons of heavy rainfall. As a
result crops are destroyed and in certain
areas the people face starvation. But
also the hillside farms are gone and un
protected spaces set in clean-culture crops
are bare to the rocks below. Bottom
lands are covered with silt, sand and de
bris. Power sites are destroyed; mills,
factories, and bridges have floated off
like straws; improved puVilic highways
and railroad tracks have been torn up
for hundreds of miles; industries have
been crippled or annihilated; and a heavy
burden laid upon the shoulders of tax
payers for years to come.
Defensive Intelligence
Has not the time come to regulate our
timber companies with reasonable stat
utes and adequate supervision, and to
develop a well supported, effective fores
try policy? If ten million dollars in bond
issues will prevent a re[>etition of such a
disaster it would lie a wise investment.
And intelligent, self-interest will surely
bring organized big business into cooper
ation with the mountain farmers, to es
tablish a proper system of ■ hillside farm
ing, and to reward them with abundant
market facilities and reasonable profits
in the required new order of mountain
agriculture?
Farm and home demonstration agents
are needed in every mountain county;
REFLECTIONS ON THE FLOOD
Most of us would never do any think
ing at all, if we were not not startled out
of a vegetative existence by massive and
spectacular events.
The recent flood disasters in our moun
tains are an illustration in point. They
are so appalling and so appealing as to
arrest popular attention; but common
place, cumulative causes have been for
years setting the stage for this tragedy;
and no warnings whatsoever have been
sufficient to arouse general public interest — —
and set in play policies for adequate pre-baby-beef clubs, pig and poultry clubs
vention and protection. u .. ,• . .
But enormous losses have now overtak
en railroad authorities, hydro-electric
companies, and mill and factory owners.
Capital is intelligent and sensitive. In
vestors have a keen sense of futurity, and
dividends must be insured against calam
ity. The industrial development of our
Hill Country is at stake, and flood devas
tation like this must never again occur
in this region if it can be humanly pre
vented.
Bad Farming and Bad Forestry
The commonplace causes are two: (1)
bad forestry methods on part of our tim
ber companies and (2) bad methods on
part of our,farmers. Together they have
decreased the amount of slow and safe
underground drainage that is promoted
by wooded areas and year-around cover
crops.
The lumber companies have savagely
ham and bacon factorieSj cheese factories,
creameries and condenseries, stock breed
ing associations, county fairs, cattle
shows, improved highways, cooperative
market and credit unions, railroad facil
ities, conveniences, and advantageous
rates,
Hobson’s Choice
All these forms of agriculture can flour
ish in our mountain regions; but not, un
less the farmers can market their pro
ducts at a fair price and profit. Which
is to say, a proper hill country fann sys
tem waits upon the intelligent assistance
of organized big business—railroad com
panies, power companies, timber con
cerns, banks, mill and factory owners.
If we do not revise our systems of for
estry and farming in the mountain coun
try, every dollar that big business has in
vested in this region ^is increasingly in
peril year by year.;