North Carolina Newspapers

\ t 'he .library, Chapel Hill, The news in this publica tion is released for the press on receipt. * . THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA NEWS LETTER Published weekly by the University of North Carolina for its Bureau of Extension. .APRIL 17, 1918 CHAPEL HILL, N. C. VOL. IV, no: 21 Editorial Board t B. O. Branson, J. G. deli. Hamilton, L, R. Wilson, R. H. Thornton, G. M. McKie, Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the Postofflce at Chapel Hill, N* C., under the act of Augu.st ,2i, 1912. NO BUMMERS AND SLACKERS North Carolina’s share of the third Liberty I.oan is 19 million dollars. Wc over-8ub8cril)ed our allotment of the second Liberty l.oan by more tlian a million dollars. And yet fewer than 24 people in the ' thousand of our population, the' state over, had any in the 27 million dollars that we invested in that loan; 976 people in every thousand in North Carolina in vested nothing in it. In 13 counties more than 990 people in every thousand invested nothing in it. All of whicli means that we can do better this year—easily so, if only we will. Ninety-six per cent of our people have done nothing so far toward floating a liberty loan issue. Many of tliese people will go their limit in taking up the tliird issue of war bonds, because they know better tlian before wliat tremendous is sues are at stake, and because, too, their boys are rapidly getting into the struggle overseas and they are willing to support Ihem with government loans at home. IjCnding money to tlie government and getting four and half percent for it in tax-free bonds is a far better investment tiian the banks have ever been able to offer. Liberty Bonds are a good business (>roposition. But also tiiey give tiiose of us that are beyond the age limit of mili tary service a chance to join the army of support at home. Tliey give us a cliance to serve liumanity in the most perrlous iiour it has ever faced in liuman liistory. The word ljummers was a term of deadly reproach in the South for long years following the sixties, and .till this good hour neither the sons nor tlie grand sons of tiie camp-followers and the profi teers of those war timec have i)een able ±o put out of mind the shame of their ancestors. Our own children and our children’s children for the next hundred years will be asking wliat we did in this war— whetlier we fouglit in it, or worked and saved for it? If not, tliey will never be able to for get that we were Inimmers, camp fol lowers, and slackera—willing to make niuncy out of it, but unwilling to con- in Indo anything to support it! PATRIOTIC WAR SAVINGS to addition to the 38 million dollars we alivady have laid away in Liberty Bonds aul Tiirift Stamps, suppose we save eoougii tins year to take up the 19 mil- i' iiifi of the third iiiberty i,oan and also tit.'traiaace of tlie War Savings Stamps ttfiuUed to North Carolina—46 million doll.i.ni wortli? •luat 8ii|>pose we save tliat mucli this yS'ir for tlie sake of our boys on the battle front and flic- cause they are risking their lives for—then, on January 1st, 1919, our .i.u'ings in these two forms of thrift akme would be 104 million dollars, as foil ,iws: .Liberty Bonds - - $57,000,000 '^Yar Savings Stamps- .47,000,000 Ir only wo wore willing to deny our- seix’.'s and save for this noble purpose in tuifi iieroic way, on New Year’s day our 1 ,i.Ko:ty Bonds and Tlrrift Stamps would tr*.' t-icariy live times our total bank ac cniiit savings in banks of all sorts the y.‘>, the World War began. Our Chances To Save Clan we do it? Is it witliin the reach i‘ iHiniau possibility in North Carolina? I I vniy so. I) wo run our 60 tlionsand automobiles 111 ■ I y less eacli week we’d save $1,560,- d-ri. if vve cut out intoxicating liciuors, to il i-c.), .jewelry and plate, patent medi- c-'j ‘V candy, soft drinks, and cliewing gum—these alone—we’d be $12,500,000 r.--ti *1^ Tiiis estimate is based on the four's of Ur. Charles W. Eliot of Har- vji-l, given to tlie public two years ago. II we patched up our old clotlies and c li. lawu oui: i'ills for furbelows, fuss and i,-itfrn-3, we’d save 5 millions more. il everybody lived on home-raised vcge- L>!iL'S-uui fruits tliis year, we'd lower I our grocery bills 50 million dollars. Here are 69 inillion’dollars to the good, witliout going any furtlier into details. We need only 66 million dollars to take up the third Liberty Loan and tlie Savings Stamps allotted to us in 1918. If only we are equal to self-denial of this sort we'd be a stronger, braver people when the next New Year rolls around, Our worst weakness is wastefulness. Weakness and wickedness are one. Civil ization is built on the sense of futurity and the power of self-denial. AYe sorely need discipline in self-denial in North Carolina. Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps Are giving us a chance to learn a fundamen tal lesson, and to learn it nobly. TWO BUSY FACTORY TOWNS The factory products of Durham have been nearly quadrupled during the last four years. In 1914 they -were valued at 27 million dollars; this year the total will be around 100 million dollars, according to Mr. AY. M. Upchurch, whose study of Durham County, Economic and Social, will soon be given to the public in bulle tin- form. During the same period the internal revenue paid into the Federal Treasury by AYinston-Salem has more than quad rupled. It was nearly 6 million dollars in 1914, nearly 20 millions in 1917, and during the year ending next June it will be around 25 million dollars. A forty fold increase in 30 years in internal reve nue paid on manufactured tobacco is the story of Twin City achievement. During the year ending June 30, 1917, the aggre gate internal revenue receipts from North Carolina were 30 million dollars in round numbers, and almost exactly two thirds of the total was turned in by AVinston- Salem alone. Conscripting Wealth Not quite all our millionaires live in Durham and AA’inston-Salem, but there are said to be five men in these two cities whose war taxes on individual and cor poration incomes will this year be in the neighborhood of a thousand dollars a day each. So far as we know, not one of these men has whimpered. The richest man in North Carolina lives in a little cotton mill center. His war taxes will be around twelve hundred dol lars a day; but he is (proted as saying, If necessary I’ll cheerfully-give every dollar of my income to win this war for humanity. WHERE TO SAVE Do you put out all unnecessary lights at home and thus save coal? Do you keep the temperature of your house down to 68 degrees, which not on ly saves heat but improves health? Do you save gasoline, rubber, and skilled labor by cutting out all unneces sary use of motor cars? Gasoline is a most important factor in winning the war, so is rubber! and chauffeurs are needed on Government work. Are you cutting down on amusements? Ilecrcation is necessary but not the amusements that cost so much money. As far as yon can, get your amusements more out of doors and out of your brains and less out of your pocket book. Are you foregoing personal luxuries— things not essential to your health or ef ficiency or that of your friends? Are you wearing out your old clothes and buying only that which is necessary and will Avear well? By so doing you will save labor and material that should be used in winning the war. Are you avoiding unnecessary travel? The Government has already asked you to take no unnecessary trips on the rail road, that they imvy be used for war ser vice? Do you produce anything? If not, be sure you are consuniing as little as pos sible and releasing others wlio can pro duce. Do you refrain from unnecessary re pairs and improvements? Do only what is necessary to keep things from going to pieces. Don't worry about sliabbiness TAKE THE LOAN Edward Everett Hale Como, freemen of the land. Come meet the great demand, • True heart and open hand— Take the loan. For the hope the propliets saw. For the swords your brothers draw. For liberty and law. Take the loan. Ye ladies of the land. As ye love the gallant band, AA’ho have drawn a soldier’s brand. Take the loan. AA'ho would bring them what she could, AA’ho would give the soldiers food, AA'ho would stanch her brother’s blood Take the loan. All who saAV our liosts pass by. All who joined the parting cry, AA’hen we bade them do or die. Take the loan. As ye wished their triumph then, As ye hope to meet again. And to meet their gaze like men. Take the loan. AATio would press the great appeal. Of our ranks of serried steel. Put your shoulders to the wheel. Take the loan. That our prayers in truth may rise; AVhich we press with streaming eyes. On thA Lord of earth and skies. Take the loan. immensely better this year, if we are to be a self-feeding state with surpluses to send abroad to our soldiers and our Al lies in Europe. ABLE-BODIED LOAFERS Netv Jersey has an anti-loafing latv with teeth in it, says the Literary Digest. It requires every able-bodied male citizen between the ages of 18 and 50 to be habitually and regularly engaged in some lawful, useful, recognized business, occu pation, trade or employment. The mayors of the state have had the police compile lists of the habitual idlers. The hoboes and the swell-club loafers are rounded up together and treated to hun dred dollar lines or three months in jail or both if necessary. t If a man will not work, neither shall he eat is the way the Book has it. AA’e sadly need man power on our farms and in our factories, anid the loafer, rich or poor, is an unspeakable disgrace to him self and an intolerable insult to society. The first day this law went into effect a thousand men applied for jobs in the Public Employment Bureau in Newark alone. in war times. Do you employ servants who might aid the Government in shipbuilding, transportation, and farming? Have you planted your AVar Garden or an extra acre to help tvin the war? Last year’s gardens saved the food situa tion. Are you saving and investing your savings in Thrift and AA'ar Savings Stamps? If you refuse to do any or all of these you put yourself in the same class with the healthy young man who refuses to serve his country.—State AA'^ar-Savings Committee. MARVELOUS GAINS The various grain crops produced in North Carolina last year reached a total of 84 million bushels, according to the Federal Crop Report of Dec. 1917. It is an increase of 37 million bushels since 1909. AA’hicii is to say, we have nearly doub led our production of small grains in eight years. Our last year’s grain crop averaged 35 bushels per inhabitant, counting men, women, and children. It was a near approach to suftlciency. Look at the increases in detail during these eight years: Corn from 34,000,000 'ou. to 60,000,000 bushels. AYhoat from 3,800,000 bu. to 9,700,000 bushels.. Oats from 2,700,000 bu. to 5,700,000 bushels. u R3'e from 280,000 bu. to 520.000 bush els. Buckwheat from 144,000 bu. to 240,000 bushels. Peanuts from 5,980,000 bu. to 7.600,000 bushels. During this period we nearly doubled our crop of white potatoes, but we made almost no gains in the production of sweet ))otatOPs. Indeed we lost our pri macy in the Union as a sweet potato state. Last year Georgia beat us by 3 million bushels and Alabama by nearly 8 million bushels. AYe needed 27 million bushels of potatoes a year; we produced only 13 million bushels. AYe also dropped from the 2nd to the 4th place in our peanut crop. Georgia beat us by 2 million bushels, and Ala bama and Texas by nearly 8 million bushels each. However, we took the leadership of the Union in soy bean ' pro duction. Onr saddest lack is in home-produced meat and dairy products—beef, pork, mutton, poultry, eggs, milk, and butter. And this lack largely accounts for the fact that this year we shall be sending out of the state some 200 million dollars for bread and meat that we failed to produce at home. A\'e liAve done well, but we ii.u.st do TWO MORE WAR LEAFLETS “If home-keeping youths have homely wits, and little more in A'ortb Carolina, it is not the fault of our state university. Home bred students who cannot get away to college have the chance of their live's at competent culture in war topics and dem ocratic ideals. ATour AA’ar Information Series is wonderful. Please send me an extra full set to date.’’ So writes an alert, active minded country boy in one of our remote counties. Two more AA’ar Leaflets are ready for the public, without charge. No. 15— America and her Allies: Section A, France, and No. 14—National Ideals in British and American Literature, bj' the English Faculty of the University. Both these bulletins are outlines of studies in progressive detail, with abundant reading references. Bulletin No. 14 is a pamphlet of 85 pages and the chapters are as follows: 1. Foreword.—Edwin Greenlaw. 2. From the Beginnings to Shakes peare.—J. M. Steadman, Jr. 3. The English Renaissance.—Edwki Greenlaw. 4. Tlie Rise of Modern Democracy.— James H. Hantord * 5; England Democratizing Under AYc- toria.—John M. Booker. 6. The Rise of Imperialism.—JohnM. Booker. 7. American Ideals.—Norman Foers- ter. 8. AYar and Democracy: State Papers and Public Discussions.—Richard Thorn ton. 9. AYar and Democracy: In Personal Narratives and Imaginative Literature.— James H. Hanford. backbone, or allow the State Commission to appoint him, which I think would be still better. The work of assessing real property ought to begin on April 1, and personal property on June 1. One 'man could do all the work for each county and do it better than 15 or 20 township assessors. TALK ABOUT TAXES This one man could then go entirely over the real estate in a county and see exactly for himself what changes ought to be made. Equalization could then be more uniform. One man’s judgment is better than that of 15 when no two of the 15 agree. The money before paid to 15 or 16 tow’nship assessors could be paid to one man and he could afford to devote his entire time throughout the year to his work. Each year could be improved upon by his previous experience. I sincerely wish the assessment were on a basis of actual worth and the com bined state and county rate made lower. The appointment of county assessors should be made preferably by the State Tax Commission, and freed if possible from the domination of local politicians. AA'hen so appointed the man holding the job would not be hampered as he is at present. He would be free to do his whole duty. I make these statements not to the detriment of any man, but from my ex perience as a landowner, as a county as sessor, and as a long-time citizen of this county, which I know well. AA'e are briefing below one of the score or more letters that have come from thoughtful, good men all over the State since the- North Carolina Club began its study of County Government and County Affairs in September—not because a final conclusion has been safely reached by any one of these splendid men or by all of them together, but because of the high lights they throw on our sorry tax situa tion in North Carolina. But returning to our mutton, the letter is as follows: I was County Assessor for luy county in 1915 and my experience was worth a lot to me. As you say, the great trouble is with the township assessor. He is us ually a poor business man. He virtually belongs to the county commissioners who appoint him. They post him beforehand what to do. He is usually a deputy tax- collector handicapped by his petty job and anything but reliable in judgment. The greatest trouble I had with the town ship assessor was his inclination to favor his friend and do the man he did not like. After figuring on this matter for two or three years’, I have come to the conclu sion that it would be better for the legis lature to do away with the township as sessor altogether, and appoint as county assessor a good business man who has WASTE IN BRIDGE BUILDING The vast majority of the bridges of the State are unsafe and InsufBcient in size and capacity, according to Mr. AY. S. Fallis, State Highway Engineer, who ad dressed the North Carolina Club at the University on Monday night. Mr. Fallis urged that for the sake of economy and safety great care be taken to secure ade quate designs made by independent and skilled engineers—those not connected with any bridge company or any contrac tors proposing to build the bridge, and that careful supervision of bridge con struction by competent men be taken in every case. Great care must be taken in construct ing bridge foundations, and in selecting materials for building—depending largely on local conditions, costs, etc. Selection of the design is an important factor. Bridge designing is almost an exact science. Many, if not aU, of the State Highway Departments have developed standard plans for bridges to be built un der the supervision of the State Depart ments, and to be used by the counties of the state for the purpose of securing a better class of construction than is usually sold by bridge companies. AA’hen the character of th6 foundation has been de termined it is a job for the Iwidge engi neer to determine the design of tiie piers. Failure in properly determining the ciiar- acter of the foundation often results in de struction of the bridge by a flood which it would otherwise have stood against. The failure to do this explains why many bridges across the Catawba and ATadkin rivers were washed out by tlie floods o 1916. How the State Helps One of the greatest crimes committed against the taxpaying pu'olic by county authorities, he continued, lies in their failure to maintain bridges properly after tliey are built, by neglecting to keep the bridges painted and the floors in smootli and safe condition. Steel bridges should never go more than tlireo years without being thoroughly cleaned and painted, he said. Preferably two years should be the limit in repainting the average steel bridge. Mr. Fallis ernphasized the importance of county supervision in bridge building. Those in autliority in tlie county sliould see to it tliat proper care be taken to liave tlie job supervised by competent bridge engineers. Tlie State Highway Commission fnrnislies d.esigning, con structing. and supervising engineers to the counties ^ payment of their ex penses, and each county should take ad vantage of tliis fact. Onr counties are spending about a half million dollars a year in bridge construction, and the county autiiorities need tlie help of the .State Iligliway Commission to save need less waste of public money.—Myroiv Green, Secretary.