. crarv
Cliapal 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 Elxtension.
JULY 10,1918
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IV, NO. 33
Editorial Board . E. G. Branson, J. G. deK. Hamilton, L. R. Wilson, R. H. Thornton, G. M. McKie.
Entered as seeond-ola,ss matter November 14,1914, atjthe Postoflice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 34,1912.
DOWN-AND-OUT SCHOOLS
During the last school year between
150 and 200 schools in West Virginia
were down and out for lack of teach
ers. About two dozen schools in Mon
tana and Wyoming closed their doors
for the same reason. So reports the
Professional Division of the Federal
Employment Service.
We know definitely of one such
school in North Carolina, and many
others are currently mentioned.
We are trying to assemble accurate
information about this important mat
ter. The public ought to know def
initely what the facts are. Nothing
else will so greatly arouse the public
mind.
Heroic efforts must be made to have
the schools of this state run as usual
on full time, on the very highest pos
sible levels of efficiency.
It’s a stupid community that will
allow its school to be closed because
of carelessness or stinginess.
SUMMER SCHOOL PATRIOTS
Registration week at the University
Summer School closed with 475 teach
ers present. The enrollment starts
off 179 less than that of even date last
year.
As usual the student body is com
posed mainly of ■ women. The ratio
of men here is smaller than ever. The
men of draft age in fit condition have
gone to the colors, and more than ever
we shall have to depend on our women
to keep our schools going and up to
the mark. The number of married '
women here is conspicuously large.
The women in our Summer Schools
are a contingent of true-blue patriots.
They are devoting themselves to
school-room preparation with small
salaries in sight, altho our postoffice
walls are lined with government ap
peals for war service at two and three
times the pay our school authorities
offer. Seventeen new notices of this
sort appear this morning.
Germ-Proof Salaries
Let me give your some new bills,
said the polite cashier to a Wilson
teacher; this old money looks like it
had germs on it. Thank you, but don’t
bother, she replied, no germ could live
long on my salary.
Government offers are havine some
effect on the teacher supply. The
Northampton school authorities are
advertising for 57 teachers. They are
looking ahead providently. When the
schools open in the fall it will be found
by careless trustees •here that no
teachers are to be had.
We are deluged with letters calling
for teachers. Principals and superin
tendents are here looking for teachers.
Alert communities will be ready in
September; careless school communi
ties will be teacherless.
Railway travel has increased 50 per
cent in cost. Half of their salaries
will be spent by the teachers on get
ting summer sahool training. The pay
they get will be a pin’s fee, but still
this educational Home Guard is here.
All hail to our teachei'-patriots.
fULTUH SPOTS IN AMERICA
A little while ago we chanced upon
i remarkable little community of some
1500 people.
Everybody in it is busy. There aie
10 loafers, rich or poor. A few of the
nhabitants are worth around a halt
nillion dollars each, but they are at
Work like all the rest six
ivery week. The industries of tne
!>lace are shoes, hosiery and undei-
wear, overalls, harness, and bindei-
twine, and tliey engage the entire
population without exception—every
man and woman able to work.
There never has been a bridge par
ty, a swell club, a pool room, a picture
show or theatre in the place in all its
history. . ,
There are no bar rooms either, ana
never have been—no drinking’^ no
drunkards, n>o blind tigers, it is
strictly sober community. , , i.
Moreover, everybody goes to churcn
on Sundays, unless he is sick or has
some other good excuse for staying
away. And there is preaching every
Sabbath morning—not Just once or
twice a month. It is distinc y
church going people. .
Nobody is neglected when he is^sicK,
no matter how poor he is.
promptly moved if necessary into
community hospital and cared r y
the community corps of doctors and
nurses, and the authorities pay
and all other such bills.
Flowers and shrubs are everywhere
No trash of any sort lies around to
offend the eye. Surely there nevei
was a cleaner, neater, tidier place in
America.
As we described it to a friend on a
train he said “That sounds like a bit
of paradise to me. I think I’d like to
live in a place like that.”
“Probably not,” we answered, “It’s
the state penitentiary of Wisconsin.”
We have a model little Community
like this in almost every state of the
Union, but nobody chooses to live in
any one of them of his own free will.
The fact is our state penitentiaries
are the best example we have of Ger
man Kultur in America.
American Efficiency
I They are very efficient human
societies—or frequently so, but their
' efficiency is the result of autocratic
j authority by overlords. Freedom, ini
tiative, and a sense of moral respon
sibility are lacking. Nobody in such
a community exists for himself; he
j exists and works for the organization
under force and not because of choice.
' Efficiency in itself is all right. The
I word and the ideal ought not be allow-
I ed to fall into disrepute. The Master
! himself taught efficiency in the Par-
' able of the Talents. But the efficien-
' cy He had in mind was democratic
efficiency—the efficiency that develops
from within outward—the efficiency
that evidences inner grit and grace.
Democratic efficiency cannot be laid
on from without, or imported from
abroad, or dropped down as manna
from above. If a community rises to
the level of democratic efficiency, it
must do so by tugging heroically at
its own boot straps.
A model community is worth while
or not according to the motive and
spirit that inform its life. If it is
model because of autocratic authority
it is German to the core. If it is
model because of righteous self-direc
tion on part of free citizens it is
American to the core.
In America every man stands on his
own shoe leather a crowned king un
der his own hat; in Germany every man
has an imperial ring in his nose.
We need German Kultur for crimi
nals and weaklings; we need Ameri
can Democracy for free men.
Efficiency is not necessarily a Prus
sian something. It is stupid to identi
fy these two words that way.
We need efficiency. No self-respect
ing man or community ought to toler
ate inefficiency. But the efficiency we
need is American not German—Chris
tian not Pagan.
WHAT AMERICANISM IS
Americanism cannot exist in a noble
form simply as a by-product of “doing
as we like.”
Americanism can exist nobly only if
we desire it nobly,—and more than all
other things that stand in its way. It
can exist only through an unremitting
effort to live up to its ideals.
In the great hour of today, Ameri
can ideals are in conflict with German
ideals: American citizens are fighting
and dying for their ideals. They are
fighting for-—
1. Individuality
Unlike Germany we Americans be
lieve thlt the state exists for the in
dividual, not the individual for the
state.
A democratic state, however, has
nothing to offer to its individual citi
zens that it does not derive from its
citizens themselves, its wisdom is
their wisdom; its courage is their cour
age; its services are their services.
It demands, therefore, the loyalty,
the wisdom, the courage, the service of
its individual citizen. It has nothing
but these to serve them with.
2. Equality
Unlike Germany we Americans be
lieve in equality. _ , n
Our belief in equality is not that all
individuals are equal in physique, m
ability, in intelligence, in morals, in
tHS"t0 0"tc
It 'is a belief that no inequalities
should affect the uniform administra--
tion of the law, and that no law should
favor one group of individuals to the
disadvantage of any other group.
It is a belief that the progressive
spirit of law-making should be the
desire to give to every one the utmost
opportunity to develop wiiatever-just
qualities and abilities he is possessed
of.
3. Independence
Unlike Germany we believe in peace
as the normal state of a nation, and
war as the abnormal state. We do not
believe in military conquest.
But we do believe in defending our
territory by force if it is invaded; and
we do believe in defending our sense
of right by force when it is impossible
THOSE WHO CANNOT GO
Are you sorry ? Or are you glad ?
Perhaps you would go if you could,
but you must must stay at home.
You cannot be a hero at the bat
tle-front, but you can live heiioically
wherever you are.
It takes five men at home to keep
one man in the trenches.
You belong to one of these
groups of five.
The five men at home must stand
together and do the things that
count most for the one man at the
front. For any one man to fail is
to play false to the cause for which
we work and they fight.
You cannot fight, but you can
work and pray; you can love and
serve; you can save carefully and
give sacrificially. Above all else
you ought to worship in times of
war.
We believe our cause is righteous.
Our faith is justified. Our human
instincts are not lying to us.
The lofty ideals for which our
brave boys are fighting are the
ideals for which pure Christianity
has stood for qineteen hundred
years. When the Church has been
blind to the vision of the Ideal she
has grown weak and unworthy of
the great Leader. We stand with
Him today for the sanctity of wom
anhood and the protection of chil
dren; for justice and mercy, truth
and righteousness; for industrial,
political and social democracy; for
international law and universal
brotherhood; for the establishment
of the Kingdom of God on earth.
These are the great ideals which
carry with them freedom, peace and
■ happiness for all the future.
After all, true religion is the real
conservator of civilization and the
ultimate unifier of humanity. The
future of democracy and civilization
is bound .up with Christianity.—E.
A. G. Hermann of The Vigilantes.
TAX THE LAND SLACKER
In -the March issue of The Common
Good, Governor Charles S. Whitman
of New York is quoted as having spok
en at a recent meeting of the New
York State Agricultural Society as fol
lows:
Another very wise policy which has
been followed abroad is the plan of
exempting certain holdings fi’om tax
ation. This has proved a conspicuous
success, and perhaps some plan of this
kind would work well with us.
It has been proposed, for instance,
to exempt from taxation all the man
made improvements on farm land, the
orchards and woodlands, the fences,
the buildings, the flocks, herds and
machinery, levying our iniral taxes
only on the bare land values, always
provided that the land is adequately
worked.
Such a policy would of necessity re
sult in taxes being slightly higher or.
bare and idle land, but to the enter
prising working farmer it would mean
hoe or the sword, the plow or the pen
—^whatever tool shall quickly and sure
ly help to dig the grave of despotism
and plant above it the living gardens
of human faith and contentment.
Give your heart’s great sacrifice to
the saving service of all human hearts.
To the unity of all mankind.—George
E. Bowen lof the Vigilantes.
A BRIDGE OF GOLD
Germany holds us in contempt be
lieving avarice shall finally seduce our
strength, that the cost of halting her
infernal career must daunt the United
States and dull its steel.
She thinks we love dollars too much
to turn them into guns and fleets and
planes—that we have set a shoddy
price beyond which we’ll not pay for
manhood and woman’s sanctity and
the rights of children.
Because we so long generously fore
bore against the measurement of any
white race by the hideous truths
, , ,. , , ,. • , - ^ I shrieked from Belgium and Servia and
a substantial reduction m his taxes; Armenia and northern France; be-
for any slight increase which he might g^ch stark atrocity challenged
pay on his land would be more than! credence; because we did not strike at
offset by exempting his buildings and first insult to our sovereignty; be-
his peisonal property. _ j ^g the patience of the brave
It would certainly seem wiser to - giving the nation time to
penalize the agricultural slacker who gj^^gg^ ^^hether its sons should bleed
leaves his land idle and unworked than ^nd its great wealths be free to all
y-l-ir'y'»y-kn-v*r» ri*r\ -4-r^ i» 4- _ .
to discourage the real farmer, the
farmer who is rising to his I’espon
sibilities and doing his share to feed fgg'ds
lie.
Democracy, Berlin read cowardice and
venality in America’s heart and still
fanaticism with this tawdry
to defend it by reasonable means.
We believe in the genuine independ
ence of every conscious nation from|
the domination of other peoples, ^
whether as a matter of open treaties'
or of silent influence.
4. Democracy
Unlike Germany we believe in de
mocracy.
We believe in political democracy as
the only means of insuring to each in
dividual his equal voice in the laws
that govern him.
We believe in such a kindly democ
racy in social life that the chance to
shift from level to level, either upward
or downward, shall be insured to every
one according to his just merits.
It is to make the world safe for de
mocracies that stand for these things
that America is at war today.—Exten
sion News, University of Nebraska.
the nation, by penalizing him thru the
tax tolls for every sign of prosperity
which he shows, and for every contri-1 Answer the Hun
bution which he makes to rneet the na-1 Answer the Hun! Build a gqlden
tional emergency with which we are bridge to the Rhine, and crowd it with
now confronted. The American City. ; liberating armies until France is clean
! and Albert may go home to heal his
PETTY PROFITEERS mangled realm.
While we are at it, reiiorting Ger- Show the Kaiser that we mean to
man spies to the Federal Government, keep on launching ships, raising reg:-
why not go a little further and give nients, and financing the government,
your local Food Administrator the Tell the vandal kings that they
names of those grocers and butchers “sball not pass.”
who are charging morq_for their goods ’ Let the fortunes and the savings and
than they should ? By helping to force Ike wages of native-born and emigrant
up the cost of living, already deucedly cry across seas that we are money mad
high, these petit larceny profiteers, al- —fighting money mad—that we’ll em:>-
though waving the American flag at our pockets and our veins to avenge
every opportunity, are really helping and pledge the world to peace,
out the Kaiser. Their safety lies in . The billions of the millions whose
the fact that they are too insignificant sires endured humiliation and hunger
to Qome under the notice of investi- of body and soul, yonder in Europe,
gators employed by Uncle Sam. must now end the brutal autocracies
Here is your opportunity, Mr. or from which they fled.—-Herbert Kauf-
Mrs. Citizen. A chance to air that man in May Cosmopolitan.
detective instinct that is within us all.,
A very good way of doing your bit,: JOHN BULL’S WAY
and one that is bound to be appreciat-- English take no fooling about
ed. It stands to reason that the Food ^Eeir food laws. The judges stick fines
Administrator in your town and conn- violators that must hurt and hurt
ty ha.s his hands full taking care oi ]ja,d. One man who had 18 pounds of
the big things. Give him a lift by ap- gjj hand, 61 pounds of sugar, and
pointing yourself, this very instant, as gj pounds of jam, was fined $750. A
one of his assistants to feiret out the grocer was fined $15 for selling sugar
meanest men and women in all the ^ p^^n who didn’t have a card. A
world, the criminals who see in the butcher paid $50 fine and $25 costs
war a chance to get rich quick at the pgj. ovei'charging on meat. A man
expense of their own countrymen. bned $250 for merely loffering to
Harry V. Martin of the Vigilantes. ; gg]j g wild rabbit for three shilling's.
! A large company handling sugar re-
AHE YOU AN OUTSIDER? fused to sell any to persons who had
Are you sure you have received the sugar cards on the first three days of
spirit of the world’s hope; that you are
possessed by it; given to its service?
There is but one cause—either yo
are in or out.
the year, apparently holding out in the
hope of being allowed to charge a
higher price; and the court fined the
concern $50 and charged $125 costs.
WHAT HAVE YOU GIVEN UP?
Have you given up your job and let
your business future take care of it
self?
Have you said good-bye to your fami
ly and friends and all you hold dear?
Have you begun an entirely new
career that may end, if you live, with
health impaired, an arm off, a leg
gone, an eye out?
Have you given up your business
future and said good-bye and taken a
chance on coming back alive and well,
and done it all with a cheerful heart
and -with a grim determination to do
all you possibly can for your country ?
And do you only at times—in the
evenings, perhaps, when the light in
the sky slowly fades away—feel so
homesick and lonesome that you are
fearful you will not have the courage
to do ypur part after all?
You have not done these things. Ah,
I see you are not one of our Army or
Navy boys; you are a stay-at-home
person.
Well, there have to be 20 or more
stay-at-home person.3 for everyone
who goes, and so certainly no disgrace
attaches to being one if you fully ap
preciate what those boys who do go
have to give up and if you support
them to the limit of your ability.
National War Savings Day gave you
the opportunity of showing in a practi
cal way that you do appreciate what it
means to the boys who go. Pledge
yourself to save to the utmost of your
ability, and to buy War Savings
Stamps before next New Years day in
order that there may be more money,
labor, and materials to back up those
who fight and die for you—Exthange.
We Americans have been asleep to Another concern which tried tp make
the significance of German domination persons buy other goods in Combina-
—10 the Hohenzollern spirit; to t-he tion with sugar was fined $500. John
Hapsburg caste. : BhU is short of rations and he aim.s to
History offers w counterpart of the make what he gets go a long ways;
world’s present menace. Ancient and and those who interfere with his food
modern wars have been both sordid arrangements are simply “burnt up”
and soulless, but the sheer malovelent when they go into court.—Wilmington
madness which for forty industrious Star.
vears has planned possession and ex-, =
plbitation of the world has no parallel, jjgw TEN COMMANDMENTS
Within the tortured scope of this in-1 . u ^
sanely horrible determination there'.,f^silent Wilson is about to sign a
can be no acquiescent manhood. bill which will take its place in history
It is the hour of human unity-of, f the most libeial legislation in pro-
one loyalty, one devotion, one ideal.' tection of a nation’s fighters ev-
And as through unity of faith, sacrifice, ^t is good enough, strong
and service the first Americans res-' enough, to be called the National Ten
cued and cherished the spirit of liber-, Commandments and in the effect thus:
ty for the land which was to shelter Thou shalt not evict, for nonpayment
all the world’s oppressed and destitute,! ^t, a soldier s dependents, under
so now must that proud and loyal
spirit, in every American heart, un
selfishly spring forth to free the world
from war and barbarism and all their
destroying brood of evil, thus justify
ing our professions of democracy and
glorifying the opportunity to make it
worldwide.
Helping the Hun
The only way to avoid being brand
ed as an outsider is to be inspired by
the love of freedom, to be moved by
its consecrated seiwice, to wear as a
splendid armor the feeling of comrade
ship in common cause against the Hun.
Only a cause that asks all can give
all.
To be outside such a cause is to wear
the badge of imbecility or treason.
Wake up, Americans! All of you!
Get inside! Be one with all and all
for one. Do your part. If you don’t
help humanity you help the Hun.
Take up the flag of vfashington and
Thou shalt not cut off a soldier’s
life insurance because of delayed pre
miums.
Thou shalt not foreclose a mortgage
on a soldier’s property.
Thou shalt not take away a soldier’s
home on which he has made part pay
ment.
Thou shalt not sell a soldier’s prop
erty because of his failure to pay the
taxes, national, state or local.
Thou shalt not settle a law suit
against a soldier during his absence.
If a soldier sue the court shall post
pone action until he can attend to it.
If a soldier have a mine or timber or
farm claim, assessments on which are
overdue, it shall be held for him.
Honor thy soldier and thy sailor that
thy days may be long in the land of
liberty.
No man hath greater love than he
that offereth his life for the world’s
sake, and it is commended that neither
Lincoln in the heroic service of a new | lawyers nor the loan sharks nor the
humanity. gathering of the tithes shall fatten on
Take up the rifle or the spade, tl\e him.—Cedar Rapids Gazette.