North Carolina Newspapers

1 The news in this publica tion is released for the press on receipt. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA NEWS LETTER Published weekly by the Univenity of North Carolina for its Bureau of Elxtension. APRIL 30,1919 CHAPEL HILL, N. C. VOL. V, NO. 23 EdiiorUl Board i K. C. Branson, J. G, deR. Hamilton, b. B. Wilson, D, D. Carroll, G. M. McKie Entered as seoond-ola.ss matter November 14,1914, at the Postoffloe at Chapel Hill, N, C., under the aot of August 24, 1912. PUBLIC HEALTH COURSES The University of North Carolina is en larging the scope of its extension service to include courses for the training of public liealth officers. The plan was given tentative consideration here yester day in a conference between Drs. Chase and MacNider, of the faculty of the Uni versity and Drs. W. 8. Rankin and B. K. Washburn, of the State Health Board. The University recently added an expert in sanitation to its faculty, Professor ■thorndike Saville of Harvard, and the institution will be equipped with courses for the health officers of North Carolina. T'he proposition is regarded among health experts as a move that promises product ive efficiency in furthering the health campaign of the State. The conference yesterday was of a pure ly tentative nature but is ))robably the forerunner of further conferences between the faculty of theUniversity and the offi cials of the State Board of Health. North Carolina is well up in the list of States with legislation for the protection of the health of its citizenship but its force is minimized unless the health offi cers in every city and county are thorough ly alive to their job.—News and Observer. THE MALARIAL MOSQUITO To be bitten by a certain kind of mos quito is the only way a person may con tract malaria, or swamp fever. If mos- -quitoes are prevented from breeding, we prevent ourselves from being sick with riialaria or chills. Mosquitoes begin to breed about this time of year. They breed in stagnant water and in marshy places. Now is the time to open up ditches so that all stand ing water will be drained. The grass along these ditches should be kept cut or burned. All barrels or rain cisterns con taining water should be well covered, and a little heavy oil placed on top of the water. These measures will prevent mosquitoes from breeding. A little time spent now and at intervals during the summer will keep you free from malaria and doctors’ bills.—Thorndike Saville, Sanitary engi neer, University of North Carolina. in Bible study. The object of this is well stated in the report of the committee that outlined the plan. Leaders in both church and state educational systems are coming more and more to feel that the problem of religious education is a common re sponsibility. They realize that there is need for a more systematic and effective program of religious and moral educa tion than has yet been offered in either public or church schools. The demand is widespread and is growing for an or ganized correlation of all educational forces for moral ends. The state cannot teach or demand the teaching of religion, but public schools can grant adequate recognition for definite Bible study in all its cultural phases, pursued in the church schools. A syllabus according to which the work is to be done has been prepared by a com mittee composed of members of the high- school faculty. Not more than 2 of the 32 credits required for graduation may be secured by outside Bible study. The sole test in determining whether credit will be granted will be an examination conforming to the same standards as other high school subjects, given at the high school by members of the high-school faculty at the time of the regular semes ter examinations. This plan will safeguard the interests of the school in the matter of giving credit and at the same time it is hoped will fur nish greater interest in Bible study among the high-school young people.—Federal School News. THE PROBLEMS OF PEACE The North Carolina Club was organized to acquaint students with the needs and affair.s of their own state; so that, possess ed of this knowledge, they would be able to render maximum service to the state. If (then, our education means training for leadership in our home communities, the Carolina Club is serving a worth-while pur|>ase. And today there is a greater rea.ou for the Carolina Club than ever before. A revitalizing force is gripping the nation. The people are demanding progress and improvement. Our failure or success depends upon our ability to meet tiiese problems fairly and s(iuarely. Just as North Carolina did her part in war slie must do her part in peace. And the problems of peace are going to be greater than those of war. Every Carolina man desires to become a good citizen. It is his right and his heritage. But in order to become such a citizen he must know the needs of the state, its problems, its economic f8roc.s and its people. He can acquire thi.s necessary knowledge through mem bership in the North Carolina Club. The Club has now a greater task than ever bcfijjo. Your encouragement, your in terest, your attendance will help speed ou its task. But whether you join or not, the Carolina Club will carry ou its work. You need the Club more than it needs you. Think it over.—Phillip Het- tlernan, in the N. C. Magazine. THE CORNER-STONE If the Covenant of the League of Nations is rejected by the United States, says Premier Venizelos of Greece, all liberal and humane men everywhere will despair. But I can not believe this will happen, he adds, for I am certain that the Peace Con ference will establish a just peace, and the corner-stone of a just peace must be a League of Nations. KEEP UP THE ACQUAINTANCE A great many American communities got better acquainted with themselves during the war than they ever had before. Red Cross chapters. Liberty Bond cam paigns, defense societies, and community councils for various kinds of war work brought them into decidedly closer touch and gave them a better understanding of themselves. The fact is we Americans are not very sociable. Pretty much, we go our own ways and among our own comparatively small sets. At first glance an American country town looks the very picture of democratic sociability, where everybody not only knows everybody else but know^s all about everybody else’s affairs and dis cusses them with the greatest candor. But if it is a typical town you may soon discover that its sociability is strictly limit ed. You will find plenty of families—often foreign-born families, but not necessarily —who have very little contact with tne genial current and about whom nobody knows very much. Certainly you will find many things that ought to be attack ed by a community spirit where there seems no community spirit to attack them. War brought cominunities generally into closer touch. People lived with a warmer sense of community interests. The Red Cross and the Liberty Loan drives and the defense societies, and so on, will soon lose their primary reason for existence—or have already lost it—but the broader sociability and the habit of working together should not be lost. Community councils ought to be kept up. The political organization, by a city conn cil or board of aldermen, is a very loose and light bond operating within a very very limited sphere. A broader social organization than that is a good thing for any community.—Saturday Evening Post. work, all of which are necessary to real ize their potential man and woman power. “These last four years of extraordinary demand for unlimited man power and woman power have focused the attention of the world upon e,ssentiala, but neglect ed values of physical education. “Universal physical education is neith er a substitute for nor an adjunct to mil itary training. It is a program for pro ducing men and women pliysically fit for whatever may be the responsibilities of citizenship. This end is to be accom plished by educating boys and girls phys ically during the period of immaturity and by encouraging in adults those physical activities essential to the continuation of health and bodily vigor. ‘ ‘The national physical education ser vice was organized by the Playground and Recreation Association at the request of the national committee on physical edu cation, composed of more than 50 nation al organizations concerned with the con servation of child-life and with the con sequent production of a vigorous and en riching citizenship. The aim is a pro gram of State and Federal legislation for physical education and the stimulation of intelligent and popular opinion which will secure both legislation and its efiect- ive operation.”—Washington Star. CREDITS FOR BIBLE STUDY Bible study, not only as a means of moral education, but for its cultural value as well, Is recognized by the public school authorities of Lansing, Mich. School credit is given for definite work done in church schools or in the liome. This in- t 'rastitkg departure is thus described by Su]»t. J. W. Sexton in a recent report: You have authorized the giving of credit In the high school for outside work LOOKS LIKE DEGENERACY “Thirty-eight percent of the men in the first draft were rejected as physically un fit”, remarked E. Dana Caulkins, manager of the national physical edu cation service, at Washington. “Al lowing for underweight and special senso ry defects, not less than 25 percent were rejected for real physical unfitness. This means that 2,500,000 men between the ages of 21 and 30 were unfit for military service. “There are 25,000,000 boys and girls of school age, and numerous investigations show that at least 50 percent of these have defects and ailments that impede normal development in greater or less degree. They lack positive physical education, such as play, athletics, gymnastics and UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION LETTER SERIES NO. 166 IS IT FAIR 7 The Railroad Wage Commission has recommended that the wages of all rail road employees receiving less than $250 a month (and that, too, for twelve months in every year), should be increased. Such increase was ordered by the Director of Railroads. In Illinois the average monthly wage of fifteen miners, as shown by the pay roll at the mine, was $217.78; the aver age monthly salary of the fifteen public school teachers in the same town was $55. The average yearly salary paid public school teachers in the U. S. in 1918 was $630.64; an Australian alien, a miner, earned more than $2700 during 1918. VVhy this discrimination against our public school teachers? Size of a Dollar Ever since the war began in 1914 the size of our dollar has been diminishing un til now it takes from two to two and one- half dollars to buy as much of life’s ne cessities a.s one dollar would buy five years ago. While the teacher has been given, in some cases, an increase of 10, 20 or 25 percent in salary, the cost of board, clothes, transportation, etc., has increased from 75 to 100 percent. Consequently any teacher with good sense and decent training is looking for some other work to do. In fact it is esti mated that 120,000 untrained, inexpe- ienced teachers were turned loose on our schools this past year. LooKing Ahead Nor will this condition grow better un less we decide to pay our teachers a de cent living wage. On the contrary the situation will grow worse and we shall have a flood of inexperienced, untrained, tramp teachers hearing lessons in our pub lic schools and keeping school in our districts. This is not fair to our boys and girls. We must immediately plan to increase teachers’ salaries by not less than 75 per cent. Who will be the first so to report? A RARE MONUMENT We found it in the courthouse square in Laurinburg the other day. It is a mon ument erected to a teacher. That’s why it’s rare. Monuments to teachers are fairly com mon here and there in Europe, but they are rare in America. In North Carolina there are only four that we can now re call—to Wiley in Winston-Salem, to Mc- Iver in the capitol square in Raleigh, to Quackenbush in Laurinburg, and to Can ady in Smithfleld. If there are others we want to know about them. The inscriptions on the Laurinburg shaft are worth thinking over. In partic ular they challenge the attention of teachers. Here they are: “William Graham Quackenbush, 1849- 1903; principal of the school here for 21 years; Christian, scholar, philanthropist; in recognition of his exalted character, in appreciation of his ennobling influ ence upon youth; erected by a people grateful for his love and service; Ins life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, This was a man.” Why Rare We have said that such monuments are rare, xind there are reasons, many reasons but just now we center attention on one —the lack of stable citizenship in teachers. More and more teachers are creatures of chance and change. Few of us are con tent to choose a community for better or for worse, and to drive our tent-pegs deep down for permanent residence. AVe are here today and there tomorrow. We shift about incessantly under the pres sure of necessity or the lure of oppor tunity. AVe are nowhere long enough for a community to find out how the ele ments are mixed in us and whether we are men or manikins. Teachers blow into and out of American communities like a swarm of Kansas grasshoppers. The hard truth is, our tax-supported schools of every grade are cursed by a very plague of grasshopper teachers. We are become a race of peripatetics. Icha bod Crane and his ilk were far more in nocent and far less mischievous as pub lie servantjs. We are creatures without a country, without homes of our own, without much property of any sort on the tax books, without identity and civic consequence in swiftly changing communities, without any robust sense of local citizenship and community re sponsibility. For the most part we are | rolling stones that gather no moss. AA’e are drifters and wasters, in a sense that is arresting and appalling. Disturbing Facts Ixest it be supposed that we are dream ing instead of dealing with distressing realities we may say that a full third of I the teachers of America drop out of tlie ranks every year—during the recent years of war the ratio rose to nearly a half; that the roster of an adjoining county last year shows two-thirds of the country schools with brand new teachers, while in our own home county three-fourths of the country teachers are this year teach ing new schools, and three-fourths of the country communities have new teachers! AA'ill someone please tell us how schools of permanent and increasing influence can be developed with kaleidoscopic changes of this sort? This incessant change of teachers in town and country corps is the curse of our American public ichool system—the most fruitful source of failure. It is the one certain way of wast ing 800 millions of public school money or most of it year by by year. Teachers now as of old are frequently men and women of exalted Christian character, lovers of learning, and lovers of their kind as Quackenbush was, but it seems to be no longer the fashion for teachers to teach 21 years in one place. They dwell nowhere long enough to breed grateful memories in a community and to lie down at last under the shadow of a memorial shaft. On the contrary tlie telegram of the Irish engineer records our careers or com monly so: Off agin, on agin, gone agin, Flanagin. A monument erected to a teacher of this sort would have to be built on the tail of a flying machine. Where the Blame Lies AAY perfectly well know that the ex planation of this sorry situation concerns communities as well as teachers—living conditions in communities as well as sav ing salt in teachers, but for the moment we are thinking about monuments to teachers and the essential reason for their rarity. The teacher who is forever on the move hke poor Jo in Bleak House will cer tainly miss a monument. It is easy to erect memorials to men like AA’iley and Mclver, Quackenbush and Canady, Gra ham, Stacy and Battle. They were firmly anchored to definite localities and identi fied with definite noble purposes. The public is rarely ever fooled. Con sciously or unconsciously it makes Susan Nipper’s distinction between a Temporary and a Permanent. Most of ns are tem porary, few of us, alas, are permanent. The Temporaries swiftly pass out of men’s minds and memories. Monuments are erected to Permanents alone. Office of Extension AVork South, United States Department of Agriculture, in out lining at a recent meeting of extension forces some of the difficulties of farming in the South in 1919, and the importance of safe farming. If the South plants as large an acreage to cotton as in 1918 and has a good sea son resulting in a large crop, the possible danger to Southern prosperity can scarce ly be overestimated, continued Mr, Knapp. Safety in Food and Feed A well-balanced system of agriculture is the best answer to this problem, not only in 1919, but in any year of peace or war. The safety and security of the Soiithern people depend greatly on the production of the food necessary for the increasing livestock. Mr, Knapp pointed out that the ex change value of cotton in relation to the retail price of the necessities of life was no different when cotton was worth 30 cents a, pound in 1918 from what it was when cotton was worth 12 cents a pound in years before the war. Self-Feeding Farms The home garden, corn as a basis of Southern food production, plenty of feed and forage for live stock, increased pro duction of meat, milk, and eggs, with cotton as a strictly surplus crop, is the program strongly urged. Mr. Knapp urged the reduction of cot ton acreage, not so much by a level cut of a certain proportion of the acreage of every farm, as by converting every farm into a self-supporting unit. He urged get ting on to a cash basis instead of a credit basis, and selling the excess products of the farm to supply the living expenses. SAFE FARMING Cotton farmers and business men are in a critical situation in the si)ring of 1919, said Bradford Knapp, chief of the BONDS OR TAXES The ATctory Loan Campaign is now un der way. It is only a short time since we threw hats into the air and cheered on that No vember day when the armistice was sign* ed. AVe are now called upon to prove that we are as ready to lend as to cheer. xV soldier returning from France to his home city, remarked to a citizen who met film with a hand-shake; “This welcome and these flowers are very nice. But how about a job?” Uncle Sam can well say to his people : “That cheering for peace was fine. But how about paying the bills for bring- ing it about?” The war bills must be paid. Anybody can see that. There are two ways to pay them. One is to borrow the money from the people. The other is to tax it out of the people. Our war taxes—most of them on sur pluses and luxuries—are heavy 'enough now. But unless the A'ictory Jxoan is liberally subscrided they will seem small beside the taxes to come. Uncle Sam had rather sell securities than put on new taxes. He must do one or the other. It’s up to the public.—AVar Loan Or ganization.