1
The aews 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
(or its Bureau of Elxtension.
MAY 14,1919
CHAPEL HHJL, N. C.
VOL. V, NO. 25
Bdiiorial Board i E. C. Branson, J. G* deR. Hamilton, L. R. Wilson, D. D. Carroll, G. M. McKie.
Entered as second-class matter Noyember 14, 1914, at the Postoffioe at Chapel Hill, N« G., under the act of August 24,1913.
WASTE IN CAROLINA
Hon. William 0. Redfield, Secretary of
the U. S. Department of Commerce, in a
speech yesterday before the Wholesale
Grocers of New England, gave some in
teresting figures as to the production and
consumption of North Carolina pine tim
ber. He stated that two-thirds of the tree
was wasted before it reached the market,
only one third being marketed profitably.
It follows, therefore, said he, that when
the total annual cut produces 15,000,000,-
000 feet, board measure, of merchantable
timber, twice as much otlier material de
rived from the same tree has been allow
ed to go to w’aste. The amount of this
waste in the pine industry alone is enough
to furnish raw material for tlie production
every day of 40,000 tons of paper, 3,000
tons of rosin, 300,000 gallons of turpen
tine, and 600,000 gallons of ethyl grain
alchohol. The potential values of these
products are many times greater than the
total actual values now developed by the
industry.—S. E. Winters, in the News
and Observer.
GREAT WORK
If the country civilization of North Caro
lina were organized in every county as
it is in Anson the levels oi country life
would soon stand away above high water
mark. The community clubs in that coun
ty number 13, the community fairs 8, the
township fairs 4, the clubs of country
women 23, and the clubs of boys and girls
22. All told, 58 country organizations in
Anson. Not one of the eiglit townships
has been neglected, even the most re
mote. Every township has from one to
five country-life organizations.
And the genius who is doing this re
markable work of organizing country-life
in Anson is Mrs. Rosalind Redfearn.
May her tribe increase. She needs to be
multiplied a hundred times over in North
Carolina.
Superintendent H. H. McLean is also
lending himself and his school forces
to the home and farm demonstration
agents, and setting the woods afire in
Reaufort. .
Tlie County Agricultural Association is
doing the same thing in Johnston.
The Chamber of Commerce is getting
ready to do likewise in Mecklenburg.
Six thousand dollars have been set aside
to do it with. What is W'anted is just the
riglit sort of man or woman—what Pres
ident Graham loved to call ‘areal person’.
We are trying here to find such a right--
hand man for these generous business peo
ple in Charlotte.
Strange, how few real persons there 'Are
in tlie world. Forked radishes w'as Car
lyle’s plirase for tlie common run of men.
What these Mecklenburgers want is a
man with a first-class head-piece, big vis
ions and policies, and efl'ective leadership
in vital concerns.
If you know him, name him. There’s
a great work for him to do in the best ag
ricultural county in North Carolina.
place, each social danger duly estimated
and protective measures ensured, would
enable every county in the United States
to justify the appointment of at least one
trained worker on full time. In tlie larg
er or more populous counties a special
ized staff would become' necessary.
Dangers to be Avoided
The law establisliing such boards
should be flexible. It should create no
confusion betw'een public and voluntary
agencies. Public iiealth, like public edu
cation, is everywhere sufficiently import
ant to demand a distinct county or munic
ipal organization, with qualified medical
and engineering experts in charge. The
board of public welfare as tlie imdifl'eren-
tiated agency may at any given moment,
however, be dealing with questions quite
as serious and difficult. Housing becomes
a health problem at its margins, but
might einrage the attention of a board of
public weltare long before any recognized
iiealth nuisance is involved. The board
of public welfare might constantly be
passing clearly formulated xiermanent
resiionsibilities to new social agencies,
while it might also retain many which
do not become large enough or perman
ent enough to acquire a specialized board
or institution.—Edward T. Devine, in The
Survey.
NORTH CAROLINA LEADS
In tlie states of Washington and Kan
sas proposals are pending for the estab-
lishnieiit of county boards of public wel
fare. North Carolina has had sucli a law
tor two years, authorizing county welfare
board.s under the supervision of the state
board of public welfare.
The general idea underlying this jilan
is that relief and preventive work sliould
be united, and tliat, except in New Eng
land, and under the unique conditions of
-New York city, tiie county is the natural
.political unit, not only for public outdoor,
relief but for child welfare activities, the
■court suiiervision of domestic relations
when that is necessary, the oversight of
delinquents tlirough probation and parole,
.and many other kinds of social work wliich
.are now regarded as suitable for public
-action -
By the coordination of all such work in
■the county it becomes possible to have a
trained social worker in charge of it.
Rural social work will always be likely to
be done badly if it is merely an incidental
occupation and if done by an untrained
person. A synthetic program of social
work in which each age group is consid
ered, each specific task put in its right
OUR UNIVERSITY Y AFIELD
The world had wagged a long long time
before anybody seriously began to con
sider loneliness as a curable ill. Then for
another long time urban loneliness came
in for pretty strenuous attention. It re
mained for the Y. M. C. A. to set afoot
definitely purposeful efforts to reduce
Icpeliness wherever it might be found,
and, ■ never neglecting its city work, it
decided'to move ifito the country. Wisely
it began with firmly rooted institutions,
the church and the Sunday school. All
our social agencies would function wiselier
if they would tie up tight witli the age-old
institutions of society.
Early among the pioneers in country
territory were our North Carolina Univer
sity lads. Almost twelve years ago tlioy
began their weekly trudgings to and fro,
storm and mud no hindrance, fair weather
and University pleasures no temptation to
keep them from their labor of love. The
bleaker the accommodation, the smaller
the attendance, the more faithfully did
these youthful teachers of the young stick
to their country Sunday school jobs.
Chapel Hill lies in the center of a circle
of six country settlements, five miles
deep or so.. They are Smith’s Level,
Clark’s Chapel, Rankin’s Chapel, Cal-
vander. Mount Carmel, and Williams’s
Chapel. At each of these places a Sun
day school has been born or re-born. At
each point the peojile have responded
gladly, as people always do respond when
the leader calls. In many a country home
in these six settlements the drudgery of
the week has been lightened by the cher
ished thought of congenial intercourse dh
the day of rest. Remembrance of the
fathful young men who never yet have
failed in kindness, in patience, in glad-
ne.ss, in simi)le loyal Christian teaching has
brought joyous song out oi many a young
throat that miglit else liave been con
stricted by a sob of loiteliiiess as its owner
bent over jJow handles or the wash tub.
Results
Last Sunday we saw about sixty light
hearted children, boys and girls, lads and
lasses, fatliers and mothers, at Clark’s
ChaiJel. We heard singing tliat would
have done credit to any highly trained
group of children anywhere. When the
question was asked about how many
would like to take part in a community
pageant that is being jjlanned to bring
them all together shortly at the University
for a day of picnic sijorts and play, every
hand went up in eager assent, every
young face beamed with smiles.
At Smitli’s Jtevel on the same day we
saw an only slightly smaller gathering
and were as much impressed by the lovely
lack of self-consciousness among the chil
dren. The attention and interest in tiie
Sunday school lesson were faultless.
No fewer than three college men go to
eacli of these six country Sunday schools
every Sunday afternoon. The average at
TOPPING ALL THE ARTS
Dr. Cyrus Thompson
The art of living is the finest of all
the fine arts. It is also the art wliich
botli individuals and nations of men
are slowest to learn. But in all nations
individuals are readier to learn it than
are the nations themselves. These good
men are the salt of the earth. You
may find civilized men in every na
tion in the world, but nowhere in the
world may you find a civilized nation.
In every nation you may find individ
uals honest and neighborly to individ
uals of any other nation, but an hon
est and neighborly nation is as yet an
unknown social product. The individ
ual loves tlie plow-share, but the na
tion does not farm; the individual
loves the jiruning hook, but the na
tion has no orctiard or garden. The
nations do their work with swords
and spears and lying tongues.
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 168
tendance is around two liundred jiersons
—some tliirty or more at each place.
They learn Sunday school lessons. They
sing and pray together. They plan how
to carry out week-day community enter
tainments, plays by the children, parties,
and singing bees. The tension of monot
onous living IS loosened. The possibility
of community expansion is greatly in
creased.
These college boys and farm families in
their weekly meetings are likely to stum
ble upon many of the eternal verities as
they puzzle out their lessons and sing
their songs together. Tlie first and great
est of these may very well be, as Mr.
Moss phrased it on Easter Sunday, that
in the midst of life we are in life. Did
he not also mean that if we work togetli-
er, sing together, and study and play to
gether in building up com'munity spirit
we shall all together come to have life.more
abundantly?—E. N.
A BIG PROBLEM
The greatly increased enrollment in
our high scliools all over the United States
presents a series of diSlcult not to say
baftlng problems.
So long as we were content to provide
educational advantages for only a few and
to train up a selected number of leaders
the plan of operating our academies and
high'scliools was very simple indeed. Only
a special type of pupil was fitted for leader
ship and a limited number of channels
were open through which to attain the
leader’s place.
Changing Needs
But today we are trying to meet the
needs of a heterogeneous population and
to fit these various as well as varying types
into all sorts and manner of places. To
meet tliese diversified needs we must plan
for many classes in many more subjects.
We must organize to find places for bril
liant, average, and slow pupils. We need
to discover and make effective tlie rela
tions existing between community, indi
vidual, and social needs.
Two Views
Such changes and such radical moves
as these conditions make necessary shock
the sensibilities of many who believe only
in the culture value of education. That
there can be and must be a plane found
for the more practical and utilitarian val
ues they cannot or will not see.
As a consequence many who do not see
the place and value of the practical have
entirely lost their sense of proportion and
would have us do nothing but supply the
vocational, leaving the cultural wholly
to one side.
The Golden Mean
Neither extreme will do. The desirable
and necessary position to take is rather to
try to find the place where we can find
the balance, the poise which shall care
for the needs of many and of the few.
Truth is not found in extremes.
SCHOOLS AND DEMOCRACY
“The war has revealed a most alarming
amount of illiteracy. In one state, North
Carolina, 487 out of 961 drafted men were
found to be illiterate,” says Edgar P.
Hill, in the New Era Magazine, March
issue.
Miss Mary Scales Miller, one of our
alumnae, sends ue this quotation from
Washington City, saying, These figures
astound and distress me; let me know
what is really the truth about illiteracy in
my home state.
There are several things to say about
the illiteracy figures quoted from the ar
my records.
First, army and census illiteracy rates
were reckoned in diflerent ways.
In the census taking, if a person could
write his name, or even said he could
write his name, he was not recorded as
an illiterate. Yet on this exceedingly
slender and unsatisfactory basis, nearly
one out of every five people in North
Carolina in 1910, ten years, old and over,
was illiterate, both races counted; while
nearly one out of every eight native born
whites was illiterate. The figures are ap
palling and they put North Carolina near
the bottom of the illiteracy column.
Illiteracy, Sheer and Near
In tlie army count, a drafted man was
counted as an illiterate unless he could
read intelligently as well as write. Of
course there are many people who can
write their own names and nothing or
little else;,who can read a little but can
not read anytliing intelligently. These
people were all recorded as illiterate in the
draft examinations. The army figures,
tlierefore, cover botli sheer-illiteracy and
near-illiteracy. Near-illiteracy in every
state is a far bigger problem than sheer-
illiteracy—a fact that we are only recent
ly discovering. The census figures on
illiteracy do not tell the whole story; the
army figures come nearer the real truth.
Roughly, the army illiteracy figures are
usually two or three times the census il
literacy figures for any given state. The
I army rate of 50 percent in the North Car-
' olina grou]) referred to above is nearly
twice the census rate, if tliese drafted men
were negroes alone; more than three
time the census rate if they were both
wliites and negroes; and more than four
times our census rate if they were whites
alone.
It would be comforting to think that
the fifty percent illiteracy rate of this par
ticular group of North Carolina soldiers
is a mistake, but we greatly fear that the
figures are accurate. We found in Camp
Wadsworth last summer a thirty-four
percent illiteracy rate in one group of
white soldiers from two adjoining coun
ties in midland North Carolina; which
was almost exactly three times the cen
sus rate of illiteracy in these counties. If
the group referred to in the New Era
Magazine came from any one of seven
counties in North Carolina, the fifty per
cent illiteracy rate is not unbelievable.
The census illiteracy rate for the whites
alone in tliese seven counties ranges from
19 to 22.4 percent. Since the army rate
covers both sheer- and near-illiteracy,
fifty percent woffld be about correct.
The truth is, we are not yet fully
aroused in North Carolina about common-
school education and widespread intelli
gence, for all the patient heroism of
AV’iley, the blazing eloquence of Aycock,
the deathless devotion of Mclver, and the
dauntless courage of Joyner. Under the
superb leadership of Bickett and Brooks,
the legislature of 1919 made a long step
forward, but we have still a long way to
go before we head the column in the
march of American states.
The second thing to say is (1) that 94
percent of our illiteracy is rural (2) that
85 percent of it is adult, and (3) that
adult white Illiteracy in North Carolina
has steadily increased since 1850. So
read the census figures. See the Univer
sity News Letter, Vol. Ill, Nos. 15 and
20. The census showing is bad enough;
the army figures are worse, but as
we said before census rates do not tell the
whole story.
AycocR’s Prayer
Elsewhere in this issue we are ranking
the states of the Union according to the
per capita expenditures for public school
education in 1915-16. The figures cover
(1) all public school expenditures except
school bond moneys, and (2) the num
ber of pupils in average daily attendance.
The figures for North Carolina were
$12.31 per pupil, and only Mississippi
made a poorer showing.
Under our new law our total will move
up from $5,493,000 in 1915-16 to nearly
$9,006,000 in 1919-20, (as estimated); and
our public school term will rise from four
to six months the state over.
We use the 1915-16 figures because they
are the very latest available for all the
states. The ’19-’20 figures will show an
immense sudden gain in North Carolina;
but we must remember that almost every
other state is also making a like heroic
effort, and we must not be surjjrised
therefore to find ourselves next year still
near the bottom of the list.
“God give us patience and strength
that we may work to build up schools
that shall be as a light shining through
out the land—ten, fifty, a thousand can
dle power. Behind this movement for
the education of the children of our land
there stands One who said. Let there be
light.”—C.B. Aycock.
PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPENDITURES PER PUPIL
In the United States in 1915-16
Covering (1) administration, salaries, textbooks, miscellaneous operating ex
penses, sites, new buildings and equipments; every expense indeed, except school
bonds, and (2) average daily attendance.
Total public school expenditures in N. C. in 1915-16 were $5,493,000; author
ized by the 1919 legislature, $9,000,000 (estimated).
Based on the 1917 Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, pages 73
and 81.
Rank States
Per Pupil
Rank State
Per Pupil
1
Montana
$86.36
25
Michigan
2
California
78.17
26
Illinois
3
Arizona
27
Wisconsin
' 4
Nevada
76.26
28
Vermont
5
North Dakota
69.62
29
New Hampshire
6
Washington
68.33
30
New Mexico
7
Idaho
63,56
31
Maino
'2/i Q1
8
New Jersey
61.69
32
Missouri
9
South Dakota
61.26
33
Dlaryland
10
AV'yoming
57.65
34
Texas
11
Dlinnesota
57.22
35
West Virginia
12
Colorado
36
13
Dlassaclmsetts
53.75
37
Florida
14
Connecticut
53.09
38
Delaware
15
Ohio
52.88
39
Kentucky
16
Oregon
52.59
40
17
Iowa
52.15
41
Virginia
17
New York
52.15
42
Tennessee
19
Indiana
43
Alabama
20
Pennsylvania
50.88
44
Arkansas
21
Utah
50.84
45
Georgia
22
Rhode Island
46
South Carolina
23
Nebraska
47
North Carolina
24
Kansas
49.40
48
Mississippi