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.
MAY 21,1919
CHAPEL HHX, N. C.
VOL. V, NO. 26
Ediorial Board t B. C. Branson, J. G, deK. Hamilton, L. K. Wilson, D. D Carroll, G. M. MoKie
Entered as seoond-olass matter November 14, 1914, at the Postofflce at Chapel Hill, N. G., under the act of August 24, 1912.
WRECKED HOMES IN AMERICA
AMAZING DIVORCE RATES ! \V ilson and Swain—they are around three
Divorces in the United States in 1916 , average of the atate-at-large.
numbered 109,000, against 42,000 in 1890. | Carteret, Hyde, Durham, Camden,
American homes are dissolving at the rate tuncombe the divorce rates are more
of 300 a day the year through. i twice the state rate.
Here’s a pretty kettle of fish for Christ-! . rates in 28 counties are higher than
ian America.
One marriage in every nine in the Uni
ted States winds up in a divorce court.
In twenty-three states of the Union the ' years ago
ratios of divorce to marriage are still more I i^riknown.
What Are
the average for the state.
Nine of these 28 counties are in the
foot hill and mountain regions, where
divorce was almost
amazing.
One marriage in five ends in divorce in
Oklahoma, Montana, California, and Ida
ho. In Washington state every fourth
•couple is divorced, in Oregon every third,
and in Nevada every second. Naturally
tiie ratio of divorces to marriages in Nev
ada is higli because of tlie divorce mill at
at Keno. It is fair to say that nearly
three fourths of ilie divorces in this state
were granted to non-residents in 1916.
But this is not the worst of it: the div
orce rate in tlie country-at-large steadily
increases from decade to decade.
In 1890 it was 53 per hundred thousand
inhabitants; in 1916 it was 112, or more
than double. The marriage rate moved
up some 15 percent during this quarter
century or so, but the divorce rate increas
ed more than 100 percent.
Things are getting steadily worse in ev
ery state in the Union, except Maine,
AVest Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama,
Mississippi, Nortli and South Dakota,
■Colorado, and the District oi Coiumma.
the Explanations?
So tar w'e are not venturing to consider
I the causes of our increasing divorce rates
in North Carolina and the United States.
Divorce is an exceedingly complicated
I social problem everywhere in Christen
dom. We are simply giving the bare
facts as they appear in Marriage and
Divorce, a Federal Census Bureau Bul
letin that has just reached our desk.
There is no more important problem in
this or any otlier state. If the American
home goes to pieces under the stress of
increasing industrialism and urbaniza
tion, tlien our civilization is doomed.
There are other tables in our work-shop
tliat have been figured out of this bul
letin; showing (1) the states ranked in
j order from low to high according to the
I ratios of marriage to divorce, (2) the
^ counties of North Carolina ranked ac-
^ cording to divorce rates; and so on.
I If there be any manifest public interest
in this vital matter these tables will be
SHE RULES THE WORLD
Senator CarmacK
It is not the tlironed and sceptered
king; it is not the dark statesman
with his midnight lamp; it is not the
warrior grimed with smoke and stained
with blood—it is the queen of the
home wlio, under God, rules tlie des
tinies of this w'orld.
Tliere is a center from wliioh ra
diates the ligiit that never fails. For
I say unto you tlie sweetest wisdom
of this world is a woman’s counsel,
and the purest altar from whicii
liuman prayer ever went to heaven
a mother’s knee.
IS
less than their mothers.
The action of the North Carolina As
sembly, prompted by the North Carolina
State Health Board, in passing a model
social disease law, is notable. Tlie
appropriaijion to combat social disease in
North Carolina in 1919 is *10,000 and for
1920 it is *24,000.
Tile other three major healtli laws of
our last legislature cover sanitary surface
closets, state-wide scliool inspection, and
radical enlargement of Board authority
and activities.
More than a tliird or nearly 3? percent I issues
■of all divorces the country over were grant
ed for desertion; and it’s tlie wife that
most often deserts. A full half of the div
orces granted to husbands was for this
cause alone. Nearly three-fifths of the
divorces were granted to cliildleas couples,
while cruelty accounts for more tlian a
fourtli or 28 percent of the total, and in
fidelity for only 11.5 percent.
It is fairly easy to rank the states ac
cording to the number of divorces granted
in 1916, but it is difficult or impossible to
compare the social status of tlie states
and to rank them according to the preva
lence or absence of the social ills that give
rise to divorce; so because of the lack of
uniformity in the legal grounds for divorce,
and also because of tlie varying attitudes
And humors of judges and juries. Thus,
in 1916 South Carolina granted no divorces
for any cause whatsoever, neither did it
require marriage licenses or marriage rec
ords of any sort. Nevertlieless it is pos
sible tliat South Carolina has wrecked and
wretched homes due to tlie same social ills
that break up family groups in her sister
states. Divorces do not exist in that state,
but separations are common enougli to
cause alarm.
Divorces in Carolina
In 1916 the divorces granted in our own
■state numbered 668, not including the
divorces in eleven counties not reported
by the court clerks. Some of our most
populous city-counties turned in no div
orce figures—Forsyth, Cumberland, and
.Lenoir, among others.
No*tli Carolina liad a smaller divorce
rate tlian any otlier state of the Union
except Soutli Carolina wliere divorces were
abolislied by law in 1878.
Nevertheless our liomes are being wreck'
ed by divorce at the rate of about two t
day the year around.
But even more alarming is the increase
■of tlie evil. Divorces in North Carolina
have multiplied more than two and a
half times over in the twenty-six years
between 1890 and 1916. The increase is
from 12 to 31 per hundred thousand of
population during a quarter century!
Our increase in population in twenty-
■six years—from 1890 to 1916—was 50 per-
■ cant; tlie increase in marriages was 65
percent; but tlie increase in divorces was
:253 per cent.
The rates for Nortli Carolina counties in
1916 range from zero in Alexander, Gates,
IDavie, J ones, Bender, and Tyrrell where
no divorces were granted in 1916, to 119
per Imndred tliousand of population in
Transylvania.
Transylvania is the only county in tlie
state witli a divorce rate higher than that
of the United States, 119 against 112. It
makes ttie student wonder wliat tlie mat
ter can be in Transylvania.
Otlier liigli divorce rates appear
of the University News Letter.
HEALTH WORK IN CAROLINA
Brief History
In every land and country, public
health work means a hard long heave up
ward out of the age-long debauchery of
man, the shame and secrecy of social
sins, widespread ignorance, superstition,
paralyzing fatalism, and stolid inertia.
For fifty years little bands of gallant
pioneers here and there in the world have
been warring against preventable disease
and postponable death, fighting for an
unlistening folk, fighting against criminal
unconcern, against prejudice, against
shameiul and shameless ignorance.
Such a band has the North Carolina
State Health Board been, and it has
taken just 42 years for these representa
tives of the people to place public health
work at last on something like a respect
able basis, measured in terms of money.
In terms of unselfish devotion, the ser
vices of men like Wood, Lewis, and Ran
kin never can be measured.
Around the year 1880 when the popula
tion of the state was rather less than one
and a half million souls, the State Health
Board was given $100 by the legislature, or
only one cent for every 150 inhabitants.
The healtli appropriation for 1919 provides
$192,000 for a population of two and a
half million, or nearly eight cents per
inliabitant, with which to fight disease,
vice, filth, inertia, and prejudice. It is
the same old fight tliat must still go on
against the same old foes. But the forces
of war against disease are immensely
better organized, supplied and equipped
in Nortli Carolina.
Achievements
Nortli Carolina organized her State
Health Board in 1877 ahead of 36 other
states of the Union. As early as 1879 its
members were discussing the Disinfection
of Drinking M’ater; Drainage; Sanitary
Engineering; the Jdmitation and Pre
vention Diphtlieria.
Ttie registration of vital statistics began
after a fashion in 1881. Its first bulletin
W'as publislied in 188(i and tlie tlie lead
ing paper in it was on Care of the Eyes
and Ears. Eighteen hundred ninety-
three usliered in legislation for improved
reporting of contagious diseases; the pro
tection of scliool children from epidemics;
tlie examination of public water supplies;
and tlie regulation of common carriers.
In 1894 liealth conferences were lield in
several parts of tlie State and the next
year two bacteriologists were added to j
the stafl'of the Board. The first exami-1
nation of municipal Water supplies was'
the first bacteriological tests of tlie Board.
The liookworm campaign began in 1903,
in 1904 resolute field work against tuber
culosis got under way,' followed in 1907
by the foundation of the State Tubercu
losis Sanatorium.
The ten memorable years beginning
with 1909 produced so much tliat was
eflective in legislative enactment., in edu
cation, in disease eradication, and in
general health improvement tliat North
Oarrlina today enjoys positive distinction
in the health columns of the United
States. Collection of vital statistics,
public water company regulation and
supervision, whole-time town and county
health officers, free diphtheria anti-toxin,
the State Health Bulletin with 50,000
readers monthly, persistent liookworm
eradication, county boards of healtli, in
clusion in the United States registration
area—these are but a few' of the activities
of the Board during this period.
The death rate has been steadily beaten
down, the physical stamina of the people
has been patiently built up, and now the
people speaking through their legislators
have agreed to spend nearly eiglit cents
per inhabitant in behalf of health and
high courage in North Carolina.
War-Time Lessons
A’et what was it, one may ask, that
made the legislature of this year so ■ gen
erous? AA’as it the well-being of the
people? Al’as it their complete freedom
from all the ills the flesh is heir to? AA’'as
it pride in the upstanding physical qual
ities of the men and women of the State?
Two facts must deny any such com
fortable assumption. The first we find
in the revelations of the draft boards.
Thirty-eight young men out of every
hundred were refused admission to the
army for physical reasons—-young men
whose age should have insured tlie most
robust health. The second was tlie in
fluenza epidemic with its hideous toll of
deatli. There were nearly one million
cases in North Carolina alone, says Dr.
Rankin, and nearly fourteen thousand
deaths. These are two stubborn facts
that showed the weakness of our defenses
against disease and death. Showed us,
too, that we must about-face and build
up still better breastw'orks of health be
hind w'hich to tight the battle of life.
Two other factors lent their aid in
helping tlie State Health Board to put its
program across; one was the showing of
eflective service it was able to make, and
tlie otlier was the now almost irresistible
social trend toward better health condi
tions for all the people.
The war lias done one thing for Imman
kind wliicli may well find mention
has broken down at last tlie immemorial
silence between men and women about
tlie diseases of vice. And it is a pleasure
to say that it was largely through the
sweet and womanly courage of Mrs
Josephus Daniels, who chose this for her
subject last May at the National U. D. 0.
Convention in Cliattanooga. Her frank
ness and bravery liave spread everywhere,
we think, and certainly througliout the
Soutli. All of a sudden women find that
they have always wanted to say tliat they
abhorred the double standard. All of a
sudden they see tliat it is as mucli their job
to try to get a single standard as it ever
was their part to sliare in any of the
business of living. AA'omen of two gen
erations are now keenly aware of limita
tions in tlieir physical inheritance; they
Our Public Hospitals
Eiglity private, semi-public, and public
liospitals in 45 cities and towns of Nortli
Carolina minister to the ills of tw'o and a
half million people. These hospitals are
private, church, fraternal, city, county
or state institutions. Mainly they are
private and semi-public. Not counting
our state institutions of benevolence only
four of these are completely public.
Altogether these 80 hospitals contain
less than 6,000 beds. AVhen tlie hospital
beds for two and a half million people
number fewer than 6,000 all told, it will
be seen tliat North Carolina lias still
long way to go in liospital facilities, es
pecially in hospital facilties that are pub
lic.
In 1916 the number of hospital cases
treated was around 30,000. The waiting
lists were enormous, particularly in the
state insane hospitals where hundreds
were kept out for lack of room. In his
report for 1918 Dr. Albert Anderson, of
the Raleigii Hospital, speaks of the pity
and very great menace of this bed short
age. He says that in many instances
acute but curable cases of insanity are
made clironie and incurable because the
time element plays such a vital part with
these patients.
In the state-at-large the liospital facili
ties for negroes are so meagre as to be
barely short of scandal. Usually there
is a free w'ard or two for the negroes in
our public and semi-public hospitals, but
in all the State there are only three negro
hospitals—in Raleigh, Durham, and AA'il-
son and the beds in these number fewer
than 200 for the 830,000 negroes of the
State.
Considering the fact tliat our state hos
pitals for the insane are kept on a basis
of minimum support, it is clear that their
management is superb. Reading the re
ports for 1917-18 one finds carefully laid
plans for sanitary improvements, for
recreational equipment, for preventive
work, and enlarged facilities.
An orthopedic hospital is being erected
near Gastonia for tlie state cripples.
North Carolina is one of the few states in
the Union to take such a step. The state
support for the first year is $7,500. AA’hat-
ever care the Tiny Tims of North Caro
lina may have lacked yesterday, they will
begin to enjoy tomorrow, but the bill will
be many times *7,500 a year as the years
go on.
Ounces of Prevention
A few items in the 1918 , report.' of the
Superintendent ^of the State Insane Hos
pital at Raleigh'more than verify tlie wis
dom of the State Health Board in its
legislative and educational work.
AVhere North Carolina spends one dol
lar for disease prevention in general, she
spends *11.60 for the care of her insane.
Sixteen percent of the insanity of the
State is directly traced to one of the so
cial diseases, and there are 500 such pa
tients in our three insane hospitals. The
cost per patient for 1918 was *230 or a
total bill of $115,000 a year in North Caro
lina for insanity due to one social vice
alone; and this cost is not for one year
only, but for as many years as the pa
tients happen to live. It is high time we
were spending a few thousand dollars a
year to combat the ravages of social sin—
tjiis year *10,000 and next year *24,000.
Ihink of it 50,000 cases of social disease
were reported in North Carolina for the
last biennial period as against 45,000
cases of all other diseases, according to
the Council of National Defense.
In 1914 Dr. Charles A". Chapin survey
ed tlie State Boards of Health, and re
ported to the American Aledical Associa
tion tliat only 11 states of the Union made
a better showing than North Carolina.
But the time comes when some Southern
state must stand first in public health
work. North Carolina stands a fair chance
to reach this proud pre-eminence. How-
can it be done?
Firstly we must socialize the idea of
healtli. Secondly we must make use of
every means provided to accomplish it.
AV'e liave a law- permitting the sale of
bonds by cities, townships, or counties
for the erection and maintenance of com
munity hospitals. Fewer than a half
dozen of our cities and only one of our
counties have established free public
hospitals on a tax basis. Thirdly we must
lielp to bring the medical inspection of
school children into the very highest pos
sible effectiveness. Our backward, way-
w'ard and abnormal children must have
the only sort of care that their owm wel
fare and that of their communities should
permit namely watchful, special,growth
providing care. In his 1917 address be-
foie the State Medical Society Dr. Laugh-
inghouse said, These children are the
future of humanity’s horrors. AV’e must
must not let those horrors be. Lastly we
must have the sort of health insurance,
personal and public, that will protect us
all alike, the clean from the unclean, and
the unclean from their own ignorance
and vice. It is is a sort of sacred, privi
leged promise that we owe to the future.
—Aliss Ernestine Noa, before the North
Carolina Club at the University.
LENOIR COUNTY WISDOM
Lenoir county announces that as she
has bought $2,000,000 worth of Liberty
Bonds, "Uncle Sam will send back into the
county year by year coupon moneyenough
to take care of the interest on tlie road
bonds about to be issued, leaving the
county clear. It might have been sus
pected that a county that could make the
advances Lenoir has been doing had al
ready been doing something for the coun
try, but it is a surprise to know it is so
big.—News and Observer.
ordered in 1896, under Dr. Francis P. ■' are putting two and two together as to
Venable at the University. The same why they have less vitality than their
in I year Doctors Anderson and Pate made mothers, and why these, in turn, had
DIVORCES IN THE UNITED STATES
Per 100,000 Inhabitants in 1916
Based on the 1919 Federal Census Bulletin on Marriage and Divorce.
Rate for the country-at-Iarge, 112; for North Carolina 31-the lowest rate in
t le United States except in South Carolina which abolished legal divorces in 1878.
The rate for the District of Columbia is only 13.
University of North Carolina
Rank States
Rates
1
2
3
4
5
C
7
i
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
16
18
19
19
21
22
23
24
South Carolina q
North Carolina 31
New York 32
New Jersey 40
Georgia 54
Pennsylvania 53
Massachusetts 53
North Dakota ... 55
AVest Adrginia gy
AVisconsin gg
Maryland 74
Connecticut 77
Louisiana yg
South Dakota 34
Minnesota gg
A^irginia 94
Maine 94
Delaware 93
Alabama 494
Rhode Island 494
New Mexico 492 45
Mississippi 104 46
Rank
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
32
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
Colorado 443'47
A’ermont 449 43
States Rates
Tennessee 427
Kentucky 429
Nebraska 432
Illinois 439
Kansas 443
Ohio 448
Iowa 449
Florida 452
Utah 452
New Hampshire 153
Oklahoma 493
AVyoming 479
Missouri 474
Michigan 474
Idaho 489
California 499
Texas 493
Indiana 20I
Arkansas 217
AVashington 225
Arizona 240
Oregon 255
Montana 323
Nevada j 997