The news in this publica
tion is released lor the press on
receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
AUUGST 6,1919
CHAPEL HHJ. N. C.
VOL. V, NO. 37
Bdltorial Board ■ E. 0. Branson, J. G, deB. Hamilton, L, R. Wilson, D, D Carroll, G. M. McKie.
Entered as aeoond-olasa matter November U, 1914, at the Postofflce at Chapel HIU, N, C., under the act of August 24,1913.
THE SUMMER SCHOOL
The registration at tlie Summer School
this year Vas unusually large. Before the
«nd of the second week 875 students had
registered for work. Of these 500 took
-courses in education and 353 pursued
'•work leading to college degrees.
The proportion of college credit stu
dents this year was unusually large. It
-is clear that the summer work is becom
ing more and more an integral part of
the work of the University.
The list of graduate students was large
also. There were 27 who pursued gradu
ate courses in education, and nearly every
department of the University had some
candidates for the higher degrees—A. M.
■or M. S. A wide variety of college and
graduate courses was offered this year by
the summer school, and these courses
were nearly all well filled.
SOCIAL WORK CONFERENCE
One of the most important conferences
held here during the University of North
Carolina Summer School this year was
the Social Work Conference, which began
on Sunday, July 13, and continued
through the following Sunday. This con
ference brought here many of the leaders
in social work of this and other states.
A far-reaching program was planned un
der the direction of Professor E. C. Bran
son, and many well-known speakers were
secured. A large number of visitors were
present for the conference.
Among the many subjects which came
up for careful consideration were: Culture
for Citizenship; The Social Message of
Jesus; Bed Cross Home Service; Child
Welfare Work in North Carolina; Mill
Village Welfare Problems; The War of
Homes against Social Vice; Eural I lealtb
and Sanitation; Southern Country Church
and Sunday School Problems; Country
Illiteracy and the Country Church; The
Church and our Landless Multitudes;
Country Y. M. C. A. Work in the South.
In addition to these set topics there
were many entertainment features. Pro
fessor F. 11. Koch gave an illustrated
lecture before the conference on Play-
makers of the People, and there were six
lectures on Culture for Citizenship by Dr.
Henry E. Jackson, Special Agent in
Community Organization for the U. S.
Bureau of Education.
Other speakers of note were Dr. Alex
ander Johnson, Director of the Bed Cross
Home Service work' for the South, Dr.
W. D. Weatherford, Field Secretary of
the College Y. M. C. A’s in the South,
Mr. Howard Ilubbell, director of coun
try Y. M, C. A. work in the South, Mr.
C. M. Oliver, of the Erlanger Mills,
Dr. G. M. Cooper, Director of Medical
Inspection of Schools in North Carolina,
.Hr. Eva M. Blake, national Y. W. C. A.
■worker, Mrs. Kate Brew- Vaughn, Di
rector of the StateHureau of Infant Hy
giene, andBev. L. B. Hayes, of Franklin,
N. C. the presiding officer of the con
ference.
This conference w-as planned specifically
Jor .social workers,—ministers, Sunday
ischool teachers, public school teachers,
club women of the state. Bed Cross home
service workers, community organizers,
mill welfare agents, country Y. M. C. A.
ssecretaries, county health officers, county
-welfare superintendents, defenders of the
home against social vice, and so on.
The Carolina Playmakers entertained
'the visitors with two original folk plays,
written by students under Professor
Koch.
The Summer School of the University
also offered several full courses in various
phases of social work. There was a^ed
‘Cross Home Service course, which em
braced Domestic Nursing and Dietetics,
■and a course in I’ublic Health and Sani
tation, First Aid, and the Medical In
spection of School Children. The latter
was given by Dr. C. S. Mangum of the
University Medical School.
498 country homes supplied with run
ning water.
320 had bath-rooms and inside toilets,
407 had power washing machines.
520 had electric and acetylene lights.
129 had open-air sleeping porches.
850 had screened porches.
918 had pianos.
1,651 had daily newspapers.
1,516 had current magazines.
2,126 had farm papers.
1,878 had automobiles.
97 had gasoline tractors.
139 had fruit-spraying outfits.
903 Infd incubators.
127 had milking machines.
1,234 had silos.
They found 19 creameries and 28 cheese
factories in this one county.
It is significant that nearly nine of every
ten of these farm homes were occupied by
owners. The farm tenant homes were only
398. Nearly anything worth while can
happen in an area of liome-owning farm
ers, and nearly everything falls to pieces
under the curse of excessive farm ten
ancy—scliools, churches, whatnot.
Is there any county in North Carolina
that has the home and farm equipments
of tills Wisconsin county?
Whicli one comes nearest the record of
this Wisconsin county in home comforts,
conveniences, and luxuries?
JV'hat are the facts indicative in
tliis wise of country wealth and culture in
the various counties of Nortli Carolina?
The county school superintendent,
teachers, and children could assem-ble
the facts in any county in a single week.
The bare facts, whatever tliey are,
would he tremendously informing and
stimulating.
In one country county in North Caro
lina in 1915 we found running water in
only 9 of the 3,400 farm homes.
What corps of teacliers in Nortli Caro
lina will undertake to make a county sur
vey of tile sort these Wisconsin teacliers
and school children liave just published?
A sample survey card for this kind of
County Home 8tock Taking will be
furnished upon application to tlie Uni
versity News Letter.
A COUNTRY COUNTY SURVEY
Here’s a hint for wide-awake county
school superintendents in North Carolina.
Out in Wisconsin the school children
directed by a live school officer recently
took stock of the 3,412 farm homes in
one county. Here is what they found.
STATESMANSHIP AND NERVE
An item in the English newspapers
catches our attention.
Great Britain, it appears, lias rahed
the grant of government funds to her col
leges and universities from two to seven
million dollars a year.
It takes grim grit and clear-eyed states-
niansiiip to do a thing like that, the
crusliing war debt of i-ingland considered.
It brings to our mind tlie 75 thousand
dollars for university extension service
that appeared in tlie sundry civil list in
Congress tlie otlier day. Seventy-five
thousand for tlie universities of the
United States does not show up big
against the seven millions that England
is setting aside for her universities this
year.
The Federal funds that are being pour
ed into our land grant colleges are a
capital instance of the wisdom and cour
age of Congress, but it is time for our
sAtesmen, state and Federal, to take
thought of the universities of the United
States—especially in the nineteen states
where the universities are aside and
apart from the the A. & M. Colleges.
These 19 universities are supported by
state funds alone and the support is
therefore meager. When compared With
the working incomes of the land grant
colleges, re-enforced as they are from the
National treasury, the support funds of
these 19 state universities are small and
the disparity promises to be even greater
as the years go on.
Almost without exception these 19
state universities are struggling to reach
and serve the multitude beyond their
campus walls; and in the South they are
doing it without any special appropria
tions for extension work from any source
whatsoever—even for summer school ser
vice to the teachers of the various states,
in many or most instances. As a remit
the University of Mississippi has been
obliged to give up its summer school.
Usually the field work of these univer
sities is done here and there by a small
group of devoted faculty members, as a
THE DREAM WE DREAM
Suppose we had in every county in
North Carolina a body of closely in
tegrated social servants composed of
(1) the school board with its superin
tendent and supervisors, (2) an agri
cultural board with its home and farm
extension agents, (3) a public health
board with its whole-time health
officer, its public health nurses, its
clinics and dispensaries, (4) a public
welfare board and its secretary charged
with specific social concerns, and (5)
a ministerial board composed of all
the preacliera of all tlie churches busy
stamping every common effort with
the ultimate values of life and destiny,
time and eternity—suppose, I say, the
civic and social mind of North Caro
lina were organized and federated in
this way! If only it could be so, and
it can, tlien wliat an era of democratic
wholeaomeness and effectiveness we
should enter upon, and how rapidly
our beloved state would move to tlie
fore in the new social order that is
even now breaking upon the world.
Man freely self-surrendered to his
fellowkind and whole-heartedly given
in organized effort to the common
good is the dream we dream. Man
dedicated to the state is Prussianism ;
man dedicated to humanity, in His
name, is the last word in any kind of
religion tliat is worth calling Christain.
The Kigdom of Heaven doubtless
means much more tlian this, but I am
sure tliat it ouglit never to mean less.
—E. C. Branson, an address before
N. C. Social Work Conference.
lalior of love. Pay or no pay, it is work
tliat must be done if a university is to
live, if a university ceases to be in daily
vital touch witli tlie state it is set up to
serve, it ceases to live, or lives at ‘a poor
dying rate.’
The situation is hccoming acute in 19
states. England is facing the dire neces
sity of conserving lier universities. And
tliese 19 states face tlie same necessity.
Tiie burden lies on the state legislatures
or on Congress. One or the other of
these supporting agencies must assume
tlie burden, or some of these universities
will speedily be reduced to zero.
ONE PASTOR’S WIFE
We know of one pastor’s wife wlio on
tlie second Sunday in May distributed to
the motliers in her Sunday school a large
number of tracts furnislied her by the
Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.
Diet for tlie School Child, was the subject
of one of the tracts.
The object of this tract is to teacli tlie
people tliat every child lias a right, to be
as strong and healthy as present day
knowledge can make him and also to
point out in a convincing way tliat proper
feeding is one of tlie cliief factors in
health. The second was a blank individual
weiglit record. This minister’s wife could
not have picked out a better time for tlie
distribrtion of tliis literature. It was
Mothers, and Cradle Boll Day in the
Sunday school and she used this oppor
tunity to great advantage.
If Jesus took time to heal the sick and
suffering we certainly ought to seize op
portunities to teach the fathers and
mothers how not only to prevent sickness
but what to do to help their children
grow up strong and healthy in every way.
—G. C. Hedgepeth, News and Observer.
THE COUNTY OFFICER JOB
Most county governments have a prosy
set of duties. To get up a great popular
enthusiasm over a change in the filing
system in the county clerk’s office, or
over a new heating system at the county
jail, would not be an easy matter. And
yet such things are about as near to the
people at large as any concern the county
has. Once in a while you put in a new
road or bridge, and popular interest in
one end of the county may be fanned for
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 179
A RINGING CALL
Superintendent T. T. Murphy of Pen
der County has sent out the following
ringing call to the school committeemen
in North Carolina.
‘ ‘Several of the counties of the state
have had^ the opportunity this year of
getting a woman for all her time while
the schools were in session to stay in the
field and help to direct the teaching in
every school, and see that it was done
right. If for any reason the teacher was
not doing the work as it should be, it
would be a part of her duty to teach the
school as it should be taught so that the
teacher in charge could get some better
suggestions about her work and impart
it to the children in sucli a way that they
would understand w’hat they were doing.
The Way to SavesMoney
“Weare planning to spend $45,000 on
teachers’ salaries this fall in the county
with no supervision at all. Is this fair
to the children? Is it fair to the tax
payers? Would you spend $45,000 in
your line of business without having some
one to supervise the way it was spent?
There is not one County Superintendent
in 50 in North Carolina who is a Super
visor. I mean by that, a man that visits
tlie school, sees exactly what is going on
in the school and stays at the school long
enougii to help reorganize it if necessary,
and see that the work is done in some
systematic way that will mean results to
the children.
‘ ‘You do not want to waste any of your
I money around the farm, and I do not
I believe you want any of your sclicol
! money wasted, but judging by tlie differ-
' ent teacliers you employ in your school
; every year, I take'it for granted that you
or the patrons were satisfied witli tlie
progress of their cliildren. Is it fair to
the children wlio sit in the school six
liours every day to say: Oli well! we sliall
get anotlier teacher next year, wlien pos
sibly you or the good mother in the liome
knows tliat tlieir time is about one-half
tlirown away, the way tiie school is going
on. A'ou do not discliarge every work
man you hire if you find out lie is not
making good, but you try to show liim
wliat you want done and how you want
it done, and if after tliis lie jiersists in
making a had job you do the next best
tiling. Why not do this sciiool work in
a more business like way add see tliat
neitlier tlie money nor the time of the
children is wasted.
Why Do It?
‘ ‘But some one says, wliy pay one-lialf'
of tlie salary of a woman to look after ‘
this work wlien we are already paying !
the present county Superintendent to do ;
notliing? Now, there you are again.
This is the the argument that is put up !
to the Board c^f Education, and if it;
represents your sentiment, it certainly '
seems to me that it is time for somebody
to get busy telling the Board of Education
that this kind of talk must stop. You
can not very well expect a Board of Edu
cation in any county to be enthusiastic
about getting some help to supervise the
schools in the face of this argument
which is said to be exactly what the peo
ple are thinking and saying.
An Illustrative Case
“If an honest confession is good for the
soul, I have stated that I am not the
supervisor, and I do not see how any
county superintendent can be a super
visor in a county the size of ours and try
to do all the routine work, visit 80 odd
schools during the year and write some
thing like-15 or 20 letters per day when
our nearby county of Columbus is paying
a woman $1,200 per year to do the cleri
cal work alone. Columbus is also paying
a man $1,500 per. year, furnishing him
with a Ford Machine and paying all the
repairs, to enforce the compulsory attend
ance law and fill the office of Superin
tendent of W'elfare.
“In order that the present County
Superintendent of schools would not have
to take a tonic for his appetite for lack of
exercise this new office has been tendered
him. Do you think that one man in
Pender can do as much as three people
do in Columbus?
“Bealizing that the county was not
extra wealthy, and never will be, as long
as parents make slaves and servants of
their children rather than men and
women, I oft'ered to do tliis extra work,
or try to do it, for toy expenses, if the
Board of Education would take what
money they would pay on this work and .
use it to emiiloy a Supervisor on trial for
one year. I have not pressed tlie matter
with the Board, They understand better
tlian I do what is not best for tlie county. '
' ‘If the people in Pei^der county do not
see anytliing in this proposition, if some
of them have their fighting blood up and
are ready to kill this proposition like
killing snakes, of coursejhe; work could
and would not amount to much even
tliougli tlie schools might be temporarily
benefited.
A Comparison
“Booker AVasliingtou said that the
wliite people could beat the negro at al
most any proposition in a competitiye
class, but the white man could not beat
tlie negro singing negro songs. But my
friends, the negro has beat us to it. Did
you know that you, through your school
taxes, liave been paying one-half of the
negro jsupervisor’s salary in this county
for tlie past two years? Ask any of the
county officials if they think this colored
woman is worth what she is paid. Per
sonally ] am unwilling for the negro
children to liave better supervision than
the white'children; however, I do not
know how you feel about tlie proposi
tion.”—L. A. Williams.
a little while. A'our great difficulty is
that, altho you are always performing
duties which are extremely important,
tliey are rarely of general concern and
never spectacular.
But there are possibilities before you
for making county government take a
greater place in the affections of the peo
ple. You are a part of a system that
spreads over the United States, with
scarcely a break. You are the founda
tion of the great structure of organized
democracy. The state is pretty much'
the sum of its counties. Of the unofficial
organization—that is, the party system—
you are a particular indispensable part.
The county is the unit of party organiza
tion. What form its policies take de
pends very largely upon you.—H. S. Gil
bertson, An Open Letter to County Ot-
flcials in The American City.
WAKE COUNTY WELFARE
To county Superintendent of Welfare
Childress The Times would extend its
best wishes. He has something of a job;
it is gratifying to learn that he is much of
a man.
Mr. Childress has been supply pastor
to a church near Wendell. That’s fine!
No man can be too good to be a county
superintendent of welfare. He is a grad
uate of Wake Forest, which again is fine;
his new job requires vision and should
be held by an educated man. He has in
times past been connected with the Odd
Fellows’ Orphanage, and this is even
better; a man without warm sympathy
with and understanding of cliildren
would be an utter failure in a position
which makes him chief truant and pro
bation officer tor the county.
He is to receive $2,000 per annum as
salary. He will be worth vastly more or
not that much, and if he deliver the
goods, he can expect to have hia salary
raised.
We are not sufficiently temerarious to
attempt to advise the new official as to
his specific duties; in a general way
everybody at all familiar with the new
laws governing compulsory education,
child labor and juvenile courts knows
that the prime prerequisite of an efficient
county superintendent of welfare is an
intelligent interest in the well-being of
others.
This, we are quite sure,
has. If he receive, as he
the support of the rest of
ment folk, he should be
Mr. Childress
must receive.
Wake’s senti-
able to polisli
and brighten the community’s uncut and
tarnished gems till they gleam like those
of Cornelia, mother of the Grachii.
—Baleigh Times.