mam
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 Extension.
AUGUST 27, 1919
CHAPEL HHX, N. C.
VOL. V, NO. 40
Editorial Board » B, C. Branson, J. G, deB. Hamilton, L, R. Wilson, D. D Carroll, G. M. McKie.
Entered as second-olass matter November 14,1914, nt the Postofflee at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24,1912.
WHOLESOME RECREATION
While students of social conditions are
theorizing about rural recreation, our
country people themselves are here and
there solving the problem in their own
■•way.
As, for instance, in the Massey school
neighborhood down in Johnston county.
We give below an account of their
recent fun making, which is a yearly
'event it seems.
David lived long enough to be pro
foundly thankful that God had ‘anointed
him with the oil of gladness.’
It is a thought-provoking phrase. At
once it brings to mind just a few people
we’ve fallen in with along life’s higtiway;
people who radiate life-giving hope, high
-courage, and happiness; people who like
David were anointed with the oil of glad
ness. And they are all too few in this
weary world.
Tricksy fooleries, innocent, light heart
ed, happy fun, shout and laughter, plays
and games, jests and jokes are good med
icine for body and soul. Ofttimes in
•season they are better than pills and
prayers.
The Preacher knew that tliere is ‘a
time to laugh as well as a time to weep,
•a time to dance as well as a time to
mourn—a time and a season to every
purpose under the heaven.’
Our religion is a joyous religion. Ke-
joice and be exceeding glad, said the
Master. And we dare to say that Jesus was
no killjoy at the wedding feast in Cana
of Gallilee. But our religion as we live
it looks very like ‘a monument sitting on
patience, grieving at a smile’—to turn
Rosalind’s phrase around.
Somehow we have left the oil of glad
ness out of cur religion, and it must be
restored, or the Devil after his wont is
dead-sure to capture and capitalize the
fun-loving instincts of Christendom. In-
-deed, he has nearly done this very thing
already.
Abundant wholesome recreation, town
and country, is one of the big constructive
jobs that the church must set its hand to
with a will. Fortunately the play and
song leaders of the army camps are send
ing four million men back into the com
munities of America trained for leader
ship in social plays and games. They
•ought to be enlisted by the church and
Sunday school authorities of every neigh
borhood in the promotion of wholesome
merry-making.
The evil things in dancing, dance-halls,
music-halls, and moving picture shows
must be remedied by substitution. The
problem cannot be solved by mere nega
tion, in our opinion. Tlie folks at Mas
sey show us flow.
OLD FOLKS DAY AT MASSEY’S
On tlie 25th of July, the old folks held
ftheir annual meeting at the Massey school
iho'use down in Johnston county. It was
: the day set apart by the old pupils of the
, school to renew old acquaintances and
have a good time acting and playing the
games of 50 years ago.
They met early in the morning with
■ old fashioned tin buckets or baskets filled
'with green peas, apple dumplings,
kh-Hckleberry tarts, with an abundance of
iried ham and corn bread, with here and
there one of the best melons that a boy
ever did eat, and with several other com
mon but mighty good things.
Now, remember^ said the invitation,
that everybody goes to school that day
and if he forgets his dinner he will take
part in the games only as every family
takes its lunch out around on logs and
•under trees as they did fifty years ago.
A.t ten o’clock sharp we play an old game
known as round town, using a cotton ball
made from an old worn-out sock with a
-small piece of rubber in the center. The
•bat will be made out of some old barrel
•stave that once held the sap of the long
leaf pine. After this game we will play
bull pen, roly-hole, marbles, run foot
races, jump jim crow and skip the rope.
This rope will be furnished by John
Wiggs. We will use our old-fashioned
brier with the thorns removed. All old
fiddlers (and young ones too) are especial
ly requested to bring their fiddles to
make music, as there will be an old-fash
ioned Virginia reel conducted by Mrs.
Lanes and others.
Last year we left out a large part of the
program as the boys were in the trenches;
and we couldn’t make merry while they
were in so much danger. Mr. Jasper
Wiggs promised to speak last year but
was in France. He landed in New York
a few days ago and is expected to be
Patty on the spot. He is an old Turling
ton Graded School boy and one of the
county’s best speakers.' We don’t know
what his subject will be. We will have
short talks by all the old teachers who
taught at this place, but they will be
limited to ten minutes. Some of these
old teachers are 80 to 90 years old.
Remember everybody is invited to
come from all over the county and take
part in the games, but nobody will win
a prize, but those who are 45 or 50 years
old. We give prices to the best fiddler,
dancer, rope jumper, foot racer, jumper,
jimcrow jumper, and the biggest fool.
You see I have never won a prize and
think I might come in on the last, said
Mr. W. L- Creech who- issued the invita
tion. Now watch out boys, I am limber
ing up every day, and expect to have a
good time with those girls dancing, jump
ing, running and several other things.
You see we leave ofl' the handle and call
everybody by,the first name, Sal, Jack,
Jim, Bill, Kate, Lucy, Van, and so on.
Don’t forget the time, July 25.—Smith-
field Herald.
FINDING ITSELF
The Mount Pleasant Community Club
LAUGH A BIT
The wisest men that er’r you ken
Have never deemed it treason,
To rest a bit—and jest a bit,
And balance up their reason;
To laugh a bit—-and chafi' a bit,
And joke a bit in season.
—Exchange.
in Rutherford county is blazing a trail
that we hope to see widened, straighten
ed, and hardened into a highway to be
trodden by countless Carolinians.
This club is debating the here and
now, instead of the there and then. It
is taking present-day issues and thresh
ing them out in lively discussion. It is
studying serious questions of local con
cern, looking at them from many points
of view, weighing, measuring, testing,
and planning, we imagine, to keep the
useful and to reject the non-essential.
Last week, as we read in the Rutlier-
ford Sun of July 21st, the query was:
Resolved, that there is more money in
cotton farming than in diversified farm
ing under present high prices.
Both sides, says the Sun, were ably
presented but the victory rested with the
negative.
These folks are probably finding that
there are dozens of live topics that can
be brouglit into clear focus through sin
cere debate in community forums. When
local communities begin to debate local
prolfiems in earnest we shall have well
informed local democracies.
Local Debate Topics
Roads and the neighborhood concern
in them; school buildings; teachers’
salaries and the children’s future welfare; ‘
community iiealth and public nurses;
patent medicines; the social ills of ex
cessive tenancy farming; cooperative in
surance of many sorts; cooperative tele
phone service; parcel post marketing;
thrift and cooperative credit unions; home
conveniences and the health of the house
mother; sheep raising and the dog law;
sanitation and communicable diseases;
reading for diversion and reading for in
struction; the country church, its duty to
the community and the community’s
duty to it; the local newspaper, how it
does and how it miglit serve its readers;
community singing, games, plays, and
pageants; country school courses, are
they what the children really need, real
ly like, and can really grow on; compul
sory school attendance and length of the
scliool term; the local Sunday school,
does it attract and hold the the children;
community buying and selling; the coun
try church, is it growing in numbers,
power and iufluence; community fairs
and field days; concentrated fertilizers
and manure conservation—the list of
suitable topics is well-nigh inexhaustible.
The Mount Pleasant Club had good
music at its meeting. We hope it had
singing and games too, before fights were
out and good nights said till next time.
If other community clubs in North
Carolina are having such interesting and
stimulating evenings, the University News
Letter would like to know about them.
They are signs of a new day in country
Carolina.—E. N.
EDWARD K. GRAHAM, JR.
The University trustees in adopting
“Sonny” Graham and in naming a com
mittee to see that every need of the son
of the late President Edward K. Graham
is supplied until he attains his majority
have done a fine thing. We are glad to
learn that the act is not even unprece
dented.
And the trustees, if they come in con
tact with the lad, may expect to be
adopted by “Sonny,” whose brief career
has been marked by the natural ease
witli which he makes friends. Long since
he adopted the University; and at two
years of age he was walking up to the
guests of his father and mother, looking
them straight in the eye and expressing
his pleasure at having them come to see
him.
At eight he is just a boy, unaffected—
Ed Graham’s boy, with the compelling
friendliness of his father. I
He’d make out splendidly without the
aid of the trustees, which isn’t at all
necessary spiritually or materially; but'
the finest things are usually unnecessary
and the trustees could not make out any
thing like so well without keeping in
touch with young Edward K. Graham.
It is gratifying, too, to note that the
boy’s guardian is Prof. M. C. S. (Billy)
Noble, whose knowledge of and whole
some interest in boys is second to no
body’s.—The Raleigh Times.
school year, she stands 34th in average
attendance.
Because 73,000 children, for whom in
struction provided by the state, were ab
sent from school last year, the cost of
teaching those who were present was in
creased $12.00 per child.
Maryland spends only 19 cents in each
$100.00 of estimated wealth for public
schools, when the average for the United
States is 25.7 cents.
Baltimore spends only $34.09 for each
pupil in average attendance, when the
average in cities of 100,000 inhabitants
and over throughout the country is
$51.28.
The average salary of a country teacher
is only $530.00, and that of a city teacher
only $806.00.
Diary land ranks 34th in average ex
pense per capita of school population
(5-18 years), expending only $14.64, as
against an average elsewhere of $22.91.
Baltimore teachers taught more chil
dren last year than they did the year be
fore, and for $30,000 less salary.
Maryland has had a compulsory school
attendance law only since 1916, and in
both the subsequent special and regular
sessions of the General Assembly de
termined efforts were made to annul it.
MARYLAND WOMEN’S WORK
The club women of Maryland are study
ing Maryland and throwing the weight
of their immense influence into the job of
helping their mother state to function on
the highest possible level.
And why not? A proper study for
Maryland women is .Maryland. Modern
Maryland in particular is quite as im
portant for Maryland women as the
modern drama in general.
Although they are not yetexploring their
home state after the fashion of the North
Carolina Club at the University, never
theless our club women are acutely aware
that a proper study for North Carolina
club women is North Carolina. They
are moving into a great concert of effort in
behalf of the Old North State. And the
state needs tliem.
For instance, thirty-five public welfare
laws have gone on our statute books in
the last two years; but they are not yet
in efiective operation, nor are they likely
to be for many years to come unless the
mass mind in North Carolina gets busy
in a hurry with these laws and their pur
poses.
The various state and county officials
—something like 1,000 people—are meet
ing, therefore, in a great Public Welfare
Institute on tlie University Campus Sept.
15-20.
The readers, thinkers and leaders among
the women of North Carolina are cordial
ly invited to meet with these public ser
vants at that time and learn the details
of welfare service in the home state.
Culture for particular service is dis
tinctly as valuable as the culture that re
lates itself to what Carlyle scornfully
called things-in-general. And when tlie
particular service is the creation of a
nobler home state, it is an ennobling cul
ture for men and women alike.
ShaKing up Maryland
The State Federation of Club Women
in Maryland has undertaken to placard
the state with the po.ster that follows.
It’s an eye-opener.
Maryland ranks 32nd in illiteracy
among all the states.
A large proportion of our schools are a
reproach to a self-respecting state.
There is an appalling scarcity of train
ed teachers.
Maryland ranks 33rd among all the
states in her number of high school stu
dents.
While she ranks 6th in the length of
CAROLINA WELFARE WORK
County boards of public welfare for
every county, with paid superintendents
in charge, constitute one of several im
portant measures recently introduced in
North Carolina as part of an elaborate
program of social construction, health,
and education covering the entire state.
Other measures passed by the 1919,
legislature provided for a juvenile court
in every county; increased appropriations
for tlie care and training of mental de
fectives ; a compulsory school-attendance
and child-labor law that requires all
children between the ages of 8 and 14 to
attend school for the full term and pre
vents tlie working of children under 14
years of age in industrial establishments;
a six-months school in every district of
the state; increase in teachers’ salaries
of about 50 percent; and a series of health
measures providing for the elimination of
some 80,000 insanitary privies at schools
and elsewhere, dental treatment of 50,-
000 school children, increased appropria
tion for county health work, and in
struction in the hygiene of sex.
County Public Welfare
It is made the duty of the county boards
of public welfare to unify, correlate, and
develop all the local agencies and mobilize
the whole community in the work of pro
viding wholesome living, working, and
recreational environments.
According to the new act these boards
will visit the public institutions of the coun
ty and make suggestions as to their im
provement and economical management.
They will study all manner of public wel
fare and social questions as they arise in
the county, and not only advise with the
county superintendent, but also with all
the other officials. Not only will they be
concerned with all these questions and
problems, but they will suggest and help
inaugurate various movements of a con
structive nature tliat seem desirable from
time to time.
The Quarterly Bulletin of the State
Board of Public Welfare suggests that
there should be one woman on the board.
The bulletin says:
‘ ‘The women are now leading in every
thing in the nature of community prog
ress, and not only should they be repre
sented on the board, but should have a
leading influence in all measures designed
for tlie public welfare and improvement.
Tlie members should not be selected on
account of their church or political af
filiations, but solely from a standpoint of
usefulness and suitability. When thus
selected they will be recognized leaders
in community construction. With a suit
able man for county superintendent and
with a devoted county board of charities
and public 'welfare, a county will be able
to take care of its social problems, in a
constructive and efficient way, relieve
distress, alleviate poverty, care for neg
lected children, and promote the general
welfare in a way heretofore undreamed
of in each county.”
Welfare Superintendents
“The county superintendent of public ^
welfare has the opportunity to be one of ^
the most useful officials in the county,” •
says the State bulletin already referred
to. “There are certain specific things
that he must do everywhere. After these
are done there are all manner of ways in
which he may be useful to the commun
ity, and his success and usefulness will
depend upon his own skill, energy, initia
tive, and capacity for leadersliip. Every
community has its own peculiar problems,
and with the advice of the county board
of charities and public welfare, the coun
ty superintendent must study ways and
means of solving them. His duties are:
‘ ‘To act as probation officer to the
county juvenile court, if there be but one
court in the county, and if more, to be
the chief probation officer. In this ca
pacity he must be in touch with all the
neglected, dependent, or delinquent chil
dren, and under the direction of the
court, investigate their surroundings and
seek means of protecting them in their
own homes or on probation, or of getting
them into suitable homes or institutitions.
Welfare Tasks
■‘He acts as chief school attendance
officer of the county, and to him will be
reported by the school officials all children
in their respective districts who are not
attending school as provided by law. In
ah these relations he is the next friend of
the child and must work always in his
behalf. He must find out why parents
are not sending their children to school
and seek to remedy the cause.
“As probation officer and as school at
tendance officer looking out for neglected
and truant children he will come in con
tact with the homes of such children.
Many of these homes, and no doubt most
of them, are homes of poverty, neglect,
or shiftlessness, and often objects of
charity. He must know when charitable
help is needed and when it should be
withheld, and other means used.
“He should know of the blind, the
deaf, the crippled, and the sick children
of the county, and see that proper care
and attention are given to them, and if
they are subjects for institutional care or
training that they be sent to the proper
places.
“He will study the subject of recrea
tion and amusement and seek to intro
duce wliolesome agencies and to suppress
bad ones and to keep out the vicious. He
will encourage the establishment of play
grounds and games and aid the officials
in the enforcement of the laws against
vice and bad conditions generally.
Better Communities
“He will cooperate with the clinches,
the schools, and all other agencies and
persons who are seeking to make a better
and cleaner community. During the six
months when the schools are in ojieration
the enforcement of the attendance laws
will consume much of his time, for this
must be done with tact and discretion
and with a view of Iielping parents to see
the error of not doing their best to keep
the children in school. The poor, the
sick, the afflicted will always be with us,
and it will be his duty to understand how
far these causes go toward truancy at
school, and to seek to remedy them.”
—Federal School Life.
WORTHLESS STOCKS
England has excellent legislation to
prevent the victimizing of unsophisticated
people with worthless stocks. Under the
Consolidated Companies Act of 1908,
every corporation floated in that country
must state, to quote a recent summary,
‘exactly what it is, what its real business
is, what its assets are, what contracts
have been made prior to its flotation, ,
and explicitly those responsible for its
existence, who are held liable civilly and
under severe criminal penalties for the
truthfulness of the statements filed for
public record and scrutiny at Somerset
House in London. Furthermore, every
corporation must make complete periodi
cal reports, under oath.’
We have no such law anywhere in this
country. Corporations must make an
nual reports to the Secretary of State in
the state where they are incorporated,
but these reports give no idea whether
their assets are good or bad, workable or
unworkable.
As our Constitution now stands, Con
gress can pass a law controhing this mat
ter through the Post Office Department
or the Interstate Commerce Commission,
or both. In any case, a new bureau
would probably be required to attend to
the examinations, &c. That would be, 1
suppose, under the Post Office Depart
ment or the Bureau of Corporations. It
could all be done simply enough.—N. Y.
Times.
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