'i
The news in ihis publica-
d(M) 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.
SEPTEMBER 3, 1919
CHAPEL HHJU N. C.
VOL. V, NO. 41
Editorial Board i E. 0. Branson, J. G, doB. Hamilton, L. B. Wilson, D. D. Carroll, G. M. MoKie.
Entered as 8econd.ola33 matter November 14, 1914, at the Postoflloe at Chapel Hill, N, C., onder the act of August 24,1913.
STATE AND COUNTY COUNCIL
Beginning September 15, with Gover
nor T. AV. Bickett presiding, the Univer
sity of North Carolina will hold a State
•and County Council in which representa
tives of tile State Departments of Educa
tion and Health and of the Higliway,
Tax, and Public Welfare Commissions,
together with representatives of county
commissioners and of corresponding coun
ty officers will participate. The purpose
of the conference is to unify the work of
State and county ofllcers and boards and
particularly to discuss important legisla
tion passed by the recent General As
sembly in reference to schools, health,
public welfare, highway construction and
taxation.
The conference will last for a period of
six days, during which a regular daily
program of conferences will be carried on.
President H. AT. Chase will officially
welcome the visitors and Governor Bick
ett will make the opening address of the
conference on Monday night. Eepresenta-
tives of the State and county officers will
occupy the morning and afternoon hours
and on the five nights of the conference
distingushed speakers from other states
will address the conference.
In order to take care of the large num
bers expected, the University will utilize
its dormitories and dining room and is
prepared to entertain all who may come
at the rate of .25 per day.
The local committee in charge of ar
rangements is composed of Professors E.
C. Branson, L. R. AVilson, C. T. AA^ool-
len, and E. AV. Knight. The program is
being prepared by Governor Bickett,
Professor Branson, Superintendent E. C.
Brooks, Dr. W. S. Rankin, Highway
Commissioner Frank Page, AVelfare Com
missioner R. F. Beasley, Tax Commis
sioner A. J. Maxwell, and Hon. W. C.
Jones, President of the State Association
of County Commissioners.—The Rajelgh
Times.
DISTINGUISHED GUESTS
With letters going out from Governor
Bickett to the County Commissioners,
from E. C. Brooks, Superintendent of
Public Instruction, to the educational
forces, from R. F. Beaseley, Commis
sioner of Public Welfare, to the County
Welfare Officers, and from Dr. AV. S.
Rankin of the State Board of Health,
Frank Page Chairman of the Road Com
mission, A. J. Maxwell of the Tax Com
mission, to their respective clientele,
urging their attendance upon the State
and County Council to be held at the
University of North Carolina, beginning
September 15tl) and lasting for six days,
with Governor Bickett presiding, the
Conference is beginning to assume a
State-wide significance and importance.
The State Association of County Com
missioners in session at Wrightsville
Beach last weekfgave its hearty approval
and support to this Conference of North
Carolina officials and public spirited cit
izens upon these questions of absorbing
interest and concern to the entire State,
and designated official delegates to attend
as its representatives. More than a thous
and official guests have been invited,
but the entire conference will be open to
anyone desiring to attend. Requests for
reservation of quarters are already being
received by the University authorities
and prospects for a large attendance are
exceedingly bright.
The program is being rapidly com
pleted and will Ije ready for announce
ment in a few days. The Conference will
take the form of daily successive confer
ences directed by the State Departments
of Education and Health, and the High
way, Tax, and Public AVelfare Commis
sions, together with, representatives of
the County Commissioners and other
eounty officers.
The purpose of the Conference is to
unify the work of the State and County
Officers and boards and particularly to
discuss important legislation passed by
the recent General Assembly in reference
to schools, health, public welfare, high
way construction and taxation. On the
five nights of the Conference distinguish
ed speakers from other States will address
the gathering.—Laurinburg Exchange.
FAR REACHING INFLUENCE
There is to be inaugurated in North
Carolina this year an annual conference
of state and county officials which should
be most far reaching in its influence.
From September 15 to 20 inclusive the
council will meet at Chapel Hill to confer
and discuss recently enacted public wel
fare laws. AVelfare officers, including
juvenile court judges, probation and pa
role officers, county welfare board mem
bers and superintendents, school attend
ance officers, factory inspectors, county
health officers, public health nurses,
highway officials, county commissioners,
tax assessors, and eounty school boards,
will meet in a five day session. Governor
Bickett will preside and welfare workers
and leaders state and national will be on
hand to direct tlie thought of the assem
bly.
It requires no particular gift of proph
ecy to foretell the good that can come
from such a conference. It means that
men who are charged with the responsi
bility of interpreting and applying the
splendid welfare laws of the State, will
get a common viewpoint, as a conse
quence of which there will be unanimity
and cooperation throughout the State in
executing laws that so intimately touch
the warp and woof of the home county.
It means that men who have accepted
positions of trust without the highest
conception of their obligations, if there
l>e such, will get a new vision of what is
expected of them and of what is possible
if tliey but do their duty.
Dr. E. C. Branson, professor of Rural
Economics and Sociology at the Univer
sity, writes that the thirty-five public
welfare laws of the last two legislatures
have put North Carolina far ahead in the
South on paper. The conference will bring
those charged with the enforcement of
righteous laws into more sympathetic
touch with these laws and with each other.
These officers will be schooled in their
duties as few if any other officers have
l^een.
Again Dr. Branson says: It is a new
kind of summer school. There is nothing
else like it in any state.
The Free Press hopes that Lenoir coun
ty will avail itself fully of the conference
and that each of its official bodies above
enumerated will be well represented.—
Kinston Free Press.
PUBLIC WELFARE
Tlie meaning of public welfare needs
an immense enlargement in tlie pub
lic mind.
The stupidest man among us must be
brought to see that it concerns the curse
of illiteracy and near-illiteracy, com
mercial amusements and wholesome
community recreation, preventable dis
ease and postponable death, feeble
mindedness and its causes, insanity,
poverty and its manifold relationships,
orphan children in poor homes whose
fathers are dead and orphan children
in unsafe homes whose fathers and
mothers are alive, the placing-out of
children and their guardianship, way
ward children, children maimed and
lame in body and brain, the families
of convicts in prison, returned con
victs, prisoners on parole, men want
ing jobs and jobs wanting men; that
it concerns jail and chain-gang condi
tions, poor house and pauper condi
tions, juvenile courts and the over
sight of juvenile probationers, fallen
men and fallen women alike, and the
whole subject of social hygiene; that it
concerns the conditions, causes, conse
quences, and cure of social ills of ev
ery sort; that it sweeps the whole im
mense field of social science, theoretic
and applied.
To build a meaning of this adequate
and needful sort in the public mind,
to stir the consciences and wills of
men and women into activity, and to
erect suitable institutions in North
Carolina, county by county, is an ex
ceedingly difficult but an exceedingly
necessary task.—E. C. Branson, ad
dress before the N. C. Social Service
Conference.
suggest that a 36th law be added to the
welfare statutes of the State at the next
Legislkture, chapter 36 providing com
pulsory attendance for Summer School
Welfare Servants, as they are referred to
in the University literature.—Charlotte
Observer.
BIG ENOUGH TO BOOST
A Public AA'elfare Summer School,
for the newly created public welfare offi
cers and for former officials with new pub
lic welfare duties, will be held at the Uni
versity, Chapel Hill, September 15-20.
Proiessor E.C. Branson, of the State
University, writing of the institute says:
It is a Public AVelfare Summer School
for newly created public welfare officers
and for forpier officials with new public
welfare duties. They are juvenile court
judges, probation and parole officers,
county welfare boardmembers and super
intendents, school attendance officers
and factory inspectors, county health offi
cers an4 public health nurses, highway
officials, county commissioners, tax as
sessors, and county school hoards. All
told about 1,000 people are suddenly
plunged into new duties, and they need
to bunch up to thresh out their problems
with the help of the state department
chiefs.
The thirty-five public .welfare laws of
our last two Legislatures have put North
Carolina far ahead in the South, on paper.
The State and County Council is a move
to put our State far ahead in fact.
It means county officers competently
schooled, a heightened sense of civic and
social responsibility in our local democra
cies, and a sympathetic federation of state
and county welfare officers and agencies.
It is a new kind of summer school.
There is nothing else like it in any state.
It puts North Carolina in the lead.
The summer school for public welfare
servants can follow the summer school
for teachers every year. Like the teach
ers they can live together in the dormi
tories and mess hall of the University
for $1.25 a day, or something like that;
and living together they can get together
in solving our problem of county dem
ocracy.
This thing is important enough to
boost in big ways.—Gastonia Gazette.
STATE SERVANTS AT SCHOOL
A new sort of Summer school is to be
instituted at the State University during
the month of September. It is a training
school for the many county welfare offi
cers who have come into existence by
virtue of laws passed by the last Legis
lature.
The pupils of tills school will be compos
ed of welfare workers, juvenile court
judges, probation a'nd parole officers,
school attendance officials, members and
superintendents of county welfare boards,
factory inspectors, county health officers
and public health nurses, highway offici
als, county commissioners, tax assessors
and county school boards. It is expected
that 1,000 people, who have suddenly
plunged into these new duties, will be
bunched together, and will be helped to
tlireah out their problems with the help
of State department chiefs.
North Carolina is now operating as
many as 35 new public welfare laws, and
it would seem that this gives occasion for
concentrated study, and this school ijwill
bear distinction as the newest thing of the
sort in the Nation, no other State having
started any thing like it.
The institution is to be known as the
State and County Council. AVe do not
know who was responsible for the notion,
or whether attendance is compulsory —
but it ought to be.
If the spirit of the laws is to be carried
out, the many officials operating under the
welfare regulations have heavy social and
civic responsibilities resting upon them.
It is no more important that the public
schoool teachers should be required to
attend Summer schools than that these
people who have the affiliated endeavors in
charge should likewise be required to take
a course in enlightened study. The wel
fare workers should undergo the same
process of educational training that is ex
acted of the public school teachers. If
the attendance at the institute should de
velop a disposition to shirk, we would
i-
HEALTH WORK IN CAROLINA
North Carolina ranks ahead of 36 states
of the Lmion in public health work. So
reads tlie report of Dr. Charles A'’. Chap
in 1914 to the American Medical Asso
ciation. This high rank is tlie cumula
tive result of the faitliful, effective work
of Drs. Thomas P. AVood, Richard H.
Lewis, and AV. S. Rankin, who in the
order named have been the secretaries of
our State Board of Health from 1877 to
date.
Nevertheless 15.68 percent ot our draft
ed men were rejected by the local exam
ining boards as physically unfit for ser
vice in the AVorld AA'’ar. Twenty-nine
states made a better showing. Of the men
we sent to the camps, 8.74 percent were
rejected for physical unfitness, and 32
states made a better showing. These are
the figures of Provost Marshal General
Crowder. All told, around a third of the
North Carolinians called into service—
men in the prime of life—were pronounc
ed unfit to fight. Two Southern states,
Kentucky and Arkansas, eight Central
AA'^estern states, and two Rocky Mountain
states ranked ahead of us.—The AVar
with Germany, Colonel Leonard P.
Ayres, Army Branch of AA'ar Statistics.
The TasK in Carolina
All of which means that there is a vast
deal of work still to be done in the field
of public health in North Carolina. Ev
ery one of our 500 thousand homes, white
and black, must be reached with the gos
pel of preventable disease and postpona
ble death. The Public Health Bulletin
of the State Health Board—and it is one
of the best half dozen publications of this
sort in the United States—goes into 50
thousand homes. Its circulation ought
to be increased tenfold. Supporting pub
lic intelligence in the vital matters of per
sonal and public hygiene, sanitation and
sanitary engineering must be created in
every county. AA'e have public health
departments and laboratories in 9 coun
ties—more than in any other Southern
state; but we must liave them in 100
counties. AA’'e must have public health
nurses in adequate numbers in both our
town and country regions. AVe have a
hundred or so organized under Dr. L. B.
McBrayer, Superintendent of our State
Sanitorium, but we must have more,
many times more. Our hospital facilities
must be immensely increased. Six thous
and beds in 80 private, semi-public and
public hospitals for two and a half million
people in North Carolina is tragic. There
are tewer than 300 beds in four private
negro hospitals for 830 thousand negroes.
The treatment of tuberculosis is necessa-
sarily a Icfcal problem. AVe have at pres
ent only one county Tb. hospital—in For
syth. AVe must have one in every coun
ty, or one for each co-operating county
group. Public health physicians and
public health nurses must be trained, or
we shall limp along lamely for many
years to come, and we must get ready for
such training on a large scale in North
Carolina. Every institution of technical
and liberal learning in the state needs to
ally itself in proper ways with our State
Board of Health, and to reinforce at ev
ery point the magnificent work it is do
ing.
The University Serves
The University is trying to do its bit
and its best in public health service to
the state. Almost every issue of the Uni
versity News Letter these five years has
carried a public health item or two. For
two years the North Carolina Club at the
University has given special attention to
public health and sanitation.—N. C.
Club Yearbook, 1916-1917, and the Uni
versity News Letter, May 21, 1919. The
University Library is mailing out pack
age loan libraries of books, bulletins, and
magazine articles on 31 health subjects,
free except for postage, around six cents
each way.—The University News Letter,
June 25, 1919. The University is offer
ing four courses in Public Health In
struction and Sanitary Engineering, as
follows; (1) communicable diseases, causes
and control, (2) sanitary science, origin
and development, (3) flood control,
drannage reclamation, and malaria pre
vention, (4) water supply and purifica
tion, garbage and refuse disposal, sewer
age and sewage systems, and so on.
These courses are given by Professor
Thorndike Saville of Harvard, vrho has
had valuable sanitary engineering expe
rience in the Army.
The University is also planning new
courses in Hygiene and Physical Educa
tion' calling for two additional faculty
members in 1919-1920.
The country end of all these problems
has a large place in our thinking, and
properly so because 79 percent of our
people dwell in the open country, outside
towns and villages of any sort or size
whatsoever. Rural sanitation and health
are just about four-fifths of the whole
problem in North Carolina.
Rural Sanitation
Farmers who are concerned about com
forts, conveniences, and health conditions
in country homes will do well to write
Professor Saville about domestic systems
of lighting, running water for kitchens,
bathrooms, inside toilet seats, sewage dis
posal, and the like.
The selective draft revealed the amaz
ing fact that the country is not, as we
had long thought, the safest place in the
world, to rear children in. The health
and physical vigor of city-bom boys was
shown to be far better than that of boys
born and reared in the country.
Our North Carolina country people
need to give far greater attention than
heretofore to health conditions in the
countryside. The University ^s oflfering
itself freely to city and country homes
alike, and it will like to be used in behalf
of better health conditions everywhere in
the state.
Public education and public health are
two after-the-war tasks of foundational
importance in North Carolina.
In the appendix to the new University
Extension bulletin on Sanitation in the
South will be found a brief list of choice
pamphlets concerning country health,
country home conveniences and com
forts, running water and sewage disposal
in country homes, and so on. They can
be had free of charge by sending a post
card request to the addresses indicated.
—E. C. B.
THE LEAGUE AGAINST WAR
A League to Prevent AA'ar was the sub
ject of Hon. AA'. G. McAdoo’s address at
the great Alethodist Centenary Celebra
tion in Columbus, Chio, in early July.
It is the simplest, clearest explanation
and exposition we have seen of the treaty
now before Congress. It is valuable ma
terial for speakers on this critical issue;
for teachers, preachers, and lawyers, say,
who ought to be reaching a thousand
audiences in North Carolina on this sub
ject during these critical days.
AA"e have a few pamphlet copies of it
for free distribution upon application.
INITIATIVE AT HENDERSON
The awakening of public conscience
and the desire to supplant vice, by whole
some recreation, have resulted in an ef
fort to establish a Community Center—
a cominon-to-all gathering place, for social
intercourse, healthful amusement, and
for educational activities.
It is proposed to buy the old Baptist
church and grounds, and to use them for
the uplift and joy of the community.
AYe look to the time when the community
center will be equipped with a library,
reading room, a gymnasium, shower baths
and swimming pool, and all sorts of equip
ments for wholesome, tonic recreation.
AVe ask the support and cooperation of
every person who wishes a cleaner and
better town—a righteous, happy and
intelligent community.
Let us have the best, the most thorough,
and the most sane efi'ort to make our town
what it should be. Do not say. It can’t
be done. For that is the argument of indo
lence. Say rather. Is it worth while, and
am I willing to help?
It can be done if we will pull together,
and if we will have both grace and grit
to persevere.
Let us test the efficacy of the advice,
Cvercome evil with good,—Henderson
Dispatch.