The news in this publica-
j lion is released for the press on
feceipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS
TTER
Publbhed weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
DECEMBER 1, 1920
CHAPEL HHJL N. C.
VOL vn, NO. 4
Editorial Board i B. Cs Branson, Lt, R. Wilson, E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt.
Entertid as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the Postofflce at Chapel Hill, N* C., under the act of August 24, 1913.
A STUDENT BODY CRUSADE
The' students of the University of
>Iorth Carolina have started a campaign
tojtell the people of the state the condi
tions under which they are forced to
live because of overcrowded dormitories
and inadequate eating facilities. The
biggest and most serious-minded mass
mOeting of the year was held last week,
aird one thousand of them resolved that
if living conditions, which were charac
terized by student speakers as unfit for
mOn, were-to be bettered, it would be
by the efforts of the students them-
selves.
They gave a thundering vote of unan-
iinvas approval to a program of what
they called “Giving the people of North
Carolina the facts”, as outlined by their
student campus cabinet, and they pre
pared and voted again unanimously to
•send a message to the people stating
their case.
‘ ‘As part of the large company of
your sous and daughters who today
crowd the colleges of North Carolina,
we wish to face facts with you”, said
this message, the adoption of which
was moved by E. E. Rives, of Greens
boro. “The main fact is that our pub
lic schools are turning out graduates in
far larger numbers than the colleges of
the state can take care of in any decent
way. More than 3,000 will graduate
from the high schools next spring. Even :
now students eat in shifts in Chapel
Hill boarding houses and are packed
three and four in a room in the dormi
tories. Our congestion here is but rep- i
resentative of the congestion in all the
North Carolina Colleges. j
“We present these facts to you with ,
their simple story of the present urgent
intfed of room in which to eat, sleep, and
study. We hope that the churches will
build more buildings at the denomina
tional colleges and that the state will
build more buildings at the state col-
eges.
“The main fact is aot our present
congestion, criticai as that is in fact
and significance. The larger caacern is
to make room for the bays aad gkls j
who even now are treasuriag in their
hoarts the hope of going to college in
North Carolina. With belief ia her
greatness we trust that North Carolina
Wll not close the door in their faces.
|?l‘'We send this message of hope to
^ people of North Carolina with con
sent faith that the people, armed with
the facts, will rise up to meet a big
.'jpfoblem in a big way. ’ ’
|The student body has not been so
^rred in many years as it has become
over its present overcrowded condition,
iwid last week’s meeting, arising spon
taneously from the students and backed
by the leading men in college took on
the character of a crusade.
Iw. R. Berryhill, of Charlotte, presi
dent of the senior class, John H. Kerr,
Jr., of Warrenton, chairman of thecam-
pis cabinet, T. C. Taylor, editor of the
Cm-olina Magazine, W. H. Bobbitt, of
Charlotte, and B. C. Brown, of Onslow
County, all prominent seaiors, led the
discussion.—Lenoir Chambers.
COUNTRYSIDE CAROLINA
The open-country dwellers of North
'.Carolina, as disclosed by the 1620 cen
sus, number 1,826,682. These are the
people who dwell for the most part in
solitary farmsteads, outside incorporated
cifies, towns, and villages of any sort
or size whatsoever, and fewer than eight
, fiteilies to the square mile the state
over.
>^4^ur country population has not de
based in North Carolina during the
last ten years. On the contrary, we
have 167,000 more country people in 1920
than in 1910. Seventy-one of every 100
in Carolina live in the open country.
But our 67 census-size cities grew, so
rapidly in population that we have rela
tively fewer people in the country now
than we had ten years ago. The ratio
has therefore dropped to 71 percent of
the total population.
jOne of our counties. New Hanover,
is [certainly excessively urban. More
■‘^an four-fifths of all the people of this
^junty live in Wilmington alone. Here
'we have a soeial situation like that of
three of the New England states, and
along with it many of the same perplex
ing problems of life and livelihood,
jin two of our counties, Forsyth and
Mecklenburg; barely more than a third
of the people are country dwellers.
Nearly two-thirds of the entire popula
tion of these two counties dwell in Win
ston-Salem and Charlotte; which is to
say, the city populations outnumber the
country populations two to one. It is
not necessarily a dangerous ratio. A
country population representing one-
third of the total can produce sufficient
existence necessities for nearby city
consumers, provided the farm systems
are well balanced and the farms large
enough for the profitable use of labor-
saving machinery, and provided further
that the cities are wise enough to pro
vide market arrangements, convenien
ces, and facilities for handling local
farm products with fair prices and prof
its for the farmers. Otherwise, this
ratio of city and countryside populations
becomes menacing.
The populations are more safely bal-
aaced in eight counties, where farm
and city populations are just half and
half. These counties are Durham, Row
an, Pasquotank, Gaston, Craven, Bun
combe, Carteret, and Guilford.
Excessive Ruralism
The state over, 71 people in every 100
in North Carolina live out in the open-
country. These are the people who are
producing existence necessities for city
consumers and raw materials for manu
facture in general.
The local consumers of these products
in North Carolina number all told 730,-
000. They are the dwellers in our cities
and small towns. The simple fact is,
we have too many producers and too
few consumars in North Carolina. We
have more than 800,000 farmers in this
state, cultivating barely more than
8,000,000 acres. In Iowa there are 300,000
farmers, but they cultivate 27,000,OQO
acres.
These facts indicate that for the state
as a whole the cityward drift is a drift
in the right direction and the net result
a better balanced civilization. The coun
try regions suffer, to be sure, when the
alert and aspiring move away into the
cities for better school and church ad
vantages and better business opportu-
aities. Loss of population means fewer
people to the square mile in our country
regions and fewer leaders in church and
school communities. If decreasing farm
labor in 64 counties of the state forces
a change in farm syucems from hand-
labor to machine farming, and from
single-crop to many-crop husbandry with
an enormous increase in domestic ani
mals, then our agriculture will be dis
tinctly improved. But if these counties
are not equal to a readjustment of this
sort, then we shall have a tremendous
increase of wilderness acres that already
number twenty-two million in North Ca
rolina.
And if our 414 little towns could be
come aggressive, stimulating centers of
farm village life, then the countryside
would make another great move up
ward.
Elsewhere in this issue we present a
table by Mr. J. B. Douglass, of Winston-
Salem, who ranks the counties of the
state according to the ratio of open-
country dwellers to total populations.
His particular purpose in this study was
to discover whether or not the 16 coun
ties that actually lost population during
the last ten years and the 48 counties
that suffered retarded increases were
excessively rural.
The conclusion is plainer than print.
The more rural a county is the surer it
is either to lose population or to gain in
population so little as to depress and
discourage life and enterprise. There
are 70 counties in North Carolina in
which three-fourths or more of all the
people live out in the open country. In
63 of these counties four-fifths or more
of all the people are open-country dwell
ers; in 11 of these counties nine-tenths
or more; and in 3 of these counties,
Yancey, Gates, and Currituck, the en
tire population is rural. In these three
counties there is not a single incorpo
rated town of any sort or size whatso
ever.
Shipping the Small Towns
These are the counties out of which
the country people have been moving
most rapidly during the last ten years.
And when country people move, they
move as a rule not into the little nearby
towns but into the larger cities, where
GOOD CITIZENSHIP
L. B. Kneipp
Good citizenship is the subordina
tion of one’s desires and inclinations
to the common good, the faithful
observance of just laws and ordi
nances, the acceptance of the duties
and obligations of citizenship as well
as its advantages and its protection,
loyalty to one’s family, one’s city,
one’s state, and one’s Nation.
life is brisker and opportunities more
numerous. So it is in North Carolina
and so it is the United States over.
The population drift spells the doom of
the little towns unless (1) they have the
enterprise to establish industrial plants
or (2) the public spirit to become the
most beautiful and attractive residence
places on the face of the globe.
Some of our small towns are wisely
doing this, and Oxford is a conspicuous
illustration. There miy be others, we
hope there are in North Carolina.
Meantime 93 or nearly a fourth of all
our little towns actually decreased in
population, while 40 others surrendered
their charters of incorporation and fa
ded from the map.
It is a solemn warning to men of prop
erty and influence in the little country
towns of North Carolina.
BOOKS SHOULD BE AUDITED
There has been some discussion about
auditing the books of our county and all
accounting officers.
That this should be done is a matter
of simple justice to our public servants
as well as the taxpayers. It will be
done some time and it appears that it
should be done while those who have
been in office for a long time can render
some assistance. We feel no hesitancy
in saying that for many years no county
has had better officer's, but this is no
reason why there should not be an oc
casional audit of the public accounts.
There has been no complete audit in
Northampton within the recollection of
the oldest people now living.
For some time all our county officers
have been on a salary basis and not one
person in a thousand knows whether
the county is losing or gaining by this
change. The public should know the
facts.—The Roanoke-Chowan Times.
THE FALL OF NATIONS
Discussing the Fall of Nations, George
'Woodruff calls attention to the fact that
history is made up of the story of a suc
cession of nations, each of which has
gradually grown strong, has attained
maturity, has caught a disease and died.
The disease was overcrowded cities and
rural decay.
If America is to remain the dominant
nation of the world, it must be through
a system of home-owning and not of
tenantry. Some argue that industrial
working people will not be content to
live in the country. This would not be
true if a properly organized system
were established, offering an opportu
nity to such people to purchase homes
to be sold on terms that they could meet.
These people then become home-owners,
and their offspring add to the citizen
ship and virility of the nation.
Engineers and architects should vie
with one another in makingplans for com
fortable, attractive homes in suburban
country areas, economically constructed
and maintained, with streets, lights, a
sewerage system and so on, in units to
accommodate 25,000 to 50,000 people.
There are millions of idle acres with
in less than one . hour’s ride from the
center of New York that could be made
into one and two-acre homes under a
ten-year payment plan. An acre home
with a thrifty wife and healthy children
will supply eggs and fresh vegetables
for the family, with a winter surplus of
potatoes, cabbage, carrots, etc., and
with all the home comforts at a less
construction cost per family than the
same family can be accommodated in
city tenement-houses.
ft-ovide a way for the thrifty tene
ment element to get out of their pres
ent environment and to procure a home
adjacent to New York and see how they
will take to it.
A plan creating a five and a half per
cent bond would become popular wnen
it is known that its purpose is to meet
a national emergency, the underlying
principle of which being to conserve
the nation’s future and to safeguard
life and individual property of people
both of moderate means and wealth.
Tenement-house building under pres
ent conditions is a dangerous make
shift.
Rural home building means a perma
nent, contented citizenship.—B. F. Yoak
um, in a letter to the Housing Com
mittee of the N. Y. State Senate, Man
ufacturers Record.
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 37
JOHNNY MAZDA AND HIS RELATIVES
Most of the country folk who buy
farm lighting sets do so with the object
of enjoying the* comforts and conven
iences of a brightly lighted home. The
late Mrs. Kerosene Lamp and Mr. Coal
Oil Lantern were all right in their way
but their youngest child, Mr. J. Mazda
Lamp has received the benefits of a
college education and it hasn’t turned
his head either. He’s as simple and
democratic as can be. And so compan
ionable! There just can’t be any gloom
when he’s around. We’ve spent a
great many hours, pleasant and unpleas
ant, with the old foTk^. They were hard
to get along with, sometimes, and really
an awful bother, in fact, almost every
day. But Johnny Mazda i^^amp has a
much better disposition. He is much
more radiant, takes care of himself all
the time, and his college education has
so softened his temper that there is
never any danger of his blowing up.
Johnny’s Relatives
Yes, Johnny Mazda Lamp is all the
rage. But he has some near relatives
that are growing up, in fact, some of
them have already grown up, and if you
haven’t already madd their acquaint
ance you sure should. They are servants,
every one of them, and such willing
ones too. You don’t have to beg them
to work for you. You don’t have to give
them a day off every week. They do
your washing, ironing, sweeping, sew
ing, churning— Gee! yes, and they’ll
carry every blessed bit of that water
anywhere you want it in the house or
out to the bam, and they’ll keep a fresh
supply of it there all the time, night
and day. 'W'hen it comes to feeding
them, it’s a cinch. They eat only one
kind of food, and precious little of that.
That food is electricity, a perfect ration
for the Convenience family.
Electric Servant Census
City folks in great numbers have
learned to use the Convenience family
but country folks are only just catch
ing on to the comfort of their acquaint
ance. A while ago a study was made
of the number of these servants in use
in country homes. For every 100 coun
try homes that had electric lights, the
conveniences in use were as follows:
Electric Irons
Electric 'Vacuum Cleaners..
Electric Water Systems....
Electric Cream Separators.
Electric Motors
Electric Fans
Electric Sewing Machines.
Here is a list of home comforts and
conveniences that well over fifty per
cent of the farmers of this country can
I afford to have. They range in price
I from about $6 to $250. The whole list
1 can be bought almost for the price of a
' Ford. Those of*you that don’t have
! them in your homes probably think they
i are luxuries. Positively they’re not!
Ask the man (we should say the woman)
j who owns one!—P. H. D.
COUNTRYSIDE POPULATIONS IN CAROLINA
Counties ranked from low -to high according to the ratios of open country
dwellers to total populations; the open country meaning areas outside all incor
porated towns and cities.
In 1920 they number 1,826,582 or 166,747 more than in 1910. The 10-year in
crease is 9.4 percent, against 54 percent increase of population in our 67 census-
size cities.
U. S. average of countryside dwellers 88.8 percent; N. C. average 71.4 per
cent against 76.2 percent in 1910. ^
Based on the 1910 and 1920 Federal Censuses
J. B. Douglass, Winston-Salem
Dept, of Rural Social Science, University of North Carolina.
Rank County
Percent
Rank County
Percent
Country
Country
1
New Hanover
16.8
51
Anson
82.3
2
Forsyth
35.8
52
Pamlico
82.4
3
Mecklenburg
37.4
63
Granville
82.6
4
Durham
48.6
63
Moore
82.6
5
Rowan
48.9
66
Johnston
82.7
6
Pasquotank
49.4
56
Stanly
82.9
7
Gaston
50.5
67
Person
83.0
8
Craven
.'.... 51.2
58
Duplin
83.1
9
Buncombe
... . 53.0
69
Harnett
83.8
10
Carteret
53.6
60
Rutherford
84.3
11
Guilford
55.3*
61
Tyrrell
84.7
12
Catawba
67.4
62
Franklin
86.0
13
Wake
58.1
63
Sampson
86.2
14
Lenoir
61.6
63
Jones
86.2
15
Wayne
63.6
65
Orange
86.9
16
Wilson
66.4
66
Northampton
87.7
17
Edgecombe
66.0
67
Beaufort ...
87.8
18
Iredell
66.2
68
Chatham
88.0
19
Davidson
67.3
69
Rockingham
88.2
20
Lee
67.7
70
Yadkin
88.4
21
Alamance
67.9
71
Jackson
ss.'b
22
Cumberland
. ... 68.1
71
Warren
88.5
23
Cabarrus
68.3
73
Onslow
88.9
24
Richmond
.. .. 68.4
74
Davie
.....V 89.3
25
Caldwell
68.7
76
Hoke
89.4
26
Washington
70.4
76
Avery
89.6
27
Nash
71.6
77
Pender
89.7
28
Pitt
72.4
78
Mitchell
89.8
29
Cleveland
73.7
79
Macon
90.0
30
Chowan
1 74.0
80
Wilkes
90.2
31
Surry
76.2
81
Swain...
90.7
31
Martin
76.2
82
Alexander.
90.9
33
Lincoln
76.6
83
Madison
92.1
34
Montgomery
76.6
84
Dare
92.3
36
Transylvania
76.5
86
Greene
92.5
36
Haywood
77.0
86
Bladen
92.7
37
Halifax
77.3,87
Camden
92.9
37
Bertie
77.3
88
Brunswick
93.0
39
Columbus
77.8
89
Clay
94.4
40
Scotland
78.4
90
W atauga
94.7
41
Cherokee
.. .. 78.9
91
Stokes
96.1
42
Robeson
79.5
92
Ashe
96.4
48
Henderson
79.6
93
Caswell
97.6
43
Union
79.6
93
Vance
97.6
46
Polk
79.8
95
Graham
97.7
46
Hertford
81.3
96
Hyde
97.7
47
McDowell
81.6
97
Alleghany
97.8
48
Randolph
82.0
98
Yancey
100.0
49
Perquimans..
82.1
98
Gates
100.0
60
Burke
82.2
98
Currituck
100.0
I
.62
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