The newt m this publica-
tioD is released (or the press on
receipt
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North CaroKni
(or its Bureau o( Elxtenskm.
FEBRUARY 9,1921
CHAPEL N. C
VOL VIL NO. 12
S^Korial Bo«rd t B« Os Branson, L, B« Wilson, E, W. Knight, D. D. OarroU, J. B. Bnllltt.
Entered as 8econd*ola8||matter Korember 14, 1914. at the Postoffioe at Chapel Hill, C., under the act of August 34, I9r
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SET CAROLINA COLLEGES FREE
THE SONS OF CAROLINA
To you, the ten thousand living alum
ni of the University of North Carolina,
Alma Mater calls in this her hour of
need. If you really believe that What
the University did for ^ou was worth
while; if you have faith that what the
University has done and is doing for
North Carolina is worth while; if your
hearts thrill with the everlasting right
eousness of the cause lives for—
then rally ten thousand strong about
her standard.
For her cause is in no wise partisan
or selfish. It is the cause of North Ca
rolina; the cause of the commonwealth
itself. It is not the future of the Uni
versity alone, but the future of North
Carolina which trembles in the balance.
The University cannot without relief
•educate even her present number of stu
dents. She cannot hold her present
strong faculty. She must inevitably
sink to a position of inferior and sharp
ly limited service. But limited regis
tration and inferior work mean the slam
ming of the doors of opportunity in the
faces of North Carolina’s sons. They
mean the tragedy of youthful promise
unfulfilled, potential leadership crippled,
the future of a state, now bright with
promise, shadowed and darkened.
The time for decision is now. Two
years from now, it will be too late to
save the situation. The University will
have lost more ground than can be re
gained in a decade—and her loss will be
North Carolina’s.
Never was the state faced by a great-
•er crisis. The issue is simply and clear
ly whether she shall save dollars or
grow men. Shall she hide in a napkin
the greatest .gift that God has given
ber—the gift of fine, clean young man
hood, youth oi the sturdy old American
strain?
Barred gates instead of an open road
to learning; youth cramped, denied,
confined; future leaders untrained, pen
alized for their North Carolina birth-
will the great heart of the state suffer
these things to be? ■
And yera, who know what a fuller life
and a ridier service is yours because of
your years on this campus, you before
whom the doors of opportunity swung
open, you least of all men can consent
that others lose what you have gained.
The cause is yours, your sons’, your
state’s. It is the cause of life against
stagnation, of education against igno
rance. Your University, strong, willing-
eager, asks but one thing; that she be
set free to do her work for the upbuild
ing of her state. Are you, her sons,
content with less? •
Confidently she calls to you, sure of
your response. Now is the day of your
opportunity. Arp you ready for the
task?—President H. W. Chase.
THREE ESSENTIALS
In whatever order you place their im
portance, the following are three es
sentials that North Carolina must have
regardless of the cost: Good Schools,
Good Roads, Good Health.
Each one has an important relation to
the others; to promote one is to help the
others, they are inseparable.
North Carolina has paid for mud roads
a tax far in excess of the cost of a mod
em system of highways.
North Carolina has suffered a high
death rate from preventable disease.
North Carolina has paid a big price,
in shame and incompetency, for illiter
acy.
Our State is Rich
Our state is now one of the richest in
the Union despite our undeveloped re
sources, and yet some of our citizens,
shudder at the idea of taxation for im
provements. Like the ostrich, who
sticks his head in the sand during a
storm, they are not aware that there is
a whirlwind of demand for the correc
tion of bad roads, inadequate schools,
■and poor health conditions. These are
handicaps that no state can afford to
labor under.
The General Assembly has convened
in Raleigh to consider matters of vital
importance to the welfare of our citi
zens and the development of the state.
Members of the legislature will pass
the needed legislation if citizens will
make their demands known.
If you desire to eliminate the present
enormous crop wastage, to develop bet
ter homes, better schools, better
churches, better farms and to promote
general improvement along every line,
write your representatives at Raleigh,
care General Assembly, and let them
know that public sentiment favors a
comprehensive road law and liberal ap
propriations for public health and edu
cation.
This Association is advocating the en
actment of an adequate State Road
Law that will provide for the construc
tion and maintenance of a modern sys
tem of State Highways. We believe
that good roads will remove isolation
and thus contribute to the improvement
of educational facilities, health, and
other economic conditions.
Hermit Souls
The time is ripe for the Old North
State to appreciate her opportunities
and assume her obligations. The State
as a unit has not functioned properly.
She has long been noted for her con
servatism.
Conservatism might be an asset, but
poor health is not.
Conservatism might be profitable, but
bad roads are not.
Conservatism might be politically ex
pedient, but illiteracy is not.
Let us pay a good roads tax rather
than a mud tax; let us pay a tax for
public health rather than an undertak
er’s bill; let us pay a tax for real educa
tion rather than for lost opportunities.
‘ There are hermit souls that live with
drawn
In the peace of their self content;
There are souls like stars that dwell
apart ^
In a fellowless firmament.
There are pioneer souls that blaze their
paths
Where Highways never ran;
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man. ”
—W. A. McGirt, President N. C. Good
Roads Association.
FARM ORGANIZATION
Out of the economic plight of the
farmers is coming a new program,
backed by farmers and other interests
of the country, for a sounder business
organization in growing and marketing
crops. The National Association of
Marketing Officials, which has just
closed its convention in Chicago, took a
wide survey of what has been accom
plished already in this respect and
mapped out a broad field for future
activity.
Some of the principal objects empha
sized in the conference were organiza
tion of producers’ co-operative organi
zations for the purpose of standardizing
farm products; prevention of loss and
waste in transit; better facilities _in
bringing producer and market together;
efforts to improve terminal facilities,
especially with a view to reducing ex
penses for handling farm products; in
vestigation into the costs of distribu
tion so that farmer and consumer may
have a clearer idea of what is a legiti
mate profit for middlemen; adequate
storage accommodations and the exten
sion of credit facilities, particularly
through co-operative banks and credit
unions.
Many of these subjects have received
careful study in the past and consider
able progress has been made in applying
the knowledge gained. But there is
still a wilderness of confusion for farm
er and the buying public because of in
sufficiently developed agencies for rapid
and cheap distribution. Last summer
enormous quantities of garden products
went to absolute waste near Philadel
phia, New York and other population
centers while the commission men and
retailers were charging practically war
prices for fresh vegetables. Such a
situation is partly the result of the
profiteering impulse; a large part of it
is lack of organization in the business
of raising and distributing food com
modities.
Let farmers’ organizations lead the
way in outlining the sort of legislative
help they need in perfecting organiza-
THEGOVERNOR’SPROGRAM
FOR GOOD ROADS
We must have good surface roads
in the state. The main highways
must be of hard surface, and depend
able every day in the year. The
construction of the main highways
must be forced by the state, and
constructed under its agents in or
der to get them through a few un-
progressive counties that will not
construct them, and through a few
poor counties which do not have suf
ficient wealth to justify their con
struction. We have few such coun
ties, but the few make a completed
system for the state impossible with
out state action. It, therefore, be
comes imperative, if we^are to have
a reliable system of highways in the
state, over which the people can
travel at all ■ seasons of , the year in
safety and confidence, for the state
to depart from its time-honored pol
icy of leaving the construction and
maintenance of roads to the coun
ties.
tipn of their industry. The consuming
world is more than ready to support
the man who feeds them all in estab
lishing closer communication between
him and themselves. — Asheville Citi-
HE DRIFTED TO THE CITY
“What attracts country boys to in
dustrial centers?’’ he said, repeating
the question. “The eternal longihg for
variety, progress, companionship. There
are just as many ambitious, progressive
people bom on the farm as in the cities.
Work on the average farm round here
is monotonous, hard for grown people,
and far harder for young folks. We
still have the old routine of grand
father’s time—everybody up at sunrise
and on the job until bedtime, with no
method and little or no system. If the
farmer’s boys and girls leave for town
jobs it is chiefly his own fault. If he
ran his farm with some of the power
devices available today his boys with
mechanical ability would probably stay
on the farm instead of seeking factory
jobs in the nearest town. During the
worst farm-labor shortage incident to
the war help was most plentiful on the ,
larger Western farms equipped with
power, and scarcest on the old-fashioned,
small, drudging farms in the East.
“The farmer complains of factory
competition, and believes that he can
not pay factory wages. But he has the
same opportunity as the manufacturer
had years ago if he will systematize
farm jobs to increase production and
profits. The farmer was asleep during
the war. He lost out by not offering
better living conditions, shorter hours
and more wages when the demand for
his product was greatest. Long ago
the manufacturers learned that long
hours, unsafe and unsanitary working
conditions and low wages do not pay in
production or profit. So be provides
sanitary workrooms, shorter hours,
night schools, vocational training, ath
letics and sports, and even looks after
the housing and nourishment of his em
ployees. Give country boys the same
opportunities, and by special training
teach them that a farmer muSf^e a
manager, a salesman, a cost accountant,
an advertiser, a technical expert and
an all-round business man, and more of
them will stay on the farms and make
them pay. ’ ’
The Desiree to See Life
Why does the city attract the coun
try boy, and is he really better off there
than upon the farpi?
There are at te^st half a dozen basic
factors in the lure of the city. Money is
usually placed first—opportunities to
earn higher wages, and what is even
more potent, all-year-round work as a-
gainst the seasonal work of the farm.
Excitement is another motive, including
not merely the much-blamed movie,
theater, dancing and like attractions,
but the crowds and contacts and thrills
of big communities where something is
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 41
EXPERIENCES IN THE FIELD—I
Mr. J. C. Smith, a business man and
land owner, live^ in one of our western
counties. His home is in a small town
completely hemmed in by tall moun
tains and very hard to reach by train
or wagon road. Within half a mile
there are three or four swift running
mountain streams. One of these belongs
to Mr. Smith. Some time ago he was
very anxious to develop this to furnish
electric light and power for himself and
his neighbors. He installed a plant,
many houses and the few stores were
wired and a moving picture show started.
Right away, however, it was seen that
^mething was wrong.
Even when there was plenty of water
in the stream the plant did not give
good service. Sometimes the lights
would be bright and then they would
grow very dim. When the movie show
was going on the lights were dimmest.
There were a great many people too
who did not care to go to the movies
at night, but preferred to stay at home
and read the weekly newsepaper or a
good book. Very often the women had
their sewing to do at night. These peo
ple were compelled to bring out the old
oil lamps until the show was over.
always going on. Then many farm boys
are bom city dwellers by ability and in
stinct, their tastes running toward tech
nical, industrial and professional occu
pations, gifts that find no outlet on the
farm. City opportunities for advance
ment, with their schools, libraries,, mu
seums and institutions .generally, are
another strong attraction. City com
forts make their appeal by contrast
with crude living conditions on many
farms— compact apiartments, baths,
steam heat, electricity, trolleys, spick-
and-span offices and work-robms, ever
present power appliances to save drud
gery and time. Imagination, romance,
adventure—when these no longer call
the cofintry boy to town there will be
something wrong with him. The big-
scale, way of (Joing things in cities im
presses the country boy—splitting up
work into specialized jobs in contrast
with the jack-of-all-trades method in
separable from farming, adequate cap
ital and equipment for every purpose,
the enormous extent of industrial and
business organizations and plants.—
James H. Collins, Saturday Evening
Post.
Something had to be done right away.
No one in the neighborhood knew what
to do, so Mr. Smith began seeking out
side help. He didn’t want to go to the
expense of having a professional con
sulting engineer. About this time some
one told him of the Bureau of Country
Home Comforts and Conveniences at the
University which furnished free en
gineering service to people in the rural
districts of the state.
Mr. Smith wrote this division, re
questing that the water power expert
be sent to go over the siituation on the
spot. The representative immediately
called, made stream gaugings and sur
veys, looked at the power house and
equipment, the flume, the makeshift
dam and*^ power connections and found
the trouble right away. The curious
assortment of equipment and the un
engineering method of putting it in so
aroused the represenative’s curiosity
that he was compelled to ask, “How
did you do it?’’ In reply—but herein
lies a tale which we will tell our read
ers next week. Likewise we will tell
you how Mr. Smith and the community
were helped out of cheir trouble.—W.
C. W.
RURAL TELEPHONES
One of the latest of the leaflets of
the University of North Carolina has
to do with the construction of rural
telephone systems. It is written by
John E. Lear, of the department of
Country Home Conveniences of the
University, in collaboration with the
State Highway Commission. The leaf
let is crowded with information which
will be of service to communities con
sidering the construction of a telephone
system, as will be gathered from some
of the subjects treated, as for instance.
Planning the System, Poles and Pole
Fittings, Setting and Guying, String
ing and Tying, Installation of the Tele
phones, Ground Connections, etc. Even
the forms of petitions to superintend
ents of railways for permission to cross
railroad lines and to mayors for permis
sion to erect lines within city limits are
given, as are also requirements of the
Corporation Commission, details as to
cost of material and other information
of use in construction of a telephone
system.
A wide circulation of the booklet
should have the effect of greatly arous
ing the interest of rural communities in
this facility which has become a neces
sity of modern city life and which is
steadily gaining ground in the rural
sections. Copies of this and other leaf
lets on country home comforts and con
veniences can be had by addressing the
Bureau of Extension, Chapel Ifill,
North Carolina.—News and Observer.
M. Brown, of Watauga county, speak
ing before the North Carolina Club,
which is this year studying the state
from an urban and industrial point of
view. These small towns, said he, must
either move forward into the class of
manufacturing centers, which a few of
them have been able to do; or they must
by community effort become attractive
local trade, high school, and residence
centers.
Mr. Brown cited figures showing that
small towns of North Carolina were not
only not increasing in population, but that
93 of them in the past decade actually
dwindled in size and 40 of them surren
dered their charters of incorpomtion
and quietly faded from the map, disap
peared, lay down and died.
He thinks the same fate is coming to
others unless they do something to pre
vent it. Country people leaving their
farms do not stop in these little towns,
he said, unless they are especially at
tracted to them and see in them a
chance for themselves and their chil
dren. They jump over them and go to
the larger cities.
Here is the great place for chambers of
commerce or other community bodies,
said Mr. Brown. Membership and ac
tivities of such bodies should extend
throughout the trade area of the town.
In predominantly rural counties the
chambers should be county-wide.—Le
noir Chhmbers.
HOBSON’S CHOICE
If the small towns of North Carolina,
towns with less than 2600 inhabitants,
want to survive and grow, they must
do one of two things, according to Roy
A NEW EXTENSION AGENT
Announcement has been made by
President H. W. Chase of the Univer
sity of North Garolina, that Chester
D. Snell has been appointed assistant
director of the Bureau of Extension
and will begin his new duties immedi
ately as assistant to Dr. Louis R. Wil
son, present director, who has been in
charge of the University Extension
work since it was started nine years
ago.
Mr. Snell was a student at the Y. M.
C. A. College at Springfield, Mass. Ha
is a gtaduate of Teachers College,
Columbia University. During the war
he was a member of the Harvard Uni
versity Officer Material School, and an
ensign in the Naval Reserve.
He was survey supervisor of North
Carolina for the Inter-Church World
Movement, and manager of the educa-
tional service unit of the Y. M. C. A. for
North Carolina. During the past year
he has lived in and traveled extensively
throughout the state.
As assistant director he will be im
mediately in charge of the divisions of
home study and lectures. He will be
closely related to the field work of the
Bureau and will spend considerable part
of his time away from Chapel Hill. The
extension work of the University has
grown widely in recent years and its
new plans call for a closer supervision
of its activities in many parts of the
state.
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