'1
The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for its Bureau of Ex
tension.
MARCH 30,1921
CHAPEL BOLL, N. C.
VOL. vn, NO. 19
EdHoriAl Board • B. O. Branaon, L. R. WUeon, B.W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. BuUItt.
Entered as second-class matter November 14,1014, at the Postoffioe at Chapel Hill, N. C., nnder the act of Aognst 24,1012.
BETTER SCHOOLHOUSES
The University Bureau of Extension
[ has issued a booklet edited by Dr. L.
A. Williams, 'and entitled The Construc-
t tion of School Houses. Dr. Williams
i says in his introduction that his pur-
I pose in writing this handbook on school
house construction, is because of the
vast amount of money that is to be
spent during the coming months in this
State in constructing new school build
ings, and further because the officials
I who have the construction of these
I houses in hand do not have a book to
consult from which they are able to ob-
i tain the fundamental and correct fea
tures about school house construction.
The class in administrative problems
in the University Summer School of
1920 devoted its time to considering the
problem of school buildings, and this
bulletin is the result of the investiga
tion made by several members of the
I class.
The bulletin, says Dr. Williams, is in
tended to be a practical aid to officials
I in their efforts to render the tax-payers
full value for their money invested in
school building, and to prevent the
waste of money building unfit houses.
All the practical features of a building
are taken up, and the handbook is full
I of good sound advice on all those of
building. Dr. Williams says in closing
his introduction, ‘ ‘Our hope is that it
1 may help to prevent waste of public
funds during those months before us
when we shall be constructing new tem
ples of democracy.’’—The Tar Heel.
COUNTRY TELEP^iONES
Requests for copies of the recent leaf-
|let written by John H. Lear, entitled
The Construction of Rural Telephone
Lines, have been pouring into the Bu
reau of Country Home Comforts and
Conveniences from all parts of the coun
try. Some have arrived from telephone
companies as far West as California.
Not only are the requests for the leaf
let but there are many requests to know
just how this work is being carried on
by the University Extension Bureau
and the State Highway Commission.
The requests are principally from
small telephone companies but the large
ones want them too. The Southern
Bell Telephone Company, for instance,
wrote a very complimentary letter in
which they stated that they would like
to have every man in their employ read
this leaflet.
Owing to the large number of requests
which have been received in the few
weeks since the bulletin was issued the
University will probably receive letters
from all over the world in the course of
a few weeks more and may have the
arduous duty of translating it into for
eign languages including Czecho-Slo-
vakian.—The Tar Heel.
and the Aycock Memorial Cup. About
226 schools have already entered their
names for participation in the debates
this year. The triangles have already
been arranged also, and the debates
will soon be gotten under way.—The
Tar Heel.
SOCIAL WORK IN GASTON
Miss Beulah Martin, of the rural social
science department of the State Univer
sity, recently visited Gastonia and Gas
ton county to make a study of the stand
ards of living in the mill communities of
this section. Her findings are an inter
esting revelation.
Four years ago the only visible wel
fare work done in the mill villages was
in the maintenance of a public nurse for
the entjre county and a small library in
one of the villages. Today there are
numbers of community houses, dormi
tories, recreation houses and grounds,
nurseries for children whose mothers
work in the mills, and numbers of com
munity nurses and social workers in the
manufacturing districts. In many places
dormitories have been built with modem
conveniences for the unmarried employes
of the mills. Better churches have been
built and modern school buildings
erected. Boy Scout troops have been
organized and there are among the wo
men and girls parent-teachers’ and lit
tle mothers’ clubs.
The greatest welfare agency is the
community house where the people
gather for recreation and social pur
poses, for reading and other forms of
instruction, and where the children are
cared for in a systematic and sanitary
way.
Other bright aspects of mill life in
Gaston county pointed out are the facta
that at one mill forty per cent of the
operatives own their own homes and
that at another 49 per cent of the stock
in the mill is owned by employes of the
mill. ■
This is the liberal and forward-looking
policy that mill owners and corporations
are following in Gaston county.—Gas
tonia Daily Gazette.
THE DEBATE BULLETIN
According to an announcement by
Mr. E. R. Rankin in a booklet called
Collective Bargaining, and issued by
the Bureau of Extension, the query
to be debated in the State-wide high
school debates this winter and spring
will be: Resolved, That the policy
of collective bargaining through trade
unions should prevail inAmerican in
dustry. It is understood that this
query affirms that, in the main lines
of American industry, viz., mining,
manufacturing, building, and transpor
tation, it should be the policy of em
ployers to recognize trade unions and
and to make collective bargains with
their employees through accredited
trade union representatives.
Every secondary and high school in
North Carolina offering regularly or
ganized courses of study above the
seventh grade, and not extending in
their scope beyond a standard four-year
high school course is eligible to become
a member of the High School Debating
Union and to participate in this State
wide debate. Every school that enters
will be grouped with two others in a
triangle, each school putting out two
teams, one on the affirmative and the
other on the negative. Every school
which wins both of its debates will be
entitled to send its team to Chapel Hill
to contest for the State championship
COTTON PROFITEERING
Our farmers are getting around 12
cents for cotton these days. Or so the
prices are quoted in the market reports,
but as a matter of fact they are getting
a good deal less than that in remote
country places. We happen to know of
one shipment of low grade cotton at
thirty-six dollars a bale.
And why? Because nobody wants it
at any price, the buyers say; the carry
over is excessive, the mills on this side
are overstocked, and the demand over
seas has ceased. Such are the current
reasons handed out to our cotton farm
ers since the slump in cotton prices late
last August.
Now the fact is, export demands for
raw cotton were hardly less in 1920 than
in 1919. The shipments abroad for the
year ending with last December were
barely 400 thousand bales less than the
year before. See the Jan. 27 report oT
the Federal Department of Commerce.
There is economic chaos abroad, but
it is dead certain that our exporters are
shipping no raw cotton except for gold
or on gilt-edge security.
And while they were shipping a little
less they were getting a good deal more
for it—upon- an average of 36 cents a
pound in 1920 against 33 cents in 1919!
There you are. Exporters getting
36 cents a pound from foreign consum
ers and paying domestic producers 12
cents or less!
If cotton and tobacco farmers cannot
or will not bunch up in business-like
ways to protect the prices they fairly
ought to have, they are wooden-headed
beyond words.
But will they?
The farmers of one Carolina county
have recently surrendered more than a
half million dollars to blue-sky artists
selling worthless oil stock, fertilizer
factory stock and the like; or so a local
hanker reported last week.
If they only would invest a half mil
lion dollars in public education, cooper
ative enterprise, and common sense,
the county would lead the state in a
jiffy in progress and prosperity.
HOMELESSNESS
It has been said that a man will
fight for his home, but it is hard to
induce a man to fight willingly for
his landlord or his boarding house.
And Billy Sunday has said, A man
living in a rented house and singing
Home, Sweet Home is merely kid
ding himself and serenading his land
lord.
A noted sociologist has said. If
every family had a home, with lawn
and flowers and trees in front and a
garden in the rear, crime would dis
appear in two generations.
Dark, crowded, unsatisfactory
housing conditions are among the
most prolific sources and causes of
disease, insanity, immorality and
crime, both in town and country
areas. Homelessness constitutes a
most serious menace to society.—K.
V. Haymaker.
NO BOLSHEVISM IN FRANCE
Why is it that one never hears of Bol
shevism in France, not even the faintest
fear of its rooting and spreading there?
The answer appears partly in the fact
that eighty-eight percent of that coun
try’s cultivatable land is owned and
tilled by'three million, two hundred
thousand peasant owners; partly in the
fact that industrial securities and stocks
are distributed on a similarly wide scale,
more than two million, three hundred
thousand persons, for instance, being
owners of bonds or shares in the nation’s
railroads; and partly in the fact that of
the national debt of France, totaling
two hundred and thirty-seven billion
francs, two hundred and three billion
are held by the French rank and file.
These 2md a host of kindred figures,
recently compiled by students of eco
nomics, bear eloquent witness to the
thrift-making qualities of patriotism as
well as the patgiot-making ' qualities of
thrift. It was not by strokes of mere
good fortune that these millions of
French peasants, workingmen and small
tradesmen acquired so substantial and
splendid a part in their country’s wealth.
It was by steady, full-sinewed labor,
by foresight and frugality, by the ex
ercise of those individual and social vir
tues which Bolshevism despises.
The ordinary man’s opportunities in
France have been no richer or more fre
quent than elsewhere, and by no means
so abundant as among Americans. Twice
within little more than four decades the
French people have been called upon to
pour out their treasure and blood for
national defense. Have they whimpered
and despaired? Have they turned pes
simists or radicals? The heavier their
burdens, the braver their hearts have
been, and the more loyal!
That is why France has prospered;
that is why she is free. Here is the na
tional greatness that rests upon faith
ful labor and willing sacrifice. No les
ser foundation ever has or ever will re
sist the tides of time.—The Atlanta
Journal.
BELIEVES IN GOOD ROADS
With all its horrors, the war broad
ened our vision in a great many ways.
Before the war if any Legislature had
dared to propose a fifty million bond is
sue for any purpose it would have been
hooted out of power.
We have learned to talk and think in
terms of millions whereas in former
days thousands was our limit. And the
new and broader vision that has come
to us is state wide.
At the recent hearing before the com
mittee in charge of the road bill there
were 63 representatives of that section
of our state lying west of Asheville.
In our remotest mountain regions as
well as throughout the level lands along
the ocean shore there is a pressing and
vigorous sentiment in favor of hard sur
face roads. A great propaganda has
been going on in the state in favor of
permanent and expensive highways,
and it has borne fruit. This demand
for great roads does not come alone
from the owners of automobiles; it is
felt and expressed by owners of carts
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 46
FARM LIGHTING PLANTS—II
MAKING THE LIGHT
It is a difficult matter to g;et a defi
nite idea about the amount of attention
required for the operation of an electric
or acetylene plant if you attempt to get
this from a salesman. Electric plant
salesman says, “Give our engine gaso
line and oil and the batteries water
about once a month. ’ ’ The acetylene
man says, ‘ ‘There is nothing to do but
put in carbide and water and dispose of
the waste. ’ ’ Which of these operations
is easier might be said to be a matter
of choice with the individual; but let
us see what is necessary.
Electric Lighting
In both cases it is a question of charg
ing—for the electric plant the batteries,
and for the acetylene the generator.
Charging with the electric plant con
sists in running a small gasoline engine,
under average conditions, for a period
of about eight hours once a week. The
engine is usually arranged to start at
the pressure of a button and runs with
out attention until the batteries are
fully charged when it stops automati
cally. Of course the operator must see
that the engine has gas and oil before
attempting to start it. The gasoline
engine is the only part of the electric
plant which is apt to give trouble. It is
a characteristic of all gasoline engines
but with a little intelligent care occa
sionally very little trouble is experi
enced.
Most people who have run an automo
bile are afraid of the storage battery
feature of the electric plant. However,
this is a point which gives needless con
cern as the operating conditions are en
tirely different. It is sufficient to say
that the automobile battery is of small
capacity and does heavy duty, while
the lighting plant battery is of large
size and has comparatively light work.
About once a month it is necessary to
fill the lighting plant batteries with
distilled water.
Acetylene Lighting
Turning to the acetylene plant we
find that charging is necessary, under
average conditions, about once a month.
This is first of all a daylight job as it
is extremely dangerous to bring an ex
posed flame anywhere near an acety
lene generator due to the explosive
nature of the gas. Before charging,
the waste of residuum must first be
removed. This consists of 200 pounds or
more of a milky solution of a disagree
able and prevading odor which is
rather mean to handle by hand. The
operation of charging is made much
more convenient by having water piped
to the generator and by having a drain
to carry off the waste. When the waste
has been disposed of then'a quantity of
carbide and water is put in the genera
tor. The operator can then forget
about the generator for a whole month,
at the end of which it will be necessary
to repeat the operation.—W. C. W.
and wagons.
The facility of getting about and of
easy transportation for our products is
the crying need of the times. Good
roads will mean good churches, good
schools, good neighborhoods. They will
do more than anything else to suppress
blind tigers and general disorderliness.
They will promote everything that is
good and become a prime factor in sup
pressing everything that is evil. Our
people have seen the point and under
stand; hence their willingness, aye their
eagerness, to shoulder the great load
the Legislature is about to lay on 6ur
backs.
The people understand the principle
that it is some times the highest econ
omy to spend money wisely and judi
ciously, and with a lavish hand. We
are amazed to find the sentiment so
strong and so general in favor of this
prodigious expenditure of the public
funds for any object whatsoever.
And we have no doubt that the pas
sage of this bill, which now seems a
certainty, will mark a new era in the
material and moral progress of the
state.—Charity and Children.
THE N. C. CLUB
North Carolina cities are steadily
drifting away from the aldermanic
form of city government in the direc
tion of the commission form, the city
manager form, or a combination of the
two, according to a report made to
night to the North Carolina Club at
the University of North Carolina by
P. A. Reavis, Jr., of Louisburg.
As to the proper choice among these
three kinds of government, Mr. Reavis
thought Tar Heel cities with more
than 10,000 inhabitants would find the
combination of the commission form
and the city manager form best suited
for their needs and he laid special
stress on the amended charter to be
submitted to the people of Greensboro
March 1. For cities under 10,000 in
population he favored the city manager
plan.
“The large cities usually have many
industries and an element of labor
which must be taken into consideration
in recommending governmental re
form,’’ he said. “Organized labor
everywhere sanctions the commission-
manager plan of government because
it eliminates the usual S^political
harangues.
‘ ‘The commission-manager gplan is
more dependable in a large city where
there is usually more legislative and
routine matters than can^ibejhandled
by a single individual, but all cities of
less than 10,000 population, no matter
whether they are industrial or not.
will find it more efficient to use the
city-manager plan. It eliminates the
expense of the mayor and the aider-
men, who are usually paid for their
services. ’ ’
Elizabeth City, Gastonia, Goldsboro,
Hickory, High Point, Morganton, More-
head City, Tarboro, and Thomasville
were cited as city-manager cities in
North Carolina. Kinston, said Mr.
Reavis, is threshing the plan out
before its aldermanic council, with
the expectation of putting the question
to the people at a near date, Durham
is considering the matter at its alder
manic meetings, and Greensboro sub
mits its amended charter to the people
March 1.
In discussion at the club meeting it
developed that nearly all larger cities
in North Carolina had abandoned the
aldermanic plan, “No single move
ment in the whole domain of municipal
affairs has had such rapid and wide
spread growth as the commission form
of government in American cities,”
said Mr. Reavis. — Lenoir Chambers.
THE PITT COUNTY BULLETIN
Pitt County: Economic and Social,
is the title of a Bulletin which has been
gotten out by the Pitt County Club with
the help of Professors E. C. Branson
and S. H. Hobbs, Jr., of the Rural So
cial Science Department. It is now at
Prof. Branson’s office ready for distri
bution.
The Bulletin contains about eighty
pages, and as the name implies is an
Economic and Social Survey of the
County.
It is the ninth publication of the kind
to be printed here by the County Clubs.
S. 0. Worthington is Editor-in-Chief,
and he was aided in his compilation by
by M. B. Prescott, J. V. Perkins, J. H.
Spain, J. S. Moore, S. J. Husketh, and
I. M. Little.
There are eleven chapters in the bul
letin, covering the Historical Back
ground of the County, Natural Resour
ces, Industries and Opportunities, Facts
about the Folks, Wealth and Taxation,
Farm Conditions and Practices, the three
Leading Towns: Greenville, Farmville,
Ayden, Home Raised Food and The Lo
cal Market Problem, the Rural Schools,
Things to be proud of, and County
Problems and their Solutions.
The Department of Rural Social Sci
ence can quote prices on Bulletins of
this kind to all County Clubs interested
in getting them out. Work of this kind
deserves high commendation, and the
County Clubs would be a real power if
they would undertake more often enter
prises of this or a similar nature.—The
Tar Heel.
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