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 Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
FEBRUARYs28, 1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. K, NO. 15
Bdltorial Boardt E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J, B. Bullitt, H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-claas matter November 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C. under the act of August 24, 1912
HELPING MEN TO OWN FARMS
TENANCY IN THE SOUTH
^|We are giving to our readers, l^in tlm
and several subsequent issues, the re
sults of a recent field study of farm
tenant homes in a mid-state North Ca
rolina county—for two reasons.
First. Because the reading public
in general and students of farm prob
lems in particular the country over
know very little about farm tenancy in
the South, and almost nothing about its
social implications. In the North and
West tenancy farming is a capitalistic
enterprise on part of men with money;
in the South it is a social estate on
part of moneyless men. Elsewhere the
discussions of this problem have so far
been centered on its economic aspects:
in the South we are face to face with
its social consequences. In the West,
it is IWW-ism that challenges atten
tion, in the South it is villeinage that
begins to approach the sixteenth-cen
tury tyne. The social and civic phases
of landlessness must begin to receive
attention both North and South. North
Carolina is following the lead of Califor
nia, and a bill for State-Aid to Landless
Men of worthy sort is now before the
state legislature. Students who want
it can have it by writing to the Secre
tary of State at Raleigh for Substitute
Senate Bill, No. 18, 1923.
Second. Because the common cur
rent notion of the North and West is
that farm tenancy in the cotton-to
bacco belt is mainly a black man's prob
lem; on the contrary it is mainly a white
man’s problem. White farm tenants in
North Carolina outnumber black farm
tenants by some ten thousand, and in
the South as a whole, by some one hun
dred and fifty thousand. And in the
cash-crop areas of the South a full
third of our tenants, black and white,
are croppers and croppers are a type
of farmers unknown outside the South
—indeed so little known that the term
itself got into the Census dictionary
three-quarters of a century late.
In order to arouse the readers, think
ers, and leaders of North Carolina, the
studies we are reproducing were con
centrated upon white farm tenants and
their lot in life. The field schedules of
negro farm tenant homes in the North
Carolina area surveyed will be tabula
ted, summarized, interpreted, and passed
on to the public if any general de
mand is evidenced.—The Journal of
Social Forces.
stances. What we need for this is
more banks that capitalize character
and lend money on personal security
notes; less taxation on small.home-own
ers and farmers; more co-operative
credit, buying and selling organiza
tions; encouragement of enterprise by
putting lower taxes on real estate im
provements; higher taxes on land left
lying idle and unimproved; and a gener
al education of tenants in the advanta
ges of diversified farming. These are
the high lights of the plan outlined by
the bulletin to encourage poverty-strick
en North Carolina tenants to buy farms
of their own.
All this cannot be done in a day. It
requires legislative and constitutional
changes. It calls.for propaganda. The
schools must teach and inspire the chil
dren of tenants to look for opportunity
to own land. But consider the benefi
cent result. It will mean a better,
richer, and more cultured North Caro
lina. It will mean that North Carolina
can always feed from her own fields
the multitudes of her city workers.
And that will insure to North Carolina
the outstanding and lasting distinction
of being the first state to achieve lead
ership in manufacturing without losing
supremacy in agriculture. Unprece
dented statecraft!—Asheville Citizen.
THE FORGOTTEN MAN
We confess to a certain sort of in
terest in what is being found by the
archaeologists in the tomb of Tut-ankh-
amen, who was king of Egypt 3,300
years ago. But the discoveries there
are not a tithe as important as discov
ering a way to put the Forgotten Man
on his feet in North Carolina.—News
and Observer.
FOR LAND OWNERSHIP
We come now to a consideration of
the business of enriching North Caro
lina with better white farm tenants.
Quoting the University of North Caro
lina bulletin, How Farm Tenants
Live, by Mr. Dickey and Mr. Bran
son, we pointed out yesterday how the
prosperity of the whole state is men
aced by the lamentable fact that her
average farm renter has a cash daily
income of 12 cents for each member of
his family while the cropper’s average
is 8 cents. Obviously,"the only remedy
for that incredible poverty is ownership
of land by the men who work the land.
That can be brought about.
This bulletin estimates that today
2,800 renters and croppers deserve to
be helped to farm ownership and will
by their industry repay the public for
such aid; that they can be settled on
forty-acre farms of their own for $1,-
000, each, or $2,800,000 all told; and
that this can be done without one cent
of expense to the state if the project
is financed not by state bonds but by
debenture bonds issued by an author
ized state agency and underwritten by
the state.
Having been put on the farms and
confronted by the necessity of paying
back the money for their lands, these
men must be helped to carry the bur
den of farming under those circum-
CHURCHES AND TENANCY
The country regions furnish three-
fourths of the college professors and
five-sixths of all the preachers of
America, says Ashenhurst; but in
, North Carolina they are born and bred
in the homes of farm owners} not in
; the homes of farm tenants. There may
be exceptions, but they could not be
brought to light by the research ques
tionnaires of Rev. J. M. Arnette, a
I Baptist minister applying for a doctor
ate degree from the University of
North Carolina. His conclusion is that
j the farm tenant homes of this state
j give no preachers to the churches of
[ his faith, or so few as to be negligible in
the t(»tal count of Baptist clergymen!
We definitely know that farm tenan
cy raises the ratios of white illiteracy
and lowers the ratios of white church
membership with fatal certainty in the
South. Does it also blow out the light
in the souls of our white tenants? If
so, farm tenancy ought to probe to the
quick of the intelligence and Christian
conscience of church authorities and
church members, for the sixty-three
thousand white tenant households of
North Carolina contain nearly one-fifth
of the entire white population of the
state.—Quoted from a bulletin of the
University of North Carolina, pp 29-30.
In order to explore this matter fur-;
ther we are today mailing out two
thousand questionnaire post cards to
all the clergymen in four of the reli
gious bodies of the state. They call for
answers to the following questions;
1. Were you born and reared in the
country?
2. Are you the son of a farm owner?
3. Or of a farm tenant?
4. Are you now serving country
churches?
6. How many churches in your care?
6. Do you live in the country?
7. If not, where?
8. . How do you travel to your coun
try churches?
The answers will be summarized in
an early issue of the News Letter.
THE RURAL CHURCH
Prof. Walter Burr, of the Kansas
Agricultural College, is pessimistic a-
bout the future of the small church in
rural communities. He fears that what
the auto has begun the radio will com
plete, and points out that within the
last five years 200 rural church organ
izations have been abandoned in Kan
sas.
The automobile has taken the wor
shippers away from the neighborhood
church and carried them to the more
pretentious churches of the neighbor
ing cities, he says. Now that the radio
has made it possible to sit comfortably
at home and hear some of the best
sermons being preached, he fears that
more people will be won away from the
little institutions which have been such
a big factor in keeping American stand
ards of life so high, for both the incon-
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
A Drama of Triumph
Three years ago North Carolina
thought in millions; now she works
in billions. What she did in 1922
proclaims her an empire among the
states, an amazement to the world!
In 1922 she created one and one-
third billion dollars’ worth of brand
new wealth. That was more than
three times what she created inl916;
it was 915 million dollars more.
In 1922 she produced so much new
wealth that it averaged $600 for
every man, woman and child, black
and white, within her boundaries,
or, to put it in another way, $2,600
for every family in the state, the
record that led the South.
She is paying back her agricultur
al loan from the War Finance Cor
poration faster than any other state
in the Union.
in 1922 she led all states except
Pennsylvania in highway building,
and all except Massachusetts in the
textile business.
Only seven other states paid more
than she did into the Federal Treas
ury in taxes on profits, incomes, and
inheritances.
She Tanked among the twelve fore
most states in public health work,
and was one of the leading eight in
total wealth production.
She stood fifth in the Union in
agricultural crop wealth.
Her mills and factories ran all the
year on full time; new mills are be
ing built all over the state; and the
new spindles which will be set going
in her territory in 1923 already num
ber 550,000, more than two-thirds of
the new spindles of the entire re
juvenated South. Her mastery of
the world’s cotton business is near
at hand.
In 1922 her bank resources were
$417,000,000; she spent $27,000,000
for new motor cars; she bought 76,-
000,000 gallons of gasoline.
These figures, announced by the
University News Letter, are cold
mathemathics of North Carolina’s
progress in a year, figures into which
she has written America’s outstand
ing drama of triumph! Magnificent
drama! You can feel the rush of
it, hear the thunder of it, see the
shattering of old records in it. And
for its crowning thrill you have her
corresponding advance in expendi
tures for charities and corrections,
liberal learning and technical train
ing—which means that this empire
will see to it that her own sons and
daughters shall have empire over
her, develop her, and build her so
that they will draw outside genius
to labor with theirs in her service.
To be a North Carolinian! Inesti
mable advantage! Irresistible inspir
ation among the world’s most amaz
ing opportunities!—Asheville Citi
zen.
CHURCHES AND FARMS
That the rural clergy might well be
come agricultural experts, and assume
leadership in the promotion of better
farming, was the message of Reverend
E. V. O’Hara, of Eugene, Oregon, to
the farmers of Wisconsin at their an
nual merchandizing meeting.
“The church is called to rural leader
ship,’’he declares, “not merely from
the legitimate viewpoint of self-inter
est, but also because "f peculiar
fitness in helping t) so Lhe rural
problem. The rural past,* - id have
an intelligent interest in tais work, and
in the daily lives of the people,’’ he
declares. “The pastor might at least
be expected to read farm journals, to
attend agricultural meetings, and to
promote agricultural education among
his parishioners. He’should be in touch
with the local farmers’ organizations
which aid country life.’’—Press Bulle
tins, Wisconsin Agricultural Colleges.
THE UNIVERSITY BY MAIL
Closing of registration for correspond
ence-study students on April first was
announced totiay by officials of the ex
tension division at the University of
North Carolina, it was thought neces
sary to set a date beyond which no reg
istrations will be received,, so that all
courses started might be completed be
fore July twenty-eighth, when the
first session of the University Summer
School ends.
According to the records of the bu
reau of correspondence instruction the
year just passed was the best ever ex
perienced from the viewpoint of the
number of students enrolled. There
were 245 registrations as compared with
111 for the previous year. At present
there are 288 active students living in
79 counties of the state.
venience of travel and the necessity of
contributing something for the upkeep
of the church are avoided.
But his fears are groundless. In the
community around Vass thh rural
church is far from being down and out,
and we can’t believe that in this re
spect this particular community is any
different from thousands upon thous
ands of other communities in these
United States. The rural church still
remains the major American institution.
Dwellers therein seldom go to the thea
tres, and to the courts even less fre
quently. But they go to church as a
rule almost every Sunday in the year.
The radio is something too new to per
mit of sound predictions as to its fu
ture.—The Pilot.
NEW COUNTY BULLETINS
“Nowhere else in America are col
lege students taking accurate stock of
their home counties and passing the in
formation on to the home folks,’’ said
S. H. Hobbs, Jr., of the Department of
Rural Social Economics of the Universi
ty, in speaking of the seven social and
economic research bulletins on as many
counties, which will be published by
University county clubs this spring.
“Elsewhere people know about their
state and county in several ways; but
in these small books you will find ac
curate information about your county
and state, how your county ranks with
other counties in North Carolina, what
you have and what you need to have,
and suggestions for making a greater
and better county, ’ ’ said Mr. Hobbs.
A county bulletin by the Johnston
county club, edited by G. Y. Ragsdale
and W. M. Sanders, Jr., is just off the
press. It is a thorough, clear, and
comprehensive piece of research work
with many valuable criticisms and sug
gestions.
Henderson county will publish a bul
letin edited by Oscar Bell, L. V. Hug
gins, H. S. Capps, E. L. Justus, and
Cameron Shipp.
Scott Thomas and LeGrand Everett
are editing the Richmond booklet.
Forsyth announces that her bulletin
will also go to press this spring. Bun
combe, Vance, and Caldwell have their
copy prepared, but may not publish this
year.
These booklets are thoughtfully and
carefully prepared and involve a great
deal of tiresome research work—so
much so, in fact, that credit for a
course in economics is allowed the edi
tors. Though they mercilessly drag
out faults, they have always found the
best remedies for them, and they are
in no sense hypercritical. The advan
tages of a county are perhaps nowhere
else so proudly displayed as in these
bulletins.
The county club bulletins will be dis
tributed free in all the homes of the
various counties, and will be given a
limited state distribution by the De
partment of Economics. Thinking peo
ple with an eye to the future will re
ceive them with welcome. They will
enable many to see their counties in a
new and enlightened perspective.—The
Tar Heel.
worth of furniture, according to an esti
mate made today by a prominent furni
ture manufacturer who has made a close
study of conditions at the show since it
got under way a week ago last Mon
day.
Several manufacturers are reported
to have sold as many as 200 carloads
of furniture during the exposition. An
other exhibitor is said to have received
orders for 150 carloads of his products,
while numerous orders for 60, 76, and
100 carloads were placed during the
great winter exposition, it is said.
Of course it would be impossible to
obtain any official figures concerning
the amount of money involved in the
sales made during the exposition, the
manufacturers being rather reluctant
to give out figures for publication, but
it is a known fact .that they have trans
acted more business at the present
show than has been transacted at any
previous exposition since completion of
the mammoth 10-story building here.
More than 700 buyers have attended
the exposition since it opened and prac
tically all of them have made purchases
before leaving the city. Some of the
largest furmlure retail establishments
in the United States have sent buyers
here to purchase furniture, and they
have bought it in large quantities.
Fifty-one buyers arrived here today
to attend the exposition, and that is
something unusual, the attendance dur
ing the last few days of previous exi
positions having been small. Tomor
row, the last day of the show, also is
expected to witness a large attendance,
and no doubt much furniture will be
purchased before the doors of the ex
position building are closed.—Mocks-
ville Enterprise.
ANOTHER LIVE BANK
Two young bulls, four heifers, and one
cow come as foundation animals into
Orange county. Odell Blackwood, Clar
ence Oldham, Brady Lloyd, Floyd Gooch,
Herbert Hogan, Robert Pendergraft,
Elmer Lloyd, and R. C. Lloyd are the
owners. H. D. Barnes andJ. D. Webb
also own registered bulls.
The Bank of Chapel Hill as a business
proposition and as a booster to our
boys has pronounced itself in favor of
the better livestock slogan of the agri
cultural boys in the high school and
will furnish the capital for the pur
chase of pure-bred livestock. Mr.
Hogan of the bank has a number of
times sought to assist agricultural pro
gress in our county and is very much
interested in our attempt to improve
the cash dividend from live stock by
improving its quality.
One hundred registered,' well bred
Jerseys, placed in Chapel Hill and
Bingham townships would cost about
$6000. They would make an indelible
impression upon the improvement of
the live stock. In the course of ten
years any farmer iu these two town
ships could dispose of four calves at
$60 each every year. Also the profit
from the cows will be beyond our fond
est dream. We could have sold several
car lots of pure-bred heifers this fall.
Rather than plunge into the pure
bred business knowing very little a-
bout, it our first aim will be to place a
well bred registered Jersey bull in every
community in Chapel Hill and Bing
ham townships. The farmers can by
this means improve the quality of the
calves in the future and several gener
ations will give us very profitable cows.
—R. P. Harris, agriculturist of the
Chapel Hill High School.
A FIVE MILLION SALE
Orders have been placed during the
Southern Furniture Exposition at High
Pointy N. C., for approximately $6,000,000
A JOHNSTON COUNTY BOOK
Johnston County: Economic and
Social, is the title of a ninety-page bul
letin by W. M. Sanders, Jr., and G. Y.
Ragsdale, two members of the Johns
ton County Club at the University of
North Carolina. It has just come from
the press and is being distributed by
the local advertisers to their custom
ers. The chapters are, (1) Historical
Background, (2) Natural Resources,
Industries, and Opportunities, (3) Pacts
About the Folks, (4) Wealth and Tax
ation, (6) Six-Year Gains in White
Schools, 1914-16 to 1920-21, (6) Home-
Raised Food and the Local Market
Problem, (7) Things to be Proud of in
Johnston, (8; Our Problems and Their
Solution, (9) Iron Ore in Johnston
County.
We undertake to say that no single
piece of work done by these young men
in their University career has contrib
uted more to fit them for leadership in
their home county and their home state.
It is a most excellent piece of work and
it has yielded to them a value that
be called real University culture.