The news in this publi
cation is relecised 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.
MARCH 28,1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 19
Editorial Board: 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-class matter November 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24. 1912
LOOKING^BACKWARD FIFTY YEARS
FIFTY YEARS OF FARMING
Agricultural Graphics: North Caro
lina and tlie United States, 1866 to
1922, is the title of a new bulletin by Miss
Henrietta R. Smedes in the depart
ment of Rural Social-Economics at the
University of North Carolina.
Miss Smedes was for many years in
the bureau of crop reporting at tj^
federal capital, and for three years has
been librarian in the seminar library of
rural social-economics at the Univer
sity, and laboratory assistant in agri
cultural research.
This bulletin will be issued in a small
edition because it is a study for the
readers, thinlcers, and leaders of the
state. I,t will go free of charge to any
North Carolinian who writes for it or
applies for it in person. The price to
other applicants will be one dollar per
copy, postpaid.
Miss Smedes’s study covers total and
per acre quantities and values of the
standard staple crops of the state and
of the United States, and the numbers
and average values of the workstock
and meat and milk animals,' year by
year back to 1866.^
The bulletin consists of '(1) a brief
narrative of interpretation, (2) tables
in detail, and (3) graphs for «rach crop
and each class of farm animals.
These tables and grajAs show in de
tail the varying changes, the gains and
losses in agriculture in North Carolina,
for fifty-seven years. They establish a
base line for measuring the gains and
losses in our agriculture for all the
future years. They answer the ques
tion of whether or not ours is a safely
balanced agriculture; whether or not
the state is increasingly in Jjeril for
lack of a well-balanced agriculture.
The approaching boll weevil makes
this subject a matter of critical im
portance in North Carolina.
Some day some fully competent stu
dent of history will do for North Caro
lina and other Southern states what
F. J. Turner did for the Middle West;
namely, interpret North Carolina and
the South in terms of the foundational
factors of economics and sociology. The
forces, influences, and agencies making
history in this state and the South are
life and livelihood, and life and liveli
hood are creative of social and civic
structures. They cannot be ignored by
any man who writes history. The nar
rative of mere events may make a man
an antiquarian, or a chronicler, or an
nalist, but it does not make him a his
torian in any adequate sense.
We venture the prediction that Miss
Smedes's bulletin will be fingered many
times in the future by historians of the
modern type.—E. C. B.
THE CHURCH AND THE FARM
On February 6, we sent out double
postcards to all the preachers of four
of the fifty-two organised religious
bodies of North Carolina, 2016 cards in
all. On March 8, the cards filled out
aiid returned to us numbered 1081.
The tabulations show the following
results, so far:
1. Eight hundred and eighty or 86
percent of the preachers who responded
were born and reaped in the' country.
The city-born preachers were only 161
or 16 percent. , John R. Mott is fully
persuaded that town and city churches
cannot be depended on to furnish the
ministers and the missionaries The
Kingdom needs.
2. Seven hundred and ninety-six or
77 percent of the preachers were the
sons of farm owners. Only 80 of the
1031 preachers were the sons of tenant
farmers. The white tenants of North
Carolina are almost exactly one-third
of all the white farmers of the ' state.
If the country church were effective in
full and equal measure, the white farm
tenant homes of the state would have
furnished 398 preachers. Instead they
have furnished only 80. Manifestly
whatever menaces the country church
menaces the supply of ordained minis
ters, amd whatever increases farm ten
ancy decreases the ministerial supply.
3. Six hundred and thirty-one or
nearly three-fifths of the preachers live
out in the open country; 400 or two-
fifths live in towns or cities; 566 or
more than half of the preachers serve
country churches; 418 or three-fourths
of these travel to their country church
es in automobiles, 82 go in buggies, 66
go on horseback, and 66 on foot. We
have been accustomed to think that the
day of circuit riders in sulkies and bug
gies, on horseback or afoot like Loren
zo Dow, was long since gone in North
Carolina. Not so. More than a third
of the country churches of these 1031
preachers are still reached in the prim
itive fashion of earlier times. The
automobile has come into use by nearly
two-thirds of the preachers serving
country churches in North Carolina.
With 85 percent of the preachers
country-bom, 77 percent of them born
in farm-owner homes, and only eight
percent born in tenant homes, the
church authorities have a problem to
consider in functioning the country
church and safeguarding the ministerial
supply.
The Northern Methodist church is
considering it—forty years too late, be
cause in the decline or decay of country
life in tl^ North, East, and Middle
West the country church has suffered
beyond repair—or so it seems.
With 1058 abandoned country church
buildings in Ohio, 1800 in Illinois, 900
of one denomination in Missouri, and
something like these numbers in othe|
states in the Great Industrial Area, a
campaign of country church recupera
tion is in order. Eleven million dollars
a year is what*the Northern Methodists
are spending for this purpose.
The South has a chance to begin
forty years ahead of time. We have
a chance to grasp opportunity by the
forelock, not by the fetlock as in the
North and East.
When all the 2016 cards are in, a
new summary and report will be made
for our readers.
And if there be any general-interest
in this questionnaire survey, cards will
be sent out to the preachers of all the
organized religious bodies of the state,
in addition to the four denominations
that we could reach with the ?60 placed
in our hands for this study. We need
for the full survey around $150, and
perhaps it can be found.
‘ A SEVERE INDicTMENT
The Charlotte News suggests that
when we come to the conclusion that
things are not going just as they should,
and when everything seems dead
wrong, we might consider the following
statistics as a reason:
We spemd every year $2,100,000,000 for
tobacco; $1,000,000,000 for movies: $2,-
000,000,000 for candy; $1,960,000,000 for
perfumes, cosmetics, etc.; $600,000,000
for jewelry; $360,000,000 for furs; $300,-
000,000 for soft drinks; $60,000,000 for
cbewiag gum; $3,000,000,000 for joy
rides, pleasure resorts and the like. For
luxuries we spend $22,700,000,000. A-
gainst this we spend over $1,000,000,000
for education; $660,000,000 for graded
schools; $160,000,000 for colleges and
professional schools; $100,000,000 for
public high schools; $20,600,000 for nor
mal schools and $25,000,000 for all
church schools and colleges.
A»d these statistics cause The News
to remark further that where one's
treasure is there one's heart is also.
The above statistics would indicate,
therefore, that we have little heart,
proportionately at least, for those
things that would bring about the con
ditions we desire, the social locations,
the political adjustments, the moral
stamina, the religious steadfastness and
all those more permanent attainments
that we know in the innermost depths
of consciousness, are alone worjh
while.
The figures represent a tremendous
indictment against the people of this
country in the mere matter of their
stewardship, a frustration of the pur
poses for which wealth was intended
that is enough to make us blush not
only but to be appalled by the one
sidedness of our heart interests.—Con
cord Times.
TARBORO LEADS
The big thing that Tarboro has done
ia this decade is to set an example in
pure milk by municipal leadership that
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
An Alabama Verdict
What is the process by which
North Carolini is enriching itself so
rapidly that its recent history is at
tracting widespread comirfent? The
Houston Post answers that question
by saying:
A bale of cotton leaves us, and we
distribute among producer, ginner,
country merchant, tax collectors,
railroads, factors and compressors
about $130.
“It comes back to us in products
for which we pay from $600 to $6,-
000. We lose the difference between
the $130 and the sum we pay for
finished products to others who do
the work that could be done right
here at home by pqople who have
nothing to do."
Commenting upon the example of
North Carolina, the Birmingham
News says:
“This state offers to cotton mills
the most attraction of any of the
Southern states in the way of natur
al resources. Cotton must now be
hauled long distances to supply Ca
rolina mills; they use far more than
the state can grow. Alabama cot
ton is going to Carolina to have that
value between $130 and $5,000 added
—and left in Carolina as profit.
“We have a great surplus of cot
ton and will have for many years. It
can be delivered at mill platforms
with no freight on it, and the grow
er can be beneficiary of a bettered
price thereby. have abundant
and well distributed cheap hydro-
power. We have a fine class of na
tive citizenry to work in these mills.
One of the main reasons Eastern
mills want to come south is to get a-
way from the foreign element as
operatives. They are bolshevistic,
ttirbulent, excitable, and seem to
prefer trouble to peaceful work."
No Southern state is naturally
more inviting to cotton mill industry
than Alabama. No other Southern
state has the waterpower resources
of Alabama.—Montgomery Adver
tiser.
has attracted attention not only in this
State but abroad as well. Some years
ago—three I think—far-seeing men of
practical judgment established a muni
cipal pasteurizing plant, and in improved
health and every other way it has
demonstrated its worth. No milk is
sold in Tarboro except by the municipal
pasteurizing plant, It buys the milk,
pasteurizes it and it is taken to con
sumers by city delivery. The cows
from which the milk is produced are
regularly- inspected and tuberculosis,
once a g;reat enemy, is now practically
unknown in this county.
I recall talking about this movement
with George Holderness some years
ago, and he was enthusiastic about the
new municipal undertaking. It has
justified all he claimed for it then. Paul
Jones, Senator, journalist, and farmer,
tells me that the city is going to double
the plant, standardized and stabilized,
and that the Ladies’ Home Journal and
other publications in this and other coun
tries have shown interest in this munici
pal plant. It is a far cry from the time
when a city government consisted of a
policeman and a guardhouse to the time
when a city government concerns itself
with the purity of the milk consumed
by its children.
Health is the most profound concern
of government in this day, and Tarboro
has set the pace. “Before the munici
pal pasteurizing of milk, ’ ’ says Senator
Jones, “we had frequent cases of colitis
and typhoid. Now they are practically
unknown where the city milk is used.”
—News and Observer.
I AM YOUR TOWN
Make me what you will—I shall re
flect you as clearly as a mirror throws
back a candle beam.
If I am pleasing to the eye of the
stranger within my .gates; if I am such
a sight as, having seen me, he will re
member me all his days as a thing of
beauty, the credit is yours.
Ambition and opportunity call some
of my sons and daughters to high tasks
and mighty privileges, to my greater
honor and to my good repute in far
places, but it is not chiefly these who
are my strength. My strength is in
those who remain, who are content
with what I can offer them, and with
what they can offer me. It was the
greatest of all Romans who said: “Bet
ter be first in a little Iberian village
than be second in Rome.”
I am more than wood and brick and
stone, more even than flesh and blood—
I am the composite soul of all who call
me Home.
I am your town^—Selected.
REFORMING THE PRIMARY
At the last regular meeting of the
North Carolina Club papers were read
by W. Barnette and L. H. Moore on
Reforms of the Primary in North Caro
lina, and on Home and Farm Owner
ship.
Mr. Barnette’s paper dealt with the
evils of the present primary system
and its reform. The present primary
law is unsatisfactory and was much
criticized, but not with the idea of re
turning to the convention system. It is
very regretable that North Carolina is
one of the few communities in the
world that tolerate a crooked ballot.
There are ample opportunities for fraud
and vote buying in our primary; main
ly because there is no secrecy about
the casting of the ballot. It is easy e-
nough for a candidate, or some of his
supporters, to mark a considerable
number of ballots and give them to in
different voters. Republicans^ can vote
in the Democratic primary as well as
the Democrats. There is no law to pun
ish offenders in' the primary and until
this is changed, corruption will con
tinue.
The remedy for the corrupt practices
of the primary is the Short Ballot. The
principle of the Short Ballot is: first,
that only those offices should be elec
tive which are important enough to at
tract and deserve public examination;
and second, that very few offices
should be filled at one time, so as to
permit adequate public examination of
the candidates, and make it possible
for individuals to prepare their own
ballots without the help of a profes
sional politician.
The greatest evil the Short Ballot
would abolish is the blind voting that
exists everywhere in North Carolina;
very few voters care how they vote ex
cept for the most important offices.
No state has wholly adopted the Short
Ballot, but most of them have short
ened their ballot to some extent. To
shorten the ballot small offices are
either made appointive or are raised in
importance so as to arouse interest in
them. The leading men of America
are in favor of establishing the Short
Ballot.
There should also be some provision
to insure secret voting, such as the
Australian Ballot. To this there should
be added some form of Corrupt Prac
tices Act, to combat crooks. The pri
mary should not be held so early in the
year, because it makes the last lap of
the race too long and involves too much
expense. And lastly, there should be a
law limiting a lawful expenditure for
the candidates and committees.
If North Carolina is to keep pace
with the other states of the Union she
must remedy the defeats of the present
primary system.
Helping the Tenant
Mr. Moore's paper dealt with the
evils and remedies of tenancy. The
tenancy problem is much greater than
formerly and has become a real menace.
Almost two-thirds of all the farm
tenants of the nation are in the
southern states, and of this num
ber the majority is found in the
cotton and tobacco growing sections.
Farm tenancy is not only a negro prob
lem but it has become more and more
a white man’s problem until now there
are more white tenants than negro.
Tenancy is detrimental to any state
or country. Farms are exploited and
robbed of their productiveness, and
farm equipment is demolished by ten
ants. As a result of the continual mov
ing of the tenant the church and school
suffer, but the children of the tenants
suffer more. Illiteracy and non-church
connection go hand in hand with ten
ancy. The evils growing ; out of ten
ancy are, industrial instability, irre
sponsible citizenship, and poverty. Ten
ants are ideal subjects for the spread-
: of Bolshevistic ideas, while home
owners are responsible citizens. The
negroes are settling and buying farms
faster than the whites, and the stand
ards of living are lowered because of
the inferior mental qualities of the ne
gro.
These evils of tenancy must be
stopped and the most practical and most
easily operated plans for relieving the
situation are: state aid to farm owner
ship; a progressive land tax; an im
proved system of rural credits, a writ
ten contract between landlord and rent
er; the adoption of a crop lien reading
in terms of food and feed crops as well
as money crops; and the establishment
of co-operative marketing associations
which should be joined by tenants. —
W. S. Berryhill. -
STATE MINDEDNESS
North Carolina is developing what
The Spartanburg Herald calls “a sense
of state, a pride of state.” One un
mistakable evidence that this evolu
tion is going on is the decreasing vol
ume of petty local business brought be
fore our General Assembly. In con
trast with this, The Herald says of
South Carolina, “we have a conven
tion of the representatives of 46 coun
ties. Nine-tenths of the thought in
Columbia is upon county affairs.”
What this “sense of state” is accom
plishing in its larger manifestations,
The Columbia State has been telling its
readers through special correspondence
from Raleigh during the sessions of
the General Assembly. Tarheelia's
100 counties are learning not only to
'Work together for big state objectives,
but the rich and powerful counties ac
cept it as right and just that they
should, for the general welfare, help
bear the burdens of the weaker coun
ties. The following from The State de
scribes the Tarheel political psychology
which the progressive South Carolina
newspapers are trying to teach to their
readers:
“The outstanding and the first thing
that I observe in North Carolina is
that the ancient notion that the rich
district has nothing to do with the poor
district is utterly vanished, and I am
sure that the represenatives from For
syth, Mecklenburg, or Guilford coun
ties, in which are situated Winston-
Salem, Charlotte, and Greensboro,
would be ashamed to suggest that their
constitutents should not be taxed for a
road through one of the piney woods
counties of the East or mountain coun
ties ef the West. The big achieve
ment in North Carolina has been the
gaining of a commonwealth feeling,
and the state highway system is both a
symbol and the realization of it. In
South Carolina we are much more be
hind this commonwealth in this respect
than we are behind it in wealth, re
sources, and population. ”
So long as North Carolina pursues
such a policy in making life more filled
with better opportunities for the aver
age man we shall go forward and a-
•Touse among sister states the aspira
tion to follow our example. Does this
mean that North Carolinians are dis
carding the robust individualism, the
devotion to local self-government, for
which they have always been noted?
By no means. But it does signify to
all who are interested in the building
of great states that self-reliance and
antipathy for absolutist government,
either in a state or a national capital,
are not incompatible with common ef
fort for the attainment of those things
that affect the lives of all the people
of a commonwealth.—Asheville Citizen.