The news in this publi
cation is reieased 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.
APRIL 4, 1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 20
rial Boardj 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 PostofBce at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24, 1912
AMAZING DIVORCE RATES
When compared with the number of
iparriageB there are fewer divorces in
North Carolina than in any other state
in the Union, South Carolina alone ex
cepted.
For every thirty-nine marriages we
have one divorce. Which is a showing
bad enough to keep our interest alive
in this important matter.
Butin Denver, says Judge Ben Lind
sey, it is nearly one divorce for every
marriage. In Nevada there is more
than one divorce for every two mar
riages, the ratio being raised by the di
vorces of non-residents in the divorce
mill at Reno^ In Washington state one
of every four marriages winds up in the
divorce court. There are seventeen
states that range from one divorce for
every 1.54 marriages to one for every
6.93 marriages, and three of these are
Girls were kept spotless. They were
the priceless treasure of the house, for
they, in turn, were to be the possessors
of the young, the golden key to the
future. In those days hoys regarded
the girls with awe. The boys are not
so timid in these days.
These days there are many houses,
but few homes, and I am almost per
suaded that business has ousted the
old-time pride in rearing' the young.
The master of the home has-, been ex
changed for a parent with a thirst for
gold, with the young speaking in con
tempt of old moralities.—Irving Bach-
eller, in The Dearborn Independent.
A DISUNITED CHURCH
If the church, in America were really
united as a body, we could have almost
anything we wished in the way of re-
, form. But the fact, which is disagree-
sopthern states—Arkansas, Texas, and ^ undeniable, remains, that we
Oklahoma. See the table elsewhere in j disunited as Christian disciples and
this issue; also the University New.s | might have with Con-
Letter, Vol. V, Nos. 26, 28, 29. j gj-ess and with legislatures and other
As compared with other states, di- ] public bodies is lacking because we do
vorces are infrequent in North Caro- not speak with one voice. In the aver-
lina, but when we look back thirty
years and realize that our divorce rate
increase was more than five times the
rate of our population increase, 263
percent against 60 percent, we find a
just cause for alarm.
It is fairly easy to rank the states ac
cording to the number of divorces grant
ed, but it is difficult or impossible to
compare the social status of the states
and to rank them according to the prev
alence or absence of the social ills
that give rise to divorce; so because -of
the lack of uniformity in the legal
grounds for divorce, and also because
of the varying attitudes and humors of
Judges and juries. Thus, South Caro-
lirfa grants no divorces for any cause
whatsoever, neither does it require
age town or city, while the,church lo
cally may be respected, it is not regard
ed with any righteous fear. We may
well look ourselves in the face—:
those of us who call ourselves Christian
and church men—and confess that we
are more sectarian than we are Chris
tian, more ritualistic than religious. A
disunited Church can not have much
power with a United States.
The church in America today is divid
ed by sectarianism, theology, defini
tions of Jesus, inspiration, evolution,
and church methods.
There is only one common denomina
tor—Prayer. It seems to be about
the only thing in which all Christians
agree, and over which they do not dis
pute. If that is so, how will the church
ground?—Charles
tian Herald.
M. Sheldon, Chris-
marriage license or marriage records i get together on the common meeting
of any sort. Nevertheless it is possible
that South Carolina has wrecked and
wretched homes due to the same social
ills that break up family groups in her
sister states. Divorces do not exist in
that state, but separations are prob
ably just as common as elsewhere.
Judge Lindsey’s pronounced belief
that marriage is a failure has resulted
in an open forum oh this subject in The
New York Times, The New York Trib
une, The Philadelphia Ledger, The
Literary Digest, and other public jour
nals the country over.
And the discussion ought never to
end until Congress can be brought to
enact a sane divorce law uniform in all
the states. With forty-eight different
divorce laws, embodying forty-eight
varying codes of moral conduct in for
ty-eight states, there is confusion worse
confounded. A man may be married,
single, divorced, or a bigamist, says
the Tribune, according to the common
wealth in which he happens to be. A
man may have four separate families,
all of them legitimate in separate states
and illegitimate in others.
The United States is supposed to be
the exact center of Christendom, but
our national ratio of divorces is higher
than that of any other country on earth,
not even excepting Japan.
No matter whether wrecked homes
produce divorces or easy divorces pro
duce wrecked homes, the subject is
fundamentally important.
When American homes decay, Amer
ican civilization will be dead, no matter
how many billions of wealth we may
have accumulated.
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
The Country Church
There is nothing that stunts and
blights the growth and life of an
agricultural community as a neglect
ed country church. There are few
men with families who would buy a
farm in a community where they ex
pect to live and be deprived of the
blessings that go out from a living
church. The people ^who live in a
community without these advan
tages are depriving themselves of
these important blessings which they
can never afford to lose. Even out
side of the personal religious need
of a good active country church, the
material help the church gives to
every community is tremendous. It
is obvious that the value of every
home is greatly increased in the
moral tone of the community. So
help the country church. Keep the
doors open the! full year. If neces
sary, call on your city friends to
help you. The country church helps
the cities. Statistics show that
three-fourths of our ministers and
leading church members, the large
majority of our doctors, lawyers,
professors and leading business men
are country-bred. The country is a
great reservoir from which the cities
are constantly drawing their bright
est minds with religious training of
the old-fashioned kind—Presbyter
ian of the South.
portance of a well-balanced civilization,
as between town and country wealth
and well-being, (2) in country prosper
ity as absolutely essential to city pros
perity, and (3) in the right and right
eous relating of private wealth to the
common weal and the Commonwealth.
Two utterances of his, oft repeated,
have left an indelible impression on his
students: (1) Civilization is rooted and
grounded in the home-owning, home-
loving, home-defending instincts, and
(2) Fat cities cannot safely be built on
a lean countryside.
When he gets his itinerary finally de
termined, the University News Letter
will be carrying brief letters from him
weekly.
During his absence the News Letter
will he in charge of Prof. S. H. Hobbs,
Jr., and Miss H, R. Smedes, assistants
in the department of Rural Social-Eco
nomics.
MANY HOUSES, FEW HOMES
America is merely the sum of many
homes. If the average home goes
wrong, America goes wrong. This is
the time of imported manners, indus
trious idleness, tinted ladies, India rub
ber parents, whose children are brought
up to regard life as an island of ice
cream in an ocean of candies and choc
olate.
There was a time that the homes of
America were the wonders of the
world. Great men were made at cheap
■expense and they made their mark in
life without patronage of wealth and
influence. The old home life was foun
ded upon teaching and discipline, with
modesty, thrift, industry, and love of
God as the keynote to that teaching.
GIFTS TO N. C. LIBRARIES
The Library Journal for March 1 con
tains the following summary prepared
by the North Carolina Commission of
gifts of more than $10(1 value made to
North Carolina libraries in 1922. Six
teen libraries are included in the list
which totals $63,824. Two of the gifts
were for new library buildings, $30,000
going to Buie’s Creek and $16,000 to
Rocky Mount.
Andrews. Carnegie Library. Books,
value, $126.
Buie’s Creek. Buie’s Creek Academy.
$30,000 for library building, given by
D. Rich.
Burlington. 64 vols. given by Mrs. R.
W. Curtis, value, $110.
Chapel Hill. University of North Ca
rolina. Dr. James Sprunt of Wilming
ton gave a file of Wilmington newspa
pers, covering the period from 1846 to
1890 (22 volumes of The Daily Journal,
13 volumes of The Daily Review, 7 vol
umes of The Wilmington Journal) val
ued at $420. Mrs. H. A. London of
Pittsboro gave a file of the Chatham
Record, complete from its beginning in
1878 to 1917 (39 volumes) valued at
$196; Lawrence S. Holt, Jr., of Burling
ton gave $100 for the purchase of books
and periodicals for the Department of
Geology Library; John Sprunt Hill of
Durham gave $1,000 for additional ac
cessions to library of North Caroliniana;
and Captain A. 0. Clernent of Golds
boro a set of colored photographs of
first settlements in North Carolina,
valued at $800.
Cullowhee. Cullowhee Normal and
Industrial School. 96 volumes, value,
$115.
Durham. Trinity College. Transac
tions of the American Institute of Min
ing Engineers, 41 volumes, value, $400;
Commercial and Financial Chronicle,
35 volumes, value, $100.
Durham. Colored Library. The Dur-
liam Hosiery Mill, American Tobacco
Company, Liggett and Meyers Com
pany, and Twentieth Century Club,
each gave $100.
Hickory. Lenoir College. 600 vol
umes given by faculty and students,
valued at $600.
Highlands. Hudson Library. Gift
of books valued at $190.
Raleigh. Peace Institute. Gift of
$100 from Lucia Becker.
Raleigh. Shaw University. Gift of
books valued at $250.
Rockingham. Books valued at $169.
Rocky Mount. $15,000 given by Dr.
M. R. Braswell for library bpilding;
$1,000 each from three citizens, to be
used for books.
Southport. Books valued at $200.
Tryon. Lanier Library. Books val
ued at $160.
Wilmington. Gift of $500 for books,
through the committee of Pageant of
the Lower Cape Fear.—L. R. Wilson.
OUR EDITOR GOES ABROAD
When this issue of the University
News Letter gets to its seventeen
thousand weekly readers, the editor-in-
charge, Mr. E. C. Branson, Kenan
professor of rural social-economics, will
be on his way to spend a year studying
at first-hand the country end of civil
ization in western Europe—mainly in
Denmark, Belgium, South Germany,
Switzerland, Italy, France, and Great
Britain. He is abroad on The Kenan
Travelling Scholarship Fund of the Uni
versity, and carries with him letters of
introduction from Governor Morrison,
President H. W. Chase, and Hon. Mau
rice F. Egan, former Ambassador to
Denmark. Also he goes as a member
of the State Commission on Farm Ten
ancy recently created by the General
Assembly of North Carolina.
He wants to know, in direct studies,
how against heavy odds the Danes have
come to^ be the richest farm people in
Europe and perhaps in the world; why
the Belgian farmers who produce e-
normous per-acre grain crops are cursed
with farm tenancy and farm pover
ty; how the farmers are faring in South
Germany, and what part the dorfer or
farm hamlets play in German farm life;
how the Swiss farmers win prosperity
on little pocket-handkerchief farms;
whether latifundia, or large estates,
are destroying Italy today as in the
days of Pliny; how the Frencb farmers
manage to have so many millions of
government bonds stowed away under
the corner brick of the hearth; why
England is a paradise for pigs and
a purgatory for peasants; and how the
farmers in all these countries organize
to secure for themselves a maximum
share of the consumer’s dollar.
In a word, our editor is going abroad
to spell at the problem of city and cou:i-
try relationships, their mutual depend
encies, and their common fate.
It is impossible to be around Mr.
Branson without sensing his funda
mental beliefs (1) in the supreme im-
THE DUTIES OF A CITIZEN
1. To acquaint myself with those
fundamental principles embodied in our
constitutions and laws which experi
ence has shown are essential to the
preservation of our liberties and the
promotion of good government, and to
defend those principles against all at
tacks.
2. To inform myself on all public
issues, and on the character, record and
platform of all candidates for office,
and to exert actively my influence in
favor of men and measures in which
believe.
3. To vote in every election, pri
mary and general, never using my vote
for personal or private ends, but only
for the public good, placing the welfare
of my country above that of my party,
if the interests of the two should ever
conflict.
4. To connect myself with the polit
ical party which most nearly repre
sents my views on public questions, and
to exert my influence within the party
to bring about the nomination of good
men for office and the endorsement of
measures for the public weal.
6. To have the courage to perform
my duties as a citizen regardless of the
effect upon me financially or socially,
remembering that a cowardly citizen is
as useless to his country in time of
peace as a cowardly soldier is in time
of war.
6. To stand for honest election laws
impartially administered.
7. To obey all laws whether I deem
them wise or not, and to uphold the
officers in the enforcement of the law.
8. To make full and honest returns
of all my property and income for tax
ation.
9. To be ever ready to serve my
country in war, and in peace, especially
in such inconspicuous capacities as jur
or and election official.
10. To acquaint myself with the
functions of the various departments
of my government and to spread the
knowledge of the same among my fel
low citizens in order that they may en
joy to the fullest extent the advantages
offered by the government, and may
more fully recognize the government as
a means of service to the people.
11. To encourage good men to enter
public service and remain therein by
commending the faithful performance
of their duties and by refraining from
criticism except such as is founded on
knowledge of facts. , '
12. To seek to promote good feeling
between all groups of my fellow citi
zens and to resist as inimical to public
welfare all partisan efforts to excite
race, religious, class, and sectional pre
judice.
13. Not to think alone of what my
government can do for me but more
about what I can do for it.
14. To inform myself with respect
to the problems which confront my
country in its foreign relations, and to
support policies which safeguard its
legitimate interest abroad and which
recognize the responsibilities of the
United States as a member of inter
national society. —School of Govern
ment and Citizenship, College of Wil
liam and Mary. ''
MORE UNIVERSITY HOMES
The University is getting ready to
provide more room for the new flood of
high-school students.
Two dormitories, perhaps three, will
be built out of the money provided by
the legislature. The dormitories put
up a year ago have just barely taken
care, of the increase in attendance since
then.
The number of graduates in North
Carolina high schools next June is esti
mated at between 6,000 and 6,000. A
greater and greater percent of them
are going to college, and the Univer
sity of course has to take care of the
largest share. It is a difficult task to
find enough rooms.
Besides the dormitories, the needed
buildings talked of most are those for
geology and chemistry and the women’s
building. All cannot be built, because
there is not enough money to put up all
of them. The trustees’ committee will
meet here March 16 and 17 to decide
on the building program.—University
Press Item.
ARE YOU FIT?
I believe that no man is really fit to
hold a public office, or any other job
which depends on public favor or has to
do with teaching in any form, if he
isn’t capable of earning his living in
some other way if necessary. That
may sound a little strange at first, but
I believe that there can be no real free
dom of sincerity in any public service
unless the men in it are perfectly ready
to resign or be fired at any time for
their opinions. I can assure them as a
writer that I have felt ever so much
happier and freer since I realized that
if the worst came to the worst I could
possibly qualify as a taxicab driver in
New York City.—Mr. Lippmann, in his
address to the State Literary and His
torical Association.
RATIO OF DIVORCES TO MARRIAGES
Based on Table in The Literary Digest, March 10, 1923.
North Carolina makes a better showing than any other state in the Union,
South Carolina alone excepted. There are no divorces in South Carolina and
never nave been any for any cause.
The best showing in the United States is made in the District of Columbia.
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina.
Rank
States
Ratio of Divorces
to Marriages
Rank
States Ratio of Divorces
to Marriages
1
Dist. Columbia
1 to 91.34
26
New Mexico
... 1 to 8.66
2
North Carolina
.... 1 to 39.14
26
Colorado
.... 1 to 8.63
3
New York ...
1 to 29.81
27
Kentucky
.... 1 to 7.77
4
New Jersey ...
1 to 26.66
28
Nebraska
.... 1 to 7.63
6
Georgia
1 to 23.05
29
Utah
.... 1 to 7.61
6
Maryland
1 to 20.36
30
Michigan
.... 1 to 7.52
7
West Virginia
1 to 20.32
31
Illinois
.... 1 to 7.26
8
Connecticut...
1 to 16.67
32
Kansas
.... 1 to 6.93
9
Massachusetts
..1 to 14.71
33 '
Ohio
.... 1 to 6.91
10
Pennsylvania .
1 to 14.46 .
34
Iowa
.... 1 to 6.90
11
12
T.ruii’iaiflTin
1 to 13.43
86
Arkansas
.... 1 to 6.56
Mississippi....
1 to 12.63
36
New Hampshire
.... 1 to 6.40
13
Minnesota ....
1 to 11.65
37
Missouri
.... 1 to 6.36
14
Vermont
1 to 11.69
37
Texas
.... 1 to 6.36
16
Virginia
1 to 11.30
39
Indiana
16
Alabama
1 to 11.13
40
Arizona
.... 1 to 5.92
17
Wisconsin ....
1 to 10.65
41
(California
.... 1 to 6.64
18
North Dakota.
1 to 10.24
42
Montana
.... 1 to 6.46
19
Delaware
1 to 9.70
43
Oklahoma
.... 1 to 6.40
20
Tennessee....
1 to 9.62
44
Wyoming
.... 1 to 6.34
21
South Dakota
1 to 9.64
45
Idaho
.... 1 to 4.81
22
Maine
1 to 9.86
46
Washington....
1 to 4.01
23
Rhode Island.
1 to 9.14
|47
Oregon
1 to 2.62
24
i'lorida
1 to 8.73
48
Nevada
1 to 1.64