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 Cturo-
lina Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
JULY 11, 1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 34
Editorial Boardi B. C. Branson. S. H. Hobbs, Jr.. L. R. Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Ballitt, H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the actof Augrust 24, 1912
BANK CAPITAL IN THE U. S.
II—NEWS FROM ABROAD
We are quartered in Stuttgart for
ten days or so, the capital of Wurtem-
berg, a German state that lies along
the Swiss border, as Polk and Ruther
ford counties in North Carolina lie a-
long the foothills of the Blue Ridge.
We are directly south of Hamburg and
fourteen hours distant from it by fast
train. Our route skirted the occupied
area all the way along, and we came as
the crow flies.
Riding on the Rail
The German trains are fewer of late
but there are no signs of disordered
service. We left Hamburg on the min
ute, changed cars twice on the minute,
no train late by so much as a minute
at any junction point, and. we arrived
in Stuttgart on the minute. It may
not be so every day everywhere in Ger
many, but in these notes I am record
ing exactly what falls under my eye
from day to day.
We found that travel in a second-class
car in Germany is less luxurious than
Pullman car service at home, but dis
tinctly better than first-class day
coaches on any road I know the United
States over. Our compartment com
panions were Germans and two Hunga
rians of manifest wealth and culture.
Nearly all of them spoke English of a
sort, enough to be pleasantly chatty
and helpful when we needed to change
trains. One was a German steel man
ufacturer in the occupied territory, a
gentleman of perhaps seventy, gentle
and genial in face and manner—a most
charming personality. He sat quietly
reading in his corner until he discovered
our perplexity about trains at the next
junction point, then he told us that he
•too was bound for Stuttgart, most
graciously took charge of us, changed
cars with us and escorted us to our
hotel.
German Courtesy
We kave had nothing but courtesies
in Germany from everybody every
where. If the Germans harbor a
grudge against America we have
not yet discovered it. True, they
think that all Americans are rich. Have
they not the Dollar, they say—Edel val
uta, they call it, perhaps in contrast
with their own fallen mark. But neith
er in hotels nor stores do they charge
us excessive prices. But then, Stutt
gart is not a center of tourist travel
and it is not infected with the tricks of
tourist trade.
The effusive greetings and responses,
the hat-tipping aid the bowing among
acquaintances on the streets and in the
hotels are impressive and engaging. It
is merely the immemorial custom of
these people among themselves, and we
merely share these courtesies with all
the Stuttgartners of high estate and
low. But there is no discoverable trace
of servility or snobbery. There is no
flunkeyism in hotels, streets, or stores,
and no attempt in word or manner to
hold us up for tips.
Tips and Hotel Charges
Along with the natives we are taxed
thirty percent on hotel rooms, fifteen
percent for service, and ten percent on
food checks, but beyond these charges
no gratuities are expected, and none
are offered by general custom, except
for special personal services. No tip
ping is not only the law but the habit
of Stuttgart. There are exceptions,
of course, but they are fairly rare in
Wurtemberg. Our bill for twelve days
in the Marqua*'dt hotel, the best hotel
in South Germany, was $31.00 for the
three of us; $37.60 was the room charge
alone for one for ten days in the St.
James hotel in New York. Some dif
ference that.
A Busy People
The day-trip south from Hamburg
gave us a car-window look at Western
Germany bordering the area occupied
by the French. The way along the
road is thickly set with towns and cit
ies. Almost without exception they
are manufacturing centers, and appar
ently none are idle. But whether
the town be large or small, industrial
or not, the soil is cultivated right up to
the factory walls. Almost every square
inch shows vegetables, fruits, or flow
ers. Always the crops of the open
fields reach the railroad right-of-way,
sometimes evenithe right-of-way is it
self under cultivation, and occasionally
the spaces between the tracks in the
station yards. It is no exaggeration
to say that a single wheelbarrow would
contain all the weeds we saw in our
fourteen-hour trip. The grain fields,
orchards, and vineyards are as trig and
trim as Collier Cobb’s front yard. In
the late evening hours after the long
work day, the factory workers with
with their wives and children are busy
gardening. Not all of them, to be
sure, but enough of them to indicate
the ingrained habits of toil in Germany.
The signs of tireless industry are on
every hand. Nobody is idle, every
body works. Nobody is in a hurry but
soldiering on a job is apparently a lost
art among these wage-earners. What
we look upon all day long is a moving
spectacle of unhasting, unresting toil.
Existence necessities must be satisfied,
no matter what capers the mark may
cut.
Farm Villages
I note from the car window that
farm villages—what the Germans call
dorfer—are set thick in the landscape
a mile or two apart in all directions.
They are groups of substantial farm
buildings with terra cotta tile roofs.
The gleaming red of the house-tops
gives them the fresh appearance of
new construction, although they may
be four or five centuries old, as many of
them are. They look at a distance like
little towns of from fifty to five hun
dred homes. Commonly they are off
the railroads. They are self-sustaining
and nearly self-sufficing little farm
communities. Everybody in these little
villages is a farmer, and the village
farms of from ten to twenty acres lie
in small patches in various directions
in the immediate vicinity. In the early
morning and evening hours the men,
women, and children can be seen tramp
ing out to their fields and back again—
long processions of farm workers, as I
see them from the car window.
Country-Life Contrasts
I shall be making special studies of
these farm communities during the next
six weeks. In South and Central Ger
many there are 1,200,000 of these small
home-owning farmers, dwelling in com
pact social groups, not in solitary farm
steads a few to the square mile in vast
open spaces as in North Carolina, in
the United States everywhere, and in
the Western World in general. It is
lonesomeness alone that accounts for
much of the cityward drift of country
people in America. It is the social life
of home-owning farmers in fafm vil
lages that will save the country life of
Europe from falling into the decay
that threatens America. The country
civilization of North Carolina and the
Nation is slated for destruction in the
next generation or two unless farm
life in communities or colonies can be
gin a rapid development.
Helpful Friends
During the next month or so we shall
be guests of Baron von Der Lippe, in
the Schlossgut Engelburg, which
crowns an eminence overlooking the
little farm village of Winterbach; twen
ty miles east of Stuttgart. A compan
ion guest is the charming wife of Pro
fessor Herman Staab, a distinguished
member of the faculty of Romance
Languages at the University of North
Carolina. Their names are an open
sesame to everything in Wurtemberg,r
Balen, and South Germany in general.
Prospective Studies
It is not the industries and commerce
of the large cities, the public buildings
and parks, the monuments and art
treasures, with which I shall be oc
cupied during this student year in Eu
rope. They are most impressive and
most significant. But before I get out
into countryside Germany, I shall be
drawing a thumbnail sketch of city life
in Germany as I have seen it in Stutt
gart during the last ten days. With
this brief account of an important busi
ness center of 400,000 inhabitants—per
haps in my next letter—Ishall be giving
my attention in the main to the fields and
farms of Southern Germany, for here
INDIFFERENCE
The besetting sin of the average
American citizen today is indiffer
ence. He is to such a large extent
absorbed in his own work of making
a living and promoting the in
terests of his own firm, that he
ceases to realize his greater and
graver responsibilities to the Nation
as a whole. Many people are indif
ferent to the National aspects of
business, and to the elimination of
those dangerous barnacles which at
tach themselves to business. If
every citizen were to take a direct
and vital interest in his govern-
ment—National, State, or Municipal;
participate in the selection of his
representatives; keep close watch on
legislation; know the actions of his
representatives; and exercise his
privilege of criticizing or commend
ing these representatives, we would
have a very much better govern
ment.—Seymour L. Cromwell.
is the source of primary wealth upon
which these people must rely in the
struggle to regain their place and rank
in the business world-the source of
raw materials for existence necessities
and for manufactured commodities of
all sorts.
What will Germany do with t;be
sources of raw materials that are left
to her at home? It is a fundamental
question, for final economic values lie
in material commodities and exportable
surpluses, not in marks, bonds, stocks,
notes and mortgages, but in lands,
buildings, factories, machinery, and
consumers’ goods stored in warehouses,
stores, and cellars. For instance, the
man who turned Confederate money
into cotton in the South during the
War Betyeen the States was leagues
ahead of the man who turned his cot
ton into Confederate money.
As things now are, who steals a Ger
man purse steals trash, and even less
than trash in the days ahead, or I
miss my guess.—E. C. Branson, Stutt
gart, April 26.
SOURCE OF INFORMATION
A recent addition to the statistical file
of the chamber of commerce in Durham
is the binding and indexing of the Uni
versity of North Carolina News Letter.
The News Letter is one of the most
valuable newspaper sheets in the state.
It appears weekly and contains, on a
single sheet for ready reference, sta
tistics of practically every nature per
taining to the state of North Carolina.
It is published for the good of the Old
North State. It has as its goal the
education of North Carolinians as to
the value and resources of the state in
which they live. Much of the success
already achieved can be measured by the
state’s steady progress.
The chamber of commerce has taken
these weekly sheets and put them in a
binder. An index has been so prepared
that almost any question that might
arise concerning state statistics can be
readily referred to, and the reference
will be authentic.
Durham county ranks seventeenth in
the number of people per automobile in
the state. There are 3,751 automobiles,
or one car to every 11.8 inhabitants.
Guilford county leads with one car to
every 7.9 inhabitants and Graham coun
ty is last with one to every 169.4.
Divorce statistics show that, with the
exception of South Carolina, where
no divorces are granted, and the Dis
trict of Columbia, the state of North
Carolina leads the Union. There is one
divorce in North Carolina to every
39.14 marriages. In Florida there is one
divorce to every 8.73 marriages and in
Nevada the ratio is one to about one
and a half.
In the ratio of white farm operators
Durham county ranks 69th in the state
with 69.1 percent. Madison county
leads with 99.9 percent white and
Halifax is last with 29.3.
North Carolina ranks way down in
the Union in native-born white illiter
ates ten years old and over. Its percent
is 8.2. Louisiana and New Mexico
are the only two states with a worse
showing in 1920.
In livestock values per farm North
Carolina ranks 47th in the United
States. Durham county ranks 90th in
the state.
In personal property per inhabitant
Durham county leads the state, with
a value of $1,480 per person. Forsyth
is second with $745 and Macon is last
with $93.
There are countless other statistical
references that are open to the public.
There are interesting sidelights and sta
tistics on road advertising, American
ism, county audits, bonded indebted
ness, boll weevil, industries, churches,
markets, co-education, farm tenancy and
ownership, highway construction, labor,
murders, negro migration, public wel
fare, bank savings, taxes, and many
other items concerning which the pub
lic should have full information if they
intend to “Know Their State.”—Dur
ham Herald.
V-FERTILIZER INDUSTRY
The farmers of North Carolina, who
yearly fertilize their cotton, corn,
wheat, and tobacco fields, have very
little idea of the magnitude of the in
dustry in the state which furnishes them
their crop foods. Do they know what a
tremendous amount of money is invest
ed in fertilizer manufacture and what
sums of money the industry represents
in the state?
The entire fertilizer manufacturing
industry of North Carolina entails an
.investment of approximately $79,760,-
000; an estimated plant valuation of
of $39,700,000; and a yearly production
value of $31,850,000. Eighteen hundred
and fifty men obtain employment in this
industry on an annual payroll of $1,900,-
000.
The fertilizer industry in^orth Caro
lina was started by the Navasso Guano
Company at Wilmington and Selma in
1869; the next operations started at
New Bern in 1890 when two more ferti
lizer plants were erected. Then started
an expansion and extension of the in
dustry throughout the state as follows:
in 1900 there were fifteen plants; in 1910,
nineteen; in 1918, twenty-seven; while
an increase to fifty-seven resulted by
the end of 1922.
The largest single corporation in the
fertilizer business in North Carolina
is the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Com
pany, which in 1893 ^established nine
plants with a capital of $48,000,000.
These plants are located at Charlotte,
Durham, New Bern, Raleigh, Salis
bury, Wadesboro, Wilmington, Wash
ington, and Winston-Salem.
The fertilizer manufacturing industry
is divided into superphosphate, fish
scrap, and mixed fertilizer production.
[There are* fourteen superphosphate
plants scattered throughout the state
making acid phosphate by mixing
proper porportions of sulfuric acid with
ground “Tennessee Rock” or “Florida
Pebble” phosphate rock. Because of
the handling of gases, acids, and chemi
cals, the control and operation of such
plants is placed in the hands of men
trained especially in the fundmentals
and applications of chemistry and engin
eering. The fish scrap industry cen
ters around Beaufort and Wilmington,
there being ten such factories. This
type of fertilizer is produced by dry
ing the wet fish pulp from which the
fish oil has been cooked and expressed,
or, if the season does not permit, the
wet scrap is treated with sulfuric acid
for the production of acid scrap. The
mixed fertilizer plants produce fertili
zer according to definitely described
formulas for the trade, using cotton
seed meal, linters, guano, superphos
phate, and other fertilizer foods pur
chased on the market.—G. H. Leonard,
Division of Industrial Chemistry, De
partment of Chemistry, University of
North Carolina.
THE FARM PROGRAM
Two thousand two hundred North
Carolina farmers have signed a pledge
to adhere strictly to certain funda
mental things in successful, farming in
1923.
Ten provisions are enumerated and
these ten provisions make a mighty
fine schedule for almost any farmer
anywhere to follow. They are:
1. Raise enough corn and hay to
carry me through 1924.
2. Raise enough meat to supply my
family this year. '
3. Have a twelve-months-in-the-year
garden.
4. Provide milk and butter for fam
ily the whole year.
5. Keep an average of thirty hens
on the farm.
6. Improve orchard by setting out
trees and berries.
7. Plant legumes and other soil-en-
riching crops.
8. Enroll at least one child in club
work.
9. Add some home convenience.
10. Beautify the homestead.
This is a good program. It was
drawn up by a 'man who knows farm
ing and who thinks. There is probably
no community in the south where ' the
same program if carried out would not
prove profitable. If the 2,200 North
Carolina farmers who have signed the
agreement will live up to it they will
be far ahead of their less far-sighted
neighbors in a few years.—Gastonia
Gazette.
BANK capital PER INHABITANT
In the United States, December 4, 1922.
Based on Report of the Comptroller of the Currency of December 4, 1922,
covering (1) the total capitaj and surplus in all banks, national, state, private,
and loan and trust companies, (2) divided by the total population of each state.
United States average $60.91; North Carolina average $20.60 per inhabi
tant.
C. E. Williams, Johnston County
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank
State
Bank Capital
Per Inhab.
Rank
State
Bank Capital
Per Inhab.
1
New York
$120.5
25
Utah
$37.7
2
Pennsylvania
76.0
26
Virginia
37.2
3
Massachusetts...
68.8
27
Colorado
37.0
4
California
66.4
28
Oregon
36.7
5
Delaware
64.4
29
Indiana.
36.6
6
Illinois
67.4
30
Maine
34.9
7
Rhode Island
66.8
31
Texas
34.3
8
Nevada
66.9
32
West Virginia ...
34.0
9
Connecticut
64.6
33
Wisconsin
30.9
10
Maryland
63.5
34
Washington
29.0
11
Vermont
52.6
36
Idaho
28.6
12
Iowa
61.9
36
Louisiana
26.6
13
Missouri
61.4
37
Kentucky
26.1
14
Wyoming
49.8
38
Georgia
26.9
16
Nebraska
46.7
39
Arizona
26.7
16
Ohio
46.6
40
Florida
26.6
16
Montana
46.6
41
Tennessee
25.3
18
Minnesota
46.3
42
South Carolina ..
24.7
19
New Hampshire .
44.8
43
New Mexico
23.7
20
South Dakota....
40.7
44
Oklahoma
23.6
21
New Jersey
40.0
45
North Carolina....
20.6
22
Kansas
39.6
46
Arkansas
18.4
23
North Dakota ...
39.0
47
Alabma
16.1
24
Michigan
37.9
48
Mississippi
14.3