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^
OCTOBER 3,1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 46
EdilortM B,>ard. E. C. BraMon. 3. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson, E. W. KnlKht. D. D. Carroll. J. B. Bullitt. H. W. Odum,
Entered as second-class matter November 14.1914, atthePostofSceat Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24, 19H
XIII
My first days in Denmark are chock-
full of reminders that I am now living
or trying to live on a teacher’s income
in a land of abounding wealth. Com
parative figures officially given out in
1913 exhibited the fact that man for
man the Danish farmers were the rich
est farm people in the world, and the
trips I am making into every corner of
this little kingdom convince me that
what was true ten years ago is true to-,
day. And no figures are needed to
prove it. The fact is plainer than a
pikestaff. The farmers are rich, un
mistakably rich, and they have made
the towns and cities rich. Everybody
is rich or feels rich, which is very near
ly the same thing. You pay the prices
asked or you. go without, and the prices
are sky high, not higher perhaps than
in America but too high for slender
purses in Europe. Nevertheless I am
determined to stay on here long enough
to see everything that has any relation
whatsoever to the farm prosperity and
the consequent national wealth of Den
mark. A state made rich by agricul
ture alone is rare enough to study in
detail.
A Land of Plenty
There is no doubt about the fact that
I am at last in a land of milk and
honey, peace and plenty, or rather of
bacon and egg, butter and cheese. The
phrase is less poetic but it better ex-,
presses the source of Denmark’s abun
dance. When a little country one-
fourth the size of North Carolina feeds
itself fat on home-raised products and
sells two hundred and fifty million dol
lars’worth of surplus foods to other
V countries, as Denmark did in 1921, it is
easy to see that the farmers are accum
ulating wealth. And what is more,
they handle their own products every
step of the way from the farm to the
table of the consumer. The state owns
the railroads and operates them pri
marily to promote agriculture, and the
farmers themselves own the cargo
boats that ply like shuttles between
Denmark and London. They even own
and operate the Danish food shops that
one sees everywhere in London. They
do all these things in cooperative com
modity associations, cooperative farm
factories—creameries, cheese factories,
bacon factories, egg packing plants and
the like, cooperative credit unions, and
so on and on. Every farmer belongs to
one or more or many such associations.
The farmer who does not belong to any
is considered a freak in Denmark.
Rich Through Cooperation
So It is they have grown rich during
the last seventy-five years and so it is
they have made the merchants, the
bankers, and the manufacturers rich. I
have yet to find anybody in any city big
or little who is opposed to farm cooper
ation. And when I start a debate a-
bout it to test the temper of some city
business man, he looks me over quiz
zically and asks, Are you from the
States? Yes, I answer. So! he says,
and the debate ends. These continen
tal people put a thousand shades of
meaning into So! It is the most in
triguing single word in Germany and
Scandinavia.
The HeBs’ Contribution
But while I am concentrating upon
travel into every quarter of this rich
little country, I am commenting in a
letter or two on the chance scenes and
occurrences that arrest my attention.
For instance, the first course of the
dainty dinner we had on the Danish
boat that landed us at Gedser was ac
companied by raw eggs, which we were
expected to break into our steaming hot
bouillion. We did not do it. It was a
trick we did not know. But everybody
else did it and it went down, with mani
fest gusto. Next time, we shall know
a good thing when we see it, for every
thing they have to eat in Denmark is
good—superlatively good.
Speaking of eggs, nothing hut a
goose could or would lay such eggs as
come to my room every morning for
breakfast. They are monstrous in size.
One is all 1 can eat, and along with the
butter, bread, and tea it makes a full
meal. Nothing in Denmark is better
disciplined than the hens. The eggs
LIVING HIGH IN DENMARK
they lay are enormous, and they are
uniform in size and color. They are
standardized to the last degree, and
they bring forty million dollars of good
money into Denmark every year. Which
is a quite considerable sum of pin
money for the farm-wives. It is many
millions more than the total cost of
public education in North Carolina year
by year.
Well Disciplined Cows
And the cows are as well disciplined
as the hens. For one thing, they are
picketed in luscious pastures all over
Denmark and after the fashion of their
sex in Denmark they stay hitched.
Even the horses are trained to pasture
in the same lady-like manner. Cutting
green feed and hauling it to the stock
in their stalls is almost unknown. It
is a detail of farm economy. Filling
the barns with winter hay is expensive
enough, the farmers say, so they pick
et their stock and save that expense in
the summer. Root crops are the suc
culent winter feed and there are no
silos in Denmark, or none that I have
yet seen.
Ticks or Politics?
It goes without saying that there are
no line fences in this land of pure-bred
livestock farming. The farmers do not
fence-in their farms, they fence-in their
farm animals and picket them while
grazing in the fields. When I tell these
farmers that it takes something like
civil war to tear down the line fences
and put an end to free-range pasturage
in twenty-odd counties of my home
state, they look at me in amazement.
It sounds like Denmark in the eighteen
fifties, they say. How else can the
farmers of your state put an end to
Texas fever and how can they have i
high-grade cattle under tick conditions? |
Is it ticks or politics that holds back
your beef cattle and dairy business?
they ask. It is a question that I pass
on to the statesmen of Tidewater Caro
lina.
Delicious Abundance
But while you pay high prices for
food stuffs in Denmark, you are appalled
by the enormous quantities they set be
fore you at meal time. The butter for
one is enough for a whole family in
America, and it is butter that a fastid
ious cow had something to do with, for
the cow is the one aristocrat left in the
farm regions of this democratic king
dom. The morning teapot holds three
large cupfuls, and the various break
fast breads of freshly ground wheat
fill you up to the throat latches, that
is to say, if you eat them all. You are
tempted to do it, but you wont if you
think of the five other meals that are
to follow in the long summer day of
this high latitude. For at ten o’clock
you have coffee and crackers; at noon
you have a luncheon of smorrebrod and
coffee, smorrebrod or smearbread be
ing slices of wheat or rye loaf spread
thick with butter to hold the smoked
fish, shrimp or sardines, the thin cuts
of beef, ham, sausage, or cheese, the
slice of tomato and other delicacies too
numerous to mention; at four you have
tea and cakes; at six you have a full
dinner, with big soup bowls of straw
berries, big pitchers of cream, and all
the sugar you want—these or a pastry
or some other fruit in the same gener
ous proportions; at teno’clock it is still
light enough to read a newspaper out
under the open sky and the day must
end with an ice and a pastry confection
of some sort.
It keeps me feeling like Uncle Remus
when the little boy brought him an ex
tra dinner from the big house: I clar
ter goodness, mon, I dunno whar I
gwine ter put it, said he, cep’n I takes
my hat. And I am guessing that Gar-
gantua wa* an errant Dane whom Rab
elais captured in France and set to
star in bis famous burlesque, for the
Danes are valiant trenchermen and
they have more to eat than I ever saw
before in any other land or country.
Bicycles and Fords
Another spectacular thing in Den
mark is the bicycles. Everybody rides
a bicycle, both sexes and all ages. There
are 200,000 in Copenhagen alone, and
COOPERATION
Its Spiritual Quality
The highest aim of cooperative
marketing must not be merely to put
a few more cents or a few more dol
lars into the farmer’s purse as the
year’s crops are sold. There is a
spiritual quality about cooperation
which we cannot neglect without
imperiling, devitalizing, and even
destroying the whole structure. Co
operation must aim at developing a
splendid rural democracy capable of
managing its own aifairs andjgiving
this management to “men who know
their rights and dare maintain
them.” It must develop a leader
ship that as time goes on will fill all
the important places in our great
cooperative marketing organiza
tions. Those managers and officials
and employees who at present have
necessarily come largely from com
mercial life must in future years
come from young men trained up as
local leaders in cooperative move
ments—men who have the altruistic
spiritual qualities of true coopera
tion as well as commercial ability.
Cooperative marketing in the long
run will inevitably mean larger
profits for rural people, but it will
mean something infinitely more
important in that there will be
developed a new rural leadership
trained in business and economics
and in a new spirit of fellowship and
rural comradeship such as we have
not had before. Every local of a
cooperative organization is a train
ing ground in such leadership and to
strengthen the local organization is
our first great need.
This spiritual quality of coopera
tive marketing must never be over
looked. Our ultimate goal is not
merely to make money but to de
velop men, not merely to enrich
pocketbooks but to enrich human
existence. We must train and de
velop here in the South a great rur
al democracy, having the spirit of
cooperation and human brotherhood
and furnishing leadership not only
for managing the larger business af
fairs of modern agriculture but for
wholesomely directing all the widely
varied interests of a new rural civil
ization.
It is in anticipation of that day
that we should work on. No man
who lacks that inspiring vision can
wisely lead any farmers’ coopera
tive organization toward its ultimate
goal.—Clarence Poe.
mals at the Union Jubilee Cattle Show.
The Danish farmers came in swarms in
automobiles and on bicycles, in an un
broken line of these vehicles on every
country road into town. They made me
homesick as I trudged along on foot to
the sqhool of housewifery and farm
management for the Little Landers
two miles or so from Roskilde, and on
another half mile to the Folk High
School for the sons and daughters of
the larger farmers.
Henry Ford has a large assembling
plant on a main street in Copenhagen.
He got here first, digged in on the
ground floor, and occupies this territory
by the divine right of squatter sover
eignty. He has given the Danish farm
ers a chance at an inexpensive, rapid-
transit marketing machine, and they
are clamoring for cars faster than he
can set them up. The Ford is a farm
asset and not a liability in Denmark,
or it could not be here at all, for the
Danish farmer is a canny business man,
and what he does not know about the
marketing of his wares is torn out of
the book, as the Georgia Crackers say.
Helpful Studies for N. C.
Marketing is a critical farm problem
everywhere, but the American farmer
has been slow to get busy with it. We
have only just begun to work at* it in
North Carolina, and the way ahead is
long and difficult, mainly (1) because
the farm tenant imperils every cooper-
' ative farm effort, and (2) because our
I farmers do not live together in com
1 pact country communities, and there
I fore find it difficult or impossible to
stick together in cooperative enter
prises.
How Denmark came to be the rich
est farm state in the world, How farm
prosperity enriches the Danish cities,
and What Denmark has to teach us in
North Carolina will be the burden of
my letters during the next three
months. —E. C. Branson, Copenhagen,
July 17, 1923.
HOME OWNERSHIP
“Civilization,” observes Dr. Branson,
who is a philosopher, “is salted unto
salvation by the home-owning, home-
loving, home-defending instincts,” a
statement which we accept as ex-cath
edra. He is sure the day is approach
ing, in every land, when the only effect
ive bulwark against destructive social
ism “will be the land-owning farmers
in the country regions and the home
owning wage and salary earners in the
cities and industrial centers.” We be
lieve we could prove that ownership of
land and a home on it is a good thing
for the individual and for the common
wealth. Home ownership tends to
make a man cocky. Cockiness tends to
make a man relish his victuals. The
state of being of those individuals who
relish their victuals is better than that
of those who do not. Q. E. D.
In season and out of season the Daily
News has been instant in urgence that
the people of Greensboro buy homes.
The percentage of those who live be
neath a roof-tree to which they either
have or are acquiring fee-simple title
must have increased considerably of
latter years. The ideal for a commun
ity to strive towards constantly is 100
percent population in homes qf their
own.—Greensboro News.
BANK RESOURCES PER INHABITANT
In North Carolina, June 30,1922
Based on Comptroller of the Currency Report of June 30, 1922, and covers
the total resources of all state and national banks divided by the population.
State average $162.40 of bank resources per each inhabitant. The United
States average was $472.29 per inhabitant, or about three times our state aver
age. New Hanover leads the state in bank resources with $696.22 per inhabit
ant,' and is the only county that ranks above the average of the United States.
Two counties had no banks.
More business is done on the average dollar invested in banking in this state
than in the United States as a whole, consequently our bank dividends are rela
tively large. But the bank resources of the state are inadequate to meet the
banking needs of our state, which ranks so high in agriculture and industry.
The state needs to accumulate sufficient bank capital and surplus within her
borders to meet the banking needs of the rtate.
Rank County
Bank Resources
Per Inhabitant
quite as many more in the country re
gions. They are as the sands of the
sea for multitude. The city builds spe
cial roadways for them along the wider
streets, and at the farm schools the
bicycle sheds frequently occupy a floor
space as large as that of the main
school buildings. Along with the motor
cycles they keep you in terror at the
street crossings and along the country
roads.
The motor cars are fewer, but they
are rapidly increasing in number, and
one hears the familiar complaint that
they will certainly bankrupt the state.
Three-fourths of all the cars are owned
by the farmers and nine-tenths of them
are Fords. What is more, a Ford in
Denmark is not a Tin Lizzie, it is
automobile. It is a .convincing sign of
superior wealth and assured social
status. It is not uncommon to see
Ford sedan with crimson plush cur
tains, flower vases, and a liveried chauf
feur. I have seen two such Fords, one
in Copenhagen last Sunday morning at
The Church of our Lady, and another
last week on the country road to the
Folk High School near Roskilde.
was visiting this capital of ancient
Denmark to see the farms along the
twenty-five miles of railway and to
study the farmers and their farm am-
New Hanover $596,22
Mecklenburg 466.26
Durham 433.66
Forsyth 426.87
Guilford 361.19
Wake 339.68
Pasquotank 306.70
Gaston 302.06
Edgecombe 296.17
Moore 249.88
Scotland 214.78
Vance - 212.75
Buncombe 204.50
Wilson 199.37
Wayne 187.92
Craven.
Henderson.
183.95
160.67
Richmond 153.16
Cabarrus 162.16
Lenoir 151.64
Granville 147.67
Alamance 143.31
Cumberland 141.98
Pitt 140.34
Rowan 139.06
Beaufort 136.28
Catawba 130.46
Cleveland 130.43
Chowan 127.86
Yadkin 126.60
Hertford 121.08
Rockingham 119.92
Halifax 118.24
Davidson 116.81
Surry 115-46
Lincoln 114.49
Robeson...
Iredell
McDowell.
Martin
Carteret...
Person
Anson
114.38
110.88
110.09
106.74
106.18
104.60
103.17
Pamlico 96.67
Johnston
Union
Harnett
Washington....
Transylvania...
Rutherford ....
96.52
93.16
91.16
90.88
90.75
90.72
Rank County
Bank Resources
Per Inhabitant
61 Haywood $90.31
62 Caldwell 90.11
63 Burke 89.79
64 Duplin 88.68
66 Montgomery 84.76
66 Randolph 84.06
67 Greene 82.72
68 Orange 82.61
69 Tyrrell 81.98
60 Franklin 79.76
61 Gates 78.76
62 Perquimans 78.49
63 Bertie 78.27
64 Columbus 77.94
66 Lee 77.67
66 Watauga 70.18
67 Swain 70.06
68 Stokes 67.94
69 Polk 67.62
70 Chatham 60.46
71 Northampton 66.77
72 Davie 64.32
73 Wilkes 62.83
74 Alexander 62.47
76 Mitchell 61.09
76 Onslow 60.43
77 Yancey 47.95
78 Avery 47.61
79 Cherokee 47.56
80 Warren 47.42
81 Hyde 46.99
82 Sampson 44.96
83 Madison 43.96
84 Stanly 43.68
86 Jackson 43.34
86 Jones 42.36
87 Nash 41.66
88 Macon 38.72
89 Ashe 37.92
90 Hoke 36.92
91 Pender 36.49
92 Bladen 34.16
93 Alleghany 29.24
94 Brunswick 18.66
96 Dare 18.03
96 Clay 17,60
97 Currituck 12.96
98 Caswell 9.19
99 Camden 00.00
100 Graham..
00.00