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 for the University Ex
tension Division.
AUGUST 20, 1924
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. X, NO. 40
Sdltoilal Board, B. C. Btanaon. 3. H. Hobba, Jt„ L. R. Wilaon. B. W. Knisbt. D. D. Carroll. J. B. Ballltt. H. W. Odom.
Entered as secend-clasa matter Nerember 14, 1914. at the Poatoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., nnder the act af Angast 84, 1911
VIEWING RURAL FRANCE
XXXVI-SEEING FARM LIFE IN FRANCE
My business in France during live
months of my year abroad was the par
ticular business of seeing the country-
end of French civilization—not the
chateaux, royal palaces, parks, gardens
and forests of the olden days, not the
picturesque aspects of countryside
France nor the spectacular life of
Paris, but the farm people, farm sys
tems, and farm practices of a state
four times the size of North Carolina.
What I was trying to see was the mar
velous diversities of a rich, self-suffi
cing agriculture, the farm villages, the
life in the farm homes, the ways of
marketing farm products, the inform
ing ideals of farm home and farm vil
lage life, and the relation of all these
to French civilization as a whole. And
I was quickly aware that I was puz
zling at a thing of little or no interest
to the French, namely the farm people
themselves and their ways of life.
Country life in France is not sup
posed to have any direct relation to
French civilization. Rural sociology is
not a course offered in any lycee or
college or university, church or state,
either now or at any time in the his
tory of France. In America nearly five
hundred colleges, teacher training
schools, agricultural institutions, and
universities are busy training students
to interpret the problems of country
life. But in France there are no coun
try-life problems or none worth atteti-
tion beyond those of producing crops
and animal products. Farming is a.
bread-and-meat matter in France and
nothing more. There are formal courses
in agricultural economics, but no insti
tution is offering courses that concern
human values in country areas. Nor is
it likely that any French institution of
learning will be giving itself for long
years to come to the study of French
country life and its essential relations
to French civilization.
Few Boohs on Country Life
Indeed it was hard to get anybody to
attach any meaning whatsoever to the
phrase rural social-economics. I spent
most of my time in Paris trying to get
a bibliography of the country-end of
French civilization. There are many
books on the problems of producing,
protecting, and preserving agricultural
wealth in France. The French very
well understand that farm products are
a fundamental form of wealth and that
farming is causally related to the busi
ness well being of France; but as for
French books on the social problems of
farm areas, they number barely a half-
dozen all told. The very first book on
the farm life of France was written by
Arthur Young, the English traveler,
more than a century ago, and the next
most important volume is the report
of the French Minister of Agriculture
in 1796. It concerns the distribution of
farm lands by the national conventions
during the French Revolution. But it
was impossible to secure a copy of it,
or even the reprint of some forty years
ago. One volume stands out beyond
all the rest in the rural economy of
France, and that is a book by La-
vergne, a copy of which was brought
to me by one of our Tarheel dough
boys when he returned from France in
1919. No French library has a section
on the social problems of farm areas.
There are no bibliographies in this new
field of learning. There are literally
thousands of such bibliographies in
America, but not one could I find in
print in France. Nor could 1 find any
body who would undertake to compile
such a book list for me. When I de
tailed to various librarians just what
such a list ought to contain, without
exception they threw up their hands in
despair. It seemed impossible to
get a Frenchman to understand the
meaning of rural social-economics.
It kept me thinking of the statement
repeatedly made to me that farming
has always been the least considered
and the most despised occupation in
France. Nothing is lacking in French
agriculture but country life itself—that
is to say, life lived upon such high
levels as one finds in the country homes
of Denmark.
Yards of Red Tape
It was impossible in a few months to
see French agriculture in detail, even
if it had lain wide open to observation.
And there’s the rub. Nothing in France
lies wide open to observation. Every
thing is ambushed, everything is with
drawn from prying, curious eyes
whether they be student eyes or not,
everything is hedged about by conven
tions, customs and ceremonies that
create unbelievable difficulties for the
investigator. In Germany my native-
born couriers had no difficulty what
soever in getting me into the farm
villages and the farm homes of the
peasants, the gentry, and the nobles
alike. In Denmark I needed no native
courier. I did not hesitate anywhere
in that little farm state to go right into
any farm establishment and pull the
latch-string. The Danes are hospitable,
and they are proud to show you every
thing they have in the farm homes and
on the farms, no matter what the size
of the establishment or the rank of the
farmer. But not so in France. I bad
dozens of letters of introduction, from
Governor Morrison and President Chase,
from the officials of three state com
missions, and from two of our own am
bassadors abroad. These were all mail
ed to the French Minister of Agricul
ture after a personal visit of proper
kow-towing. The letter which carried
these credentials carried also a request
for a bibliography of French books on
the social problems of rural France. I
waited six weeks for a reply.
Punctilious Conventions
I finally approached my French cour
ier for an explanation. He at once asked
me whether or not my request had gone
through our French ambassador, wheth
er or notit was written upon the required
size and quality of stationery, whether
or not it was in my own personal hand
writing, whether or not the margin on
the left was an inch and a half wide,
whether the space between the lines
was a half-inch, whether the address
and the salutation of the letter were in
accord with French conventions, and
so on through a long list of ceremonial
details. I looked at him in amazement.
You will probably get no reply from
the French Minister of Agriculture,
said he, unless all these things down to
the last detail are scrupulously cor
rect in form. And I didn’t. What I
saw of the country life of France I had
to see without any help whatsoever
from the state authorities. Life is too
short and my stay was too brief to hope
to see the country-end of things if I
followed the course of immemorial cus
tom in France. My dinner-table friend
was a Kentuckian in the nearby consu
lar offices, and he had been long enough
in France to know, said he, that if I did
not do things after the French fashion
they could not be done at all in France.
I then attempted to get into the great
libraries to compile a list of the French
volumes I wanted for our seminar li
brary in rural social-economics at the
University of North Carolina. The
librarians of the American Library
Union in Paris gave me a half-dozen
addresses and letters of introduction.
My first approach to the French libra
rians put me promptly upon notice that
I should be obliged to finger a long
line of red tape in order to handle any
single volume on any shelf anywhere,
that I must be introduced, identified,
inspected, and rubber-stamped by num
berless American and French officials.
Being presented to a book in a French
library is very like being presented to
King George in Buckingham palace. I
confess that it irritated me beyond
words. The truth is I am an American
democrat with little respect for con
ventions. In order to save time I was
finally obliged to go to an English
bookselling firm in Paris and put into
: the hands of its bibliographer a state
ment of my needs. I finally succeeded
in spending for French books on rural
social-economics about one thousand of
the five thousand francs allowed me
for the French section of our seminar
library at the University of North Caro
lina.
THE KEY TO PROSPERITY
The safety of our country and the
perpetuation of her free institutions
depend upon a great body of honest
and intelligent people, living content
edly upon the farms of the Nation.
It is tremendously important that
the banker take the lead in a united
effort by good business men in every
agricultural county in the land to co
operate with the farmer in as prac
ticable a way as may be found, that
be may again become individually
prosperous, and that the business of
farming may be put upon a basis
economically sound. Not legislation,
but intelligent cooperation.—Frank
J. Wikoff, Member Agricultural
Commission, Tenth Federal Reserve
District.
I should probably have seen very lit
tle of French farm systems, farm
homes, and farm villages if it had not
been for the help of a grand daughter-
in-law of Ulysses S. Grant, Mme.
Cecile Sartoris, the executive chief of
the College for Strangers in the Rue
Caumartin. With her assistance I estab- i
lished a working relationship with the i
French Society of Agriculture and the I
Count Francois de Vogue. I promptly j
received an itinerary that directed me
into the various farm regions of France,
and letters of introduction that gave me
entrance into particular farm homes,
farm estates, farm establishments, and
farm schools from one end of France to
the other. But even with these it was
necessary to write in advance to each
name in my itinerary, inclosing my let
ters of local introduction and my home
credentials. I was expected to arrive on
some particular train, at some partic
ular hour of some particular day; but
also I was not supposed to start until I
had received replies to my letters.
A Frenchman Talhs on France
It was SO easy to see everything in
Denmark and so difficult to see any
thing of all the things I wanted to see
in France that I could well understand
the remarks of my courier, a native
Frenchman. “Everything in France,”
said he, “is strictly private—French
homes, French businesses, French insti
tutions, and even French offices of state.
I would not say that the soul of France
is concealed*, but I will say that we
insist on living life as we please and
establishing ways, manners, and cus
toms of existence that suit ourselves,
without being exposed to inspection,
foreign or domestic. We barricade our
homes with high stone walls topped
with broken glass set in concrete, we
build our dwellings around squares or
interior courts and we barricade the
entrance doors, we live our lives within
our own courts as remote from the
outer world as though we lived in the
heart of Sahara, we barricade our busi
ness houses and when nightfall comes
we lock down gates, doors, and win
dows with sheet iron shutters; even our
public buildings are surrounded by
stone walls topped with picket fences of
iron javelins. It is impossible not to see
that France from one end to the other
is cocked and primed for defence
against mobs and revolutions, and can
get into instant readiness for any sort
of siege.” And it is necessary. I was
myself caught in two mobs, one around
the Spanish Embassy and another
around the Opera House.
“Moreover”, said he, “French con
ventions, manners and customs are ex
tremely ceremonious, for the simple
reason that behind our ceremonies there
is a proper withdrawal into privacy
Our customs smoothe out the rough
nesses of contact while our souls live
such a life of aloofness as pleases us.
Conventional correctness in manner and
even in the turning of a phrase is
everything in France. The friendships-
that I found so easily and quickly estab
lished in the American Army of Occu
pation would be almost unthinkable in
France. The casual acquaintance that
issues into a warm personal regard and
brings an invitation into the homes of
newly-made friends is one of the won
ders of English and American life. We
know almost nothing about such inti
macies in France.”
A French Banker TalKs
It is fair to say that there are excep
tions, and I chanced upon some of these
exceptions during my stay in France.
And lovely exceptions they were.
They made possible the business of my
visit in a far more liberal measure
than I had come to believe possible in
the most highly artificial civilization I
have ever known. But I should like to
illustrate further the aloof, sequestered,
I had almost said the ambushed soul of
France. For instance, it was impossi
ble for ine not to be profoundly inter
ested in the approaching political up
heaval. Signs of it were unmistakable
even to the casual stranger resident in
France in the fall of last year. My
purpose was to study country France,
but the political crisis and its causes
kept my mind busy for weeks. Finally
I sought out the foreign credit chief of
one of the great banks in Paris—a
Frenchman by name and descent but
charged with the French business of a
great foreign bank. I told^ohim my
mission in France and he received me
with stately courtesy. I should like to
know, said I, the total national debt of
France, bonded and current, the total
issue of francs at present, how far
out of balance the .state budget has
been year by year during the last ten i
years, the total revenue receipts and
the new issues of francs needed to
balance the budget during this period,
the total sum expended in the devastat
ed areas for all purposes whatsoever,
the unsettled trade balance of France,
the total loans to Poland, Jugo-Slavia,'
Czecho-Slovakia, Latvia, and other al
lies rimming Germanyfon the’east and
south. My questions brought a look of
consternation into his face. I am asking
these questions, said I,.because’, I have
seen in the French papers such a variety
of conflicting and confusing statements
that I am completely bewildered. I
should like to know the facts because
they seem to me to be causally related
to the disquieted soul of your indus
trial classes on the one hand and the
ugly humor of the farmers in the pro
vinces on the other. What the facts
are, is what I want to know.
After a moment’s silence he said.
We know the facts, of course. FiVery
banker knows the facts. He could not
safely do a banking business in France
without knowing the facts. But there
is not a banker, French or foreign,
that would be allowed to do business in
France fifteen minutes if he dared to
give the facts to the public.
And then, I said. I am completely be
wildered by the financial pages of the
French newspapers.
I do not wonder, said he. Our finan
cial pages are so different from such
pages in your American papers that it
would take hours to explain the dif
ference. There is at least something
official and authoritative in the finan
cial figures of the English and Ameri
can papers. These pages are carried
as authoritative instructions to the
investing public in England and
America, and carried without charge
as news. Nothing of the sort occurs
in any French paper. Industrial news
is paid for in a French newspaper. It
is business propaganda. It may be
purely fabricated news. It may have
no basis of business fact of any sort.
It is advertising pure -and simple. Let
the buyer beware, be buys at bis own
risk, is an accepted doctrine of business
in our stock and bond markets. It is per
fectly well known in the sacred inner'
circles of big business exactly where
France stands in public finance and in
unsettled trade balances;but the French
have no idea that it is anybody’s busi
ness but their own.
His replies to my inquiries were
conventionally correct, but they were
not enlightening.
Herriot's Dilemma
I kept working at all these inquiries
until I felt fairly sure at last that I
had my fist fairly well around the facts.
And these facts are facts of tremendous
import. They are driving Herriot like
a fiend at this very moment in the Lon
don conference. The gist of it all is
that France is lost without*at least
thirty billion gold dollars paid by the
Germans into the French treasury.
The French prime minister must not
only cover this vast total of gold into
the French treasury, but he must yield
not a franc of the reparations total and
not an inch of the ground France now
holds, without complete equivalents
guaranteed by the Allies. But what
the actual facts are that have so steeled
the French soul these last five years
nobody outside of France knows. With
out German gold in her treasury
France is bankrupt, hopelessly bank
rupt, but nobody in France appears to
know it but the prime minister and a
little group of bankers, manufacturers,
and merchants—the bu^ness clique
that holds France in the hollow of its
hand now as always during the last
half century.
I came out of France wondering
whether or not one of ray former stu
dents at the University of North Caro
lina, now a student at the Sorbonne,
was right in his statement that the
French are the Japs of Europe, and as
little to be understood by an Anglo-
Saxo^, so different are they in the es
sential things,of civilization, in nation
al traits and characteristics, in ethi
cal standards, in moods, humors, tem
pers, in manners, ways, and customs.
I have made three visits to France,
I have beenalife-longstudentofFrench
history and literature, my sympathies
are now and have always been with
France, nevertheless the longer I rub
noses with the -French the less certain
am I that I really know them.
To illustrate a single particular. All
over France I heard these things said:
“Why should we pay any war debts to
any nation? The World War was really
a war between England and (Germany.
France was an innocent bystander. The
war was fought in the main on French
soil and France suffered more than all
the rest of the allies. What we bor--
rowed from England was really spent
in ‘saving England. And why should
we pay any war debt to the United
States for loans or war materials left
in France? Didn’t your Ambassador
Harvey say that America went into the
war to save its own skin?”
Mr. Harvey, by the way, is quite
famous in France, judging from the
frequency with which he is quoted. My
conclusion is that Germany is just as
ready to pay reparations as France is
to pay war iebts, and that neither has
the sense- of satFed obligation and busi-
jiess honor that makes England essen
tially great.—E. C. Branson, New
York, March 16, 1924.
A COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM
It would be difficult to draw a more
enlightened agricultural program for
farmers in this region than was adopted
last week by the state convention of
farmers and farm women in session at
Raleigh for the farmers of North Caro
lina. Recognizing the fact that North
Carolina already takes high rank in
crop production, the resolutions adopt
ed by the convention call for the devel
opment of agricultural industry along
other lines so as to give the state a well
rounded and comprehensive farming
establishment. Among the important
objectives for which Tar Heel farmers
are urged to strive are the develop
ment of livestock raising^ the readjust
ment of cotton culture to boll weevil
conditions, the evolution of a wider and
more satisfactory forestry policy, the
creation of more adequate credit
machinery for agricultural needs, the
expansion of rural educational facilities,
the perfection of cooperative marketing
machinery and the improvement of the
state’s system of taxation.
On the theory that the problem of
road construction is already in process
of solution satisfactory to North Caro
lina’s farmers, this program would
seem to embrace every reform neces
sary to sound agricultural development.
It goes further than the agricultural
independence program which was urged
on Virginia farmers during the first
week of April, but its general purport
is the same. Activity in support of
such a program promises more bene
ficial results to any state than are 13?:^-
ly to follow from the attempt to en
courage the importation of immigrants
to reclaim waste lands, which is often
put forward-as a means of improving
agriculture in Virginia. The time for
the encouragement of immigration may
arrive later on, but the immediate need
is for reforms like those for which the
North Carolina convention is calling to
promote the interest, of farmers al
ready on the job.—Norfolk Virginian-
Pilot,