The news in this pubii-
cation is reieased 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.
APRIL 29, 1925
CHAPEL HILL, N C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XI, NO. 24
Editorial Board: E. C. Branaon, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson, E. W. Knif?ht, D. D. Carroll^ J. B. Bullitt, H. W. Odure
Entered as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24, 1912 ■
6. WATER QUALITY
Previous articles on our water re
sources have dealt chiefly with meas
urement of stream flow and the divel-
opment of water power. The collec
tion of accurate data relating to the
power producing capacities of our
streams is clearly of economic impor
tance, and bears a direct relation to
the industrial growth of the state.
The quality of our surface waters is a
less spectacular subject for discussion,
but it may be shown that this too
should be a matter of public concern
from materialistic standpoints of at
tractiveness to industry and growing
urbanization.
Quality Defined
First, let us define water quality.
To do this we must state the use to
which the water is to be put. Is it to
be used in manufacturing, or is it to be
used as a public water supply, or is it
to be used for both purposes? The
manufacturer usually wants a cheap,
clear, soft, colorless water. The muni
cipality would like this too, and in addi
tion wants it pure. These five require
ments are practically never found to
gether in surface waters of the Pied
mont and CoastalJ’lains regions, and
rarely are any two of them found to
gether. Yet most of our largest cities
are in these regions, and they are all
provided with a water supply that is
satisfactory for drinking purposes.
How is this provided for?
Treating Waters
Fortunately we do not have in North
Carolina any surface waters which are
very “hard”, that is which contain
large amounts of calcium or magne
sium in solution. Our surface waters
of the Piedmont usually carry sediment
in suspension and are to some degree
polluted with drainage from human
habitations. In the Coastal Plains
district the waters are usually colored
from organic material from swamps.
Neither color nor sediment is harmful
in drinking water, but we will not
drink water so affected, and it must be
removed. Con.sequently every large
town and city in the Piedmont or
Coastal Plains region treats and filters
the water from any surface source
which is used for domestic supply.
This treatment and filtration makes
the water free from color, sediment,
and pollution, and renders it attractive
and safe to drink.
Need Soft Clear Water
Manifestly it costs money to produce
a clear, colorless, and safe water for
domestic use in our Piedmont and
Coastal Plains cities. The manufac
turer who uses large quantities of
water does not want to pay excessive
ly for it. Moreover, the treatment
process changes the chemical composi
tion of the water and makes it less
satisfactory tor use in boilers and for
general industrial uses than the un
treated water. For these two reasons
large industries located in the Pied
mont and Coastal Plains cities usually
have an independent private source of
water supply which they use for manu
facturing purposes. Even these un
treated surface waters however are
too “hard” for satisfactory use in
many of the newer industrial processes
developing in North Carolina, such as
dying, artificial silk manufacture, pa
per and tannery manufactures, bleach
ing, etc. For these purposes an ex
tremely soft water is needed. Hence,
where such industries are located in
the Piedmont region they generally
have to equip themselves with appara
tus to soften the water they use, and
this of course costs money. In the
Coastal Plains region the surface wa
ters are often soft, but they are highly
colored, and the removal of the color
introduces added costs in order to pro
duce a clear, soft water for manufac
turing uses.
Western Carolina Supreme
In western North Carolina the sur
face waters are clear, usually practi
cally colorless, usually much less con
taminated than waters to the east,
and, best of all for industrial purposes,
they are extremely soft and usually
require no artificial treatment of any
kind for use in even the most delicate
manufacturing process. Moreover,
these are generally mountain waters
and can be piped direct to the manu
facturing establishment without re
quiring the expense of pumping. Con
sequently the manufacturing establish
ment requiring a clear, cheap, color
less, soft water can get it best in
western North Carolina, and such wa
ters are to be found there more abun
dantly and of better quality than al
most anywhere else in eastern United
States. By the same token, the muni
cipality in western North Carolina can
get this s^ame kind of water, and, not
having to pump it (and often" not hav
ing to filter it) is in a splendid position
to offer strong inducements to indus
tries. The combination of cheap pow
er, cheap and excellent quality water, of North Carolina is making progress
THE KEY
The community’s duty to educa
tion is its paramount moral duty.
By law and punishment society can
regulate and form itself in a hap
hazard and chance way. Through
education society can formulate its
own purposes, can organize its own
means and resources, and can shape
itself with definiteness and economy.
It is the^business of every one in
terested in education to insist upon
the school as the primary and most
effective interest of social progress.
The art of giving shape to human
powers is the supreme art.—John
Dewey.
and cheap labor should make ..western
North Carolina extremely attractive
to industries whose r^uirements as^to
water supply are difficult to meet.
Exhaustive Survey Is Needed
The State Geological Survey (now
the Department of Conservation and
Development) began some time’ ago a
thorough investigation into the chemi-
j cal quality of the surface waters of the
state, because this was known to be of
such importance to manufacturers.
In cooperation with the Schools of En
gineering and Chemistry at the State
University, the United States Geologi
cal Survey, and Western North Caro
lina, Inc., a rapid survey of the surface
waters of western North Carolina is
being completed, and the ;results will
be published in a bulletin. Later, as
funds become available and data are
collected, a more extensive publication
will be issued, giving authoritative in
formation upon the quality of surface
waters over the entire state.—Thorn
dike Saville.
NOTED VISITORS
Three visitors of more than or
dinary prominence—Governor Whitfield
of Mississippi, President Melton of the
University of South Carolina, and Wil
liam Allen White, the Kansas editor,
left here today to return to their re
spective states, and before going they
granted interviews that told of impres
sions of North Carolina and its Univer
sity as gained from their visit here
and elsewhere in the state.
All three expressed the greatest ad-
along the right lines, and he could
foresee no backward step. North Ca
rolina’s university, he said, is already
largely recognized as a model by other
institutions in the South.
William Alien White
William Allen White finds North Ca
rolina to be the “fruitage of the new
South,.” After enumerating what he
considers the state’s many advantages,
he added:
“You will have the greatest indus
trial civilization in the world, if;
only you have sense enough to keep '
your educational development going'
so that wiien the tremendous in
dustrial problems come up, as they
must arise here in the next two de
cades, you will have a wise electorate
to consider the questions and will not
be fooled by the demagogues that ap
peal to the hill billies like those of
South Carolina nor the demagogues
who inflame the passions of the Rotari-
ans and chambers of commerce like the
plutocratic demagogues of Florida.
“Education will create a public
opinion which will establish justice.
And unless you do conduct your civili
zation here justly, it will not prosper
in the long run. An educated voter
is the only salvation of the North Ca
rolina situation. Without it you will
have seasons of political confusion and
calamity that will make all the fruits
of your prosperity ashes in yonr
bands.
“You have here one of the finest
universities in the country. It is and
should always be the common center
of culture radiating to all parts of the
miration for the state—its people, its * commonwealth. And the best thing
good roads, its educational progress, ! about it is that it is free to search for
its industrial growth and other si^ns \
of greatness, but what seemed to im-1
press them most was the state’s abili-' fruitage of the new South. I’or
LITERARY MAGAZINES
From preceding articles that have"
appeared in the News Letter it has
been shown that in reading 47 magi
zines of national prominence, having a
combined circulation of 26,628,797,
there are great differences in the read
ing proclivities of the various states,
with the people of some states reading
nearly seven times as extensively as
those of others.
Where We Rank
The circulation of the 47 magazines
give.s an accurate cross section of the
reading propensities of different states
and although the data, on reading in
cluded the circulation of only 47 promi
nent magazines, these magazines have a
nation-wide circulation, and the relative
rank of the states w’ould be affected at
most only slightly if all printed mat
ter, books, magazines, newspapers,
and miscellaneous publications, were
considered. In the ratio of the number
of copies of maga&ines circulated "to
population North Carolina ranks 43rd
in reading the 47 magazines, 43rd in
reading women’s magazines, 43rd in
reading general magazines, 43rd in
reading national weeklies, 41st
reading “class” publications, and 4^th
‘You have here in North Carolina
things in the
ty to do even greater
future.
Governor Whitfield
Governor Whitfield, Mississippi’s
chief executive since the first of the
year and elected to the position over
the machine candidate, came to North,
Carolina for the sole purpose of study
ing the methods employed in solving
the, social and industrial problejn^ of
the state. Governor Whitfield is now
engaged in a study of Mississippi’s
problems, and he wanted to see how
North Carolina had solved them so
well. He wants his state to completely
reorganize its social and'industrial pro
gram. He presided over one of the
sessions of the executive Conference of
the Southern Social Science Teachers
and took an active part in all sessions,
remaining here several days. He visit
ed Governor McLean in Raleigh and
brought back some fine stories about
the North Carolina executive.
Governor Whitfield came here to
learn for the benefit of his native
state, and he says he is carrying back
home some stories about progress that
are destined to stir Mississippians to
action.
President'Melton
President Melton, head of South Ca
rolina’s University, found the state in
stitution here at Chapel Hill so much
to his liking that he would put it above
everything else in the South, and in
making the remark he recalled that he
was an alumnus of Virginia. He was
firm in the belief that the University
forty years, ever since Henry W.
Grady detected signs of new life in the
South, that life has been slowly blos
soming. But here in North Carolina,
here particularly in the industrial re
gion from Raleigh to Greensboro, Win
ston-Salem, High Point, Charlotte,—
is the first fruit of a new order. It is
an industrial section unhampered by
the bad traditions of the lyth century.
Of course the North Carolina region
has many bad customs brought
from England. But they are not root
ed here. Here change for the better
may come without serious injustice to
anyone and the new South will be able
to work out its problems long before
New England.
Educated Voters
You have more things in this North
Carolina region that will make a good
civilization than any other state of the
South or West has. You have a good
all the year climate, enough rain, fer
tile soil, when it is wisely cropped, a
diversity of possible crops, vast water
power—which by the way ^ you should
control absolutely—and a commercial
position such that with just railroad
rates you can put your produce and man
ufactured goods into the Eastern cities,
the Western farms, and the Northern
markets for fruit and vegetables at a j
distinct advantage over any other'
state of the Union. j
“When your idle land is reclaimed, '
your acres planted wisely and your
water power harnessed equitably, you
will have the greatest industrial civili-'
zation in the world if only you have !
educated voters.” |
Mountain groups, about twice as mu^^
as those of the Middle Atlantic and
Middle Western states, and about four
times as much as the people of the en
tire South.
In looking over the table one won
ders at some of its revelations. The
lieople of California read seven and^
one-half times as much as those of
Mississippi, and five times as much as
those of North Carolina. Does Cali
fornia’s state-wide system of county-
libraries explain or help to explain her
high rank? Florida, a Southern state,
occupies a position far above that of
her neighbor.^, ranking 17th, while'
West Virginia,- the next highest South
ern state, ranks 35th.
Quantity and Quality
It is important to know that there
are differences, great differences, in
the quantity, and also perhaps in the
quality, of reading habits of people
of different states, or of groups of
states. North Carolina ranks 44th in
reading “literary” magazines, but 37th
in the reading of the True Story type
of magazine! It is well for educators,
statesmen, and public-spirited citizens
to notice that the people of some -sec
tions Tea.& very little in comparison
with people in other sections. Unques
tionably reading is the greatest of
educative forces, for it is applicable
to all ages, areas, and seasons. Through
it the great masses are reached;
through it people become more inter
ested in industry, more interested in
public affairs, and more competent to
carry on, as Homer calls it, the battle
of life.
North Carolina ranks low as a read
ing state and we must begin at once
to improve our habits and our standing
among the states of the Union.—
Orlando Stone.
in reading “literary magazines.”
r- '
Our Rank Forty-Fourth
To come at the study from a slightly
different angle, it might be interesting
to note the relative position of North
Carolina and the other states and geo
graphic areas in reading what some
call the literary magazines. It might
be said that magazines cannot be defi
nitely classified, as no distinct line
of demarcation can be drawn between
many magazines.
The table below gives the rank of
states in reading the so-called “liter
ary magazines.” It is self-explanatory,
California ranks first with one copy in
circulation for every 14.30 inhabitants,
and Mississippi comes last with one
copy for every 107.75 inhabitants.
North Carolina ranks 44th with one
copy for every 72.19 inhabitants, while
the average for the United States is
one copy for every 35.09 inhabitants.
The Far West Leads .
The Far West easily outranks other
sections of the country, it being noted
that the first six states are western
states. The New England states rank
second; then come the Mountain, Mid
dle Atlantic, and Middle Western
states, respectively, and the South' 317.
brings up the rear. The people of the | In 1023 the manufacturers’ special tax
Far West read about forty percent j on cigarette paners and tubes, was
more than those of New England and ' $365,480; in 1924 it was $451,673.
TOBACCO TAXES
North Carolina tops the list of states
in the amount of internal revenue
taxes paid on cigarettes both in 1923
and 1924, likewise as to manufactured
tobacco, and in the total of tobacco and
tobacco manufactures’ tax. The In
ternal Revenue Bureau issued today a
comparative statement which shoyvs
that in the calendar year 1923 the
cigarette tax paid by North Carolina
was $110,060,176, and in 1924 it was
$117,951,009.
The manufactured tobacco tax for
1923 was $20,654,474; for 1924 it was
$21,332,982.
The total tobacco tobacco manu
factures’ tax in the state for 1923 was
$131,062,426, and in 1924 it was $139-
852,883. -
In 1923 the cigar tax for the state
was $92,296, while hi 1924 it was $117,-
DOES NORTH CAROLINA BEAD
Distribution of Literary Magazines in 1924
The following table, showing the rank of the states as readers of eleven
leading so-called “literary” magazines, is derived by dividing the total 1924
circulation of these magazines in each state by the 1920 census of population. '
California leads with 14.30 inhabitants per literary magazine, and Mississip
pi comes last with 107.75 inhabitants per literary magazine. North Carolina
ranks 44th with one literary magazine coming into the state for e\Ary 72.19
inhabitants.
U. S. average, one literary magazine for every 35.09 inhabitants.
The magazines upon whose circulation this study is based are: American
Review of Reviews, Atlantic Monthly, Century, Collier’s Weekly, Current
Opinion, Harper’s Magazine, Independent, Literary Digest, Outlook, Scribner’s
Magazine, and World’s Work.
Orlando Stone, Research Fellow
Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina
Rank States Inhabitants'
per Magazine
1 California 14.30
2 Washington 20.16
3 Oregon 20.33
4 Nevada 20.98
6 Wyoming 22.31
6 Colorado 22.66
7 New Hampshire 24.23
8 Connecticut 24.854
9 Massachusetts 24.857
10 Maine 26.69
11 Ohio 28.16
12 Vermont 28.35
13 New Jersey 29.94
14 Idaho 30.06
16 Utah .. ^. s 30.65
16 Michigan 30.66
17 Florida 30.71
18 Rhode Island 31.09
19 Montana 31.12
20 New Mexico '31.14
21 Arizona 31.69
22 New York 31.87
23 Minnesota..... 32.87
24 Pennsylvania 33.48
Rank States Inhabitants
per Magazine
25 Nebraska 34.00
26 Indiana J 34.05
27 Iowa . 34.17
28 Wisconsin 34,27
29 Illinois 35.23
30 Delaware 35.77
31 Maryian^l 36.S5
32 Kansas 39.98
33 Missouri 44.46
34 South, Dakota 46.76
36 West Virginia 48.96
36 Virginia 49.21
37 Texas 54.29
38 North pakota 56,01
39 Oklahoma 57.38
40 Louisiana 68.73
41 South Carolina 67.28
42 Kentucky 68,65
43 Tennessee 70.23
44 North Carolina 72.19
45 Alabama 74.20
46 Arkansas 88.05
47 Georgia "98.12
48 Mississippi 107.75