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.
FEBRUARY 2, 1927
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIII, No. 12
Editorial Boardt E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs. Jr., L. R. Wilson. E, W. Knight, I>. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt, H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24, 1912.
ELECTION PRACTICES
The topic under discussion at the last
meeting of the North Carolina Club
was that of Elections and Election Prac
tices. The paper was presented by Mr.
Paul W. Wager, secretary of the Club.
Mr. Wager began with the statement
that “the ballot is more than a piece of
paper. It is the symbol of liberty. It
is the instrument through which popular
government is realized. It is a priceless
heritage gained little by little from the
time King John made concessions to the
nobles at Runnymede until President
Wilson proclaimed the nineteenth amend
ment in 1920. The franchise is a sacred
privilege and a solemn trust, yet many
appear not to esteem the privilege nor
to respect the trust. “
He pointed out that the electorate is
the most basic of the several depart
ments of government, and it is through
the ballot that the electorate finds ex
pression. The electorate not only fills
the public offices, but indirectly it in
fluences or controls the policy of govern
ment. Where the initiative and refer
endum is in use the electorate shares
directly in shaping governmental policy.
The task of the voter has become too
burdensome, and the short ballot is be
ing suggested as a means of relief.
The speaker then described the ma
chinery of elections in
used, where seboolhouses are used as
polling places, and where women com
monly serve as election officials, with
the disgraceful conditions which often
characterize elections in North Carolina.
He said we could not expect quiet, dig
nified, honest elections so long as we
have an open ballot. He predicted that
the Australian ballot would be adopted
by the present General Assembly. The
state, he said, could not stand the shame
any longer. Nothing is more repugnant
to a citizen from another state when he
votes for the first time in this state
than to have someone looking over his
shoulder while he votes.
With minor differences there are two
types of the Australian ballot,—the
office-group type and the party-column
type. The first is known as the Massa
chusetts form and the candidates for
each office are grouped under the name
of the office. The arrangement may
be alphabetical or in the order of party
strength. The party name usually, but
not always, follows the candidate’s
name. The party-column, or Indiana,
type of ballot places all the nominations
of a party under the title and device of
such party. Sometimes there is a circle
at the head of the column, and a mark
i in the circle is a vote for the entire
! ticket. The Massachusetts ballot is the
THE NEED OF THE HOUR
What do we need to keep the nation
whole,
To guard the pillars of the State?
We need
The fine audacities of honest deed;
The homely old integrities of soul;
The swift temerities that take the
part
Of outcast right—the wisdom of the
heart.
We need the Cromwell fire to make
us feel
The common burden and the public
trust
To be a thing as sacred and august
As the white vigil where the angels
kneel.
We need the faith to go a path untrod.
The power to be alone and vote with
God.—Edwin Markham.
state boarfl ot elections, the eounty!the reason that . enconr-
Biate uoa ages independent voting and leaves no
boards of election, the precinct officers ^
Who are charged with the registration
of voters and the conduct of elections.
This was followed by an enumeration of
the qualifications for voting in this
state. The literacy test, he said, should
be rigidly applied to those who have
become voters since 1908. In other
words the constitution should be en
forced.
Absentee Voting
There seems to be considerable con
fusion, he said, as to the scope and ap
plication of the absentee voting pro
vision in the election law. Apparently
the privilege applies to two classes of
voters, and two only: (1) those who
are absent from the county, know in
advance that they will be absent, and
apply for a certificate to be signed,
witnessed and returned with their votes
on or before election day; (2) those
who are physically unable to come to
the polls and who, in sending their bal
lots or votes, accompany them with a
physician’s certificate. Absentee vot
ing is more complieated and more sus
ceptible to abuse than would be the case
if we bad the Australian ballot. Now
there are two kinds of certificates for
doubt as to the voter’s intention,
The impression prevails that there is
something difficult and mysterious about
the Australian ballot. It is called Aus
tralian because it was first used in Aus
tralia, but in reality it means no more
than a secret ballot. It is not difficult
to vote if the voter has reasonable in
telligence. The disabled and the elderly
illiterate are entitled to impartial as
sistance. The young illiterates have no
right under the constitution to enjoy
the privilege of suffrage.
Summary
In summing up Mr. Wager said: “We
have no right to boast of our democ-
culture or to secure for those engaged
in it a higher price for their products or
a larger share of the price now paid by
the consumer, or both.
Now the agricultural situation is more
satisfactory than in any other year since
1920, statistics showing an approximate
net return on capital invested in agri^
culture of 4.6 percent. The disturbing
factor now is the heavy burden of debt
under which the farmer is laboring. His
constantly recurring losses have placed
him in a position where ordinarily satis
factory returns are not sufficient. He
must be given a better return than was
required a few years ago if he is to re
gain his rightful place.
Farming is not a new business grop
ing for standards which it may follow
safely. It is older than our Government
itself, and those engaged in it know
how it should be conducted. With that
knowledge as a foundation, encourage-
; ment along several specific lines ought
to produce very helpful results.
Given a fa'i" ct'ance, farmer prom
ises to look out for himself. However^
as bankers we can aid in eliminating
waste, give counsel regarding credit,
latter died at thirty-nine; but it was as
good as won, because Grady gave his
people a social program with one hand
while he conducted blasting operations
with the other.
All the Southern states are moving
along in Grady’s wake, but the one
which bids fair to realize his ideals first
is North Carolina. North Carolina’s
progress is genuinely indigenous—of the
soil and soul. She has no Atlanta, no
Birmingham, no Chattanooga, no Miami,
no New Orleans; but she has Chapel
Hill and the University of North Caro
lina, and a host of men, like Branson,
who have seen a great light and are hot
footing after it. Along with good roads,
electric power, and growing industries.
North Carolina is pushing education and
a homely culture for “The Forgotten
Man” so well described by Walter Hines
Page in his rousing lecture of 1897.
Consequently, the State is preparing
the seed bed for the future blossoming
of the arts, which, after all, is the true
measure and test of all civilizations.
Other Southern States are marching
in the same direction. An obsession
with religious word-splitting has not
blocked that march, even in Tennessee
where Vanderbilt University’s quiet but
sufficient answer to the Scopes hullaba
loo was to open new research labora
tories. Noticeably, the work of South-
ern.agricultural and engineering colleges
grows in stature and authority year by
year, and in many quarters signs of in
tellectual and artistic renaissance mul
tiply.
The old South had its own clear voices
in Poe and Lanier; the new South will
not be quite sure of itself until it has
found expression in modes more delicate
and lasting than pig iron and horse
power. When the vision of Henry Grady
shall have been materialized in steel,
the next thing will be to sublimate it
into higher values. And in that, per
haps, the South will be more promptly
articulate than the North, for it has the
advantage of coming into industrialism
late and should profit by Northern ex
periments in the all-important matter
of adjusting the machinery of industrial
progress to the older and equally funda
mental need of men.—The Independent.
STATE AID TO COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
For Maintenance in 1924-25
Based on a report of the Federal Education Bureau, dated December 21, 1926,
giving state appropriations for state-supported colleges and universities—the
latest figures for all the states. The states are ranked on a per inhabitant basis,
using as divisors the total state populations as per the 1926 census.
On this basis North Carolina appropriated for current expenses for state
colleges and the University $1,530,000 for the year 1924-25, which was 64c per
inhabitant. Twenty-nine states appropriated more per inhabitant, ranging
from 66 cents in Ohio to $2.43 in Oregon. Six Southern states appropriated more
per inhabitant, namely, Louisiana 96c, Oklahoma 86c, South Carolina 77c,
Texas 69c, Florida 68Cj Alabama 67c.
Leaving the negroes out of the calculation, five Southern states stood ahead
of us in 1924--26 in per white inhabitant appropriations for the support of state
colleges and universities; namely, South Carolina $1.61, Louisiana $1.68, Florida
$1.06, Oklahoma $1.01, Alabama $.>.93, North Carolina $0.81. S )uth Carolina nearly
exactly doubled North Carolina. See table elsewhere in this issue.
On the basis of total appropriations for maintenance of state colleges ahd
universities the following states appropriated more than North Carolina:
Oregon, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Washington, Kansas, California, Michigan,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Indiana, Texas, Ohio, and Illinois,
which gives North Carolina the rank of 17th from the top of the column. Three
of these states were Southern, namely, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Department of Rural Social-Economics. University of North Carolina.
raev nor even to call this a democratic 1 advise on investments, urge closer rela-
country until every qualified elector : tions between the farmer and the advi-
can express through his ballot his de- sory agencies maintained for his use
liberate opinion with none to molest him encourage good farm practices, and aid
or make him afraid. Ido not believe we the farmer in carrying his crops until
can have democracy in its fullest and . such time as he desires to Bell.-. 1 strongly
best sense until we provide a system of i endorse the policy of encouraging and
minorily representation on all adminis- aiding farmers to hold tlieir crops until
Total
Per
Total
Per
appro.
inhab.
appro.
inhab.
Rank State
current
appro.
Rank State
current
appro.
exp.
exp.
1 Oregon
$2,098,462.
....$2.43
25 Texas
$3,068,663.
....$0.69
2 Nevada
184,819.
.... 2.39
26 Florida
733,592.
68
trative boards and proportional repre
sentation in all legislative bodies. I do
not believe that we can have real
democracy until merit rather than
wealth becomes the criterion of eligi-
the use of absentee voters. Certificate A bility to political office. I do not be-
is used when the voter is returning the Heve we can have effective democracy
ballots which he wishes to vote. Cer- j until the rank and file of the people are
tificate B is used when the voter has not | intelligent enough to recognize and
received any ballots and simply ex
presses a desire to vote for all the can
didates of a particular party. It is this
latter form which can be most easily
manipulated for mischievous purposes.
It is no trouble for party workers to
secure a quantity of these blank certifi
cates before election and bring them in
on election day marked with the names
of persons supposedly unavoidably ab
sent from the county. As a matter of
fact the names may be those of persons
already dead or removed from the
county, but still remaining on the poll
list. In one county in a recent election
more than four hundred absentee votes
were counted; some of the persons voted
did not exist, and few of those who did
exist were consulted.
The abuses which have attended the
operation of the absentee voting law
have led many to the conclusion that
absentee voting should not be permitted
at all. The speaker said he did not
share that view. There are thousands
of teachers, students, and traveling
salesmen who would thus be deprived of
their votes. This would be unjust, un
democratic, and unnecessary. What we
do need is first the Australian ballot,
and then a law similar to the New York
law which permits none to vote except
those who make affidavit in advance
that they will be unable to come to the
polls on election day, and who receive
and return their ballots through the
mail.
Secret Ballot
The speaker then contrasted the
orderliness and dignity of a New York
election where the Australian ballpt is
annihilate every demagogue that dares
to raise his head. It will take more
than a clean election and a secret ballot
to produce a snecessful democracy, but
these must be our first objectives. Let
us insist on these six requirements as
a minimum:
1. Men and women of ability and
character on the county boards of elec
tion.
2. Frequent purging of the registra
tion lists.
3. A more restricted absentee voting
law, and that rigidly enforced.
4. Clean, comfortable polling places
with intelligent men and women in
charge.
6. Rigid and impartial application of
the literacy test.
6. A state-wide Australian ballot,
preferably of the Massachusetts variety.
favorable markets offer.
There should be the same community }
of interest between banking and agri-1
3 Colorado 1,707,310 1.64 27 Alabama 1,411,825 67
4 Wyoming • 342,600 1.60'28 West Virginia 920,000 66
5 Idaho 764,828 1.49'29 Ohio 3,617,286..
0 lo^a^ 3,423,692 1.42-130 North Carolina 1,530,000
7 Nebraska.! 1.819,133 1.33,31 Illinoisl^ 3,dl6,516..
culture as there is between banking and j 7 Washington 2,014,839 1.33 | 31 Maine. ^on^nn"
industry 9 South Dakota 869,860 1.26 ' S3 New Mexico 190,600..
^ ! in TTi-cL> 614 500 1.22:34 Virginia 931,016..
Our efforts to establish that relation- NorUi Dakota’!.’!.’.’ L21 Ise Missouri 1,210,000..
ship will go a Jong way toward enabling l 2,092,026 1.16'36 Mississippi 479,675 27
the farmer to accomplish his own rehab- California 4.661,110 1.09 36 Tennessee 666,886 27
.65
.54
.•61
.61
.60
.38
.36
ilitation and regain and maintain his
14 Michigan 4,625,798 1.08 38 Vermont!,..
92,163..
American independence. No “'■her : jg ’466!867 1.07 1 38 Arkansas 480,000,
AGRICULTURE ® INDUSTRY
Balancing agriculture and industry
means the attainment of a position in
which those engaged-in agriculture will
receive from their labor and from their
investments rewards approximating
those which flow from industry.
Despite the increase of about 10,000,
000 people in the United States in five
years, 1920-26, the number of tilled
farms decreased slightly, farm popula
tion lessened about 8 percent and the
value of farm products dropped 36 per
cent from the high-price year of 1919.
Of these, we are disturbed over the
great reduction in the value of the crop
in 1926. Ways must be found to either
reduce the overhead expenses of agri-
course would be more satisfactory to
agriculture, and no other course offers
greater possibiliiies.—J. Eiwood Cox, in
Banker-Farmer.
THE NEW SOUTH
Henry W. Grady has been dead nearly I
forty years, but his works live after
him. Every skyscraper which rises in '
those astonishing cities of the new j
South is in a real sense a monument to
Grady and his genius. If ever the spirit
of man conceived and brought forth a
vast social change, Grady did. He
named the “New South’’ in his famous
address before the New England Society
in New York in 1886, and in the few
feverishly active years left to him gave
his bantling a program which is now
swiftly coming to a rich fruition.
In nearly every social about face there
are commonly two leaders—one who
tears down and another who builds up.
Sam Adams and Washington, Rousseau
and Napoleon, Pym and Cromwell.
Grady managed both jobs. First, he
gave a death wound to the unrecon
structed Southerner, that statuesque
figure who could not forget and would
not forgive. Grady laughed this sec
tional ideal down. It has been a long
time dying and occasionally still stirs in
its grave; nevertheless, Grady’s barbs
stuck. Then he took up the task of
supplying a new ideal—material and
social progress as part of a united
nation. The fight between the old South
of Colonel Carter and the new South of
Henry Grady was not yet over when the
26
.26
16 Minnesota 2,741,976 1.05.40 Maryland 369,295 24
17 Wisconsin 2,361,392 97 ; 41 Kentucky 577,800 .23
18 Louisiana 1,825,000 .96'42 Massachusetts 736,427 18
19 Montana' 608,985 .91542 Rhode Island 126,000 18
20 Oklahoma 1,963,160 86 44 Connecticut 236,305 16
21 South Carolina 1,394,108 77,44 Georgia^ 466,526 16
22 Delaware 179,000 76,46 New Jersey 482,949 14
22 Indiana 2,297,829 76 47 New York” 1,232,010 11
24 New Hampshire... 331,396 73 48 Pennsylvania'' 812,226 09
1 Data in part for 1923-24. - For agriculture and forestry alone,
estry alone.
' For for-
IN THE SOUTH
State Aid to State Colleges and Universities in the South
for Maintenance in 1924-25.
.States ranked by appropriations, per white inhabitants alone. Figures based
on a report of the Federal Education Bureau and the 1926 census of population.
Three Southern states are ahead of North Carolina in total appropriations
for current expenses (Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas); South Carolina and
Alabama nearly equal us. On a per white-inhabitant basis five states stand
ahead of us, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama.
Rank States Total appropriations for Per white inhab.
current expenses for current expenses
South Carolina $1,394,108 $1.61
Louisiana 1,826,000
Florida 733,692
Oklahoma 1,963,160
Alabama 1,411,826
North Carolina 1,530,000
'Pgxas 3,068,663 65
Mississippi 479,675 66
Virginia 931,016.. .66
Arkansas 480,000 36
Tennessee 665,886 34
Georgia 466,626 26
Kentucky 677,800 25
1.58
1.05
1.01
.93
, .81