The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSl-TY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
MARCH .30,, 1927
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
niE UNIVEKSITY OF NORTH CAROUN.-V PRESS
VOL. XIII, No. 20
Kdi^orlat E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll. J. B. Bullitt. H. W. Odum.
Entorc-d as second-class matter November 14. 1914. at the FostofFice at Chapel Hill. N. C., under the act of August 24. 1912.
DEATH KATE DECLINES
The recent report oj" the Bureau of
Vital Statistics, State Board of Health,
carries some interesting data regard
ing the decline in death rates from
typhoid f'^ver and tuberculosis during
the last decade or so. Typhoid was
once a common and much dreaded dis
ease. It is seldom found today. Within
a few years it will be almost entirely
eliminated in North Carolina, judging
by the progress that has been made
during the last few years. Typhoid
fever is largely the result of ignorance,
carelessness, and filth.- One can be ren
dered practically immune by vaccina
tion.
The death rate from tuberculosis has
been reduced by nearly half during the
last decade Once regarded as the‘White
Plague’, it now threatens the negroes
far mor-i seriously than it does the
whites. The death rate from tuber
culosis li three times as high for -ne-
f'roes as whites. The negro seems
to be far more susceptible to tuberc^u-
k)sis, piieiimonia, and broncho-pneumonia
than wnites, and it is to the interest of
whites that more attention be given to
the prevention of tuberculosis among
negroes, and to the proper care-of those
afflicted.
The following table shows the death
rates from typhoid and tuberculosis by
years from 1914 to 1925 inclusive.
What has been accomplished is highly
gratifying, and should encourage us to
carry on with renewed energy.
Typhoid Tuberculosis
death rate death rate
Year per 100,000 per 100,000
population population
1914 36.8 139.3
1915 81.3 156.4
1916 29.1 146.3
1917 '. 30.2 141.6
1918 22.2 137.6
1919 17.0 120.3
1920 12.6 113.6
1921 11.7 101.0
1922 11.2 97.6
1923 9,9 94.7
1924 9.9.... 99.1
1925 9.8 89.0
/
COUNTY TAX RELIEF
The General Assembly which has
just adjourned enacted several pieces
of legislation which will benefit the
rural taxpayer.
The increase in the school equalizing
fund from $1,600,OOoAo $3,260,000 will
materially relieve the county school tax
burden. By more than doubling the
equalizing fund it will be possible for
the state to assume approximately one-
fourth of the cost of the six-montbs
term in about eighty-five counties.
Even more important, the fund is
now large enough really to begin to
equalize the school burden (in the
counties which share in it). The new
act provides that each county which
shares in the fund must first levy
a forty-cent tax on a fair valua
tion, and that the balance of the cost
of a si.x-months term will be assumed
by the Slate. It is hoped that a uni
form standard of valuation will be used
in all the counties in the 1927 revalua
tion. But if some counties try to take
advantage of the situation by under
valuing their property the equalizing
fund will not be distributed on those
figures but on the basis of an adjust
ment made by the State Board of
Equalization.
Another gain for the counties is the
further expansion of the state highway
system. The state proposes to takeover
immediately and maintain 600 additional
miles of highways. These are always the
main traveled higbways,so that the gain
to the county is really more than the
mileage indicates. The counties un
doubtedly gain more by this method
than would be gained by additional
gasoline or license taxes for the use of
the county.
The increase of $20,000 in the
Mothers’ Aid Fund assists the counties
by that much in poor relief. The en
largement of the state institutions for
delinquents reduces the number of such
individuals to be maintained by the
counties. The appointment of addition
al superior judges permits special terms
of court where there are congested
dockets, and this reduces the jail popu-
I lation and thus means a saving to the
county.
Perphaps the greatest saving to the
tax-payers will be that which results
from improved methods of county ad
ministration. The General Assembly
enacted laws which make it mandatory
for the counties to operate on a budget
basis, to keep proper accounts, to keep
a more adequate record of taxables, to
limit to necessities bond issues without
a vote of the people, and to inaugurate
in general an adequate system of fiscal
control. Another act permits counties
I on their own initiative to employ a
[ county manager or take such other
I steps in the direction of business ef-
j ficiency as they deem desirable. These
i so-called county government bills will
be analyzed more fully in subsequent
issues of the News Letter.--Paul W.
Wager.
THE ROAD TO CULTURE
; The seat of culture is the skull, and
, not the school. Simple enough the
I saying is, scarce calling for proof..
; Yet many there be who ignore it.
I School is an admirable convenience.
; Yet at best it is but a place where one
i may educate himself, if he choose. Or
; rather, it is where one may begin
; educating himself. For education is a
i coniinuing process so long as the brain
I fiber holds out to burn.
The delusion lurks about that school-
I ing is scholarship, and bookishness is
; brain-power. There is little enough in
1 it, but yet enough to account for much
I that is wrong and much that gets
I wrong with schools of communities and
with schooling of individuals.
We can't get on without schools.
Nobody in his senses would have us try.
And books are even more indispensable.
Without them each age would have to
start afresh, unlettered and unled.
Books gather up the deeds and the
aspirations of the past for oUr instruc
tion and admonition. So may we begin
where philosophers and statesmen left
off and build with a sureness born of
their travail.
But slavery to books begets slavish
ness only. It binds one to the doorpost
of wisdom’s house, yet denies him a
place in the household of the wise.
And whoso goes to school as to a
warehouse where he may be laden with
learning in so long a time goes on a
fool’s errand and will receive a fool’s
burden for his pains.
Bigger than the book—if we except
the Book of Books—is the man who
reads it. Bigger than the school is he
who presides over it.
'Books are the tools and the schoi^ is
the shop. Except as the prentices
learn there the will to learn, both they
and the masti'r of the Ishop labor in
vain.
The teacher guides his pupil. But
he can not carry him. Hand-in-hand
they set out to come at the truth, the
teacher a iittie way in front, to be
sure, because he has been that way
before. But every man must make
his own footing and stand in his -own
tracks.
Truth is wonderfully alluring and
wonderfully discouraging. It chal
lenges and it flees away. It startles
us with the suddenness of its popping
out of hiding. In exasperates us with
the obstinacy of its secretivene&s. The
curiosity to seek it, the constancy to
pursue it, and the courage to face it
when haply it is found—herein is tlie
stuff to make learning of. And the
greatest of these is courage.—Morning
News, Dallas, Texas.
TEN MOST BEAUTIFUL
The winning reply to the question
“^Vhat are the ten most beautiful
things in North Carolina?” is the
following by Ronald B, Wilson, of
Raleigh:
1. The rolling valleys and hills^
.heaped upon hills, clothed in the
riotous colors of mid-October, as
se^ from the sheer cliff of two
thousand feet on Whiteside Moun
tain in Jackson County.
2. A December sunset from the
sleeping verandahs of the sanatorium
■for the tuberculous, located in the
midst of the Sandhills.
3. The arboretum at the Univer
sity of North Carolina in early May,
which is not only a place of beauty
but also an inspiring demonstration
of what man can do as a co-laborer
with God.
4. Linville falls, probably its
best in Jane when the water cofhes
leaping forth from a tunnel of rho
dodendron and azalea in full bloom.
6. Shadows on Lake Waccamaw
in the ^usk of a lazy day in late
June.
The peach orchards of the Sand
hills in full bloom, against a back?
ground of the most delicate green in
nature, preferably seen along the
twenty-five miles from iiiscoe to
Pinehurst.
7. Oyster fleet at dawn on Pam
lico Sound, in the Indian summer of
early November, with the snow-
white sails silhouetted against the
green of the water and the blue of
the sky.
8. The 'porticoes of the State
Capitol.
9. Exterior of (fflrist Church,
Raleigh.
10. The living spirit of Ed Graham,
which here, * there, and yonder in
North Carolina may be glimpsed
flaming in the souls of some of those
who knew and loved this man.—
From Incidentally, News and
Observer.
North Carolina. Here are great vari
eties of flowers, the colorful rhodo
dendron striking a major note as it
bathes the hillside in tones of palest
lavender. Streams come rollicking down
the ravines, c churning white under a
waterfall where music plays the live
long day, sculpturing gnomish faces in
their rocks and edging them with moss
of diamond-flecked green.
Along the beaches are wind-swept
sand dunes set with fragant pines,
bowing before a capricious breeze.
Here the old North State gleams
majestically in the rising sun at the
end oX a dappled path of gold. —Chris
tian Science Monitor.
LONGER LIVES-AND BETTER
There is a more widespread interest
' in the fundamental principles of health
1 than ever before. And there is less
I interest in faddism. Instead of remain-
j ing purely a sewing-circle topic for
I those who have lost their health and
! are attempting to regain it, health is
1 taking the , forefront in schools, in
magazines, in homes. The medical
profession, long enjoying its cloak of
mystery, has of late years come to life
and is taking the lead in fostering sane
views of how to live happily. It is
only as the medical profession thus
serves that it will survive and prosper.
Having, by brilliant work in research,
; in practice, and in education, succeeded
in greatly lowering the rate of infant
mortality, therapeutics turned its at
tention to the other major problem of
lengthening the work-life of mankind.
, And here, too, success is well on the
way. Gradually, the years are being
added. They are not being added be-
’ cause of heroic remedies applied at the
deathbed, but because of sensible
: measures applied in youth and in mid
dle age.
By slow degrees, we are learning
: that the cleaner lives we live, the
' longer is our expectation. We are
j beginning to see that bodily abuses and
! excesses constitute their own form of
punishment. The more exemplary our
^ lives, the more composed our consciences
, and the greater the likelihood of attain-
; ing a ripe old ^ge. Furthermore, the
I sleep we give ourselves to-day, the
; rational diet we follow now, will bless
i us through myriad to-morrows,
I Health is the natural concomitant of
I right living. And the best part about
healthy, right living is that it results in
maximum satisfaction every day.
Health means work at its best and play '
at its best. Its present enhanced
popularity is one of the most hopeful
signs of this civilization. —Holland’s
Magazine..
WHITE AND NEGRO DEATH HATES. 1925
Per One Thousand Population
In the table below, based on the annual report of the Bureau of Vital Sta
tistics, North Carolina State Board of Health, covering the year 1925, the coun
ties are ranked according to the white death rate per one thousand white
population. The parallel column gives the negro death rate per one thousand
negroes. - ^
i Graham county had the lowest white death rate with 4.6 deaths per 1,000
j white population. Scotland had the highest white death rate with 16.2 deaths
jper 1,000 white population.
I Alleghany had the lowest negro death rate with 3.0 deaths per 1,000
j negroes, and Durham the highest negro death rate, with 27.6 per 1,000 negroes.
I The rate for counties with very few negroes is not reliable.
State total of white deaths 19,681 and state white death rate 9.9 per 1,000
white population.
State total of negro deaths 12,656 and state negro death rate 15.2 per 1,000
negroes. The negro death rate exceeds the white in eighty-three counties of
the state.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
does not know cotton. He thinks in
terms of grains, milk, butter, chickens
and eggs. He is thrifty and does not
know how to live 366 days on 100 days’
work. The new South may be long in
the making, but a new South is coming.
The North, the Middle West, and the
West have had. their big ftooms. The
next big boom will be in the South.
The wise man will plan for it.”—
Gastonia Gazette.
NEXT BIG BOOM
The Dillon Herald calling attention
to the movement of 4C0 Swedish and
German families from Ohio and Wis
consin into Florida, predicts that in
this migration is the beginning of the
real development of the South. The
Herald says:
‘New blood is what the South needs.
New blood brings new ideas. We have
been trained though generations to
think in terms of cotton. Our system
of agriculture has been built on cotton.
It is bard to tnrow off the habits
acquired through several generations.
The Swede or German from the West
RICH IN SCENERY
The beauty of North Carolina, from
its undulating plains and sand dunes on
the Atlantic Coast to its color-bathed
mountains in the west, is a bewildering
beauty that one must feel through re
alization, as, standing on the command
ing Mitch’^11, one looks out upon a
glorious horizon of ever-changing, rip
pling hues. In the east they call it
“the land of enchanting waters;” in the
w'est ‘‘the land of the sky; in the Sand
hills ‘‘the nation’s playground,” and,
combining these thoughts, North Caro
linians in other parts of the world refer
to their state as “down home.”
Rarely does one find such elemental
beauty, no matter where the trail
leads, as in North Carolina. Nature
appears always in a joyous mood.
Resting upon the heights of Mount
Mitchell, the highest peak east of the
Rocky Mountains, one is impressed with
the consciousness of looking down upon
the world; an experience felt as one of
the most wonderful and inspiring
possible to man, giving an exhilaration
of thought and new revelation to the
sense. As Thomas Dixon, distinguished
North Carolina author, expresses it,
“Looking down upon miles of lesser
mountains, hills, valleys, farms, and
houses that stretch away into the haze
of the sky line, we feel our kinship
with the divine.”
Nature seems to have expressed her
self in a masterpiece in the forests of
White
Negro
White
Negro
death
death
death
death
Rank County
rate
rate
Rank County
rate
rate
per 1,000
per 1,000
per 1,000
per 1,000
whites
negroes
whites
negroes
1 Graham
.. 4.6
—
51 Davie
.. 9.7
14.2
2 Yancey
.. 6.0
13.3
52 Iredell
.. 9.8
15.7
3 Transylvania
.. 6.8
6.3
63 Granville
.. 9.9
10.6
4 Hyde
.. 6.0,.'.
9.1
64 Carteret.
..10.0
19.1
6 Clay
... 6.6
26.2
64 Onslow’
..10.0
9.5
6 Cherokee ......
.. 6.9
8.1
64 Polk
..10.0
12.3
7 Stanly
.. 7.1
12.6
64 Washington ..
..10.0
18.3
7 Swain
.. 7.1
18.8
58 Franklin
..10.1
14.1
9 Brunswick
.. 7.2
10.7
68 Greene
. 10.1
9.5
10 Alleghany
.. 7.3
3.0
68 Richmond
..10.1
14.8
10 Camden
.. 7.3
16.0
61 Gaston
..10.2
16.8
12 Haywood
.. 7.4
12:6
62 Lee
..10.3
16.0
12 Watauga
.. 7.4
17.6 ■
62 Rutherford...-
..10.3
13.3
14 Ashe
.. 7.8
10.4
64 Craven
..10.6
20.0
14 Moore
.. 7.8
12.3
16 Catawba
. 8.0
20.6
66 Chowan
..10.6
19.2
]6 Hoke
.. 8.0...;
'17.4
66 Randolph
..10.6
14.4
18 Harnett
.. 8.1
11.7
68 Alexander
..10.7
13.9
19 Bladen
. 8.2
14.2
69 Duplin
..10.8
10.2
19 Cleveland
. 8.2
12.9
69 Jones
.10.8
'8.9
19 McDowell
.. 8 2
17.8
69 Warren
..10.8
14.0
19 Montgomery..
.. 8.2
16.4
72 Jackson
..10.9
6.2
23 Rockingham..
..8.2
14.6
72 Mecklenburg .
.10.9
20.2
24 Alamance
.. 8.4
11.6
72 Robeson
..10.9
12.1
24 Caswell
.. 8.4
10.7
72 Tyrrell
.10.9
12.8
26 Mitchell
.. 8.6
—
76 Surry
..11.0
20,3
26 Rowan
. 8.6
16.9
77 Martin
.11.1
15.3
26 Stokes
.. 8.5
8.0
78 Beaufort
..11.2
19.1
29 Macon
.. 8.6
7.1
79 Pitt
..11.3
14.4
30 Cabarrus
. 8.7
18.0
80 Durham
..11.4
27.6
80 Madison
.. 8.7
5.9
80 Pasquotank....
.11.4
21.4
30 Pamlico
.. 8.7
16.4
82 Dare
.11.6
8.4
30 Union
.. 8.7
16.3
82 Edgecombe....
.11.5
14.6
30 Wilkes
. 8.7
14.6
82 New Hanover
..11.6
20.4
36 Avery
.. 8.8
3.2
82 Pender
.11.6
12. f.
35 Lincoln
. 8.8
18.4
82 Vance
.11.6
14.4
37 Caldwell
.. 8.9
11.3
87 Guilford
..11.6
22,3
38 Columbus
. 9.1
14.4
87 Lenoir
..11.6
15.3
39 Anson
.. 9.2
14.1
87 Wilson
.11.6
17.9
39 Chatham
. 9.2
16.9
90 Currituck
.12.0
19.7
39 Gates
. 9.2
8.4
91 Person
..12.4
10.9
39 Orange
. 9.2
12.6
92 Nash
.12.6
17.4
43 Davidson
. 9.3
•19.1
93 Wake
.12.8
18.4
44 Bertie
.. 9.'4
16.7
94 Burke
.12.9
11.4
46 Forsyth
. 9.5
17.8
Qfi HpnHArsinT)
IX X
45 Johnston
. 9.6
13.0
96 Wayne
.13.4
20.0
46 Northampton.
. 9.6
11.3
97 Hertford
.13.6
15.2
48 Perquimans....
. 9.6
11.1
98 Cumberland ...
.14.4
9.9
48 Sampson
. 9.6
13.7
99 Buncombe
.16.9
26.7
48 Yadkin
. 9.6
16.8
100 Scotland
.16.2
13.5