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.
MAY 30, 1928
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIV, No. 29
Editorial Boardi B,-C. Branson. S. H. Hobbs, Jr., P. W. Wager, L. R. W ilson, B. W. Knight, D. D, Carroll, H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the PostofEce at Chapel Hilt. N. C.. under the act ef August 24, 191».
illiterate ANGLO-SAXONS
The irregularity in attendance which ;
now characterizes the schools of the
North Carolinians are prone to boast jg taxpayers, nor
that something over d9 percent of the fair to the teachers, nor fair to the'
white population of the state children who at!-no regularly. Neither
of pure Anglo Saxon stock. ' is it fair to the state, for it is the
go even further and declare that gfjjgf cause of the perpetuation of il-
practically e.ll of our population—black burden?, and'
as well as %vhite—is American- Finally, it is no kindness to
born and thoroughly imbued with parents to permit them to exploit;
^American ch&facteristics, ideals apparent
traditions. They do not usually add Child labor is neither necessary ,
that one in every nine of ; nor profitable in the long run. Ab of
thoroughbred Anglo-Saxons and one in | ^jjjcb means that economy, justice and
every four of i.h‘ colored Americans | humanity all demand a more vigorous
is illiterate. The stranger might be ^ t,nforcement of the compulsory school
law than has yet prevaik-d. —Paul W. :
Wager. !
TKE BEST mSUBANCE
The moat imperative duty of the
state is the universal education of the
masses. No money which can be
usefully spent for this indispensable
end ^ll0uld be denied. Public senti
ment should, on the contrary, ap
prove the doctrine that the more
that can be judiciously spent, the
better for the country. There is no
insurance of nations so cheap as the
enlightenment of the people.—
Andrew Carnegie.
’Bout two miles down the
-Well, hop in and show me
BOY
road.
W. W.
the way.
SCENE TWO
W. W. —Good morning. I saw your
son down the road a way, and I thought
I’d come to see you, though I am from
Cherokee.
POP—Good mornin’.
! W. W. —He said he wanted to go to
libraries. In Los Angeles County,
California, about 409,000 country
people, living cutside of Los Angeles
and fifteen other cities having libraries,
are supplied with books from the
county library. Two book automobiles
make daiiy trips averaging 100 miles
each between the central library and
j over 300 branches located in com-
I munities and schools. Tiiese auto-
j mobiles have covered deliverj-type
, . T,Y I bodies containing shelves for several
school, and I thought I d come ask you j
by a librarian. The most distant
surprised to learn that so many of this
illustrious stock lacked even the rudi
ments of Bn education. He must
wonder why this particular branch of
a great race has fallen so far behind
kindred peoples. He might wonder,
too, how a people born and reared
under American influences could escape
the influence of the schoolroom. And
it might be a little difficult and a little
embarrassing for us to explain why
this condition exists. Granting that
we could explain and justify the
present large percentage of illiteracy
we shall hardly be able to do so a
generation hence. One of the most im
mediate and pressing tasks of North
Carolina, and of the whole South, is to
stamp out illiteracy.
North Carolina cannot develop and
maintain a high-tension industrial life
with illiterate workmen; it can not
build up a sound and profitable agri
culture with illiterate farmers; it can
not produce a culture that will attract
and satisfy the refined people of the
nation with widespread illiteracy.
The progress and the re^putation of the
state are dependent on the rapid eradi
cation of the blight of illiteracy. And
since it will be difficult to educate
the older people who are unlettered,
■ it is essential that major attention be
given to the rising generation. None
who possesses the capacity to learn
should be permitted to leave school
until he has acquired at least the rudi
ments of an education. It is as much
his duty to acquire an education as it
is the duty of the state to provide him
the opportunity.
School Attendance Low
The table which appears elsewhere
in this issue shows to what extent the
white children enrolled in the rural
schools are in regular attendance. At
great expense the state has attempted
to provide elementary and!high schools
within reach of every child-white and
black. The taxpayers are paying until
it hurts in order to provide good
teachers, comfortable and well-equipped
buildings, and convenient means of
transportation for the children of the
state, yet twenty-three out of every
hundred of those enrolled are absent
every school day. This means that the
school plant is operating at no more
than 77 percent efficiency. It is even
less than that, for the irregularity of
some hinders the progress of all.
In some counties the average
attendance among the rural white
children—it is a little better. in the
towns—is not much more than sixty
percent. And those who are irregular
in attendance or absent all the time
are those who will perpetuate illiteracy
in the state. They are largely the
children of illiterate parents who do
not appreciate the need or value of an
education. They are not morons; they
have a fair measure of mental capacity,
but they are lacking in initiative and
cultural aspirations. Some parents are
keeping their children out of school to
work-victims of a vicious and short
sighted agricultural system.
Unfair to All
Persuasion is better than compulsion.
It would be better to arouse pa
rents to a sense of their duty to
their children than to compel them to
obey the law. To awaken this inter
est and desire is the task of the teach
er, the preacher, the superintendent of
public welfare, the health nurse, and
all the enlightened people of the com
munity. But if parents cannot be per
suaded to send their children to school,
then they ought to be compelled to do
so. It is not fair to deny the child
educational opportunities during its
childhood and youth. The illiterate per
son will be more handicapped in the
future than he has been in the past.
ADULT ILLITEBAf Y
THE ONLY SURE WAY
: Tne working out of Governor Mc-
' Lean’s plaiis to eliminate adult illiter-
^ acy in North Carolina will be awaited
! with keen interest and the iiope gen-
' erelly that they will attain the desired
A definite move toward elimiuuting I goal,
adult illiteracy in North Carolina was ■ As pait of the plans, following the
made by Governor McLean in appoint- • naming of a special commission, a sor
ing a commission on adult illiteracy vey will be made of existing illiteracy
headed by Mrs. Elizabeth C. Morriss, ; and recommendations formulated as to
of Asheville, a leader in night school | the best and most elfective methods of
work in the mountain districts. ! stamping out the educational failing.
The Governor’s action was an out-j Adult illiteracy should be merely a
growth of a practical demonstration i Those persons
here last winter of work in combatting | have not had a chance should be
adult illiteracy, when Mrs. Morriss j chance now and everything
brought down a party of men and j to bring them to the point
women who had learned to read and i ^here they will be able to read and
write in mountain adult schools for a i
visit to the capital. The members of '
the party were greeted by the Gov-
to put him in school. It’s lots harder
to make a living in this day and time
than it was when you were growing
up, and it certainly would help him to
have some schooling. Won’t you think
about it?
POP—You mean he stopped you and
asked you to get me to put him in
school?
W. W.—That’s what he did.
POP-Well, mebbe I’ll do it.
W. W. —1 surely wish you would.
SCENE THREE
(Five months later in the Welfare
Woman’s office.)
POP—Good mornin’. I come to tell
you that I put that boy in school. It’s
a plumb sight, the way he’s a-larn*
in’.
W. W. —I certainly am glad.
POP—He don’t never seem to read
enough. I’d like to know why we
don’t have sech a law, to make folks
send their young-uns to school. He’s
a-larnin’ fast, sure enough.—Public
Welfare Progress.
ernor, who appeared very much im
pressed with what had been done.
The movement is being sponsored
by the Federation of Women’s Clubs,
the Parent-Teacher Association, and a
number of influential citizens in the
state.
The purpose of the commission, as
outlined by the Governor, is to study
the situation in North Carolina, to
collect such facts as may bear on the
question, and to determine the extent
and scope of the needs in this field of
work.
The commission is expected, after
completing its investigation, to report
to the Governor should it think the
facts justify further action. The rec
ommendations would encompass con
crete plans for organization and pro
cedure to improve the situation in the
state as rapidly as possible.
The state engaged in adult illiteracy
work through the State Department of
Education from 1917 until 1921. The
bureau was established under the
Bickett administration and Miss Eliza
beth Kelly was chosen to direct it. It
showed results with its “Moonlight
Schools, ” but when the state-wide prop
erty tax was abolished in 1921 the
bureau perished for lack of a specific
appropriation.
State Superintendent Arch T. Allen
said that recently the U. S. Govern
ment had put on a campaign to cor
rect the evil in all the states and bad
done particularly effective work in
Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Superintendent Allen said that one of
the tasks of the commission would be
to take a census of adult illiterates.
The personnel of the commission,
comprising prominent educators and
women's federation and parent-teach
er leaders, follows:
Mrs. Elizabeth C. Morriss, Ashe
ville elementary supervisor. Buncombe
county; Mrs. Claude S. Morris, Salis-
busy, director demonstration, district
State Federation of Clubs; Mrs.
Thomas O’Berry, Goldsboro, President
State Federation Women’s Clubs; Mrs.
Frank Castlebury, Raleigh, State Presi
dent P. T. A.; Mrs. Lillian B. Griggs,
director. State Library Commission;
Mrs E-. L. McKee, Sylva, former
President State Federation of Women’s
Clubs* Mrs. Howard G. Etheridge,
Asheville, secretary illiteracy com
mittee, State Federation of Women's
Clubs; Miss Ruth Burke, LaGrange,
member illiteracy committee, State
FedeiRtion of Women’s Clubs; Mrs.
T E Brown, Ealeigb; Dr. A. T. Allen,
Raleigh, State Supt. Public Instruction;
Dr Howard W, Odum, Chapel Hill,
.School of Public Welfare, U. N. C ;
George B. Elliott, Wilmington; E. W.
Boshart, State College, Raleigh; Dr.
w H Livers, Greensboro, North Caro-
Una College for Women; S. L Davis
High Point; E. D. Broadhurst, Greens-
boro; Dr. J. Y. Joyner.
Prof. R. E- Sentelle,
News and Observer.
But in the future the problem
should take care of itself. Adult il
literacy should decrease with the pass
ing of each year, a problem that is
automatically solved by advancing civil
ization and application of controlling
legislation.
We will learn with eagerness the age
of the adult illiterates found in the
contemplated survey and data upon
the decrease or increase in recent years,
as the case may be.
The compulsory education law should
end adult illiteracy as the younger gen
erations come under its provisions. If
such is not the case, the compulsory
education laws are not being enforced
as they should be. Right here in Nash
county recently, a fourteen-year-old
murderer was found never to have
been to school. If similar conditions
prevail over the state, it wilt taae
more than Governor McLean’s commis
sion to stamp out illiteracy.
In connection with the survey to be
made by the commission, it might be
interesting to learn just how effective
ly the welfare regulations and compul
sory education laws are being enforced
in the state. Is illiteracy being allowed
to develop because of negligence in this
field of law enforcement? If illiteracy
continues, its existence must neces
sarily be based upon some loophole m
the state’s education laws and their
application.
We truly hope that the recent case of
Alfred Denton here at our own doors
is not typical of other North Carolina
communities. « however, adult
illiteracy will continue as a state prob
lem, with vigorous enforcement of laws
already on the statute book as the
only means of completely eliminating
it.—Rocky Mount Telegram.
BOOK AUTOMOBILES
‘Book automobiles” have made
books available to rural communities
not within easy reach of city or town
branch is 116 miles from the central
library.
In Burlington County, New Jersey,
the county library includes a staff of
four people end a central building,
with 136 branches in stores, grange
halls, and farm houses. This library
distributes by “book automobile” not
only books, but pictures, filrris, and
phonographic records. At each branch
the number of books varies from 60 to
1,000, changeable monthly.
In Coahoma County, Mississippi,
which has a population of only 41,511,
about 600 books are distributed daily to
various branches in the county. This
library service is maintained by a con
tract with the Clarksdale, Mississippi,
library at $4,000 a year.
There are several hundred county li
braries of various kinds in the United
States, most of which have been estab
lished by popular vote. Some of these
are maintained through their connec
tion with a city library in the same
county and some are separate county
libraries supported by a small county
tax.—Department of Agriculture Press
Item.
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN NORTH CAROLINA, 1926-27
By White Children in the Rural Schools
The following table showing how the counties rank in the matter
of school attendance in the rural schools is part of a more comprehensive table
which appeared in State School Facts, February 16, 1928.
In the school year 1926-27 the total white enrollment in the schools of the
state was 671,066. Of this number 442,424 were in average daily attendance.
This is a percentage of 77.4. The enrollment in the rural schools alone was
425,863 and the average attendance 322,004, or 76.6 percent.
Fifty-two counties show an attendance record equal to or superior to the
state average. Dare county enjoys the distinction of having the best atten
dance record, 92.9 percent. Vance foots the list of counties with only 61.1
percent of its white enrollment in average daily attendance.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank County
Raleigh, and
Waynesville.—
A LAHNIN- YOUNG-UN
SCENE: The Sweet Gum Section in
Cherokee County near the border line.
TIME; Mid-day.
CHARACTERS: Small boy-The
Welfare Woman—The boy’s pop.
SCENE ONE
The Welfare Women was ridir-g
down the road in her Ford, and saw a
small boy walking on the aide of the
road. Since she was out checking up
on the school attendance for the
county, she drew up by the boy, to see
why he was not in school.
WELFARE WOMAN—Hey, son,
why aren’t you in school? What school
do you go to?
SMALL BOY-Don’t go to school.
You'don’t Where do you
live?
gOY—Over in Sweet Gum. say,
you’re that woman from Cherokee
what makes young-uns go to school,
ain’t you? I wish you’d make my pop
let me go to school. .
^ you don’t live in North
Carolina, and I haven’t got any busi
ness down here. Where does your pop
live?
1
2
3
4
6
6
6
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
16
16
17
18
19
19
21
21
23
24
26
•26
27
28
28
30
31
32
33
34
36
35
37
38
39
40
41
41
41
.41
46
46
47
47
49
60
Enroll
ment in
rural
white
schools
Dare 1,284
Rowan 7,309
Caldwell 4,236...
Craven 2,831
Hyde 1*462
Carteret 2,364
Lincoln 3,996
Clay 1.496
Pender 2,297....
Forsyth 7,468
Onslow 3,048
Pamlico 1,816—
Montgomery... 3,829.
Percent
in daily
atten
dance
.. 92.9
...91.3
. 84.8
.. 84.6
..83.0
..83.0
..82.6
..82.1
..82.0
..81.9
..81.8
..81.2
Catawba 7,660 81.1
Anson 2;964 80.9
Avery 3,346 60.8
Perquimans 1,669 80.7
Davidson 6^693 80.3
Currituck 1,096 80.2
Martin 3,247 80.2
Hertford 1,841 80.1
Macon 3,626 BO.l
Wilkes 8,708 79.8
New Hanover.. 1,076 79.7
Northampton.. 2,806 79.6
Guilford 9,628 79.4
Alexander 3,627 78.8
Bladen 3,097 78.7
Rockingham... 7,878 78.7
Mecklenburg .. 8,648 78.6
Richmond 3,613 78.4
Tyrrell 978 78.0
Stanly 6.811 77.9
Beaufort 4,438 77.8
Warren 2,386 77.6
Camden 849 77.3
Chatham 4,468 77.2
Alamance 4,462 77.1
Rutherford 9,628 77.0
Nash 6,222 76.7
Brunswick 2,549 76.5
Buncombe 12,092 76.6
Cumberland ... 4,823 76.6
Iredell 6,967 76.6
Gates 1.739 76.4
Davie 2.812 76.2
Pasquotank 1,322 76.1
Watauga 4,601 76.1
Franklin 3,113 76.0
Jackson 3,811 76.9
Enroll- Percent
ment in in daily
Rank County rural atten-
wbite dance
schools
61 Duplin 6,609 75.8
62 Jones 1,732 7616
63 Alleghany 2,091 76.4
64 Durham 2,621 76,2
66 Columbus 6,947 76.0
66 Orange 2,961 76.0
65 Yadkin 4,289 76.0
68 Polk 1,866 74.8
68 Sampson 7,004 74,8
68 Stokes 6,730 74.8
61 Burke 3,663 74.6
61 Madison 6.676 74.6
61 Washington ... 1,326 74.6
64 Chowan 959 74.3
64 McDowell 3,666 74.3
66 Hoke 1,616 74.1
67 Union 8,302 78.9
68 Granville 2,967 73.7
69 Moore 3,062 73.6
70 Bertie 3,266 73.6
71 Randolph 7,074 73.4
72 Halifax 1,896 73.3
73 Wake 8,860 72.9
74 Harnett 6,904 72.7
76 Lee 2,161 72.3
76 Cabarrus 6,765 72,1
76 Henderson 4,802 72.1
76 Mitchell 3,286 72.1
76 Transylvania .. 2,563 72.1
80 Wilson 3,668 72.0
81 Ashe 6,432 71.8
81 Robeson 7,080 71.8
83 Edgecombe 3,12U 71.7
83 Haywood 6,*760 71.7
83 Pitt 6.662 71.7
86 Lenoir 3,616 71.3
87 Person 2,646 71.1
88 Caswell 2,618 70.7
89 Cleveland 7,096 70.3
90 Johnston 11,763 69.9
91 Yancey 4,311 69.6
92 Swain 3,677 69.4
93 Wayne 4,969 69.0
94 Surry 7,067 68.6
96 Cherokee 3,091 68.3
96 Greene 2,637 68.2
97 Gaston 10,141 62.7
97 Scotland 991 62.7
99 Graham 1,604 61.3
100 Vance 1,772 61.1