I
Library
Chapel Hill
The news in this publica
tion is released tor the press on
receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Publbhed weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
MAY 8, 1918
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IV, NO. 24
Edilurial Board i E. C. Branson, J, G, de li. Hamilton, L. R. Wilson, K. H. Thornton, G. M. McKie.
Enterexl as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the Postorfice at Chaoel Hill, N, C., under the act of August,|*24, 1912.
WE ARE NOT DOING WELL
The .sale of War Savings Stamps and
Thrift Certificates limps alona lamely in
North Carolina in spite of the wonderful
campaign of publicity promoted by Col.
F. H. Fries, Judge Gilbertson, and iMi.ss
Heriing.
We are marked up to take 48 million
dollars worth of thrift stamps this year
but so far the sales in this state amount
to only 2 and a third million dollars.
We have 684 War Savings Societies,
but they are well organized and active in
only 32 countits. Seventeen of these
counties are making a,capital showing.
They are Forsyth, Guilford, Halifax,
Richmond, Buncombe, Edgecombe, New
Hanover, Nash, Mecklenburg, Ala
mance, Bladen, Caldwell, Gaston, Hyde,
Onslow, McDowell, and Wilson.
Sales considered, only five counties
have so far taken 10 per cent or more of
t'.ieir allotments. They are Forsyth 18
per cent, Cleveland 15 per cent, Cabar
rus 12 per cent, Franklin and Northamp
ton 10 per cent each.
Laggard Counties
But no M'ar Savings Societies are re
portetl in 33 counties as follows: Alexan
der, Alleghany, Anson. .Avery, Beaufort,
Bertie, Cabarrus, Caimlen, Caswell,
Cumberland, Clay, Carteret, Dare, Da- ,
vie, Graham, Granville, Johnston, I.ee, |
Macon, Madison, Mitchell, Montgomery, i
Orange, Perquimans. Pasquotank, Polk,
Rutherford, Sampson, Stanly, Watauga,
't'adkin, and Yancey.
Fifteen of these are mountain and foot
hill counties, 11 are prosperous mid
state counties, 4 are in the Albemarle re
gion, and 3 are eastern coast counties.
Others Not Doing Much
But tiien 13 counties are not doing
much better. Only one War .Savings
Society each is reported in Ashe, Cliero-
kee, Craven, Currituck, Columbus,
Oates, Greene, Haywood, Henderson,
Hertford, Iredell, Martin, and Moore;
and only 2 each in Chatham, Durham,
Jackson, Jones, Lenoir, Lincoln, Scot
land, Stokes, Union, and Wake.
Some of these counties have been fore
most in Liberty Bond sales, but they
liave flunked in the more important mat
ter of M'ar Savings Stamp sales. And
amlets ilie postmasters, the bankets, the
women's clubs, the teachers, and tlie
preachers get busy in a hurry all overthe
atate, Fortii Carolina is in a fair way to
be put to shame when the campaign
closes.
In Old Grange
school has done belter, we’d like to
know it and pass it on to our readers.
Tlie papers today re|)ort tliat tlie high
school pupils in High Point have market
ed more than 9 thousand dollars worth
of stamps. Great!
At this rate the children in our 8
tliousand ptihlic schools could take ten
ndliion dollars worth of savings .stamps.
Why not?
Chapel Hill has gone over the top in a
rush'w i h her Liberty Bond sales. Led
by the liLiuks and the good women of the
conimmiity ottr allotment of the third
Liberty L->an was over-sitbsCril)ed in less
than a, week. The stth.-'cription to this
J sue now approaches $40,000. Hillsboro
JiH.s d me jti't about as well.
P i! ttraiige has done little so far in the
(if Savings Stani['S and Thrilt Cer-
ititi Mtes. And there is urgent need of
•act'. e f.oc.d interest and activity in the
vari »u.s co:utminitie.s of Orange, and in
all the otlier laggard counties.
\'i'e ate ii'arked up to take $3i!l,400
worth of .savings stamps and thrift certi-
ti.'ittes in old Cirange, l)ut so far the sales
auii* iijt to le.ss .than $21,000 The wo
men and tite cliiidreu of tl.e county can
put thin thing acioss, if tliey will.
iELJZABETH CITY LEADS
'U'lie. children in the Elizabeth City
fgui l -.t t-chuol l.ave bouglit for themselves
aOid s.il I to their fatliers and friend- $10,
4WJ woi th (It savings .stamps and thrift
'fcertilK'.ateo.
The stamps ate 25 each at any post of-
iii..e. and $4.15 worth of these stamps are |
n.Nohanged by the postmaster lor a thrilt
cmliliva.te whicli will he worth 5>5.00 in
e.a.s'.i to liie holder on January 1, 1923.
P'/Vei y child that has a $5 thrift certificate
iJi'.'i|i,s the giivernuieiit win the war, heljis
■t-i feed and eloihe our hoys on the battle
trout, and at the saiue lime^eari;s 85
IcUiiCs lur hiiu.-elf.
' Bu lar as .ve know, the school in leli/.a-
belh City leads the schools of the State in
Vi'ai Saviiig.s stamp sales. H any
THEY SHALL NOT WANT
dVe have repeated a phrase like this in
the 23rd I’salin ten thousand times over
in our churches and Btinday schools in
North Carolina since the World War be
gan, but it seems to have been left to a
little Sunday school in one of tlie least
prosperous communities of Haywoid
county to put it into practice. Here in
the little town of Clyde a Sunday school
recently set a pace for ail the other Sun
day schools of the state, by voting to buy
$50 worth of War Savings Stamps.
dVliat that little Sunday school at
Clyde has done could he done in every
Sunday school in the state.
If our religion were practical as well as
well as sentin.ental this old world would,
soon he a decent place to live in. We
quite believe that nothing else will ever
make it decent, and the chances we’ve
lost tliese two thousand years we ought
now to seize upon with lively religious
fervor.
Is Chri.stianity a lailtire? is- the ques
tion once put to Beecher. I don’t know,
he replied, we’ve never tried it.
Ciiristemlom has never had a better
time than now to try out its Christian
ity.
AVe are behind 46 million dollars in the
sale of patriotic thrift stamps, and wo
are not iikeiy to catch up unless the
churches and Sunday acliool teachers of
every denomination, and the day school
and Sunday school superintemlents get
busy with the wants of our soldier boys
at the front.
Those in Green Pastures
Suppose our 9 thousand Sunday schools
averaged $100 each in war stamp pur
chases, and our 10 thousand churches
$500 each, the total would be six million
dollars.
nnd suppo.se furtlier tliat our 10 tlious-
and public and private schools cacli did
as well as the little Rocky Point school
down in Pender witli it.s record of $1500.
The total would luii up 15 millions or
more.
Every church, Sunday school ami day
school ought to be a self-constituted AVar
Savings S iciety. \\'hy not? Is tiiere
any better way just now of cvideming
our faith by our work.-.?
The teachers, preachers, and Sunday
school teaclie-s must lead in this cam
paign of patriotic thrift, if we go over the
top with it. The hanks are doing noth
ing wiih it in 50 counties, and tlie post-
master.s nothing in two counties—Ashe
and Brunswick; while in sewn counties
tlie postoHice sales up to .April 1 were less
than $500 eacli, as follow?; Alexander
$461.57, Camden $447.l’4, Clay $441.86,
Dare $413.04, (iates $268.99, G-aham
$391.82 and Watauga $16.97.
Tliat’s a sorry showing lor AVatanga,
wliich is among the 15 richest counties
of North Carolina in per capita country
wealth ; and not a inudi better showing
for Ashe which stands only 6th from the
to]) in country wealth per inhabitant.
If tlie postmasters and bankers cannot
put this campaign across, the preachers,
teachers, and .Sunday school workers of
the state cafi do it.
And a good motto for us is Our Sol
dier Boys Shall Not AA'ant, wiiile we lie
down in green pastures beside still wa
ters.
PLAYHOUSE PATRIOTISM
GYPSY SMITH’S HEART
^L'psy Smith the famous evangelisl,
honored at Buckingham Palace and
decorated by King George for his
three years of service with the boys in
the trenches in France, says—
It’s the liiggest hit of work God ever
gave me to do. They’ve got iny heart
—those boys who are fighting over
there witliont thouglit of being heroes.
I’d rather untie their shoe-laces, said
he, tfian preacli the greatest sermon
in the world. I just wanted to serve
them, and I didn’t care whether 1 did
it washing cups or scrubbing floors or
handing out cliocolate or preaching.
the screens, said he. literally blaze with
patriotism. It would lie impossible to
market our allotment of Liberty Bonds
and AVar 8-avings Stamps without tlio
enthusiasm of the sliowplaces. I wish,
said he, that I could say as much for the
churches.
The buskin i.s wrapped in tiie flag in
the tlieatres; bht in tlie churclies it is
fairly rare to find the Colors enfolding
the Cross. My opinion is that tlie theatre.-i
are a .riore effective agency of patriotism
than tiie chureiies, said lie, and I am
giving you tlie opinion of a cluircli offi
cial. The atmrjsphere of the playliouses
is fairly electric with patriotic fervor;
the cliurclies—my own among tiiem—are
lackadaisical, limp, and lifele.ss in com
parison.
He was lost in the surge of the crowd,
before we could join issues with l.im.
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 145
A MULE AND HIS CRITICS
On a bu.sy street in one of our eastern
North Carolina towns 1 saw, one day not
many years ago, about a dozen men
grouped along a sidewalk looking at a
mule, a load of cotton, and a negro
driver. The mule was hitched to one of
those heavy two-wheel drays that are
typical freight carriers in that seaport
town. The load of cotton consisted of
three bales of tlie lieecy staple. The ne
gro driver sat at ease on the topmost bale
of cotton holding the reins in one hand
and his whip in the other while his legs
hung over the front end of the bale on
which he sat. The mule was one of those
peculiarly colored mules which are called
either iron-grey or mouse-colored.' His
ears were longer than the average mule
ear and his tail had nut been trimmed for
many a day. The dozen men on the side
walk had a drawing power that soon in
creased the size of the group to twenty or
more, and as each one joined the crowd
he saw at once that the mule had stopped
work and that becau?e he had stopped
Work and relused to go on with his load
every man wlio came tiiat way liad
.stopped to look at the mule and like the
mule had let business go for the time
being.
Criticism and KicKing
, ANOTHER FARM STATE
It is a farm state that heads the pro-
ce.ssion so far in the sale of savings stamps
and thrift certificates. It is two million
dollars ahead of New A’ork, the richest
state in the Union. As a matter of fact
it has bouglit a full tenth of all the war i
savings stamps that have been sold to
date—nearly 15 million dollars wortli.
It is Nebra.ska, ai.d moie than three- t
fourths of her population is rural. What
is more, 51 percent or more than half of
her population is foreign by birth or by
immediate descent. Indeed, more tlian
a fifth are Germans and Austrians. In
five counties the aliens by birth or de
scent are right around three-fourths of
the whole population. In some of these
counties English is rarely heard in their
public scliools.
But on the whole they are loyal Ameri
cans, just as aliens settled on farms of
their own in the country regions of
Auieiica are apt to be, and just as tlie
fiireigners massed in our cities and around
our great industrial plants are apt not to
l.ie. i’ro-Gerniaii treachery is in our cities
mainly; tliere is very little of it'in the
country regions among home-invniug far-
mirs. Anyway, Nebraska wiili a full
half of iier people foreign and three-i
fourths of tliem rural leads tlie United
States in thrift stamp sales. Her 15 mil
lion (.lollars worth of them jiiits to sliame
many a state that boasts a pure Anglo-
Saxon ancestry.
Every man of the group had a remedy
for a balking mule and either asked the
driver up tliere on the topmost bale why
he didJnot do so and so, or told him to
try so and so on the mule and make him
go. One fellow asked the negro what
made the mule do that way anyhow and
told him tliat he ought to give the wliip
fast and furious until he would change
lii.s mind and go along with tlie load.
And every ni;iw and then in contempt and
defiance of criiicism and suggestions, tlie
mule would lower his head, sijaeal like a
mule, and bombard the front end of the
forward bale of cotton with his hind
heels. Then the men on the sidewalk
would again fire advice and suggestions
at the driver up there on his lofty seat.
But the negro would merely laugh and
say: “You don’t know this old mule like
I do. He’s jess nateherly a mean mule
anyway and for plumb meanness kicks
whenever he git-t ready wffiether there is
any sense in kicking or not, and tlie best
way to do is to let him kick till he gits
enough of it and gits ready to stop and
then he will stop and pull as good as any
man’s mule and go on about his business.”
Just then the mule having kicked to
his entire satisfaction seemed relieved,
braced himself against the collar, and
went off with the load as though he was
the best mule in the world.
Our TwO'Legged Mules
In many a community tliere is often
some man or other who, like the mule,
just nateherly cannot keep from kicking
whenever he feels like it whether there is
anything to kick about or not. He’ll
show himself on school questions by
kicking when the community wants to'
pull together for a longer term, for a bet
ter schoolhouse, for better teachers, or for
better pay to the teachers. He just nat
urally cannot help kicking. I.,et him
alone and after a vvhile he’ll brace him
self and pull like he ’s the best man in the
community.
How Intelligence Helps
While caught in tlie cruGi of people
around the Herald bulletin hoan.1, wait
ing for war ne\\'s in New A ork last vvtek,
a stranger at our side remarked:
Tlio playliouse.s and ilic movies are a
God’s blessing these days. But fur tlie
di\ersiou they o.l'er, uiir minds would
break under tlie strain of anxiety like
this. But that isn’t all—the theatres and
In passing we may say tliat rural illit
erates in Nebraska are only 17 in the
tliousand of poinilaliou. AYe are familiar
with rural illiteracy tliat is 190 in the
thousand of population.
It is vvortli noting that where rural il
literacy is least the purchase mf Liberty
Bonds and Thrift stamps is largest. All
tlie farm states tliat lead in this particu
lar liave very small illiteracy ratios. Their
people read and even the foreign farmers
know enough about llie war to know that
Germany cannot liope to win in the long
riiii. Moreover tliey are fully convinced
tliat their .savings are safe wlieii put into
tlie liberty bonds and savings stamps of
their ado]ite(i country.
dition from all of ite intiuences, has been
brought te the attention of the National
AV’ar-Savings Committee by a letter writ
ten to a friend in Mempiiis, Tenn.. by
Brother Josepli Dutton, now in charge of
the island colony.
Brother Dutton has devoted the past 37
year.s of his life to the leper colony. Like
his charges, Brother Dutton may not
leave the island, but he flies the Stars
and Stripes above the leper camp and
communicates regularly with friends in
Memphis.
THE LEPERS GIVE
Tlie lepers at Molokai, one of tiie Ha
waiian Islands, have bought $3,000 worth
of thrift and war-saving stamps as their
coutrilmtiou toward ilie cost of winning
the war.
This insjiiring example of patrio'tism
from sueli an unexpected source, thous
ands (>f miles from the battle front, and
from people seemingly so far removed by
the \ery i ature of their unfortunate con-
WHY FARMERS GET RICH
More than a billion dollars of American
agricultural exports were sold to the Eu
ropean nations at war with Germany dur
ing 1917. Had this nation maintained
peace at the price of obedience to tlie
German war zone decree this market
would have been closed and this billion
dollars worth of agricultural products
would most of tliem have rotted on farms
and in warehouses, or been used in un
profitable ways, with conseiiuent stagna
tion and ruin to tlie American farmers.
Interest as well as duty urges the
American farmer to support his Govern
ment in this war, and by the purchase of
Liberty Loan Bonds furnish it with the
sinews of war.—Federal New.s Keporter.
raked up and scraped together will help
Uncle Sam whip the Hun. Don’t think
the money left in the sock or other hiding
places will help. | It must be put into
Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps.—
Liberty Bond Press Service.
THE FARMERS GET BUSY
Since tlie dark ages tlie farmer—the
most jieace-loving citizen—lias been the
man who sutt'ered most from war. His
crops. Ids everything, are usually con
sumed by the invading armies.
But the fanner is a warrior wlien lie
once realizes that war is tlie only tl'ing
that will keep liim frte. Since tlie war
was declared against the central powers
he has not had the same cliance to (|uick-
ly grasp ■what it is all about.
But now lie is coming tu a full know
ledge of the barbarous enemy with whicli
we are at war.
Reports from the rural districts
throughout the fifth federal reserve dis
trict indicate that tlie farmers are ready
to assist in a heavy subscription to the
tliird Liberty Loan.
AVe are now in the crucial year of the
war. Our boys are at the front, liun-
dred.s oi il ousands of them in he
j trendies and a mi lion more lea ly to i o.
The treasury department lias tlie whole
burden of the war on its sloaldeis.
j Every nickel and dim: that can be
COMMUNITY COUNCILS
President Wilson
Your State, in extending its nation
al defense organization by the creation of
Community Councils, is, in my opinion,
making an advance of vital significance.
It will, I believe, result when thoroughly
carried out in welding the nation togeth
er as no nation of great size has ever
been welded before. It will build up
from the bottom an understanding and
sympat'iy and unity of ) urpi sj and ef-
lort which will no doubt have an immed
iate and decisive eft’ect upon our great
undertaking. A'ou will find ir, I think,
not so much a new task as a unification
of existing efforts—a lusion of energi s
now too much scattered and at times
srjinewhat confuse 1 into one ha monious
and effective power.
It is only by extendmg 3 our organi
zation to small communities that every
citizen of the State can be reacl.e i and
touched with the in.-^piration of the com
mon cause. The school liouse has been
I’l'glt^^sted as an apt though not essential
center for your local council. It symbol
izes one of the first fruits of such an or
ganization, namely, the S|ireading of the
realization of the great truth lhat it is
each one of us as an individual citizen
upon whom rests the ultimate responsibil-
ity. Througli this great new organization
we will express with added emphasis our
I will to win and oiir confidence in the nt-
I ter rigliteousness of our inirpose.
THE FITTEST PLACE TO DIE
But whether on the scafi'old liigh
Or in the battle’.s van,
The fittest i>lace where man can die
Is where he dies for man I
—Michael J. Barry.
JOHN LOCKE SAID IT
As iiuieli land as a man tills, plants,
iiniiroves, cultivates, iiiid can use the pro
duce ol, so much is his property. Nature
has well set the messare of property by
the extent of mai.’s labor, aid tlio ron-
veuieucy of lift.—.loin Locke,. in Givd
Government, 1790.