y
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Puhfished weekly by the
Uaivenity of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
The news m this pubiica-
tion is released for the press on
repeipt.
NEWS LETTER
MARCH 5,1919
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. V, NO. 15
Bdl4oriRl Board i E. C. Branson, J. G. deR. Hamilton, U R. Wilson, D. D Carroll, G. M, MoKie
Entered as sepond-olass matter November 14,1914, at the JPostoffloe at Chapel Hill, N. C„ under the act of August 24, 1912.
THE UNIVERSITY SPIRIT
The terrible war through which we
iiave just passed has not been only a w'ar
between nations, but it has been also
a war between systems of culture—the
one system the aggressive system, using
science without conscience, stripping
learning of its moral restraints and using
every faculty of the human mind to do
wrong to the wliolerace; the other system
reminiscent of the high traditions of men—
reminiscent of all their struggles, some of
them obscure, butothere closely revealed
to history, of men of indomitable spirit
everywhere, struggling toward the right
and seeking above all things else to be
free.
So I feel that the war is, as has been
said more than once today, intimately re
lated with the university spirit. The uni
versity spirit is intolerant of all the things
that put the human mind under restraint.
It is intolerant of everything that seeks to
retard the advancement of ideals, the ac
ceptance of the truth, the purification of
life. And every university man can ally
himself wfith the forces of the present time
with the feeling that now at last the spirit
of truth, the spirit to which universities
have devoted themselves, has prevailed
and is triumphant.—Woodrow Wilson.
country regions, our-raill villages, or our
trade centers.
Cannot we move up in all these direct
ions, or give some hint of doing so?
A CHRISTIAN INSTITUTION
Christianity is not an institution, a cul
ture; it is a spirit, an inspiration. Being
-a spirit, Christianity can express itself
through any social institution not inimic
al to its genius. There are Christion gro
cery stores, doubtless, in spite of the pre-
aumptions to the contrary which war
prices liave created. There can he such
amng. aaa Christian state. There are
Chritian industrial corporations.. There
are Christian individual men and women.
■ That institution is Christian which ex
presses the Christian spirit and whose
.programme realizes the Christian purpose.
No other is Christian indeed, however
spangled with Christian labels it may be.
—J. B. McAfee, author of Religion
tfaedlew' American Democracy,
and
THE LAST NOTICE
Our mails now-a-days are filled with
letteiB calling for the 1918 Year-Book of
the North Carolina Club, on County Gov-
«rmiient and County Affairs in North
Cai ohna. It goes fre> of charge to North
Candiuians who write for it and to others
at n cents a copy. The edition is small
and will soon l)e exhausted.
.Judge W^. P. Bynum says, and his
good ot)inion of anything is a large asset;
“T!»c 191H A'ear-Book of the North Caro
lina Club surpasses in value everything
iiorotofore published on county govern
ment and county affairs in this state. It
is a.u invaluable compendium of informa
tion, on these subjects and indispensable
to evety North Carolinian who wishes to
he well informed on afl'airs in his own
stat', I thank you heartily ^or sending
Bje a copy.”
FARM CRAFT LESSONS
There has just lately appeared a pasnph-
Farm Craft Lessons published by
thi.“ U. S. Department of Labor which has
far iu purpose the furnishing of very spe-
•ciftc and detailed information concerning
faeiH activitie-s which can be carried on at
'■ h'oiije'or on the school fanns and for
"whichschool credit can be given.
> This is one of the most significant aids
- ta vocational education for country
»'ltooLi yet devised. The emphasis is
: placed on the craft idea; the instructions
* -are clear and are made clearer by excel-
!l8nt illustratious; the selection of project.s
•i.s admtrahy adapted to joint school and
iiome use;
W'tiile w.ritteu''si)ecifically for the Boys’
'Woritiug Reserve the material as it stands
can lie used by any sciiool interested to
give school credit for home farm work.
The Fanil Craft leaflets issued by Suc-
oessfid Farming out iu fowa are also ex-
ceii'iut.
Cannot we have such bulletins iu"North
Caroliua?
S4 far in the South we have done nearly
nothing with vocational education in our
CAROLINA CHURCH ROLLS
T,ast week the News I>etter gave to its
ri'aders a table ranking the fifty religious
bodies of North Carolina in the order of
their membership.
d'his week we present a table based the
1916 Census of Religious Bodies in the
United States, ranking the counties of
North Carolina from high to low accord
ing to the ratios of church membership
to total populations. A. North Carolina
Club study, published iu the Community
Service Week Bulletin, gives a similar ta
ble for 1906. ^
Gains and Losses
Putting side by side the figures of these
two tables, it appears (1) that 48 counties
made decided g^ins .in church member
ship during the ten years, that the gains
in Richmond, Dare, Tyrrell, .Tones, Bun
combe, Caswell, and Polk were tremen
dous, that the ratios in Ashe and Alle
ghany were nearly doubled; (2) that 33
counties lost ground, the greatest losses
being in Guilford, Transylvania, Yancey,
and Burke, that 29 of these retrograding
counties were in the lead in 1906; (3)
that 5 counties stood still and marked
time during this ten-year period—North
ampton, Lincoln, Catawba, Jackson, and
Wilson; (4) that Bertie, which headed
the list in church membership in 1996 re
tained its lead in 1916 with a gain ot one
point, that Edgecombe which footed the
list in 1906 was still at the bottom in
1916, with a gain of five points, 23 against
18 percent, and (5) that the state as a
whole moved up five points during the
ten-year period—from 40 td 45 per cent.
Our Home Mission Job
The 1916 figures show. that a million
two hundred and sbcty thousand people
in North Carolina are outside the church;
within the curtilage .of the church, to be
sure, but not on the church rolls. They
are 55 per cent or more than half of our
total population.
Counting out children less than ten
years of age, our non-communicants are
nearly 650,000.
In two counties-!-Edgecombe and Wil
son—more than three-fourths of the pop
ulation is outside the church!
In eight counties more—Stokes, Jack-
son, Haywood, Swain, Rockingham,
Martin, Johnston, and Pitt—more than
two-thirds of all the people belong to the
the big church of All-Out-Doors.
In seventeen counties more—Onslow,
Madison, Graham, Alleghany, Nash,
Burke, Yancey, Surry, McDowell, Beau
fort, Wilkes, Cherokee, I.enoir, Harnett,
Guilford, Columbus, and Brunswick
—three-fifths or more of all the people
are outside the church, any church of
any name, sect, or sort.
In .37, or more than a third of all our
counties, the lost sheep are from three-
fourths to three-fifths of all the people!
Here’s a home mission task of gigantic
proportions. The foreign fields are more
picturesque; but the home mission fields
are white for the harvest.
A Chance for the Church
For four years or more, devoted stu
dents in the department of Rural Eco
nomics and Sociology at the University
have been puzzling at the problem of Re
ligious Consciousness in .North Carolina—
its prevailing type, its characteristics
and level, its vnlues and deficiencies, and
its relationship to economic and social
conditions, causes and consequences.
' It is a fundamental subject of tremen
dons importance to our civilization, and
more and more it seems to us a subject
that our church authorities and church
schools can afford to go at it hammer-and-
tongs. The ten weeks or so that we give
each year to church and Sunday school
studies in the Fniversity might profitably
run into ten months or so in the church
schools of North Carolina and the church
seminaries of the South. Or so it seems to
us; and with exceeding deference and
reverence we are. saying this to our
CLAXTON’S CREED
1. \ school term of not less than
160 days in every rural community.
2. A sufficient number of teachers
adequately prepared for their work.
3. Consolidation of rural schools
where practicable.
4. A teacher’s home and demon-
stration farm of five or more acres as
a part of the school property.
5. .-Vn all-year school session adapt
ed to local conditions.
6. A county library with branch
libraries at the centersjof population,
the public schools to be used as dis
tributing centers.
7. Community organization with
the school as the intellectual, indus
trial, and^ social center.
8. A high-school education for all
country boys and girls without sever
ing home ties in obtaining that educa
tion.
9. Such readjustment and reforma
tion of the course of study in ele
mentary and secondary rural schools
as will adapt them to the needs of
rural life.
10. The need for Federal aid in
public education.
11. The elimination of illiteracy.
12. Anffericanization of all citizens
through a better civic and patriotic
instruction.
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
LETTER SERIES NO. 160
LIMITED VISIONS
So often in speaking and thinking
about our public school system we think
only of .the elementary school. We for
get that our hig^ schools, our institutions
for secondary education, are a component
part of our free public school system.
It is true that in former days when our
manner of living was simple, our needs
few and pur outlook limited to the
boundaries of the western hemisphere, we
deemed it sufficient to provide only a
simple, limited, narrow sort of elementa
ry education for our citizens.
A Change
The last few years and especially the
last four years have tremendously com
plicated our lives and our living. Hardly
a single little hamlet exists in our nation
schools even before the war, for during
the twenty years previous to 1914 the
number of children who attended our
high schools increased ten times as fast as
the population increased. So we had al
ready begun to realize the necessity for a
longer and more extensive preparation
fordiring in a world with a broader vis
ion.
What of the Future?
The necessity will not grow less as the
years go on and as we are obliged
more and. more to take our part in hand
ling world affairs. It is becoming in
creasingly evident that universal second
ary education will be as desirable and as
necessary as universal elementary educa
tion has ever been.
That will mean an enrollment of four to
today but what has a representative on i five million pupils in our high schools; it
foreign soil. We have had to change our ! will mean 200,000 to 250,000 high school
manner of living even to the very food on j teachers! How shall we prepare to meet
our tables that nations overseas might be j the demand for housing this vast army?
fed. The whole economic structure which [ What shall they be taught? How shall
we have built up has reached to the ends j we train the teachers? Howshall we pay
of the world. We no longer live a simple
life uncomplicated with a wide variety of
needs.
The effect of this increased complexity
of our life was manifested in our public
for itall? How much shall we pay? What
and how much will it be worth to us?
We must begin now to think about
these questions and seek an answer to
them?
church authorities.
Lack of space forbids our doing more
in the News Letter than briefly summariz
ing the conclusions, or some of them, that
come out of patient prolonged studies, at
the LTniversity, of church problems in
the mother state—as follows;
Church membership ratios are low, (1)
in sparsely settled areas aftiicted by social
isolation, (2) in areas where illiteracy
and near-illiter^y ratios are high, (3) in
areas of excessive tenancy farming, and
(4) in trade and factory centers where
home ownership ratios are low. And so
on and on.
Singly or in combination, here are
four social conditions that are causally
related to the low church ratios that chal
lenge religious zeal in 87 counties of
North Carolina, and that vitally affect
the status of the church the whole state
over.
Four distinct religious tasks confront
US: (1) social integration in our coun
tryside, (2) the cure of wide-spread illit
eracy, black and white, (3) the settling
of our landless, homeless multitudes—
they are more than half of all our people
town and country—into homes of their
own in our cities or on farms of their own
in our country regions.
According to Isaiah
These are reli^ons as well as secular
problems. And what tremendous prob
lems they are in every land and country!
Unsolved they will be as certainly fatal to
our civilization as they have been to every
other in history. Church authorities
ought to be even inore active than state
authorities in solving them—so, jn sheer
self-defense. The church must -^put an
end to illiteracy and tenancy in North
Carolina, or illiteracy and tenancy, town
and country, will put an end to the
church.
When Israel ceased to be a land of
home-owning farmers and reversed the
deliberate plan of Moses, when her peo
ple became homeless dwellers in fenced
cities and a slender remnant of tenant
farmers with no stake in the land tilled
the countryside, when her people refused
to consider, for lack of knowledge, then
Israel went away into captivity.
' So it was in Judah, so it has been m
the history of other peoples, and so it will
be with every heedless people on earth
today.
North Carolina needs to be profoundly
stirred by these fundamental causes of
social ill, and in our opinion the church
alone can do it.
These social problems are not likely
ever to be solved, in our opinion, without
the fire, the fever, and the fervor of relig
ious zeal.
Reading References
Thoughtful people who are minded to
puzzle further at (1) sparsity of popula
tion and social insulation, (2) illiteracy,
and (3) tenancy town and country, as
causes of social decay in North Carolina,
are referred to the following publications,
which will be sent free upon application:
The 1915-16 N. C. Club Year-Book
pp 39-41.
The Community Service Week Bulletin,
pp 40-51.
Non-Church Membership in N. C., in
1906.—University News Letter. Vol. 1,
No. 28.
Appalling Illiteracy Figures; A Hard
Problem.—University News Letter, Vol,
II, No. 24.
Illiteracy and Tenancy; a Country
Church Problem; Our Homeless Multi
tudes in N. C., and the U. 8.—University
News Letter, Vol. Ill, Nos. 14. 15, 20,
,36, and 39.
The Country Church, outline studies
reading references.—University Extension
Bureau Circular No. 4.
The Country Church: a Country Life
Defense.—Branson. ■
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP RATIOS IN NORTH CAROLINA
Based on the 1916 Census of Religions Bodies.
E. EYBERS, University of Stellenbosch,Union of South Africa, a graduate student
in the University of North Carolina.
The figures indicate the ratio of church membership to the total population in
each county. The state average of church membership in 1916 was 45 per cent.
Rank Counties Per cent
1 Bertie 74
2 Gates 70
3 Northampton 64
4 Tyrrell
5 Hertford 62
6 Chowan , '. 61
7 Camden 59
8 Richmond 58
9 Rowan 55
10 Alexander 54
10 Caswell 54
10 Granville 54
10 Iredell 54
10 Pasquotank .' 54
15 Bladen 53
15 Dare 53
15» Idncoln 53
15 AVashington 53
19 Vance 52
20 Catawba 51
20 Franklin 51
20 Now Hanover 51
20 Pender 51
24 F'orsyth 50
24 Alecklenburg 50
24 Perquimans 50
24 AVake 50
28 Cabarrus 49
28 Cleveland 49
28 Currituck 49
28 Davidson 49
28 AA^arren 49
33 Buncombe 48
33 Henderson 48
33 Rutherford 48
33 Scotland 48
37 Person 47
37 Anson 47
37 Davie 47
37 Orange 47
41 Jones 46
42 Craven 45
42 Durham 45
42 Pamlico 45
42 Stanly 45
Rank Counties Per cent
46 Halifax 44
46 Alacon 44
46 Montgomery 44
49 Alamance 43
49 Carteret 43
49 Greene 43
49 Union 43
49 AVayne 43
54 Duplin 42
54 Gaston 42
54 Hyd(^ 42
54 Polk 42
54 Sampson ■. 42
54 Yadkin 42
60 Ashe 41
60 Clay 41
60 Randolph 41
60 Transylvania 41
64 Brunswick 40
64 Columbus 40
64 Guilford 40
64 Harnett 40
68 Cherokee 39
68 Lenoir 39
68 AA'ilkes 39
71 Beaufort' 33
71 McDowell 33
71 Surry 33
74 Yancy .; 37
75 Burke 35
75 Nash 35
77 Alleghany 34
77 Graham 34
77 Madison 34
77 Onslow 34
81 Pitt 33
82 Johnston 32
82 Martin 32
82 Rockingham 32
85 Swain 31
86 Haywood 29
87 Jackson 27
87 Stokes 27
89 Wilsonl 24
90 Edgecombe 23
The following counties are omitted for lack of authoritative population figures,
due to the formation of new counties an t the changes in territory of old counties
since 1910: Avery and Hoke, Caldwell, Chatham, Cumberland, Lee, Mitchell,
Moore, Robeson and AV^atauga.