The news in this publica
tion is released for the press on
receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
Uaiversity of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
MARCH 12,1919
CHAPEL HHX, N. C.
VOL. V, NO. 16
EaUorial Board ■ B. C. Branson, J. G. deB. Hamilton, L. R. Wilson, D. D. Carroll, G. M. MoKie
Entered as seoond-olass matter November 14,1914, .it the fPostoffloe at Chapel Hill, N. C., nnder the act of Angnst 24.1913.
CUES FOR COUNTRY PAPERS
It is estimated that 70 or 75 per cent of
the subscribers and readers of county
newspapers eitlier live on the farms or
are interested more or less directly in op
erating those farms. If this is true, it
seems that to edit tlie county newspaper
for its majority reader,« means to edit it
largely with farmers and farm folks in
mind, writes the agricultural editor of
Clemson college, S. 0. He goes on to
say—
Such an editing of the country paper
means that considerable space should be
■ given to such things as the following:
News about the country people.
News about the business of the country:
that is, farming.
News and suggestions about conven
iences and comforts for farm and home.
News about community efl'orts, such as
jrural school development, cooperation for
better social, religious, and economic
conditions.
New.s about good roads and their value.
Educational stories of various kinds for
■ country folks.
NEWSPAPER IDEALS
A dedication of the declared functions
of a newspaper and its high purposes is
■ chifleieil in stone upon the lofty walls of
the new building of The Detroit Michigan
News. Quoting the President of the News,
‘ ‘These inscriptions are not hidden in the
foundation to be forgotten, but placed
where they are ever before the eye of all,
a reminder of service rendered and those
ideals we are all pledged to attain. ” The
newspaper must be a:—
Rfirror of the public mind; interpreter
of the public intent; troubler of the pub
lic conscience.
Reflector of every human interest;
friend of every righteous cause; encoura-
ger of every generous act.
Bearer of intelligence; dispeller of ig
norance and prejudice; a light shining in
to all dark places.
Promoter of civic welfare and civic
■pride; bond of civic unity; protector of
• ciyic rights.
Scourge of evil doers; exposer of secret
iniq uities; unrelenting foe of privilege and
corru|itioii.
Voice of the lowly and oppressed; advo
cate of the friendless; tighter of public
and .private wrongs.
Otironicler of acts; sifter of rumors and
opiniorj.s; minister of the truth that
m*kw men free.
ivtt>orter of the new; remembrancer of
Abe old and tried; herald of what is to
eo’wo.
Befenier of civjc liberty; strengtliener
®f loyalty; pillar and stay of democratic
gofornment.
Wpimilder of home; nourislier of the
•oommunity spirit; the art, letters and
-•cioac* of the common people.-:-The Out
look
SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
‘ ‘Tl)e war has made plain to the multi-
tudoM of people what was known before
4m »■ few, that human testimony as a rule
is Mutrustworthy, not because the wit
neeswi intended to deceive but because
they were unable to see, hear or describe
oiiTectly what happened in their presence.
This inability to see, hear, touch, and
detocribe accurately is by no means con-
■friiad to ignorant or uneducated people.
M:*.ny highly educated American profess
ion al Juen have never received any scien
• tilic tmiiiing, have never used any instru-
■ aisiil of precision. Their entire education
dwelt in the region of language, literature
philosophy and history, Their habits of
“.th'4ijghfc permit vagueness, obscurity, and
• iiisccuracy, and their spoken or w’ritten
■ staleroeiits have tliese same defects.
Tbese facts suggest strongly the urgent
■Moed of modifying profoundly the pro
grams of American elementary and sec
ondary schools. They must no longer
•cling almost exclusively to languages and
litoj-ature and the elements of mathe-
■malic».”
Tire writer of these lines is no enemy to
the study of language and literature, of
history and philosophy. He is ex-presi-
dMit 0. W. Plliot, our most comprehen
sive thinker in the field of education.
The wliole of his address (Defects in Am
erican Education, in School and Society,
Jan. 4, 1919) shows that what he had in
mind is the value of the habit of going
in all things to the original sources, to
the concrete facts. Conclusions, which
in the larger practice of science and life
take the place of the simple facts, are
good according to the number and valid
ity of the facts on which they rest. This
is the lesson which Eliot is teaching and
which we all have to learn. And nowhere
can it be learned so well as in the classes
that deal with the phenomena of material
science. Herein lie the general necessity
and value, aside from the production of a
few specialists (may their number in
crease!), of our laboratories. Mark Hop
kins on one end of the log and Garfield
on the other, if this combination ever did
in some primitive, talk-dominated, world
image forth a school or college, does so no
longer.
But what a responsibility on the science
classes! and how far all of them and tlie
world must travel before they can measure
up to what Eliot is asking of them. For
what he is asking is that we learn directly
from nature, that we uncover with our
hands, and see with our own eyes, and
describe in our own words, what we have
done and seen. We grow u p for eighteen
years and scarce a boy or girl is there
who has been subjected to any test other
than that of giving back to the teacher
what he (she) has been told orally or what
is “in the book”, a continuous practice of
verbal memorization. And even in col
lege, necessity in some degree perpetuates
the method. Large classes and a scarcity
of demonstrators make it difficult to bring
the student constantly face to face with
nature. Always the easier practice must
still, in too high a degree, be followed,
and the teacher or the text makes state
ments to him which he learns.
Not that he can learn in even the best
managed science classes aU the great
facts, what are we apt to call the princi
ples, at first hand—for that human life is
too short. His direct experience must be
filled out with the recorded observations
of others, reduced to generalizations that
are lit up by deductive theory and so
made more usable for most minds. But
how different this is from the teaching of
science as if it were history, wofds and a
colored chart in the one case portraying
the course and character of the blood
stream, as in the other case words and a
map describe a campaign!
Many teachers are thinking along the
same line today, how in President Had
ley’s words “to make our courses more
practical in the higher and truer sense’ ’,
which means not to give them a more di
rectly utilitarian character, to change them
in the direction of immediate economic-
hygienic use, but to improve them as in
struments which are to open our eyes to
the world in which we live, a world in
which observation and reflection lead to
the conclusions that are of chiff value.
Beside such teaching, whether in material
science or elsewhere, the facile dispensing
of information, second-many-hand infor
mation, which fills and of course must fill
our evening lectures, our current topic
talks at the women’s clubs, and our
semi-popular books, is within the walls of
sclioolor college a weak business, although
as an extra-mural practice, in the various
activities grouped together under exten
sion work, it is doubtless tlie only meth
od that is practicable.—H. V. Wilson.
EDUCATION MUST RESPOND
Can there be what William James
once called a “moral equivalent
‘moral equivalent of
war’ ’ ? Can we have in times of peace
the same spirit of cooperation and sac
rifice, tlie same deep recognition of in
dividual obligation to the common
weal, that a great national struggle so
quickly develops?
This question now presses for an an
swer, and it is education that must
respond. It is not too early to make
a beginning. Peace does not mean
that the battle for democracy has been
permanently won. It does not mean
that the responsibilities that our coun
try has assumed for the cause of de
mocracy can be laid down, or that we
can return to the self-sufficiency of an
earlier day. Problems that involve
the welfare of otliers as well as of our
selves must- he faced and solved
by the American people. It is not
too soon to impress upon the
children now in school the fact
that to meet these responsibilities in
harmony with the ideals for which our
soldiers have fought requires from
them the keenest and clearest think
ing of which they can make them
selves capable.
If education was at any tifne merely
a privilege, that time has passed in
our country. If to strive for knowl
edge and insight can ever be a duty,
it is a duty today.—Kational School
Service.
cy, much good would be accomplished
thereby at once. Such a policy and such
a prospect would attract to the schools
more men and women of superior ability
and would hold them, working content
edly and, therefore, profitably for the
children and the public welfare. Such
increase in salary should carry with it an
increase of not less than 25 per cent in the
average length of the school term, which
is now less than 160 days.
PAYING THE TEACHER
We may talk as we like about progress
in education, but if w-e fail to spend
money for teachers there will be no prog
ress. School boards who take a complais
ant attitude about teachers’ pay should
read the National Education Association
report on teachers’ salaries. They will
find there solemn words about the ‘ ‘threat
ened collapse of the teaching profession,”
sensational words used by men accustom
ed to weigh their utterances carefully.
In the new world of freedom and demo
cracy that is emerging, intelligence,
knowledge, and skill will count for more
than in the old. Education becomes the
chief business of legislatures and con
gresses representing the people.
Our Standard
In America we measure values in terms
of dollars and cents, and men and women
have formed the habit of selliag their la
bor of whatever kind in the highest mar
ket they can command. It is only through
increase of pay, therefore, that we may
hope to improve to any large extent the
character of the personnel of any profess
ion or trade. It is only by very large
increases in pay of teachers that we may
hope to improve our schools appreciably.
Small increases of 5, 10, or 20 per cent
will not avail, for they will not be suffi
cient to hold in the schools men and women
of superior ability. Teachers are now paid
less for their w'ork than any class of work
men, and the increase in their pay in the
last few years has in nowise been in keep
ing with the increase in pay of other
workmen, or witli the increase in the cost
of living While the cost of living has
increased approximately 80 {ler cent—
food, 86 per cent; clothing, 106 per cent;
drugs, 103 per cent; fuel, 53 per cent;
and house furnishing goods, 75 per cent
—the salaries of teachers have increased
only about 12 per cent. The purcliasing
power of the salary of the teacher in our
public schools is, tlierefore, only about 62
per cent of what it wa.s four years ago.
Mail carriers, policemen, unskilled labor
ers, cooks, telegraph messengers are paid
much higher wages than are teachers.
As a result many of the better teachers are
leaving the scliools and their jtlaces are
taken by men and women of less native
ability, less education and culture, and
less training and experience. Many of
the places are not filled at all. As an
inevitable result the character of the
schools is being lowered just at a time
w'hen it ought to be raised to a much
higher standard.
Students now entering the normal
schools to prepare for teaching are not of
as good quality as formerly, which means
that the standards of the schools must
continue to fall. In some normal schools
the enrollment is far less tlian in former
years.
The Remedy
The only remedy is larger pay for teach
ers. If school boards, legislators, and
county and city councils would immedi
ately announce the policy of doubling the
average salary of teachers within the next
five years and of adding not less than 50
per cent more within the 10 years follow
ing the expiration of this period, so that
at the end of 15 years the average salary
of public|school-teachers would be notleas
than |il500—about one and a half times
larger than they receive at present—and
then take steps for carrying out this poll
The Cost
To those who are not acquainted with
past conditions and who have given the
matter more intelligent thought, the in
crease recommended may seem large, but
in fact it is not. It would in most states
mean a range of salaries from $1,000 to
$3,000. No person who is fit to take the
time and money and opportunity of the
children of this great democratic Repub
lic for the purpose of fitting them for life,
for making a living, and for virtuous
citizenship should be asked to work for
less than $1,000 a year in any community
or in any state. No one who is unworthy
of this minimum salary is fitted to do
this work and no such person should be
permitted to waste the time and money of
the children and to fritter away their op
portunity for education. At present the
teachers in the public elementary and
high schools of the United States are paid
' annually something less than $400,000,-
000. An increase of 150 per cent in sal
aries of teachers on the basis of the pres
ent number would make a total salary ex
penditure of less than $1,000,000,000. On
' the basis of the number of teachers that
will probably be required in 15 years
from now it will be less than $1,500,000,-
000, w'hich is less than the annual expend
iture for purely Federal governmental
purposes before the war, and probably
much lees than half of what these ex
penses will be 15 years from now.
For the Children
It is not for the sake of the teachers
that this jK)licy is advocated. Schools are
not maintained for the benefit of the
teachers. If men and women of ability
are not willing to teach for the pay offer
ed them they can quit and do something
else for a living, as hundreds of thous
ands of the best do. It is for the sake of
the schools, the children and the pros
perity of the people and the strength and
safety of the Nation .that the policy is
advocated.—School Life.
SOCIAL MEANS AND ENDS
What we are really talking about is so
cial agencies and institutions, but the
phrase was too long for a head-line.
They are related as means to ends; or,
better still, as environment to organism.
The distinction is important to clear
thinking.
The organized social agenoi*e of the
United States—public, semi-public, and
private—are already some 500 in number,
and they multiply like mushrooms over
night. They are mothers’ clubs, child
welfare bureaus, school betterment asso
ciations, social settlement federations,
public welfare boards, social hygiene as
sociations, social science conferences, Y.
M. and Y. W. 0. A’s., rotary clubs,
chambers of commerce, farmers’ unions
and granges, anti-saloon leagues, short
ballot organizations, community councils,
country-life conferences, and so on and
on.
They are all without avail unless they
inform and stimulate our fundamental
social institutions—the home, the school,
the church, the state—to rise to higher
and higher levels of life. This is their use
and their only use.
Social institutions are few. Social agen
cies are numberless: they are many or
few, eftective or futile, abiding or disap
pearing according to the level of intelli
gence and the measure of consecrated,
untiring leadership in this or that area.
Social institutions are tabernacles in
which the race lives and moves and has
its being, and which it has fashioned for
itself out of itself, quite as the oyster se
cretes a shell out of its own substance.
They grow naturally out of the nature of
human nanire, and they will last on and
on, in one form or another, on some level
high or low, as long as human nature
lasts.
New Era Concerns
What is the level of our social institu
tions today and what will it be tomorrow?
What are the ideals of home life, educa
tion, religion, and civic rule in commun
ities, states and nation? Are they lofty
or low? What are the tendencies—down«
ward or upward? Are they quick with
the life abundant? Are they seasoned
with decay? Are they riping or rotting,
in Shakespeare’s phrase?
And w’hat effect will the great war
have upon the social institutions of Amer
ica? It is a fundamental inquiry and
there is no other of equal importance t*
our civilization.
Will the rapidly developing urban and
industrial life of the state and the na
tion strengthen or weaken the family
group? Will the country home remain
what it long has been—the safest place
on earth in which to rear children? Will
our schools develop social mindednesa
and social efficiency? Will our fifty dif
ferent kinds of religious faith in Nortk
Carolina c.atch John’s vision? Can com
monwealth mean common weal in tke
new democracy? Can civic rule be in
formed by the righteousness that eacalt-
eth a people—righteousness economic and
social as well as civic? Can public ofiice
come to mean devoted public service?
Will democracy in very truth mean e^nal
opportunities for all and special privi
leges to none in national life and amaug
the nations of the earth ?
Oor Social Agencies
So far, organized social agencies are
few or relatively few in North Carolina—
a social service conference, two county
welfare boards, a few town and county
health departments, some seventy public
health nurses, two college extension bu
reaus, home and farm demonstration
service in 95 counties, Y. M. and Y. W.
C. A’s. in our larger cities, city chambers
of commerce more or less alive, vigorous
rotary clubs, school betterment associa
tions, women’s clubs, town and sekool
libraries, farmers’ unions, the benevolent
enterprises of the state, and such like
other agencies of social culture or busi
ness advantage. '
Their proper purpose is to re-inforce, aot
to supplant, the abiding social institu
tions of the state; to quicken and
strengthen home life, academic culture,
religion, and civic rule in North Caro
lina. If they are not doing these things
they are useless and mischievous or
worse.
What I am saying or trying to say ii
that-our social agencies as they rapidly
appear in North Carolina will need to
have objective purposes clearly visioned
and activities definitely promotive of no
ble homes in larger number, more and
better schools of every grade and kind,
stronger churches, and increasing rever
ence for law and order.
The Drift in Carolina
The people of North Carolina are drift
ing out of country conditions into town
and factory centers. We are still a rural
people in excessive measure, but in 1910
our villages, towns and cities were in
creasing in number and size more rapidly
than in thirty-six other states of the Un
ion. Four years of war have immensely
increased the speed of this social trans
formation. It is the most tremendous
single fact in our recent history.
Will the social institutions of tow'n life
North Carolina be equal to the increased
burdens of social responsibility? Will
our country civilization survive the whole
sale loss of country j populations? Will
the increased value of fann products and
the sudden prosperity of the countryside
mean country homes with more comforts,
conveniences, and luxuries, country
churches better supported and better ad
justed to country life, a larger willingness
to vote local taxes for better school
houses, longer terms, better salaries, and
better teachers, and a larger measure of
intelligence and courage spent upon
law and order, and efficient civic rule?
Shall we be coarsened or ennobled by the
enormous increase of wealth in North
Carolina during these four years of war?
In the last eighteen months we have
invested 150 million dollars in liberty
bonds and war stamps. Are we willing
to invest just as liberally in church col
lege endowment funds, and in taxes for
public agencies of ptogress and pros
perity?
We have suddenly discovered that we
are rich in purse. It remains to be seen
whether or not we are incurably afflicted
with poverty of spirit.
The support we give to our social insti
tutions, to our civic agencies of publio
welfare, and to our social agencies of
well-being will tell the tale, and the gait
we strike this first year of the new peace
era will be bright with hope or dark with,
despair for long years to come in Nortli
Carolina.—E. C. B.