Newspapers / The University of North … / Aug. 20, 1919, edition 1 / Page 1
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r The news in this publica tion is released for the press on receipt. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA NEWS LETTER AUGUST 20,1919 Published weekly by the University of North Carolma for its Bureau of Extension. CHAPEL HILL, N. C. «^orial Board . K. C. Branson. J. Q. deK. Hamilton, L. R. Wilson, D. D VOL. V, NO. 39 Carroll, G. M. McKie. Entered as second^lass matter November 14, 1914, at the Postoffloe at Chapel HIU, N. G., under the act of August 24.1912. A STATE AND COUNTY COUNCIL A PUBLIC WELFARE SCHOOL A stat© and county council, composed of representatives of the state and county ajdministrations, headed by Governor ,2iickett. will assemble at the University of North Carolina September 15 for a week’s study of state legislation with a view to better correlating state and coun- • ty activities in carrying it out. Plana for the Council were announced yesterday, following a final conference between state officials and representatives of the Uni versity of North Carolina. It will be itMld under the auspices of the Governor hnd tlie University in connection with the State Department of Education, the State Board of Health, the Board of Public Welfare, the State Tax Commis sion, and the State Highway Commission. Every official body in all the counties ■of the state will be invited and urged by the Governor to send at least one ac credited representative. This sliould bring to the Council from all parts of the state County Commissioners, members of Boards of Education, Juvenile Court Judges, Superintendents of Public Wel fare, Road Commissioners, Tax Assessors, -and otliers. The Governor Endorses Governor Bickett lias given ins entliu- aiastic endorsement to the proposal. He will open the Council Monday night, September 15, and will preside during the entire week’s series of conferences. These will deal with local and state prob lems. Six hours each day will be devoted to a study of problems and the means of meeting them with the legistlative ma chinery already available. There will be Ample time for fraternizing during the day and night. Speakers of national im portance will deliver addresses at the alight sessions. These will be of inspira tional nature. The cooperation of state and county ■forces for the upbuilding of the state is the principal aim in view. Heretofore the counties have been standing alone and the state has followed somewhat the same policy. The Council will let the various counties know what the others are doing, and all will come into a better understanding for a fuller cooperation ■with the state. A GOVERNMENT INSTITUTE ^ The coming together of the State and County officials of North Carolina at the University the w^eek of September 15 may not at once result in that correlation of their activities which is the ultimate ob ject of the gathering; but it cannot fail to do the whole outfit good. There’s a lot of lost motion in North Carolina government that could be taken out to the increased comfort and satisfaction of governing and governed, if county and state authorities always knew where they were going. There s some, perhaps not much, working at cross purposes, and now and then friction arises between county and state. Tliis lack of co-ordination of effort is not wholly the fault of the county authorities, either. True, the counties are inclined to resent centralization of authority liere in Raleigh; but intelligent helpfulness on the one big job of properly administering the affairs of North Caro lina will be apreciated rather tlian rebuffed. Great Responsibilities Recent Legislation Tlie last session of the General Assem- T)ly was noteworthy for some far reaching legislation which the counties must put through if it meets tlie purpose of the legislators. All these matters will be brought bbfore the Council, and will be threshed out in an open and intelligent fashion. A detailed schedule for the Council ..S.essions is being mapped out allotting time for the various subjects to be dis cussed. The conferences will go on much after the manner of college classes. In fact, it will be a short course in North Clarolina legislation, give'n at the Univer- Bity of iNorth Carolina. Incidentally, it will-he a sort of extension course for the Ujowersity, knitting its activities more ■ ^iosely witli tlie everyday life of the State. A Thousand Expected More than a thousand persons are ex- spected to be in attendance upon the Council meeting. The press of the state will receive an urgent invitation. Mr. R. E. Beasley, Commissioner of Public Welfare, and a moving figure in the in auguration of this Council, will extend the invitatioit to the editors at the meet ing at Wrightsville soon. The Univer- : sity has provided all the necessary room and arrangements for the entertainment of the visitors. Lodging and meals will 'be furnished by the University for the sum of $1.25 per day. The fact that the Council meets on the eve of the opening 'of the University, makes this possible. The first announcement of the Council meeting was made by Commissioner Beasley after conference with Prof. E. C. Branson, Prof. L. R. Wilson, of the Uni versity of North Carolina, and Dr. W. •S. Rankin, Secretary of the State Board of Health; Dr. E. C. Brooks, Superin tendent of Public Instruction; Mr. A. J. Maxwell, Corporation Commissioner, and .Mr. Frank Page, State Highway Com- aniesioner.—News and Observer. Just where this idea came from does not at present matter, although we trust the originator will meet with due appre ciation. No better place for the meeting could be found than the University, which may be termed neutral territory. The University has long since come to realize its vital connection witli the state as a whole and its 100 integral parts. Its extension work has brought it into closer contact with the counties than is enjoyed, perhaps, by any other state institution. In addition it can tell many of the state officials things they do not at present know about the counties, and the coun ties, in turn, a lot about state govern ment. No better time could be found for the meeting. Never was there so great need for the closest sort of harmony between the state and counties. Public health laws of the most progressive kind have been enacted and must be enforced; tlie educational system has been given a broader and deeper foundation; the tax ation system is being made new. De partments of Health and Education and the Tax Commission are powerless to se cure to the people of tlie state any small part of the benefit wliich should and must be derived from tlie epochal legis lation of the last General Assembly, un less the counties each catch step and forward march toward the common goal. Tlie meeting, a government institute, so to speak, should become a yearly in stitution, for it has great possibilities. —Tlie Raleigh Times. THE TEST OF A MAN FranKlin H. Lane The test is to be in peace what it was in the time of war. Are you fitted for tlie fight? The man who knew how knowledge could be converted in to power was the man for whom there was unlimited call. So it is increas ingly to be. To be useful is to be the teat that society will put. Each man’s rights are to be measured, not by what he lias, but by what lie does with what he has. The honors—the Croix de I’aix—the richest rewards will go to the capables, those who are not stand ardized into “men machines,’’ those who dare to venture and learn to lead. But all must work, and this duty to work and respect for work should be the earliest lesson learned. And it should be taught in the school, not as an homily, but in a living way, by tying work with instruction, making the thing learned apply to something done. I should like to see the day when every child learned a trade wliile at school, trained his mind and his hand together, lifted labor into art by the application of thought. To be useful is the essence of Americanism, and against the undeveloped resource, whether it be land of man, the spirit of this country makes protest. PAMLICO MOVES UP The total savings deposits and time certificates of Pamlico county on Decem ber 31, 1918 were $220,852, bank-account savings per inhabitant $19 in round num bers, and the rank of tlie county in this particular 36tii, instead of 60th as pub lished in tlie University News Letter July 16. This rank places Pamlico next below Wake and ahead of Wayne, Rowan, Bun combe, Edgecombe, and a lot of other mighty good counties. The revised figures also move Pamlico up in the war tlirift column as publislied in the University News letter Jdly 9, her rank in December 1918 in war-securities and bank-account savings combined be ing 62nd instead of 71st. Pamlico lell behind for some reason in liberty bond and war stamp purchases The total w'as a little less than $250,000. Nearly half the war-time thrift of Pomlico is in savings deposits in the Bank of Pamlico, Oriental and Bayboro. Hill is always a profitable place to go to, and an occasion of this sort makes it all the more profitable.—News and Observer. A BIG OPEN FORUM The County and State Council to be lield at Chapel Hill the week beginning September 15 is an event that every coun ty of the state should take part in. Tliis meeting is no legalized appointment, but it is a popular gathering of representative people headed by tlie Governor of the state, for tlie exchange of ideas on state and county activities, and it is in line with the new phases of education and community advancement springing up here and there constantly in North Caro lina. This state is full of new- ideas, and it is profitable for the people to meet and talk over the suggestions that are cropping out. The isolated community may come along in the course of time, but the com munity that gets out and looks around and sees what others are doing is the one that makes progress. A feature of the meeting will be the consideration of the work of the last Legislature. The recent session of the Legislature enacted a lot of progressive work, and much of it is not yet realized or understood by the people. The Chapel Hill meeting will take up that work and help to apply it as widely as possible. The themes to be discussed in public and the subjects that will call forth discussion between individuals will send the dele gates back home with a broader knowl edge of many things in state work, and will pay generously for the slight time and money spent in attendance. Chapel I HURRAH FOR NASH Nash county pays lier sheriff $6,500— an increase of $1,500 dating back to Dec. 1, 1918, so by order of the legislature tliat adjourned last March. It is a liandsome salary, as salaries go in North Carolina, and yet it is not a penny too much if he does his full duty in collecting and accounting for the taxes of the county witli business-like method and dispatch, and in preserving law and order in Nash without fear or favor. It is all too little for effective services of this sort in any county. The sherift'’s office in Nash pays $1,500 a year more than a Supreme court judge- ship in North Carolina. Leaving out the residence, domestic service, travelling ex penses, and automobile, the sheriff of Nash gets the same salary as Governor Bickett. He gets $3,000 more than five of the state liouse officers and more than twice the salary of all the rest. We are heartily glad to see him get it. We hope that every otiier'brave, efficient sheriff in the state is appreciated and re warded just as highly as the resources of the county will allow. The register’s salary in Nash was also moved up to $3,350, and the clerk’s to $3,750, beginning with the 1st Of last December. Also the treasurer’s salary was in creased from $1,200 to $1,500. We don’t know the circumstances in Nash, but at long range, it looks as though a county treasurer is a useless luxury in any county that has a trust worthy bank at the county seat. Up to 1915 forty-one counties had come to this conclusion. Other counties have gone into this list since that date. THE FIGHT FOR PEACE what would you think of an engineer who, after a head-on collision, said: “Well, let’s back up and try that over again?” Some of your engineers are saying tfiat^ The great war brought civilization to the brink. The wreckage of lives and means of livelihood strews a quarter of the globe. Some of it is in your town—in the gold stars and crippled figures in khaki. Re actionaries want to back up to 1914, set the scene all over as it was then, and see what will happen. Tliey are purblind men, mole-eyed from long habituation in legalistic dust; shut in by the narrow life of professional politics; unable to understand what has happened or what the country feels. They utter learned words that have no mean ing—about entangling alliances, Wash ington, anything but to the main point. The United States risked all to fight a war for democracy. It can risk much to give permanence to the objects for which it fought. It is ready and eager to risk much. It knows tliat in a humane world some chances must be taken. It will take its cliances on the League-of-Nations side that promises stable peace and order; not on the Balance-of-Power side that promises only a repetition of 1914.—The Saturday Evening Post. an try, whicii constitutes more than 75 percent of her population. The Balkan states are notliing but rural provinces, Cliina and India are largely rural. The Big Question Is the farmer really coming into ids own? The war lias once more brouglit to the fore tliis old-age query. It has shown us in America in particular botli the great, splendid strength and the serious, men acing weakness of our farming and farm life. We must pause to discover whether the American farmer is moving upward in his place in society or gradually sink ing in the scale. Is it to be easier or harder for his sons to buy land and to make a fair profit from it, than it was for him or for his grandfather? Whither? This is the big question in our rural affairs. Is the farmer holding his own? Tiie American farmer has been a great exception to the century-old rule that “He that holdeth the plow shall not understand the covenant of judgment, nor be sought for in the council of the people.” But in the New Day, in which we de voutly hope and fervently pray that we may have an end of economic serfdom, can we preserve this yeoman, this well- bred, highly intelligent, individually effective citizen, tlie American Farmer? —Southern Ruralist. BUNCOMBE COUNTY ROADS Nearly one hundred and fifty miles of roads usaiile 365 days of the year, report County Engineer Howerton and Board of Trade Secretary Buckner of Buncombe county, in the July issue of The Ameri can City. Concrete, asphalt, bitumen, brick, gravel and macadam are the several materials used in building these improved highways. They comprise about ten per cent of all roads in the county and are the work of the last five years or so. Cost and maintenance estimates are com pactly stated. There’s no hip-hip-hurrahing in the article. The achievement speaks frr itself. CHEAP CHICAGO PROFESSORS The average milk-driver in Cliicago is paid more than any assistant professor in the University of Chicago. A janitor gets more than a school principal. Plumbers get more than teachers in the Windy City. Tiie milk-drivers’ union in Chicago recently struck to get $35 a week, and got it. Wiiereupon the milk-dealers added a cent a quart to the price of milk,, and more than reimbursed themselves for the rise in wages.—Prof. J. Paul Goode, University of Chicago, in Engineering and Contracting. DISEASE AND CRIME Chattanooga, Tenn., is one of the first American cities to officially recognize cer tain social diseases as a prime factor in crime, and as a result every person arrested on a charge which might war rant the assumption is examined by an official of the United States Public Health Service before going to trial. If the prisoner is found to be infected with certain diseases, the trial court jud^ is acqitainted with the fact, and in passing j.udgment directs that the person be treated while in jail, or paroles him for treatment at one of the free clinics. Ninety percent of the prisoners ex amined were found to be suffering witli social diseases.—Farm Tracts. THE FARMER IN DEMOCRACY An examination of many recent books on democracy and the new epoch reveals an almost utter failure to sense the sig nificance of the farmers’ place in de mocracy in social and industrial reform ation. Agriculture is still the largest single industry in America, however measured. It employs directly more men than any other industry. Do we desire social justice for our peo ple? Nearly half of them live under rural conditions. Do we wish to reorgan ize our educational system in the interest of a safer democracy? Considerably more than a third of the children of the land are to be found in the little red school liouse. Are we anxious lest the new day will fail to give us a firmer grip on the spiritual and ideal aspects of our work and life? Probably forty million souls are either touched or untouclied in the matter of religous values and motives by the country church. Tlie declaration of the British Labor party is all but silent witli respect to the rights and duties of farmers in the new social order. Yet the food problem of Great Britain is vital. If Russia is ever redeemed it will be achieved through the education and organization of her peas- GEOGRAPHY IN COLLEGE Geography as a college study, since its first appearance in a university curricu lum about half a century ago, is discussed by Prof. R. H. Whitbeck, of the Univer sity of M isconsin, in a recent article in The Journal of Geography. He points out the following interesting facts: In 1860 Harvard and Princeton were the only American universities offering courses in geography. Cornell and the University of Wisconsin introduced the subject in 1868, and Yale followed in 1882, In 1900 only twelve American universities taught the subject, but by 1910 thirty-one universities w'ere offering a variety of 142 courses in geography, With 704 students enrolled, the Uni versity of Wisconsin led in 1910. With 1,069 enrolled in 1917, it led all others except Pennsylvania. It now offers seven courses in physical and economic geo graphy, climatology and other phases of the subject.—N. Y. Times. SAFETY IN LIGHTNING RODS Lightning rods properly installed reduce risk of loss by lightning to almost nothing, say officials of the United States Department of Agriculture. The annual property loss from lightning in the United Stated is about $8,000,000, and by far the greater part of this loss is in the rural districts. Directions for installing lightning rods are given in The Federal Farmers’ Bul letin 842, • ‘Modern Methods of Protection Against Lightning,” which may be ob tained free from the Division of publica tions of the Department. All fire insur ance companies, says the bulletin, should reduce premiums in favor of buildings satisfactorily rodded. UNION COUNTY’S LOW RANK Five of the Union county banks made no reports of savings deposits affd time certificates in separate items, as called for by the State Bank Commission and the Comptroller of the Currency in No vember and December, 1918. That is why the rank of the county is low in bank-account savings. It will be higher ^when the bank officials render full reports.
The University of North Carolina News Letter (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Aug. 20, 1919, edition 1
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