! The news in this publica-
i
lion is released for the press on
receipt
SEPTEMBER 17,1919
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. V, NO. 43
BdUorial Board i B. C. Branson, J. G. deK. Hamilton, L. K. Wilson, D. D, Carroll, G. M. MoKie.
Entered as s«condH)lass matter November It, 1914, at
the Postofflce at Chapel Hill, KrC., under the act ot August 24,1913.
THE COUNCIL IS IN SESSION
THE COUNCIL ASSEMBLES
Just as we go to the public with
tliis issue, Tlie State and County
Council is coming into session on the
University campus.
It is tlie first gathering of the sort in
(this state and, so far as we know, in the
fUmited States. Our hope is that it may
, develop into a permanent summer school
..conference of public welfare servants in
Hortli Carolina.
As the summer school for teachers dis-
> bands, the social welfare servants can as
semble when our dormitories and mess
hall are in commission. They can all live
• together at $1.25 a day and together
they can spell out the economic, social,
: and civic problems of Nortli Carolina—
■- causes, consequences, and remedies.
■CThe Legislature enacts public welfare
laws, w’hich is one thing; but the Public
Welfare Conference is focussed upon
carrying these laws into effect, which is
another and far more difficult thing.
The Legislative end of social problems
is the kid-glove end; what Uncle Kemus
oalls the hoe-handle end is the hard, he-
Toic job of executives, state and county,
and of their volunteer social allies, men
and women, in multiplied number, in
every county.
of economic helplessness, and, finally, to
put into its liands the tools whicli are
its birthright.
“Generally in the world today society’s
power of excess production is employed
to satisfy immediate wants to an abnor
mal degree, and the wants of the future
are in corresponding measure neglected.
That is why so many Bolshevist people
can subsist without working, and why so
many other people can consume goods in
the extravant manner abhorent to Mr.
Jerome K. Jerome. The progeny will
pay—tomorrow. ”
IS THE WORLD GONE CRAZY7
The world is on the verge of a collapse
■of credit, says Sir George Paisli, the emi
nent British economist. With some 300
billions of dollars of capital wealth and
economic goods destroyed by four years
of war, there is critical necessity in every
nation of the world for everybody, rich
or poor, to produce all he can, to buy
what he needs and no more, to save all
he can, and to invest the last penny ot
his savings in producing enterprises, ma
terial and spiritual.
COLLEGE TRAINED MEN
Less than 1 per cent of Amersean men
are college graduates. Yet this 1 per cent
of college graduates has furnished:
55 per cent of our lYesidents.
36 per cent of the Members o5 Gon-
gress. ,
47'per cent of the Speakers ®f the
House.
54 per cent of the Vice-Presidents.
62 per cent of the Secretaries of State-
50 per cent of the Secretaries of Ti«as-
ury.
67 per cent of the Attorney Generate.
69 per cent of the Justices of Supreme
Court
■■At the present time the President,. Viee-
President, Speakers of the House, all.
but two of the Cabinet, 69 out of 96 Sen
ators, 305 out of 435 Kepresentatives and
all the Justices of the Supreme Couib
are college trained men.—Exchange.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
The schools have been very deficient
times past in their treatment of social
One of the reasons wliy the
in
problems.
schools have not ventured to enter this
field is undoubtedly to be found in the at
titude of conservatives and the fear that
teachers are under of oflending boards of
, and others. The time has
be restored to normality.
How else, pray, can | education
and the wor d ^
sales-
millionaires.
safely settled down once more into peace
and prosperity?
England looks like Bedlam itseU to
Jerome K. Jerome. Paris has gone dippy
with fantastic extravagance. And the
same thing is reported by observers in
Vienna and Beilin and Petrograd.
Waste, waste everywhere, by rieli and
poor alike—wicked, wanton waste, while
Bolshevism moves with steady step west
ward . The world has gone mad—mad as
a hatter and is spending money like a
drunken sailor. It is so in America and
every other country on the globe.
Mad as a Hatter
“Prosperity has increased; there is no
doubt of it.’’ says Jerome. “Our luxury
trades have trebled their dividends. Our
theatres are crammed. Outside the doors
■of our restaurants well-dressed men and
women wait in queues. Christie’s
Tooms are thronged with
Pictures for which the artist niay have
received £50 sell for £10,000. The ditti-
culty seems to be liow to get rid of money.
Customers for thousand-guinea motor
cars put down tlieir names and wait in
iiatience. As railway fares increase the
traveling mania grows. The cost of liv
ing is doubled, and everybody is having
tlie time of his life.
‘ ‘How is it all done! A large percent
age of Europe’s wealth
destroyed. Its land laid waste.
■ergies sapped. Its future
to the liilt. Ten millions of its most efh-
work™ li. tl.ei'gr.v*.
Another ten million, maimed and useless,
live, a burden to their country. The
world’s trade is disorganized, its currency
debased. Above the ruin and destruction,
against the shadow of universal bank
ruptcy, prosperity, blatant and loud-
woiced, proclaims its victory balls
its jazz dances. How is it done.
The N. Y. Tribune Explains
“The explanation is simple when you
face it. The world is consuming the
birthright of the new generation. The
human race is not providing for its own
increase. A nation, or society entire,
ia but a very large family. To increase
live dynamically and multiply, it must
have a large power of excess production
The excess is required for the progeny
40 give it birth, to feed, clothe.
come
TRUE AMERICANISM
Hettty Van
What is true AmericaniaiM and
where does it reside?' Not on the
tongue nor in the clothes nor amCTig
theAransient social forms, refined or
rude, which mottle t^ surface of life.-
True Americanism is Shis:
To believe that the inalienable- 7i'ght&
of man to life and liberty and the
pursuit of happiness are given of G«d.
To believe-that any fora* of povt'er
that trarmples on these rigtots is uc>--
jiust.
To- belisTe that taxatio?a without
representati©n is-tyranny; that gov--
ernment must rest upon the?’ consent
of the governed, and that the- people
should choose- their own rulers^.
To believe that freedom m-®st be
safeguarded by law and order, and
that the end of freedom is fair play for
all.
To believe not in a forced ^ality
of conditions and estates, but im-aitrae
equalization of ’drardens, privileges-and
opportunities.
To believe that; the selfish interests
of persons, classes- and sections nantst
be subordinate to-the welfare ofn the
commonwealth.
To believe that the Union ia- as
mach a necessity as- liberty is a dfoiime
gift.
To believe thafe a free state sifould
offer an asylum lo- the oppressed?, and
be an example- of virtue, sobriety,
and fair dealing;So all nations.
To believe that fo-rtheexistenoe-amd
perpetuity of such a state a, man
should be willing to give his whole
service in labor and in life.
pl'3 elbow room in mill villages. They
have been satisfied with the increased
wages paid, and they' have' been undis
turbed by imjorted acarchism. It is for
these reasons Shat capital is more and
more seeking investmen-JiJn' cotton mill
properti^ in the'South.
‘ ‘The eoncentnstion of Workers in the
great cities of the land- is c*ie of the chief
reasons for the present 'aoprecedented
high cost of living,’’’ said Secretary Lane
; to the Presiffent the other day. “Shop
and mill worfeers could produce ai'con-sid-
erable part ob their own food .Vere facto
ries located in> smaller commraiitieS'Wi'tb
a view to the welfare aa-' well as the con-
vemience of the workers. Mo:»' of
.people must becsoie producers- of' food-
istuSs-, even on a small scale, if the'' cost
ofiliring is to be Ibwered..”
Two things are'dear to-Secretary?Lane',:
'•first,, that indusfeues an-d wage-earnera'
fare-better in small! commainities tfilarr-iiv
and around large cities, and second; that
bread-winners muat'have- a chance- to-
o7m- thei.J own homes and p-roduce- a>con--
sidarabte- share of their foed with gar--
detfs-,. pigs, and poultry, as he said to-a:
gre-at cotsvention of Church workers-m
the West a little whil^ago.
Advantages Soutlu
is a stabfe mill population with never a
strike in SO- odd years. The mill owners-
M the SoGth- have- a better chance than-
anywhere else in the- -world to create a
body of responsible-, home-owning, mill
rll&gers, to stabilise their workmen and
thereby- reduce'the labor turnover to a
miaimum.
T fee; Way Owt
OtJif very strcsig' feeling: is that labor
unrest* never _ can- be solved in- terms of
wages-and houKr alone. The larger the
wage and the shorter the- worlte day, the
greater ate social unrest among landless,
homeles3>- wage-earners, foot-loose and
free to rove at a raomentl's- notice.. The
StandardlQirl Company is- rapidly devel-
{^ing hcaa-e-ownership plans for their
workmen in- two ®-r three-centers,, and
they are wise in tlfis- matter^ as "Vi'e see
i-t.' TheB; -L Keynolds -Ctempany. is ex-
perimentingsin this directioa,’and many
other mill and factory owners in the
South are seriously cansideriag-it.-
The safe solution of industrial unrest
will lie (1) ni a righteous wage—not a
mijaimum or-'a> living :vage merely, but a
rigliteous wage-,- (2) ima reasonable wage
week, and (3i>in the ownership of homes
fey bread-wiiiB®rs. Short of this last eon-
(Mtion we shaM« steadily go from bad to
worse in this-aountry aavin Bcgland,
And whati. is the laborer’s-righteous
Thiase-foadamental oonditi^s we eitirer'-
have- or cam. easily establish im the South. a o
The future of industries in cw>wded share of the wealth he Itelps produce.
centers-is-psohlematic:^; Wh»t Secretary:-, That
Lane thinka-is indispeasablb we have-in
and explict assertion on the part of edu
cational people that they will not be dom
inated by such criticism as has been pre
sented. The schools of a democracy have
a right to discuss democratic and popular
matters. If the school people of this
.county are not aroused to an assertion
of their independence in educational
matters it,is difficult to understand how
they can claim in any large way to be
leaders of public opinion even for the
coming generation.—Charles H. Judd, in
School Life.
has been utterly
Its en-
mortgaged up
and
house
WAR-TIME STRIKES
Elsewhere in this issue we present a ta
hie showing the three-year average oi
strikes by states from 1916 to 1918 inclu
sive. The table is based on the June
number of The Monthly Labor Review of
The Federal Department of Labor. „
Strikes in the United States in 1916
nuilibered 3,678 and involved nearly
1 600,000 workmen; in 1917 the strikes
numbered 4.233 and 1,213,000 workmen
went out; in 1918 the strikes■ were 3 181
and the strikers 1,145,000. All told m
the three years, nearly four million u ork-
men were were out on strikes and a tota
of nearly 95 thousand days of labor lost;
which means sacrificed wages running in
to billions of dollars with billions more
lost in products and profits.
On an average 76 percent of the strikes
during these three years were in the great
industrial area east of the Mississippi and
north of the Ohio and the
percent of them were west of the
aippi, and only 4 percent in the Southern
states east of the Mississippi _
half of all the strikes occurred in five
leading manufacturing states, New York,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Illinois.
Causes and Settlements
Almost exactly two of every three ot
the strikes reported upon were strikes
about wages, hours, or conditions—singly
or in combinaflon. Considerably more
than half of all the strikes concerned
wages alone. .
Strikes for the right to organize and
for union recognition were relatively few.
Only about one in every six strikes dur
ing this period involved this
Potomac, 20
Missis-
outhern
More than
ily decreased—18,. 15, and 13 percent be
ing the ratios ia, order during these Shree
years.
As for locko-uts by employers, .She-num
ber is small—averaging around a,handred
year against 3,700 strikes.
Of the settifements reported, almost ex
actly a thir-d were dog-falls;.tliat is to
say, neither side won, and both,sides sur
rendered soBiething in the settlement. A
trifle mors than"a third of the settlements
were clear-cut victories for the striker-s,
and a trifle less than a third, were clear-
cut victories for capital.
An Area of Peace
In the nine southern staSes east of ihe
Mississippi the average of strikes during
the war was only 152 a year, against 728
west of the Mississippi,, and 2,779 in the
North and East. The average per year
ranged from 5 in South Carolina, 7 ia.
Mississippi, and 9 in North Carolina, to.
24 ill Georgia, 28 in Virginia, and 2.9Hn
Tennessee. In cotton manufacture, the
South’s largest industry, there were only
seven strikes in 1917-18, six in Georgia
and one in South Carolina.
In North Carolina the seven strikes in
1917 were as follows: one each among car
penters, plumbers andsteamfltter8,freight
handlers, railroad laborers, railway
clerks, stoneworkers, and moulders. In
1918, there were 12 strikes in the state-
five among carpenters, two among moul
ders, and one each among [sheet-metal
workers, retail clerks, machinists, stone-
workers, and tobacco workers.
Nearly exactly half the industrial wage
earners of North Carolina are in our 550
textile mills, and among these not a sin
gle strike occurred during the two years
of our active participation in the World
War.
Strikes occur in largest numbers under
city conditions, where w'age earners are
densely massed under hard conditions of
living, or in enormous numbers in gigan
tic industries, and especially in areas of
mixed nationalities. Thus there were
more strikes in the cotton mills of Massa
chusetts and Rhode Island than in the
cotton mills of all the rest of the whole
United States; and a full seventh of all
the strikes of the nation occurred in New
York City and vicinity.
The mill populations of the South are
unmixed native white Americans living
the Ssuth,. -sve easil^;vcan 'iave if 'vve-
will.
1. Ehri th«-imost parS^-we hawe a lar^e-
number of eisiiall mills ondi factJOiries ralfii.*,.
er than-a small number of laage estab-
ments;.which, makes possible- the coim-
fortable oomra-deship of mill owners and
mill workers-3K the South.. Tlinis friend-^
ly relat-ionship-is well-nigh- uaiversal ^
North Ckroli®a and throu^out the-|
Southern. States. And- there has been-:
very little distuirbance cf 'this rdaSionship-y,
except'in a few of our 1-arger city centers^-
and in, the- oil fields ©1* Louisiana and.
Texas..
2. By. faji the larger aum-be!i;of South--
ern cotton. mllLs are located in, our coun
try regions and the operatives- live undan
rural conditions. They, have- ample gar
den spaces. Cows, pigs,, and poultry-
have -come to be common,, under the
helpful-direction and provision of mill-
superintendents. Around half of the-
I family pantry supply saai-ly comes from,-
it is- freciuently so- i-n
N-e- naathematician will ever figure out
tlie-fraction, no- court or paiiiament is
ever likely tc-determineiitj It is^-a. prob-
leiai-that nevac-can be seJved by the law
g£ She land; it.can be seaved by the ■ law
of Christian leve-alone,-. Which «is to say,
it cannot be c«,lved in terms off right;, it
must be solved in terms-of duty—in the
divine impulae-to share-in generous, over
flowing measuate with fli-ose wiiose labor
helps to create-the wealtbfof the world. It is
a contention.that never-'Tvill be-settled by
a fierce strur^ie. for riglats, . and-if after
twenty centuries of GiiinstianiSy, we have
found no better way out than in.. bloody
battles for human rights, .then the future
is dark indeed in this- and e'.^ery, other
land. After- long c£»iumes of pagan
hair splitting we have-no hotly of indis- -
putable wag®-doctrino"Shat is sver-likely,
to be fix"ed in civil cofe. Tho- way out.
lies in the iSolden Ruiie alone.
We lay eaaphaaisuponhome-ownership. ^
fo-r wage-easmers bec:Mftse it maans stable
responsible- citizenship, sturdy, up
standing, jse-lf-respectiiag manhood, pride
in craftsmanship, the-impulse - to industry,
and thrift, the increasing possession of
bank ace-awnts and.shares of.stock,direc-
these sources; or
North Carolina.
3, Wage increases aad bonuses have
near'y doubled the i-ncoEoe of our mill
and! factory workers; not-as the result of! torships .im industries-and sausty m demo-
strikes blit as the free offering of
m.ill [ cratic oarticipatioa in corporation and
managements. We know of only one or
tvf.o exceptions to this statement in. the
whole South.
4. In.LeCiaire, a factory village six
teen miles out of St. Louis, all t^he-work-
-men live in homes of their own, o-r this
was true of all but 9 of the 607. homes
when we visited the village in 1S112. It
cooperative enterpsse.
Hov,r. else shall we have a sobering sense,
of responsibility and accountability in
the world of indttstrial production, and
distriiisition? Industrial representation
without the sobering senaaof ownership
is but a toy for grown up .children to play
' -witb.—E. O.-Bl..
Total.
tear
:nd educTt^ iTthTough a long period and this particular cause
of strikes stead-1 in small communities as a rule, with am-
Arizona...
Arkansas..
California.
Colorado .
Idaho...•
Iowa
Kansas;
STRIKES; THREE-YEAR AVERAGES
Covering- the Years 194i6, 1917, and 1918
Baaed on the Monthly Labor Review,. June 191S4
U. S. Department of Labor
Department of Rural Social Science
University of North Oaroli-aa
LouisianSk
Minnesota 39
Missouri; 102
ilontaaa • • • 35
Nebraska 20
Nevada 3
New Mexico... .,k. - 2
North Dakota..^ • 2
Oklahoma • 25
Oregon 33
South Dakota 2
Texas ^0
Utah 12
Washington 158
lYyoming. 2
Total k 128,
East Mississippi River South
Alabama 15
Florida., 14
Georgia. 24
Kentucky. 21
Mississippi 7
North Carolina 9
South Carolina 5
Tennessee 29
Virginia 28
Total 152
E-ast Mississippi River North
Connecticut E
Delaware . ;
Illinois ••• 2'
Indiana '
Maine
Maryland ••••
Massachusetts 3
Michigan
New, Hampshire 10
New Jersey
New York •
.k. • . 243,
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
West Virginia 51
Wisconsin ‘
.2779
West Mississippi River
10
20
83
31
16
42
29