Newspapers / The University of North … / Oct. 29, 1919, edition 1 / Page 1
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The news in this publica tion is released lor the press on receipt. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA NEWS LETTER Published weekly by the University of North Carolina for its Bureau of Extension. OCTOBER 29, 1919 CHAPEL HttL, N. C. VOL. V, NO. 49 Editorial Board i B. 0. Branson, K. Wilson, E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll. J. B. Bullitt. Entered as second^slass matter November 14, 1914, a'^ the PostofHce at Chapel Hill, N, C., under the aot of August 24, 1912. FIVE THOUSAND NEW NAMES The University News Jjetter will be five years old on November 12. On that date it begins a sixth volume of 50 weekly is sues. Its mailing list has been around 15.000 names during thelastyear, mainly in the home state to be sure, but it goes also to North Carolinians in every other state in the Union. It goes free of charge to anybody who wants it in North Catolina, but it goes to nobody who does not directly apply for it. It is our way of making sure that we do not waste a copy. The University has at last arranged to add 5,000 new names to the mailing list, and just as soon as a folding machine can be attached to our press and the new ad dresses stenciled and filed in proper or der, the News Letter will be going into 20.000 homes in North Carolina, in every county, and in almost every community of the state. More than' 1,000 applica tions have already been received. It looks as though the full five thousand W'anted will be received iii the next ten ^ays. Whoever wants it will need to ’"'write for it promptly. Otjr Particular Purpose Our particular purpose just now is to reach the people in North Carolina who are interested in country-home conven iences and comforts-^in electric lights and power, in water-supply and sewage dis posal systems, in labor-saving devices and profit-producing machinery, in attractive, well arranged homes with beautiful sur roundings, in books, magazines and mu sic, in anything and everything that will enable the country homes of Carolina to function on the highest possible level in culture, health, and happiness. The News I.etter is now featuring this joint purpose of the State Highway Com mission and the University Extension Bureau under the law of 1917. Their vol unteer social allies must be the alert, ac tive-minded farmwives, and the doctors, teachers, and preachers of the country side—these in very particular. Attractive, efficient homes and farms will do more than any other one thing to establish and maintain a sane, safe bal ance between town and country civiliza tions in North Carolina; and there is no more important matter than this in any state or country. Back-to-the-farm is pure nonsense. The cityward drift of modern times is like the tides of the sea. The moving of country people into industrial and commercial centers cannot be stopped, and when they move out they rarely ever move back. It is possible, however, to make our country regions attractive and satisfying to the country-minded people who by na ture love country life and therefore choose to remain on the land. But lack ing conveniences and comforts, they flee the country—farmers, doctors, teachers, and preachers alike. They would like to live in the countryside but country life in many farm regions is unendurable and impossible. For instance, in 400 square miles of Orange there are only two min- iaters living out ia the country with the Hock.s they shepherd, and there is not a single doctor left in the country regions of the county. j It Is Hobson’s Choice I And so it is in most of the country j counties of this and every other state. [ The problem is foundational. This partic ular field of service invites the attention and active interest of every social and civic minded citizen of the state, town and country. The choice is between a prosperous, at tractive, wholesome countryside on the one hand, and on the other country-life decay, as in the industrial areas of the North and East. There are 700 aban doned country churches in Ohio alone, and 1800 in the corn-belt counties of Illi nois—the area cursed with farm tenancy. It is the ill that grows on our cotton and tobacco areas in the South like creeping paralysis. THE STATE COMMISSION Governor Bickett has requested his re cently appointed State Reconstruction Commission to hold its first meeting in the Senate Chamber in Raleigh on Oct. 28. He has asked each of the twenty-five members, representing as they do every class of our citizenship, to prepare and bring with them to the initial meeting written suggestions relative to the work the Commission .should undertake to do. In the meantime, on the Governor’s request, I)r. E. C. Branson, a member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina, has prepared a tentative work ing program for the Commission’s consid eration, asfollow.s: In the first place, Dr. Branson, wlio is himself a member of the Commission, would have that body consider the reas ons for its own existence. These are, he says: (1) the quickening effects of the world war, which fundamentally are (a) the accelerated cityward drift of country populations, decreasing labor in our farm regions, and labor unrest in our industri al centers, (b) the enormous increase in prices received by producers of primary and secondary wealth, and the tragic high cost of living, in city centers in particu lar, (c) inflated currency, inflated credit, real and pseudo prosperity, the wide spread mania of extravagance, the neces sity for increased production, increased thrift, and for a noble use of our wealth, (d) the sudden expansion of the mental horizon of the masses, and their manifest willingness to consider the large concerns of democracy—taxation, education, health, highways, and civic reforms, along with the final values of life, (e) the rising tide of race antagonism; and (2) the economic, social, and civic adjustments necessary in the days at hand and ahead, due to these foundational disturbances. In the second place, ^the Commission, thinks Dr. Branson, should arrange to take stock of our resources, agencies and institutions—their values and deficiencies, opportunities and possibilities, in order to determine definite base lines of progress for the future; to prepare a compact body of wisely determiued principles, policies and plans for safe commonweaith develop ment—all in view of the fact that the de velopment of a state is an organic process and not a meclianical program; to pre- .sent to the Sta*^e what i.s ideally desirable but also what is reasonably possible, the characteristic genius of our people con sidered. In short, to supplant aimless drift with reasoned progress, to the end that North Carolina can speedily be a cleaner place for children to be born in, a safer place for boys and girls to grow up in, a happier place for men and wom en to live in, and a more joyous place for departing saints to look back upon. Program ofWorK Touching on the machinery of the Com mission, and going more into detail with reference to the work ahead of it Mr. Branson would have the chairman ap point and instruct appropriate commit tees, (a) to consider particular phases of lifeand business in North Carolina, (b) to hold separate committee sessions, (c) to call into consultation at such meetings the thinkers and leaders of the State, and (d) to report definite committee findings CO the Commission by December 1, the full and final report of the Commission as a whole to be given to the State by Eeb.l. These committees, if they follow Dr. Branson’s suggestions, in all tlieir delib erations will wisely keep in mind the fact that North Carolina is dominantly a ru ral State, that ten years ago it was being urbanized more rapidly than thirty-six other States in the Union, and even more rapidly during the war period, and that, therefore, every problem each committee considers has a threefold aspect—agricul tural, industrial and urban. Tiie following committees seem to Dr. Branson to box the compass of funda mental State concerns; (1) Education, (2) I’ublic Health, (3) Transportation and Communication, (4) Home and Farm Ownership, (5) Economic and Social Or ganization, (6) Race Relations, (7) Pub lic Welfare, (8) Civic Reforms, State and local, and (9) a Collaboration Committee whose duty it is to receive the reports of other committees and to organize them into compact form for the final consider ation of the Commission as a whole. Finally, Dr. Branson would have a ses sion of the Commission in full in early December to hear the findings in brief of I,he sub-committees, and to pass thbm on, .ifter discussions, to the “Collaboration Committee with instructions to render its report to the Commission in January. This program, of course, is intended to ue only suggestive. The Commission at its meeting the last of the month may .ear it all to pieces. But it certainly gives food for reflection, not only to the gentle men who compose the State 'Reconstruc tion Commission, two members of which are citizens of Winston-Salem, but to every man and woman who thinks at all ■seriously on any of the subjects which chis Commission must consider.—Wins ton-Salem Journal Commission Members The personnel of the State Reconstruc tion Commission is as follows: C. E. Tomlinson, High Point; Julius Cone,Greensboro; Chas. C. Page, Raleigh; W. H. Newell, Rocky Mo mt; W. L. Po- teat, Wake Forest; C. F. Haivey, Kins ton; C. B, Armstrong, Gastonia; E. Ci Branson, Chapel Hill; Archibald John son, Thomasville; J. Bryan Grimes, Ral eigh; J. 0. Carr, AVilmington; H. R. Starbuck, Winston-Salem ;Ciaren(;e Clark, Clarkton; Cyrus Thompson, Jackson ville; J. F. Diggs, Rockingham; R. AV. Christian, Fayetteville; James H. Pou, Raleigh; A. L. Brooks, Greensboro; Gil bert T. Stephenson, AVinston-Salem; Fred L. Seeley, Asheville; B. F. Eagles, Mac clesfield; F. C. Duncan, Raleigh; AV. C. Ruffin, Mayodan; E.S. Parker, Graham; AV. N. Everett, Rockingham. least express the judgments of a thought ful group of young students about what is and what safely ought to be and may be in North Carolina. It declares a purpose and petitions for a relationship with the leaders of the state that will undoubtedly be an epoch-mak ing experience for the members of the North Carolina Club. AWiat richer chap ter of liberal culture is ever likely to fall I to these young men? A CAMPUS COMMISSION Student life on an American college campus is so intense, the working sched ule so crowded, the interest in marks so overwhelming, and the leisure time of students so pre-occupied with athletics and social events that college men in this country do not easily or often climb up and peep over the rim of the campus bowl into the affairs of the big wide world where in a year or two they will rise or fall according to their competent acquaint ance with liie in the large, and their power of mastery over themselves and the situations that,confront them. The Carolina Club Nevertheless, at the University of North Carolina a little group of some fifty stu dents and faculty members has for five years met on fortnigljtly Alonday nights to study intensively the economic, social, and civic proldems of the home state. Their club year-books bear the following titles: (1) The Resources, Opportunities, and Possibilities of North Carolina, (2) Wealth and AA'elfare in North Carolina, and (3) County Government and County Afi'airs in North Carolina. It is a unique body of state literature. There is nothing else like it in any state of the Union. This North Carolina Club, as it is call ed, has just organized for the new college year, with officers as follows: President, J. V. Baggett; Secretary, Miss Ernestine Noa. Steering Committee: E. C. Branson, Chairman; D. D. Carroll, C. L. Raper, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., A. M. Coates, and W. E. Price. Publicity Committee: Lenoir Chambers, Chairman; C. A. Hibbard, Miss Ernes tine Noa, AA^. H. Andrews, Jr., and G.D. Crawford. Membership Committee: G. D, Craw'- ford. Chairman; S. H. Hobbs, Jr., AA^. H. Andrews, Jr., J. A’'. Baggett, F. P Graham, Mrs. M. H. Stacy, Miss Ernes tine Noa, and Barber Towler. The Club Program This year the North Carolina Club will be conducting investigations, assembling and digesting information, and consider ing policies and plans for sane progress in North Carolina, pari passu with the State Reconstruction Commission. The Club because of its unique purposes is asking for an unofficial relationship with the State Commission. It craves permis sion to sit in with the elders of the state in their deliberations and to learn of them at first hand about the insistent de mands of commonwealth development. Its 1919-20 year-book will bear the ti tle of The Carolina Club Program of State Reconstruction. It will doubtless evidence the imperfection? of youth, but it wid at BETTER PAY IN ILLINOIS North Carolina could well profit by the example of Illinois which has come to the rescue of its many poorly paid county school superintendents with a state-wide law providing for a more expert type of county school superintendent and for pay ing such school officers a salary commen surate with the dignity 'and importance of the position. No county superintendent in Illinois now receives less than $1900 and that salary is paid only in those counties that have a population less than 12,000. The salaries then range from $2,100 toS9,000, the latter sum being paid lo the superin tendent of Cook county.—E. AA'^. K. LOCAL DISTRICT TRUSTEES Evidence of enterprise in county school work is seen in the eflbrt of superintend ents fo organize the local district commit teemen into a working body. Numerous meetings of these officers have recently been held in various counties in North Carolina, in Rowan, Perquimans, Craven, Durham, say—in connection with the initial teachers’ meetings for the year. .:5uch meetings could be held with profit at stated times during the school year. Important subjects can be discussed fully and frankly with a view to a 'oetter un derstanding between teacher and district trustees. It’s a forward looking move when tiie interests of the children make sufficient appeal to call the committeemen into conference occasionally. Many of the difficulties of the committeemen and teach ers are common to both and both can pro^t by discussion and free exchange of views. 1 Monthly meetings of all district com mitteemen could profitably become apart of the county’s regular educational pro gram. Such meetings have both inspira tional and practical values.—E. AV. K. GUILFORD SCHOOL FAIRS Pleasant Garden in Guilford county is one of the intelligent and progressive communities of the State. Interest in the school there is wide and deep and the school influences are felt in practically all phases of the community life. The com munity has been successful in securing in recent years intelligent leadership in school work and the result is a most wholesome community spirit. Out of an enrollment of 310', the high school stu dents number 140. What school can bea^ that? Last week a very creditable school fair was held at Pleasant Garden school and was attended by hundreds of people from the community and other sections of the county. A large number of people came from Greensboro to see the exhibits and to take part in the exercises. Two other school fairs in the county were held the same week, one at Whitsett and another at Bessemer. Each of these communities voted unanimously to make its fair an annual occasion.—E. W. K, k- !iJ i' 1 ./
The University of North Carolina News Letter (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 29, 1919, edition 1
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