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The news in this publica-
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THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
JNE 2,1920
CHAPEL HHX, N. C.
VOL VI, NO. 28
liiorial Board i
EC. C. Branson. L. R. Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt.
Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the Postofflee at Chapel Hill, N§ G., under the act of August 24, 1912
A SCHOOL OF PUBLIC WELFARE
»UBL1C WELFARE COURSES
The bulletin of the Public Welfare In-
itutes at the University during the full
immer quarter, June 22-Sept. 15, will
i going into the mails next week.
Teachers who believe that above all
lings the school is a social agency—the
vie and social minded teachers who look
rward to full-fledged leadership in the
immunities in whieli tliey teach will
ave a chance at tliese courses, a score
r more in'numiier, during the summer
jhool session, and for six weeks there-
fter if they clioose to remain.
Public welfare workers and social ser
vants of all sorts—public health nurses,
ommunity organizers, juvenile court of-
'icials, commercial club secretaries, Y.M.
nd Y. W. 0. A. secretaries, Red Cross
lome Service secretaries,, public welfare
ifficers and board members, the dull
vomeii and other social allies will have a
;hance at courses raii jing from, ten days
» twelve weeks in length, in the prob-
ems of social dependency, delinquency,
iefectiveness, and neglect.
Most of these courses are full college
term credit courses for held workers and
administrative ofilcials. It is tire most
elaborate program on social subjects ever
ottered in the South. It is aii established
summer quarter ottering of the Univer
sity. And it is only one of the quarters
of the full year course of the Public Wel
fare School that has been permanently
established at the University of North
Carolina under the headship of Dr. How
ard VV. Odum, formerly dean of the col
lege of liberal arts of Emory University,
Atlanta, Ga.
If you want this bulletin, address Dr.
N. W. Walker, Chaitel Hill, N. C., Hon.
R. F. Beasley, Raleigh, N. C., or Dr.
Philip Klein, American Red Cross, South
ern Division, Atlanta, Ga.
What an inspiring background against recently prepared by Prof
which to set the Slate and County Coun
cil, August 10 12J
FARM FIRE INSURANCE
So far as we know no farm organiza
tion is vigorously promoting mutual fire
insurance among the farmers of North
Carolina. In 1919 there were five farm
ers’ mutual fire insurance companies
in the state — in Edgecombe, Wake,
Gaston, Mecklenburg, and Union counties
— but their total assets were $65,723
and their insurance risks in force at the
end of the year were nearly 25 million
dollars. The average cost was $3.20 per
$1,000.
Mutual fire insurance among farmers
is a whale of a business in other states.
For instance, the Pennsylvania State
Grange has 69 million dollars worth of
mutual fire insurance in force, saysj.
Clyde Marquis in The Country Gentle
man. “The total Grange insurance
against fire and tornado in Kansas is 36
million dgllars, in Michigan it is 38 mil
lion dollars against fire and seven and a
half millions against death, and in Maine
it is 25 million dollars.
“Wisconsin has 200 mutual companies
covering about 80 percent of all the farm
property of the state. Colorado with its
widely scattered farms has over $8,000,-
000 in fire insurance and the cost in all
cases has been small compared with the
old-line companies. In Colorado it has
averaged in 24 years only $2.24 a year
per $1,000. These cases are only a few
of the hundreds of mutual companies
started by the Grange”.—J. Clyde Mar
quis, in The Country Gentleman.
FARM LIGHTING SETS
THE COMMUNITY LEADER
Dorsey W. Hyde, Jr.
He is a man whose eyes search far ahead
In faith of what will surely come to be.
He makes the sightless citizen to see
A new town blooming where a towm
seemed dead.
He has no fear of unblazed paths to
tread.
His heart exults to make his people free.
To help them realize thedreamsthat he
Has woven from the things which
men have said.
Our towns are dowered with the gifts
of time,
God’s hand has placed them under
man’s control.
Help ye this man who yearns to give
his prime
In helping you attain your civic goal.
A man who works to reach this end
sublime
Need have no fear for his immortal
soul.
13,000 population to Morehead City with
3,500. The salaries paid their city mana
gers run from $3,600 in Gastonia to
$1,500 in Tarbor'o. Morganton in 1913,
was the first Carolina city to try out this
experiment. Gastonia is the last, having
efiected the change in 1919. The Caro
lina cities having city-managers are:
Gastonia, High Point, Goldsboro, Eliz
abeth City, Hickory, Thomasville, Tar-
boro, Morganton, and Morehead City.
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 12
ELECTRICITY—THE HOME MAHER
One reason why labor is getting scarcer
and scarcer on the farm is because each
year hundreds of boys and girls leave the
farm to seek jobs in the city. Some one
has figured that five hundred young men
and women leave North Carolina farms
each year. Farm labor in North Caroli
na averages $2.50 a day at present, ac
cording to the Federal Crop Reporter.
This means that a quarter million dollals
worth of labor is lost to North Carolina
famjers annually. This great loss along
with the threatened destruction of home
life makes the situation alarming, and
something must be done at once to make
our boys and girls contented in their
farm homes.
Much has been said and many reasons
given for their leaving. It seems hard to
understand why boys and girls should
prefer the crowded offices and stores and
a small bed-room to call home in the ci
ties, to the old home place on the farm
with its roohay house, broad acres, and
cool spring at the foot of the hill.
Working in the fields and seeing things
grow is much pleasanter labor than office
work.
The real reason for discontent is not
due to the actual farm work but to the
unnecessary labor and the lack of con
venienees for doing the work quickly and
well. Life soon becomes dull, hard, and
uninteresting around the home which
has no modern conveniences. Old fash
ioned methods of doing the work make
the work difficult: lack of running water
in the homes, poorly heated and badly
lighted houses make home life unat
tractive and young people discontented.
There was a time when modern con
veniences such as running water, electric
lights, etc., could only be had in city
homes, but this is no longer true. A
farmer who can buy the cheapest auto
mobile can buy an electric light and
power plant that will give his home elec
tric lights equal to those in city homes.
The same electric plant will pump water
under pressure for a modern bath room,
it will furnish power to run the hand op
erated machinery around the home, to
operate the iron, churn, washing machine,
vacuum cleaner, and other conveniences.
With electricity in the home the boys
and girls not only have conveniences in
their work, but when the day’s work is
done many pleasures can be enjoyed in
the pretty, bright, electrically lighted
rooms. Best of all, however, the entire
family is kept in the old home—the home
full of good influences, a bright, cheerful
home, and a pleasant place in which to
live.—A. N.
The fifty-odd farm-lighting sqts now
on the market in North Carolina and
being sold in large quantities to North
Carolina farmers are analyzed, classified,
and described in an extension leaflet
P. H. Daggett
and W. C. Walke and issued by the
Country Home Comforts and Conven
iences division of the University Bhreau
of Extension.
As the second of a series of leaflets de
signed to furnish information on electric
power, water supply, sanita-
TWO NEW BULLETINS
The vital facts on the consolidation of
rural schools, which has attracted wide
spread interest in the state, are presented light and
in the latest publication of the bun-au of tion, and telephones for persons who live
extension at the University of North Caro- in country communities, this leaflet, says
lina by Dr. Edgar W. Knight, professor Prof. Daggett, “is intended as a simple
of lural education at the University. and concise guide for those who are
Dr. Knight shows tliat, though urban thinking'of buying a farm-lighting set.
schools have improved notably in the ' The following study has been made of
past ten years, rural schools have not the plants that are most widely adver-
shown a corresponding improvement and tised, a number of which are conducting
that country children in North Carolina ' extensive advertising campaigns in this
are not obtaining the educational advan- j state, for the purpose of classifying each
tages that city children are. As 80 per one according to some mechanical feature
cent of the state population is rural, the or operating principle.”
larger proportion of children are severe- Prof. Daggett and Mr. Walke have
ly handicapped in their schooling by classified the sets on the basis of direct or
having poorer paid and poorer trained | belted types; air cooling or water cool-
teachers, poorer equipment, less time,
and cruder facilities of every kind. “Tlie
condition of rural schools is admittedly
the most insistent and iuinied ately mte.it
task before North Carolina today”, says
Dr. Knight. 1 or no battery; battery ignition or mag
pie sees the solution 111 the consoljda- neto; and battery-rating. Prof. Daggett
tion of small schools into larger, better announces that a series of tests will be
equipped schools with provision to tiaiis- | made soon on representative plants and
port children from distant places in the results published. — Lenoir Chaiu-
trucks. Several 1'lie-room schools ouglit hers,
to be consolidated into a large school
ing; four-cycle or two cycle engines; au
tomatic or full automatic stop; carbu
reters or mixing valves; gasoline or kero
sene burning; poppet valve or sleeve
valve; governor or no governor; battery
SIXTY DIVORCE CASES
The Gazette is informed that at the
approaching term of civil court for Gas
ton county next week there are 80 divoice
cases on the docket and of these, 60 will
come up on the calendar for this term of
court for trial.
This information will doubtless prove
surprising to a great majority of our
readers. Eighty divorce cases in Gaston
county! A few years ago such a thing
would have been almost unbelievable.
Such is the case, however, and they
tell us that the number has been growing
with alarming rapidity during the past
j’ear. One may well pause to consider
this situation and inquire into the causes
of this evil which is destined to under
mine the foundation of our civilization,
the American home. It will destroy the
fabric and fiber of our being.
Those in position to know say that the
unprecedented number of divorce cases
in the county is due in large measure to
causes and results produced by hasty war
marriages. It is at least comforting to
believe that the prevalence of this evil is
a sporadic outburst and not a growing
tendency of the times.
At any rate, the matter is one that de
serves the serious consideration of our
people, and both the press and the pulpit
should-lend all aid to the civil authorities
in helping stamp out this evil.—Gastonia
Gazette.
with difi'erent teachers ^or different
grades, he argires. The plan has been
tried with success.in Anson, Buncombe,
Craven, Edgecombe, Granville, Halifax,
Orange, Pamlico, Wake, and Wilson
counties. AVilsou county is using this
year 20 trucks to bring children to school
and expects to have 60 trucks next year.
A further course of study for women’s
clubs has been issued recently by the bu
reau of extension under the title of “Our
Heritage”,* ptiqiarcd by Dr. James H.
Hanford, of the English department. It
contains programs for fifteen meetings
tracing the development of the American
tradition and spirit through literature.
Though desigiiedsespecially forclub work,
it has been arranged so that individuals
desiring a mapped-out course of reading
may have a definite schedule to follow.
The outline contains many references to
literature and announces that provision
may be made through the bureau of ex
tension to obtain needed books from the
University library. This outline follows
others of a similar nature issued by the
bureau on “Americanization” and “Citi-
^^iship for AVomen”, both of which have
fleeu studied by hundreds of women.—
Lenoir Oliambers.
CITY MANAGERGOVERNMENT
The city-manager plan of municipal
administration is sweeping tlie country.
One hundred eighty cities with city man
agers are listed in the current number of
The American City. Nearly all of them—
112 to be exact—have adopted improved
charters, and nearly all the remaining
cities have created the position of city
manager by ordinance.
It would seem, that in municipal affairs,
at least, the American people are con
vinced of the wisdom of business admin
istration and management. They are
ready to try out a method that promises
increased efficiency in city departments,
and decreases the waste of the people’s
money. They want to see their city taxes
spent for real improvements that will be
beneficial to themselves and to their
neighbors. They have resolved to stop
the dribble of the people’s money into
bottomless sink holes. That’s why nearly
200 American cities have abandoned the
old aldermanic or city council govern
ment.
In North Carolina we have nine such
cities ranging in size from Gastonia with
A CORRUPTER OF YOUTH
AA’hen Cicero denounced Oataline as a
corrupter of youth he sealed his doom.
And mind you, this in pagan Rome long
centuries ago.
AA-lien a Carolina newspaper carries an
advertisement which reeks with lechery,
in the year of Our Lord 1920, it is time for
right-thinking, courageous men and wo
men to bestir themselves.
Corrupting youth is the double distilled
quintessence of iniquity in all places and
ages.
The paper needs rebuke. The com
munity needs rebuke, if it will tolerate
such advertisements and such film shows.
The picture company needs to be reduced
to bankruptcy, and the local movie com
pany needs to go out of business instan-
ter.
Public opinion needs to be aroused and
focused upon everything and everybody
that capitalizes the business of corrupt
ing youth in a Christian community.
However, here’s the advertisement.
Judge it for yourselves, and let us organ
ize to clear the air in our commqjiwealth
from end to end.
Commercializing Vice
“Everywoman’s adventures with Pas-
“Most spectacular banquet revels ever
shown on the screen.
“Intimate glimpses of love and intrigue
behind the scenes on the stage.
“Orgies of New Year’s Eve on the
Great AVhite AA"ay of New York.
“A^ivid pictures of life in the under
world.
“Spendthrifts wooing pleasure in a
glittering Broadway Cafe. .
“Gilded halls of chance, and Fashion
gambling for money and souls.
“Amazing scenes in which Everywoman
loses Beauty, Modesty, even Conscience.
“The supreme hour of Everywoman’s
life, when she finds her heart’s desire.”
Legal Protection
“All Canada has provided itself with
legal protection against injurious films;
four of our forty-eight states—Pennsyl
vania, Ohio, Kansas, and Alaryland—and
the city of Chicago, support commissions
for the oversight of the millions of feet of
celluloid which carry their impressions
each year to the American mind. The
number of states ready to deal with this
topic needs immediate extension, but in
every capital there is an alert and ingen
ious body of men and women in the em
ploy of the picture maker, and they
strive to confound the energies of those
who are contributing their efforts to
enact this indispensable measure of social
reform.
“VA'hen twenty populous States instead
of four have commissions of this charac
ter, working to a common end, we shall
dry up the source of the evil. It will be
Seen and understood that pecuniary prof
it can no longer accrue from a picture of
salacious appeal. luelegancy there may
still be, but money will not come to the
maker or vender of indecent pictures,
since his market will be closed. He will
perforce become a better and a more
neighborly man, as he should have been
on bis own motion in response to the im
pulses of his own heart from the first
day.” -Ellis P.Oberholtzer, Philadelphia
Board of Censors, Yale Review, April,
1920.
Isn’t it time for North Carolina to join
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas, and Mary
land with a film censorship law with
teeth in it?
AVe admit that the problem is difficult,
but it ought not to be unsolvahle.
tioiis, studied negro problems, and or
ganized classes in educational psychology
among men and women of the commu
nity. It takes you some time to adjust
yourself to hearing occasional polysyl
lables roll out of that farmer’s face, but
they are just as natural to him as sizing
up a prize bull. In fact, it is hard to
determine whether his first choice would
be raising a special breed of cattle, propa
ganda, or soap-box work to create a so
cial conscience in the community, a sci
entific and statistical study of the anthro
pological and industrial life of the small
town, or terracing a garden in his back
yard. He builds men and women in the
class room, in the office, and in chapel.
Righteous indignation at social evils and
a boyish joy in the goodness of man are
in harmony in his jovial, almost happy-
go-lucky smile and bulky, lumbering
body. One never knows how it is that
people love him, and that he makes men
and women better as individuals and
more productive as social units. One is
reminded, though in a different way, of
Pippa Passes. AVith all that, he knows
the technique of social publicity, of ef
fective advertising and money raising,
and the manipulation of human weak
nesses for social good. He is one of the
makers of the South.” —Philip Klein,
Director Bureau of Educational Research,
Southern Division, American Red Cross.
AN AFFIDAVIT FACE
The Survey in a recent issue carried a
graphic account of Dr. Howard AY. Odum
who leaves the deanship of the college of
liberal arts of Emory University, Atlanta,
to head the new school of sociology and
public welfare in the University of North
Carolina.
“Someone said. He has an affidavit
face. As you look at him you think of
cattle breeding associations and farm
machinery, and if it were in the North
or AVest you might think of silos and
barns. But for all that, he is dean of a
school of liberal arts in a southern uni-
sion and AVealth in her ruthless quest of versify. He has been professor of soci-
ology, he has investigated rural condi-
WAR AGAINST ACCIDENTS
The American soldiers killed in battle
and those who died of wounds, disease,
and accidents numbered about 77,000
during our nineteen months in the
AVorld AVar. During the same period
126,000 men, women, and children lost
their lives through accidents of one
sort and another in the United
States. During these same nineteen
months around 300,000 of our soldiers
were wounded in battle abroad, but more
than 3,000,000 persons were injured by
accidents at home.
St. Louis has beem taking stock of her
self and something like the tale of acci
dents in that city is true of every other
American city. For five years previous
to 1918 around 500 persons were killed
each year in this one city alone. The
number of automobile accidents grew
from eighteen in 1912 to one hundred in
1918. The school children killed by ac
cidents on the streets and in the home
averaged more than one hundred per
year during these same five years. The
number of deaths, however, does not tell
the whole story. The number of wound
ed and maimed each year was around
15,000 in this one city. The loss of prop
erty due to the single item of automo
bile accidents was a million dollars or
more each year.
The people of St. Louis have become
thoroughly alive to the matter of accident
prevention in industry, and through edu
cative effort they have reduced the num
ber of industrial accidents about thirty
percent since 1912. But accidents on the
streets and in the home have increased
about fifty percent during the same time.
”What did St. Louis do about it?
AVhy she put into her public schools
carefully prepared courses on accident
prevention,
AVhat other city is doing such a thing?