J-
The news in this publica-
in is released for the press on
ceipt.
I—
the university of north CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
LY 21,1920
U—
CHAPEL HHJU N. C.
VOL VI, NO. 35
iorial Board j S. C. Brunson, L. B. Wilson, B. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B, Bullitt.
Entered as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the Postoffioe at Chapel Hill, N, G., under the act of August 24, 1912.
AMERICAN RAILWAY MILEAGE
RURAL SOCIAL SCIENCE
University of
iitral Social Science,
rth Carolina;
lepartment Staff, E. C. Branson, M.
Litt. D., Kenan professor; S. H.
bbs, Jr., A. B., M. A., assistantpro-
sor; Miss Ernestine Noa, seminar li-
irian; Miss Henrietta R. Smedes,
rk.
. The work offered to graduate stu-
its by the department of Rural So-
1 Science is a formal response on part
the University to the state-wide
nand for direct schooling in matters
competent citizenship and effective
blic service in rural areas. It con-
ms the problems of country wealth
I welfare—the problems of eighty
■cent of the population of North Caro-
i and the South. The activities of
! department look two ways: into
lat fields of learning on the one hand,
1 on the other into concrete social
rations—into the puzzles of life and
ilihood in our country regions.
During the last six years the grad-
;e students registering for these
irses have been (1) teachers who as-
e to leadership in community affairs
well as teaehership in community
ioolhouses, (2) preachers of various
and rural sociology, lacking which, col
lateral courses in these subjects must
be taken in residence at the University.
The seminar ropm.of the department
is an extensive rural social science li
brary. There is probably no better in
the United States. It is rarely well
equipped with the literature of its spe
cial field of learning, with books, cur
rent reports, bulletins, pamphlets, jour
nals, magazine and newspaper clippings,
and the like. It is also a clearing house
of information about North Carolina,
economic, social, and civic—rural, in
dustrial, and urban.
IS IT FAIR?
Mr. Taxpayer, you pay the black
smith who shoes your mule $1700 per
year. You pay the bricklayer who
builds your church, store or dwelling
$1900 per year. You pay the machinist
who repairs your automobile $2000 per
year. You pay the teacher who attends
to the education of your boy and girl an
average of only $630 a year the country
over.
In all justice, is it fair? Are your
children worth less than your mule or
your automobile? Whether fair or not
you might as well prepare now to pay
igious faiths, who have widening vis-1 more for schools because unless you do
s of ministry in country and village vve soon shall have no teachers and no
schools.
Salary adjustments can no longer be
based on pity, condescensi(Jn, or public
charity in the form of temporary bonus
es, nor can they be made by flat increases
either in dollars or percents. The only
business-like, the only satisfactory basis
is the basis of salary schedules deter
mined by the economic sociological and
educational aspects of the whole situa
tion.—L. A. W.
iterates, and (3) young men who have
:ome aware of the steadily increasing
nand for teachers of rural social
5nce in the country high schools, the
cher training schools, the land grant
leges, and the church colleges and
ninaries. Since the report of the
leral Country Life Commission in
9 more than a hundred school^ of
;ral learning, technical arts, and pro-
sional 'training have established
irses in rural economics and sociol-
r, and the number increases daily.
. The courses in rural social science
ired by the University of North Caro-
i are in way of rapid development,
graduate work in this field responds
sitively (1) to the demands of the so-
1 workers created by the thirty-five
)lic welfai’e laws recently passed by
legislature, and (2) to the rural
nomic and social research plans and
icies that are now being developed
the federal Department of Agricul-
e. The state experiment stations
I agricultural colleges of the country
calling for trained research workers
•ural fields, and for teachers of rural
ial science subjects. The state is
ing for trained social organizers and
d agents in a hundred counties. And
y ought to be public servants with a
ipetent grasp of social subjects and
effective grip upon social situations
1 problems.
Courses of Instruction
. Rural economics: research, semi-
s, and field investigations in (1) land
nomics— resources, values, ovvner-
p and tenancy, laws and policies, (2)
m organization and management—
m systems, farm finance, distribu-
1 of farm products and the farm in-
ae, cooperative farm enterprise, (3)
ntry wealth and country institutions,,
ntry home comforts and convenien-
I, etc., (4) state and county studies,
inomic, social, and civic; county bul
bs, etc. Required preliminary prep-
ition: approved courses in general
1 agricultural economics. Lacking
;h preparation collateral courses in'
ise subjects must be taken in resi-
ice at the University.
Rural Social Problems: 1. Research,
ninars^and field investigations of (1)
al social institutions and agencies,
transportation and communication
lilities in rural areas, (3) country-
idedness and its sequences, (4) town
1 country interdependencies, (6) so-
1 disability in country areas, our pub-
welfare laws and agencies, (6) social
lects of tenancy and illiteracy, (7)
te and county sti^dies, economic, so-
. and civic; county bulletins, etc.
Ural Social Surveys; research, tech-
anAfield work. 3. Statistics: inter-
Ration and use. 4. Rural Social En-
leering. (i) country community
' (2) community organization,
'nomic and social, (3) county govern-
h' leadership, requisites
^®fiuired preliminary prep-
approved courses in general
SKIMPING ON SCHOOLS
The schools of America were founded
and maintained by sacrifice; only so can
they be preserved. The teacher must
be so convinced of the value and dignity
of his service that he will not lightly
abandon it for some occupation that of
fers more ease or excitement or money.
And on the other hand the public
must stop being niggardly. It must tax
itself more heavily for schools than it
has been in the habit of d^ing, and it
must pay salaries that do 'not degrade
the teacher in the eye, of the commu
nity. Wherever else a town must skimp,
let it not skimp on its schools.—Youth’s
Companion.
CAROLINA’S GOVERNOR
ition;
In the writings of Henri Fabre is a
passage which runs: ‘ ‘History celebrates
the battlefields upon which we meet
our death, but scorns to speak of the
plowed fields whereby we thrive. It
knows the names of the king’s children
but it cannot tell us the origin of
wheat. That is the way of human
folly.” -
Four years ago North Carolina elected
a governor whose inaugural address did
not mention famous names or a single
battlefield. Instead, it said this;
“The small farm, owned by the man
who tills it, is the best plant bed in the
world in which to grow a patriot. On
a farm it is possible to produce
anything from two pecks of potatoes
to the hill to a President of the United
States. ”
Three-quarters of that address was de
voted to the agricultural needs of the
the state and he gave the state assem
bly this program for its guidance:
A law to end the evil of tenantry
through the exemption from taxation of
notes and mortgages up to $3000, if given
in good faith for the purchase of a
home.
Provide the State Highway Commis
sion with a force of engineers to ex
amine water powers and advise farmers
wishing to install water and lights in
their homes and rural communities de
siring to establish telephone services.
Permit the use of rural schools as
community centers and appropriate
$25,000 annually for a free motion-picture
service for these rural centers.
Give rural communities the right to
incorporate and thus enable them to
perform many functions impossible as
long as they lack legal entity.
MEN TO MAKE A STATE
George Washington Doane
The men, to make a state, must
be intelligent men.
The right of suffrage is a fearful
thing. It calls for wisdom, and dis
cretion, and intelligence of no ordi
nary standard. In takes in, at every
exercise, the interests of all the
nation. Its results reach forward
through time into eternity. Its dis
charge must be accounted for among
the dread responsibilities of the
great day of judgment. Who will
go to it blindly? Who will go to it
passionately? Who will go to it as
a sycophant, a tool, a slave? And
many do! These are not the men to
make a state. —Masseling’s Ideals
of Heroism and Patriotism.
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 19
NEIGHBORIZING THE FARMER
strike a blow at the pernicious crop-
lien system through the encourage
ment of rural-credit unions, permitting
them to charge up to ten per cent com
mission for negotiating loans to mem
bers. '
Aid through generous appropriations
for agencies which would tend towards
crop diversification.
The preparation of a simple manual
of good farming, printed by the state
and furnished at cost to school children
and adults alike. Such a book to be
made part of every school course and
its rules to be ‘ ‘as closely observed as
the Ten Commandments.”
The careful examination of every
child who enters a public school—coun
try as well as city—at least twice a
year by a competent physician.
The program laid down by the gover
nor has been fulfilled. Its fruits are self-
evident. Last year North Carolina’s
total crop valuation was $683,168,000
as against a five year average—1913-17
—of $258,940,000. It is now fourth
among the farming states in rank. The
census figures are expected to show
seventy-five per cent of North Carolina’s
population still on the farms, despite
the great drift to the cities in the last
several years.
A number of new governors will be
elected this fall. It will be fortunate
for the people of their states if they
help to write the same sort of history
that Thomas W. Bickett, of North Ca- ^
rolina, has helped torecord.—The Coun
try Gentleman.
Why are so many farm telephone
lines being built? Because the farmer
is becoming more business-like each
year in his methods, gnd in these times
of high cost of labor he realizes more
fully each day that time is money and
that better contact with the world in
which he lives means less time lost and
therefore increased profits and progress
to him.
In the day when the telephone was
strictly a city convenience the farms of
the country were so many separate
units far removed, cut off from the
centers of population and isolated fiy
distance and lack of facilities for com
munication.
As the telephone has reached out
beyond the cities into the country it has
transformed farm life, it has created
new rural -neighborhoods here, there,
and everywhere. The social side of
farm life which our grandfathers en
joyed in the days of the husking bee,
pole raising, etc., is being gradually
brought back by the telephone.
There is a great deal being written
about the monotony of farm life, the
boys and girls leaving the farm, etc.
While some of this is nonsense it must
be admitted that the farmer of today
misses some of the things that used to
make life on the farm the most enjoy
able of all lives.
The telephone by making it possible
to arrange for litfle social events at a
minute’s notice and not a matter of days
is reviving community interest wher
ever used.
Think how much less lonely your
wife will be with a telephone at hand!
Your boys and girls will be more con
tent, time can be saved for yourself in
making business engagements, order
ing spare parts, .calling the doctor, the
veterinarian, and a thousand other ways,
for although separated by miles, the
nearest village is only a telephone call
away after all.
You have gotten along without the
phone until now, but think how long
you got along without the harvester, ,
hinder, threshing machine, and all such
advantages. It would prove just as
easy to go back to the old methods of
cutting, binding, and threshing as it
would be to do without a phone after
having used one a year.
The United States already has more
‘‘Rural Phones” in use than all phones
combined in Great Britain, France, and
Germany. Why not add to the num
ber?—J. E. L.
RAILROADS IN CAROLINA
We have at present 5,492 miles of
railroads of various sorts in North Caro
lina, or almost exactly eleven and a
quarter miles per hundred square rniles
of territory. On which basis of com
parison we rank 26th among the states
of the Union. See the table in another
column.
In railroad mileage we stand ahead
of ten southern states—Alabama, Ar
kansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missis
sippi, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Ari
zona, New Mexico; but we lag behind
four other southern states— Georgia,
South Carolina, Louisiana, and Virginia.
As a whole. North Carolina ranks along
with the average American state in
transportation and communication fa
cilities. In railway mileage only 24
states make a better showing; in farm-
mutual telephone systems our country
people rank far beyond the average in
the South; while in motor cars and
trucks we are sky-rocketing towards
the top of the column the last few
years. But in railway mileage and fa
cilities a full third of the counties of
the state lag behind, and they are still
thinking for the most part in small-
scale fashion about improved highways.
Laggard Areas
There are five counties of North Caro
lina that have no railroads—Clay, Al
leghany, Yadkin, Dare, and Hyde;
seven more counties with railroads skirt
ing the boundary on one side or pene
trating a corner merely — Watauga,
Polk, Stokes, Caswell, Franklin, Hert
ford, and Tyrrell; and a score or more
other counties that are serveip^by lum
ber roads with poor passenger, freight,
and express facilities for the general
public. Indeed, nearly 1,300 miles, or
almost exactly a fourth of our total
railroad mileage, are lumber and min
eral roads and short lines of miscella
neous description.
These counties—nearly a third of all
the counties in the state—are remote
and aloof from the centers of active
life and business. They are away out
on the' rim of things. They have a
poor chance to turn farm and woodlot
products into instant ready cash at a
fair price and profit in these days of
sky-high values. Counties of this sort
linger on and on upon domestic levels
of life and livelihood, while their sister
counties move on up into the big world
of commerce with all its quickening in
fluences.
These are the counties that beyond
all others need whole-heartedly to be
stir themselves in behalf of improved
highways, adequate bridges, abundant
motor freight lines, and country tele
phone systems. Without vigorous local
interest in better transportation and
communication facilities these thirty-
odd counties must be or must become
static or stagnant social areas, h^lf
awake, half asleep, half alive, half
dead. They must be what Colonel Mul
berry Sellers called ‘‘Kingdoms of soli-
tude.and silence”, andhe added, ‘‘Every
body knows there ain’t no money in
solitude and silence. ” Eight of these
counties, for instance, have no local
newspapers; one of them has no bank;
in two of them banks were established
only last year.
What can life be in the twentieth cen
tury in a county without railroads or
with no adequate railroad facilities,
without improved highways, without
country telephone systems or news
papers?
Idle Dreams
They will look in vain for many years
to come, we fear, for railroads beyond
the lines laid down by private capital in
lumber and mineral enterprises. The
railroad companies have been slow to
add new mileage to their systems these
ten years or so. Railroads, like street
railways, have been caught between the
upper and nether millstones of legal
control and restriction on the one hand
and passenger car and motor truck de
velopment on the other. The railroads
under private ownership are just begin
ning to feel their way back into safety,
but we can hardly hope for any sudden
extension of railway trackage—not in
the face of a shortage of 3000 locomo
tives, 10,000 passenger cars, 250,000
freight cars. The need for additional
rolling stock is far more pressing than
the need for additional mileage.
All of which means that improved
highways, adequate bridges, passenger
cars, and motor truck freight lines are
the sole hope of these remote counties.
And they need to bestir themselves
hurriedly and whole-heartedly or they
are likely to be marooned for centuries
to come—marooned in a state that is
developing its agriculture and industries
more rapidly than any other state in
the South.
AMERICAN RAILROAD MILEAGE, 1920
Based on figures in American Railroads, May 24, 1920. The states
cording to railroad mileage per 100 square miles of territory. The
umn gives the total railway mileage by states.
Department of Rural Social Science
University of North Carolina
ranked ac-
second col-
Rank State Mi.
per 100
Total
Rank State Mi.
per 100
Total
sq
miles
Mileage
sq. miles
Mileage
1
New Jersey...;.
..31.20..
... 2,344
25
N. Carolina
11.27 ..
.... 5A92r
2
Massachusetts...
..26.66...
2,136
26
Alabama
. 10.57.
5,420
3
Pennsylvania ...
.26.06..
...11,681
27
Arkansas
.. 9.94,
. ...i. 5,220
4
Ohio
. .22.20..
.... 9,044
28
Tennessee
.. 9.78,
4,076
6
Illinois
..21.65 ..
...12,133
29
Kentucky
.. 9.60.
3,859
. ^
Copnecticut
..20.73..
... 999
30
Mississippi
.. 9.59,
4,447
7
Indiana
. 20.63..
.... 7,436
31
Florida
.. 9.57.
5,249
8
Rhode Island—
..19.26..
... 206
32
Oklahoma
.. 9.37.
6,602
9
New York
.17.70..
.. 8,434
33
Washington
.. 8.45,
5,650
9
Iowa
..17.70..
... 9,838
34
Nebraska
8.03.
..... 6,167
11
Delaware
..17.06..
336
35
Maine
.. 7.59.
..... 2,270
12
■West Virginia ..
.16.70..
.... 4,013
36
North Dakota...
.. 7.57.
5,316
13
Michigan.
..16.53..
... 8,925
37
Texas
.. 6.07.
15,932
14
Maryland
.14.34..
... 1,426
38
South Dakota.:..
.. 5.57.
4,279
16
Wisconsin
..13.88..
.. 7,668
39
Colorado
.. 6.44,
5,640
15
New Hampshire
..13.88..
.... 1,253
40
California
.. 5.37.
8,359
17
Georgia
..12.71..
... 7,464
41
Idaho
.. 3.43.
..... 2,861
18
South Carolina..
..12.12..
... 3,697
42
Montana
.. 3.39.
4,954
19
Missouri
..11.98..
.... 8,231
43
Oregon .
.. 3.38.
3,232
20
Louisiana.......
..11.81 .
.... 6,363
44
Utah
.. 2.61.
2,145
21
Virginia
..11.62..
.... 4,677
45
Arizona
.. 2.13.
2,424
22
Vermont
..11.57..
.... 1,056
46
Nevada
.. 2.09.
2,293
23
Kansas
..11.40..
.... 9,383
47
Wyoming
.. 1.97.
1,924*
24
Minnesota
.,11.33..
.... 9,162
48
New Mexico ....
.. 1.17.
2,974
\
■ !l