n
The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
the university of north CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
MAY 11,1921
Editorial Board ■ B. 0. Branson, L. B. Wilson, B, W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt.
CHAPEL HHiL, N. C.
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for its Bureau of Ex
tension.
VOL. vn, NO. 25
Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24,1912.
BILLIONS FOR LUXURIES
MILLIONS FOR EDUCATION
Nearly twenty-three billions for lux
uries in the United States in 1920!
The sum is so immense that it is un
realizable. In a single year we spent
nearly as many billions on luxuries as
we spent directly in the Great World
War, or twenty-three against twenty-
four billion dollars.
We spent twenty-three billions for
luxuries, but we spent less than one
billion for education — for schools of
every grade and type, public and pri
vate, church and state; for teachers’
salaries, new school buildings and equip
ments, janitor services, repairs, heat
ing, lighting, and all incidentals.
Elsewhere in this issue will be found
two tables on expenditures for luxu
ries and for education in the United
States; one table based on the research
es of the tax experts in the federal
Treasury, and the other one given to
the public Dr. P. P. Claxton, U. S.
Commissioner of Education.
These tables provoke endless com
parisons. And comparisons, said Shake
speare, are odious. Elsewhere he
speaks of comparisons as odorous.
The thoughtful reader has his choice
of adjectives.
What we spent on (1) cigarettes, or
(2) plug tobacco and snuff, or (3) movies,
theatres, ball games, and the like, or
(4) face powders, cosmetics, and per
fumery, was in each instance more than
the sum we spent on elementary and
high school education, public and pri
vate, church and state.
These four forms of luxury in a single
year called for more ready cash than
the elementary and high schools of the
nation will cost the taxpayers during
the next four years.
We spent five hundred million dollars
on jewelry, but we spent only one hun
dred thirty-seven million dollars on col
leges, technical schools, and universi
ties of every grade and character. In
deed, what we spent on jewelry alone
in one year would keep all the colleges
and universities of the country going
nearly four years.
But perhaps the most startling com-
parisdh concerns chewing gum and nor
mal schools; twenty millions spent on
normal schools for teacher-training and
fifty millions spent on chewing gum.
We spend two and a half times as much
for chewing gum as we spend for teach
er-training in America.
We spent two billion one hundred
eleven millions on manufactured tobac
co products. What we spent in one
year on tobacco products alone would
pay our total education bill for more
than two whole years.
What we spent on commercial candy
was a billion dollars. Our candy mon
ey alone is more than the total cost of
education in the United States year by
year, and nearly twice the value of all
the college properties erected and equip
ped in three centuries.
What we have spent in this country
on education of every sort during the
last fifty years is fourteen and a half
billion dollars. Our luxury expenditure
last year overtops our education bill
during the last half century by eight
billion dollar^.
What we have spent for education in
the United States in our entire history
is nearly seventeen billion dollars. Our
luxury bill for a single year overtops
our educational expenditures during the
last three hundred years by more than
six billion dollars.
And so on and on. We are merely
attempting to draw the attention of
thoughtful people to these authoritative
sources of information and to set them
thinking about the soul of America. It
comes near to being true that a nation
is what it laughs at or spends its mon
ey for. '
We are a luxury-loving people, in
ways and degrees that stagger the im
agination. We have billions for luxu
ries every year and less than a single
billion for education.
We have billions for luxuries, while
public schools, church colleges, and
state universities limp along lamely.
What we spend on carpets, rugs, and
luxurious clothing is a billion and a half
dollars a year, and what we have been
willing to invest in church properties in
three hundred years in America is bare
ly more than one and a half billion dol
lars.
We spend three hundred fifty millions
a year on soda fountain drinks, but we
spend only three hundred twenty-nine
millions a year for church support.
We are closing this brief comment
with a little table of irritating compar
isons.
Luxuries and Education
•Luxuries in 1920 $22,700,000,000
Educ. in our entire history 16,700,000,000
Educ., total fifty years... 14,600,000,000
Tobacco products, 1920... 2,111,000,000
Carpets and lux. clothes. 1,500,000,000
Church sup. in 1916 1,667,000,000
Cigarettes, 1920 800,000,000
Plug tob. and snuff, 1920 800,000,000
Theatres, movies, etc. 1920 800,000,000
Face powders, cosmetics, '
perfumery, 1920 760,000,000
Elementary and high
schools, 19l8 762,000,000
Soft drinks and ice
cream, 1920 600,000,000
College properties total in
1918 579,000,000
Jewelry, 1920 500,000,000
Church support, 1916.... 329,000,000
Furs and fur articles, 1920 300,000,000
Colleges and universi
ties, 1918 137,000,000
Chewing gum, 1920 50,000,000
Normal schools, 1918 20,400,000
CLEAVE TO CAROLINA
Thomas Ruffin
Cleave to North Carolina. Stay
in her, fertilize her, till her, cherish
her rising manufactures, extend her
railways, encourage and endow her
schools and colleges, sustain her in
stitutions, develop her resources,
promote knowledge, virtue, and re
ligion throughout her borders, stim
ulate state pride and exalt her re-
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 52
FARM LIGHTING PLANTS—IV
WE CAN BUY THEM AT HOME
Speaking of the sixty-three million
dollars of state bonds authorized by the
last legislature for state highways, con
solidated public schools and state in
stitutions of learning and benevolence,
and the tight money market North,
The Hickory Record says:
It has frequently been suggested that
the people of the state- purchase their
own bonds, but the matter has gained
little progress.
Prior to the war the people of North
Carolina knew very little about bond
matters and they seldom invested their
savings in these securities. Northern
people bought North Carolina bonds.
The war, however, made many thous
ands of North Carolinians holders of
bonds, and the habit formed four years
ago might as well be continued. Why
not buy North Carolina bonds?
The Daily News has no doubt that it
is possible for North Carolina to finance
itself entirely; indeed, a little consider-
tion of the facts and figures of North
Carolina resources presents the propo
sition as self-evident.
Moreover it is very probable that the
North Carolina dollar invested in North
Carolina development will in direct and
indirect returns profit its owner more
than any other use of it could.—Hickory
Record.
UNIVERSITY ENLARGEMENT
The beginning of a big job of expan
sion over at the University means an
influence on education in North Caro
lina that no one among us is able to
comprehend. In the past twenty years
the University has been reaching out
beyond its old-time horizon and doing
so many things to broaden its influence
and extend its acquaintance thatHoday
it is an institution well rated at home,
but away from home accounted a leader
in many things that many of us do not
know of. With the program of building
carried out to the extent of improve
ment that will cost a million and a half
dollars the stimulus to the present
organization and the increased possi
bilities that will be afforded will put
the University on a basis that will
change its character entirely.
Until in the last few years the insti
tution has had more or less of a strug
gle to hold its place as a factor in high
er education. The many vicissitudes en
countered were obstacles hard to get
over. But Chapel Hill persisted and at
length came the day when money was
easier and the field widened. When the
breaking of the bonds commenced the
rest was swift, and .almost before
North Carolina or the country was a-
ware the University had begun to
work in fields that were new to the in
stitution, and a surprise to more pre
tentious universities and colleges else
where. A management always a little
ahead of the resources of the place,
and a faculty that has been standing by
with a remarkably confident view of
the future have been at the bottom of
it. With this to work with, the state
and the people have been backing the
University enthusiastically, and the re
sult is the scheme that is now starting
and which will lift it to a new place
among educational establishments.
Handicapped as it has been by iti
limited income, the University of North'
Carolina has positively defined its
status, and it has an individuality a-
mong the advanced schools that identi
fied it as of its own type. It is no
follower. It is marking new paths and
getting credit for what it is doing.
With its increased facilities it will do
much better, for nothing can do its
best when hampered by lack of the
necessities of operation. North Caro
lina will be well pleased with the Uni
versity as its immediate future unfolds
for it will be able presently to do what
it wants to do and do it right and with
out limit.—News and Observer.
In a recent News Letter article on mount
farm lighting plants we assumed that
the price of carbide was $3.75 per hun
dred pounds. Some of our readers hav^
called our attention to the fact that
carbide at present costs $5.90 per hun
dred pounds. We wish to explain that
the price we used was taken from a
publication sent us recently by a promi
nent manufacturer of carbide lighting
plants. In this connection it might be
well to point out that whereas we stat
ed in our Letter Series No. 45 that the
electric plant was somewhat cheaper
to run when compared with the acety
lene plant using carbide at the old price
that with the present price of carbide
the cost of operation of an acetylene
plant is practically double that of a
small electric plant. This is best shown
by using some figures.
The Electric Cost
Under averse conditions the farm-
with his electric pl&nt uses about 5-
kilowatt hours of energy per week.
This is equivalent to using about seven
25-watt lamps for a period of four
hours each day. The cost per kilowatt
hour of electricity delivered by the gen
erator of an electric plant considering
only the cost of the gasoline and the oil
is about ten cents. This power after
coming from the generator goes to a
set of 32-volt storage batteries where
it is stored for use when needed. Some
of the power, of course, is lost in the
battery. If we assume that this loss is
thirty per cent, then the cost of the
power delivered by the batteries to the
lights is 14.3c per kilowatt hour, which
for 5-kilowatt hour a' week would a-
to a cost of $37.50 per year fo
running cost of the plant.
The Acetylene Cost
Now considering the acetylene plant
we find that a gas burner giving the
same amount of light as one 25-watt
electric lamp uses 1-2 cu. ft.of gas per
hour. Now 500 cu. ft. of gas is gen
erated from a hundred pounds of car
bide costing $5.90. This makes the
acetylene cost 1.18c per cu. ft. Using
the same number of gas burners of the
size to give as much light as 25-watt
electric lamps and using them for the
same length of time each week they
would burn up 100 cu. ft. of gas per
week which at a cost of 1.18c per cu.ft.
would amount to $61.40 per year for the
operating cost of the acetylene plant.
The Investment Analyzed
If we take up now the initial cost of
the investment in each case we find that
the electric plant means an outlay of
about $600, and the acetyleile plant
about $350. The interest and deprecia
tion on the electric plant would be
about. $120 per year. Wherefore the
interest and depreciation on the acety
lene plant would be about $55. If we
add in these figures to the running cost
cited above we find that the total cost
per year of the electric plant is $167.20
and the corresponding cost of the acet
ylene $116.40, there being a difference
of $40.80 in favor of the acetylene.
This point of higher cost, however, was
discussed in one of our former articles.
We believe that the many advantages
of the electric plant over the acetylene
more than out-weigh the additional cost
of the electric plant.—W. C. W.
IMPROVING SCHOOL
GROUNDS
In order to promote the beautifying
of school grounds in North Carolina a
bulletin on this subject has been pre
pared by Dr. W. C. Coker, Kenan Pro
fessor of Botany and Director of the
University Arboretum, and Miss Elea
nor Hoffman, and published by the
Bureau of Extension. This bulletin con
tains designs for actual and hypothe
tical school grounds, each design being
accompanied by a planting plan show
ing the plants to be used. There are
also photographs and sketches of illus
trative planting from various sources
such as the University Arboretum and
private grounds.
The text of this new bulletin consists
of advice as to principles of planting so
as to secure the most desirable effects,
together with descriptions of trees,
shrubs, and flowers recommended for
use in the three main sections of. the
state—East, Central, and West.
People in all sections of the state are
requesting information which will
assist them in beautifying their
school, home, or city grounds. If you
are interested, send a card to-day ad
dressed, Bureau of Extension, Chapel
Hill, N. C., requesting that one of
these bulletins be sent you. No charge
will be made to residents of North
Carolina. School principals and super
intendents, and school boards that are
contemplating a new school building
or improving an old one will find this
bulletin invaluable.
As a further help toward beautify
ing school grounds in North Carolina,
the Bureau of Design and Improve
ment of School Grounds of the Uni
versity Bureau of Extension will give
direct assistance by sending out a field
worker to assist in preparing plans for
beautifying localities. In offering this
service, the Bureau will follow its
usual practice—no charge will be made
for pe^rsonal visits except that the
traveling expense of the worker will be
borne by the school or organization re
questing the service. Address: Division
of Design and Improvement of School
Grounds, Bureau of Extension, Chapel
Hill, N. C.
equipments, repairs, janitor services,
heating, lighting and all incidentals in
1918:
Elementary schools, high
schools, junior colleges ...$762,259,164
Colleges, technical schools,
universities 137,055,415
Teacher training schools.... 20,414,689
Total $919,729,268
And also the total cost of education
in the United States during the last
half century, from 1870 to 1920:
Elementary schools, high
schools, junior colleges $12,457,484,663
Colleges, tech, schools,
universities 1,804,200,272
Teacher train’g schools. 291,111,232
Total $14,552,796,067
All previous expenditures 2,153,000,000
Grand total $16,706,796,067
These authoritative figures by Dr. P.
P. Claxton, U. S. Commissioner of Ed
ucation, are detailed for comparison
with our expenditures for luxuries as
given to the public by the Secretary of
the Federal Treasury for 1920.
THE COST OF EDUCATION
We are here giving the cost of edu
cation in the United States covering
'schools of e^ery grade and type, public
and private, church and state—teachers
salaries, new school buildings and
LUXURY EXPENDITURES IN THE UNITED STATES
Covering the Year 1920
Based on Letter of Hon. D. P. Houston, Secretary of the Treasury, June
11, 1920.
As per the Report of the Federal Treasury Experts Canvassing Tax Re
turns and Other Sources of Information.
Luxurious foods—not staple foods, but extras, dainties, luxuries. ,$5,000,000,000
Luxurious services—attendants in homes, hotels, restaurants;
chauffeurs, maids, valets, caterers, and the like 3,750,000,000
Other luxuries—joyriding, pleasure resorts, races, etc 3,000,000,000
Sugar—for articles made and sold outside the household; candy,
lce-cr,eam, cakes, soda fountain drinks, cereal beverages, etc. 2,180,000,000
Commercial candy $1,000,000,000
Soda fountain drinks 350,000,000
Cakes and confections 360,000,000
Ice-cream 250,000,000
Cereal beverages 230,000,000
Tobacco—manufactured products '. 2,111,000,000
Cigarettes $800,000,000
Plug tobacco and snuff 800,000,000
Cigars i 510,000,000
Cigar'and cigarette holders 1,600,000
Carpets, rugs, and luxurious clothing—clothing so expensive
as to call for a sales tax 1,500,000,000
Amusements—movies,'theatres, ball games, prize fights; ad
mission fees and dues of all sorts 800,000,000
Perfumery--face powders, cosmetics, and the like 750,000,000
Jewelry , 500,000,000
Toilet soaps 400,000,000
Furs and fur articles ' 300,000,000
Pianos, organs, and victrolas 260,000,000
Chewing gum 60,000,000
Sporting goods .* 25,000,000
Art works 15,000,000
Electric fans, portable 8,000,000
Miscellaneous—hunting and shooting garments, yachts, liveries, etc 10,000,000
Grand total $22,700,000,000
“Opinions will differ’’, said Secretary Houston, “as towhether many of
these articles should be classed as luxuries or non-essentials, and expenditure
on them considered as unwise or extravagant. Expenditure in reasonable meas
ure for many of these articles, would not be regarded as luxurious or wasteful,
but expenditure in such volume on any df them, and the aggregate expenditure
for such goods and services would, I imagine, be regarded as unreasonable and
extravagant.’’