The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for its University Ex
tension Division.
JULY 20, 1921
CHAPEL HHX, N. C.
VOL. VII, NO. 35
Eaiional Board. B. 0. Branson, 8. H. Hobbs, ,Ti., L. R. Wilson, B. W. KniKlit, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt, H, W. Odum. Entered as second-class matter November 14,19U, at the Postofiice at Chapel Hill, N. C.. under the act ot August 24, 1912.
NEEDED-SMAILTOWNACTIVITIES
IMPKOVIliC THE HOME TOWN
A little group of students at the Uni
versity has been studying the local com
munity in connection with their course
in Rural Social Science. The results of
their investigations and findings are
collated below and submitted to our
readers as an interesting study in what
may be done towards making one’s
home town the best place on earth in
which to live.
The problem was considered (1) on
the basis of what can be done without
raising the city tax rate (a) through
individual and household initiative, and
(b) through intelligent ordinances cour
ageously enforced; and (2) on the basis
of what can be done only with increased
tax revenue. The study alsp included
(3) consideration of the most hopeful
agency as the immediate source of town
reform, and (4) the basis on which this
agency could best be enlisted in the
work. The more important suggestions
of this little band of students are sum
med up below.
Without Tax Increase
1. Suggested' improvements which
may be made without increasing the
tax rate—
(а) On the basis of individual and
household initiative; ^
(1) A modern hotel should be con
structed which will amply meet all the
town’s every-day needs. In a town like
Chapel Hill this hotel should be suffi
ciently commodious to provide suitably
for the entertainment of the guests at
commencement times, and the visiting
delegates at various conferences of ed
ucational sort—both those now held and
those which could profitably be held
were accommodations available.
(2) Establish a first-class cafeteria.
(3) ^Istablish a Chamber of Commerce
with a definite program embracing the
entire surrounding trade area. A farm
bureau which does everything possible
to make the farmers enjoy their visits
to town and leads them to come to town
for wholesome pleasure, as well as on
business, is an excellent investment.
(.4) Maintain an active Community
•Club, which would -initiate and carry
out such enterprises as are further sug
gested.
(5) Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls
sl^uld be encouraged by prizes offered
by the Community Club for superior at
tainment in these clubs.
(б) Some member of the community
with superior attainment in such mat
ters (like Dr. Coker in Chapel Hill)
might be induced to supervise the beau
tifying of the village with trees, shrubs,
flowers, and hedges. The Club could
keep its own little nursery and let the
citizens have'the plants at cost; or the
members might be encouraged, for
their mutual benefit, to exchange plants
among themselves.
(7) .Develop in eadb family a sense of
civic responsibility for the appearance
of both street and side-walk in front of
its property.
(8) Through anti-fly campaigns, etc.,
encourage the people to screen their
homes, to keep all trash and garbage
in regulation sanitary cans, and to keep
all outhouses neat and clean. Also en
courage the people to take good care of
their fences, hedges, and both back and
front yards.
(9) Encourage democratic discussion
of community problems at the Commu
nity Club meetings. A twenty-five cent
supper is a good thing to get the crowd
out.
(10) Gain the interest and confidence
of the people in each other by organiz
ing reading circles, study classes, de
bating societies, children’s story-hour
groups in the school, and so on.
(11) The Community Club might put
on a community pageant, featuring the
historical background of the commu
nity.
(12) Encourage a spirit of friendliness
by having welcoming committees at the
church doors every Sunday.
(13) Encourage parents to be frank
with their children about sex problems,
in order that they may learn the things
they should know in a clean and whole
some way.
(14) Encourage exercise in some form
for everybody. Organize'-hiking clubs,
tennis clubs, swimming teams, baseball
teams, golf clubs, etc.
(15) Cultivate a sense of justice and
fairplay. toward the negroes; strive to
promote and firmly establish a spirit of
friendly helpfulness between the races.
(16) Publish freely in the local paper
and by whatever other, means may be
available every constructive action tak
en, that your town may be as a city
that is set on a hill, whose light cannot
be hid.
Through Ordinances
(b) On the basis of intelligent ordi
nances courageously enforced:
(1) Have the health officer make, at
least quarterly, an inspection of the
premises of all cafes, grocers’ stores,
butchers’ shops, etc.; the water supply
of the town; all public property; and
private property in as far as it borders
on the street or is within sight of fel
low townsmen. Post sanitary rating
of the premises inspected in a public
place, and condemn such conditions as
deserve condemnation.
(2) Require that all rubbish be kept i
in proper receptacles in the back yards,
and that the garbage man be regular
in-his periodic trips over the town.
(3) Regulate the position of barns,
hog-pens, .dumping grounds, etc., so
that neither the beauty of the town
nor the health of the community will
be endangered by such outhouses and
surroundings. I
(4) Compel every household to con-1
nect with water supply and sewerage '
system. They may be charged rent;
whether they connect or not, or they
may be made subject to police court in
dictment.
(5) Compel owners of vacant lots to
keep them clean.
(6) Hold property owners responsible
for condition of sidewalks and streets
in front of their homes.
(7) Require owners to keep chickens
and dogs from running at large. Pro
hibit bicycles from sidewalks.
(8) H's^e the speed limit strictly en
forced in order to prevent accidents.
(9) Establish and enforce reasonable
automobile parking regulations.
(10) Provide a competent police force.
(11) Enforce the state law in regard
to the school attendance of children
within the compulsory age limit.
(12) Provide proper regulations a-
gainst profiteering, and enforce them
rigidly.
Involving Tax Increase
2. Suggested action on the basis of
what may necessitate increasing the tax
rate:
(1) Determine the level of the streets
and begin to grade them and to lay
curbing and pavements.
(2) Extend the sewer and water sys
tems throughout the town, and compel
the people to connect therewith.
(3) Provide a good lighting system.
(4) Provide a decent, well-kept lock
up.
(5) Increase the fire protection and
put it on a paid basis.
(6) Purchase an incinerator.
(7) Lay out a town square and pro
vide a band stand.
(8) Build a town hall,jdr a commu
nity building, with adequate facilities
for the production of plays, community
sings, and other public entertainment.
(9) Provide a market-place for farm
produce, with public hitching and camp
ing ground for the farmers, and a drinlc-
ing fountain for man and beast.
(10) Provide a rest room for the farm
ers’ wives when they come to town.
(11) Furnish free tuition for the chil
dren in the surrounding trade area.
(12) Provide ample play facilities for
the children on the school grounds.
(13) Provide while land is cheap for
playgrounds and parks that are likely
to be required in the future. A well-
equipped playground should include a
baseball diamond, tennis courts, a swim
ming pool, swings, sand piles, and so
on. It should be located near the cen
ter of the town.
(14) Provide an adequate health de
partment, which should include a whole
time health officer and a public nurse.
(15) Pay sufficient salaries to enable
the town to secure competent employ
ees in all its paid offices; employ enough
people to transact the city’s business
after the best and most efficient meth
ods.
CITY PERSONALITY
Don E. Mowry
City personality is developed by
preaching the gospel of making jthe
city a better place in which to.work
and live; by giving many pegple an
opportunity to work for the city; by
replacing a selfish business spirit
with an unselfish civic spirit; by'ef
fective community advertising at
home and abroad; by teaching, the
people that they can have whatjthey
seek only as they make themselves
attractive to themselves and there
fore attractive to outsiders; by de
veloping strong men and backing
them with a strong community spir
it.
The Most Hopeful Agency
3. The most hopeful agency to bring
about needed improvements in a town
is a Community Club which includes
both men and women. It should utilize
the best principles of clubs of the char
acter of the Rotary Club, and should
be divided into different departments
to look after different divisions of the
work.
The Appeal
4. In promoting the community ends
desired, appeal should be made to the
following emotions: personal pride, com
munity pride, concern for both the
present and the future of the commu
nity. Acquaint the people with facts
about your town—its plague spots, its
infant death rate, its loss in population
if it is falling behind. Appeal to their
natural craving for recreation—active
rather than passive; to their desire for
self-expression; enlist even their fear
and greed, their self-interest, their
friendly rivalry; and, above all, their
common love of children.
The result should be such an intense
love of the community and pride in its
welfare and progress, that all the peo
ple-regardless of religious or frater
nal affiliation, of age, of sex, of position
in life, or of color—will merge their di
vergent interests in a united and con
tinuous attempt to make their home
town the best place in the world in
which to live.
A WORD FROM THE WEST
It is a pleasure to be able to print
some recent news from our absent Ed
itor, Mr. Branson, who is at present
upholding the honor of our State Uni
versity in tt*e summer school of the
University of California, at Ontario, in
southern California. He writes enthus
iastically, and it is plain to see that
his lines are fallen in pleasant places.
In part, his letter is as follows:
We are in the heart of the Sunkist
Orange region (the box in our room
cost^seventy-five cents); in a little or
ange, lemon, grape market town, where
the high school has 1,200 pupils with 128
graduates Friday night—just about half
boys andhalf girls. Theelementary school
children who go into the high school and
junior college are 100 percent and so it
is practically all over California. Mini
mum elementary school salaries are
$1,200 all over the state and for high
school teachers $1,800. This little school
district spends $98 per pupil per year
for high school pupils; $27 for elemen
tary school pupils. It spends,$12,000 a
year on Kindergartens alone.
California Foresight
California had sense enough long ago
to see that water, , roads, schools, and
cooperative efforts were indispensable
to civilization; and everywhere they
have been willing to stand face to face
with bankruptcy to secure these essen
tials of community life and prosperity.
And the investment has. paid. Mr.
Weldon pays $60 a year for water for
his little place 75x100 feet, but every
inch of it is set with lemon trees, or
ange, pomegranates, quince, grapes,
and currants. They spent $21,000 pre
paring the school farm of 55 Jacres for
irrigation and fruit farmingfin general.
As for roads, the town|is paved with
concrete, and these hard surfaced roads
are part of a system of 4,000 miles of
such roads in the eight counties of south
ern California; more concrete roads
and more money invested in highways
than in all the 100 counties of North
Carolina.
A City Beautiful
Ontario is a city beautiful; trig, trim,
immaculately clean and tidy, and set
with shade trees, flowers, and shrubs
to the curbing of the sidewalks’ every
where. But mind you it is no more
beautiful than any other little town in
California. Verily these people are
dowered with the love of things lovely
to the eye. The center of Ontario is
pierced by a 300-foot boulevard that
extends to the foot of the mountains
on the north, seven miles away. In the
center is a double row of California
pepper trees, a beautiful avenue for
the car line; 'On either side the rows of
grovillias and fan palms stand in state
ly ranks, while between are the concrete
roadways, 160 feet wide each. Alto
gether Euclid Avenue is 17 miles long,
and it,runs through a paradise of orange
and lemon trees, shrubs, flowers, and
dainty homes. But think of the cost of
such a boulevard for a farm people! Al
most the first thing these people did
years ago was to build this boulevard
and lay their drainage and irrigation
ditches and pipes. This avenue could
not now be duplicated for less than
$100,000 a mile and I know of nothing
like it this side the Champs Elysees.
A Home Lesson
The small towns I have seen (Onta
rio, Upland, Pomona, Redlands, River
side, and San Bernardino) are beauti
ful, but no more beautiful than Chapel
Hill might easily be with a far smaller
expenditure of money. What we need
is a sense of the beautiful and a quick
ened community pride. If only every
body would keep the grass on the side
walk and on the street cut trim in front
of his house, as Collier Cobb does, the
appearance of the entire town would
be changed over night. Weedy side--
walks and ditches deface Chapel Hill
sadly. Personal household initiative
and pride would work wonders on the
Hill. Here in Ontario everybody’s
place—yards, front, side, and rear,
and sidewalks to the. curbing—is set
with flowers and shrubs and, trees—the
sidewalks mind you; and apparently
every home owner vies with every other
in making his place look the most charm
ing.
We are just in from a 70-mile trolley
trip to the Old Mission Inn in Riverside
and a motor drive over Smiley’s Heights
near Redlands. A vision of beauty
every inch of the way.
course of time, and the revenue ffrom
them will cease.
Fayetteville once got big business
from the splendid long-leaf pine forests
which surrounded it on every side, and
the naval stores and lumber industries
brought much gain. ^ But practically
there are no long-leaf pines in this sec
tion today. Fortunately, however,
Fayetteville has a good farming back
country, and the land will surround the
city as long as the earth stands. Bread
is the staff of life; the'people must have
bread, so that any city which is sur
rounded by an agricultural section is on
a sure foundation, and the greater the
development of agriculture, the more
prosperous the city which lies at the
doors of the farms.
Let the people of Fayetteville and the
surrounding country cooperate under
any ahd all circumstances, for they are
interdependent, and what is to the in
terest of one certainly should be to the
interest of the other. 'Very unfortu
nately and unwisely there generally ex
ists an antagonism, one toward the
other, between town and country.
Let the people of Fayetteville and the
agricultural districts tributary to it re
solve that such a state of affairs shall
not exist with them, but that coopera
tion and a desire to advance town and
country alike shall prevail.—Fayette
ville Observer.
TOWN AND COUNTRY
We expressed the opinion recently
that the people of the rural sections of
this country were making great prog
ress in moral and material welfare and
uplift. Such is a consummation great
ly to be desired, for the rural commu
nities, where agriculture is followed,
are the bed-rock of the nation, after
all. It is very encouraging to note the
fact that some of the great cities are
realizing the importance of building up
the rural communities, and in this con
nection the following from the June
number of the Review of Reviews is of
interest:
‘ ‘Atlanta, while growing in a hundred
aspects that make for wealth, beauty,
comfort, and social well-being, is, like
Nashville, destined to become a note
worthy educational center with its clus
ter of growing institutions. But the
thing that will in the end react most
favorably upon the progress of Atlanta
will be the adoption of a bold and gen
erous policy looking to the advancement
of agriculture and the education for
home and neighborhood life, as well as
for farming, of all the people in Geor
gia’s numerous rural communities.”
The city which follo'ws such a course
as that mapped out above is building
wisely, not only for the rural commu
nities which it seeks to benefit, but
primarily for itself. ' Show us the city
which wants to see its back country
developed with its own development,
and we will show you a city which is
founded on a rock. A city in a mining
district may prosper greatly for years
from the mining industry, but w'hen
the mines give out, as they will eventu
ally, the city’s great source of supply
is gone. A city may lie in close prox
imity to splendid forests, from which it
gets great and prosperous business, but
the forests will be cut down in the
THE UNIVERSITY SERVES
“We were astonished,” said a woman
who lives in one of the' smaller pied
mont towns the other day, “at what
the University can do. The women of
the town have been wanting for along
time to do something toward making
the school grounds less bleak and dreary.
But none of us knew precisely how to
go about it until someone suggested
writing to the University.
“Nobody expected much real help,
but we wrote, all the same. And then,
before we had time to turn around,
here was a woman from Chapel Hill,
marching about the school grounds,
measuring and platting, laying off plans
for walks and flower-beds and shrub
bery with the swiftness and skill of an
expert in such things. We had our
problem solved for us in almost no time;
and it cost us the price of a stamp.”
Nevertheless, North Carolina is slow
ly assimilating the idea that the Uni
versity is something more than merely
a place where men rich enough to send
their sons to college may have them
educated at the expense, in part, of the
taxpayers. It is being realized that the
University belongs to all the people of
the state, that the learned men who
' compose it are employed by the state
to put their special talents at the ser-
; vice of every citizen of the state who
has need of them, and not merely at
j the service of a few hundred boys. The
: University is eme^'ging from the status
I of a dozen or more men’s colleges in
' North Carolina and becoming to the
■ st^e what his reference works are to
I the student—a depository of special in
formation available at any time to any
j citizen. And in so doing it is more
than ever justifying the efforts of those
citizens who have labored to increase
its facilities and its power for service.
—Greensboro News.
YOUR HOME TOWN AND YOU
The Kiwanis Clubs, of which there
are a good many in the country now,
have as their motto: A town that is
good enough to live in is good enough
to boost.
That is a good motto for everybs^^y ■
to use, and as there is no copyright on
it we might all adopt it with profit to
ourselves and for the general good.
And why should not a man speak well
of the tovn in which he lives? If he
cannot speak well of it, why should he
live in it?
There is a bird that befouls its own
nest, but it is the lowest of all the feath
ered tribes. It is held in abhorrence
by all other birds that fly.
And most men, even if they try to
conceal the fact, despise the man who
knocks his home town. They know that
the real trouble is not so much with the
town as with the man himself.
Boosting your town may not make
your neighbors boost you, but it will
I at any rate keep them from knocking
j you. And when your neighbors get
‘ down on you, you had just as well move.
—Standard-Laconic.
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