North Carolina Newspapers

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. SEPTEMBER 13,1922 CHAPEL HILL, N. G. VOL. VIU, NO 43 Elilorial Hoard i E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., h, B. Wilson, B. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. BuUitt, H. W. Odum. Entered as second-olasa matter November 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of Augnst 24, 1918 does north CAROLLNA read? OUR PUBLIC LIBRARIES ]joes North Carolina read? Does North Carolina believe in own ing automobiles? Does North Carolina believe in hav ing good roads? All three of these questions, put to the average North Carolinian a dozen years ago, would have been answered instantaneously in the affirmative. But in all three instances the answer would have been accompanied by a mental reservation implying that books, auto mobiles, and roads were, after all, the luxuries or the hobbies of rich people or visionaries. Like book-farming, they were held in but slight regard and cer tainly were not considered as tools to be used by the average man for real assistance in the work of the world. On March 31, 1922, three months be fore the registration year closed, North Carolinians owned 148,627 automobiles, approximately one automobile for every single book in the public libraries of North Carolina. Or, one automobile housed in a garage for every book shelv ed in a public library! And there is not a farmer in the State who does not consider his Ford an indispensable means to promote the welfare of his household and farm. To him his ma- ithine is not a luxury. It is an absolute necessity! And so with good roads. They cost money, piles of it, millions of it. But they are worth every penny they cost and more, and everybody knows it. They are the solid realities over which an awakened State moves to a higher plane of civilization. But so far, books remain in the lux ury class. North Carolina, by and large, has not recognized them as tools to be utilized like automobiles and good roads in building a finer civiliza tion. Books are Tools ' ty News Letter, that North Carolina i had in her public libraries two years a- ■ go only 144,204 volumes, or 56 to every 1000 inhabitants, in which particular she was saved from the disgrace of standing at the foot of the column of the sisterhood of states by Arkansas with 36, while New Hampshire topped the list with 1978, or 36 times as many! The statement is also in keeping with the fact published in the June number of the North Carolina Library Bulletin, that only 35 of the 62 towns in the State having populations of from 2,000 to 48,- 000 have public libraries, and that the State contained only 64 public and semi public libraries for all of its more than two million and a half inhabitants, or an average of one library to every 40,- 000 inhabitants. Furthermore, thirty of these 64 libraries reported incomes for ail purposes ranging from $16.95 to $950.17, and the 64, plus three color ed branches, reported a total income of only $83,031—the price of 170 Fords, or 59 Buicks, or approximately 3.25 cents per man, waman, and child for ail North Carolina. Winston, with a popu lation of 48,395 led with $8861~a per capita expenditure of eighteen cents, whereas the standard recommended by the American Library Association is $1 or five times as much. Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro had library incomes above $8000; Asheville and Durham received $7445 and $6757 res pectively. The grand total spent for books by the entire 64 public libraries of North Carolina was $22,162 for the 2,550,123 inhabitants of the state. Small Circulation^ Lawyers require books to try cases. Highway engineers plot curves and grades with instruments and engineer ing handbooks. Doctors read journals to keep informed concerning the pro gress of surgery and medicine. Teach ers study books in order to be better teachers. But, so far, the bankers, the merchants, the manufacturers, the • farmers, the laborers, the housekeep ers of North Carolina have not recog nized books as absolute necessities. And as a result they are standing in the way of their own advancement not only in the broader fields of educational and cultural development, but in the primary, fundamental economic con cern of winning bread and butter. For books are, tools for getting a- head, a fact which the directors of the highly organized automobile and cotton industries of Detroit and Worchester have recognized, and which North Ca rolinians and Southerners must also re alize if they make all they should out of the wonderful resources they pos sess. The laboratory and the library com bined must be brought to bear upon the soil, the orchards, the forests, the streams, the cotton in boil and lint, if they yield the State, rather than New England or some other section, the toll which failure to utilize them will in evitably entail, as has already been true in the case of cotton seed oil, fer tilizers, and finishing mill industries. Books in this sense are tools, and the State that fails to use them will inevi tably pay tribute to those that do. What Statistics Show But does North Carolina read? North Carolina bought more books per capita in 1855 than in 1920. This statement, made in the summer of 1921 by the head of a New York pub lishing firm which has been in business for nearly a century, does not tell the whole story about North Carolina’s reading habits. No statement can; for the necessary statistics covering the subject are not available and they can not be assembled. But it tells something. It tells the same story which North Carolina auth ors hear when they seek a publisher for manuscripts which have only a lo cal, state appeal; namely, that North Carolina is one of the poorest book markets in the forty-eight states. It harmonizes with the fact recently given wide publicity in Schools and Society, the Library Journal, and the Universi- The statement tells something more. A State which does not buy books does not read books. Only 85,882 North Car olinians were registered as borrowers of these 67 libraries, an average of one person in every 30 in the State, and the total circulation of the 213,408 vol umes in the libraries amounted to only 727,905, or slightly more than three readers per volume. Asheville, with a book collection of 10,949 and a popula tion of 28,504, circulated 99,218 vol umes, the largest total for any North Carolina city, which, when measured by the standard turnover of five per capi ta should have been 142,520. Concord, with 4378 volumes and a population of 9903, circulated 51,729, thereby win ning from Burlington by the narrowest sort of margin and establishing the highest turnover recorded in the State - 11.8 per volume, or 6.2 per inhabitant. In addition to these loans, the North Carolina Library Commission circulated 616 traveling libraries of 40 volumes each in 414 stations in 98 counties, and loaned a total of 15,659 titles through its package library service. But with all this done, the circulation of publicly owned library books in 1921 amounted to less than one volume to every three persons in the State! Bricks without Straw Barring the specially favored locali ties served by the 67 town libraries and the library Commission, more than 2,- 000,000 North Carolinians had no library facilities in the usual meaning of that term, and lacking these, they were at tempting to make brick for a finely con structed, abiding civilization, without a very necessary sort of straw. Local Authors Fare Badly Miss Nell Battle Lewis, writing re- cently in the News and Observer about North Carolina’s failure to produce out standing names in the fields of litera ture and art, might have said that no local authors work save those of 0. Henry and Tom Dixon (local by cour tesy, as their work was done elsewhere) had broken into the class of what the Bookman styles best sellers. Informa tion concerning sales of publications by local authYirs is. extremely difficult to secure. But except in the case of books placed on the school lists no book published in the last ten years, has, so far as I can discover, reached the 10,- 000 mark attained by Wheeler’s History of North Carolina in the fifties", which, by the way, was the period mentioned by the New York publisher. Hamil ton's Reconstruction in North Carolina, a serious piece of historical writing covering possibly the most interesting period of history in the life of the State, stopped selling at the 260 mark. Dr. E. C. Brooks in three years sold an edition of 1200 copies of his compila- Released week beginning Sept. 11- KNOW NORTH CAROLINA Nature’s Conspiracy A glance at the map tells about the whole story of Nature’s conspir acy to make North Carolina great. Seacost at one end that provides ocean transportation to ports of the world. Short rail carriage to the centers of population. Mild climate in summer and winter, which makes a good agricultural section and a de sirable place to live in. High mountains in the west. These shelter the state from the blizzards of the west and also affect rainfall, giving an abundance all over the state. Liberal rain falling on the high altitudes affords vast water power, as the streams carry the water downward to the sea. From the mountain summits to the fall line is a long distance, giving a big drainage area, consequently a big volume of water to drop to the sea, as well as a big drop. So North Carolina has a groat electrical possi bility. Soil and climate conditions make easy the production of crops like cot ton, tobacco and timber that are the raw material for mills and factories driven by electric power, and the state annually renews both its raw material and its power. While oth er states use up their iron ore and glass sand, and their coal and their gas fuel, North Carolina goes ahead making its material and its power from its constant resources, and it is the one state of the Union that has its manufacturing plants based on a permanent source of power and material. Here is an agreeable section in which to live. People from every where come to North Carolina for recreation and holiday. Here is a section in which industry is encour aged by an abundance of the things needed for many times the popula tion we have. Here is a section from which products can be carried away on sea or land. We have no moun tains to cross to get to sea, or to the big buying markets of the North and East—which means, to the bulk of the people of our own country and the bulk of the people of the world. No man lives who will see the day when North Carolina does not have ample power for all its in dustries, ample raw material to sup ply them, or ample agricultural pro ducts for its people. This is one state that cannot squander its assets nor exhaust them. No other one quite like it exists. That is Na ture’s conspiracy to make North Carolina great. —Bion H. Butler. I editorially and repertorially that since ! it had been printing a book review page j in its Sunday editions a decided in- j crease in the sale of books in the local I book stores had been witnessed. Local : libraries have also stimulated the sale i of current publications. But North Carolina is not getting her capita quota of new books. The following record of sales of four of the most important books of recent years, secured from a representative book dealer for his store in seven North Carolina cities, bears damaging testimony. The books were Main Street, by Lewis; The Outline of History, by Wells; The Economic Con sequences of Peace, by Keynes; If Winter Comes, by Hutchinson. Main Street - Asheville 800; Char lotte 250; Winston 100; Greensboro 250; Durham 50; Raleigh 200; Wilmington 30; total 1180. Outline of History - Asheville 25; Charlotte 45; Winston 1; Greensboro 50; Durham 16; Raleigh 100; Wilming ton 3; total 239. Economic Consequences of Peace - Winston 1; Wilmington 2; none sold by the dealers reporting ™ Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh. Total 3. If Winter Conies - Asheville 126; Charlotte 250; Winston 50; Greensboro 100; Durham 25; Raleigh 200; Wilming ton 34, total 784. Obviously, these are not complete records. Yet they are the partial rec ords of seven of the most representa tive communities of North Carolina whose book stores^ public libraries, and study clubs reach as high a state of or ganization as can be found in the State Asheville, Durham, or STATISTICS OF PiyBLIC LIBRARIES In North Carolina, in 1921-22. Abridged and reprinted from the North Carolina Library Bulletin 1 June, 1922. tion of North Carolina Poems. Educa tion and Citizenship, the memorial vol- who held him in highest esteem, reach- ment of the widely circulated Progres- thousands of his fellow citizens, reach ed a total of 5000, or one half the num- sold back in the fifties. Current BooKs Statistics for current books by out side writers are difficult to secure. The Greensboro Daily News recently noted Name of Total Vols. Total No. Bor- : Place Library Income Added Vols. rowed la tion Aberdeen Page Memorial $263.24 36 2250 330 1160 Albemarle Public 169.67 73 981 204 3408 Andrews Carnegie 492.46 328 1528 6098 Asheville Pack Memorial 7445.00 1500 10946 4073 99218 Beaufort Beaufort 91.00 198 198 56 Belhaven Belhaven 117.00 150 147 260 998 Benson Young People’s 60.91 74 159 79 Brevard U. D. C. 357.15 307 1879 235 5456 Burlington Public 3805.00 411 2415 1985 28659 Canton Champion Y.M.C.A. 458 1057 165 3288 Charlotte Carnegie 8664.49 931 11109 8792 66234 Concord .Public 3272.67 870 4378 4772 51729 : Davidson Presbyterian Church 61.11 45 ■716 1566 Duke Duke 156 640 ' Durham Public 3 6757.51 2166 9872 5166 63825 Edenton Shep.-Pruden Mem. 1025.36 229 1338 632 12170 Fayetteville Civic Association 134 1663 262 Franklin 1 Public Gastonia Public 3362.63 592 4345 2300 31474 Goldsboro Public 3320.66 630 4675 1466 18096 Greensboro Public 3 8341.41 1144 16995 3184 4 66470 Greenville Public 1 Hamlet S.A.L. Traveling 4283 6637 Hendersonville Public 1217.89 367 3317 1127 20305 Hickory Public Highlands Hudson 126.88 191 2793 400 3650 Hillsboro 1 Hillsboro Hudson Dixie 45.61 49 845 1129 Kinston Public 908.30 87 2590 189 Ledger i McAdenville Good-Will Free 50.00 50 10020 200 1600 R.Y. McAden Mem.l 2150 Marion Florence Tho. Mem. 142.17 50 690 Montreat Cora A. Stone Mem. 56.41 70 3276 177 Mooresville Free 324.50 15 1249 New Bern Library Assoc. 1161.23 247 4500 394 13915 Niagara Webster Public 1 16.93 265 1288 35 331 Oriental Woman’s Club 60 67 126 Oxford Oxford Sub. 233.60 149 1681 150 2000 Pinehurst Pinehurst 271.30 197 2347 292 2563 Raleigh Olivia Raney 8435.46 692 16849 4292 60509 Reidsville Public 1 200.00 129 1183 1124 2937 Rockingham Public 1200.00 416 1500 850 Rocky Mount Public 2580.00 278 1264 826 Rowland Public 338.42 62 934 91 2500 Rutherford Col. Carnegie 426.75 39 1200 100 Rutherfordton Rutherfordton 800 800 75 Salisbury Public 1 300.00 24 1547 8375 3441 Saluda Julia F.GoeletMem.l 96 3000 Sanford Sanford 1 Scotland Neck Public 366.04 739 Shelby Public 569.25 77 1060 3126 Smithfield Women’s Club 196 765 2363 Southern Pines Southern Pines 217.00 1231 1231 200 Southport Public 217.16 944 3969 755 6477 Spencer Y. M. C. A. 600 160 Statesville Women’s Club 136.00 246 684 612 3374 Tarboro Edgecombe Pub. 564.00 307 1476 150, 3705 Tyron Lanier 121.53 375 3961 260 Washington Public 5 Waynesville Waynesville ' 629.30 181 4361 212 7140 Whitefield Public 66 314 145 667 Wilmington Public 2766.38 952 10168 7509 24174 Wilson Wilson County 960.17 453 1251 759 8265 Winston-Salem Carnegie 8861.10 1524 13101 4178 61520 Total $80,841.03 21,315 200,142 82,696 681,18 Charlotte (colored) 800.00 122 7666 2658 38513 Durham (colored) 840.00 225 2987 528 4206 Laurinburg (colored) 650.00 500 2613 4000^ Total $2. 190.00 847 13,266 3186 46719 Grand total $83,031.03 22,162 213,408 85,882 727,905 a and whose book buying habits are un questionably far in advance of those of village and rural sections whose book stores and libraries are wanting and whose knowledge of the book market is slight. Size of Libraries A year ago, while visiting the libra ries of Massachusetts, I made the dis covery that a city like Salem, Massa chusetts, with a population of 42,629, had a public library of 70,000 volumes, an association or subscription library of 30,000 volumes, a scientitic library of 120,000 books and 406,000 catalogued phamphlets, and a law law library of 30,000 volumes. I found that this one city of Salem, with its 100,000 volumes in its public and association libraries, had 10,000 volumes more than the com bined book collections of the public li braries of Asheville, Winston, Char lotte, Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh, and Wilmington (89,033); that its law library of 30,000 volumes was the equal of the libraries of the University Law School and the Supreme Court of North Carolina combined; and that its scientif-. ic library (the library of the Essex In stitute) contained approximately 60,- 000 more catalogued titles, including pamphlets, than all the 39, North Caro lina colleges and universities, white and colored combined. Or, stated dif ferently, the catalogued, accessible books of the combined libraries of this one city of 42,000 inhabitants, more than equaled those of the 64 North Ca rolina public libraries, with 406,000 ca talogued monographs and pamphlets to boot!—L. R. Wilson, Librarian Univer- sity of North Carolina. 8 'i; .••■A 4- 1. No report received during this year. 2. Includes 2180 periodicals, es county. 4. New registration. 4.6. Closed for reorganization. 3. Includ-