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 Press for the Univer sity Extension Division. DECEMBER 5,1923 J CHAPEL HILL, N. C. VOL. X, NO. 5 B titorial Soar ils C. Braaaon. S. 9. Hobba. Jr., L. R, Wilaon. E, W. Knight, D. O. Carroll, J, B. Ballltt, H. W. Odom. Entered aa second'claHa matter November 14. 1914, atthePoatofSceat Chapel Hill, N. C.. under the act of Augruat 24, 1911 XXI—A FIELD LABORATORY FOR STUDENTS Denmark is over-run by students from other countries. Over-run is the word and it does not over-state the fact. They are here from every land under the heavens, studying Denmark. They are farmers and farm organiza tion officials, college professors and teachers of every grade and rank, graduate students digging^^doctorate dissertations out of life itself and not out of dust bins, legislative committees and commissions, congressmen and field investigators from the agricultural de partment at Washington, members of the English parliament and details from the Home Office, settlement workers, social secretaries, public welfare offi cers, research students representing the social-work foundations of America, authors assembling material for books on Denmark, Scandinavian-American scholarship students, and so on and on. I name them as I find them listed in my travel memorandum book. They are not tourists of the ordinary tpye but students of Danish institutions and agencies of progress, welfare and well being. Denmark is being examined by students of this sort more thorough ly at this moment than any other coun try of the world. Falling in with these people has been a daily experience in ev ery nook and corner of this little country. We are all using Denmark as a field laboratory in political science and so cial economics, swapping addresses, ex changing letters of introduction, and working together here and there with constantly renewed inspiration. Col onies of artists are common in Bavaria, the vale of Conway, the Grand Canyon and other picturesque regions, but in Denmark, the colonies and groups are social science students and active social servants working at the Danish ways of commonwealth building. Some of the Students To specify somewhat in detail. The other day I dined with the students and faculty of the folk high school near Roskilde. On my left were two social workers from Vienna and on my right a Lutheran priest from Berlin bent on establishing a high school of the Danish type for the working people of his parish. Across the table was a Cana dian anti by his side a Japanese who has been a student in the school for five months, by way of learning how to have such a school in his mission field at home. He knew our Dr. J. F. Steiner, by the way, and was overjoyed to find that his friend in Japan was my fellow- worker in the University of North Ca rolina. I was directed to the Roskilde school by Mrs. John C. Campbell of Asheville who has been givintr a whole year to the folk high schools of Denmark and the cooperative farm organizations of all the Scandinavian countries. With her in Copenhagen were two graduates of Bryn Mawr and Wellesley who are de voting their lives to school settlement work in the Appalachian mountains. My trip to Roskilde; was made with sixty English farmers and government officials attending the cattle show there. Their ten-day mission in Denmark was a study of the cooperative creameries, bacon factories, and egg-export socie ties. Two members of the English Teach er Training School at Derby are here studying the domestic science schools. Two members of the Hampton Institute faculty are here studying thp folk high schools, the agricultural schools, and Danish education in general. A blue-eyed, black-haired Irish girl is here attending the high-school confer ences at Elsinore. Students of this sort have been appearing at my table at the Helmerhus pensionat every day or so during the last two months. Mutual International Study The morning I spent in the State Land Economics Bureau, the chief said to me, You have just missed a field agent from the department of agricul ture in Washington. The great central office of the Danish Marketing Coopera tives is just one block away from my pensionat in Copenhagen. It has been my working headquarters during my stay in Denmark. Students of farm cooperation swarm into it from every country on the globe, among them two congressmen the othe^ day, neither of whom belongs to the farm bloc. Like the rest of us in Denmark, they are having a chance to learn a lot of things they did not know before. Herre Holm the director of this Cooperative Cen tral, I may say in passing, spent two years in America working his way a- cross the continent as a farmhand in order to learn English while studying American agriculture and American markets for Danish farm products. It is a way these Danes have of master ing real problems. His cargoes now go regularly into San Francisco as well as New York. A Great Experience But the most impressive experience I have had in Denmark was at the In ternational Folk High School near El sinore in early August. There I ran into a conference of one hundred and twenty social workers and students from twelve countries of the world— England, Ireland, Canada, the United States, Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, China, and Japan. It was one of a series of con ferences on the pressing great prob lems of humanity in the world today, each subject bringing in a new group of earnest students every eight or ten days for a month or more. The folk schools have always been close to life itself in Denmark, but Peter Manni- che’s school was establisheikthree years ago to bring Denmark just as close to life and its common problems in the world at large. Or such is the ideal that inspires him as the principal of a new kind of folk high school. He is a graduate of the university in Copenha gen, but of far greater significance is the fact that he has what Wordsworth called the vital soul. He is young but already he is launched upon a great career. His school is heavily handi capped by debt, nevertheless the joy of a great purpose fills his face with joy, and what else but a|great purpose fills any face with joy? ^ Some Commonwealth Builders These two months in Denmark are bringing me to understand why it is that little Denmark gives birth to such men as Bishop Grundtvig, Steen Blich- er, Christian Kold, Dalgas, Jacob Riis, Holger Begtrup, Jacob Lange, Peter Manniche, Hegerman-Lindencrone, Arne Holm, and the rest. The list is long, and they are commonwealth builders all. The commonwealth they have built is a cooperative democracy. It is a new kind of democracy, and that is why so many students are here from so many different countries. They have been attracted to Denmark by the addresses and magazine articles of Francis Maurice Egan who for ten years or more was our distinguished ambassador at Copenhagen, by Rider Haggard’s Rural Denmark, Shaw Des mond’s The Soul of Denmark, Harald Faber’s Cooperation in Denmark, Fred eric C. Howe’s Denmark, A Coopera tive Commonwealth; and by other books on Denmark in English, the mere titles of which fill 110 pages in the bibliog raphy of the Royal Danish Library. The four books named treat in full chapters many .phases of Danish life and enterprise that I can only glance at in these brief letters. They can all be borrowed from the seminar library of rural social-economics at the Uni versity of North Carolina. They will be mailed for a ten-day study in answer to post card requests. All of them, however, ought to be in the private library of every thoughtful student whose mind is busy with state prob lems in North Carolina and elsewhere. Three Phases of Cooperation Denmark is an experiment station in Cooperation, first as a form of business organization, second as a method of social enterprise, and third as a way of effective civic service. Since 1861 the Danes have moved steadily upward thru these three stages of essential de mocracy—not, to be sure, without stumbling now and then in applying a principle of business, life, and state hood. But the successes have been so A GREAT PEOPLE In a free republic a great govern ment is the product of a great peo ple. They will look to themselves rather than government for success. The destiny, the greatness, of Amer ica lies around the hearthstone. If thrift and industry are taught there, and the example of self sacrifice oft appears, if honor abides there, and high ideals, if there the building of fortune be subordinate to the build ing of character, America will live in security, rejoicing in an abundant prosperity and good government at home, and in peace, confidence, and respect abroad. If these virtues be absent there is no power that can supply these blessings. Look well then to the hearthstone, therein all hope for America lies.—Calvin Coolidge. many and so wonderful that they have attracted the attention of readers, thinkers, and leaders in every land. Fundamental Contrasts Now a corporation is one thing and a j cooperation is another. A corporation j is an old and seasoned form of business organization created, defined, and reg ulated by laws without number these many centuries. It assembles large volumes of capital by handing out shares of stock to a large number o,f little investors, who have the right to elect directors and to receive dividends when there are any. When there are none they have the right to whistle to keep their courage up, and to pay as sessments to settle the debts of the concern when it fails. Meantime every body has the right to gamble on the earning power of the enterprise. Vot ing is based on the shares of stock ! owned or controlled, and a fifty-one, percent control is as good as a one-; hundred percent ownership. At any rate it is cheaper. It is not too much to say that the share of stock has more i profoundly affected the essential char acter of our civilization than any other , single invention of modern times. i In contrast, a cooperation is a form ; of business organization based, first on : the one-man-one-vote principle of vot-1 ing, and second on the patronage divi-1 dend as principle of profit sharing. i That is to say, no matter how many ; shares of stock a member may own he : has only one vote; and his dividends are ' rated on the amount of business he does with the concern as well as on the a- i mount of stock he owns. It seems fan- [ tastic and futile to hard-headed busi- j ness men in America. | A New Business Instrument j Cooperation as a form of business or-1 ganization is so new in Western civili-. zation that twenty-five years ago it had no legal existence whatsoever in the United States, and the word itself could not be found in any legal diction-: ary in America. But in the new century the principle was sanctioned by law in some twenty-five states, and finally it found its way^ into federal enact ment. Cooperation in business is seventy- four years old in Denmark, but in A- merica it is so new both in fact and in law that it has not yet reached any final form as a business instrument. Our cooperators are still working out their salvation with fear and trembling, in North Carolina and every other state of the Union. Even in California where the movement is best developed, the raisin and walnut growers had to get together in a hurry at Fresno in 1921 and re-organize their business almost overnight in order to escape indictment in the federal courts for conspiracy in restraint of trade, V ' What Counts Most i A corporation is a massing of money and it is money that counts in a pinch in corporation business. A cooperation is a massing of men and it is character that counts in a pinch in a cooperative enterprise. Without the cooperative virtues of sagacity, faith in one’s fel lows, willing subordinatioz^tojself-chos-, en authority, vigilance, loyalty and courage, a man would better stay ou^ of a cooperative society, for it tests . character more severely than any other mode of business, way of life, or form of civic enterprise yet devised by civi lized man. The cooperative virtues—read the list over again in the preceding para graph-are superfine qualities of hu man nature. The Danes have these vir tues, not as a gift of nature but as a result of their struggle to survive both as farmers and as a state. Cooperation a National Need Cooperation on a self-help basis suc ceeds in Denmark and the principle passed entirely beyond debate a quarter century ago in this little country. And it must made to succeed or allowed to succeed in America. We need the cooperative virtues in every phase of our national life. Civilization cannot forever exist as a tooth-and claw, beak-and talon contest for sur vival and supremacy among men and nations. Europe is today an arresting illustration of this fundamental fact. Collusion is better than collision, co operation is better than competition, and the sooner the human race learns this fundamental lesson the better. Somehow or other the world must find a place for The Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule in business, in social fellowships, and in civic institu tions. The race has tried the Rule of Gold long enough to have learned that it is not a final way of life.—E.C.Bran son, Strassburg, Sept. 18, 1923. THE CAROLINA SPIRIT One of the most interesting features of the program of public education on which North Carolina has embarked is the determination to make adequate provision for the thorough training of the colored teachers of the state. With this end in view three institutions have been designated as colored state teach er-training schools—one at Elizabeth City, one at Winston-Salem, and a third at Fayetteville. All three of these institutions are now provided with some excellent modern buildings, but the appropriations already made insure enough excellent dorn^itories, laboratories, classrooms, to make these schools comparable with the leading state institutions maintained for the white people. The officials of North Carolina have not been hampered by the all too prev alent fear of doing something which might not be universally popular.. Guided by an admirable spirit of jus tice and fair play, supported by the best element of the people in the state, they have looked into the future and laid their plans for a system of public education which will offer the same opportunities to all the children of the state, whether in the country or the city, and whether black or white. This spirit of courageous confidence in doing the thing that i^ obviously right and fair without trying to measure the re sults in votes has been a conspicuous characteristic of the North Carolina public officials, and they are setting a splendid standard of statesmanship for the Nation. —Southern Workman. TRAINING FOR THE FARM Vocational training in agriculture is keeping the boys on the farm and hold ing them in school, according to figures obtained by the federal board'of voca tional education. The facts are interest ing because they suggest many more changes that will reflect on the future. The data collected indicate that 74 per cent of the boys trained for agriculture are employing that knowledge in their vocations. On the other hand, only 3.6 percent of the graduates from 271 rural high schools in New York state, where agriculture is not taught, remain on the farms. It is clearly shown that the study of agriculture keeps the boy from the farm in school for a longer time than in cases where agriculture is not taught. —Indiana Farmers’ Guide. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE RATES In North Carolina in 1922 Based on the Bureau of the Census report on marriages and divorces, show ing the number of marriages for each divorce granted in each county. North Carolina average one divorce for every 16.8 marriages, against one for every thirty-two in 1916. Five-year increase in the number of divorces 100 percent, against only 3.5 percent increase in marriages. One-half of all divorces were granted in the ten counties with the largest towns and cities. The divorce problem is an urban one. Our divorce rate will steadily rise as we change from a rural to an urban state. Ninety-three di vorces in Buncombe against a total of 91 in the first twenty-five counties, all rural, listed below. Farmers are seldom divorced. S. H. Hobbs, Jr. Department ofRural Social Economics, University of North Carolina Rank County No. Marriages per divorce Rank County No. Marriages per divorce 1 Yadkin 138.0 46 Lenoir 22.1 2 Bladen 127.0 47 Surry 21.5 3 Currituck 104.0 48 Edgecombe 20.6 4 Lee 69.6 49 Wilson 19.9 6 Sampson 68.0 60 Richmond 19.6 6 Jones 66.0 61 Cleveland 19.3 7 Moore 64.3 62 Rutherford 19.0 8 Camden 63.0 62 Perquimans.... 19.0 9 Franklin 62.6 64 Randolph 18.7 10 Lincoln 62.0 66 Swain 18.4 11 Harnett 60.6 55 Warren 18.4 12 Johnston 49.1 57 Burke.. .... 18.2 13 Mitchell 49.0 68 Halifax 18.1 14 Cumberland ... 45.1 69 Henderson 18.0 16 Alexander 46.0 60 Person 17.6 16 Stokes 41.0 61 Chowan 17.6 17 Anson 40.0 62 Bertie 17.2 18 Iredell 39.5 63 Cabarrus 16.6 18 Watauga 39.5 64 Greene 16.4 20 Wilkes 38.7 66 Caswell 16.2 21 Jackson ....... 36.6 66 Robeson 16.0 22 Montgomery .. 36.3 67 Wake 16.1 23 Columbus 36.0 68 Pasquotank.... 14.7 24 Duplin 33.8 69 Wayne 14.4 26 Chatham 32.6 70 Madison 14.0 26 Catawba 32.0 71 Brunswick 13.7 27 Crnnvillf* 31.9 72 New Hanover . 13.0 28 Martin 29.2 73 Alamance 12.9 29 Davidson 28.6 74 Craven 12.7 30 Scotland 28.0 74 Pitt 12,7 31 Carteret 26.6 76 Rowan 12.5 31 Orange 26.5 77 Vance 11.5 33 Rockingham... 26.4 78 Ashe 11.8 34 Pamlico 26.0 78 Stanly 11.8 34 Washington ... 26.0 80 Guilford 11.0 36 Beaufort 26.0 81 Hertford 10.2 36 Graham 26.0 82 Forsyth 9.2 38 Caldwell 24.7 83 McDowell .. 9,1 39 Alleghany 24.2 84 Durham 8.7 40 Union 24.0 86 Mecklenburg.. 8.8 41 Gates 23.0 86 Buncombe 8.0 41 Transylvania.. 28.0 86 Gaston 8.0 43 Haywood 22.8 88 Avery 7.4 43 Nash 22.8 89 Northampton.. 6.4 46 Yancey 22.2 90 Macon 4.2 The following counties are omitted because of lack of authoritative figures: Cherokee, Clay, Dare, Davie, Hoke, Hyde, Onslow, Pender, Polk, and Tyrrell. These are rural counties with few divorces.

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