The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERS5TY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
OCTOBER 8, 1924
CHAPEL iilLL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. X, NO. 47
EdLKorltil H. 0. Braaaoa. S. H. Hobbs. Jr., L. R. Wilsoa, S. W. Kalsht, D. D. Carroll. J. B.Ballitt, E. W. Odam.
entered aa aeeond-claas matter November 14. 1914, atthePoatofSceatCbauelHill. N. C., nndor the act of Aasnst 84, 1912
OTHER STATES LEADING
Port Terminals and Water Trans
portation is a new question in North
Carolina and because it is new some
people are honestly in doubt about it.
The only state with an ocean or lake
front and without port terminals is
North Carolina. Every other state
with a chance at water rate competi
tion has one or more public port termi
nals open on an equal’ footing* to the
commerce of all the world—had to
have such terminals to control railroad
freight rates. And nobody in these
states is in doubt about the wisdom of
such enterprises.
There are sixty-eight public [port
terminals in thirty-one states, all of
them established on the basis of public
bond issues. All are self-financing and
self-supporting, some are also paying
interest and sinking-fund charges, and
others are earning enough in harbor
fees to pay for expansion as port traf
fic increases. The older the public
port is the better chance it has to pay
its own way and to pay off j the bonds
that built it.
Our state highway is already on a
self-financing basis and nobody is
bothering about our highway bonds. A
state water transportation system can
be put on the same self-supporting
basis. If not, then we are stupider
than the people of thirty-one other
states. North Carolina has shown the
the rest of the states the way in pub
lic highway finance. She now has a
chance to show them her ability in
public water-transportation ^finance.
Once upon a time many timid people
wanted no bonds in millions for public
Yoads in North Carolina. Now nobody
is in doubt about the matter. Every
body is on the band wagon to day. It
may be that the same story will be
told a few years hence about a state
system of water transportation in
North Carolina.
Thirteen hundred miles of navigable
river ways and 1,500 miles of navigable
sounds but no public port terminals
and no water rate competition to regu
late railway ftreights. That is the
situation in North Carolina at pres
ent.
Does the most progressive state
in the Union hesitate because the
question is new, hesitate while thirty-
one other states get the jump on us?
A referendum vote for public port
terminals in Maine in 1919 carried by a
majority^of four to one. A referen
dum vote in Alabama in 1923 author
ized ten million dollars in bonds for
public port terminals.
These are the last two of the thirty-
one states to establish public port ter
minals.
North Carolina has waked up about
everything else and nobody in America
doubts it. Is she a Rip Van Winkle
state in public port terminals and
water transportation?
The vote on the Port Terminals Bill
will answer this question on Novem
ber 4.—Port Terminals and Water
Transportation Leaflet No. 1.
SELF SUPPORTING PORTS
Realizing its great importance to
our commercial and industrial interests
the General Assembly in Special Ses
sion has passed an act known as the
Port Terminals and Water Transpor
tation Act, authorizing the develop
ment of our ocean, coastwise, and in
land water trade. This Act is to be
approved by the vote of the people at
the general election on November 4
next. After its approval the Port Term
inals Commission will, in fact must,
make a survey to determine what ter
minals and facilities are necessary to
attract shipping and to develop our
ports and inland watdTs to a point of
efficiency in keeping with the commer
cial and industrial importance of the
xState.
Undeveloped Resources
North Carolina’s inland water system
consists of 1,300 hundred miles of Inav-
igable waters, or a combined mileage
more than all our railroads. These re
sources are not being used.
The Federal government has spent
$16,000,000 in improving these waters
and stands ready to spend much more
if the state will provide public ports
and terminal facilities. A well devel
oped seaport at one end is absolutely
essential to the successsful commercial
use of a river.
A Seaport is an Asset
A well developed seaport is a most
valuable asset to the entire state in
which it is located. It brings business
and capital that would not otherwise
come. It gives employment to thous
ands of men in the immediate vicinity
and to other thousands scattered
throughout the state who are engaged
in making, producing, or transporting
export commodities. It employs capi
tal and utilizes, in the repair of ships,
vast quantities of materials produ^d
in the state. It enhances property
values and swells tax receipts. The
larger these receipts the more money
there will be for distribution to schools
and other public institutions and pur
poses.
Self-Supporting
Wharves, quays, piers, warehouses, ;
grain elevators and other essential term
inal facilities are investments in the
strictest sense of the word. If pri
vately owned, as they noware in North
Carolina, they are expected to yield a
reasonable profit after meeting all ex
penses. If publicly owned they are
expected to meet expenses, including
interest and sinking fund charges to
retire the bonds and provide a profit for
additional improvements. It is express
ly provided in the Bill that the schedule
of harbor fees must be so fixed as to
make safe the state’s investment.
This has been accomplished by every
state that has constructed public port
terminals. Two striking examples in
support of this fact will be found in
New Orleans where, in spite of a reduc
tion of about fifty percent in port
charges, a surplus of $2,000,000 has
been accumulated. In nine or ten
years Louisiana has acquired absolute
title to port properties valued at more
than $50,000,000 above all liabilities.
California about twelve years ago
issued $13,000,000 in bonds to construct
public port terminals in San Francisco.
These are owned and operated by the
state through a commission under the
same conditions as are prescribed by
the Bill to be voted on in this state.
The revenue from these terminals has
paid the interest, provided a sinking
fund to retire the bonds, and increased
the terminal facilities to a valuation of
more than $50,000,000. San Francisco
claims to have the lowest port charges
of any city in the Union. These term
inals have cost the taxpayers nothing.
A Business Investment
In building public port terminals and
facilities the state spends no appro
priations and no tax money. It borrows
at a lower rate than any of its munici
palities or citizens can do and invests
the money in revenue-producing prop
erties, which themselves are an ample
security for the loan. The state thus
owns a monopoly of a commercial neces
sity and it has the power to fix port
charges for the services rendered. This
makes a safe investment. It is there
fore a business enterprise to be opera
ted on a strictly business basis for and
in the interest of the people and for the
upbuilding of the state. - Post Terminals
and Water Transportation Leaflet No.
2.
HOME BRED LEADERSHIP
The South is without question en
tering a great period of develop
ment. There can be no doubt about
that. The question that it must an
swer, and answer very shortly and
very definitely, is whether that de
velopment is going forward by the
hands and minds of Southern men
and women, or whether it shall pass
to other leadership. Make no mis
take about the reality of this
question. The South today, with its
developing resources, its growing in
dustries, its increasing opportuni
ties everywhere, must have trained
and informed leadership. That is an
absolute essential for its life. Is
that leadership coming out of itself,
or from elsewhere? That is a ques
tion that is going to be answered in
terms of the education the South
provides for its youth, and in no
other terms. Just as surely .as it
does not fit its young men to stand
on an equality intellectually with men
from other sections, and to compete
on even terms with the best brains
from all over the country, it will
surrender its destiny to other hands.
—Pres. H. W. Chase, in an address
to the student body.
A PROPER ENVIRONMENT
A proper environment for youth in
college obviously includes many things.
It must be a physically healthful en
vironment that it may encourage the
development of sound and well-used
bodies. It must have about it good
taste, and beauty, and liberty and op
portunity for friendship and the joy of
living. It must be an environment
that strengthens character and makes
for spiritual enrichment. But I want
to say to you in all seriousness that a
college environment may possess all
these things and yet fail in its prime re
sponsibility to the public and to its stu
dents, just because it fails to stress
the very thing that it ought to stand for
as an educational institution. And that
one thing is an intellectual life of high
quality and sound standards, with free
dom to teach.—Pres. H. W. Chase, in
an address to the student body.
NEED FOR MORE BEDS
The North Carolina State Sanatorium
has beds for only 185 patients. There
are 182 tuberculous persons now on the
Sanatorium waiting list. In order to
accommodate the persons waiting to be
admitted to the Sanatorium practically
every patient now at the Sanatorium
will have to leave before all the per
sons on the waiting list can be admit
ted.
Most persons inflicted'^with active
tuberculosis need at least six months
and never less than three to four
months of sanatorium treatment. When
this fact is taken into consideration it
can be easily seen that it will be some
months yet before the patients now
waiting can be admitted to the Sana
torium with the present accommoda
tions.
More space in order that the Sana
torium may receive at as early a date
as possible all applicants for treatment,
and keep the patients after admission
until such time as the [doctors^think
safe for their release, is badly^needed
at the Sanatorium.
A children’s pavilion to take care of
at least fifty children patients is much
needed and will help to relieve the con
ditions at Sanatorium. At the present
time there are no special provisions
for the care of children infected with
tuberculosis at the institution.
If patients have to wait so long to be
admitted, most of them will be getting
worse while they wait and by the time
they get in they will be so sick they
cannot be cured even by sanatorium
treatment.
. It is also hoped that all the larger
counties will establish sanatoria of
their own so as to help relieve the
congestion at the ^tate Sanatorium
and so their people can take the cure
near their homes.
A CHALLENGE
“The University of Nofth Carolina, ”
says an editorial in the current issue of
the Manufacturers Record, “is one of
the most progressive educational insti
tutions in this country for stimulating
the people of a State into improved farm
ing methods and to awaken them to full
utilization of their limitless resources.
It is indeed an educational institution
for the people of the entire State and
for every class, rich and poor alike.
Would that every other institution of
learning in the South were doing the
same work with the same energy!”
That is a perfect tribute to the spirit
of the University of North Carolina and
to the men now in control of its destinies.
It is a perfect tribute because it shows
the writer’s thorough grasp of what
those men are trying to do. They have set
for themselves the ideal of making the
State’s university 100 percent efficient
in serving the needs and ideals ofj.our
people. And they are coming nearer
and nearer to the realization of it month
by month.
But in every such tribute as that
there rings out a challenge to even
greater performance. The men in
charge of the University of North Caro
lina realize—none better—that there are
many more ways in which their insti
tution can yet serve the State. They are
continually on the lookout for sugges
tions of such methods.
They will find one in the recent report
made public by the employment bureau
of New York University. It reveals
that last year, either during the sessions
or in vacation time, this bureau put
1,539 students into such remunera
tive employment that they were paid
$1,000,000 or an average of $660 each.
The University of North Carolina, of
course, has done excellent work in en
abling students to earn money or to
support themselves entirely while pur
suing their studies, but the thing sug
gested by the report just quoted is the
immensely valuable work it could do by
putting its graduate students in touch
with North Carolma individuals and cor
porations in searen of able yoftng men.
That would keep our young men and
women in North Carolina and would in
sure the big work of the State being
carried on by those best fitted to do it,
North Carolinians.—Asheville Citizen.
WE STILL PROGRESS
The State Superintendent of Public
Instruction decrees that every boy and
girl in North Carolina must have access
to a high school for six months in every
year. That is indeed a long jump from
two decades ago when the average North
Carolina child was fortunate if he had
access of six weeks to a school of any
sort.
Back in the good old days of the Blue
Back speller and Pike’s arithmetic, as
many Tar Heels still like to call them,
schools were considered accessible if
they were within three or four miles of
the students, and no means of trans
portation over muddy roads ^ere pro
vided. As for high schools, they were
an unknown quantity so far as the State
was concerned, and rural children had
to journey to towns and pay tuition to
avail themselves of high-school instruc
tion:
Happily for North Carolina, those days
are gone, and now every boy and girl is
required to attend school for six months
each year. It is written in our funda
mental law and was put there by the
voters of the State. Much has been
said about progress, but that is the big
gest achievement in the long line of
progressive things that this State has
done.
Withqut the intelligence that our
schools have fostered, it would not be
possible to have splendid systems of good
roads that give concrete evidence every
day that the Old North State is heading
to greater things still. Tackling the
task of providing grammar schools for
every child was truly herculean, but
North Carolinians are made of heroic
stuff and they did not hesitate to under
take it. That job was truly gigantic
compared to the task of providing ade
quate high schools now. So far have we
progressed in two decades that we shall
think little about this latest job in
education.—News and Observer.
CHILDREN OF CAROLINA
Harnett County is making an inter
esting experiment this fall in staging a
historical pageant as its main feature
for the Four-County Fair to be helff
at Dunn the week of the sixth of Octo
ber.
This pageant is entitled “Children of
Old Carolina” and has been written by
Miss Et^el Theodora Rockwell, the State
Representative of the Bureau of Com
munity Drama of the University Exten
sion Division.
The pageant shows children in various
periods of Carolina history playing the
games, dancing the folk dances, and en
gaged in the activities belonging to their
times while they discuss the various
historic events in which their elders are
playing their part.
Miss Rockwell is giving a demonstra
tion performance of this pageant at the
Fair on Tuesday afternoon, October 7,
at 2:30, at Dunn, North Carolina, using
in the main about 500 children of the
seventh grades of all the schools of Har
nett County.
City and county superintendents and
supervisors are urged to witness this
demonstration performance so that they
can determine whether they will desire
to stage it later on.
NEED CHURCHES TOO
It is conceded that the rural sections
must have better schools. According to
Dr. C. J. Galpin, in charge of the rural
economics of the United States depart
ment of agriculture, the rural sections
are as badly in need of better preaching
facilities as they are in need of better
teaching facilities. Dr. Galpin has
gathered statistics showing that only
one-fifth of the rural population goes to
church; that seven out of ten rural
churches have only a fraction of a
pastor apiece, and that one-third of all
rural pastors receive so low a salary that
they can live only by working at some
other occupation.
POSTAL SAVINGS IN THE UNITED STATES
Per Inhabitant, June 30, 1923
The following table, based on the recent report of the Comptroller of the
Currency, shows the rank of the states in Postal Savings, and the amount of
such savings, on a per inhabitant basis.
New York leads with total postal savings averaging $5.40 per inhabitant.
North Carolina comes last with postal savings averaging two cents per inhabit
ant. Average for the United States $1.18.
While postal savings may not be an ideal means of getting ahead, never
theless they are an indication of thrift, and the rank of North Carolina in bank
account savings, in bank capital and bank resources, and in other forms of oper
ating capital, is always near the bottom of the states. In fairness to ourselves we
need to retain more of the enormous wealth totals we produce from year to year.
F. J. Wolfe, New Mexico
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank State
Postal Savings
Per Inhabitant
Rank State
Postal Savings
Per Inhabitant
New York.
$5.40
25
Wisconsin
$ .42
2
Washington
4.76
26
Maine
32
3
Nevada
3.70
27
Kansas
31
4
Massachusetts....
2.28
28
Vermont
28
4
Oregon
2.28
29
Indiana
.-23
6
Montana
2.13
30
Nebraska
20
7
Idaho
1.66
30
Oklahoma
20
8
Rhode Island
1.63
32
West Virginia...
18
9
Connecticut
1.48
33
Louisiana
16
10
Pennsylvania
1.29
33
Alabama
16
11
New Jersey
1.27
36
Texas
16
12
Colorado
1.26
36
Iowa
13
13
Illinois
1.19
36
Kentucky
13
14
Utah
1.16
38
Maryland
32
16
New Hampshire..
1.06
39
Virginia
iO
16
Wyoming
1.01
40
Arkansas
09
17
Delaware.........
90
41
New Mexico ....
08
18
Missouri
78
41
Tennessee
08
19
Florida
76
41
Georgia
08
20
Arizona
74
44
South Carolina ..
07
21
Michigan
73
45
Mississippi
04
22
California
71
46
North Dakota ...
03
23
Ohio
68
46
South Dakota....
03
24
Minnesota
49
48
North Carolina ..
92