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 the University Ex
tension Division.
MARCH 4, 1925
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE ONIVEHSIIT OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XL NO. 16
Kilt;>rlal B. C. Braoaon, S. H. H9bbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson. E, W. Kaight. IL O. Cartoll, J. B.Baliltt. H. W. Odam,
Enierad aa aecand-ciMB matt«r Nevembar 14, 1914, at thePeatofficsatChapal Hill, N. C., ander the act ef Aaguat £4, 1912
1923 DEATHS
The Department of Commerce an
nounces that in 1923 practically one-
fifth of all fatalities from accidents
were the result of automobile accidents.
Approximately twice as many deaths
from automobile accidents occurred in
urban as iu rural districts; a difference
doubtless due. in part, to the greater
number of hospitals in urban districts.
Of the thirty-eight states in the
United States registration area, only
three—Kentucky, Mississippi, and
Wyoming—had higher mortality rates
from railroad accidents than from
automobile accidents. California had
the highest mortality rates from auto
mobile accidents with 32.6 per 100,000
of population while Mississippi had the
lowest with 4.4 per' 100,000 of popula-
lation..
North Carolina
Nine states had fewer automobile
mortalities in 1923 than North Carolina.
The year registered an average of 9.6
deaths per 100,000 of population. Our au
tomobile density was 9.0 per 1000 of popu
lation. It will be noticed from the table
elsewhere in this issue that Nebraska
with a lower fatality rate than North
Carolina has over twice as many auto
mobiles per 1,000 of population. We
would do well to inquire into the
measures or conditions by which
Nebraska people manage to operate a
large number of automobiles with re
latively few deaths from accidents.
Montana and Iowa also may have
valuable preventative measures to
teach us.
Fatalities from automobile accidents
in North Carolina exceed fatalities
from railroad accidents by 4.2 deaths
per 100,000 of population. Or in
straight figures, 268 people were killed
by automobiles and 144 by railroad acci
dents in 1923. Winston-Salem with 14
had the most automobile fatalities and
Asheville with 10 had the most rail
road fatalities.
The number of deaths from automo
bile accidents in our chief cities were as
follows:
Asheville 12
Charlotte 12
Durham 3
Gastonia 6
Greensboro 7
High Point 6
Raleigh 10
Salisbury 3
Wilmington 2
Winston-Salem 14
There is no need to point any moral
to adorn this tale. Perhaps accidents
are necessary by products of an automo
bile age, but that their number should
be reduced to a minimum confronts us as
an equal need. The reckless driver,
careless of his own life and heedless of
the rights of others, is more dangerous
than a criminal bent on pillage and
plunder. In the words of an old adage,
it is much better to be safe that sorry.
— E. T. Thompson.
Furs and fur articles 5,700.000
Musical instruments 4,760,000
Ice cream bought 4,750,000
Cereal beverages bought.... 4,370,000
Chewing gum 960,000
Sporting goods 476,000
Artworks 285,000
Liveries and traveling
equipment 190,000
Electric fans, portable 162,000
OUR LUXURY BILL
What North Carolina spent in 1920
for luxuries may be reached approxi
mately by taking the average of the
percentage of the population and wealth
of the United States which is in this
state and applying it to certain articles
listed in the report of the United States
Secretary of the Treasury for 1920.
This average is 1.9 percent on which
basis our itemized luxury bill was
something like the following:
Luxurious foods, extras
danties, etc $96,000,000
Luxurious service at
tendants, valets, etc 71,000,000
Joy rides, pleasure re
sorts, etc 57,000,000
Tobacco (Manufactured) .... 40,109,000
Luxurious clothes, rugs,
etc. - 28), 600,000
Candy bought 19,000,000
Amusements, movies,
theatres, prize fights
ball games, etc 16,200,000
Cosmetics, face powder,
perfumery, etc 12,250,000
Jewelry 9,600,000
Toilet soaps 7,600,000
Soda fountain drinks 6,660,000
Cakes and confections
bought 6,650,000
HIGHWAYS AND HOME LIFE
Isolation is the primary cause of the
ignorance so evident in the rural com
munities. Poor roads, more than any
thing else, have forced the farm home
into a demoralizing lisolation. The im
provement of highways, making the
consolidated school and social center
possible, is injecting new life into
homes formerly hopelessly isolated.
Home life is broadened and enriched.
Boys are willing to stay “down on the
farm.” Girls cease to envy their city
cousins and to leave home for “the
bright lights.”
Just a few minutes of travel on a
particular road,leading out of the city
of Wisconsin Rapids, will convince the
most doubtful skeptic of the value of
good roads and their influence upon
home life. About two miles from the
city this road branches. One branch
is called “the left road;” and the other
“the right road.” The left road is al
most always iii a deplorable condition;
the right road is hard surfaced. The
homes on the left road are dilapidated,
the front yards scarcely recognizable
among the tangle of broken machin
ery, old wire, and various other ob
jects placed “out of the way.”' The
land has been cropped till it is impos
sible for even quack grass to flourish.
The stock, descendants of some of
Grand-dad’s scrubs, is now so degen
erated that scarcely any character
istics of a high-producing, profitable
animal are evident.
Can you expect the boy or girl to re
main “down on the farm” under these
conditions? Not one boy or girl living
on this road has iny education above
the eighth grade, and very many have
not even completed the eighth grade.
These young people, many of them
lying about their ages, have had to
seek a “job” at the store, mill, or
factory, instead of completing their
educations. Can home life be pleasant
and happy where these conditions
exist?
The road to the right leads through
land slightly more fertile, but more
fertile only as a result of better farm
management. No farm home on this
road, for a distance of twenty miles, is
without at least one modern conven
ience. Several farms are equipped
with every modern convenience, both
in and out of the home.
The aesthetic influence a good road
exerts is very evident. Often it stim
ulates latent self-respect into practical
expression. These people are con
tinually adding some improvements in
an honest attempt to beautify their
home surroundings. Through diversi
fication and rotation of crops they
have succeeded in bringing their land
to a higher degree of fertility, result
ing in a more stable income each year.
They are sending their children to high
schools, agricultural schools and uni
versities, A better education is teach
ing these children to realize the vajue
of a true home.
Before the right road was improved,
conditions were alike on both branches.
The improved highway alone made di
versified farming profitable, made a
better education possible and better
homes a reality.
On the left road the average farmer
has, in a large measure, lost his self-
respect and has allowed his home to
fall below the standard and has failed
to keep in stride with the times. He
is considered inferior to city people.
Farmers, such as those on the right
road, are again placing the farm home
on the pinnacle where it should rest,
“The True Home of Man.”
How necessary to that home is a
good road! What a relief it must have
been to those simple folk in Whittier’s
“Snow Bound” to have the road
opened and the floundering carrier
bring the village paper to the door!
SERVICE AND POSTERITY
Our part is not fitly sustained up
on the earth unless the range of our
intended and deliberate usefulness
includes not only the companions,
but the successors of our pilgrimage.
God has lent us the earth for our
life; it is a great entail. It belongs
as much to those who are to come
after us, and those whose names are
already written in the book of cre
ation, as to us; and we have no right,
by anything that we do or neglect,
to involve them in unnecessary
penalties, or to deprive them of
benefits which it was in our power
to bequeath. And this the more, be
cause it is one of the appointed con
ditions of the labor men that in pro
portion to the time between seed
sowing and the harvest, is ihe ful
ness of the fruit, and that general
ly, therefore, the further off we
place our aim and the less we desire
to be ourselves the witness of what
we have labored for, the more wide
and rich will be the measure of our
success.
Men cannot benefit those who are
with them as they can benefit those
who come after them; and of all the
pulpits from which the human voice
is ever sent forth, there is none
from which it reaches so far as from
the grave.—John Ruskin.
The left road may be compared to
a snow-bound road, impeding progress,
forcing isolation. The right road may
be compared to the opened road, offer
ing new opportunities, new possibili
ties and new happiness.
The right road is, in the true sense
of the word, the “right road.” We
must build more of them. Until this
is accomplished; home life in isolated
sections will, in^the future, simply ex
ist; but when all roads are right
roads, these same communities, those
same homes, will live.—John Liska.
EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY
Democracy lays heavy responsibilties
on the individual. It gives him much
and it expects much from him in re
turn. It makes him prove his worth,
for that is the basis of his place in a
democracy. Lord Bryce, a profound
student of the American government,
declares that while no government
gives so much to its people as does a
democracy, at the same time none de
mands so much of its citizens. The
fathers of the Republic saw clearly
the self-evident truth that the stability
and endurance of their hope lay in the
wisdom and virtue of the people. In
fact, before the Constitution became
a law of the land Congress declared
concerning the great Northwest Terri
tory that inasmuch as religion, morali
ty, and knowledge were necessary to
good, government and the happiness of
mankind, schools and the means of
education should be forever encouraged.
Here, then, was a new motive for edu
cation. In the colonial days schools
were established priraarily'”to train
ministers and the servants of the
state. With the Republic education be
came of paramount importance to all
its citizens, for upon the diffusion of
knowledge depends the safety’of the
State.
“Surely every one of us, whether
as fathers or mothers, brothers, sis
ters, teachers, preachers, foremen,
sergeants, corporals—whatever posi
tion we are in, the time comes when
we must take the responsibility of lead
ership. Then we wondershow wb are
judged, for we have seen®that leaders
are judged by their followers. What
sort will follow us? What sort of peo
ple will be attracted to the banner
which we will carry? The response
which you evoke from those you at
tempt to lead will measure your suc
cess or your failure. If you win a re
sponse of frankness and sincerity, if
you win good w/Drk, you will win suc
cess; but if your leadership evokes
bitterness and deceit and shirking,
yours will be failure. Youjcan tell by
looking at the people that follow you
whether you are a good leader. It is
not always what we do that makes us
leaders. Some people are leaders
simply for what they are. Emerson
says: ‘Nor knowest thou what argu
ment thy life to thy neighbor’s creed
has lent. All are needed by each one.
Nothing is fair and good alone.’ ” —
Philip Putman Chase.
KEEP THE RdAD OPEN
Rural education! What is it? One
group of persons believe that rural ele
mentary education should give the
child a bias toward the farm, that he
should be fitted as a producer of farm
commodities. Another group of per
sons believe that rural, elementary edu
cation is education in a rural setting.
They believe that the rural child
should be given such training in the ele
mentary school as will insure his inte
gration with American society as a
whole. They believe that he should
not be given a bias in any direction,
that agriculture is a means of education
and not an end. Why, they ask, should
the farmer’s child be educated for
farm life any more than the miner’s
child should be educated for a life in
the mines?
The first group holding to the view
point that rural education is to train
for the farm deliberately limit the oc
cupational opportunity of the farm
boy. Equality of occupational oppor
tunity is a precious heritage to the
American citizen and should be zeal
ously safeguarded.
Occupational opportunity has peo
pled the United States from older
states where freedom of choice is in
varying degrees denied and where re
turns for occupational effort are mea
ger.
Individual migration in response to
occupational (»pportunity has largely
determined the ceaseless shifting of
population in the United States.
The road from the farm to the White
House is still open, as has lately been
impressed upon us. Indeed, the road
from a variety of callings has ended
there. So, too, is the road open from
the farm to the ministry, to medicine,
to business success, and conversely
from a variety of callings back to the
farm,
So long as we can maintain this
open road hope and stimulation to
effort will not be lacking. Unrest
and destructive revolution will not
seriously menace; economic forces
will balance vocational groups; and the
need for Government interference
will not become acute.
The occupational misfit is a danger
to society. The occupational misfit is
relatively unproductive because the
keen stimulation of working toward a
self-chosen end is lacking. The occu
pational misfit is a discontented man
ripe for propaganda inciting to violent
acts against the eatablishment of
I order. The occupational misfit is un-
] happy as a man and organized society
is not justified in contributing to such
a lot.
There should be set up in the rural
schools a program designed to over
come the inequalities of occupational
opportunity which exist for the farm
boy today because of the fewness of
his contacts, rather than a program
which would intensify inequalities.
The road to and from the farm
should always be kept open.—The Ru
ral School Messenger.
SMALL TOWN NEEDS
The small town, just as with the in
dividual citizen, needs to recognize its
limitations as well as evaluate its pos
sibilities. It is very commendable in
a small town to set an ambitious goal
for itself, but it is aught else than
commendable for it to set that goal
without regard to conditions as they
obtain—at present and in honest pros
pect. The small town that values it
self highly but with common-sense
honesty already has its feet firmly
planted upon the path leading to its
destiny.—Clarence W. Wagener.
AWAITING A LEADER
Love of the outdoors and wholesome
living are made doubly attractive to
small youth by the Boy Scout move
ment, and every community should
strive to maintain one or more local
troops. The Boy Scout idea—where
the militant phase is not allowed to be
come predominant—affords unequaled
means for the small boy to gratify his
spirit of gregariousness without form
ing numerous bad habits all the while.
Organization and direction of the work
in any locality must be in competent
hands. Often it waits upon the initia
tive of an enterprising young minister
of the Gospel, one who interests him
self in the bodily and mental as well as
the spiritual growth of the coming men
of the community.—Clarence W. Wage-
A SERVANT, NOT A MASTER
As Lincoln planted his policy not on
slavery but on union, Woodrow Wilson
tied his policy to the idea that the
United States, the most powerful of
all States, should be a servant, not a
master among the nations. Never
before in the history of mankind has
a statesman of the first order made
the humble doctrine of service to
humanity a cardinal and guiding princi
ple of world politics—Edwin A. Aider-
man.
MOTOR VEHICLE FATALITIES
For States In The U. S. Registration Area, 1923
Based upon (1) a report of the U. S. Department of Commerce, foit 1923,
for the states within the registration area of the United States (exclusive of
Hawaii), and (2) the 1924 report of the National Automobile Chamber of
Commerce. The states are ranked according to their motor vehicle fatality
rate per 100,000 of population for 1923. The accompanying column shows the
number of automobiles per 1,000 of population in 1924.
The total number of deaths resulting from accidents caused by motor cars
in the registration area during 1923 was 14,412, or an average rate of 14.9 per
100,000 of population. The average number of motor cars for the same area
was, in 1924, 138.4 per 1,000 of population. ‘
Nine states have relatively fewer deaths than North Carolina, and all of
them are Southern states except Montana and Nebraska. Mississippi has the
lowest fatality rate and also, with Georgia, the lowest automobile density.
California with the highest automobile density also has the highest automo
bile fatality rate.
L. P. Barnes, South Carolina
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank States Auto Auto
Density Death Rate
1 Mississippi 68 4.4
2 Kentucky 80 6.7
3 South Carolina 71 6.8
4 Tennessee 72 7.1
6 Montana 121 8.0
6 Virginia 91 8.3
7 Louisiana 73 8.6
8 Georgia 68 8.6
9 Nebraska 213 9.2
10 North Carolina 90 9.6
11 Iowa 231 9.8
12 Wisconsin 162 10.7
13 Idaho 134 10.8
14 Missouri 139 11.6
16 Maine 140 lx.7
16 Kansas 206 12.1
17 Utah 124 12.6
18 Minnesota 178 13.1
18 Vermont 149 13.1
Rank States Auto Auto
Density Death Rate
20 New Hampshire... 132 13.2
21 Indiana 192 14.4
22 Oregon 201 14.6
23 Illinois 142 16.2
23 Massachusetts 118 15.2
25 Rhode Island 121 15.6
26 Colorado 192 15.9
27 Maryland 109 16.1
28 Florida 146 16.2
29 Washington 179 16,7
30 Connecticut 122 16,9
31 Pennsylvania 114 17.5
32 Ohio 176 17.6
33 New York 108 17.8
34 Michigan 186 18.6
35 New Jersey 120 19.9
36 Delaware 132 23.9
37 Wyoming 4... 191 24.1
38 California 290 32,6