, ,
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.
OCTOBER 28. 1925
CHAPEL HILL, N C.
THE UNIVERSITY OP NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XL NO. 50
Editorial Hoardc E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobba. Jr., L. R. Wilson, E, W. Knight. D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt. H. W. Odum
OUR COUNTY HOMES
The Cost of American Almshouses is
the title of an interesting bulletin re
cently issued by the United States De
partment of Labor. The table which
appears elsewhere shows bow the states
rank in the value of almshouse property
per inmate for 1923 and 1924 when the
data were being collected. South Da-
icota enjoys the distinction of first place
with $5,601 worth of property per in
mate in almshouses in the state.
Mississippi ranks last with county-home
property valued at $416 per inmate.
North Carolina ranks twentieth, which
is rather surprising to us in view of
what we have seen and heard of county
homes or “poor houses’' in North
Carolina. Our reaction is not to boast
of North Carolina’s rank,, but to pity
the conditions which must prevail in
many of the states that rank below
ours.
The alrhshouses or county homes in
North Carolina number ninety-seven.
Five of these homes reported no in
mates. The 92 homes with inmates re
ported a total of 1,784 inmates. The
value of all county-home property in
North Carolina was reported as totalling
$3,313,194, or an average property value
of $1,857 per inmate.
SEacUs and Palaces
County homes in North Carolina in
clude every type and condition of build
ing, from wretched shacks unfit for
human habitation to creditable plants,
some of which are rather palatial. “A
number of counties have the cottage
system. The typical institution of this
class consists of a group of two-room
wooden buildings. A few houses built
on this plan have brick cottages. The
tendency is away from this type of in
stitution. The newer homes consist of
one building or a group of connected
bricii.. Thirty
counties each have buildings valued at
$16,000 or more. Eleven o.f these each
have buildings valued at $40,000 or more.
Some of the better buildings, however,
were poorly planned. Few of them, in
fact, show evidences of having been
planned by one who had any definite
conception of the problems presented
by the county home. There is rarely
the building alone of more than six
thousand dollars per inmate! This county
has gone from one extreme to the other.
Another county has just completed a
hundred-thousand-dollar home, which
houses an average of 26 to 30 inmates!
In another county the home being built
will cost moie than one hundred thou
sand dollars, while in another the home
represents an investment of nearly one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
These figures do not include the value
of land and other property.
Some counties take absolutely no pride
in the care of the poor. In other coun
ties it looks as if county pride is'running
wild. Reason has been discarded.
The Unit Too Small
The main trouble with county homes
is that the average establishment is too
small to permit proper care of the in
mates. Twenty-nine homes have only
from one to ten inmates each, and 42
homes have from 11 to 25 inmates. The
unit is too small from every point,of view
—for efficiency in operation and manage
ment, for adequate medical care and
supervision, and so on and on. The
small homes are very expensive to
operate on a per inmate basis, and very
ineffective in so far as the care of in
mates is concerned. The sensible thing
it seems would be for sparsely settled
neighboring counties to combine and
erect a county-group home, and care
for their poor on a cooperative basis.
The legislature of 1923 provided for two
or more counties to combine in erect
ing a county-group home. So far no
group of counties has shown, any ten
dency to use this very sensible law.
County individualism has the upper
Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel' Hill. N. C.. under the act of August 2
THE CENTER OF LIFE
In America at least the home is
the most important of all institu
tions. From it are issues of life. In
the little world of the home, children
are born and reared. In it they grow
to manhood and womanhood. From
it they go forth into the larger world
of society and state, to establish in
turn their own little world of the
home in which they grow old and die.
Their memories linger around the
homes of their childhood; the mem
ories held by later generations are
associated with the homes of their
manhood and womanhood. lu the
home children receive the most im
portant part of their education. In
the home must be established their
physical, mental, and moral educa
tion.
From the home parents and their
children go forth to their daily toil,
and to the home they bring the prod
ucts or the earnings of their labor,
to be expended, wisely and prudently
or unwisely and imprudently, for
food, clothing, shelter, and the other
necessities and luxuries of life. For
most people the home is the begin
ning and end of life. All their activi
ties proceed from it and return to it.
Therefore, of all the arts those
pertaining to home making are the
most important and of all the sciences
those which find their application in
the home, making us intelligent about
the home and its needs, are the most
significant.~Dr. P. P. Claxton.
X. USES OF POWER ON THE FARM
The first group of articles in this
series dealing with electric power and
the farm presented some facts about
the generation of electricity and some
hints about the installation of the most
economical and efficient farm power
systems The News Letter of September
30 pointed out the rank of North Carolina
among the states of the Union as to
power development. It was shown that
only four states rank above u3» in the
general development of electric power,
but on the other hand only four states
are below us in the average primary
horsepower used per farm. The next
group of articles will deal with the uses
of electricity on the farm, the amounts
of power necessary for various appa
ratus, some facts on existing rural
power lines, and some questions in
volved in financing present and future
rural power lines. This article will con
cern itself with the uses of electricity
on the farm.
lions of dollars. Like the railroads and
steamship lines, traffic over them is in
creasing at an unprecedented rate.
I Indeed, one writer recently said that
hand. Each cooperating .county insists i
on having the home within its borders,
as if it really were a matter of life and
death.
Opportunity Disappearine
Instead of making use of a very sen
sible law many counties have recently
erected brand new poor houses of their
own. New ones are being planned, and
an opportunity for the law to become
effective is rapidly growing more and
more remote.
The following case may be a little ex
treme but it is illustrative of the in
adequate provision ftir the* segregation | ®®ciency with which we often manage
of sexes. There is not always complete - county affairs—the utter lack of rea-
separation of the races. Nine counties
report hospitals or infirmary wards for
the care of the sick. Two of these,
however, are not equipped; one is not
ordinarily used; and another is now be
ing used as living quarters for inmates.
We have yet to see such a ward ade
quately equipped.
son and common-sense often exhibited.
One county provides a one-hundred-acre
farm, a county home, hires a keeper
whose family live wkh him at the ex
pense of the county—for What purpose?
to care for the single inmate in the
county poor housd, a crazy, blind negro
who ought to be in the insane asylum.
“The furnishings in general are of Pinehurst where it would be good
the crudest sort. A cheap bed—usually ^ economy to give him a room in a hotel
a double bed—a chair, sometimes a} board. Another great
table; these are the typical furnishings I county spends $1,141.32 per
of a room in a county home. Such lux-1 per year to maintain the inmates
uries as closets, bureaus, or mirrors in i connty home, and the amount
the fooms of the inmates are unknown j include the value of products
in many county homes. “ ! furnished by the farm.
.L T> • Of all activities engaged in by the
n a County Basis people of this state, generally speaking,
The care of the poor is purely a county we believe the care of the poor is both
affair in North Carolina, as well as in the most inefficient and the most un-
niost other states. In a few counties
the poor are provided for in an intelli
gent and humane way. In many counties
of the state the care of the poor and
afflicted is nothing short of a disgrace
to those counties, and to the people of
the state who condone such inhumane
provision. Special Bulletin Number
Pour, Poor Relief in North Carolina,
issued by the State Board of Charities
and Public Welfare, presents in a
graphic and photographic way the con
ditions found in an exhaustive study of
the county homes of the state. At this
time we are jnterested in the physical
properties themselves. Next week we
Will present a study concerning the care
of inmates, the cost, and constructive
suggestions.
Uti
Pride Running Wild
While the conditions in many counties
are bad beyond description, there are a
score or so of counties which have re
cently built new and adequate homes for
he care of their unfortunates. There
are even a few counties that seem to
ave gone far beyond the dictates of
reason in providing county homes. One
county has just completed a county
of which approaches
.000. In its old home there were
rewer than twenty inmates. The pres-
®iit home is the show place of the
county, representing an investment in
scientific. In a few counties the homes
are praiseworthy, but such homes are
exceptional. We have far to go in
North Carolina before poor relief will
be conducted in an efficient and scien
tific manner. Ip this particular we
have benefitted very little from the ex
perience of other states and nations.
INCREASING PROSPERITY
Southern railroads are more prosper
ous as a whole than those of any other
section, and far greater expansion of
Southern and Southwestern roads is
under way than in any other part of the
country. Steamship lines between the
North Atlantic and the South Atlantic
and Gulf ports are increasing their
facilities at a rapid rate. New lines are
being established and old lines are
doubling and trebling their transporta
tion facilities.
Hydro-electric developments are un
der way in the South on a larger scale
than anywhere else in the United States,
and the demand for power and light in
creases so rapidly that these companies
find it difficult to keep up a supply equal
to the growing needs of the South.
New enterprises of great “pith and
moment’’ are being developed through
out the entire territory from Maryland
to Texas. New highways are under
construction involving hundreds of mil-
the highways leading from the West to
the South are black with automobiles
southward bound.
•
The increasing prosperity of the South
is enabling its people to become heavy
investors in hydro-eloctric companies,
in industrial enterprises and in all other
interests which in the past have to a
large extent been compelled to depend
for capital upon eastern and western
financial centers. Publicity of many
kinds by cities and states, publicity
through the newspapers and magazines
and expositions, is on a new and larger
scale than ever before known in the
South.
Suggestive of the value of this pub
licity is the statement published in this
issue that one Florida town, because of
a small exhibit at the Southern Exposi
tion, has already received as a direct
result $5,000,000 in investments in that
community. Near an east Tennessee
city, which was also represented at the
Exposition, and which made for itself
a name and a fame by reason of its
activity, a site has been selected for a
rayon enterprise to represent an ulti
mate investment of $10,000, OGO. Whether
or not this case is a direct result of the
Exposition we cannot say, but we do
know that every bit of publicity at the
Southern Exposition and in the broad
advertising campaigns which the whole
South is now beginning to put forward
means a concentration upon this section
of the thought of millions of people who
never before seriously studied the
potentialities of the South.
Will this development be overdone?
is a question many people are asking
themselves without understanding the
foundation on which the South is build
ing. Its climatic advantages alone are
of immeasurable value, and now that
the world is beginning to realize that
the. South’s climate means greater com
fort and longer life than the rigorous
climate of the North and West, millions
will seek the South on that account
alone. But with five times as much
coal area as all of Europe outside of
Russia, with vast stores of iron ore,
with marbles, and granites, and phos
phates, with great hydro-electric poten
tialities still awaiting development, with
three-fifths of the seacoast of conti
nental United States, with every variety
of soil needed for every variety of agri
cultural product, what this section is
doing at the present time is but the
faintest indication of that glorious and
glowing future which awaits this, the
most Heaven-favored region on earth.—
Manufacturers Record.
Saves Bach-Sv^eating
The almost magic transformation of
farm life through the installation of an
electric lighting system in houses, barns,
and sheds is well known. But the bet
ter performance of farm tasks by the
use of electric appliances and the sav
ing of human labor and drudgery by
these methods is even more important.
Here are some of the farm operations
that can be done more quickly, more
smoothly, and more precisely by the
use of electric power than the most
capable person could do them by the
unaided use of back, leg, and arm
muscles: Shredding and husking corn,
filling silos,, cutting and hoisting hay,
grinding feed, pumping water, making
ice, milking, separating cream, churn
ing butter, sterilizing milk, sharpening
tools on grindstone, sawing wood, cut
ting roots, blowing forges, operating
lathes, operating cider mills, mixing
concrete, and many ^ other operations.
Then there are some special uses of
electricity in the egg-raising business,
in matters of lighting poultry houses
and in incubating and brooding.
Gives Home Comforts
, But that is only one side of farm life.
What about the household tasks, the
unending round of duties to which the
farmer’s wife is subjected? Here are
some of the household servants that
electric power can provide for; Water
pump, range, dish washer, washing
machine, wringer, vacuum cleaner, flat
iron, sewing-machine motor, fan, dough
or batter mixing machine, toaster,
percolator, ice-cream freezer, ice ma
chine, and other appliances.
Some Advantages
Some of-the advantages of the elec-
trie motor over other forms of farm
power are given by the United States
Department of Agriculture as follows:
(1) Its extreme convenience in opera
tion. (2) It requires little attention
when in use. (3) It requires practically
no attention when not in use. (4) It
has considerable overload capacity.
(6) It is adapted to practically all kinds
ot belt work and is especially adapted
to direct-coupled power installations.
(6) Electricity, may be used for heating
and lighting as well as power.
Some of the disadvantages mentioned
are that electricity is expensive to dis
tribute from central plants in small
units of power and that it is difficult to
apply directly to draft or field work.
Concerning the first disadvantage we
will have more to say in a later article.
About the difficulty of use in draft or
field work, it is interesting to know
that a few electrically driven threshing
machines are in use, and that even an
electric plow has been used in Sweden,
although it is still in an experimental
stage.
Little has been said here about elec
tric lighting on the farm. But a recent
experiment done on a farm in Wisconsin
ought to be of interest. The time used
in doing chores was cut down 35 percent
simply by working by electric light
rather than by lantern light.—A. T.
Cutler.
tiveness that will be clung to in youth
and old age in preference to what the
town has to offer. In material aspects,
American agriculture has been a suc
cess; in higher things, it has been a
failure, and an almost unqualified failure,
its traditional showing is the little red
schoolhouse, wretched in equipment and
attainment; the old swimming hole, often
1 as disgusting to taste as threatening to
; health; and the tear-raising thought of
mother, worked out during life and hon-
, ored only in death. The future clearly
rests with the new business type of
farmer who may emancipate the coun-
; tryside from its parasitic dependence
' on the town and give it pride in its own
inherent wealth and beauty. —N. S.
B. Gras.
INVESTMENT IN ALMSHOUSES PER INMATE, 1923-24
Includes Lund, Buildings and All Ecruipment
THE BUSINESS FARMER
Tke most serious cultural shortcom
ing of rural life in America is that it has
developed no high ideals that are inde
pendent of the town, no culture to be
set against that of the town, no attrac-
In the following table, based on a recent report The Cost of American
Almshouses issued by the United States Department of Labor, the states are
ranked according to the value of property per inmate in almshouses. The study
includes land and farm equipment, buildings) and furnishings.
South Dakota leads with an average investment per inmate of $5,601. Mis
sissippi comes last with $416.
North Carolina ranks 20th with an average property value per inmate of
$1^867. We have 97 almshouses, or county homes, with a property value of
$3,313,194. Three counties have no homes. Five county homes had no inmates.
The 92 homes witb-inmates reported a total of 1,784 inmates. In many counties
the homes are very comfortable while in many others they are unfit for humans
to live in.
United States total for the 2,183 almshouses reporting inmates was 86,889
inmates, and a grand total property value of $160,486,230, or $1,762 per inmate.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina.
Rank States . Investment
per inmate
1 South Dakota $5,601
2 Nebraska 3,704
3 Wyoming 3,561
4 Rhode Island 3,631
6 Maryland 3,172
6 Iowa 2,926
7 North Dakota 2,896
8 Delaware 2,612
9 Illinois 2,577
10 Utah 2,526
11 Idaho 2,436
12 Minnesota 2,361
13 West Virginia. 2,321
14 Connecticut 2,144
15 Missouri 2,093
16 Kansas 2,021'
17 Montana 1,921
18 Indiana 1,911
19 Washington 1,946
20 North Carolina 1,857
21 Vermont 1.828
22 Oklahoma 1,827
23 Wisconsin 1,826
24 New York 1,773
Rank States Investment
per inmate
26 New Jersey $1,748
26 Maine 1.726
27 Ohio 1,665
28 Pennsylvania 1,634
29 Massachusetts •. 1,498
30 Virginia 1,483
31 Florida 1,481
32 Texas 1,472
33 South Carolina 1,468
34 New Hampshire 1,445
86 Nevada 1,401
36 Kentucky 1.326
87 Arizona 1,290
38 Tennessee 1,244
39 California 1,145
'40 Michigan 1,140
41 Oregon 1,126
42 Arkansas 1,039
43 Georgia 1,002
Colorado 748
45 Alabama 674
46 Louisiana 452
47 Mississippi 416
New Mexico No report