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 21, 1928
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIV, No. 19
Editorial Boards E. C. Branson. S. H. Hobbo, Jr., P. W. Wagor, L. R, Wilson, E. W. Knight. D. D. Carroll, H. V/. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914. at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill. N. C., under the act of August 24. I91«.
A SOCIAL lECLAMATION FIOjECT
A SOCIAL DREAM
An address delivered by Dr. E. C.
tion that is dcinp: these things; all of
them. And God knows, if a civiliza-
, , tion of the sort that you see in Den-
Branson beforo the Reclama-!
tion Conference m Washington, D C., the.thing is possible any
December )6, 1927, and published m! footstool; for of
the proceedings of the conference: : stubborn, bard-headed-well.
Dr. Mead has dreamed a great dream. , word comes to my mind which a young
He is an idealist. He is an optimist. Dane used who was working his way
He is the hardest-headed optimist that
I have ever known. There is not one
practical detail of his social vision that
he has not fingered with the delicacy
of a skilled worker in a research labor
atory. And he has been at it for years.
Knowing him as I do, I can say that
if he stood on this platform and merely
mumbled or made signs he would still
be a marvelous inspiration to me.
Most men of genius express them
selves with difficulty. I went across
the continent in 1921 for the purpose
of looking at the Durham colony, the
realization, in a way, of his dream of
ownership farming in directed colonies.
The minute I heard of it T was young
enough to see the significance of it.
He had had his training in social re
clamation of this sort in Victoria,
Australia, many years ago, directing
the very thing he is talking to you
about today. He has long been dyeing
. his hands in the stuff bis dreams are
made of. Ownership farming as a
fundamental condition of safety in
national development is a very great
idea. Ownership farming, farming by
the man who owns the soil he tills, is
basic in farm enterprise everywhere.
Denmarh’s Example
It was the dream that Dalgas,
Grundvig, and Hogsboro and a little
group of people in Denmark had 70
years ago. You can not look about
Denmark without seeing the economic,
''■.social, and civic significance of a civili
zation that is rooted and grounded in
the home-owning, home-loving, and
home-defending instinct. Everybody
in Denmark is busily engaged in the
enormous task of buMding a civilization
in which every man dwells under his
own vine and fig tree, unmolested and
unafraid. As you go about over that
kempt little Kingdom, your heart turns
back to your own Southland with a
sinking that is unutterable. You love
your home State, we all love our home
States. I looked back to North Caro
lina, with 23,000,000 idle, wilderness
acres, and 1,600,000 landless, homeless
people—renters, dwelling in the houses
on our farms and in our towns and
cities without owning a single shingle
in the roofs over their heads. Three-
fourths of the people in the cities of
North Carolina own little more than the
clothes on their backs, along with a
iittle household furniture and furnish
ings. They live in rented houses
and spend their days, like poor
Dante, going up and down someone
else’s stairs. More than half the
farmers of the South, black and
white, cultivate somebody else’s land.
The economic and social significance of
such a condition is plain as print to any
man capable of social visioning. We
can not build a safe civilization on the
homeless estate of men.
A Vision of the South
The vision of a honie-owning, home-
loving, and home-defending farm civ
ilization is a great vision, but Doctor
Mead many years ago dreamed the
dream of farmers living and working
together comfortably, prosperously,
and happily. Is there any greater
dream than that in a land of farmery
dwelling in solitary farmsteads scat
tered a few to the square mile in the vast
■open spaces of America—only seven per
square mile in North Carolina, both
races counted? The ability to live with
other people comfortably, prosperously,
and happily is the finest and the final
art of civilization. His dream is that
of home-owning farmers dwelling to
gether, working together, producing,
protecting, and preserving farm wealth;
thinking and working together in solv
ing the problems of the business end of
farming, which is, as your chairman
has just said, much the largest part of
the job. It is the problem of market
ing—the intricate problems of market
ing and farm finance. It is the prob
lem of the farmer's keeping his hand
en the products of bis farm all the way
from his field to the consumer’s table.
U is worth looking at—farm civiliza-
across the continent, learning English
and American conditions and customs—
‘"obsquatulate” people I know, it is
the Danes. The Danes are just that.
And heaven knows, if you can get the
Danes to learn the final art of living
and working together happily, com
fortably, and prosperously the thing is
not an impossible dream, Doctor Mead,
in America.
Now, who dreams this social dream?
A civil engineer bred to the business of
civil engineering. This is the man who
has dreamed the most wonderful dream
of social reclamation in America in my
lifetime. It is Elwood Mead, who sets
human values infinitely above reclaimed
acres.
In traveling about over the heath
lands of Jutland, Denmark, reclaimed
by another social servant (an army
engineer, not a sociologist), yoii will
everywhere find bus^s and statues of
Dalgas. I kept saying to myself I
hope there is such a thing as reincarna
tion. I hope Doctor Mead will come
back some.day and see all the busts,
statues, and monuments that honor
him for his social ideals realized at
Durham, Calif., and in the Southern
States of the Nation.
There are all sorts of problems to be
solved in establishing colonies of di
rected farm owners. There is the
problem of safely ordering the details
and adjusting them to the needs of a
going business, all the time offering
not a charity but an opportunity. No
body knows that any more keenly than
Doctor Mead. There are all sorts of
deft diplomacies in it. Whatever
other problems there may be, we have
got to solve in the South the problem
of subsoiling the public mind about
this. It is a whale of a job. We have
got to go back to our constituencies and
use the biggest tractor gang plow we
can find to upheave the public mind in
preparation for these colonies of di
rected farm owners.
Needs Public Support
I have been sitting down there in the
audience listening all the morning to
the stimulating, utterances of the
various speakers and thanking God
that I have at last heard a United
States Senator addressing himself to
the essentials of an improved farm
civilization in the South. I have been
wonderfully inspired by everything I
have heard, and yet I know that build
ing a supporting public sentiment is
the one indispensable preliminary ob
jective.
We have for three years used Doctor
Mead’s book, Helping Men Own Farms,
seminars with groups of graduate
students. One of these student groups
turned out our own volume on Home
and Farm Ownership.
During Governor Bickett’s admin
istration, and a golden-hearted gentle
man he was, we had^ an opportunity
to address both houses of the legisla
ture, assembled in joint session in the
senate chamber. We had worked for
two years fingering, it may be fum
bling, the things that Doctor Mead has
just been talking about. When we got
through presenting the subject of
Stale aid to farm ownership, one dear
old farmer member sprang to his feet
like a jack-in-a-box, 6 feet 4 inches
tall, and said, “I want to ask the
gentleman two questions: First, is this
thing you are talking about going to
help rrte to get more and better tenants
on my farm?” I knew legislatures well
enough to know that the Angel Gabriel
could not answer that question honestly
and get away with it. He said,
“Second, I want to know whether or
not you gentlemen would be willing
for the legislature to vote ?1,600,000
instead of the $60,000 you ask, to be
prorated to the counties and loaned to
individual farmers here and there?"
You get the signficance of that?
Senator Tyson sees that. I said to my
self, the Angel Gabriel may resign, as
the Lord God Almighty alone could
answer that qiuestion with effective
BALANCED FAHMING
The one-crop farmer is an econom
ic monstrosity. Gradually he him
self is recognizing the necessity for
a well-rounded program of pro
duction, including grain, livestock,
poultry and dairy products. This
is particularly important in aiding
him to survive the hardships of
temporary depressions affecting
particular products. The farmer
must also recognize the fact that
the increased use of machinery and
mechanical devices will lower costs
of production, will reduce waste,
will improve the quantity and quality
of his products.—Walter W. Head,
in Review of Reviews.
diplomacy. These two questions killed
the proposition; killed it dead; killed it
just as dead as a doornail, and you
may remember, that it took Dickens
four pages to tell how dead a doornail
was.
There is going to be needed in every
State the most adroit, the most im
pressive, and the most convincing
campaign of publicity that we have
ever had in selling an article of com
merce. I don’t think we need to be in
doubt about it for a minute.
Learn to Live Together
I have had my lesson already. It is
good to come into a gathering like this
and to have the spiings of ybuth and
faith reopened .in my soul, because 1
am just Presbyterian enough to be
lieve that what ought to be will be.
This thing ought to be. I don’t be
lieve our farm civilization or our
national civilization can function prop
erly without it. I don’t believe that
farm life can last forever in a civiliza
tion that is a tooth-Vnd-nai], beak-and-
talon struggle for survival and su
premacy. We desperately need to learn
the fine art of working together and
solving together the complex problems
of farm civilization. We have got to
dream of something that is better than
the crowds I see on Pennsylvania
Avenue or on the Hill, wherl the bub
of the universe sticks visibly out.
Crowds in every great city look to me
like a lot of crabs in the bottom of a
bucket, every crab crawling over every
other crab trying to get on top.
The lesson of civilization that must
be taught is mainly the lesson of living
together comfortably, prosperously,
happily. iWith me it is a final social
dream.
In closing, I want to call your at
tention to the fact that we might just
as well lay our hands on our hearts as
we go away from this conference. If
it is possible for you to be convinced
that directed colonies, that is, colonies
of farm owners under expert guidance,
are possible and necessary as a national
policy, then it is a thing that we must
solemnly pledge ourselves to and devote
ourselves to single-mindedly, with cour
age and unfailing patience during long
years of effort. And meantime, we
must stretch out a hand to this self
less public servant. He is almost the
most timid man I know. In these days
we don’t often have a chance to look
upon a genuinely modest man. When I
leave I shall take him by the hand and
say, “Count me in on this dream."
A PUBLIC-MINDED MAN
While Hertford counter leads all
counties of the state in the number of
farmers to be awarded certificates by
the State Bankers’ Association, yet
B. N. Sykes is recognized as the leader
of the A-1 farmers of the county. His
superiority as a farmer is admitted
and seldom questioned. At pres6ht he
is chairman of the County Board of
Agriculture, and chairman of the Hert-
ford-Bertie chapter of A-1 farmers rec
ognized by the State Bankers’ As
sociation. He has served the public
of the county as road commissioner
for nine years. He has served on the
board of trustees for the Harrellsville
High School, and has been tax col
lector. He is a member of the Baptist
church, in the work of which he takes
an active part. He is a director of the
Bank of Harrellsville, and took a lead
ing part in organizing the county unit
of the Peanut Growers’ Cooperative
Association, the Cotton Growers’ Co
operative Association, and the Tri-
State Tobacco Growers’ Association.
In the development of his community
he took the leading part in getting the
first rural route established in Hert
ford county, and was the first farmer
in his section to take a daily paper.
He was the first farmer in the county
to install electric lights and running
water jn his home. He was among the
first to prove the value of the Exten
sion Service of the Agricultural
College.
^ Such is the story of J3. N. Sykes,
who with devotion to his family, hard
work, and zealous attention to scientif
ic agriculture and rural development
is a living example of the modern and
progressive farmer. —The Progressive
Farmer.
, I
A GREAT WASTE
IMPORTANCE OF RIVERS
Rivers of North Carolina are more
important factors in the commercial
life of the state than many people
realize. Park Mathewson, assistant di
rector of the department of conserva
tion and development, declared recent
ly in pointing out that river-borne traf
fic, according to the latest figures
furnished by the war department in
1925, amounted to 1,117,866 tons, valued
at $29,663,897.
The figures show that the Neuse
river carried the largest volume of
freight and the most valuable, the
total tonnage being 258,003, valued at
$9,696,720. The Pamlico-Tar system
showed the n»;xt highest total with
220,728 tons, estimated to be worth
$8,163,383.
Other rivers showing a large volume
of freight traffic were: Cape Fear,
above Wilmington, 132,304 tons valued
at $3,448,346; Northeast (Cape Fear
river) 86,626 tons, value $2,118,062;
Roanoke, 130,479 tons, valued at $1,333,-
095;and Waccamaw, 163,169 tons valued
at $1,609,646.
Wilmington’s port claimed the majori
ty of coastwise and foreign traffic of the
state, Mr. Mathewson pointed cut,
with the total tonnage of 1,027,653 as
compared with 1,069,736, the combined
total for all. The Wilmington water
borne freight showed a value of $62,-
888,068 and that of all state ports $66,-
602,805.
The grand total of river and port
c(/mmerce of North Carolina, according
to tbe report, amounted to 2,177,694
tons, with a total valuation of $96,-
156,702. —Durham Herald.
The value of plant food wasted in the
erosion or washing aw’ay of soils on the
Tarms of the United States is estimated
most conservatively by scientists in the
1 United States Department of Agricul-
! ture as in excess of $2,000,000,000 a
’ year. This estimate is based on the
! value of the principal chemical con-
I stituents, nitrogen, phosphoric acid,
i and potash, as they are purchasable in
; the cheapest kinds of commercial ferti-
j lizers and does not take into accdtmt
the value of the soil as an agency for
making use of these plant foods.
This sum is more than 20 times the
value of all the plant focd removed by
growing crops. Tbe real “soil miner"
is not the one who grows crop after
crop of the same kind without replac
ing plant food, but rather the one who
allows his precious soil to be washed
away, bis land to be gullied and des
troyed, or the topsoil to be removed by
sheet erosion. Some of the practices re
sponsible for this tremendous annual
loss, immediate and to posterity, are
unwise clearing of areas which should
remain in forest, unwise breaking for
cultivation of sloping fields subject to
erosion, unwise cultivation of soils
that erode easily, and failure to terrace
lands that could be saved by intelligent
management. —Press item, U. S. Dept,
of Agriculture.
ELECTRICITY SERVES
The geological survey of the Depart
ment of the Interior estimates the
total production of electricity by public-
utility power plants in the United
States for 1927 at 79,700,060,000 kilo
watt-hours. The increase over the 1926
output, which totaled 73,791,000,000
kilowatt-hours, is about 8 percent.
These are figures to stagger the
imagination. They strike the layman
forcibly with the realization of tbe
great development of power facilities
in this country. He has no clear con
ception, however, of just how much
energy is represented by the 79,700,-
000,000 kilowatt record. The survey
supplies that by explaining that were
it possible to convert the 1927 output of
electricity into equivalent man-power,
the average four-person family in the
United States could have had, for a
total cost of about $76, “the services
of 11 able-bodied mechanical laborers
working eight hours daily, including
Sundays and holidays.”
Consider each of these families
losing electricity’s “11 able-bodied
mechanical laborers" whom they now
find so indispensable, and you have an
idea of the catastrophe, social and
industrial, which would result.—Wil
mington Star.
DEVELOPED WATER POWER IN THE UNITED STATES
Capacity in Horsepower in 1921 and in 1928
The following table ranks the states according to the amount of deyeloped
water power in each on January 1, 1928. Tbe parallel column gives the
figures fi r 1984. The information was obtained from the Manufacturers Rec
ord and from reports of the Geological Survey.
In the seven-year period Califojnia has passed New York and now oc
cupies first place in the amount of developed water power. Each of these
states has nearly two million horsepower, which is much more than there is in
any other single state. Louisiana and Mississippi are the only states that have
no water power developments.
In 1921 the developed water power, in the United States amounted to 7,926,-
968 horsepower; in 1928 the total was 12,296,000, an increase of 66 percent.
In 1921 North Carolina’s hydro-electric plants represented a capacity of
329,863 horsepower and the state ranked ninth. Now North Carolina has
643,768 horsepower and ranks fifth among the states.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
Developed Water Power
Rank State 1921 1928
1 California 1,149,099...1,992,780
2 New York 1;291,867...1.779,322
3 Washington 464^366... 706,622
4 Alabama 117,788... 646,423
5 North Carolina 329,853...643,768
6 South Carolina... 330,012... 674,478
7 Maine 449,614... 637,161
8 Wisconsin 330,737... 477,476
9 Georgia 281,111... 463,463
10 Michigan 267,139... 378,267
11 Montana 344,420... 377,640
12 Massachusetts.... 338,067... 362,123
13 Idaho... 224,368... 365,277
14 Oregon 186,216... 288,859 ^
16 Pennsylvania 169,996... 279,696
16 New Hampshire.. 229,305... 278,002
17 Minnesota 206,180... 276,494
18 Vermont 129,666... 200,167
19 Iowa 173,437... 183,908
20 Tennessee 126,891... 177,426
21 Utah 106,096... 163,436
22 Connecticut 133,829... 148,423
23 Kentucky 866... 142,266
24 Virginia 103,693... 141,471
Developed Water Powers
Rank State 1921 1928
26 Arizona 38,760... 104,360
26 Colorado 91,648... 94,816
27 Illinois 86,002... 94,202
28 West Virginia I4,6'i5... 91,279
29 Indiana 27,122... 66,621
30 Maryland 7,896... 43,686
31 Ohio 28,663... 30,320
32 Rhode Island 30,136... 30,188
33 Texas 13,367... 26,934
34 Nebraska 14,726... 23,836
36 Missouri 17,970... 20,660
36 South Dakota 18,227... 19,671
37 New Jersey 17,061... 18,902
38 Wyoming 7,660... 17,280
39 Kansas 14,611... 16,914
40 Arkansas 1,189.,. 16,660
41 Nevada 18,460... 13,460
42 Florida 6,636... 7,966
43 Oklahoma 1,718... 1,948
44 New Mexico 799... 1,610
45 Delaware 8,133... 1,161
46 North Dakota 246... 246
47 Mississippi 0... 0
47 Louisiana 0... 0