The news in this publica
tion is released lor the press on
lece^-
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
lor its Bureau of Extension.
lANUARy 1920
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. VI, NO. 9
idtUnrial Board i B. O. Branson, L. B. Wilson, E. W. Knijjht, D. D. Carroll, ,1. B. BuUltt.
Bntered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the Postofflce at Chapel Hill, N. G., under the aot of August 34,19U.
WHAT STATE GOVERNMENT COSTS
HOSPITALS AND SUFFRAGE
Tiie open pronounced cases of tubercu-
osis oi alt sorts in Wake county number
■round 750 a year, and the deaths from
-Ills disease, are Ixitween 90 and 100 an-
lualli’, not counting tfie strangers who
lie of consumption in the local hospitals.
Chesti victims of the Great 'White Plague
ireelisldren, young girls, sometimes a
EOtlier, sometimes a father. They rep-
eaent all claases and conditions of soci-
;ty. And they die in Wake at the rate
)f one every three or four days tlie year
hrougii. These by tlie way are the rates
he state and country over.
Our state sanitarium has fewer than
lOO beds. In other words, the tubercu-
iilosis victims in Wake alone are two or
hrce times the number of beds in the
tate sanitarium which is supposed to
erve as a curing station for 24,000 con-
umidives. Tuberculosis is clearly a
ounty or county-group problem, ana it
alls for county or county-group TB lios-
litals. So far we have only two such
lospifcals in North Carolina. There are
tow twenty-one in Wisconsin. They are
eqniied by law in New Jersey, New
fork and Massachusetts. Other states
re moving into the county hospital plan
f providing for the care and cure of tu-
erculosis victims.
The. other day Wake voted on the prop-
sition lo establish a county hospital for
ictiins of tuberculosis, pellagra, and
ther dire diseases. The number of pa-
ienU or all sorts annually needing such
hospital would run around 1,500 or
,000. The propositiou was to vote
100,000 in bonds to establish this hos-
ital. The proposition failed at the
oils t>ecause 268 people voted against it
-just, 268 people, in a population of 75,-
00. But this corporal’s guard of a vote
as enough to defeat the propositiou. j
W hiclt leads to some reflection on suf-
•age in North Carolina. First, only
,000 of the 15,000 polls registered to vote
n Uie proposition. Supposedly the other ,
J,OO0 had no interest in it. Like the j
riest and the Ixivite they passed by on
le oilier side.
Of hhose wiio legistered, something like
BO lid not bother to to the polls to
ote They could kill the proposition by
ot voltHg, and it \yas killed not by those
ho voted against it but by those who
»rg«t in vote or deliberately refused to
cteaikvr having registered.
Seoiud. We are submitting (1) that
Orth Carolina, like 3>S other states,
ight to abolhh the poll tax as a condi-
ctu ;if voting; (2i that it ought to dis-
ua.liiy vytetH who neglect or refuse to
3te, (J)thal an election ought to be
1. rne(l hy a iiiajority ot the voters vut
ig and not hy a majority of the vo,er.«
!giaieied; (.4) that North Carolina ought
) have the Australian ballot, like 46
Jier states of the Union; and (5) that
ir .date primary laws ought to be re-
ised !,o that tliey are reasonably frcH?
nticism.
j fits not in dividends alone, but in divi-
i deuds pins human happines.s. We must
: have publicists capable of speaking the
! truth not as it favors party or faction,
' but the truth, thcwhole truth, and noth-
! ing but the truth. We must have divines
: who labor to further the interests not of
i sect or creed, hut of the kingdom of
I God.
This new year holds the possibilities of
being the most terrible we have ever
faced; but it also holds the possibility of
being the most glorious in its accomplish
ments. Let him not call himself Ameri
can who sees the terror, but is blind to
the glory.—Greensboro Daily News.
om
«
THE CALL FOR 1920
The I tip Van Winkle of the Union has
xj^ed fron. his century-long nap. We
ive shaken off the drowsy sloth lhat
>,s held UR hound for generationa. For
le firRttiine we have alertly and man-
:l!y sec about reuieilying the ancient
dla that have sapped the strength of
le state. We have .started to purge our
,K hooks o'f^ dishonesty, of the old itii-
Liitieu that have struck their roots so
X'p chat Waring them up is a Herculean
wk, And, as ot old, we are plagued by
le clamor of tb(‘ faint-hearted. To
rite justice on the tax-books of North
arollria w'iU entail grave responsibilities.
7hea the real wealth is revealed, some
sa.r that the state for very shame may
e (tompellecLto be.stir herself, to make
ruvisioH for her ehildren and for her
'THcted. Ill,stead of urging lier on to her
gbtful place as one of the moat prosper-
iis, one ol the most progressive of
,ie sisterlmod, they rai.se the piercing
ail, “A little more slumber, a little
lore atce}>, a tittle more folding of the
anda to sleep.”
The call of 1920 i.s a call for men—big-
er men iJian we have ever produced be-
ire—bigger sratesmen, bigger business
len, iH.ggi r fiuhticists, bigger divines.
Vc itii-ii hi!ve >dn!.esmen capable of see-
9gih". BniteTStatas not in relation to a
sng^iiHiona! district, or a state, but to
ie wli ill! must have busi-
ess HI Ml capable of measuring their pro-
LYNCHING THE LAW
All the power of the State will be ex
erted to apprehend the lynchers of Pow
ell Greene and to make them suffer the
full penalty of the law, declared Gover
nor T. W. Bickett yestenlay, maintain
ing that the act of the mob constituted an
assault upou the “very citadel of our civ
ilization.”
“The whole State is shocked and hu
miliated by this horrible outrage on our
laws,” said the Governor. ‘‘Such deeds
put to open shame our boasted white civ
ilization and make the name of Southern
chivalry a by-w'ord and a reproach. It
is true that the crime committed by the
negro was an atrocious one, for he shot
down without cause and without provo-
catiou onejuf the best citizens of Frank-
linton. This naturally aroused great in
dignation, but it forma no semblance of
an excuse for a mob taking the law into
its own hands.
‘‘The negro, above all others, is enti
tied to the protection of the law. He
has no voice in the making of the law.
He has no hand in its execution. All
the power and all the processes of the
law are in the hands of white men. And
yet this mob savagely denied to a help
less negro prisoner the right to stand be
fore a white judge and a white jury and
receive a white man’s justice. The sad
truth is that the men who did this negro
to death gave way to the same barbar
ous and brutish passions that made the
negro shoot down his victim without
cause.
‘‘The members of that mob crucified
the elementary principles ot justice for
which white men have fought and bled
and died through a thousand years.
They have assaulted the very citadel of
our civilization and all the power of the
State will be exerted to apprehend them
and make them sufl'er the fulj^penalty of
the law.”—News and Observer.
A NEW YEAR PRAYER
Men are agonizing" over passion and
prejudice, both real and seeming in
justice and inequality, and the black
ness of despair would settle over our
land were it not that faith, hojie and
charity still abide—faith that a deep
er knowledge of the wisdom of our in
stitutions will be imparted to every
son and daughter of the republic;
hope that more and more all men will
turn from the contemplation of their
right.? to a consideration of their du-
tii's, and charity for all who are not
vicious, but who, through stress of
circumstances, have become embit
tered.
God of our fathers, take from us, if
Thou wilt, material prosperity and
national glory, but give us individu
ally and collectively all the years to
come faith, hope and charity.—Vice
President Thomas R. Marshall.
A WIDE-AWAKE MOVEMENT
Comfort and sanitation are outlined
for the farmers of North Carolina to an
extent hitherto almost unheard of out
side the big cities. Electricity from
small streams or gasoline engines
is to give light for the farmhouse and
barn, power for the milking machine,
corn sheller, ensilage cutter, grinding
stone, etc., and for the sweeping, wash
ing, irouintr, etc., of the household. En
gineers are to supervise sanitation, sew
age disposal, water supply, heating, ven
tilation and lighting of farmhouses, and
the instaliation of a telephone in every
home will be encouraged. Not only the
conveniences, but the luxuries of life will
thus he secured for the farmers in their
homes.
Tliis great movement is being fostered
by the state itself, working through the
State Highway Commission in collabora
tion ttdth the Bureau of Extension of the
University of North Carolina. The work
will be done by a staff of engineers oper
ating as the Division of Country Home
Comforts and Conveniences. The servi
ces of this organization are available to
any North Carolina farmer without ex
pense. All that is necessary to do to
stare something is to write a letter to the
di lector of the division at Chapel Hill.
'J'his is tlie kind of plan that all states
should adopt in the interest of making
the farm and farm life highly attractive.
Wiieii a farmhouse has more comforts
ami conveniences than the average city
house, and when much of the rough work
that falls to the boys, the women and the
girl.R is taken care of by electrically-
driven machinery, there will be leas temp
tation to leave the farm , for the city
br.ght lights and the conveniences of the
to vn.
It is proposed to utilize small streams
for generating power where feasible;
otherwise, to provide an electrical unit
to be driven by gasoline or kerosene.
There are many small streams in North
Carolina from which one to ten horse-
; power may be develoloped. This will be
sufficient to o);erate water wheels, gener-
; ator and auxiliary apparatus. This will
I furnish power for all kinds of domestic
purposes. ;
The idea should be adopted all over
the South, utilizing w'ater power where ’
available, and other means where there
are not suitable streams. It is a very
wide awake move that North Carolina |
has made, and it is an example that
should be followed generally in the inter- |
est of better surroundings for the farmer
and better results from his essential work ,
of raising food and more food for a par- j
tially famished world.— Manufacturer’s ,
Record.
long-distance kitchen shortens life.” j most significant fact to be discovered in
The lesson taught by the exhibit is one the table. This ten cents went to sup-
4. xA. cfx X ' • ix 1 ■ port the Executive, Leofislative, and Ju-
that the State agricultural colleges and ^ state government.
the l^ederal Department of Agriculture The other ninety cents went bai^k as a
are trying to teach by every means at direct benefit to the taxpayers of the
their command-—greater convenience and ®Iate, for the education of their children;
„ c ,-v. in.-, the support and care of their old soldiers,
a larger measure of comfort in the farm feebleminded; for
home. Federal News Letter. the dev'elopment and conservation of our
. — : natural resources, mainly agriculture;
for the protec.tion of persons from disease
and Iraud, for examining banks, regu
lating insurance companies and other
corporations in the interest of public se
curity, and for highways, recreation,
and the general public welfare.
And for the support of a .state govern
ment which furnislies all these benefits
the taxpayer is taxed by the state just
$2.22 upon an average; which is less
than the cost of one of the shoes he wears,
to say nothing of the pair, less than the
cost of the family frolic on circus day,
less than the cost of a single day of joy
riding in a Ford.
Two discouraging items appear in a
study of the bulletin on which these
facts are based.
In the first place, only 34.6 cents of
each dollar spent by the state went for
the support of public education. This ac
counts for the small per capita andequal-
ization fund for public schools, and the
small teacher salaries in these schools;
for the meagre appropriation to the State
University, the A. and E. College, and
other-state-aided schools of liberal arts
and technical training, and for the sala
ries in these institutions — shamefully
small, other states considered. It also
STATE GOVERNMENT COSTS
Elsewhere in this issue can be found a
table ranking the states of the Union ac
cording to the average cost of state gov
ernments per inhabitant in 1918. The
figures are based on a Federal Census
Bureau Bulletin that has just come to
hand—The Financial Statistics of States.
For piirp-osesof com^-arison, the per cap
ita co.sts for 1915 are also given in the
table.
It is readily seen that the cost-of main-
teining state establishments has not
grown in proportion to the cost of living.
The cost in North Carolina was a per
capita increase of only 26 percent over
1915. The per capita increase was high
er in almost every other state of the
Union.
The burden of taxation for state sup
port in North Carolina in 1918 averaged
only $2.22 per inhabitant. The per cap
ita expenditures for state purposes was
greater in 46 slates. Only one state.
South Carolina, spent less per inhabitant SW's to explain the inadequate buildings
on Its slate government.
The.ce figures range all the way from
$2.15 in South Carolina to $14.94 per in
habitant in Arizona. The average for
the country at large was $5 47, being an
increase of 42 percent over the year 1915.
The per capita increases during the three^
year perioil 1915-18, range all the way
from 137 percent in New Mexico, to a
decrease of 1 percent in Pennsylvania.
What Our $2.22 Paid For
Just what this $2.22 went to support in
North Carolina and the cost per capita soine $750;o6b TyTar toVer Unh4mity'
ox the various purposes, is shown m the
following table;
Purposes Cents
1. Education 68
2. Charities, Hospitals, and Correct
ions 48
3. General Government—Legislative,
aiid iroor equipments on these campuses.
Thirty-one states of the Union spend a
larger penmentage of the state fund for ed-
ucati. .nal purposes. In 7 of these states
m-ire than half of all the state taxes went
to support public education. Ten of the
th ■ ri. eu southern states spent a larger
pei ceut of the state fund for education,
while only two, Louisiana and Florida
spend less. New Jersey makes the best
showing, with 56.4 percent of her total
go\ ernment cost going to support public
education. Texas comes next with 56
percent, and Texas, by the way, gives
But What About It?
Ls our policy wise? Are we profiting
by our policy of educational support!
Wo spend less per capita for the support
of public benefifs than any state in the
Union, saving only South Carolina.
A CEMETERY AND A SERMON
It was a neat little country cemetery,
much like most little country cemeteries,
yet there was something queer about it.
There was the arched gateway and the
customary weeping willow by it. The
clipped hedge was like most cemetery
hedges. The tombstones were about the
avetage run of tombstones. But, withal,
thxire was something odd—even shocking.
Then you discovered wliat it was.
These were truthful tombstones. Consol
ing epitaphs—-“Too pure for earth,” and
that like — found no place. Instead,
there were such epitaphs as these;
‘‘Mother—walked to deatli in her kitch
en;” “Sacred to the memory of Jane—
she scrubbed herself into eternity;”
“Grandma — washed herself away;”
“Susie—swept out of life with too heavy
a broom.”
The people who saw that cemetery-
ami there were thousands of them—may
hav^e been shocked for the instant, but
they came away with the thought that
one might be better for seeing such a
cemetery. For, you see, it was a miiiia-
tuiv cemetery, 3 feet square, and it was
part of an exhibit at the Montana State
Fair. Such levity with the most solemn
thing that mankind knows, could not be
justified merely on the theory that the
things said were true—but those who s^w
it came away with the belief that it was
justified by way of keeping just those
th.ugs from being true. And that was
the purpose of the exhibit. It was meaht
to emphasize the need for home conven
iences, for lack of which many a farm
woman has gone to her grave before her
time.
There were other exhibits designed to
drive home the same hard truth. One
was a model showing a bleak farmhouse
on a bare hill. At the bottom of the hill
ran a little stream, and by the stream
were barns and cattle. Struggling up the
hill toward the bouse with two heavy
pails of water was a bent old woman.
And the legend was: “Convenient for the
cattle—but not for mother. ’ ’ Tlien there
wiis a farmhouse with the water supply
as it should be, 'the woman in the yard
sprinkling her flower beds with a hose.
And the inscription read: “Convenient
for mother—and the cattle, too.” An-
otl-ier model showed a kitchen as it should |
be, and another, a kitchen as it should
not be. And there was the legend: “A
Executive, Judicial 20 TVIuvlio’
4. Interest on Debt - .17 -
5. Development and Conservation of
Natural Resources—mainly agricul
ture 15
6. Protection to Persons and Property.il
7. Outlajs—Investments in Public
properties 10
8. Public Health and Sanitation. 8
9. Highways and Public Recreation 2
10. All other Expenses 23
The Taxpayer’s Dollar
Below we give a tabfe showing what
the state did with each dollar it received
from the taxpayer. Omitting outlays and
interest on bonded and floating debt, the 8^^“ government. As a matter of “fact
taxpayer s dollar m >«orth Carolina was vve si
we are proud of this fact but
should we be? We can have less of edu
cation by spending less, that is, by de
creasing the revenues. And we can have
niore of public education only by in
creasing our state revenues. We cannot
hope to rank alongside the most pro
gressive states in the matter of public
welfare when we pay so little, for no mat
ter how economically our taxes are ad
ministered, it is impossible for us to de
rive benefits equal to those of a state that
spends from two to five or six times as
miieh as North Carolina.
Many people think that extravagant
sums are being spent in maintaining our
spent as folio rt's:
Purposes. Cents
Education ,34.6
Charities, Hospitals, and Correct
ions 24.7
General Government 10.4
Develapau'iit and Conservation of
Natural Resources, mainly Agri
culture 7.7
Protection of Persons and Property. .5.5
Public Health aud Sanitation 4.5
Highways 1.2
Recreation : 2
All other general expenses 11.3
What the Figures Mean
Only .10.4 cents of the taxpayer’s dol
lar was ^ent to oil tile machinery of
state government! This is probably the
we spend less per capita than 46 other
states of the Union. As a result we de
rive smaller benefits from public educa
tion, public hospitals, public health, san
itation, agricultural promotion, highways,
and the like.
Increasing prosperity in North Carolina
ought to mean increasing willingness to
invest ill the common weal. And we ven
ture to predict’th.at this will be the case.
When ninety cents of the taxpayer’s
dollar in North Carolina comes .straight
back to the taxpayer in better schools,
better road.R, better health conditions,
greater protection to person and property,
he can afford to be liberal in his think
ing about tax matters —for the simple
reason that for the most part he is being
liberal to himself, to his home and, home
community.—S. H. H., Jr.
PER CAPITA COST OF STATE GOVERNMENTS
In the United States, Covering the Year 1918
Based on a Federal Census Bulletin, The Financial Statistics of States, dated April
1919.
S. H. HOBBS, Jr.
University of North Carolina, 1919.
Per Capita cost in the United States-at-large, $5.47.
Rank State
1918
1915
Rank State
1918
1915
1 Arizona
$14.94
$ 7.32
25 North Dakota
$6.20
$ 5.02
2 Wyoming
13.48
5.96
26 Colorado
5.82
4.22
3 Nevada
12.67
10.36
27 Iowa
5.17
3.42
4 California
10.90
7.32
28 Texas
4.95
3.69
5 Utah
10.35
6.01
29 Nebraska
4.72
3.38
6 Maine
9.87
6.53
30 Virginia
4.53
3.54
7 Vermont
9.82
6.76
30 Kentucky
4.53
3.56
8 Montana
8.94
6.72
32 Indiana
4.49
3.40
9 Minnesota
8.61
6.19
33 Ohio
4.22
3.24
10 Connecticut
8.50
5.38
34 Kansas
4.17
3.03
11 Massachusetts
8.49
4.80
35 Illinois
4.10
2.82
12 Maryland
8.13
4.60
36 Florida
3.98
3.02
13 New York
8.05
4.38
37 Louisiana
3.92
3.08
14 Michigan
7.95
5.50
38 Oklahoma
3.86
2.24
15 New Jersey
7.04
6.08
39 Missouri
3.79
2.54
16 Washington
7.01
5.70
40 Pennsylvania
3.57
3.60
17 South Dakota
6.94
4.46
41 .Alabama
3.37
2.98
IS Rhode Island
6.84
4.60
42 Tennessee
3.11
2.01
19 New Mexico
6.80
2.87
43 West Mrgiuia
2.82
2.64-
2.49
20 Oregon
6.68
4.52
44 Mississippi
2.78
21 Wisconsin
6.55
5.59
45 Georgia
2.62
2.13
22 Delaware
6.44
3.35
46 Arkansas
2.56
2.20
23 Idaho
6.40
4.33
47 North Carolina
2.22
1.76
24 New Hampshire
6.29
3.47
48 vSouth Carolina
3.1S
1.64