The news in this publica-
teieased for the press on
) IS
eipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
P3BUBER TA, 1920
CHAPEL HELL, N. C.
VOL VI, NO. 44
Board . a. O. Branson, L. B. Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt.
Entered as second-class matter NoTember 14, 1914, at the Poscoffloe at Chapel Hill, N, C., under the act of August 24,1912.
.‘HE YEAR BEFORE REVALUATION
TATE FINANCES IN 1919
ae year 1919 was the last year of
old state revenue system. We are
giving in somewii3.t full de-
the receipts and expenditures of the
B as these appear under classified
dings in the Census Bureau bulletin,
ancial Statistics of States for 1919.
ise facts will serve as a base-line
n which to measure the varieties of
gress we make under the new or
ovated tax system based on our re-
uation of properties in 1920.
Ve venture to say, somewhat timid-
that any legislator %fho knows less
)ut the finances of the state than he
1 learn from this brief Census bulletin
rht to hesitate about sitting in the
;islature. It can be had free of charge
addressing Hon. Sam. L. Rogers,
nsus Director, Washington, D. C.
Sources of Revenue
The revenues received for general
ite purposes in North Carolina in 1919
jre 36,638,993. Additional funds, call-
non-tax revenue receipts, were as
Hows: $591,461 from the sale of state
nds, warrants, etc., $322,793 from the
le of supplies, and $125,906 from the
le of public trust funds for state
es.
Which made the total revenues for
ate purposes $7,663,468, not counting
e cash balance of $1,372,104 at the
iginning of the year and the $2,706,437
transfer receipts during the year,
le year 1919 closed with a cash bai
lee of $1,381,571. Fifteen states closed
e year in debt.
Arranged in the order of importance,
ese various revenue receipts in
ere as follows:
. General property taxes.. i
:. General department earn
ings.
. Business taxes
(1) On the business of in
surance companies and
other corporations....
$491,799
On individual incomes,
$120,012
Automobile licenses..
$427,546
Hunting and fishing..
$1,440
Special property taxes
(1) Inheritance taxes....
$400,866
(2) Corporation stock
taxes $126,583
Sale of bonds, warrants,
etc 591,451
Occupation and privilege
taxes—B and C schedules 456,053
Sale of supplies and invest
ments 448,699
(1) Supplies $322,793
(2) Public trust funds for
state uses ....$125,906
Interest and rent 339,364 |
(1) On investments and in
vestment funds
$248,012
(2) On deposits 34,598
(3) Public trust funds
$51,806
(4) Rents 4,938
Federal grants 197,236
;i) For education $86,465
(2) For Experiment Sta
tion, Farm Extension,
etc $110,771
Donations 74,175
Other special revenues 55,358
Incorporation or organization
taxes, stock transfers,
etc.
Poll taxes 42,404
Fines, forfeits, and es
cheats 14,536
(2)
(3)
(4)
once. Hence these tears.
People generally are unconcerned
about the increase of traffic, passenger,
and Pullman car rates; but the thought
of increasing the general property tax
almost throws us into convulsions. We
fear it so, that our captains of state
finance, for tactical reasons, levy no
general property tax at all for state
purposes in 1920. As a result, the state
departments and institutions of health,
highways, education, and benevolence
must this year live on Ben Franklin’s
saw-dust pudding.
Only one state in the Union paid a
smaller per capita general property tax
than North Carolina in 1919; but in 1920
we enjoy the doubtful distinction of be
ing absolutely at the foot of the col
umn.
The largest single item in state reve
nue receipts is the general property
tax. But in 1919 it contributed only
35 cents of every dollar that went into
the state treasury, or barely more than
a third of the full total. Business and
special property taxes contributed 22
cents; state department earnings 16
cents; bond sales, interest and rent 12
cents; occupation and privilege taxes
6 cents; the sale of supplies and invest
ments 6 cents; donations and federal
grants 4 cents; poll taxes, fines, for
feits, and escheats less than 1 cent of
every dollar.
Because of rapidly increasing reve
nues from these various other sources,
the general taxpayers will this year pay
no state taxes. If the income tax
I amendment passes, they are likely nev-
I er again to pay to the state any general
property taxes on lands and buildings,
.gq household goods and utensils, crops,
I merchandise, or solvent credits; if it
' does not pass, the state will be obliged
in 1921 to call on them for three million
dollars or so, and still more millions
year by year as the state develops its
civic life.
Clearly we are headed into the segre
gation of the general property taxes for
county and municipal purposes, leaving
the state to be supported by taxes on
the business of insurance companies and
other corporations, by corporation stock
taxes, taxes on individual incomes, in
heritance taxes, occupation and privi
lege taxes, and other similar sources of
revenue. We shall doubtless find, as
California and other states have done,
that a small general property tax must
be levied in order to keep legislators
keenly sensitive to the humors of their
local constituencies.
1,212,349
1,040,796
527,449
9.
ABC’S OF DEMOCRACY
James Madison
A popular government without
popular information or the means
of acquiring it is but a prologue to a
farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
Knowledge will forever govern ig
norance; and a people who mean to
be their own governors must arm
themselves with the power which
knowledge gives.
No man has a right to take part
in governing others who has not the
intelligence or moral capacity to
govern himself.
7.
8.
9.
10.
.20
.18
Schools and libraries... .$ .75
Charities, hospitals, and
corrections 61
Old soldiers’ pensions,
printing, etc 27
Outlays for schools, hos
pitals, etc
State administ ration
costs
Conserving natural re
sources, mainly agri
culture 18
Interest on bonded and
floating debt 18
Health and sanitation,. .10
Protection of person and
property 09
Highways 08
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 28
BANISH BLUE MONDAY—II
Washing with a tub and board is such a woman, always trying to help.
hard work and is dreaded so by the wo
men of this country that by common
consent, from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific, the women have named washday
Blue Monday.
“Oh,” you say “she doesn’t complain
“Well, we can afford it better than
we ean afford to have the roses leave
your cheeks,” you’ll say, and that will
be the time for you to kiss her.
Then watch her lean her head on your
shoulder and begin to cry. Don’t get
about it. ” I scare^at that. If you only knew it,
No, of course she doesn’t. She doesn’t. many a woman’s heart is so near the
complain about anything. She does all breaking point that, when you least
Total $2.64
The Taxpayer’s Dollar
Or, to put it another way, the tax- '\
payer’s dollar in North Carolina was
spent by the state for the following
purposes:
7.
9.
10.
Schools and libraries....$ .30
Charities, hospitals, and
corrections
Pensions, printing, etc.
Outlays for schools and
hospitals .08
Administration
Conserving natural re
sources, mainly agri
culture
Interest
Health and sanitation..
Protection of person and
property
Highways
.20
.10
.07
.07
.07
.04
.04
.03
the drudgery without complaining be
cause nine-tenths of the farm wives of
this country think they have to do it
just that way. They think it’s their
duty to do it and not complain. And
you’re so busy running the farm, so
balled up in politics, the lodge and other
things, you’ve no time to think of how
hard your wife works and that the
wrinkles are coming into her face and
the crow’s feet beneath her eyes.
Say, you Mister Farmer, as you sit by
the light of the old coal-oil lamp read
ing this, you lower the page a minute
and take a squint across its top at your
wife sitting opposite you, darning a pair
of your old socks, or as she moves wear
ily round clearing up the supper things.
My, look at how she has failed since the
day you stood up with her before the
preacher and promised to love, honor
and cherish her through sickness and
health and hard times and good. Look
at the care lines in her cheeks: those are
love scars made for you: and you pass
her up and seldom give her a kind word.
Get up, right now, this minute. Go
to her, put your arms round her, the
, way you used to do when you were
; courting her and feeding her gum drops
I and candy hearts with I Love You
! printed on them in red ink. Say to her;
I “Sweetheart, you are tired. You are
working too hard. The washing is too
heavy for you. What do you say if we
get one of these newfangled washing
machines? They say they are great.”
Look out, she may faint: it’s been so
long since you talked to her like that.
But you go to it. She’ll say:
“Oh, we can’t afford that.” Just like
suspect it, she’s up in the attic on her
knees, her face buried in her arms, cry
ing as if her heart would break sure
enough, and those scalding tears are
the only thing that keeps it from going
to smash.
And while you’re at it you might just
as well tell her that she can have one
of those electric-lighting machines and
can chuck the old-oil lamp out over
the back fence.
And whatever you do, be sure to put
running water in the house for her. A
man has no right to ask or expect a wo
man to draw water up hand over hand
from a well forty feet deep. Give her
water from a faucet in the kitchen sink
and a bathroom and lavatory and a lot
of other labor-saving devices.
“Let the husband render the wife
due benevolence,” is the way St. Paul
says it, and he’s saying it to you.
If she knows how to play a piano get
her one. If she has an old rattletrap
of a piano, rheumatic in the joints, get
her a new one and let her make it vi
brate with the tender love songs she
used to play before she married you.
Don’t jaw about the money it is go
ing to cost. The god of many a man is
money, just as truly as if he framed a
fifty or one hundred dollar bill on the
wall and got down befere it and prayed
every morning. He doesn’t care if the
wife wears her fingers to the bone, just
so he can save a little more. He be
grudges the pennies he pinches out into
her hand. He is the master, she the
slave. He won’t even let her have the
chicken money.—Billy Sunday, in the
Country Gentleman.
Grand total $7,653,468
The General Property Tax
The’ia X that catches everybody who
las any property on the tax books is
:he jg^ierai property tax, and this is the
:ax that looms so large in the mass
nind. But as a matter of fact the to-
a1 revenues raised by the state from
ihis source in 1919 were only $2,653,609,
vhidi is but a little less than the
nnoont paid into the federal treasury
»y the Tar Heels who used the railroads
^ ’travel and freight. This federal
^ ?was paid carelessly a few cents at
» time the year through—$2,612,267 all
told; but the state tax of almost equal
imoont was paid in a lump sum all at
Cost Per Inhabitant
The per capita cost of state govern
ment in North Carolina in 1919 was
$2.64. It was less in only one other
state of the Union. See the table in
another column of this issue. The fig
ures for other Southern states are as
follows:
South Carolina.. $2.40
Georgia 2.80
Mississippi , 2.98
Tennessee 3.12
Arkansas 3.13
Alabama 3.32
Louisiana 4.08
Oklahoma 4.44
Florida 4.45
Virginia 4.64
Kentucky 4.86
Texas 6.24
New Mexico 7.44
The average for the whole United
States was $6.05. But in Maine, Ver
mont, and Wyoming the cost of state
government was more than $10 per in
habitant, in California and Nevada
more than $11, in Utah more than $12,
and in Arizona more than $19 per in
habitant.
Since 1915 the per capita cost of state
government in North Carolina has in
creased 44 percent, which is certainly a
small increase when compared with the
increase in the cost of living. In only
five states of the Union has the cost of
state government kept pace with the
increase of living costs—Oklahoma,
New Mexico, Delaware, Utah, and
Arizona.
Details of Expenditure
The $2.54 representing the per capita
cost of state government in North Caro
lina was paid out for the following pur
poses :
Total $1.00
A mere glance at these details of
state expenditure makes it clear to the
stupidest taxpayer that 86 cents of ev
ery dollar he pays to support the state
comes straight back to him in schools
for his children; in measures for disease |
prevention and^iealth promotion; in im- j
proved highways; in protection of life j
and liberty, person and property; in agri- ;
cultural education and promotion; in j
schools for the deaf, the blind, the fee- I
ble-minded, and the wayward children
of his county or community; in hospitals
for the epileptic, tuberculous, and in-
sane; and in pensions for our old sol-1
diers.
The only part of his dollar that does !
not come back to him directly is the 7 !
cents that helps to defray the adminis- j
trative expenses of government at the j
capital, and the 7 cents of interest on ]
thq bonded and floating debt of the
state. And by the way, the bill for ad-1
ministrative expenses in North Carolina j
is next to the smallest in the United j
States. It is less in Georgia alone.
However, it is not easy for the aver
age taxpayer to get hold of the notion
that the taxes he pays are like chickens-
they come home to roost, and the more
he pays under honest, efficient adminis
tration, the larger is the flock of bene
fits that swarm back into hie home
community. ■ -kt r
, We pay state taxes m North Carolina
to defray the expenses of our state
government. Everybody knows that,
even the dullest taxpayer; but what the
average citizen does not know m any
back, but he does not stop to take stock
of it, or to realize how helpless and ex
posed he would be without the protect
ing mantle of state government and the
services and benefits he receives from
the taxes he pays.
3,797,415.
the largest denim
HO, FOR CAROLINA
North Carolina has a number of cities
and towns that have claims to national
fame and distinction. The North Caro
lina Chamber of Commerce Bulletin,
the official organ of the North Caroli
na Chamber of Commerce, enumer
ates these cities as follows:
Winston-Salem is the largest tobac
co and men’s underwear manufacturing
city in the world.
The internal revenue collections at
the Winston-Salem office for the fiscal
year ending July 1, 192(>, aggregated
I $80,344,344^these figures breaking all
I former records in the history of the
I office, and nearly doubling the amount
I collected the year previous. The custom
I receipts of the Winston-Salem office
the past year were S
Greensboro has
mills in the world.
Durham has the largest hosiery mill
in the world, and is the second largest
tobacco manufacturing city in the
world.
Wilson is the largest bright tobacco
market in the world.
Pinehurst is one of the South’s great
est and most famed winter resorts.
Badin has one of America’s largest
aluminum plants.
High Point is the world’s second
greatest furniture city.
Kannapolis is the world’s largest towel
manufacturing city.
Gaston has the largest number of
cotton mills of any county in the United
States.
Asheville is one of the most famous
summer and winter resorts in the United
States, and has the finest hotel in the
world.
Wilmington is one of the leading sea
ports in the United States.—Winston-
Salem Journal.
PER CAPITA COST OF STATE GOVERNMENTS
In the United States, Covering the Year 1919
Based on a Federal Census Bulletin, The Financial Statistics of States,
dated May 1920
Rural Social Science Department, University of North Carolina
Per capita cost in the United States at large, $6.06
him year by year. He submits with the
same sort of feeling that he has when
the dentist pulls an eye-tooth; and he
dodges as much as he can and as long
as he can. , ,
On the other hand, he rarely stops to
of the benefits that come to him
in return for the taxes he pays, or how
defenseless he would be if he lived m a
community that jiaid no taxes at all, as
in Dahomey, for instance. He pays his
taxes in a lump sum at some particular
time of the year; he sees it go and
kisses it goodbye sadly; bub he sees lit
tle or nothing coming back to him for
the tribute he pays to Caesar. It comes
Rank
State
1919
1915 1
Rank
State
1919
1915
1.
Arizona
..$19.25
$7.32 j
25.
New Hampshire...
...$ 6.38
$3.47
2.
Utah
. 12.43
6.01 i
26.
North Dakota....
.. -6.33
5.02
3.
Nevada
.. 11.47
10.36 1
27.
Texas
.. 6.24
3.69
4.
California
. . 11.24
7.32 i
28.
Iowa
.. 6.44
3.42
5.
Wyoming
. 10.63
5.96
29.
Nebraska
.. 6.23
3.38
6.
Vermont
.. 10.59
6.76
30.
Pennsylvania . . .
6.17
3.60
7.
Maine
... 10.24
6.53
31.
Indiana
.. 4.99
3.40
8.
Minnesota
.. 9.98
6.19
32.
Kentucky
.. 4.86
3.66
9.
Montana , . .
.. 9.94
6.72
33.
Ohio
.. 4.67
3.24
10.
Connecticut ....
. . 9.84
5.38
34.
Virginia
.. 4.64
3.54
11.
Michigan
... 9.05
6.50
35.
Florida
.. 4.45
3.02
12.
Delaware
. .. 8.85
3.35
36.
Oklahoma
4.44
2.24
13.
Massachusetts. .
... 8.57
4.80
37.
Missouri
.. 4.43
2.64
14.
New York..... .
... 8.39
4.38
38.
Kansas .
... 4.23
3.03
15.
Maryland ......
. . . 8.23
4.60
39.
Louisiana
... 4.08
3.08
! 16.
New Jersey
... 8.22
6.08
40.
Illinois
... 3.75
2.82
1 17.
Oregon
.. 8.07
4.52
41.
Alabama
... 3.32
2.98
il8.
Rhode Island ...
.., 7.59
4.60
42.
Arkansas
... 3.13
2.20
! 19.
Washington
. . 7.48
6.70
43.
Tennessee
.. 3.12
2.01
i 20.
Idaho
... 7.44
4.33
44.
West Virginia...
... 3.05
2.64
|20.
New Mexico
.... 7.44
2.87
46.
Mississippi
. 2.98
2.49
1 22.
South Dakota..
... 7.41
4.46
46.
Georgia
.... 2.80
2,13
i 23.
Wisconsin
... 6.91
6.59
\A7.
North Carolina ..
. . 2.54
1.76
' 24.
Colorado
... 6.46
4.22
!48. ■
So;ath Carolina..
.... 2.40
1.64
! I
1.
i' I