r
i
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
The news in this publi
cation is released for-the
press on receipt.
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for its University Ex
tension Division.
c
NOVEMBER 2, 1921
Ci^APEi HILl,, N. C.
VOL. VII, NO. 50
Editorial Board . 15. 0. Bran.on, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. H. Wilson, B. W. Knis;ht, D, D. Carroll, J. B. BulllM, H. w'. Odum, Entered as second-class matter November
U.IPU, at the Postofflce at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24,1913.
A BILLION DOLLAR STATS
Nearly a billion dollars, or more near
ly exactly, $943,808,000 is the factory
value of the manufactured products of
North Carolina in 1919. And this total
does not cover hand trades, building
trades, and neighborhood industries,
that is to say, domestic industries not
organized in factory systems.
Factory industries alone considered,
only fourteen states made a better
showing than North Carolina, and only
one of these was a Southern state. But
then, Texas is not a state~it is an em
pire, with nearly twice the population
and more than five times the area of
North Carolina.
The simple fact is that we were a-
mong the fifteen foremost states of the
Union in manufacturing industries in
1919. See the table elsewhere in this
issue.
Twenty years ago twenty-seven states
outranked North Carolina in the value
of manufactured output. Among the
states that stood ahead of us at that
time were Maryland, Virginia, Rhode
Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa,
Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, Tennes
see, Georgia, Louisiana, and Colorado.
But we have moved beyond these thir
teen states in manufacturing industries
during the last two decades. Which
means that the Old North State is strid
ing forward in seven-league boots; that
she is moving out of the dominance of
agriculture into the dominance of indus-
try~out of a country into a town-and-
factory civilization, not in the number
of people involved, but in wealth and '
dollars. Our next nearest competitor
was Georgia which fell behind by 250
million dollars.
And in values added to raw materials
in the processes of manufacture North
Carolina far and away led the South—
with 417 million dollars against 298 mil
lion dollars in Texas,, 269 million dollars
in Virginia, and 263 millions in Georgia.
But even more significant is the percent
of value added to raw materials by man
ufacture in. North Carolina. In this
particular we led the whole United
States, Wyoming alone excepted—at
at least so far as reported by the cen
sus authorities. Our ratio of increase,
in value contributed by the processes of
manufacture was 249 percent. The only
other Southern state that was’" in sight
of us in this detail was South Carolina,
with a ratio of 220 percent increase in
the value of raw materials added by
manufacture.
North Carolina, in a word, has a clear
lead in the South in manufacturing in
dustries.
We lead the world in tobacco manu
facture. The 33 tobacco factories of
the state consume a fourth of all the
leaf tobacco used in manufacture in the
entire United States, and pay a full
fourth of all the tobacco taxes of the
Union. In tobacco production we are
not far behind Kentucky the leading
tobacco growing state in America.
Kentucky stands ahead of us in thte
pounds of tobacco produced in average
years, but North Carolina stands first j
in the total farm value of her tobacco
areas. Counting only those who are
fifteen years old and over, they num
ber 227 thousand. Our factory em
ployees numbered only 158,000 in 1919.
In short, the available, untouched source
of white wage labor in the state is
larger than the grand total of wage
earners employed today in our factory
industries of all sorts, plus all other
wage earners in the various mechanical
trades. Which means that our cotton
mills have a one hundred percent chance
to expand in labor force during the next
ten years—a basis on which to increase
machine production in something like a
ten-fold ratii^.
Cotton mills in the South, be it re
membered, have flourished in densely
populated areas of white farm tenants.
Outside these particular areas success
ful cotton mills are so few as to be neg
ligible in number anywhere in the South.
Nobody- sees this fundamental fact more
clearly than cotton mill promoters in
the East. We ran across seven of these
}ceen-witted men on the train to Texas
last fall. They have an eye on Texas,
but they are not in the least in doubt
about the future cotton mill territory of
that state. We are spying out the land of
densely populated white farm tenants,
said they, and their map of this area
was perfectly drawn by the social en
gineering expert in the party. It set
us to wondering how many men in the
South were given to painstaking, com
petent prospecting in this fashion.
A Great Industrial Area
'
crops.
We lead the South in
influence. The point we make becomes I j
the cotton tex-
clear when we consider the influence of
something like 2,000 people who are
busy with the business of banking in
North Carolina. They are few in num
ber but their lightest whisper sounds
like thunder, and the lifting or lower
ing of their eyebrows registers fair
weathejfror foul day by day for two and
a half nllllion people. Of similar sort
is the rapidly developing influence of
manufajj^re in the state.
T\^nty-Year Increases
During the first twenty years of the
new century, our factory establish
ments rose from 3,465 to 5,999. They
did not greatly miss doubling in num
ber.
The factory wage earners of .North
Carolina rose from 72,000 to 158,000;
which is to say, they were more than
doubled in number.
But the volume of their annual wages
rose from 14 million to 127 million dol
lars, which is almost exactly nine times
as much.
The primary horsepowers used in our
factories rose from 154,000 to 550,000.
The capital employed rose from 68
million dollars to 669 million dollars—in
manufacturing industries alone, mind
you. It is nearly ten times as much as
twenty years ago.
The cost of the materials consumed,
including mill supplies and rent of pow
er and heat, increased from 45 million
to 527 million dollars; which is eleven
times as much.
The total value of products rose from
85 million to 944 million dollars. Here
again the value is eleven-fold.
And, finally, the value added by man
ufacture to raw materials rose from 40
million dollars in 1899 to 416 million dol
lars in 1919, which is nearly exactly ten
times as much.
The table of twenty-year increases
follows, and the details of it are worth
a thoughtful consideration.
N. C. Factory Establishments;
1899 1919
Number 3,465 5,999
Wage earners.... 72,322 157,659
Cap. employed $68; 283,005 $669,144,000
Wages paid... $14,061,784 $126,753,000
^^terials used $44,854,224 $526,906,000
Val. of products $85,274,083 $943,808,000
Value added
by mftre. $40,419,859 $416,902,000
Our Primacy in the South
North Carolina led the South in 1919
in the number of factory establishments,
with 5,999 against 5,603 in Virginia, her
nearest competitor.
In the number of wages and salary
earners she led Georgia, her nearest com
petitor, by 34,000.
In the capital employed she led Texas
by more than 100 million dollars, Vir
ginia by 230 million dollars, and Georgia
by 260 million dollars.
In the total value of manufactured
products Texas was the only Southern
state that outranked North Carolina in
1919, and her lead was only 57 million
in almost every detail—in
the number of mills, in the number of
spindles and knitting machines, in the
number of new looms installed year by
year, in the number of operatives em
ployed, in the total capital in use, in
the volume of wages paid, in the gr^s
value of textile products, in the variety
of cotton textiles produced, and even
more significantly in the ratio of values
added to raw cotton in the processes of
manufacture. Our own mills consume
a half million bales of cotton more than
the state produces in average years.
There are now 513 textile mills in the
state, compared with 180 in South Ca
rolina and 173 in Georgia.
North Carolina has more mills that
dye and finish their own product than
any other Southern state.
The largest hosiery mills in the world
are located at Durham, N. C.
The largest towel mills in the world
are located at Kannapolis, N. C.
The largest denim mills in the United
States are located at Greensboro, N. C.
The largest damask mills in the United
States are located at Roanoke Rapids,
. outside city limits, then nearly half the
Winston-Salem contains the I earners of the state and
underwear factory in America. j j„Qj.g jjjan half the manufactured Qut-
Gaston county, with around 100 mills, I j,g credited to these fourteen
is the center of fine-combed yarn in the ^orth Carolina.
South. Winston-Salem with 200 million dol-
The industrial area of North Carolina
lies in the coastal plain and foothill
country—a reap hook in shape, with a
broad blade and handle, the point of
the blade in Raleigh, the curve follow
ing the bend of the Southern Railway
to Charlotte, and the handle reaching
westward through Gaston and Lincoln
counties to Rutherford. In this area
of cotton and tobacco farming and ex
cessive farm tenancy are 48 counties,
and in these counties are nearly three-
fourths of our factory enterprises,
more than four-fifths of all the bank
capital of the state, and right around
six-sevenths of all the business in bank
loans and discounts.
Naturally the bulk of the manufac
tured products of North Carolina is
turned out in our rapidly growing cities
with their suburban clusters of indus
trial enterprises. Multiplying indus
tries mean rapidly growing cities every
where. The towns without factory in
dustries must .be content to remain
small_pr—to mark time in population
increases, or to dwindle and disappear
from the map.
Our fourteen cities with 10,000 in
habitants or more contain within their
corporate limits more than a fourth of
all the factory workers of the state,
and their factory output was right a-
round two-fifths of the state total in
1919. But if we include the mills just
Moreover, we lead the South in the
number of furniture factories, in the
amount of capital invested, in the num
ber of operatives employed, in the va
riety of products, and in the total value
of the annual output.
The Look Ahead
But what North Carolina shall be as
an industrial state in the years to come
does not yet appear. The way ahead
lies wide open.
‘ ‘Ten years more at the present rate
of progress ”, says the Greensboro News,
“and it will be nip and tuck between
North Carolina and Massachusetts for
first place in the manufacture of cot
ton. In twenty years by the exer
cise of reasonable intelligence North
Carolina ought to lead both Massachu
setts and Lancashire, and to hold an
undisputed position as mistress of the
cotton trade. Everything works in our
favor. The cotton is at our, doors. Elec
tric power to drive machinery is avail
able, and waterpower to generate elec
tricity exists in many places in the state,
that have not as yet been invaded by
the construction gang. The ^state’s
population numbers two and a half
millions, and it is an industrious stock
capable of developing the highest de
gree of manual skill. The situation
could hardly l?e improved had it been
made to order for the development of a
great textile^ industry.
The editor might have named another
factor related to the future develop
ment of cotton mill industries in North
Carolina—namely, the white farm ten
ants and their families who are still
lars’ worth of factory products in 1919
was far in the lead, followed by Dur
ham with 71 million dollars. Charlotte
came next with 43 million dollars. If
suburban industries be included, Greens
boro easily ranks fourth as an industrial
center.
The census totals of all the cities of
the state would be increased by includ
ing the nearby mills and factories be
yond city limits, but with the excep
tion nan^ed their relative rank would
remain about the same.
The table below refers to the indus
trial products and the wage earners
within city incorporation lines.
Rank City
Products
Wage
Earners
r
Winston
$200,485,000
14,030
2
Durham
70,659,000
6,673
3
Charlotte
43,096,000
5,906
4
High Point
14,869,000
4,441
5
Gastonia
12,013,000
3,100
6
Wilmington
10,537,000
2,134
7
Greensboro
7,458,000
1,930
8
Asheville
. 7,091,000
1,313
9
Raleigh
6,871,000
1,430
10
New Bern
5,702,000
1,838
11
Wilson
6,689,000
752
12
Salisbury
6,127,000
1,144
13
Rocky Mount
4,904,000
1,682
14
Goldsboro
4,143,000
1,239
Total
$398,644,000
47,612
The Changing Order
The Federal Census of Industries cov
ering the year 1919 makes it clear that
North Carolina is rapidly moving out of
the hand-made, home-spun civilization
of an agricultural state, into the ma-
chin6-m3d6 civilization of an industrial-
.urban state - out of a simple into a corn-
struggling with economic hazards and j plex social order, i
social disadvantdfees in her country I To be sure a majority of the people
Do you know that you can remain at
home and at the same time attend a
University? Sounds impossible, but it
is true. How? Read on.
The University of North Carolina
through its Extension Division offers
you regular University courses by mail.
This year it offers eighteen correspond
ence courses covering the following
subjects; Economics, Commercial Eng
lish, Principles of Secondary Education,
High School Methods, Educational Psy
chology, Public School Education in the
South, Freshman English, Sophomore
English, The Short Story, Modern Eu
ropean History, American History,
Freshman Latin, Latin Composition,
Algebra, Trigonometry, and Commu
nity Organization.
Any person in North Carolina m^iy
make application for a correspondence
course, but only those who can satisfy
University entrance requirements will
receive credit toward a degree. On this
same basis credit toward state teachers’
certificates will also be given by the
State Department of Public Instruction.
You are wondering by what method
the University enables you to study its
courses at home. Each correspondence
course is made out by a University in
structor and contains from 10 to 30 les
sons, called assignments. Each assign
ment contains; (a) Full directions for
study, including references to text
books by chapter and page; (b) sugges
tions and remarks of the instructor; (c)
questions for the student to answer in
writing. At the University each set of
answers is corrected by* an instructor
and returned to the student along with
new assignments.
If you wish to use your spare hours
to better your educational training or
to work toward a degree or state'teach-
ers’ certificate, here is your opportu
nity. All correspondence courses, to
gether with the method of enrolment,
are described in a new bulletin called
Correspondence Courses for 1921-22.
This bulletin goes free to anybody in
North Carolina who wants it and writes
for it promptly. Address; University
Extension Division, Chapel Hill, N. C.
of North Carolina still live in the coun
try, but the ratio of country dwellers
steadily dwindles. They increased in
number during the last census period
nine percent while the city increase was
4ifty-four percent. ^
A majority of people^of the state en
gaged in gainful occupations are still
engaged in agriculture, forestry, and
animal husbandry, but the ratio de
creases. Our farm workers increased
seven percent in number during the last
census period, while the workers in man
ufacturing and mechanical industries in
creased fifty-eight percent.
Our cities are still few in number
and smdll in size—only fourteen had ten
thousand inhabitants or more in 1919,
and only two, Winston-Salem and Char
lotte, were near the fifty thousand
mark;,but the industrial-urban develop
ment _pf North Carolina is now so.pro-
nounced, and the way ahead is so-clear
ly open to enterprisers, that the next
quarter century will see the state map
ped with the Great Industrial Area of
the United States.
The changing order in North Caro
lina means great industries and great
cities in rapidly multiplying number.
It also means greater wealth and a
greater concentration of wealth. Forty-
eight persons in North Carolina enjoyed
a net taxable income of more than nine
million dollars in 1919, and they paid in
to the federal treasury more than four
and a half million dollars of taxes.
Which was nearly half of all the feder
al taxes paid on incomes in the entire
state; also it was nearly twice as much
money as all the general property tax
payers of the state paid into the state
treasury the same year.
The day of great fortunes is only just
beginning in North Carolina. It is the
inevitable result of urban-industrial ex
pansion everywhere. If only wealth
can be rightly related to weal, and the
Commonwealth to the common weal,
then we can have greater progress and
less poverty, greater magnificence and
less misery in our beloved mother state.
But it cannot be so if the state fol
lows the immemorial way of aimless
drift. The reasoned way is better and
it is the task of the North Carolina Club
to find it, if by diligent^ search it can
be found by a thoughtful group of Uni
versity students.— E. C. Branson, a
North Carolina Club study.
MANUFACTURE IN THE UNITED STATES
Covering Factory systems in the year 1919. Based on the preliminary state
ment of the Census Bureau. Building trades, hand trades, and neighborhood
industries excluded.
Department of Rural Social Science, University of North Carolina
Rank State
Value of
Products
Rank State
Value of
Products
1
New York
... ,$8,876,007,000
25
Tennessee
....$566,263,000
2
Pennsylvania ....
.... 7,312,333,000
26
Alabama
... 492,731,000
3
Illinois
.... 5,-874,007,000
27
West Virginia
.... 471,871,000
4
Ohio
.... 5,100,299,000
28
Maine
.... 456,822,000
5
Massachusetts....
.... 4,007,452,000
29
New Hampshire ...
... 407,206,000
6
New Jersey
.... 3,686,775,000
30
Oklahoma
.... 401,363,000,
7
Michigan
.... 3,447,-984,000
31
Kentucky
... 395,660,000
8
California
.... 1,981,410,000
32
South Carolina ..:,
.... 381,454,000
9
Indiana
.... 1,901,846,000
33
Oregon
.... 366,783,000
10
Wisconsin
1,883,608,000
34
Colorado.:
... 275,622,000
11
Missouri
.... 1,599,264,000
35
Florida
.... 213,327,000
12
Connecticut
.... 1,394,898,000
36
Arkansas
... 200,313,000
13
Minnesota
.... 1,218,130,000
37
Mississippi
.... 197,747,000
14
Texas
.... 999,996,000
38
Vermont
.... 168,108,000
15
North Carolina
... 943,808,000
39
Montana
... 166,664,000
16
Kansas
.... 913,667,000
40
Delaware
... 165,073,000
17
Maryland
.... 873,946,000
41
Utah ;
.... 156,933,000
18
Washington
.... 809,623,000
42
Arizona
120,769,000
19
Rhode Island ....
.... 747,823,000
43
Wyoming
.... 81,445,000
20
Iowa
.... 745,473,000
44
Idaho
.... 80,511,000
21
Georgia
.... 693,666,000
46
South Dakota
... 62,171,000
22
Louisiana
.... 676,190,000
46
North Dakota
... 67,374,000
23
Virginia
.... 641,810,000
47
Nevada
... 22,874,000
■24
Nebraska
.... 596,042,000
48
New Mexico
... 17,857,000