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 its University Ex
tension Division.
AUGUST 2, 1922
GHAPEI. HDl., N. C.
VOL. Vm, NO. 37
KIitori«l Il.>.rd . E. 0. Branson, 8. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson, E. w. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B, Bnllltl, H. W. Odnm,
Entered as second-claas matter November 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N, C., under the act of August 24,1918
NEGRO TAXABLES IN CAROLINA
NEGRO TAXPAYERS
The negroes of North Carolina have
right around one hundred ten million
dollars of taxable wealth on the county
tax lists; which is nearly exactly five
times the total in 1910. On an average
the state over, they pay one dollar of
every twenty-five paid into the local
tax funds of the state. They pay nearly
nothing into the state treasury to sup
port state departments, state institu
tions, and state enterprises; so (1) be
cause their' individual properties and
businesses are small, and (2) because
legal exemptions in North Carolina are
so large as to relieve them of taxes on
inheritances and personal incomes. The
same is true of taxes on negro corpora
tion incomes. The exceptions are not
able but they are very few. The auto-.
mobile registration fees they pay cover
the largest contribution they make to
state support. Their per capita taxables
in 1921 averaged $135, against $34 in
1910.
Their gains in taxable wealth in re
cent years have been made mainly in
the town and city centers of the state.
Very few negro tenants moved up into
farm ownership during the last census
period in North Carolina—only 834 all'
told, against an increase of more than
five thousand farms by white farm own-
Betrayed By Prosperity
The negroes were betrayed into ex
travagance and wanton waste by the
flush times of the war period. The
more primitive people are, white or
black, the less they save and invest in
homes and farms and productive busi
nesses. Gains in taxable wealth indi
cate substantial gains in real civiliza
tion, and the negro race shows a steady
march forward in property ownership |
since the middle sixties in every south
ern state. But in 1910-20 the ratio of
negro farm owners in North Carolina suf
fered a decrease—from
percent. The same fact appears in
other cotton-belt states. It is the first
halt in the progress—the real progress
—of the American negro since the war
between the States.
Nevertheless nearly one-third of all
our negro farmers are farm owners, not
tenants, and they own a million one
hundred sixty thousand acres. Put to
gether, the farm land they own today
in North Carolina makes an area as
large as Mecklenburg, Gaston, Lincoln,
and Cabarrus counties, with a hundred
thousand acres to spare. In two couh-
ties of NortbCarolina, the negro farm
owners outnumber the white farm
owners—in Warren by 188 and in Hali
fax by 38. The farms are smaller, of
course, but the number of negro farm,
owners is larger than the number of
white farm owners in these two coun
ties.
The per capita taxable wealth of the
negroes ranges from $237 in Alleghany,
where the negroes are fewer than five
in the hundred of population, to $53 ir
Cherokee, another mountain county,
where they are only two in the hundred
of population. See the table elsewhere.
Their best showing is made in Alleghany,
Durham, Guilford, Buncombe, and
Warren, in the order named. Forty
counties are above the state average of
$135 per capita, and in all but five of
these counties the whites are in the
majority. The exceptions are Warren,
Craven, Hertford, Bertie, and Greene,
where the taxpaying negroes are mainly
farm owners. ,
Two Different Problems
Students of the negro are not yet
properly aware of the fact that the
negro problem in general is two not
one: (1) the negroes when thinly scat
tered among white majorities, where
they feel the steady upward pull of the
surrounding superior mass, and (2) the
negroes when massed in solid black
areas, as in nearly 300 of the 800 cotton
belt counties of the South, where the
superior negro feels the steady down
ward pull of the surrounding inferior
mass.
As a rule the amassing of property
by negroes is most rapid in white coun
ties. Here their ten-year gains are
most amazing, and here it is that hard-
won property is best preserved and in
creased by succeeding generations. In
the black counties the property amassed
by a worthy negro is apt to be rapid
ly dissipated by sons and daughters in
fected by the improvident humors and
habits of the surrounding negro mass
es. The salvation of the superior
negroes in a black county lies in segre-
gation~in a social quarantine area, as
Mound Bayou for instance, a prosperous
negro city in a Mississippi delta county
where the blacks outnumber the whites
seven to one. In this little negro city
are gathered the pick of the negroes of
Bolivar county. The banks, the stores,
and the industries are all owned and
operated by enterprising negroes. Jt
is a center of negro aristocracy protect
ed from the downward pull of the
reckless negro masses of the Delta
country.
A White Man's Problem
Along with these two characteristic
negro problems, there is a white man’s
problem in the cotton-belt counties of
the South. It is the problem of
white tenant farmers in counties like
Warren-and Halifax where white and
black croppers in something like equal
numbers live and work side by side.
And where two races with different
standards of living struggle for exis
tence side by side, the race with the
lower standards wins out unless the
superior race is defended by superior
j industry, intelligence, and skill. This
I law of life is as nearly universal as any
I other we know in social scien^ce. It
works with equal certainty in the mill
industries of the North and East, in the
Polish farm areas of the Connecticut
Valley, in the Japanese and Armenian
districts of California, and in the cot
ton-belt counties of the South.
The conditions of cotton farm tenancy
are hard, but negroes thrive on condi
tions that destroy the whites; which ac
counts for the increase of negro farm
owners in the South in 1900-1910, in
ratios ranging from one and a half to
seven and a half times the ratios of in-
32.7 to 29.2 i crease of white farm owners. *
Race protection by increase of intel
ligence and skill—that’s the white farm
tenant’s defense in Warren and Hali
fax. These counties in particular need
consolidated schools in county-wide
systems, with teacherage's and motor
transportation trucks. And they must
be quick in their decision about this
means of defense, else the farm prop
erties of white owners will soon be so
deteriorated and social conditions so
stagnant in country areas that the
farmland will inevitably pass into the
hands of negro farm owners. There, are
nine other Carolina counties in which
country civilization is in similar peril—
Anson, Scotland, Hoke, Northampton,
Hertford, Bertie, Edgecombe, Pitt,
and Craven.
What Property Means
Property is what one may call one’s
very own. When self-acquired it sig
nifies (1) industry, the power to toil
terribly in steady-gaited sort, (2) thrift,
which is prudential foresight coupled
with the power of self-denial, (8) sa
gacity or the clear-headed ability to
think things through to a remote end,
and (4) integrity-honesty, truthful
ness, a sense of moral obligation, so
briety and the like. These are the
qualities in a man that result in prop
erty. The lack of any one of these will
make anl will keep him an underling,
They are signs of sterling worth in a
man, white or black. They are signs
of essential civilization. The qualities
that produce property are the qualities
that produce capital which is surplus
property ready for use in the creation
of other property. Christianity as
mode of life means character, character
produces capital, and capital produces
civilization.
Western civilization, such as it is, is
the creature of capital, and the negro
is winning his way out of jungleism into
civilization in terms of property owner
ship.
And there is no other way. It is
necessarily the way of struggle—strug
gle within himself for mastery over
himself and struggle with outward, un
toward circumstances. The negro as a
race will never stand really possessed
of anything that he does not win worth
ily for himself and by himself. Such
progress as he has made as a race must
be reckoned in property ownership.
Aside from property possessions in
Released week beginning July 31
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
Forest Protection
North Carolina with an area of
31,000,000 acres still contains ap
proximately 19,500,000 acres of
forest lands.
Roughly speaking, three-fourths
of the mountain section, one-half of
the piedmont, and two-thirds of the
coastal plain region are still in woods.
There is probably a slightly larger
area growing softwoods, chiefly
pine, than growing hardwoods,
Much of this forest has been so cut
and burnt for generations that there
is little or no growing timber on the
land and only slight prospect of any
returning, unless fires are kept out.
The U. S. Census figures show
that more than 50 per cent of the
average North Carolina farm con
sists of woodland, yet most of this
area is yielding less return per an
num to the, owners than it was
twenty-five years ago. The demand
for lumber, ties, poles, pulpwood,
veneer, cordwood, etc., increases
rapidly from year to year. Our furni
ture industry, the largest in the
South, is having to go further and
further for its supply of hardwoods
and much of our building material
is now coming from the extreme
South and even from the Pacific
Coast States. Prices are high now
and undoubtedly will be higher. We
must put our idle land to work.
How can we regenerate the forest
which is already destroyed and keep
productive that which is to be cut?
Several steps will probably be
necessary with those lands which
now contain no profitable [stand of
timber. Some may have to be plant-
ed'to trees again; other lands may
be seeded from surrounding trees
and the young growth gradually
form a forest. A prerequisite to every
forestry operation, however, is the
prevention of fires. Forest fires
have destroyed at least one million
dollars’ worth of property in North
Carolina per annum for many years
past, and only recently has the area
burned over each year begun to de
cline. The hopelessness of trying
to secure adequate young growth to
produce a profitable crop of timber
with fires running over the area
every year or two must be apparent
to all. It is no use planting or pro
viding seed trees or encouraging
young growth if fires are to come a-
long and destroy it. Both the State
and Federal Gover^nments are agreed
that forest fires must be prevented
and they are now starting out in
earnest to do this. The counties are
being asked to cooperate with the
state in fbrest fire prevention and a
number of them are taking up this
work in earnest. The people are
also being urged to do their part by
being more careful in the use of
fire. Only when all interests work
together for fire prevention can the
forests of the state yield satisfac
tory returns.—N. C. Geological and
Economic Survey.
homes, farms, and businesses, Ford
cars and silk shirts mean little or noth
ing or worse, for either blacks or whites.
The hope of the negro lies in the
ownership of homes and farms, in barns
and bank balances, far more than in
spelling books and ballot boxes. Home
owning negroes are everywhere a com
munity asset. Property ownership teth
ers a negro to law and order better
than all the courts. It is the landless,
homeless negro—the restless, roying,
irresponsible negro whose habit is to
roost on a new perch every night—who
disgraces his race and endangers the
civilization of the South.
We hold firmly to the belief that civi
lization for any man or any race is
rooted and grounded in the home-own
ing, home-loving, home-defending in
stincts. No landless, homeless race,
white or black, can be socialized, civi
lized, or Christianized.
An economic interpretation of negro
progress will be found in more elabo
rate detail in a chapter by E. C. ^^ran-
son, in The Human Way. Students of
the Negro Problem can get it from The
Baker Taylor Co., 354 Fourth Avenue,
New York.
A JOHNSTON COUNTY BOOK
Two. young men at the University
have written a complete history of
Johnston county as part of their college
course. This is a grand idea and the
faculty of that state institution are to
be congratulated upon the work they
are doing. This will be'valuable infor
mation to the people and it will make
the work of these two young students
worth something to the entire state.
This work required hard study' and
also some generosity on the ))art of
some people of the county. There is
some expense attached to the under
taking and it is the duty of every busi
ness man living in the county to contri
bute toward this expense by taking ad
vertising space in the booklet. It is the
very best advertising medium in the
county. They will be mailed into prac
tically every home in the county and
the merchants and other business men
who take space in the booklet will se
cure several extra copies.'
If you know of any important event
taking place in the history of this
county, or if you know anything about
the county, jot it down and mail it to
Messrs. George Ragsdale or William
Sanders at Chapel Hill. It will be
greatly appreciated. The booklets are
expected to be ready for distribution by
the first of August.
Again we say it is a grand thing and
we want the people to aid in helping
the young men out in this wonderful
undertaking. It iff the Carolina way of
doing things which will be beneficial to
the state. — Smithfield Observer.
BREAKING ALL RECORDS
It may not be news to say that North
Carolina is breaking' all her past records
in the construction of highways. It is
not yet generally understood, however,
that at the end of this year the State •
Highway Commission will have com
pleted or under contract improved roads
costing $25,000,000, an astounding rec
ord for two years’ work.
No wonder other states are sending
engineers into North Carolina to see
how it is done. The Commission, sup
ported by Governor Morrison and the
Council of State, has already surpassed
its expectations and is pressing to a
goal the attainment of which will end
forever whatever reputation this state
may have had as a Rip Van IVinkle.
Such movements as we now witness
in road-building and in the improve
ment of schools and welfare itstitutiona
do not develop in a day. Aycock, Craig,
and Bickett and those who stood by
them in their campaigns for better
schools and improved highways share
in the glory of this fuller day. Those
to whom has come the task of carrying
forward great state enterprises have
today a tremenduous opportunity, and
they have eyes to see it and hands for
its fulfillment.—Asheville Citizen.
NEGRO TAXABLE WEALTH IN CAROLINA
Per Capita in 1921
Based (1) on the 1921 Report of the state Tax Commissioner, and (2) on
correspondence with the County Registers of Deeds.
Total Negro taxables $110,000,000 in round numbers in 1921, or $135 per
capita, against $34 per capita in 1910. Their taxable properties were multiplied
five-fold in eleven years.
' On an average the negro pays one dollar of every twenty-five dollars of the
tax fund for local government.
They pay nearly nothing to support state government, because their indi
vidual properties and businesses are so small that they have no inheritances or
, incomes beyond the exemptions allowed by law. The same thing is true of
their corporation incomes. The exceptions are notable, but they are very few
F. D. Morris, Gaston Cpunty
Department Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank Counties Per Cap.
1 Alleghany $237
2 Durham 215
3 Guilford 202
4 Buncombe........ 195
5 Warren 191
6 Currituck 189
j 7 Onslow ? 188
I 8 Carteret 187
i 9 Person 186
10 New Hanover 182
11 Brunswick 178
12 Craven 176
13^ Duplin 174
14 Martin 173
16 Orange 168
15 Chowan^ 168
17 Bladen 167
18 Columbus 166
18 Hertford 166
18 Polk 166
21 Wake 164
22 Forsyth 158
23 Rowan 157
24 Avery 156
25 Cumberland 160
25 Perquimans 150
27 Surry 149
28 Johnston 148
29 Vance 146
30 Wayne 145
81 Jones 144
31 Alamance 144
33 Bertie 143
33 Greene 143
33 Gates 143
36 Tyrrell 141
37 Granville 138
37 Madison 188
39 Clay 137
40 Pasquotank 136
41 Stokes 135
41 Beaufort '... 135
43 Wilson 134
44 Pitt 132
45 Moore 129
45 Rockingham 129
47 Watauga 128
48 Sampson 124
Rank
49
49
49
52
52
54
54
56
56
58
59
59
59
62
62
64
65
65
67
68
68
70
70
72
73
74
75
75
75
78
78
Counties
Per Cap.
$122
Rutherford
Pender ^^22
Halifax...- 222
Hoke ;;;
Lenoir 218
Yadkin 217
Davidson 217
Burke 215
Davie
Iredell 214
Jackson 212
Nash ; 212
Harnett 212
no
Caswell
• Chatham 210
Henderson 209
Richmond *. 108
Scotland 2O8
Washington 207
Dare igg
Northampton 106
Catawba 204
Randolph 204
Alexander ; 2.02
Robeson 200
Swain gg
Dee gg
McDowell 96
Union 90
Wilkes 94
Anson 94
Cleveland 93
Caldwell 92
Franklin 92
Mecklenburg §9
Mitchell 89
Transylvania 89
Cabarrus 87
Lincoln 87
Macon 87
Hyde 35
Edgecombe 83
Gaston 81
Stanly 73
Montgomery 77
Haywood 77
Yancey 71
Cherokee 53
Note: Camden and Pamlico are omitted because of lack of data. Practi
cally no negroes in Ashe and Graham.