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 Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
JANUARY 21, 1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 10
BJItorlal Buard » B. 0. 3raucio:i,S. H. Hobbi, .Tr., L. R. 'Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J.B. BttUitt, H. W. Odnm. Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the PostofBce at Chapel Hill, N. 0 , nnder the act of Augnstri^, 161*
BUSINESS IN CAIOLIMA IM 1922
A BILLION OF NEW WEALTH
First and fundamentally, the volume
of brand new wealth created in North
Carolina in 1922 amounted all told to
nearly one and one third billion dollars,
at farm and factory prices, as follows:
Manufactured products, $832,000,000;
crops, livestock, and livestock products,
$410,000,000; woodlot and forest pro
ducts, $70,200,000; mines and quarries,
$2,500,000; fish and oysters; $2,000,000.
The total is more than three times that
of 1915—1317 million against 402 million
dollars. In a single year we created
more than a third as much wealth as
we have accumulated on our tax books
in two hundred and fifty years. It
averaged nearly five hundred dollars
per inhabitant in 1922, counting men,
women, and children of both races, or
$2,600 per family. No other state in
the South begins to approach North
Carolina in her per capita production
of new wealth, and in the total annual
output only seven states of the Union
stand'above her.
Second. Despite the drop in market
prices, the total farm wealth produced
in the state in 1922 is more than twice
the total of 1910—$410,000,000 against
$175,000,000. We produced 75,000 bales
of cotton more than in 1921, aiid climbed
to the fourth place in the cotton-belt
South. The average advance of cotton
and tobacco prices throughout the sea
son gave to the farmers, the merchants,
and bankers of the state sixty-seven
million dollars in cash more than the
year before. As a result, North Caro
lina is paying back the eight-million
dollar agricultural loan of the War
Finance Corporation faster than any
other state in the Union.
Third. Our mills and factories have
been running on full time almost with
out exception. Factory prices are less,
but the volume of manufactured goods
is greatly increased and the volume of
wages is scarcely lessened. New mills
are being built all over the state. The
new spindles to be set going in North
Carolinain 1923number 550,000, which is
more than two-thirdsof thenew spindles
of the entire South. Thedemand for la
bor in our factory and building trades
and in highway construction has been
steady throughout the year just closed,
and at no time has unemployment been
a serious problem in North Carolina, as
in the Great Industrial area north and
east and in the boll-weevil states south.
Fourth. These are the fundamental
facts that explain our four hundred
eighteen millions of bank resources,
our one hundred sixteen millions of
bank account savings, our investment
of an additional twenty-seven millions
in motor cars in 1922, our ability to own
one hundred forty-six million dollars’
worth of automobiles and trucks, and
passed by Pennsylvania alone. During
the last eighteen months we have built
1377 miles of hard-surfaced and other
types of dependable roads, and have
spent for this purpose nineteen million
dollars in round numbers. In public
school support we have moved up from
six million to twenty million dollars in ten
years. In twenty years we have moved
up from one to twenty million dollars
in public school maintenance money.
At last North Carolina is establish
ing her state institutions of charities
and corrections,, liberal learning and
technical training, on a basis of ade
quacy. Which is to say. North Caro
lina is at last minded to base her fu
ture on the intelligence, the skill, and the
character of her people. It is these a-
lone that can make a state great. The
steadfast belief of North Carolina in
herself is far more important than the
applause of listening multitudes in oth
er states. It makes history faster.
OUR FEDERAL TAXES 1922
One hundred twenty-two million four
hundred thirteen thousand dollars is the
total collected in North Carolina in
1921-22 by thu Internal Revenue Bureau,
mainly as taxes on profits, incomes,
capital stocl: and inheritances.
Only seven states of the Union paid
more federal taxes, namely, New York,
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Mas
sachusetts, Ohio, and California. Since
1939, we have moved ahead of New
Jersey and Missouri, and our rank is
now eighth instead of tenth.
Fifth in crop-producing power, and
eighth in federal tax-paying power—
that’s the record of North Carolina in
1922.
As for the South, our rank is first.
The table is as follows for the year
ending June 30, 1922:
1 North Carolina $122,413,000
2 Texas 52,348,000
3 Virginia 46,596,000
4 Kentucky 33,122,000
5 Louisiana 22,754,000
6 Tennessee 21,796^00
7 Georgia 20,989,000
8 Oklahoma 3 8,402,000
9 . Florida 14,320,000
10 Alabama 11,464,000
11 South Carolina 13,447,000*
12 Arkansas 6,979,000
13 Mississippi 4,640,000
Arkansas
Mississippi
Texas and Virginia are our nearest
competitors in the South in federal tax
totals paid in 1922, but North Carolina
paid more than both of them together
—twenty-three million dollars more.
We paid more than the rest of the
South Atlantic states combined—Vir
ginia, South Carolina, Georgia, andFlor-
I ida—twenty-nine million dollars more.
We paid more than the five Gulf
to buy seventy-five million gallons of' together, Texas included
gasoline in twelve months. They ex- i - seventeen million dollars more,
plain the greatly increased activity of I enough taxes to the federal
our building and loan associations, and ■ government in one year to keep our
the erection of residence.s. warehouses, p*’;‘f/overnnient going for ten years,
factories, hotels, and office buildings
everywhere. They also ex'Jilain our a-
bilitytopay one hundred twenty-two*ho are bearing the
million dollar s into the federal treasury ; “ovo
in 1922 as taxes on profits, incomes, and ' s^^te taxes to the state at present than
inheritances, and only seven states paid vest of us put togetlier; and, as
more. These are large figures, and Governor Morrison says, they are doing
they have given the state a large place Iv'“*’out a kick or a whine anywhere.
in the mind of the tradespeople and
en Jit institutions the country over. The
1-.., uling men talk them far and wide, JOHN SMITH TENANT
\:ik. the bankers of America do nut j How John Smith—Tenant lives, .what
hoo.tate to take our public bonds at a. - ^ ^as to live on in a mid-state Caro-
pieuii.uu. I county, his ideals and hopes and
ruth. But even more significant is | luvel of life, the chances of helping him
the deep and abiding impression these ‘ into farm ownership, and the feasible
facts have made upon North Carolina | ways of help, make a bulletin of fifty
h(-r:^;;lf. Not natural resources but,^ pages and charts, by J. A. Dickey of
^ make a state. The abounding, Alamance county and E. C. Branson,
natural resources and possibilities of ■ Kenan Professor of Rural Social Eco-
North Carolina were all here in Governor j nornics at the University of North Ca-
Drummond’s day; but only within thejrolina.
GASOLINE AND CULTURE
The total value of church and
school property in North Carolina
after two and a half centuries of
history is $80,000,000, as follows:
Church property, all
denominations $40,000,000
Public school property.... 25,000,000
College property, church
and state 15,000,000
Total church and school
property $80,000,000
Motor cars and trucks,
on Jan. 1, 1923 $146,000,000
Which is to say, in two hundred
and fifty years the people of North
Carolina have been willing to invest
in church and school properties eigh
ty million dollars. But in the last
ten years we have invested nearly
twice as many millions in motor cars
and trucks.
Last year our automobiles and
trucks moved up from 148,639 to
182,400 in number—an increase of
nearly 34,000. Reckoned at the
average authorized by the state
automobile bureau the new cars we
bought last year cost us twenty-
seven million dollars. Which is to
say, in a single year we spent nearly
twice as much on motor cars as we
have been willing to invest in col
lege properties, church and state, in
two and a half centuries.
Here are comparisons that are
odorous or odious—Shakespeare’s
famous phrase reads both ways, and
both apply to the comparisons we
are offering.
The point is, whichever phrase we
choose, there is manifestly a lot of
loose change in North Carolina—far
more than anywhere else in the
South, barring only the oil-well states
in the south-west; and we are spend
ing it in multiplied' millions year by
year in North Carolina.
We even had twenty-five millions
for Blue Sky artists selling fake oil
stocks and other wild-cat paper dur
ing the last three years, says Hon.
Stacy Wade, our State Insurance
Commissioner.—E. C. Branson.
proposed solution of the problem in
North Carolina, make a bulletin of 220
pages, issued by the Extension Divi
sion of the University of North Caro
lina, under the editorship of E. C.
Branson, Kenan Professor of Rural
Social Economics.
It is the 1921-22 Year-Book of the
North Carolina Club at the University.
It is now in the hands of the printers,
and will be mailed out within the next
three weeks.
It will be sent free of charge to any
North Carolinian who writes for it, and
to others for $1.00.
As usual the edition is small and the
thoughtful students who want it will
need to apply at once to C. D. Snell,
Extension Director, or to E. C. Bran
son, Chapel Hill, N. C.
The chapters are as follows: •
1. Foreword.—E. C. Branson.
2. Farm Tenancy in the United States.
—S. H. Hobbs, Jr.
3. The Landless Farmer in North Ca
rolina.—A. M. Moser.
4. The Homeless Multitude in Urban
Areas.—J. G. Gullick.
6. Home Ownership in Industrial
Communities. —S. O. Bondurant.
6. Causes of Tenancy—Town and
Country.—C. R. Edney.
7. The Status of the Farm Tenant:
In Europe and the United States. Liv
ing Standards in North Carolina.—Miss
Eugenia Bryant.
8. How Farm Tenants Live in Mid-
State Carolina.—J. A. Dickey and E. C.
Branson.
9. The Effects of Home and Farm
Ownership.-F. A. Grissette.
10. Farm Tenantry in North Carolina.
—Hon, J. W.'Bailey.
11. Bank Account Savings in North
Carolina.—R, F. Marshburn.
12. Cooperative Credit Unions. —Miss
Bertha Austin.
13. Cooperative Marketing.-J. Osier
Bailey.
14. Building and Loan Associations.
—J. r. Trotter.
15. The Church and Landless Men.— •
L. G. Wilson and E. C. Branson.
16 Federal Aid for Landless Men.—
P. A. Peavis, Jr.
17. State-Aid to Farm Ownership. —
S. H, Hobbs, Jr.
18. Promoting Home and Farm Own
ership in the British Isles.—Miss Kath
erine Woodrow.
19. State-Aid to Farm Ownership in
Australia. —W. E. White.
20. Helping Men to Own Farms in
America.-Miss A. 0. Cato.
21. The California Way and a Pro
posed Plan for North Carolina.-J. A.
Dickey.
FARM PROPERTY IN NORTE CAROLINA
Average Per Farm in 1920
Based on the 1920 Census of Agriculture, and covoring U) farm lands and
buildings, (2) livestock, and (3) farm machinery, tools, ana implements.
The values are greatly decreased since 1920, hut the decreases are fairly
uniform the state and the nation over, and the-vfore the rank of the counties re-
mains practically unchanged.
North Carolina average $4,634; United States average $12,084. Porty-two
states make a better showing in the value of farm property per .farm Only
four states have more farms than North Carolina, but twenty states have a
greater total of farm property. The South is at a disadvantage in this com
parison because small areas cultivated by renters and croppers are recorded as
farms in the census.
The differences in rank of the counties lie mainly (1) in the farm popula'
tion per square mile, (2) in the richness of soil and its adaptability to cash-crop
farming, (3) in the percent of farm land under cultivation, (4) in the presence
of large nearby-market towns, good transportation and the like, (6) in the
value of farm buildings, (6) in the quantity and quality of livestock, and (7) in
the ahiount and value of farm implements and machinery.
S. H. Jr.
Department of Rural Social Economics. University of North Carolina
Iasi forty years has the state begun
to cash them in—mainly within the last
fouryears. Thebestevidence thatastate
believes in herself lies in her willing
ness to invest in public education, pub
lic health, and public highways as in-
tlispensable foundations of common
wealth progress and prosperity. In
public health work we rank among the
twelve foremost states of the Union,
and we have moved foward in this field
faster than any other American state.
In public highway building we are sur
It will be ready for the mails within
the next ten days, and it will be sent
free of charge to any North Carolinian
who writes for it. The charge for peo
ple outside the state is fifty cents. The
edition is small, and thoughtful students
of a fundamental problem in the South
will need to apply for it promptly.
It reports and interprets the results
of a field study in the three summer
months of 1922. The chapters are as
follows:
1. The Money They Live on.
2. A Close-up Study of John Smith,
Tenant.
3. The Tenancy Area Surveyed.
4. Living on Twenty-three cents a
day.
5. Farm Classes: Owners, Renters,
and Croppers.
6. What They Own and the Money
They Handle.
7. Property Levels—Chart.
. 8'. Cash Income Levels—Chart.
9. The Social Estate of Tenant Class
es.
10. The ^Hornes They Live in.
11. Health Conditions.
12. Schools and School Influences:
Chart of Renter Levels, Chart of Crop
per Levels.
13. Churches and Church Influences:
Church Attendance and Membership,
Sunday School Attendance—Chart.
14. What Farm Tenants Read.
15. Social Occasions and Contacts.
16. Helping Tenants into Farm
Ownership: Who Can and Who Cannot
be helped.
17. State-Aid to Landless Farmers.
18. Self-Help Agencies and Qualities.
19. The Place of Legislation.
20. Obstacles to Home and Farm
Ownership.
21. Constructive Suggestions.
HOME AND FARM OWNERS
Home and farm ownership in the
state, the nation, and other countries
of the world, the rapidly increasing
multitude of landless, homeless men in
every country of Christendom, the
causes and consequences of tenancy
town and country, the attack upon
this problem in other states and coun
tries—in particular in California, and a
Rank Counties Property
Per Farm
1 Wayne $8,296
2 Scotland 7,966
3 Greene 7,616
4 Pitt 7,569
5 Lenoir 7,435
6 Nash 7,406
7 Edgecombe 7,113
8 Wilson 7,003
9 F n^yth 6,153
10 Robeson 5,884
11 Johnston 6,800
12 Martin 6,729 '
13 Hoke 6,680
14' New Hanover 6,673
IB Guilford 5,576
16 Gaston 6,524
17 Sampson 6,499
18 Beaufort 6,440
39 Hertford 6,417
20 Jones 6,363
21 Rowan 6,341
22 Buncombe i 7
j23 Alleghany 5,180
124 H'arnett 6,127
I 25 Cleveland 6,107
126 Halifax 5,088
I 27 Wake 6,050
I 28 Mecklenburg 5,049
i 29 - Cumberland 5,031
Iso Haywood 4,962
31 Vance 4,913
32 Pasquotank 4,906
33 Chowan 4,882
34 Iredell ’..... 4,799
35 ' Cabarrus 4,700
36 Richmond 4,664
37 Hyde 4,624
38 Craven 4,681
39 Washington 4,649
40 Watauga 4,456
41 Currituck 4,433
42 Catawba 4,414
43 Duplin 4,403
44 Davidson 4,326
46 Granville 4,301
46 Yadkin 4,289
47 Ashe 4,204
48 Lincoln 4,192
49 Person 4,147
50 Franklin 4,114
Rank Coufities
Rockingham..
Davie
Gates .
Surry
Moore
Lee
- . !ico
■iuud--rson
Bertie
Durham
Union
Orange.
Stokes
Ranaolph
Alamance
Casweil
Northampton
Camden
Staiilj
Columbus... .
Caidv.'cll
Bla.-n.
Cm- - t..
‘ • *■ •. ivariia
mans
Property
Per Farm
$4,(57
4,036
4,0l0
4,019
4,‘'('6
:^,9hu
-. 3,956
3.950
3.946 -
o,.''3i
3.814
.. J,?,"'!
. .i,i72
3.:6-i
3,760
.. IWlL-
3. 5
8.54
3.301
3.21z
78 :,o.. ..w
79 Aise.ri
30 Chatham
31 Bura'-i —
82 Clay ..
83 1C..
, ' ■ ■C'' . 3.1H6
33 ' . 3,084
. 8,01)8
87 He iitgamery .... 2 893
83 muc..y ■; aiqa
89 i'Lui'Sun 2 7''4
90 Brunswick 2 .5‘’‘9
91 Aveiy
92 McDowell ... 2 457
93 Mi:.j‘...|l 2,438
9^ I/' ' ' 2,401
95 - k:..jn 2,369
99 ■' . 2,236
97 Mucon 2,222
Swain 2,103
99 Graham i gg4
100 Cherokee l'766