The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
FEBRUARY 21, 1923
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 14
Editorial Boardi E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson, E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B, Bullitt, H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter Novemberl4. 1914, at'the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C. under the act of August 24, 1912
CAROLINA BALANCE SHEETS
A BIT OF RECENT HISTORY
There are five thin little bulletins
dated 191B, 1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919—
that exhibit with authority and finality
the finances of the state of North Caro
lina in the years named. In one hun
dred and ninety esential details of reve
nue and disbursement they put the state
on a comparable basis with every other
state in the Union.
These little bulletins leave no room
for debate or controversy about state
finances in the years they cover-the
years from 1915 to 1919, inclusive.
They give to property owners and
taxpayers the information they proper
ly ought to have. They give to State
Budget Commissions and State Legis
latures everything or nearly every
thing they need to know in a business
way in order to consider financial poli
cies in general and bond issues, outlays,
and annual maintenance funds in par
ticular.
They leave State Budget Commissions
nothing further to do except to inven
tory (1) state assets in physical prop
erties, in sinking funds, public and
private trust funds, investment funds,
and the like, in the total general proper-
- ty taxables of the state, in the solvent
credits of the state—unpaid taxes, in
terest and dividends, rents, fees and
commissions, and all other unpaid sums
due the state, and (2) the current un
funded debts of the state—unpaid bills
of ail sorts, and so on. All these are
additional data for considering budget
demands and recommending annual ap
propriations.
But these further services are alone
a whale of a job-big enough to keep
budget officer busy the whole year
through, as in South Carolina and Vir
ginia, to say nothing about the 190 de
tails of finance exhibited in the 1915
1919 bulletins of The Financial Statis
tics of States.
These little bulletins are the work of
trained public accountants sent into
every state of the Union by the federal
Census Bureau at the expense of the
general government in the years named.
They summarize the detailed records on
the books of every official handling
state funds, and present these sum
maries to state budget commissions and
state legislatures for guidance in pub
lic policies, and they render an indispens
able, invaluable service.
Slipping a Cog
But in 1921, North Carolina dropped
out of these annual bulletins. “No
data reported.”
Ditto 1922.
And why?
The story is brief.
The expense of these analyses and
summaries of state finance was shifted
from Federal account to State accounts
in 1920. For two reasons: (1) the seas
oned public accountants from the fed
eral office had for five years been
working with state officials in
standardized public accounting—long
onough, the Washington authorities
thought, for these state officials to fill
out the schedules without federal aid,
and (2) if the state officials did the
work, they would have these essential
data ready at hand for state budget
commissions and state legislatures;
whereas the published bulletin of the
federal office would get to the financial
bodies of the various states too late to
be of practical service.
The financial schedules of the Census
Bureau were sent to the proper state
officials in 1921. In eighteen states
they were shoved aside or fell into the
waste baskets.
And North Carolina was one of these
eighteen states.
The officials in thirty states saw the
fundamental significance of these sched
ules and promptly arranged to have
them properly filled and returned to
Washington in time for publication. In
some of these thirty states the legisla
tures voted appropriations to secure
the additional local public accountants
and clerical help needed. In others the
statehouse officials assumed the extra
burden without special extra appropri
ations.
In North Carolina and seventeen oth
er states nothing was done with these
schedules.
Thirty states were quick to see their
essential value, and these thirty states
appear in the 1921 Financial Statistics
of States.
Perhaps a larger number of s’tates
will appear in the 1922 bulletin when it
gets to the public nearly a year hence.
But not North Carolina, or not unless
we get busy at once.
We slipped a cog in 1921 and 1922.
And now a Finance Committee of the
General Assembly must do or attempt
to do in a hurry, at great expense in
money, at a critical juncture in state
history, what ought to have“been done
well ahead of time by trained public
accountants in the State Auditor’s of
fice.
Such a situation as this ought never
to occur again so long as the state is a
state.
Where the Fault Lies
And the State Auditor is not at
fault.
The Budget Law of 1919 calls on the
State Auditor for just such a financial
statement as these federal bulletins
exhibit annually. And more—section
7676 of the Consolidated Statutes makes
such a balance sheet a stated regular
duty of his office.
Two different laws lay this specific
burden on him. But no law gives him
the money to create and operate the
necessary machinery to render such a
statement.
It is the old story—perfectly proper
legislative demands and totally inade
quate appropriations or no appropria
tions at all to satisfy these demands.
The statute books of every state are
loaded down with such law's.
If in the future we are to avoid such
crises as now confront the legislature,
one or another or both of two things
need to be done and done at once. Or
so it seems to us.
1. Give the state auditor anadditional
twenty-five thousand dollars a year or
more for the express purpose (1) of
employing the public accountants and
other clerical help he needs in order to
render the state the services itemized
for him to render in the Budget Com
mission law of 1919, in section 7676
of the Consolidated Statutes, and in
chapter 163 Public Laws of 1921, and (2)
of furnishing the data called for annu
ally by the Census Bureau for The Fi
nancial Statistics of States._ The audi
tor’s office in general needs a larger
appropriation, more space, and more
clerical help in order to audit the busi
ness of the state effectively, and to re
port upon this business properly.
2. Empower the Budget Commis
sion to appoint a whole-time executive
secretary, whose business shall be (1)
to work with the state auditor in di
gesting and summarizing the data
needed by the state Budget Commission
when it meets on November 1 of every
even year as required by law, and (2)
to inventory, map, and estimate at
their replacement value the physical
properties owned by the state, to in
ventory in detail the solvent credits of
the state—unpaid taxes, interests, div
idends, rents, fees, commissions, and
all other unpaid debts due the state,
(3) to inventory the sinking funds, in
vestment funds, public trust funds, and
private trust funds in the hands of the !
state, the places of deposit of all these ;
funds, the interest they bear^and so on,
(4) to inventory the current unfunded
debt of the state, and (6) to secure and
present to the Budget Commission in
required form all the information it
needs to exhibit in full the financial
status of the Commonwealth.
Comments
Is there in existence at- present so
much as a complete and accurate list
of the physical properties of North Ca
rolina? Or a map of such properties?
■Who knows definitely what and where
they are, or their value? The Budget
Commission called for such an inven
tory, could not find it anywhere, and
learned that not in the entire history
of the state, so far as anybody knew
had there ever been such an inventory.
Who knows in detail and in full what
the solvent credits of the state are—
the unpaid taxes, rents, interests, divi
dends, fees and commissions due to be
paid into the hands of some two hun
dred state and county officials on ac
count of the state and that still remain
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
An Atlanta Verdict
Returning from a two-day visit to
the University of North Carolina, I
cannot refrain from a word of en
thusiastic praise for this magnificent
institution, for the work it is doing,
and for the legislative branch of the
state government for its apprecia
tion of the university system and for
the lib - I support it is giving it.
Wbal a contrast in Georgia! I
draw it with shame, for there is
just as much reason why^'Georgia
should support her university system
—one of the best organized and best
administered to its opportunities
there is in America—as there is
why Carolina or Virginia should build
up such great and powerful institu
tions, and such forceful educational
factors contributing to the general
welfare and prosperity of all the
people.
There are approximately 2,000
students in the University of North
Carolina—the overwhelming per
centage of them Carolina boys.
Think of the significance of that
fact alone in the material life of tj^e
state!
^“Thou art a scholar, speak to it,
Horatio.”
There is not a more significant
line in all of Shakespeare than these
words of Marcellus to Horatio, a
fellow student of the Province of
Wittenburg who remained up with
the castle guards to investigate the
reported midnight appearance of the
ghost of Hamlet’s father.
The apparition for the third time
appeared; and Marcellus, cognizant
of the influence of the scholar, in
fright and terror, ran to Horatio
with this prayer.
What a meaning!
“Thou art a scholar.” He recog
nized the power of the scholar, the
man of learning, to cope with the
spectre as it appeared upon the ram
parts.
Think of the spectres in the na
tional life today—in the individual
life— in the civic life—spectres every
where! Problems that must be
met!
And tne importance of education!
North Carolina two years ago voted
bonds of one and a half million dol
lars to further equip her university.
The improvements—new dormitories,
new lecture buildings, new labora
tories—are being completed. Anoth
er authorization will be made by the
legislature now in session to finish
the program.
North Carolina maintains her uni
versity with an annual appropria
tion of $460,000; and this year the
budget calls for $660,000.
What does Georgia do?
My God, people! Shall we continue
to starve Athens?—James 0. Hollo-
mon in the Atlanta Constitution.
unpaid? The various state departments,
commissions, boards, bureaus, institu
tions, and county officials handling
state moneys, make their separate re
ports, but who assembles, classifies and
summarizes the uncollected dues of the
state?
Who knows or is charged with know
ing what the total taxable wealth of
the state is? And is able to exhibit
the ratios of listed values to sale values
in the various counties of the state?
It is important, because two and a half
or even three million dollars must be
prorated to the counties on some basis
year by year, and it ought to be intrin
sically a fair basis. Besides, it is now
proposed to limit the bond-issuing pow
er of North Carolina to five percent of
the assessed taxable wealth of the
state. The taxables of a state are its
fundamental asset. What is the total
in North Carolina? What state author
ity is charged with announcing the to
tal? ^
Whenever in all its history has North
Carolina published such a financial
statement as any corporation exhibits
when it offers its bonds and stocks in
the credit markets of the country? And
how could an unimpeachable financial
exhibit be made by North Carolina with
out accurate summaries of assets and
liabilities?
The suggestions made call for a few
thousand dollars more of state expense;
but the present emergency will
cost the state in actual money and in
reputation many times these few thous
and dollars. Such money would be a
distinct investment in commonwealth
solvency and certainty, reputation and
character.
The services proposed are worth to
the state far more than they would
cost year by year.
The state can have an authoritative
exhibitof its finances—annual, monthly,
or daily, and this statement can be ren
dered by the state auditor (1) provided
the state auditor can have an account
I clerk with adequate clerical assistance
j as a permanent addition to his office
• force, and (2) provided his office can
j become a center of control accountancy
—which means the amending of
I sections 7629 and 7630, chapter 129 of
the Consolidated statutes. Otherwise
not possibly so.
At present no state office is a com
plete centrol-accountancy center, and
certainly not the treasurer’s office.
Strange, but so it is.
CROPS AND CARS
One of the really agreeable things
about prophecies is that they so rarely
turn out to be correct. Take the far
mer and the automobile for an example.
It has been some years since the first
peerer into the future arose and pro
claimed that the automobile was des
tined to bring about wholesale bank
ruptcy to farming. And about the same
time a brother soothsayer came out with
assertion that the automobile was cer
tain to cause lessened crop production.
Farmers would find so much pleasure
riding around in their cars, he gloomily
opined, that they wouldn’t give suffi
cient time to their crops.
Well, we might let Monroe County,
Missouri, a typical farming county,
show how that prophecy turned out.
There are twenty-five hundred motor
cars in Monroe County, where there
were none fifteen years ago. Most of
them are owned by farmers. They re
present an investment of something
i like two million dollars and their up
keep costs about half a million a year.
Yet bank deposits in Monroe county
are more than two million dollars greater
than they were when no automobiles
were there and when people presuma
bly were saving all that money. And the
farm homes of the county are bigger and
better furnished, there are more boys
and girls in college and more purebred
livestock on the farms than there were
fifteen years ago.
That prophecy about the automo
biles causing reduction in crops has
come out every whit as true as the
other one. For the third straight year
the farmers of America rolled up a
total crop production that is of record
dimensions.
But let us not be uncharitable; pro
phets help to make two smiles grow
where only one grew before.—The Coun
try Gentleman.
A FARM COLONY CONVERT
I have had some experience with
grain-farming tenants in California,
and notably with one who for several
years farmed a tract of land at Delhi,
which less than three years ago was
sold to the State of California and now
constitutes the Delhi Colony of the
State Land Settlement Board. My
tenant farmer cultivated this land for
several years in as good fashion as a
tenant whose tenure is uncertain and
whose interest in the soil is temporary
at beat could be expected to cultivate
it, but he never made much more than
a fair living for himself and taxes for
me.
But a great change has come over
the locality. Under the fostering guid
ance and care of the state, some 250
families, upwards of 1000 people, own
ing and cultivating intensively from
two to forty acres to the family, are
now living happily and prosperously
upon the same land that my tenant
farmer family of five barely made a
living on; and the best part of it all is
that most of these families, but for the
aid given them by the state, would now
be tenants, with all the uncertainty
that tenancy implies. Now by reason
of their sure tenure and their perma
nent interest in the soil, they delight in
conserving it, strengthening it and
cultivating it to its limit in more valu
able products, and are thus increasing
their returns and the resources of the
statfe.
The state has also introduced in its
farm colonies many valuable aids, such
as cooperative buying and marketing
and community instruction and amuse
ment, all of which make successful and
happy citizens, and "the result of all
these on the land of which I speak has
been so profitable for society and the
commonwealth that I have become con
verted to the State Settlement idea.
Farm-Owner Citizenship
I think the best citizen is the land-
owner—the man who is anchored to the
soil. I am thoroughly in favor of a
further development of the colonization
system that has been adopted by this
state; of purchasing large tracts and
selling them in small units to people of
small means, on very easy terms. I
think that policy on the part of the
state will make the best settlement of
our sparsely occupied areas and in the
shortest time. I am surprised there
has not been more reference made to
that plan here tonight, because it seems
to me that the Delhi settlement and
the Durham settlement are the two
greatest object lessons that could be
presented. If you gentlemen could
meet these young land-owning citizens
in the land settlements as I have done,
if you could meet them in their homes
in the colonies, you certainly would a-
gree with me that nothing can be done
by this state which will bring men more
thoroughly into a feeling of interest in
and responsibility for it and for the
Union than has been done through these
State Land Settlements. Very few of
these young citizens have any consider
able capital. They have no great'need
for capital other than intelligence, in
dustry, and thrift. Very few of them
have capital to the extent that is
thought necessary by most of the ten
ant farmers, because you must remem
ber the tenant farmer in California
must often have a large investment in
stock and farm machinery. But these
men have been started by the state on
small payments and allowed thirty-six
years, if necessary, in which to pay for
their land, small percentages each year,
and in that way the tenant farmer is
lifted into a real estate owner, a home
owner, a citizen of the highest worth,
a man who is attached to and of value
to the locality in which he lives, to his
state, and to the United States, and
who will always fight for both of them.
—Edgar M. Wilson, to the Common
wealth Club, in its bulletin. Land Ten
ancy in California, 1922.
A TAR HEEL NORTH
I have recently had a chance to read
about all that has been written upon
the subject of the Rural Church and
the Rural Minister, and as in the case of
every thing else I read, I viewed it in
relation to North Carolina. After read
ing all this material I could not help
but realize what a tremendous construc
tive force rural pastors could be in
North Carolina once they were aroused
to the opportunity. I wondered if it
would not be a great service to the
state if the University should hold a
conference during the- summer or offer
special courses designed especially for
rural ministers. ♦If only a half-dozen
came it would be a great start. If a
few could be forced to read such stories
as that of Oberlin in the Ban-de-la-
Roche, and Morse’s Fear God in Your
Own Community, and Miss Dewey’s
New Schools for Old, it would build
a bonfire in their brains. Out of these
conferences could grow a real North
Carolina Country Life Association which
could be tied up with the North Caro
lina Club work and make that an even
more potent facti.r. West Virginia is
doing a great deal along this line. I
am expecting to go to West Virginia
soon to get a direct look into the work
and particularly the results. The Uni
versity has thought ail these things out
that are just occurring to me, but I am
beginning to see the vast possibilities
of country life, and I know from work
ing with them just how little prepared
they are to measure the vast chances
of service to the state in this field.—
J. A. Dickey, Cornell University.