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 the University Ex
tension Division.
JULY 30, 1924
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE ONIVEESITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. X, NO. 37
■iltarl.I B. 0. Bcosob. 3. H. Hdbli., Jr., L. R. Wllmn. B. W. Knlihl, D. D. C.tn.11. J. B. Bullitt H. W. Odom.
as a!c«i|.(SlM matt«r Navmbn It l«t «t tiM PrawlB™ «(Chaixl Hill, N. C.. nndar tha act af Aiwaat at UH
WEALTH, DEBT, AND TAXATION
XXXHI-TAJr BURDENS IN DENMARK
Denmark is first of all a farm state, j and for all other state purposes, state
The largest section of its population
consists of farmers and their families.
Their wealth is mainly farm wealth—
farm lands and buildings, farm animals,
farm machinery, tools and equipments.
It is the most prosperous farm area in
the known world and at the same time
it is the most heavily taxed by the state
authorities and the mortgage owners.
The. recent reform in the taxation of
land values was a farmer reform. It
was a change from taxes rated on the
producing, power of land to taxation
based on market values. The theory of
taxing farm values that is now being
advocated in North Carolina is the
theory that the Danish farmers tried
out for a hundred years or more and
deliberately abandoned. And when hard-
headed Danish farmers try a thing
out for a hundred years and then aban
don it, it is safe to say that it is aban
doned for all time, at least in Denmark.
The old theory of low assessments and
low rates on farm lands enabled the big
estate owners to hold many thousands of
acres out of productive’use for specula
tive rises in value. Meanwhile the Dan
ish farmers were feverishly anxious to
settle down on farms of their own or to
increase tdie size of their small holdings.
They accomplished theirj purpose by
taxing all lands at their market value
reckoned in terms of market prices in
the ordinary manner of sale. Land
lordism and farm tenancy thrived, they
said, under the old tax policy, but farm
ownership thrives under the new tax
policy. The Danes hold that a stable
satisfying agriculture must be based on
ownership of the land the farmers
cultivate. As a result tenancy farming
in Denmark is as nearly reduced to zero
as it is ever likely Jto be anywhere cm
the globe.
Stiff Taxes on Land
But does not taxing land at its mar
ket price increase the market price of
such land in the end, and therefore
make it increasingly difficult for ten
ants and leasehold farmers to rise into
ownership? was the question that I put
to many Danes. Maybe it does at last in
a densely populated country, but its first
effect is to make inactive owners turn
it loose and give producing farmers a
chance at it, was the uniform reply.
But the sky-high price of farm land
does not seem to matter in an area of
prosperous agriculture. The Dane as a
rule has sense enough to know
whether or not he can make money on
high-priced farm land. He knows
how to set against the cost of such
land and the taxes and interest he must
pay, the salable proucts it will produce.
He is a wizard at figuring, and he
reckons in percents like a Jew. The
foreclosure of farms for debt is almost
unknown in Denmark, even during the
business stagnation of the last two
years. Fewer tenants are buying farms
and fewer farmers are enlarging their
business, is about the whole of the story.
Meantime they are living and living well
on their little home estates. They are
buying fewer luxuries but the fat of
the land is all their own.
Denmark is not only the most pros
perous farm area in the world but it is
probably the most heavily taxed agri
culture on earth. Of course when you
,tax farm land on its market value you
tremendously increase the tax burden
on agriculture, but at the same time
you even more greatly increase the tax
burden on city lots and industrial sites
no matter where they may be located.
And the Danish farmers know perfectly
well that the bulk of the land taxes
fall on city dwellers and factory owners.
It is a way they have of shifting the
heft of the burden upon the owners of
city lots and manufacturing properties.
highway building and maintenance
alone excepted. The army and navy of
Denmark are a tremendous expense that
she cannot avoid in the present perplex
ities of Europe. Now add to the cost of
national defense the upkeep of her state
properties, which in this little country
are valued at ten times the present
worth of such properties in North
Carolina. The parliament boose of
Denmark, the departmental buildings,
royal palaces, royal library, and the
like are so extensive and so handsome
that when a Tar Heel looks them over
he wonders how on earth they can be
owned and maintained by a population
of only three and one-third million peo
ple. These and other state purposes lay
a staggering burden of taxes on general
property, incomes and inheritances in
Denmark.
Tax TalK in Denmark
And the Danes do not like to pay
taxes any better than any other peo
ple. Their word for taxes is skrats and
skrats make a topic of conversation
that one never gets away from in Den
mark. Almost the most informing single
look I got into Danish national char
acter I got from the general discussion
of taxes that I heard all the time every
where in Denmark. For one thing, me
Danes make a common aisimccion oe-
tween taxes on the one hand and public
investments on the other. What they
pay to support public schools of all
grades, state or local, they think of
investments to promote general intelli
gence and common prosperity. Not once
did I hear a word of complaint about
taxes for education, about bond issues
for school buildings or against taxes for
school bond sinking funds and annual
interest charges. The state has a bonded
debt of something like one hundred
million dollars on her railway, telephone
and telegraph properties, and these
properties like our state highway sys
tems in North Carolina are producing
properties without which neither farm
business nor any other business could
flourish. Such bonds represent state
investments, self-financing investments
in common prosperity and common
well-being. Nobody in Denmark looks
at the enormous lump sum of bonded
debt for investments of this kind as
public debt. They sponge it out of
consciousness in all discussion of state
indebtedness and state taxes.
Mortgage Debt in Denmark
COOPERATION
It ain’t the guns nor armament,
Nor the funds that they can pay.
But close cooperation
That makes them win the day.
It ain’t the individual.
Nor the army as a whole.
But the everlasting teamwork
Of every blooming soul.
—Kipling.
Heavy State Taxes
And the Danes have many tax bur
dens that we know little about in
North Carolina. For instance, Denmark
spends around fifteen million dollars a
year on her army and navy alone; which
is just about what the state of North
Carolina spends on her civil establish-
Hient, on public education, public health
and public welfare, on her institutions
And perhaps there is no country in
the world, not even the farm state of
Iowa, that is burdened with such a
mortgage debt as the farmers of Den
mark carry. Most people in North Ca
rolina think of mortgage debt of any
sort as they think of death and taxes.
The Danish farmers do not worry
about farm mortgage debt so long as
they are making clear profits on the
borrowed money. Said one Dane to
me. The whole business of banking is
based on debt. What the banks loan
is not their money but my money-
money they owe me and other deposi
tors, and if the banks can make money
on the basis of debts then the farmers
can do the same thing, for we are
dead sure that we have got as much
business sense as the bankers. The
land mortgage bonds of the thirteen
agricultural credit societies total some
thing like a half billion dollars. Your
farmers speak of shingling a house
with mortgages and I am told that they
think a mortgage a disgrace; our houses
in Denmark are shingled with nothing
but mortgages but our farm squares
are business concerns and they are
producing businesses like any other
business. We have learned that no
business can turn out big-scale profits
without operating on borrowed capital.
Iowa is your best developed farm civil
ization, it is the richest farm state in
America, but at the same time it is the
most heavily mortgaged stale in the
American Union. If these mortgages
represent money borrowed for produc
ing purposes in successful farming,
that is one thing, but if they represent
deficits or luxuries or bad judgments,
it is altogether another thing. Such ;
course like any other business men the
Danish farmers worry about mortgage
debt, but as long as we come out year
by year ahead of the game we do not
bother overly much. Why worry? we
say; we are heavily in debt but we are
making profits hand over fist on bor
rowed money; at least we were making
money until the slump of 1922 and we
are still breaking even, with more
than enough stuff around us to live on
and with incomes still large enough to
pay our taxes and the annual charges
on •ur debts.
MaKing Poor Land Pay
Another thing we are doing that you
can well afford to consider in North ! pencil began to work under my eye—
Carolina, namely, the rapid conversion ^ don’t you see that you double the dif-
of inferior lands into permanent pas- ference at the same time? Can’t your
tures and plantations. That is to say, , farmers figure? he asked. Suppose the
into cultivated grass lands and forest ^ cost of living is doubled; if they have
areas. A planter in Denmark, said he, had sense enough to double their incomes
is a farmer who is devoting some por- they have had a chance to double their
tion of his land to cultivated forest bank account savings. And have they
trees of rapid growth.
planter has a little tree nursery. He of fifty percent in income exactly takes
knows forest trees, knows how to care of a one hundred percent increase
manage his little forest nursery, how ! in the cost of living?
to cut out his larger trees and replant [ We are not making as much money
edness represents productive invest
ments of this sort.
But, said he, these are investments
in common well-being and common
prosperity. What the deuce could
North Carolina hope for without good
reads, good schools, and good health?
You have to pay for these investments
but if they turn in more than they cost
you are well ahead of the game. And
as long as we are well ahead of the
game in Denmark we don't bother our
selves unnecessarily about mortgage
debt or bonded debt or any other kind
of productive debt. True the cost of
living in Denmark has more than doub
led since 1900 but our farm incomes have
more than doubled during the same
period. Our export of pork products is
fifty percent increased. Our root crop
totals are more than doubled and- also
our per acre yield of grains. Our but
ter exports have more than doubled
in value, and our egg exports have
nearly quadrupled in the last twenty-
four years.
Arithmetic in Denmark
It is a question of arithmetic, said he.
Have your farmers stopped to figure
that when they double two numbers
they also double the difference be-
eign Grand Inspector General) $3,000,
a total of $10,000, which has been well
placed in the distribution among the
colleges.
Considering that this fund is less
than three years old, it is remarkable
how rapidly it has been accumulated,
and at this rate in a few years’ time it
will be of considerable size.
However, greater than the money
involved is the opportunity it will give
by encouraging deserving students,
whose records in college prove their
worth, to borrow sufficient funds to
complete their education.
None of our North Carolina Educa
tional Institutions have any surplus
loan funds, all being in use, and
we hope that the example of the
Masonic Loan Fund may be an inspira
tion to the Alumni and friends of all
the North Carolina educational institu
tions to build up sufficient funds at the
various institutions for this purpose.
These Masonic Loan Funds are turned
over to the various colleges to handle
as they do their own loan funds,
with request that preference be given to
seniors and upper classmen, and that
tween these two numbers? Suppose you 1 no preference be shown to any student
double two and three—and here his
on account of Masonic affiliations
relationship.
This is certainly a broad basis upon
which to do philanthropic work.
TARBORO BABY CLINIC
at once with young shoots, how to
plant, fertilize, and protect his young
trees quite as well as the German for
esters. He gets all necessary instruc
tions practically free of charge from
the Danish Heath Society, which is
now as we did during the war and in
the three years that immediately fol
lowed, said he, but our farmers are in
better condidtion than any other people
in Denmark. We are still well ahead
of the procession in spite of bad trade
private organization liberally subsidized conditions of late, heavy mortgage debt.
by parliament to take over the state
work of forest culture, reclamation,
irrigation, drainage and heath land
utilization. Aside from the privately
owned plantations the state has large
forest areas, park properties and the
like, but like the Danish railways the
state plantations are expected to be.
self-sustaining. They turn into the
state treasury a clear profit of some
three hundred thousand dollars a year.
Without these public and private plan
tations the small working establish
ments of Denmark would be obliged to
go out of existence. Plantation cul
ture in Denmark represents a tremen
dous investment on part of the state
and the private land owners. But the
farmers of Denmark regard such en
terprises as producing enterprises.
They are counted as assets and not as
liabilities. They are investment en
terprises and they are not discussed in
the same breath with taxes.
Almost the last thing that the farm
ers and the people in general have
stopped to consider in America is for
est culture, forest protection, the con
version of poor lands into profit-pro
ducing investments in grass and grow
ing timber. Denmark never considered
this matter until she was stripped bare
of forest growths and her .soils impov
erished by rains, floods and blasting
winds. North Carolina will be obliged
to consider this question at some early
day. At present we are content to say
with Louis XV, After us the deluge.
We are busy with other things now and
the future will look after itself, for all
we care, is the short-sighted notion of
our people at h>me.
Bonded Debt
The people of North Carolina are
piling up an enormous total of bonded
debt—state debt, city debt, county debt,
school and drainage district debt; our
total of bonded debt is right around
one hundred dollars per inhabitant
counting ,men, women, and children,
said I to a Danish farmer in North
Jutland. What do your debts repre
sent? was a question he flred at me
without an instant’s pause. Well, said
I, our bonded debt represents first of all
public highways, public schools, street
paving and curbing, sewer systems,
street lights, city water works, college
heavy bonded debt, and heavy taxes.
If you argue with a Dane, you will be
wise to throw him down and take his
pencil away from him—if you can.—
E. C. Branson, Copenhagen.
On the 20th of June the Second
Nearly every ' ever stopped to figure that an increase I Annual Baby Clinic of The First Na-
■ tional Bank of Tarboro, N.C., was held
in its rest rooms. This clinic was
open to all children of Edgecombe
county, and Dr. B. U. Brooks of
Durham was in charge, assisted by
Edgecombe doctors and nurses.
It was the country people who brought
their babies this year, some coming
from thirty miles away to Tarboro, the
county seat. The children examined
ranged from three months to four years,
and every child was suffering ilightly
or greatly from lack of proper food.
Most of them were undernourished. Dr.
Brooks would give each mother a form
ula for proper feeding, and usually
cows’ milk was mentioned. But, doctor,
we have no cow, was a not infrequent
answer. It almost made one sick to
hear this reply so often, to see him
insist that the child needed milk, or
ignore the answer, —and then to see
the mother, when she went from the
bank into the street with her child,
climb into a Ford, or Dodge, or Buick.
Only one family out of thirty came to
town in a buggy. But they did not have
a cow.
The First National Bank is doing a
great work for Edgecombe through its
Baby Clinic, in helping the people dis
cover what their babies need. It is
also doing a great work in encouraging
the people to raise stock, and in helping
them to do so. But the need is great,
very great. People of the entire state
realize it. Edgeombe is not alone in
this respect.—Katherine Batts.
of benevolence, liberal and technical
training, on old Confederate pensions j in Denmark as well as in Americ.
mortgages are everywhere^ a disgrace i properties and the like. Right around
Of 190 percent of ouf total bonded indebt-
MASONIC LOAN FUND
For the last three years the members
of theMasonic Order have been quietly
doing a wonderful work for education,
by establishing Masonic Loan Funds in
various North Carolina colleges. This
work was commenced in 1922, when
$5,000 was available, which was in
creased to $10,000 in 1923 and continued
at $10,000 in 1924.
Already they have established Mason
ic Loan Funds of $2,260 at (1) North
Carolina College for Women and (2)
East Carolina Teachers College; $1,500
Masonic Loan Funds at (3) Cullowhee
Normal School and (4) Appalachian
Training School; $1,260 Masonic Loan
Funds at (5) University of North Caro
lina and (6) State College of Agricul
ture and Engineering; $1,000 Masonic
Loan Funds at (7) Trinity College, (8)
Wake Forest College, (9) Davidson
College, (10) Elon College, (11) Greens
boro College, (12) Meredith College, (13)
Salem College, (14) Guilford College,
(16) Flora MacDonald College, (16) At
lantic Christian College, (17) Lenoir
College, (18) Queens College; $750
Masonic Loan Funds, at (19) Chowan
College, and (20) Davenport College;
and $600 Masonic Loan Funds at (21)
Mars Hill College, (22) Louisburg Col
lege and (23) Peace Institute, the last
three being grade (J Colleges.
These twenty-three colleges comprise
all the standard teacher training
institutions and standard Grade A, B,
and C colleges owned by the state or
by religious denominations, except
three, which shows how thoroughly
and effectively this work has been
carried forward.
The $10,000 this year has been, fi
nanced by the Grand Lodge of Masons
(J. LeGrand Everett of Rockingham,
Grand Master) contributing $3,000; the
Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons
(E. Rowley Hampton, Asheville, N.C.,
Grand High Priest) $3,000; the Grand
Commandery of Knights Templar
(Richard S. Gorham of Rocky Mount,
N.C.,Grand Commander)|l,000;and the
Bodies of the Scottish Rite, (Thomas
J. Harkins of Asheville, N. C., Sover-
cows IN HOLLAND
Cows in Holland are treated with as
much consiaeration as human beings.
They have the bestof food. Their sheds
are furnished. They -^ven have over
coats when they go out.
There are lace curtains in the win
dows of many Dutch cowsheds. And
the floors are laid with shining white
tiles, kept spotlessly clean.
Lest her tail shouldjdrag in the dirt
the Dutch cow has it held up by a neat
chain from the roofi Her horns are
scrubbed and polished. She is carefully
groomed.
As she spends eight months of the
year indoors, perhaps these comforts
are neccessary. To lighten the dark
ness of winter the cowshed is provided
with electric light. There is also some
kind of heating system.
The Dutch spring is generally very
cold and windy. Therefore, when the
lucky Dutch cow is turned out to graze
in May, she is well wrapped up. The
pampered animal must not catch cold.
Everything from the shining milk
pails to the beautiiuliy carved milking
stools, is as clean as it is humanly
possible to make it. —Selected.