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.
SEPTEMBER 24, 1924
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE moVERSITY OP NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. X, NO. 4S
Board, a. 0. Branson, 3. H. HnlilM, Jr.. L. B. Wilson, B, W. Knieit, D. D. Cstroll. J. B. BnllllS. H. W. Odnm.
Entered aa aecend'ClaaB matter Narember 14, 1914, atthePoateSleeat Chapel Hill, N. C.. onder the act of Aairnat 24, 1912
OUR FREIGHT PROBLEM ; jjiaiiuiacturt; bum, it, iLj iiaru lor u
North Carolina at last knows what realize the great injury don® to the
its transportation problem is. For state by the rale discrimjnations against
manufacture that it is hard for t
years the people of the state have
complained and protested, have won
temporary concessions only to have
them withdrawn and heavier rate bur
dens imposed. The development of
agriculture and manufacturing has been
30 rapid in those fields whersy^ur nat
ural advantage has been greatest, that
there has developed a sort of subcon
scious optimism that we can continue
to go forward, despite heavy rate dis
criminations. There has slowly de
veloped a more thoughtful, forward-
looking group,' however, who realize
that sooner or later the margin of nat-
uraUadvantage which we have in many
fields will be equalized as our richest
resources are exploited; for example,
only recently an increase in the rates
for hydro-electric power was granted
by our Corporation Commission on the
specific ground that poorer water-power
sites had to be called into use to meet
the increasing demand, and high
er charges must necessarily follow.
This means, of course, that our manu
facturing enterprises will find it more
costly to turn out their products and
consequently will be less able to com
pete in the world markets. Such a
condition will grow more serious as the
y0girs go by. Freight rate discriminti-
tions, then, which were not fatal at
one time, bid fair to become serious ob
stacles to further progress ifi manufac
turing, just as they have always been
in the wholesale and jobbing business.
No great distributing centers can de-
ve*lop in this state and, sooner or later,
no new manufacturing enterprise can
afford to locate here if it can go where
freight rates are lower.
The Problem Stated
The flow of traffic in the South-At-
lantic section arises mainly out of an
exchange of products with the Central
West (Upper Mississippi and Ohio
River Valleys and around the Great
Lakes) on the one hand, and with New
England and the Middle Atlantic Sea
board states on the other. Water
transportation is much cheaper than
rail transportation, and wherever it can
be utilized as a competitive factor it
compels a reduction of freight rates.
Virginia had the good luck, or the good
sense, to have continuous rail lines
under one ownership developed from
the Central West to her port at Nor
folk. These trunk lines, in order to
get traffic to flow over their lines in
competition witii the great systems
further north, reduced their rates to
Norfolk. To avoid violation of the
provision that a lower rate cannot be
charged for a longer distance over the
same line, these roads were compelled
to reduce their rates to interior points
in Virginia to the level of the Norfolk
rates. As a result, the low Norfolk
rates apply for 460 miles back west'
ward into Virginia and even into West
Virginia. One other factor in this rate
reduction, was the fact that Virginia
utilized the James River and construct
ed canals westward beyond the point
where it was navigable, thus establish
ing water competition paralleling the
railroads.
North Carolina has no east and west
trunk lines under a common ownership
connecting with an ocean port. She
has made no use of her potential water
competition. This is partly due to her
own negligence and partly to the ob
structionist policies of the North and
South trunk lines which dominate
transportation in this state. These
same roads, true to human instincts,
have discouraged the utilization of our
ports as agencies for the development
of coastwise traffic which would have
forced a reduction of rates on traffic,
north and south. The failure to avail
ourselves of this cheap transportation
has operated as a handicap to the great
tide-water section— potentially the
most productive area of the common
wealth.
The problem is clear cut. The duty
of the state is obvious: either arise and
unshackle itself, or accept its condition
and cease to whine about it.
RATE DISCRIMINATIONS
M>rth Carolina has made such re
markable strides in agriculture and in
her. We have prospered' notwithstand
ing our handicapa, but let us net hug
the delusion that this wi3 always be
the case. We have progressed largely
because of our natural resources and
endowments and the indomitable will
and courage of our people. The day
will come when we w-tII face tiae law of
diminishing returns. The margin of
advantage in natural endowments in
manufacture Apd agriculture is rapidly
being reduced as we exhaust our rich
est resources or, throtsgh growth in
industry, are forced to utilize less pro
ductive elements. For example, we
have already probably used our best
water-power sites and from now on
will be forced to make use of inferior
sites and naturally will be forced to
pay higher rates.
As we approach this condition im
agriculture and manufacture a very
small margin of unfairness in freight
rates may become the determining
factor in settling the fate of our indus
tries. When our natural advantage
is thus reduced to a parity with that of
the manufacturers and farmers mother
states, their advantage in freight rates
and service will then appear even dead-
lie^ than it is now. These discrimina
tions against us will then be a veri
table mill stone about our necks.
These discriminations have built up
the Virginia cities at the expense of
the North Carolina cities. Yet, not
withstanding this, in the last few years
we have begun to build some cities in
North Carolina. This is partly due to
our natural resources and to our grim
determination to succeed in spite of
the discriminations. But we have for
over a half-century been paying a tre
mendous tribute to other states, and
the time will certainly come in the his
tory of the state when we will carry
these burdens less jauntily.
Our Weahest Spot
The real test of a state’s position is
seen in her commerce and trade in
which natural endowments play little
part and right here is our weakest
point. We have progressed marvel
ously in agriculture, in manufactures,
in insurance, but our trade and com
merce have languished. We have built
up no great wholesale distributing
centers, and this is due not to the lack
of ability on the part of our people, but
to the deadly incubus of freight rate
discriminations.
What could be more iniquitous than
that a shipment from an outside state-
should be carried entirely through our
State to Virginia and reshipped, to-a
North Carolina city at a cheaper rate
than if it bad been stopped in North
Carolina? Yet we have endured thnt
humiliation for many years.
North Carolina is a long state run
ning east and west, and our trunk line
railroads run north and south. Be
cause of this radical defect in our trans
portation system. North Carolina is in
a tragic condition of being itself dis
membered and of having most of the
communications of its people north and
south instead of east and west, and it
has been made as difficult as possible
for the people of the east and the
people of the west to trade with each
other. And thus it is that we have
“lost provinces”^ in the west and “lost
provinces” in the east. The great
state highway system has already been
of much service in mitigating these
conditions, but North Carolina will
never really come into its own, in the
opinion of this Commission, until we
have a trunk-line railroad running from
the Cape Fear basin to the coal fields
of the west and the transportation
gateways of the Middle West coupled
with up-to-date and adequate water
competition.—From Report of the State
Ship and Water Transportation Com
mission.
OUH FARM POPULATION
One of the outstanding facts about
the population of North Carolina is
the aggregate of actual farm dwell
ers. In 1920 our actual farm popu-
latsotf'numbered 1.501,227 and only
two- states in the Union, Texas and
Georgia, had more people living on
farms. Her area considered, North
Carolina ranks far ahead of both
Texas and Georgia in this respect.
The rural popu?ation of North Ca
rolina is 71,6 percent of our total
population. The a«tual farm dwell
ers are^^.T percent of our popula
tion, leaving 12.8 percent of the
total population living: outside of in
corporated towns, but not living on
farms.
In only four states in- the Unio®
is the percent of the total popula
tion living on farms larger than in
North Carolina. These statea are
Mississippi^. Arkansas, &>uth Carro-
lina, and North Dakota.
For the entire United States coly-
29.9 percent of all people live on
farms, while the average for tiiS'
state is 68.7. percent,, or twice the
average for all the statesi
At the present time probably only
two states in the Union, Texas and
Georgia, have more farms than-
North Carolina,, which goes far to
explain our high rank in the produc
tion of crop wealth.
North Carolina has 2.4 percent of
the total population of the United
States, but she has 5 percent of the
total farm population.
This is all very, significant in view
of the fact that North Carolina
ranks fifteenth in the United States,,
and first in the South, in the value-
of factory products. Factories are
located for the most part in urban
areas, and considering the relatively
small percent of our urban- popula
tion it is very significant that we
should rank so high as an industrial
state. Also we get a clearer idea
to why we rank fifth in the total
production of crop- wealth and four
teenth in the productiorf of agricul
tural wealth.
Today North Carolina holds the proud
distinction of having a wider diversity
of manufacture than any other state in
the Union. It pays more revenue to
the Government than 44 out of the 48
states. Its 3,.0fX) factories turn out
products each year worth $1,000,000,600.
It ranks ahead of all textile manufac
turing states, save Massachusetts, and j
stands next to Michigan in furniture,. [
while leading the world in its output of
mica, towels, tobacco products, denims,
iamask and many other things.
Today one million white citizens of
North Carolina alone are directly de
pendent upon its factories for a liveli
hood, while Carolina products are car
ried over the Seven Seas to all lands
and all climes.
Out of the wilderness of poverty—
away from the shadow of despair, into
the bright light of an almost unequaled
prosperity!—From the Prospectus of
‘Made--ui-Carolinas” Exposition.
OUE CROWDED SCHOOLS
From all over North Carolina come
stories of crowded schools. Within a
few days colleges will open to the ac
companiment of the same complaint.
Back yonder, when North Carolina
prescribed compulsory school attend
ance, the State started^ an ever-widen
ing circle, dipping annually more deep
ly into the public treasury. Mbre chil
dren in the elementary schools mean a
larger output from the high school.
Larger higb-sehool graduation classes
mean an increased number of college
freshmen. And so it goes to more col
lege graduates, a larger percentage of
educated and trained citizens) and a
state potentially more enlightened,
more prosperous and more prodigal' for
forward purposes.
It requires increasingly larger ex
penditures to provide buildings and
equipment and teachers for the chil
dren in the public schools. The circle
nioves on to the colleges. Money spent
educatifi® in the good year 1&24
would have staggered the guardiaos of
the public treasury in the good year
1900. By the same token, though), the
money spent on moving pictures,, soft
drinks, automobiles and gasoline in
1924 would have given these same
worthy men a stroke of apoplexy..
The biggest single interest of the
state is its schools. They supply the
dynamo for progress that is real, last
ing and enlightened. In the nature of
the case they will cost more and more
money. But expenditure for schools
is one sort of expense that the people
are disposed to be generous about.
More and more will have to be ex-
children increase in numbers
and the state more nearly approximates
its full duty—to the children in the ru
ral' sections as well as those in the
towns. The public will require that
their money be economically used, but
they fully realize that even with econ
omy, enlarged outlay for education will
be necessary and that it will- be a wise
investment.—News and Observer.
HIGH-SCHOOL EDUCATION
The United States Bureau of Educa
tion of the Department of the Interior
has made available for the first time
reliable facts as to the extent to which
farmers’ children are being educated in
high schools. Complete returns from
the states ot Maine, New Hampshire,
North Dakota,. Montana, and Oregon,
show that 3.15 percent of the total farm
population are enrolled in high schools
as compared with 3.66 percent for the
non-farm population. In three of the
five states—Maine, New Hampshire,,
and Oregon—however, higher percent
ages of the farm population are en
rolled in high school than of the non
farm population. In these states it is
significant that through centralization
of high schools more than 80 percent of
all high schools serving farm children
are comprehensive four-year high
schools while in the two states where
lower percentages of the farm popula
tion are enrolled more than 60 percent
of all high schools serving farm chil
dren are small one, two, or three-year
high schools. Decidedly higher per
centages of girls are enrolled from both
farm and non-farm groups. On an av
erage the percentages of girls enrolled
are more than one-third higher than
for boys. If education is worth any
thing for productive work, either we
must depend more and more upon our
women to do the productive work of the
world or we must find some solution
for the problem, of getting our boys in
school.—Gastonia Gazette.
as in manufacturing, it has. been found
that the best way t& do this is to use
labor-saving machinery. The ^ small
electric liglit and power plants now in
use on so many farms accomplish a lot
of this labor saving. Grindstones, fan
ning mills, and many other light power
appliances in the barn which used to
require the aid of two men are now
turned by electricity. In the house the
pumping, churning, separating, sweep-
irig, washing, and ironing are all done
by electricity, relieving the farmer’s
wife of a great part of the burdens
which have made her life a hard one.
And of course electric light itself makes
the farm home a bright and cheerful
place to live. , j
Where electricil^ serves the farm
family we find the best of living condi
tions, and we find, too, that every
member of the family makes each hour
of labor pay a profit.—Goldsboro News.
ELECTRICITY FOR THE FARM
The average productive labor hour
on the farm is worth about 40 cents.
To make every one of these 40-cent
hours productive of its share of profit,
it is necessary to reduce non-productive
labor to the minimum, and, in farming
BANji RESOURCES PER INHABITANT
In the United States, June 1923
Based on Report of the Co-nsptroller of the Currency, Decembers,. 1923,
and covers the total bank resources of all reporting banks—national, state and
private, divided by the population. The North Carolina average in this table
is around eleven dollars less per inhabitant than the correct amount as reported
in News Letter Vol. X, No. 42, due to a few banks not reporting. The ^me
would be true for other states.
United States average bank resources per inhabitant $628.84;, North
Carolina average, in this table, $164.84, or less than one-third the average for
all the states.
Aggregate bank, resources in North Carolina in 1914 amounted to-$153,-
114,436, or $64.90 per inhabitant. Aggregate bank resources in 1923„ including
the state banks which, failed to report to Washington, $474,117,609 or $176.49
per inhabitant, a remarkable gain.
The low rank af North Carolina is due to many factewrs, among which are:
(1) the large rural ratio in our population, our small farms, and farm tenancy;
(2) our negro population; and (3) the lack of large wholesale and distributing
centers due to freight-rate discriminations against North Carolina, which is a
most important factor. The wholesale business for North Carolina’s retail
towns and small cities is done in nearby states which enjoy lower freight rates.
Big wholesale centers are also centers of large bank resources.
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
REDEMPTION FROM POVERTY
Fifty years ago there wasn t a sol
vent bank in North Carolina. Fifty
years ago there were less than six cot
ton mills in the Carolinas, and these
were small.
On the ashes of Civil War conflagra
tion, sturdy sons of the two states be
gan with crude tools and little money
but with a faith—a vision and a de
termination unequaled—to erect a
foundation for a great industrial struc;
ture. They dammed up small streams
and erected thereon crude mills and
shops. They toiled by day and walked
long miles to market their products.
In those days North Carolina was
pointed out as the most illiterate state
in the Union, save New Mexico.
Rank State
Per Inhabitant, Rank State
Per Inhabitant
1
New York
Indiana
$337.78
2
Massachusetts....
869.02
26
Wisconsin
336.30
791.85.
27
North Dakota...
331.02
4
Rhode Island
737.23
28
Utah
!.... 317.13
6’
Connecticut
656.17
29
Washington
316.48
6
Vermont
611.26
30
Montana
307.01
7
Pennsylvania....
576.14
31
Kansas
298.07
8
New Hampshire .
566.66
32
West Virginia...
284.39
9
Illinois
669.86
33
Florida
278.93
10
New Jersey
520.28
34
Virginia
262.76
11
Nevada
611.05
36
Louisiana
247.43
12
Maine
607.69
36
Oklahoma
222.83
13
Maryland
600.61
37
Texas
216.04
14
Delaware
478.89
38
Kentucky
214.42
In y - •
477.61
39
Arizona
212.97
16
Minnesota
456.12
40
Idaho
20^87
17
South Dakota ...
446.66
41
Tennessee
201.62
18
Missouri
433.83
42
New Mexico
166.88
424.81
43
NorthlCarolina..
164,84
20
Wyoming
422.61
44
South Carolina..
167.07
21
Nebraska
416.38
46
Georgia
15S.3$
22
Michigan
396.69
46
Arkansas
138.34
370.94
47
Mississippi
127.20
24
Colorado
360.94
48
Alabama
118.06