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.
FEBRUARY 25, 1925
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XI, NO. 15
E. C. Branaoa. S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson, &. W. ILulffbt. D. D. Carroll, J. B.Bnllitt, H. W. Odum,
Entered as aecond-elaeB matter NoTembat 14,1914, at the PoatoSce at Cbapal Hill, N. C., under the act of Au^ruBt £4, 1912
LAND VALUES IN NORTH CAROLINA
TAXING FARM LANDS
The total true wealth of North Caro
lina as estimated by the Census Bu
reau bulletin on Estimated National
Wealth was four and one-half billion
dollars on December 31, 1922. A little
more than half or 52 percent of the
true wealth of the State consisted of
land and improvements thereon—farm
lands and buildings, factory sites and
properties, town lots, business houses,
and residences.
But the land values of the state as
they appear on the tax lists of 1922
were only $^1,660,000,000 or barely
more than one-third of the total true
wealth of the state.
The farmers of North Carolina are
strongly convinced that they are pay
ing most of the taxes. As a matter of
fact, they are paying taxes on $967,-
000,000 worth of improved and unim
proved farm lands. That is to say,
they are carrying a little over one-
half of the total tax burdens on land
and improvements thereon. Forty-
nine percent of the tax values in land
consist of town lots, factory sites, and
mineral lands.
And farm lands in North Carolina
are paying taxes on an average tax
valuation of $32.57 an acre. And this
average, mind you, covers improved
and unimproved farm lands, forest
lands, woodlots, wastes and wilder
nesses. North Carolina does not show
on its tax books the “wild lands” that
in Georgia are separately listed at a
minimum tax value per acre. The
average tax value of country real es
tate in North Carolina is fifty-one-per
cent of its true value.
Amazing Variations
However, the tax value of farm land
ranges through startling variations
—from $4.36 an acre in Dare to $130.86
in Gaston county.
These variations in tax values follow
in general the variations in true
values. And very naturally, for one
farm differeth from another , farm in
fact and on the tax books, as one star
differeth from another star in glory.
For instance, farm land in our seven
teen mountain counties ranges from
$8.00 an acre in Clay to $38.00 an acre
in Alleghany, or so on the tax books.
The average tax value of land in Ashe
is $8.00 per acre less than in Alleghany,
and in Watauga it is $10.00 less per
acre than in Alleghany.
A Windward Anchor
In the foothill counties east of the
Ridge, farm lands range in average
value on the tax lists from $16.00 per
acre in Wilkes to $38.00 in Henderson.
An acre of Wilkes county land is taxed
at a good deal less than one-half the
value of such land in Alleghany, Ire
dell, and Caldwell, and at right around
one-half of the value of such land in
Watauga, Ashe, Surry, Yadkin, and
Alexander. We are comparing Wilkes
with the contiguous counties, and
Wilkes is certainly on the safe side of
the dead-line in the taxation of farm
land values.
Another interesting group of counties
is Randolph and its neighbors. The tax
value of an acre of land in Randolph is
less than a third the value of such land
in Guilford and less than one-half the
value of such land in Alamance and
Davidson. It is $8.00 an acre less than
the value of such land in Moore and
only a dollar or two beyond the values
in Chatham and Montgomery.
Land tax values in the lower Cape
Fear are interesting, ranging from
$11.00 an acre in Brunswick to $78.00
in New Hanover.
Robeson in the Rear
Robeson has long been one of the
most famous cotton growing counties
of the state, but the tax value of an
acre of farm land in Robeson is $8.00
less than in Johnston county and $16,00
less than in Scotland, both of them
being close rivals of Robeson in agri
cultural eminence.
The old-time tobacco counties along
the Virginia border vary in per-acre
tax values from $24.00 in Granville to
$39.00 in Person.
The per-acre tax values in the Tide
water counties show the most remark
able variations on the tax books, rang
ing from $4.00 an acre in Dare to $77.00
in Wilson and $78.00 in New Hanover.
The counties around the mouth of
the Neuse river pay on per-acre tax
book values ranging from $17.00 in
Jones to $20.00 in Carteret and $22.00
in Craven. The average tax values in
the Pamlico peninsula have only slight
ly higher averages.
A Query
How could a school equalizing fund be
fairly disbursed‘on any such basis of
wild variation in assessing property?
It is highly important to set thought
ful students to studying^the table that
appears elsewhere in this issue. Many
of these variations are entirely proper.
Most of them do not much miss being
ridiculous. But whatever the farm
values on the tax books are, all other
values ought to be there in at least an
equal ratio, and no unfair burdens
ought to be laid on agriculture as an
industry in North Carolina.
We need in this state nothing]more ur
gent than Local Tax Study clubs bent
upon knowing the facts whatever they
are on the tax books. But digging out
these facts and studying them for class
advantage alone or to bolster mistaken
theories of taxation, will get nobody
anywhere in solving the intricate tax
problems of North Carolina.
A GOOD CITIZENSHIP CODE
Attention has been drawn to a citizen
ship creed recently adopted by the
classes in Virginia government and citi
zenship of the Marshall-Wythe School
of Government and Citizenship of the
College of William and Mary. The col
lege authorities report that many ap
plications have been received asking
for copies of the creed. Here it is:
I. To acquaint myself with those
fundamental principles embodied in our
constitutions and laws which experi
ence has shown are essential to the
preservation of our liberties and the
promotion of good government, and to
defend these principles against all at
tacks.
II. To inform myself on all public
issues, and on the character, record
and platform of all candidates for of
fice, and to exert actively my influ
ence in favor of the men and measures
in which I believe.
III. To vote in every election, pri.
mary and general, never using my
vote for personal or private ends, but
only for the public good, placing the
welfare of my country above that of
my party, if the interests of the two
should ever conflict.
IV. To connect myself with the pol
itical party which most nearly repre
sents my views on public questions,
and to exert my influence within the
party to bring about the nomination of
good men for office and the endorse
ment of measures for the public weal.
V. To have the courage to perform
my duties as a citizen regardless of
the effect upon me financially or social
ly, remembering that a cowardly citi
zen is as useless to his country in time
of peace as a cowardly soldier is in
time of war.
VI. To stand for honest election
laws impartially administered.
VII. To obey all laws whether I
deem them wise or not, and to uphold
the officers in the enforcement of the
law.
VIII. To make full and honest re
turns of all my property and income
for taxation.
IX. To be ever ready to serve my
country in war and in peace, especially
in such inconspicuous capacities as
juror and election official.
X. To : acquaint myself with the
functions of the various departments
of my government and to spread the
knowledge of the same among my fel
low citizens in order that they may
enjoy to the fullest extent the advan
tages offered by the government, and
may more fully realize the govern
ment as a means of service to the peo
ple.
XI. To encourage good men to
enter public service and remain there
in by commending the faithful per
formance of their duties and by refrain
ing from criticism except such as is
founded on a knowledge of facts.
XII. To seek to promote good feel
ing between all groups of my fellow
AN EDUCATED MAN
The educated man is a man with
certain subtle spiritual qualities
which make him calm in adversity,
happy when alone, just in his deal
ings, rational and sane in the fullest
meaning of that word in all the
affairs of his life. —Ramsay Mac
Donald.
Such a man must have been hum
ble in the presence of great minds
and great souls, must have been
simple in contacts with his fellows,
must have been indefatigable in
his desire to cultivate and to main
tain the power of his mind and to
accumulate that knowledge which
makes up the data of accurate rea
soning.—Ernest M. Hopkins, Pres
ident of Dartmouth College.
An educated man is expert in one
field and conversant with many
fields; strives to base his intellect
ual conclusions on facts alone and
fears no conclusions to which facts
may lead him; is willing to have no
opinion on matters concerning which
he has no basis for judgment; is in
variably tolerant of the convictions
and emotions of others; loves truth;
is alive to beauty; seeks, and in
some measure succeeds in his effort
to build for himself a coherent inter
pretation of the universe. —Kansas
Industrialist. '
citizens and to resist as inimical to
public welfare all partisan efforts to
excite race, religious, class and sec
tional prejudice.
XIII. Not to think alone of what
my government can do for me but
more about what I can do for it.
XIV. To inform myself with respect
to the problems which confront my
country in its foreign relations, and to
support policies which safeguard its
legitimate interests abroad and which
recognize the responsibilities of the
United States as a member of inter
national society
THEY GIVE TO EDUCATION
What is the explanation?
Not one of the men who have given
away the greatest number of millions
in this country had a college education.
More. Most of America’s biggest
money makers have been men who
had not even a high school educa
tion, and in many cases not even a
full course at the common school.
Let us start at the top of the
nation’s list of givers and look at the
facts.
John D. Rockefeller, whose philan
thropies have exceeded half a billion
dollars, had only an ordinary educa
tion. After he started working, at an
early age, he attended classes at a
business school and equipped himself
to become a bookkeeper. But Mr.
Rockefeller never saw the inside of a
college.
Our next greatest philanthropist,
measured by the amount given away,
didn’t have the advantage of even a reg
ular grammar school education. An
drew Carnegie, who started work as a'
bobbin boy in a cotton mill when only
twelve, is accredited with having do
nated $360,000,000 all told. This may
interest you, however: Although Car
negie worked daily from the first day
he started, he applied himself with the
greatest diligence to educating him
self, going so far as to have a tutor
even after he became a multi-million
aire with a palace on Fifth avenue.
The result was that Andrew Carnegie
became a man of genuine education.
Next comes Henry Clay Frick, whose
recorded b enefactions approach the
$100,000,000 mark, and who, I happen
to know, disbursed large sums on the
quiet for benevolent purposes. The
Frick family were very poor. Little
Henry knew what it was to go without
an overcoat in winter. He was allowed
to wear shoes only when the weather
was too cold to go barefoot. At a very
early age he was compelled to devote
far more time to helping on the farm
than to attending school. And he was
only fourteen when he went to work
in a country stOre'lin Mount Pleasant.
George Eastman of Kodak fame,
and Milton S. Hershey of Hershey
chocolate are listed as having each
provided about $60,000,000 for worthy
purposes. When George Eastman was
only seven years old his father died,
and not long afterwards it became ne
cessary for the mother to open a
boarding house. “I contracted such a
dread of poverty,” Mr. Eastman once
told me “that I couldn’t shake it off
for years after I became wealthy.”
The result was that Eastman left
school when he was only fourteen.
As for Mr. Hershey—whose hobby is
orphan children—he never attended
anything higher than a public school.
James B. Duke is ranked next, with
philanthropies exceeding $40,000,000.
The Civil War played terrible havoc
with the fortunes of the Duke family,
then farmer folk in North Carolina.
James B. was deprived of a decent
schooling. In fact, he had probat^iy
less than any of those already men
tioned. And so pressing was the need
for fighting povertyjthat he found little
opportunity for study afterward. ^
Russell Sage, the Wall Street eccen
tric, who left a fortune of $70,000,000,
did not in his {life time give away a
nickel, but bequeathed every dollar to
his wife on the plea that she was bet
ter fitted than he was to use the money
for worthy purposes. The Russell
Sage benefactions are put at $40,000,-
000. Russell had as little schooling ;as
Duke. It is recorded that he was earn
ing $4 a week at the age of thirteen,
but that he went to work some time
before then, at $4 a month.
Henry Phipps, one of Andrew Car
negie’s boyhood chums in Pittsburg, is
figured to have given away upward of
$30,000,000. The Phipps family was
about as poor as the Carnegie family,
and Henry, like Andrew, never knew
anything of even a high school educa
tion.
Benjamin Altman, who built up the
wonderful department Jstore in New
York, made gifts exceeding $30,000,000.
He, too, started in life without a col
lege diploma.
George F. Baker, who has figured '
so prominently during recent years as
a donor of large sums for educational
and other purposes, had less rather
than more than an average amount of
schooling.
August Heckscher, the noted New
York philanthropist, did attend high
school, but not college.
James A. Patten, who recently gave
the Chicago Community Trust $1,500,-
000 worth of land, had nothing better
than a country school education.
The late J. P. Morgan, who gave
away far more than ever became
known to the public, had a good educa
tion, but was no college graduate.
Incidentally, Henry Ford, the most
rapid money-maker in the world today,
had only a country schooling.
These are the facts. I leave you to
do your own reasoning and draw what
ever deductions you choose.—B. C.
Forbes, in The New York American.
CHILD LABOR IN NEW YORK
Child Labor was found to be preva
lent in nearly a quarter of the 15,000
houses licensed to engage in home work
in New York state, according to the
1924 report of the New York State
Commission to Examine Laws Relating
to Child Welfare.
The Commission made an extensive
study during 1924 of tenement manu
facturing. Its report states, “Chil
dren of tender years—many of them
under 10 years of age—are commonly
permitted or required to engage in
this work.” The commission recom
mended to the legislature as a result
of its study that the list of trades in
which home work is prohibited should
be extended and that eventually home
work should be prohibited.—Children’s
Bureau, Washington, D. C.
AVERAGE VALUE OF LAND PER ACRE
By Counties in North Carolina, 1922
Based on the Report of the State Commissioner of Revenues dated 1923.
Average per acre land values ranged from $130.86 in Gaston county to
$4.36 in Dare county. The state’s total value of land was listed as $967,460,790
or an average of $32.57 per acre.
C. H. Yarborough, Franklin County
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina.
Rank Counties
Av. Val.
Rank Counties
Av. Val.
Per Acre
Per Acre
1
Gaston
$130.86
61
Halifax
$30.00
2
New Hanover....
78.46
52
Ashe
29.83
3
Wilson
77.31
63
Stokes
29.04
4
Guilford
75.62
64
Rutherford
28.76
5
Forsyth
74.64
55
Mitchell
28.51
6
Durham
73,03
56
Sampson
28.48
7
Lenoir
69.07
67
Watauga
28.32
8
Rowan
68.55
58
Buncombe
28.31
9
Mecklenburg
64.53
69
Camden
28.09
10
Pitt
64.50
60
Orange
27.70
11
Greene
62.46
61
Hertford.
27.68
12
Wayne
61.77
62
Franklin
97 4fi
13
Cleveland
60.88
63
Moore
26.31
14
Scotland
49.61
64
Warren
26.11
15
Anson
49.43
65
McDowell
26.42
16
Davie
47,72
66
Columbus
25.37
17
Pasquotank
45.16
67
Avery
24.39
18
Johnston
43.23
68
Haywood
24.09
19
Hoke
41.67
69
Granville
23.70
20
Nash
41.64
70
Gates
23.44
21
Alamance
41.49
71
Northampton
23.21
22
Wake
40.94
72
Washington
22.67
23
Edgecombe
40.33
73
Harnett
22.53
24
Person
39.49
74
■Craven
22.20
26
Stanly
39.06
76
Lee
22.09
26
Catawba
38.96
76
Pamlico
21.77
27
Duplin
38.91
77
Caswell
21.66
28
Davidson
38.89
78
Onslow
21.63
29
Henderson
38.38
79
Bertie
21.49
30
Alleghany ■.
37.97
80
Carteret
20.49
31
Cabarrus
37.66
81
Burke
19.37
32
Rockingham
36.65
82
Transylvania
19.28
33
Caldwell
36.43
83
Swain.
18.48
34
Currituck
36.19
84
Tyrrell
18.33
35
Iredell
36.15
86
Randolph
18.16
36
Richmond
36.62
86
Madison
17.77
37
Robeson
34.97
87
Macon
17.71
38
Yancey...
34.40
88
Jones
17.15
39
Vance
34.37
89
Jackson
17.02
40
Lincoln
32.61
90
Chatham
16.89
41
Perquimans
32.12
91
Montgomery
16.09
42
Chowan
31.86
92
Wilkes
16.02
43
Beaufort
31.75
93
Rlaripn
1.^ S4
44
Cumberland
31.46
94
Pender
14.26
44
Polk
31.46
96
Hyde
14.18
48
Surry
31.44
96
Brunswick
11.43
47
Yadkin
30.96
97
Cherokee
11.22
48
Martin
30.94
98
Graham
8.68
49
Union
30.86
99
Clay
8.29
60
Alexander
30.01
100
Dare
4.36