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.
DECEMBER 7, 1927
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNWERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIV, No. 6
Editorial Board: E. C. Branson. S. H. Hobbs. Jr.. P. W. Wager, L. R. Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll. H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914. at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C.. under the act of August 24, 1912.
BANK SAVINGS
We are presenting a table this week
showing the amount of savings deposits
in banks and trust companies in each
of the states. The total amount of
savings deposits in the national banks,
trust companies, and mutual savings
banks of the United States on June 80,
1926, was $24,698,192,000. This was
equivalent to $211 for every person in
the United States. The number of
depositors was 46,762,240, hence the
average deposit was $628. In New York
alone this form of savings amounted to
nearly six billion dollars. Of course,
not all of this belonged to citizens of
that state, for it represents savings hf
3,191,974 depositors.
The states are ranked according to
■deposits per capita. This is not to be
confused with deposits per depositor.
While not all of the money in the banks
of a state belong to the citizens of that
state, it is nevertheless available for
use in tho state where the banks are
located. And, except in a few states
where there are big cities, the savings
deposits are to a targe extent the
savings of the state’s citizens. Thus a
per capita ranking probably measures
fairly accurately the financial reserve
of each state’s population.
Thrifty New England
The people of New England are
noted for their thrift, and it will be
noticed that the six New England states
are among the eight high-ranking
states. Savings deposits in Massachu
setts amount to $542 per capita, and in
Maine, the lowest-ranking of the New
England states, $366. This means that
New England families have, on the
average, from $1,600 to $2,600 of bank
savings deposits—to say nothing of
other forms of savings. The Middle
Atlantic states rank next, ranging from
$624 in New York to $223 in Delaware.
As already suggested, the big banks of
New England and New York no doubt
draw a large amount of deposits from
outside the states in which they are
located. California ranks high because
its banks are depositories for the whole
Pacific and Mountain area, and because
so many of its people have come with
their savings from other states. Cali
fornia is furthermore a state with a
great diversity of industries, diversity
of agriculture, and high average pros
perity.
The great agricultural states of the
Middle West range from Michigan with
$234 per capita to Missouri with $110.
South RanKs Low
The Southern states rank low. Ex-
cept for Florida, where bank deposits
are swelled by tourists, no Southern
state averages as much as $100 of
savings per capita. Virginia and West
Virginia come nearest to reaching this
goal. North Carolina ranks fortieth
among the states, with only $62 per
capita. The number of depositors in
1926 was 203,472. Of the twelve lowest-
ranking states nine are states in :he
cotton belt. The other three—New
Mexico, Arizona, and Idaho—are fron
tier states still in the process of de
velopment, debtor states for the time
being. In a sense the same thing can
be said of the Southern states. They
are not young states but they never
theless represent a new frontier in in
dustrial development and to some ex
tent in agricultural development.
The relatively small amount of
savings in the South must be attributed
largely, however, to the presence of
the negroes, farm tenancy, cash crop
farming, a faulty credit system, and a
rather large number of thriftless people
—black and white. It must be remem
bered that the South was left at the
end of the Civil War with several mil
lion landless, propertyless negroes to be
supported, with its banks, railroads and
industries prostrate, and with its agri-
'Cultural system over-turned and de
moralized. In sixty years it has not
been able to catch up materially with
the other sections of the country but
in a few years more the situation may
be different. Much wealth is now being
created and retained in the South. - In
dustry and agriculture are getting
more balanced. Nevertheless, so long
as agriculture is rooted in farm ten
ancy, supply merchants and crop liens it
will not be in a healthy condition. The
reorganization of its agricultural life
remains the South’s biggest problem
and until it is perfected we can never
have widespread prosperity and a
general high level of culture.
MaKe Banks Safer
One Other consideration deserves at
tention. Thousands of southern people
send their savings into the North for
deposit, especially those who come into
the South from the North, They do
this because there are too many bank
failures in the South, The South can
not attract new wealth nor retain the
wealth which it creates unless it can
offer safety to the investor. The South
has too many small, unsound banks, too
few strong national banks, and practi
cally no savings banks. Postal savings
are insignificant in the South. The
building and loan associations are grow
ing in favor, though still underdevel
oped. There are a few credit unions,
but the number is not increasing.
Safe depositories for the small investor
should be provided in greater num
bers. Commercial banks, or many of
them, are too risky for the families
whose limited savings are the product
of toil and sacrifice.
Too often we see people deprived of
their life savings through investment
in fraudulent or highly speculative
stocks. The rural regions of the South
have been the favorite bunting grounds
of the blue-sky stock vender. With so
many sources of safe and profitable in
vestment, what a pity that our thrifty
but uninformed citizens cannot be
spared the losses and heartaches to
which bank failures and stock manipu
lations subject them!—Paul W. Wager.
IMMIGRATION IN 1927.
Secretary of Labor James J. Davis
in his analysis of immigration statistics
finds that in the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1927, a total of 638,001
aliens were admitted to the United
States, as compared with a total of
496,106 aliens for the previous year.
As compared with 1926, 263,608 aliens
departed during 1927, against 227,766
departures for the previous year. There
fore, for the last fiscal year there
were 284,493 aliens admitted in excess
of departures, as compared with 268,-
361 for the preceding year.
Of the 638,001 aliens admitted in the
last fiscal year, 336,176 were im
migrants, or newcomers for permanent
residence, and 202,826 were nonim
migrants returning from a temporary
visit abroad or coming here for a visit.
Of the 253,608 aliens who departed,
180,142 left the United States with the
intention of returning, while 73,366
departed without expressing an inten
tion of returning.
Practically one-half of the immigrants
admitted during the last year came
from countries in the Western Hemi
sphere, the quota restrictions not apply
ing to these countries. Canada and
Mexico furnished tlie greatest number
of immigrants, 81,606 coming from
Canada, and 67,721 from Mexico, or
about 46 percent of the entire number
of immigrants for the year. Europe
sent 168,368, the largest contributors
being Germany, 48,613; the Irish Free
State, 28,064; Great Britain, 23,-
669; the Scandinavian countries, 16,-
860; Italy, 17,297; and the rest of the
European countries contributing 33,976.
As compared with figures of the pre
vious . year, Canadian immigration to
the United States decreased 10.6 per
cent, Mexico increased 66.3 percent,
and European immigration increased
8.2 percent. ^
THE RURAL CHURCH
The future of the rural church in the
United States depends largely upon
population and econorbic changes. The
farm population is now just about one-
fourth of the total population. If the
use of machinery and science in farm
production continues, we will need
still fewer people to produce the farm
products of the United States. One
famous agricultural editor stated to
me recently that, within five or six
decades, the farm population might be
only one-tenth of the total. If,
instead of 27,000,000 farm population,
we shall have within fifty years only
about 16,000,000 and a total population
of 160,000,000, one can well imagine
what will happen to most of the
churches in the open country. They
CITIZENSHIP DEFINED
The obligations of citizenship do
not rest solely or chiefly in the ex
ercise of the privileges of voting, or
in conducting campaigns, or in hold
ing offices.
Important as are all these duties
their performance will amount to
nothing unless our citizens are im
bued with the spirit of our institu
tions, which means respect for a
government of law, a sincere desire
to better in every practical way the
conditions of human life, loyalty in
all relations of life, and the disposi
tion to be kindly and fair in all
dealings with one’s fellow man.—
Charles E. Hughes.
will either disappear, as more than a
thousand have in Ohio within the last
fifteen years, or they will be in an
impoverished condition. The country
church will then no longer send its
stream of candidates for the ministry,
or its large numbers of recruits for the
city church.
And the city church administrator is,
or should be, as much concerned about
this matter as the one responsible for
the rural churches. Go into a typical
church in Peoria on a Sunday morning
and ask bow many there were born on the
farm. Probably three-fourths, or more
will raise their hands.
If these population and economic
trends continue, they will also make
themselves felt in tbe treasuries of the
religious bodies, large and small. It is
rural migration that is largely sustain
ing the church in the small and the
middle-sized city, and even to some
extent in the metropolitan centers,
though admittedly tbe latter have
special conditions. When the rural
migration ceases to come in such large
numbers, many city churches are going
to lose ground.
Already the economic status of the
countryside is given as one reason for
declining income for some church
boards.
These things mean that churches
serving farmers will increasingly be
located in villages, towns and smaller
cities, instead of the open country.
They also mean that questions of re
lationships between religious bodies are
going to become more acute, and that
cooperation will be one of the necessary
techniques to find a way out.—Benson
Y. Landis in Federal Council Bulletin.
JUNIOR RED CROSS
Members of the Junior Red Cross
proved a new capacity for service dur
ing the Mississippi flood, according to
reports to Red Cross National Head
quarters covering their work.
This group of enthusiastic school
children responded spontaneously and
generously to the needs of the flood
victims. An indication of the impor
tance of this help is contained in the
report that Juniors in Boston alone
contributed $7,500 to the relief fund.
Junior Red Cross members shared in
reconstruction work in the Mid-west
tornado several years ago, after the
Florida storm, and are in tbe post-flood
operations of the Red Cross among the
people in the Mississippi Valley.
Junior Red Cross has 6,822,767 mem
bers, an increase of 273,329 in the last
year.
More than a million of the Junior Red
Cross membership is distributed in the
Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, Porto Rico,
the Virgin Islands, and Alaska, and in
cludes Indian and Eskimo children.
Through the medium of the Junior Red
Cross in the United States, and similar
groups abroad, children all over the
world are being brought into closer un
derstanding by international correspon
dence carried on by classes in the
schools.
The Juniors at present have nearly
twice the membership of the senior
organization, but in the forthcoming
membership enrollment of the Red
Cross, from November 11 to 24, the goal
of the adult membership is 6,000,000.—
Oxford Public Ledger.
OUR FUR RESOURCES
According to the Biological Survey of
the United States Department of Agri
culture, the fur resources of the United
States are steadily and rapidly dimin
ishing. The raw fur catch during 1926-
26 was approximately twenty percent
less than in the previous year and the
decrease for 1926-27 has been even
greater. Of course, the Mississippi
flood has affected the catch this year
but the important causes of the decline
in the supply of fur animals are stated
to be out-of-season trapping, over-trap-
ping, the general tendency in many
sections to class fur-bearing animals as
vermin to be killed on sight, a great
reduction of fur-producing areas, un
wise drainage of swamps and marshes,
and needless destruction of forests and
cover.
Decline in the fur supply is taking
place contemporaneously with the in
creasing demand for furs of all kinds.
Of course, this increased demand is in
part responsible for some of the prac
tices which are leading to the diminish
ing of our fur resources. Unless wise
fur-conservation laws are enacted and
enforced the Biological Survey declares
that the public and private benefits
from the fur resources will diminish to
a vanishing point in the not distant
future. It is incumbent upon the
states to give fur animals better pro
tection than they now have if tbe
processes of extermination in progress
are to be checked.—Asheville Citizen.
COMMUNITY ALMSHOUSES
Substitution of community alms
houses for the old system of a separate
institution for the poor in each county
is being tried out by five Virginia
counties. The experiment will be
watched with interest throughout the
nation. It is the first step in the new
economy, the consolidation of county
activities to effect a saving of cost to
the taxpayer, and—it is to be hoped—
to enhance efficiency of operation.
It has long been contended that the
majority of persons committed to alms
houses need hospital treatment or
should be in homes for incurables.
Many feeble-minded patients are sent
to poorhouses instead of to institutions
where they might receive treatment.
There has been vast waste, and
also many human derelicts who might
have been reclaimed have been sent to
the almshouse, losing what hope was
left to them in life. The joint opera
tion of these institutions may correct
this situation.—Gastonia Gazette.
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
How all the seventh grade school chil
dren in Craven county put on a project,
“Made in North Carolina,’’ is told by
Mrs. Carl Bartling in a report, just
made, to the North Carolina Education
Association.
The first aim was to find out the
names of articles made in the Tar Heel
state and then tbe leaders decided to
secure the actual object as a perma
nent exhibit. Manufacturing concerns
were solicited and industries were lo
cated and the younger generation be
gan to learn its “North Carolina Firsts’’
first-hand.
Letters were written to secretaries
of chambers of commerce, which re
sulted in a large amount of literature,
read in class and studied. The children
of Craven were knowing North Caro
lina first, to paraphase and localize tbe
“America First” expression of touring
agencies.
The interest of receiving packages
and seeing what was in them spread
over the whole school.
“We received gingham, outing, sam
ples of silk, woolen samples of material
used in making knit underwear, a chain,
tobacco truck, axe handies, broom,
child’s top wagon, samples of rubber
used in making an automobile tire, ci
gar, cigarettes, tobacco, urns for pot
ted plants, tobacco flue scraper, sam
ples of material used in making bed
spreads, sheets, and pillowcases; pam
phlets showing furniture of all descrip
tions, mattresses, stoves, etc.; samples
of yarn, paper, belting, drapery, flour,
and from the nearby mills samples of
lumber,” Mrs. Bartling said.
Demonstration lessons were held. The
large map of North Carolina on the wall
was connected with strings attached to
the various cities and sections with the
articles spread around the room.
Geography lessons were added to
the project. By reading the literature
sent them the pupils gained informa
tion not found in the text-books, about
the cities of North Carolina.-Durham
Herald.
SAVINGS DEPOSITS IN BANKS AND TRUST COMPANIES
The States Ranhed According to Deposits per Capita, 1926
The following table shows the amount of savings deposits in banks and
trust companies, by states on or about June 30, 1926. The first column shows
aggregate amount of deposits, expressed in thousands of dollars. The second
column shows the bank savings per capita in each state. This is not the
average savings per depositor but the amount of savings for each person in the
state’s population. The states are ranked on this basis. The table is based on
information contained in the Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1926.
Tbe total amount of savings deposits in the national banks, state banks,
trust companies, and mutual savings banks of the United States on June 30,
1926, was $24,696,192,000. This was equivalent to $2il for every person in the
United States The number of depositors was 46,762,240, hence the average
deposit was $528.
Ranked on the amount of deposits for each person in the state Massachusetts
leads with $642, and New York is second with $624. Fifteen states exceed the
average for the United States. This group includes all the New England
states, all the Middle Atlantic states, California, Nevada, Micligan, and Iowa.
North Carolina ranks fortieth among the states, with $62 per capita.
Paul W. Wager
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank State
Savings Savings
deposits deposits
(thousands per
Rank State
Savings Savings
deposits deposits
(thousands per
of dollars) capita
1 Massachusetts..,$2,276,704...$642 '
24 Utah
of dollars) capita
64,395... 126
2 New York....
6,918,682... 624
26 Indiana
388,166.
. 124
3 Vermont
182,272... 638
26 South Dakota
86,668.
.. 124
4 Rhode Island
321,866... 464
28 Missouri
384,756.
. 110
6 Connecticut .
739,038... 460
29 Colorado
107,014.
.. 101
6 New Hampshire.. 201,723... 444
30 West Virginia
164,822.
. 93
7 California ....
1,679,146... 389
31 Virginia
229,383.
. 91
8 Maine
234,380... 365
32 Wyoming
21,622.
. 90
9 New Jersey ..
1,127,334... 306
33 Montana
68,933.
. 86
10 Maryland
399,889... 263
34 Kentucky
179,677.
. 71
11 Nevada
19,366... 261
35 Louisiana
133,786.
. 70
12 Pennsylvania
2,336,613... 243
36 Kansas
126,263.
. 69
13 Michigan
1,028,646... 234
37 Tennessee
166,612.
. 67
14 Delaware
63,634... 223
38 South Carolina 103,694.
. 67
16 Iowa
616,221... 212
39 Idaho
27,793.
. 63
16 Minnesota
631,918... 200
40 North Carolina
148,802.
. 52
17 Illinois
1,385,377... 192
40 Mississippi ....
.... 92,660.
. 62
18 Ohio
1,262,637... 190
42 Alabama
.... 102,408.
. 41
19 Wisconsin
489,961... 170
43 Oklahoma
92,916.
. 40
20 Nebraska
208,334... 160
44 Arkansas
.... 70,311.
. 38
21 North Dakota
92,910... 146
46 Georgia
160,697.
. 34
22 Florida
178,488... 136
46 Arizona
26,229..
. 34
23 Oregon
113,776... 130
47 Texas
164,924.
. 31
24 Washington ..
192,423... 126
48 New Mexico...
.... 7,486..
. 19