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 (^ro-,
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
MARCH 14, 1928 ,
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIV, No. 18
Sditoriai 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 PostofHce at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24. 1912.
SCHOOL SUPPORT
The speaker at the last meeting of
the North Carolina Club of the Univer-;
sity was Leroy Martin, secretary of'
the State Equalization Board. A few ;
extracts from his talk follow.
The school cost in North Carolina has
.mounted during the last several years
with a rapidity that is alarming to
many of our people. In 1920-1921 the
total school cost for the state was 17
million dollars. The .expenditure per
child per year, 1920-21, was $24.70.
Five years later, 1926-26, total expen
ditures amounted to 32 millions, or
$39.62 per child—the figures having
nearly doubled in both instances. The
last two years have seen an increase
almost as rapid.
Equalize the Barden
After ail, we find that it is not so
much the' total amount of the taxes
that one pays that constitutes a bur
den of taxation as the belief by the
taxpayer that he is paying more for
that which he receives than his neigh
bor is paying. In all the weaker finan
cial counties of the state the people
are not complaining so much about the
total sum of their taxes as they com
plain of the fact that they are paying
80 much more than certain other coun
ties.
North Carolina is today doing much
to equalize the burden of school sup
port. This Js being accomplished
through the equalizing fund. The sum
of $3,250,000 per year was appropriat
ed out'of the general state revenue for
this purpose by the last General As
sembly. Since all state revenue is de
rived from indirect taxation, the larg
er portion of it coming through the
medium of the income tax, this is in
iffect the strong financial sections of
' the state aiding the weaker in the sup
port of their schools. The idea is good
and with a sufficient fond distributed
in similar manner to that now pre
scribed will result in equality of school
support.
Distributioh
The plan for distribution in force in
this state at present appears to be the
beat that has yet been worked out.
Any plan that equalizes the burden of
school support must take into consider-
^ ation (1) the school coat, (2) the ability
to meet the cost. In dealing with the
first—school cost—teachers’ salaries
represent 70 percent of the total. The
state through its system of control and
supervision deals largely with the
teaching item of the cost and it will
readily be granted, I believe, that the
quality of educational opportunity of
fered the child is best indicated by the
number and quality of teachers em
ployed.
The second factor—ability to meet
the school cost—is dependent upon tax
able property. Forsyth county with
$11,104 of taxable wealth behind each
child in school is certainly more able to
meet the school cost than is Wilkes
with only $2,548 per child in school.
Should Forsyth county spend thirty
dollars each year per child in average
daily attendance it would require a tax
rate of twenty-seven cents on the one
hundred dollars' equalized valuation,
For Wilkes county to furnish the same
amount per child in average daily at
tendance the county would be forced
to levy a rate of $1.18 on the one hun
dred dollars' valuation—nearly five
times as much as that of Forsyth.
Consequently the distribution of the
equalizing fund at present is baaed up
on two essential facts: (1) number of
teachers legally employed and their
}uality as evidenced by the type of cer
tificate held; (2) the difference in abil
ity to provide sidiool revenues as meas
ured by Che wealth back of the child in
average daily attendance.
The determination of the second es
sential (aacertaining the difference
ability to provide school revenue) is not
80 easily done and can perhaps never
be satisfactorily accomplished. Prac
tically all of our school revenue being
derived from a general property tax,
we are confronted with the problem of
ascertaining the true value of all tax
able property contained within the
county. With a state geographically
situated as is ours and with interests so
varied, the task is indeed an immense
one.
Determine True Values
The law creating the Board of Equal
ization says it shall investigate, study,
compare and determine the true value
of all propertyisubject to taxation for
each and every county of the state,
which value shall l^e the basis upon
which the equalizing fund shall be ap
portioned. That is the primary duty of
the Board.
Upon the fulfilment of that duty
hinges the equality of the distribution
of the $3,260,000 fund and consequently
the equalizing of the burden of school
support, for the difference in the cost,
and the yield of a 40c levy on the deter
mined valuation represents the amount
county will receive from the state
fund.
We have come a long way in the
field of education—certainly educational
finance—in North Carolina, but we still
have a long way to .go. We must fix
for our ideal an equal educational op
portunity freely offered to every child
in the state. The day must come when
it will no longer be a misfortune and
an injustice from which they will never
recover for children to be born in cer
tain counties of the state. Those chil
dren when plunged into^ adult life in
competition with children of the more
fortunate counties will look back with
bitterness upon the county of their
nativity. Every child everywhere must
have an equal opportunity for an edu
cation.
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Ninety-four percent of the people who
live in the cities and towns of the
United States have access to public
libraries, but only seventeen percent of
the rural population are served by pub
lic libraries. Of the 3,066 counties in
the United States, 1,136 have no public
libraries within their boundaries. In
other words, there are fifty million
people in this country who are without
library facilities, and forty-six millions
of these people live on farms and in
small villages. These facts are re
ported by the American Library As
sociation and it suggests that ‘The
problem of public library service for
fifty million people now without it is
large enough to challenge the best
thought and effort of the citizenry.
It is nation-wide, though it presents
different aspects in different parts of
the country. The use made by rural
folk of the library facilities they have,
the growing interest in books and
library service on the part of rural
leaders and organizations, the rising
standard of rural living, the advance
in rural education, show that the time
is ripe for rural library extension.”
Raral Service WeaK
The table which appears elsewhere
in this issue shows to what extent each
state is served by public libraries, and
the discrepancy which exists between
urban and rural facilities.
In only two states—Massachusetts
and Rhode Island-is library service
universal. In twelve other states the
entire urban population is cared for,
and in none of the states is the per-
centaRe of urban population without
library facilities large.
It is the people living in rural ter
ritory that have been neglected. In
nineteen states less than ten percent of
the rural people are provided with
public libraries and most of the southern
states are in this class. North Caro
lina ranks thirty-third among the
states, with 17.3 percent of its rural
population, 89.4 percent of its urban
population, and 32 percent of its total
population supplied with library
facilities.
County LibrariKs
Twelve North Carolina counties are
listed among those in which public
funds are appropriated for county pub-
lie library service. These counties are
Burke, Chowan, Durham, Forsyth,
Guilford, Mecklenburg, New Hanover,
Rowan, Stanly, Vance, Wake, and
Warren. In each of these counties
contract is made with a city or town
library. The annual appropriations
from $110 in Chowan to $5,000 in
Mecklenburg. This is an excellent be
ginning, but the state ought not to be
satisfied until every county is included
in the list.
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
I am the storehouse of knowledge
in this city.
I am opportunity.
I am the continuation school for
alt.
I hold within myself the desires,
hopes, theories, philosophies, im
pressions, doctrines, culture, at
tainments, experience, and science
of ail ages. •
I am a house of wisdom and an in
stitution of happiness.
I am supported by the people for
the people.
I offer the opportunity to know
all there is to know about yoqr
work.
, I am for those who would enjoy
fiction, poetry, philosophy, biogra
phy, or learn more about business,
trade and science.
I have books for all tastes and
needs and creeds.
I am free to the public to profit
from and enjoy.
I am in the care of courteous at
tendants, whose duty it is to help
you to profit from me.
I open my doors as a great public
mental recreation ground for your
leisure hours.—Davenport Public
Library.
The American Library Association
says of the county library: ‘‘The county
unit makes for-economy and effective
ness without loss of the personal touch.
The good county library has a large
book stock and has worked out flexible
methods of distribution to overcome
obstacles of distance and isolation
through a system of branches, stations,
school deposits, mail service and pos
sibly a truck. It puts any book any
where in the system at the disposal of
a serious reader wherever he may live.
Best of all, it commands the services
of a capable librarian who visits each
community and knows its' needs, works
with and through other county leaders
and organizations, as the county agent,
superintendent of schools, county nurse,
the Farm Bureau or Grange, the
Parent-Teacher Association. Schools
are given adequate book service, small
village libraries have larger resources
as county branches, or through other
arrangement, and can still use local
interest and initiative. Thus the
scattered rural folk receive a high
grade of library service, comparable
to that of the large city library.”
the National Education Association (in
1924), shows that the total expendi
ture for public elementary and secon
dary schools is but 32.94 percent of the
amount spent in the same year for
“certain luxuries”—these luxuries be
ing “soft drinks and ice cream, thea
tres, candy, chewing gum, tobacco,
jewelry, perfumes and cosmetics.”
The statistics permit the broad gen
eralization that the material resources
of ,the nation as a whole—whatever
may be true of certain areas—can easi
ly provide for the present outlay, or
even a larger one if efficiency requires.
Moreover, it is demonstrable that
school expenditure increases the eco
nomic power of the country quite out
of proportion to the contribution made
by many other public expenditures,
which the very lack of sound educa
tion makes necessary.—N. Y. Times,
as quoted in Commerce and Finance,
February 22, 1928.
GOT RESULTS
Sherwood Anderson, the famous
novelist, has bought a country weekly in
Marion, Va., and has settled down to a
life of quiet. It is exactly what he has
been looking for, he declares, for
many years.
i In a small town like Marion, where
j he knows everybody and everybody
j knows hirfi, he finds life to his liking,
j At noon time, for instance, everybody
' goes home to dinner—they still call it
! dinner there—and in the afternoons as
' he goes home, people greet him with a
■ friendly nod and salutation.
• He recently made an appeal for the
: town band, and as the Baltimore Sun
records, got results:
“What is a town without a good
band?” he inquires in a front-page ed-
• itorial entitled “Join the Glory List.”
i “This campaign, ” Anderson writes,
i “is not undertaken for any altruistic
purpose. It’s just because we like to
hear the band play; we like to see them
: parade. When a big day comes we like
; to see them put on their uniforms and
! come blowing their heads off up Main
j street.
“Flags flying, everyone feeling fine.
Life is drab enough on ordinary days.
We have never found any way to be a
canary bird ourselves. What we want
is to see the band boys have a little
money in their treasury. We want
band concerts on summer nights.
“Oh, hearts of gold, who will put up
$5 a year over a period of five years to
get and keep our band in bang-up finan
cial condition?”
Otto H. Kahn, the New York finan
cier and patron of the arts, who sub
scribes to Anderson’s weekly, was
moved by the appeal and sent a check
for $100.—Gastonia Daily Gazette.
PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE IN UNITED STATES
Percent of Rural, Urban, and Total Population Served
The following table, based on a recent study of the American Library
Association, ranks the states according to the • percent of total population
served by public libraries in 1926. The first and second columns, give the
percent of rural ^nd urban populations, respectively, which enjoy public library
service. The rural-urban distribution of population is proEumed to be the same
as in 1920.
Forty-four percent of the total population of the United States are without
access to local public libraries. Six percent of the entire urban population are
without public library service, and 83 percent of the entire rural population are
without such service.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island are the only states in which all the people,
urban and rural, have access to public libraries. In twelve other states all the
urban people are served. In only nine states do even half of the rural people
have library service.
In North Carolina 17.3 percent of the rural population, and 89.4 percent of
the urban population are within reach of libraries. This is approximately 82
percent of the total population. Thirty-two states make a better showing.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
FIVE CENTS A DAY
Expenditures for public schools, as
reported by the Department of Com
merce, seem large in the aggregate,
but when they are redneed to the daily
amount for each individual, even in the
cities where the cost is relatively high
er, the general average is less than
five cents a day. At a price of a street
car fare these cities provide the in
struction without which a republic can
hardly hope to endure or a democracy
to function. It might be reckoned as
a form of insurance which a civilized
nation maintains for its own collective
protection. And it is of interest to
note that what is spent yearly for this
purpose is approximately what is paid
yearly by individuals in life insurance
premiums; for the total expenditure in
1924 for public elementary and secon
dary schools was 87.32 percent of the
amount paid for insurance in that same
year, though in the state of New York
it was only 64.23 percent.
If five cents per capita per diem
seems a small outlay even for so essen
tial a purpose as paying what Mr. H. A.
L. Fisher, President of the English
Board of Education, called “the eter
nal debt of maturity to childhood,” it
seems even smaller when the total is
shown to be only a little moce than
one-half of 1 percent of the economic
resources or tangible wealth of the
states—or three-quar^jers of 1 percent,
if all schools, public and private, are
included—less than 4 percent of the
total yearly income and only 11.19 per
cent of the accumulated savings de
posits Tor all the states. Another com
parison, based upon estimates made by
Percent
Percent
Percent
of rural
of urban
of total
Rank
State
population
population
population
with library
with library
with library
service
service
service
1
Massachusetts
100.0
100.0
100
2
Rhode Island
100 0
100.0
100
3
New Hampshire
97.1
100.0
99
4
Connecticut
92.8
100.0
98
6
California
89.3
100.0
97
6
Vermont
91.9
100.0
95
7
Wyoming
89.9
100.0
93
8
New Jersey
69 2
98.1
90
9
New York
34.6
99.1
89
10
Maine
71.2
100.0
83
11
Michigan
23.8
99.6
71
12
Indiana
39.1.....
99.0...
70
13
Ohio
18.2
97.4..
69
13
Illinois
4.0
99.3
69
16
Wisconsin
38.4
100.0
68
16
Utah
36.7
100.0
68
17
Oregon
33.8
.100.0
67
18
Maryland
10.8
99.3
64
19
Delaware
13.0
97.8
69
19
Pennsylvania
26.5
79.0
69
2L
Washington
6.4
98.7
68
22
Minnesota
20 4
98.3
65
23
Colorado
9.2
99.0
63
24
Montana
29,8
91.3
49
26
Nebraska
20 3
100.0
46
26
Missouri
1.0
i 94.3
46
27
Florida
14.4
93.4
44
28
Kansas
8.2
99.7
41
29
Idaho
6.6
95.0
39
30
Iowa
2.4
99.3
38
31
Nevada
26.0
78.8
36
32
Kentucky
14.4
86.4
34
33
North Carolina
17.3
89.4
32
33
Louisiana
3.1
83.8
32
35
Georgia
8.4
93.4
30
36
Texas
9.0
70.0
30
37
Arizona
3.0
76.6
29
38
Virginia
2.8
88.2
28 ''
38
South Dakota
13.8
100.0
28
38
Tennessee
6.6
87.0
28
38
Alabama
10.6
87.4
28
42
New Mexico
13.8
86.8
27
43
Oklahoma
4.0
96.8
26
44
South Carolina
6.8
93.1
22
45
West Virginia
1.8
71.0
20
45
North Dakota
6,6
100.0
20
47
Mississippi
8.8
71.7
17
48
Arkansas
2.3
77.0
16