The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
APRIL 18, 1928
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIV, No. 23
Igidiinrial 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 Bocond-clasB matter November 14. 1914. at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill. N. C.. under the act of August 24. 1912.
ASSESSED VALUATIONS IN 1927
PROPERTY VALUATIONS j
We are presenting this week a table i
showing the 1926 and 1927 valuations
in the counties of the state. In three [
counties—New Hanover, Robeson and :
Rowan—there was so much delay in,
completing the 1927 assessment that
the final figures are not yet available.
Of the ninety-seven counties for
which figures are available, sixty show
increases aggregating slightly over 167
million dollars, and thirty-seven show
decreases aggregating about 23 million
dollars. Hence the net increase for
the ninety-seven counties is something
over 128 million dollars, and the net
gain for the entire state may not be
far from this figure.
In 1920, the year following the re
valuation by the state, property valua
tions reached $3,166,243,200. A year
later they stood at $2,679,772,023.
This big drop was due partly to the
weeding out of double listings, but
mainly to horizontal reductions in
sixty-odd counties. ' These reductions
were .authorized and justified by the
sudden and ruinous drop in the price
of farm products and the consequent
drop' in the value of farm land. Since
1921 total valuations have been grad
ually increasing, but the increase has
been due mainly to the increase in the
amount and value of urban and cor
porate property. The price of farm
land has not shown much, improvement
since 1921. Indeed the decreased
valuations in 37 rural counties last
year suggest that farm land has been
carried on the tax books for the last
six years at an unreasonable figure.
Farm Land Lowered
The writer has often heard farmers
Itydleate a willingness, even a desire, to
sell theic farms at the figures for
which they are assessed for taxes.
Perhaps there are not many instances
of sale at the tax value, for the reason
.that farms have not been salable at
any price. Nevertheless, there have
been many farms on the tax books in
recent years at a figure approaching
full market value. While full mone
tary value is the standard of valuation
contemplated by the constitution it is
not the practice to assess personal
property or urban real estate on this
basis, hence the farmers were entitled
to relief and the 1927 valuations indi
cate that the burden has been shifted
somewhat from rural to urban prop
erty.
A general reduction in valuations
does not necessarily reduce taxes.
Moreover, it is poor practice to reduce
valuations and raise the rate of levy,
for the hjgher the rate the greater the
temptation for owners of intangible
property to evade or avoid the property
tax.
It seems as though property valua
tions in 1927 ought to have at least
reached the 1920 level, but they fall
short of it by about 300 million dollars.
It is hardly possible that the actual
wealth of the state is less than it was
eight years ago. In 1922 the tangible
wealth of North Carolina was estimated
by the Federal Census Bureau at $4,643, -
000, COO and in 1926 the estimate by
the National Bureau of Economic Re
search was $5,298,000,000. Some esti
mates of present tangible wealth run as
high as $6,000,000,000. The fact that
there is now le.ss wealth listed for taxes
than in 1920 must therefore be due to a
relatively lower standard of valuation,
a much larger proportion of personal
and intangible property which is escap
ing taxation or both of these reasons.
With increasing industrialization the
deficiency of the general property tax
as the primary basis of taxation be
comes more and more apparent.
to various conferences and gatherings |
of social workers to tell of the work
she bas been doing in Cherokee county, j
The work Miss Smith has been doing i
in Cherokee county was made possible i
by a grant from the Laura Spelman i
Rockefeller Foundation over three.
years ago to the State Board of'
Charities and Public Welfare to be i
used in establishing and demonstrating '
the value of welfare work in three'
North Carolina counties, one in East- ;
ern, one in Central, and one in Western ;
Carolina. Cherokee was chosen as the j
Western county. During this three-:
year period the county has furnished !
office space and paid the expenses of |
the worker. The work has proved of |
so much value, however, that the |
County Commissioners and the County j
Board of Education have jointly de- j
cided.to continue it.
Mrs. Catherine Warren, formerly of I
Lenoir, N. C., has been selected to |
succeed Miss Smith in this county.
Miss Warren was trained in welfare
work at George Washington University
and has been engaged in similar work
in Washington city for some time past.
She comes to Cherokee county highly
recommended and officials feel sure
that she will have the same co-opera-!
tion that Miss Smith has had and that
she will continue the good work that
Miss Smith bas left.
Miss Smith’s work in Raleigh will
be in the nature of a research study
into the effectiveness of the public
school compulsory attendance law in
North Carolina. This work will take
her into many parts of the state to
study the records of welfare officers'
and county and city superintendents
and truant officers. This .study also
is made possible by a grant from
the Rockefeller Foundation.—Asheville
Citizen.
STAY ON THE LAND
When any people persistently
leave the land for any reason, they
place their feet on the path that will
eventually lead to their undoing.
Any nation is as strong socially and
economically as its land-owning
population is numerous. Pyra
mided wealth, that we consider an
evidence of social stability, is,
in reality, an evidence of approach
ing instability.
From a long distance comes the
voice of one who has spoken to us:
“Shall we not then divide the land?”
Yes, yes! Divide the land! To which,
as I close these ruminations, 1 would
add: and populate it!—Col. J. C.
Breckinridge.
EFFICIENCY REWARDED
Miss Elizabeth Smith, Superintendent
of Public Welfare in Cherokee county
for the last three-and-a-half years,
left this week for Raleigh to accept a
staff position with the Board of Chari
ties and Public Welfare. While here Miss
Smith has made an enviable reputa
tion, her work having attracted atten
tion of public welfare officials in many
parts of the country. A number of
workers have visited Cherokee county
to study Miss Smith’s methods and
record system and she has been called
ENLARGING SERVICE
The State of North Carolina is
importing' approximately $236,000,000
worth of food and feed products each
year. A very considerable part of
these importations consists of ground
and mixed feeds for cattle, poultry,
and other live stock. Literally thou
sands of car-loads of these feeds are
being brought into this state annually,
feeds that should be grown at home and
should be ground and mixed at home.
In the face of this situation a real op
portunity, both for service and for
profits, exists for more feed mills in
this section. The Mecklenburg Farm
ers’ Federation has recently enlarged
its service to the members and to the
other farmers of this county through
the installation of a modern feed mill
in which feeds are ground and scientif
ically mixed for dairymen and other
live-stock farmers.
This Mecklenburg Farmers’ Federa
tion appears to be meeting a real need
in this county. It has been a rec
ognized fact for some time that cotton
farmers can make more money by pro
ducing pure-bred cotton of varieties
that are acceptable to the cotton
spinners. It so happens that there are
three or four varieties of cotton which
not only meet the requirements of the
spinners as regards length and quality
of staple but which have been bred up
to such a point that in earliness, in yield
per acre, and in turn-out at the gin, they
surpass all other breeds. There has
been considerable agitation in this
county recently looking toward the
abandonment of less desirable varieties
and “scrub” seed, but one difficulty in
the way was the lack of pure-bred,
graded seed of the proper varieties.
The Farmers’ Federation stepped
into the gap and purchased several hun
dred bushels of acceptable seed. Need
less to say the farmers are appreciat
ing this sort of service and are giving
the Farmers’ Federation such a degree
of support and co-operation as is
enabling it to constantly enlarge its
field and measure of service.—Charlotte
Observer.
trees by the roads were inviting
targets for the tack-hammer brigade,
and, in spitp of state law, there was
multiplication of the nuisance. It is
evident that the Kiwanis did not pro
pose to be satisfied with mere talk,
but that their resolution was followed
by action. A recent trip over High
ways 76, 74, 70, 60 and 20 in the ter
ritory of the Southern Pines Kiwanis,
revealed a remarkable change in the
landscape. The traveler might go
many miles before realization dawned
upon him of the thing that was mis.s-
ing. It is the sign board. The road
sides have been practically stripped
of the clutter of sign boards of all
varieties that obtruded their objection
able presence, and it is safe to say that
if the Kiwanis did not themselves
motor forth and remove them then the
Kiwanis protest had practical influence
in the good work. To realize just how
Tach better the highw.eys l^ok with
out the unsightly distraction, one has
only to travel over the roads in the
sandhills section and he will sense the
improvement. The sandhills Kiwanis
have given a ‘‘tip” to the Kiwanis in
every town in the state.
And what makes the sandhills
Kiwanis action all the better is that
the people are industriously engaged
in setting out young trees. They are
removing the signs and are lining the
highways with seedling long-leaf pines,
to the greater enhancement of the
beauty of that part of the state.-
Charlotte Observer.
A LOCAL TAX-STUDY GROUP j
In four or five years the taxes on a .
sixteen-story office building in Balt'l- j
more increased from $.24 to $.61 peri
Square foot of floor space and the div-1
idends for the stockholders in the |
investment completely disappeared. I
Upon investigation it was discovered
that this startling fact was generally
true of the real estate investments of
the ent^ire city. It was also discovered
that the public moneys of the city
were being handled with less business
sense than the finances of a church
oyster supper. Whereupon seventeen
business men of Baltimore were or
ganized to work with the city officials
in reducing to order the chaos of ac
counting for and reporting upon all
public moneys—not as a matter of
politics but as a matter of business,
self-defensive business. As a result
the city tax rate dropped from $2.97
in 1923 to $2.48 in 1926, with no pub
licity meantime, no scandals, no brass
bands. And today the business of
Baltimore is as safely ordered as that
of an American mail-order house.—
Abstract from- article by BYank B.
Kent, in The World’s Work, June
1926.
THE HIGHWAY SIGNS
The Observer noted a few weeks ago
that the Kiwanis Club, at Southern
Pines, had launched a crusade against
the tin and other signs that mar the
scenery along North „Carolina high
ways. The shapely trunks of the pine
A COOPERATIVE PLAN
Soperintendent J. M. Baker, of Aca
dia parish, Louisiana, merits congratula
tions upon the Cooperative Market
System which obtains in his school
system, according to a news item ap
pearing in the Times Picayune Feb-
rary 22. Mr. Baker was led to under
take the plan described by the lack of
marketing facilities for the benefit of
tbe small farmer.
The plan is in the hands of the school
forces of the parish. Nine centers-have
been eijtablished where milk, eggs and
butter are collected for shipment.
Each of tbe school transfers is provided
with facilities for carrying products.
Each farmer sends in his milk daily.
It is run through a separator and the
cream is shipped twice weekly to a cen
tral market, while the skim milk is
returned each afternoon to the farmer
to be fed to pigs and chickens. The
principal of the school is responsible
for the commodities brought to his
school and one principal is the shipping
agent for the parish. He keeps all ac
counts and makes-a remittance for the
farmers twice a month.
When eggs are received by the dif
ferent units they are classified, and
none but clean, fresh eggs are shipped.
The system has already established a
good trade and the schools are receiv
ing from 3 to 13 cents a dozen more
than the local market is paying.
Each of the nine units is provided
with a cream separator of standard
make, a tester, »and other smaller
equipment as needed. These -cost the
parish board from $250 to $300 for each
school. These and the overhead ex
penses are taken care of by a commis
sion charged the farmers.
NATIONAL FOREST WEEK
The week of April 22 28 has been set
aside by Presidential proclamation as
National Forest Week, and the Pres-,
ident bas asked that the people
throughout the nation give special
thought to the care and preservation
of our forests, during that period.
In some places Arbor Day will be
observed during this week. In con
nection with this it niay be of interest
to learn that Arbor Day was first ob
served in 1872 in the State of Ne
braska. The idea originated with Mr.
J. Sterling Morton, who later became
Secretary of Agriculture under Pres
ident Cleveland. The idea spread
rapidly, and is now observed in all the
states.
COMPARISON OF 1S26 AND 1927 ASSESSED VALUATIONS
in the One Hundred Counties of the State
The following table gives the 1926 and 1927 assessed valuations in all of the
counties of the state except three. In N(?w Hanover, Robeson, and Rowan
counties the final figures for 1927 have not yet been established.
The ninety-seven counties for which figures are available show an aggregate
increase of $128,871,402. The state total in 1926 was $2,794,931,069 and the esti
mated total for 1927 is $2,923,627,668, or a total increase in the state of $128,-
596,6897 The estimates were made by the State Board of Equalization.
Of the ninety-seven counties, sixty showed increased valuations and thirty-
seven decreases. Buncombe witnessed the largest increase, $26,667,491; and
Duplin suffered the greatest'decrease, $2,470,019.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
BETTER HOMES WEEK
Hertford county is soon to observe a
Better Homes Week. Special invita
tions are being given to all women’s
clubs to send delegations to the Better
Homes programs, and a committee is
now working to that end. County
agents of adjoining counties will also
be invited, as well as members of farm
ciubs in other counties.
To further stimulate interest in the
.approaching event, ministers are being
asked to preach sermons on Better
Homes prior to the celebration the last
of April. School teachers are also re
quested to arrange special Better
Homes programs in the meantime.
Some of the interesting features of
Better Homes Week will be the special
demonstrations in landscape gardening
by County Agent Rose and Miss Georgia
Piland. A special building and other
equipment for giving the demonstra
tions has already been secured by the
committee on landscaping.
Members of the home demonstration
clubs in the county will have an Arts
and Crafts Booth, in which demonstra
tions in making chair covers, coin
purses of leather, and lamp shades will
be given. .
Club girls of the county will give
nutrition demonstrations, in making
bread cake, and pies. A health booth
is also to be built, and three nurses
will be in charge to render first aid.
They will also give lessons on the
preparation of invalid trays, and on
other health points. A speaker from
the State Board of Health will be
present.
The stage setting will be a model
porch. On one day of the celebration
it will represent an expensive porch,
well furnished and arranged; and on
the second day it will be arranged with
inexpensive articles of furniture, that
are in reach of the poorer homes,-
Adapted from Hertford Herald.
1926 1927
County Valua- Valua-
tion tion
Alamance $ 32,220,947 $ 33,036,787
Alexander 8,000,096 8,773,401
Alleghany 4,613,641 4,893,131
Anson 22,362,339 21,660,460
Ashe 11,686,886 11,961,362
Avery 6,691,774 6,021,243
Beaufort 28,683,264 29,661,372
Bertie 16,220.916 16,042,703
Bladen. ..., 13,631,962 13,980,646
Brunswick 8,956,226 10,069,964
Buncombe 146,420,354 172,987,845
Burke 26,202,341 24,366,009
Cabarrus 37,964,229 46,697,747
Caldwell 21.414,407 22,114,101
Camden 3,464,622 3,385,841
Carteret 13,104,431 15,066,625
Caswell 8,692,969 8,522,660
Catawba 39,322,633 40,666,628
Chatham 18,789,780 18,637,924
Cherokee 8,624,402 8,978,208
Chowan 10,187,078 10,106,264
Clay 2,240,616 ' 2,372,297
Cleveland 37,242,127 38.069,814
Columbus 20,166,643 21,469,616
Craven 29,181,949 28,137,865
Cumberland... 30,913,793 29,928,341
Currituck 6,434,268 6,088,476
Dare 2,614,283 2,760.927
Davidson 36,203,609 38,460,414
Davie 12,368,211 12,689,986
Duplin 26,481,292 23.011,273
Durham 83,828,668 96,161,761
Edgecombe ... 34,374,906 34,241,701
Forsyth 178,709,494 198,666,211
Franklin 14,228,098 14,799,062
Gaston 91,682,199 96,994,267
Gates 7,333,790 7,434,174
Graham 4,448,646 5,300,136
Granville 21,181,528 21,101,890
Greene 13,614,683 12,762,290
Guilford 168,932,839 192,823,410
Halifax 39,961,708 38,476,368
Harnett 26,830,346 24.699,441
Haywood ...... 20,406,808 23,142,322
Henderson 26,266,427 31,489,261
Hertford 11,219,405 11,391,645
Hoke 10,431,629 9,971,698
Hyde 6,746,041 6,186,847
IredelK 46,722,202 46,208,284
Jackson 11,017,446 10,644,946
1926 1927
County Valua- Valua
tion tion
Johnston 44,066,937 43,079,931
Jones 7,061,662 6,610,800
Lee 13,813,130 14,662,323
Lenoir 28,827,673 27,189,707
Lincoln 16,311,061 16,392,037
Macon 6,808,733 7,316,848
Madison 10,198,704 10,606,877
Martin 16,029,910 16,941,167
McDowell 20,791,603 20,366,920
Mecklenburg..l68,698,107 173,064,390
Mitchell 9,233,626 9,416,260
Montgomery.. 16,260,903 16,476,938
Moore 26,706,496 26,776,909
Nash 32,631,141 33,863,373
New Hanover 67,768,863
Northampton. 14,739,413 14,366,483
Onslow 10,976,776 10,611,410
Orange 17,447,612 17,646,194
Pamlico 6,465,972 6,800,167
Pasquotank... 18,938,666 19,144,687
Pender 10,486,330 10,104,118
Perquimans... 7,899,391 8,236,830
Person 14,683,010 12,864,486
Pitt 50,907,072 48,800,242
Polk 7,282,942 8,110,066
Randolph 20,666,616 27,466,362
Richmond 31,279,616 32,241,646
Robeson 44,671,774
Rockingham .. 42,191,882 43,796,970
Rowan 66,891,944
Rutherford 34,240,656 36,302,627
Sampson 23,0o3,407 22,611,324
Scotland 16,824,866 16,240,264
Stanly....! 30,362,246 31,810,997
Stokes 12,630,807 13,027,780
Swain 12,632,024 12,619,646
Surry 28,431,661 29,877,683
Transylvania.. 8,636,972 11,686,923
Tyrrell 3,912,499 3,917,202
Union 24,706,011 22,721,934
Vance 21,617^604 20,292,993
Wake 96,294,066 96,921,396
Warren 14,203,646 13,417,876
Washington... 8.677,437 9,821,982
Watauga 8,696,681 9,136,646
Wayne 49,120,813 49,012,146
Wilkes 16,624,928 16,622,286
Wilson 46,666,613 48,646,916
Yadkin 9,401,048 9,288.424
Yancey 8.668,264 7,786,607