Newspapers / The University of North … / July 11, 1928, edition 1 / Page 1
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The news in this publi- THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA Published Weekly by the University of North Caro- cation is released for the lina for the University Ex- press on receipt. J^CiWo liMal IMtK tension Division. JULY 11. 1928 CHAPEL HILL, N. C. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS VOL. XIV, No. 35 •ial Boacdi E. C. Braneon, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., P. W. Wager, L. R. Wilson, E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll. H. W. Odum. Entered as second- -cla.l matter Ncemher 14. 1914, at the Poatoffice at Chape! Hill. N. C.. ander the act of AUKoat Z4. I9IS. !. NATIOHAL WEALTH Elsewhere in this issue is a table showing the estimated wealth of each state in 1927, and the percent of in crease since 1912 which each repre sents. It will be noticed that the total estimated wealth of the country is 380 billions of dollars and this total repre sents an increase of about 80 percent since 1912. The total national wealth is about 330 billions but only 330 billions is distributable by states. It must be kept in mind, however, that the purchasing power of the dollar has greatly decreased in fifteen years land hence that there has been nothing like an eighty percent increase in the volume of physical assets. .Measured in terms of 1913 dollars our national wealth has increased from 184 Ibillions to 225 billions or an increase of only 22 percent. The increase year by year is indicated below. The figures are in millions of dollars. Wealth Distributable by States Year 1913 dollars Actual dollars 1911i $ 184,663 $ 182,991 1913 187,388 187,338 1914 190,023 186,413 1916 192,709 194,261 1916^, 195,394 247.760 1917 198,079 360,996 1918 ’ 200,764 390,084 1919 203,449 419,919 1920 206,136 466,277 1921 208,820 306,767 1922 211,606 314,719 1923”"'”'.... 214,190 329,210 1924 216,876 324,662 1926 219,661. 348,443 1926’’”''! 222,246 336,691 1927 224.931 330.199 Siace the census valuations of national wealth are made only once in ten years and American industry needs a more frequent appraisal, the National In dustrial Conference Board attempts to meet this need. While its figures are only estimates, they are established after multiplied investigations and are nearly as reliable las the census eatimates. On the whole, the wealth of the Nation is far more evenly distributed than it used to be. Nob only have the last fifteen years seen the rapid growth ! of great inland cities like Detroit, \ Cleveland, and Kansas City, and Pacific! Coast cities like Los Angeles, Portland, ! and Seattle, but, more important, the ; growth of hundreds of small industrial towns sprinkled over the face of the country. Improved highways, motor trucks, and electric transmission lines | are enabling industry to spread out and this is good for industry, good for labor, ; good for agriculture, and in every way l favorable for the diffusion of prosperity and culture. THRIFT SURVEY In May, 1928, the Mitten Manage ment of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co. announced the result of. a thrift survey. The purpose of this survey was to determine the extent of the SCALE OF PERSONALITY Do you wish to know precisely where you stand in the scale of personality? Here is the test. How large a section of this world do you care for in such a vital, re sponsible way that you are thinking of its welfare, forming schemes for its improvement, bending your energies towards its advancement? The magnitude of the ends you see and serve is the measure of your personality. Personality is not something you carry around in your spiritual pocket. It is an energy which is no whit larger or smaller than the ends it aims at and the work it does.—William DeWitt Hyde,in The Five Great Philosophies of Life. county and they are paid three percent for collecting. They vie with each other in returning the smallest in solvent list. If taxes are not paid by the fifteenth of January for the pre ceding year five percent is added. This encourages taxpayers to settle before all the proceeds of their farming opera tions are spent.—Roanoke-Chowan Times. THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH get up in class and airplane landing stations, children in classes will get up to recite “The Village Blacksmith'’’—Selected. An investment that safely promises a distinct monetary gain is justified. It ; is justified still more when it helps to saving habit among a typ^al group of i burden of a great section Americana j is suffering from transportation In response to a questionnaire 2,1£0 j disadvantages. Both good business stockholders gave information and it is and square dealing are on the side of believed that their replies are a fair cross-section of 28,000 people who, aside from the P. R. T. employes, have invested in the securities of the Mitten The Country Gentleman. congressional accion to build up the inlanc waterway system to a state where it can meet its opportunities.— Wealth Is Shifting Fully as interesting as the growth of national wealth-and it has reached a total that is beyond the comprehension of the average person is the distribu lion of this" wealth among the states. A study of the table reveals that our national wealth is more evenly dis tributed than formerly. In 1912 the Middle Atlantic states possessed 2b.2 percent of the national wealth now 24.7; the New England states 6.6 per cent, now 7.8; the South AUanlicstates 8.0 percent, now 9.4; North Carolina .9 of one percent, now 1.6 percent. While these changes in percentage are not large it mast be remembered that one percent of the nations wealth represents over three billions of dollars Attention is called, too, to the New England situation. We have been ir. dined to think of New England as . deserted cou.,try-a land of abandoned farms and closed mills. An increase of fourteen billions of new wealth in fifteen years doesn’t look like New England was in particular need ot sympathy. Nineteen states have failed to in crease in wealih as fast as the national average, and 29 have witnessed a more rapid increase. Some states with large urban centers tike New York an fUinois Igive failed to keep pace with national growth. Oiher states like Ohio, Michigan, and Caiifornia have enjoyed a more rapid growth. A msjority of the Southern states are included among those which are ac cumulating wealth more rapidly than tne N-itiofi hs a wholn. North Carolina’s wealih has ir.creased 190 percent in 'he fiftoci'i-yeLr period, wnen measured in current dollars, or y? percent in ac ual inUinsic value. •Only two States have made more re- .iiatkHOi^ recurds-Arlauna and Wyo- ning. Arizona’s phenomenal increase is 'lue m large part, no doutt, to the com- pli^Lioii of great irrigation projects whicVi have transformed a desert into Yjrarige groves and cotton fields. The writer does not know the cause of Wyoming’s great progress. It appears, however, that the mining states are more subject to rapid fluctuations than the agricultural and industrial states. Bank Securities Corporation. The wide range of occupations repre sented by those who reported is indi cated by the following partial list. Accountants Bellboys Clerks 260 Doctors and dentists .... 32 Draftsmen and engineers 162 Housekeepers Merchants Railroad men ^8 Salesmen ^88 Secretaries and stenographers... 100 Teachers Welfare workers- -64 The various evidences of thrift on the part of those who reported may be classified as follows: Percent Own their own homes 63 Have saving accounts 94 Carry life insurance 88 Rent safe deposit boxes 71 Have made their wills 56 Budget their incomes 75 The Mitten Management says that “one interesting point brought out by the survey is that one thrifty habit seems to beget another. Of those who own their own homes, 90 percent carry life insurance, 79 percent budget their incomes and 94 percent have saving accounts. That widows are more prov ident than widowers is shown by the fact that while all of the widows have saving accounts, only 86 percent of the widowers have developed this excellent habit. Stocks and bonds are apparent ly the most popular form of invest ment, since 86 percent of those who replied save some part of their income in this way. Bank deposits are a close second with 84 percent, while 76 per cent have building and loan association shares.’’-Federal Council of Churches Bulletin. COOPERATIVE BUYING Fertilizers, seeds, spray materials, feeds, lime, twine, and feeder cattle are the commodities handled for farm ers by the Adams County Farm Bureau Cooperative Association, Inc., Gettys burg, Pa. The organization has an office and warehouse at Gettysburg with a full-time manager in charge but the most of its purchases are distributed from the car doors at eight country distributing stations. Some lines of goods, including fertilizers, lime and feeder cattle, are distributed from car door only. When goods are handled through the warehouse a sufficient charge to cover the extra handling is added to the car-door price, thereby encouraging the car-door deliveries. The general manager works on a salary basis. He sends out price lists, solicits orders and purchases supplies. Orders ■are also solicited by eight car-door agents who disiiibuie the supplies ai.d collect the money from each buyer when a car load is received. These agents work on commission, receiving ! one dollar per ton for handling feeds and 3 percent commission on all other supplies. - This buying association has operated two years. Its salts for the first year amounUd to ?112,000, and approximate ly the same amount the second year although it distributed nearly twice as many feeder cattle. At the end of the second ybar it had 219 members, each of whom 'had signed a membeiship note for $100 to be u»eo as collateral. The association finanCfS the purchases . and goods are sold for cash. Cost ol ^ operation during 1927 was 3.9 percent ' of caks. —Agricultural Cooperation, May 26, 1928. Children still recite- “finder the spreading chestnut tree, 'The village smithy stands: The smith, a mighty man is he.” But the trade that was the inspira tion of Longfellow’s beautiful lines is almost effaced. When we pass a black smith now, we stop and marvel—not so much at the skill with which he worlcs, 3 we used to, but at the very fact that we have seen a blacksmith. For garages are the order of the day I Blacksmiths are few and far between. Even on farms autos and tractors take toe place of horses to a great extent. But horse-shoeing is not the only picturesque occupation that is becoming largely a memory. No longer do shoemakers make shoes; machines make them now, and shoe makers only mend them. Thackers used to thatch the roof with straw, tylers tiled it; slaters roofed with slate; colliers burned char- coai;chandlersmade candles and fullers were cloth-cleaners. These old crafts are gone—but the names of them linger on in the sur names of people. Many new trades have sprung up to take the places of many that have passed into the discard, but there is a romantic haze over these old trades celebrated in song and story that shall not pass for many, many years to come. Long after garages have passed away FARM AND FACTORY According to President Preston, of ' the American Bankers’ Association, the future of this country rests upon establishing industrial centers in the rural regions. Stop multiplying factories in densely populated cities and take them nearer to the producers and give farmers a better home market, he says. In addition he urges better employ ment for surplus labor, elevating the standards of living, increasing public revenues, reducing taxes, and provid ing better schools. He showed that there is no serious farm problem in stales where industries and agriculture are brought into closer contact. Twelve years ago Kingsport, Tennes see, had 1,000 population. A big kodak factory and a large cement plant were located there, and it now has a popula tion of 17,000—one ot a thousand in stances of the effect of farm and factory supplementing each other,—Public Ser vice.' to make room for A FRIGHTFUL TOLL Automobile accidents last month (May) killed 47 persons and injured 365, the report of W.*C. Spruill, official of the# motor vehicle bureau of the state department of revenue, shows. Intoxicated drivers were responsible for 37 accidents that caused five deaths, tabulated reports show. Exceeding the speed limit was responsible for 60 ac cidents and eight deaths. Six deaths were caused by passing on curves and 26 accidents by drivers not having the right of way. Sixteen accidents and two deaths resulted from motorists dis regarding signals. Accidents involving an automobile and a train kilkd seven and injured 14. There were 360 motor vehicles involved In the'243 accidents that were reported for the month.—Durham Herald. ESTIMATED WEALTH OF THE UKITED STATES, 1927 Each State’s Total and Percent Increase since 1912 The following table gives the wealth of each state in 1927 as estimated by CONGRESS AND THE BARGES Inland the National Industiial Conference Board. The states are ranked according to the percent of increase in wealth since 1912. AccOidiig to the rather cartful esiitnates of the National Irdnstrial Con ference Board Ihd total wealth of the United States in 1927 was $886,176,000,- 000, or if only the wealth distributable by states is considered, $330,199,.C0,- OOo'. These figures are lower than the estimates for either 1926 or 1926, not because the physical assets of the nation have lets intrinsic value tut because they have less m-netary value. This is due to a lower price level. The wealih of the nation, when reckoned i.n current dollars, lias increased SO percent since 1912. In twenty-one states the increase hss been more 11.10 loO percent. In only two states, Arizona and Wyoming, has the increase be.n greater than in North Carolina. North Carolina’s increase has been 190 per cent. North Dakota has witnessed the least increase, only 19 p. rcent. When both the 1912 and 1927 figures are ri duced to a comparable l as i.- — say in terms of 1913 dollars-it is found that national wealth b.as increased 22 percent instced of SO percent. In fifteen years ihc general price 'evel has risen about 47 percent so that only those states whose wealth has incressed in excess of 47 percent have really made a gain in intrinsic wealth. Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina SELLING LAND FOR TAXES The barge service of the Waterways Corporation on the lower Mississippi River saved shippers $1,900,- 000 last year. That is equal to a six percent return on more than thirty milUon dollars, something over three times the capital investment m Inis Federal waterway line, A great deal more might have been saved had there been facilities avail able for the barge line had to turn dowk thousands of tons it oould not carry The statement of Middle Western grain dealers that they would have shipped several million bushels more if the service had permitted does not make pretty reading when it is considered that a saving ot over three cents a bushel was lost thereby. Niili greater saving of ihe to was A ksf to sugar Middle West and could consumers Northwest handle less offered each month Ijtrlt uaid more lor us siib of it bad to be--shipped by rail Instead of at the lower crmbmation rail-water rate. because the line , than half the 1,860,000 bags And the Wheat because so We believe that the trouble with the counties asking for injunctions is in their system of cullecung taxes. For years taxes were collected in Norll.- "amplon by the sheriti and deputies be appointed to help him; and every sheritt nl the county from the Civil War !he lime the county system changed to a township system failed financially while in office, and left office a poorer man. Part of the failure was perhaps due to the fact that they wanted to succeed themselves and were over indulgent to taxpayers in order to retain and gain support for the ne.xt election. Not a dishonest dollar was ever traced to one of the sheriffs who failed in office, and no charge of dis honesty was lodged against them. In Northampton exactly 30 lots and tracts of land were advertised for sale this year to satisfy taxes due thereon the whole amount of taxes involved being only $1,280.20, and this is a county where the citizens are depen dent almost entirely upon the farms. Here a tax collector is appointed for each of the nine townships of the Rank State 'i 1 Arizona . Percent increase since 1912 .. 2ro ...196 Estimated wealth, 1927 (in milUor.s) ....$1,415... 2 Wyoming 1,049... 3 North Carolina 4,883 190 4 Idaho 1>‘347 185 5 Florida 2,619. 6 Tehnefsd'e 4,608. 7 Connecticut 6,631. 8 Sou'.h Dakota 3,116 9 Michigan 12,130. 10 New Hampshire.. 1,459. 11 Delaware 666. 12 Massachusetts 13,769. 12 Virginia 5,189. 14 Ohio 19,603. 15 Montana 2,352. 16 Maine 2,126. 17 New Jersey 12,480. 18 Rhode Island 2,036. 19 Utah 1.624, 19 West Virginia 4,946, 21 South Carolina ... 2,642, 22 Wisconsin 8,288 23 Georgia 4,106 24 Pennsylvania 30,341 180 ,139 137 ,136 . 129 122 .118 116 .116 ,115 .111 .109 .108 .106 .104 .104 .102 .. 91 .. 90 87 Estimated Percent weal:b, increase Rank State 1927 (in sine-; million^) 1912 26 Mississippi $ 2.292 86 26 California 16,806 86 27 Missouri 10,492.. 28 New Mexico 896.. 29 Loui.'iana 3,589 . 30 Vermont 882.. 30 Mars land* 5,961.. 32 Orfgnn S.oJ'S . 33 Indiana 9,24'} . 34 VVa&iiingt'n 5,£54.. . 8^ 81 , 80 76 74 6r 35 Minresota 8,92] 61 36 Kentucky 3.740 t 4 37 Texas 10,208 6: 38 Arkansas 2,706 17 39 Alabama 3,12? 6--, 40 New York 38,445 5'’ 41 Illinois 23,048 40 42 Nebraska 5,511 48 43 Colorado ^.... 3,339 4 : 44 Kansas 6,466 41 44 Iowa 10,847 4i 46 Oklahoma 4,100 47 Nevada 554 2‘i 48 North Dakota 2,511 19 *includ!Dg District of Columbia
The University of North Carolina News Letter (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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July 11, 1928, edition 1
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