The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTEK
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
JULY 18. 1928
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIV, No. 36
Editorial Boards E. C. Branaon, 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 Angnst 24. 1915.
HOW N. C. STANDS TODAY
A HANDSOME BALANCE
The general aaaembly of 1927 author
ized maximum expenditures under
the appropriation act aggregating $16,-
716,690. Under the terms of the
executive budget act, these appropria
tions are in eifect maximum authori
zations, subject to supervision and
control by the director of the budget,
who is directed to supervise the ex
penditures and permit to be spent out
of the appropriations only such amounts
as are actually needed for the proper
conduct of the various departments,
institutions and other agencies of the
state government.
Instead of spending the total amount
of $16,716,690 authorized by the legis
lature, the various departments, insti
tutions and agencies actually expended
only $14,842,831, thus saving out of the
aggregate of the appropriations the
sum of $873,709 for the.fiscal year just
ended.
The cash surplus or credit balance
for the year ending June 30, 1928, is
$2,237,988 as compared with a cash sur
plus or credit balance on hand June 30,
1927, of $1,403,683. Of the total
amounts expended out of appropria
tions for the year, interest on that part
of the state debt allocated to the
general fund was $1,934,246, the
amount paid on account of the princi
pal including sinking fund and serial
payments chargeable to the general
fund was $1,314,260,'making the total
expenditures for debt service for the
year $3,248,496.
Income taxes g [actually collected
amounted to $8,176,000, as compared
with $7,000,000 estimated by the 1927
legislature. Franchise taxes actually
collected amounted^ to $3,640,610, as
against $3,831,000 estimated by the
general assembly. License taxes ac
tually collectedjamounted to $1,420,140,
as compared with $1,679,900 estimated
by the general assembly. Inheritance
taxes actually collected amounted to
$700,636, as compared with the esti
mate of $1,000,000 made by general
assembly.—Governor’s statement as it
appeared in the News and Observer.
counties. All are now operating on a
budget basis so that it is possible to
know how the expenditures of each
compared with income. I
It must be gratifying to the citizens j
of the state to learn that the state
closed the year with a surplus of about
two and a quarter millions of dollars in :
the general fund. This is due in part,
to an excess of revenue over that!
anticipated and in part to keeping ex
penditures below the maximum authori-1
izations. Of course not all this sur-'
plus was built up in one year. It ■
represents the savings of the three:
years since the state began operating j
on a cash basis. |
For several years the schools—county
and district—have been operating on a
budget basis, or at least were presumed '
to be. Unfortunately current deficits j
have been all too common and are not.
yet entirely unknown. The county
fiscal control act, if rigidly enforced,
will prevent further abuses of- this
kind, at least so far as the expenses of
the six months’ term are concerned.
Last year was the first year in which
all departments of county government'
were required to operate according to a
budget—that is, live within th.eir in
come. Tl^e county fiscal control act
promises to put county administration
on as sound a financial basis as that
which has characterized the state for
the last three years. If budgetary con
trol can produce a surplus for the state
it is not unlikely that it will do so for
the counties—amazing as that may
now appear. Of course, the fact that a
county’s tax sources are less subject to
fluctuation than the state’s makes it
possible to gauge more exactly what
they will yield.
Counties Conform
A FEDERAL SURPLUS
The federal government enters the
new fiscal year with a treasury sur
plus of $398,000,000.
Summarizing the nation’s financial
condition at the close of the old year,
which came' at midnight of June 30,
Secretary Mellon declared late yester
day that the period “witnessed a fur
ther improvement” in the country's
position.
“There was a substantial surplus
of receipts over expenditures,” he
said. “The national debt was redilced
by over $900,000,000, accompanied by a
material cut in interest charges. The
vast refunding operations begun in
1927 were continued and have been
well nigh brought to a successful con
clusion. Taxes were again cut by over
$220,000,000.”
The total of ordinary receipts for the
fiscal year was $4,042,000,000, Mr.
Mellon announced, with expenditures
of $3,644,000,000 chargeable against
this amount. The two figures for the
previous fiscal year were respectively
$1,129,000,000 and $3,364,000,000.
Tax receipts totalled $3,364,000,000 or
$111,000,000 leas than in the fiscal year
of 1927. Receipts from income taxes
aggregated $2,174,000,000 as compared
with $2,226,000,000 in 1927. In this
connection, Secretary Mellon called at
tention to the fact that the treasury's
estimate of this total differed fr6m the
actual figures “by thq narrow margin
of $9,000,000.”
Including disbursements under
It is not likely that every one of the
one hundred counties came through the
year without a deficit. It is probable
that some counties, inexperienced in
budget-making, erred in overestimat
ing revenues or in underestimating
expenses. It is probably true, too,
that a few counties have not made an
absolutely sincere effort to carry out
the law in every detail. On the whole.
POPULAR CONTROL
From the day of our independence
the soul of the American people has
been growing more and more demo
cratic, and where the spirit of de
mocracy is, whatever the institu
tional maladjustment, even a klep-
tarchy can not go far wrong. The
spirit of rightness in a democratic
people must in the end prevail, how
ever maddening may be the condi
tions which stand between the
spirit and^ts goal. The spirit of
the nation cannot be reconciled with
“invisible government” in any of
its forms.
- For the first time in our history
the people are beginning to think
in terms of the underlying prin
ciples of the mechanism of popular
control. The people are beginning to
demand that the acts of the govern
ment be made '^‘visible”; that ob
structions to the effective use and
maladjustments of the mechanism
of popular control be removed; that
an effective use be made of the
instrument of visibility set up by
them in their constitutions. —From
The Budget and Responsible Govern^
ment by Cleveland and Buck.
Today fish and game are one of the
important items of the people’s food
supply in Great Britain and on the
Continent. Today the sale of game is
prohibited in the United States.
Forests gone, waters poisoned or dried
up—these are the shameful reasons
why the New World forbids traffic in
its wretched remnants of wild game.
!—Robert W. Chambers in The Ameri
can Legion.
TWO NEW RECORDS
By collecting nearly $14,000,000 dur-
:ing the fiscal year just ended the state
revenue department is able to announce
that previous high records for North \ istratlon fees $10,636.
HIGHWAY FUND
Collection of gasoline taxes, auto
mobile license taxes and automobile
title registration fees in North Caro
lina during the fiscal year ending
June 30 totalled $18,900,126.02, it
has been announced. This is almost
five million dollars above the amount
collected during the previous fiscal year
but about four and one-half million
dollars was collected incidental to the
Change of the state automobile license
year from a Ju)y-to-July to a January-
to-January basis,
June collections totalled $932,210.56,
subdivided as follows: License $128,-
474; gasoline taxes $793,199; title reg-
states, ran from
Carolina, to $484.00
policy-holders, by
$194.00 for North
for New Jersey.
This statement is not very encourag
ing, in view of the fact that death will
come to all of us; yet we of this state
can comfort ourselves that,our families
can bury us cheaper than the people of
any other state.
This is another instance where North
Carolina is first, as it is claimed she
was at Bethel.
This increased cost of funerals is a
serious question worthy of careful
consideration.
Much of this increased expense is due
to the love of display, the besetting
sin of our day.
The profits on caskets and funeral
accessories are unreasonably high, we
Carolina tax collections have been
! broken.
Exceeding collections last year by
more than two and one quarter million
dollars the department said collections
for the year just closed totalled $13,-
937,286.
A comparison of 1926-27 and 1927-28
collections shows:
1926-27 ■ 1927-28
Income taxes $6,339,762....$8,176,000
Inheritance taxes 824,441... 700,636
Licenses (Sched
ule B) 1,170,870... 1,420,140
Franchises (Sched
ule C) 3,312,796... 3,640,610
Total 11,647,868...13,937,268
Gilliam Grissom, federal revenue
collector, has also reported that all rec
ords for collection by his department
have been broken.
Total collections for the year were
$226,320,122, as compared with $205,-
651.675 for 1927, and $192,403,633 for
1926, Mr. Grissom said.
June was a “million-dollar-a-day
month,” said Mr. Grissom in explain
ing that tobacco stamp sales and col
lection of other federal taxes were
more than one million dollars each June
business day.
however, it appears that most counties [ are informed.
have made an earnest attempt to
balance their budgets, and after a
year’s experience will be able to do
even better next year. Most of the
skepticism, even antagonism, which
greeted the passage of the law
has been dissipated and there is now
only praiseifor the new system.
The citizens of North Carolina can
generally be trusted to react sensibly
when they understand the proposition
before them, and there can be no rea
sonable opposition to a system that de
mands (1) that current expenditures
shall not exceed current income, (2) that
county accounts be keptin an intelligible
manner, and (3) that the taxpayers be
kept informed about the county finances !
and be given an opportunity to share i
A dealer who had retired from busi
ness assured us once that the profits on
coffins were beyona all other articles in \
Collections for the year are sub
divided as follows: Licenses $9,363,-
616; gasoline taxes $9,376,987; title
registration fees $169,622.
These funds go for the retirement
of bonds issued for highway construc
tion purposes and for the maintenance
of roads already constructed by the
state.
BUS REVENUE
The number of people who are using
motor bus transportation has increased
greatly during the last year, judgicg
from the increased revenue of the bus
operating companies, which is a direct
indication of the growing popularity
of bus transportation, according to
R. 0. Self, in charge of the motor
transportation division of the State
Corporation Commission.
There has been an increase of almost
36 percent in the amount of revenue
collected by the State in the motor
bus tax, the records of the Depart
ment of Revenue show. For while a
totil^of $167,410.88 was collected for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1927,
from the bus tax, up to June 20, 1928,
the State had collected $200,394.22—an
increase of more than 38 percent over
last year's collection.—Anson News.
NORTH CAROLINA
A compilation of facts about North Carolina reproduced from the Blue
Book of Southern Progress—J928 Edition, published by the Manufacturers
Record.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
1900 1910 1927
Population X.893,810 2,206,287 2,897.000
Property, true value $681,982,000 t$I,686,408,COO tt$6,284,000,000
Assessed value property $306,579,715 $613,000,000 $2,920,000,000
Manufactures:
Capital $68,283,005 $217,186,588
Products, value $85,274,083 $216,666,066 tt$l,060,434,000
woodwork, and the charge is possible i Mines and Quarries
and collectible, we believe, because we
hesitate to dispute a bill under such
solemn circumstances.
Whether this be true or not, we can
not say, but we know that in our
wanderings during a long life, we have
never known a dealer in coffins who
died poor.
For the benefit of the living. Con
gress ought to regulate the cost^of our
departure from this
terian Standard.
world. —Presby-
the
war claims act, the total expenditures
amounted to $3,671,000,000 as compared
with $3,494,000‘000 for the fiscal year
1927. The increase Mr. Mellon at
tributed to the failure of the second
Oefici'sncy bill of 1927 and changes in
'he revenue law by reason of which a
ubstantial amount of expenditures
jiroperly chargeable to the fiscal year
1927 was carried over to 1928.”
THE USE OF BUDGETS
June 30lh marked the end of North
Carolina’s fiscal year, for the general
departments of the state government,
for the public schools, and for the
Products, value $2,676,871
Furniture Manufacturing:
Products, value $1,023,000 $1,547,000 ft
Lumber, feet cut 1,278,389,000 1,824,722,000
Minerals products, value $1,4156,848 $2,616,131 **
Coal mined, tons 17,734
for this Nation to solve, perhaps, are: All land in farms, acres 22,749,356 22,439,129 ft
For the first time in the history of to grow forests sufficient for the Improved land, acres 8,327,106 8,813,066 ti
the state it is possible to report to the ; j^-gtional needs; and how to prevent! Number of farms 224,637 263,726 tt
think ahead
The two most important problems
Capital..
Products, value
Cotton Manufacturing:
$5,986,112 * $2,260,434
$924,000 $1,368,617 * $2,736,643
Capital $33,012,009..
Products, value $28,373,000..
Spindjes, number active ...
Looms, number active
Cotton consumed, bales ...
Cottonseed Oil Mills:
Capital
1,134,909..
25,469..
404,636..
$96,993,000 * $268,323,000
$72,680,000 ft $316,324,008
3,163,199 6,094,136
65,600 85,813
754,483 1,664.773
$4,432,010 * $14,686,466
$8,504,477 $17,707,000
..$61,208,238
970,966,000
$10,993,000
and
18,693,670
7,738,826
283,482
coastal I Value all farm property $233,834,693 $537,716,210 tt$l,060,015,836
1,424,921
taxoayers within a few days after the pollution of all inland
close of a fiscal year the exact condi- . ^^ters. ^ Value of farm land $141,966,840 $348,164,946 tt
tion of every state and county fund. ; a sure sign of the decadence of a Farm products, value $39,310,000 $176,262,000
The financial record of the state and pggpie is the decadence of their forests, i Farm, crops, value $68,626,000 $131,072,000,
its subdivisions is now an open book. Look at your maps of Europe, Asia,
This tremendous gain cannot be mini-; ^nd Africa. Where forests fail people
mized. ; fail. .. .u .
===== It is scarcely worth repeating that,
I as a race, we have been generous to
' the point of extravagance and waste,
y THE COST OF DYING
We see an ascending scale in life generous to ourselves, to the stranger;
from the cradle to the grave-the cost ea^eless to posterity
of being born, the cost of living after . j^kes God a hundred years
we are born, and the
6,609,000,.
6,736,000..
$453,«05,000
$361,606,000
7,306,000
1,727,000
867.0CO
$83,5o8.(j00
cost of dying
when we are through life.
An honest farmer recently
hundred
grow a white pine. It takes
ten minutes to feil it.
Farm crops, acres..
Cotton crop:
Acreage 1,007,000 1,478,000..
Bales, number 433,000 706,000..
Value lint $15,697,000 $49,710,000..
Value seed $2,291,000 :... $9,666,000 $14,037,000
Tobacco crop, pounds 127,503,400 138,813,163 468,000,000
Value $8.038,691 $13,847,559 $120,744,000
Acreage 203,023 221,890 ■ 650,000
jackass I Grain crops: \
1 Corn, bushels 29,790,000 49,230,000. 63,626,000
to I
to clothe
plained that under the new medical dis
It requires centuries
mountain with noble foliage. A foo.
pensation
ac uiiuei Liic iitp»» 1.*,.........-. —... txiv*....4w,....- • Li J '
the cost of being born was and his cigarette can set it afire and j Livestock:
Wheat, bushels..
Oats, bushels....
6,961,000..
6,046,000..
6,817,000..
4,022,000..
6,168.000
6,733,000
day.
The'truth is that we live for our-1
beyond th6 purse of the ordinary farm- destroy it m
er-that in.old times it was a household Thet-_- ■
transaction, but that now it required a selves and for the pleasure of be g,
stay in a'hospital for a couple of weeks, indulgent and self-sacrifimg. up y ^
with medical and nurse charges, to-
Ca'tle, number...
Sleep, number...
Swine, number ...
Horses, number .
Mules, number ..
625,000..
302,000..
1,300,000..
159,000..
136,000..
701,000..
214,000..
1,228,000..
166,000..
176,000..
627,000
85,000
961,000
105,000
282,000
Not one in ten thousand among us j Banking:
has thought to build for the remijte Aggregate resources.,
future and for the good of our children,
their children-for the general good.
That prudence, that good citizenship.
Paid in capital..
gether with board, that made being
born prohibitory.
According to the statistics prepared
by the Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company, recently piiblished, the cost - human obligation few of us ever [ Motor vehicles, no.
of coming into this world is a cheap that After us I exnenditu
out.
cost of
$112,213,762 $503,968,000
^ $16,376,606 $38,240,000
Individual deposits $16,768,000 $67,286,664 $356,767,000
Railroad mileage 3,831 4,932 6,337
t 6,178 430,499
have considered or practiced. After us > Highway expenditures $624,281 ftf $5,216,491 $28,250,000
affair, compared with the cost of^gmng That’s what it amounts ! Public school expenditure
*Census 1920
tl912
$960, COO $3,037,000 *♦ $34,691,669
**1926 ttl926 ***1904 tttl914