i
J
i'The news in this publica-
released for the press on
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Ejctension.
i^EMBER 10, 1920
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL VII, NO. 1
Iriisl Boarl i B. O. Branson, U. R. Wilson, B. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt.
Entered as second-class matter November 14, 1914, at the Postoffloe at Chapel Hill, N, C., under the act of August S4, 1912
>UR PER CAPITA TAXABLES IN 1920
A REVALUATION EXHIBIT
Twelve hundred thirty-five dollars is
,7hat we are worth per inhabitant
L tax books of North Carolina in 1920,
hunting men, women, and children of
loth races. See Mr. L. deR. McMillan’s
,^le elsewhere in this issue.
St looks like a whale of a sum. But
Comparison or two reduces it to proper
(Woportions.
-tor instance, our per capita true
wfealth in North Carolina in 1912 was
$|94, according to the Census Bureau
lUetin on National Wealth. The re-
luation figures of 1920 show us to be
iy $441 beyond our average of eight
ars ago. Evidently a 55 percent in
ease in taxables lags'far behind the
one, two, and three hundred percent m-
beases in the War-time values of town
hud country real estate and commodi
ties of all sorts.
I Two years before the World War be
an, 46 states stood ahead of us in per
pita wealth, and Mississippi alone
ived us from footing the column. At
lat time 38 states of the Union were
worth $1235 or more per inhabitant, and
ttiiiong these richer states 5 were South
ern—Louisiana, Florida, New Mexico,
Texas, and Arizona in the order named.
The simple fact is that we are just
land, Graham, and Durham in the order
named.
Gaston leads the state and the nation
with her 100 cotton mills, but she stands
ninth not first i n per capita taxables.
Wayne, Lenoir, and Pitt, three fertile
farm counties, stand right alongside
Gaston in this particular.
New Hanover, which leads the state
in banking capital and export trade, falls
to the 16th place in taxable wealth per
inhabitant.
Robeson, which leads the state in cot
ton, corn and pork production, stands 18
places below Scotland, 11. places .below
Wayne, and only three filaces above
Johnston. These three counties are
her three closest rivals in agriculture.
Hoke and Nash rank right alongside
Greene whose soil is far more fertile.
And Greene stands three places above
Richmond, four places above Rowan,
five places above Halifax, eleven places
above Wake, manufacturing counties
all. It speaks well for Greene, Hoke,
and Nash, but it sadly discounts the
other counties in this comparison.
Wake stands 38th from the top of
the column, just below Jones and just
above Moore—one a country county in
the Tidewater' and the other a county
in the Sandhills. And by the way, the
Sandhill counties all stand among the
TRULY TRAINED
low getting our properties on the tax the state in per
(loks at something like their true value taxables. They outrank many
,'hen sold for money in the ordinary more fertile counties,
lanner of sale, as the law has long re- Cape Fear counties are interest-
(uired; not at their inflated values which New Hanover leads of course, but
ire right around five billion dollars all jjarnett comes next and she leads Du-
old, but at the reasonable value of Sampson, Pender, Cumberland, i
lliree billion dollars in round numbers. Cgi^mbus, Bladen, and Brunswick in ,
the revaluation total in the state-at- order named. !
ar^ oT.in any county does not surprise . pjftv I aeeard Counties i
iny really well mforinea taxpayer. j ^ CaggarU LOUniieS
-vt. c u.. i On the whole, the fifty counties that
The Exhibit by toanties ^ J!
Our per capita taxables range from counties, with per capita taxables!
!5(3U in Macon the poorest county in the ranging from $1037 in Orange to $572
^tate to $2907 in Durham our richest Wilkes, $565 in Dare, and $560 in Ma-
’ounty. Durham has long maintained | They have almost no cities of
,his distinguished place in per capita
;axables in North Caroling.
Only 29 counties are above the state
verage of $1235. Sixteen are mill and
census size and few manufacturing in
dustries or none at all. Their share of
the burden of state taxes will range
^ctory counties or contain cities of 10,-
Kt inhabitants or more. Twelve are
ur richest farm counties, and one
raham— is a mountain county that has
-uddenly risen into wealth because of
ts lumber industries and hydro-electric
>ower sites and plants, all of which are
iwned by alien corporations, one of them
leing a British lumber company. For
he first time these properties are pay-
ng taxes to North Carolina upon some-
;hing like their proper physical valu^.
hese are the counties that are bearing
he heaviest tax burdens under the new
rder of things.
Twenty-four counties are just below
he state average with per capita taxa-
les ranging from $1000 to $1235. Here
15 of the counties are urban-in-
ustrial, with brisk, prosperous little
ities and numerous mills and factories,
nd one or two mills in a county not
from a fifth to a h^lf of the state av
erage, and from a half to three-fourths
of the taxes of the people in our three
richest counties—that is to say, if the
state ever again levies a general prop
erty tax. Under our new tax amend
ments to the constitution it may never
again be necessary to levy a general
property tax for state purposes, but we-
have a notion that it will be found wise
to fix a small rate for state support, so
as to permit our taxpayers in general
to develop a robust sense of responsible
proprietorship in commonwealth con
cerns.
It is a distinct surprise to find such
counties, as Carteret, Granville, Union,
Caldwell, Cumberland, Randolph, and
Burke at this end of the 1920 tax list.
These are all manufacturing counties,
each with a thriving little city or sev
eral prosperous industrial establish
ments. They are distinctly out of place
among purely agricultural counties in a
ronly means an increase of population,
i,|but a tremendous gain in 'per capita tax list.
'\ealth. Orange is a capital instance.' The table elsewhere in this issue
I Her five textile concerns have resulted ranks the counties of the state in the
the first substantial gains in popula- order of per capita taxables in 1920,
tion in thirty years, and the doubling of ^ and gives the 1919 figures for compari-
ler total taxable wealth within the last ^ son. In next week s issue the counties
ive years is due mainly to these two , will be rankeij from high to low accord-
i ing to the ratios of increase in 1920 over
po-operatmg causes.
!|p>
The 46 counties with less than $1000
f per capita taxables in 1920 lie outside
ur great industrial area, in the moun-
;ain and the tidewater country, or so
ith only five exceptions—Union, Cald-
ell, Cumberland, Randolph and Burke,
he rest are all agricultural counties,
nd their per capita taxables range
from a half to a fourth of the average
for such counties as Forsyth, Scotland,
raham, and Durham—the rich counties
at the head of the list.
Some Surprises
Graham, a little county set in the
lefts of the Great Smoky mountains—
,hink of Graham standing t-wo places
labove Forsyth, three places above
Mecklenburg, six places above Guilford,
and seven places above Gaston, the rich
est manufacturing counties in the state.
And Forsyth, which far and away
leads the state in manufacture, is out
ranked in per capita taxables by Scot-
1919.
Edward K. Graham
No student is truly trained unless
he has learned to do pleasantly, and
promptly, and with clear-cut accu
racy every task he has obligated
himself to do; unless he puts into
his work his own personal curiosities
and opens his faculties to a lively and
original interest in his work that
leads him to test for himself what he
is told; unless he gets from his con
tact with the master spirits of the
race those qualities of taste and be
havior and standards of judgment
that constitute a true gentleman;
unless he realizes that he does not
live to himself alone, but is a part
of an organic community life that is
the source of most of the privileges
he enjoys,
To become a true University man
does not mean the abandonment of
any legitimate sortof happiness what
ever, nor the loss of any freedom.
The adventure of discovering and
liberating one’s niind, far from being
a dull and dreary performance, is the
most thrilling of all youthful adven
tures. There is no question of self
punishment or external discipline,
but only the freedom of becoming
one’sown master, instead of a slave to
the tyranny of one’s low and cheap
desires.
To come into this insight is to see
this organized discovery of the mind
that we call education, not as learn
ing, but as a love of knowledge; not
as a matter of being industrious,
but of loving industry; not as a mat
ter of giving us a good start toward
a middle-age success, but to enable
us to keep growing, and so lay hold
on the eternal spring of life.
COUNTRY HOME CONVENIENCES
LETTER SERIES No. 34
FARM LIGHTING SET STORAGE BATTERIES—II
We told you last week that there is
a vast difference between an automo
bile battery and the battery of a farm
lighting set. That difference, in a word,
is just this. The automobile battery
sacrifices strength and ruggedness in
favor of light weight and compactness.
In farm lighting set batteries neither
light weight nor compactness is at all
necessary. It is therefore possible to
build them' with thick plates strong
enough to withstand the tremendous
strains that they have to undergo dur
ing the regular process of charging and
discharging. The automobile battery,
therefore, is a thin-plate battery, the . ,, ,
farm lighting set battery a thick-plate ; -i„,
battery, anil this difference is so vital
that it is important to 'understand it
thoroughly.
Some time ago a prominent battery
manufacturer sent out to his service
stations a service-letter advising these
stations to get ready to handle repairs
j and replacements on farm lighting bat-
I teries'. This letter called the attention
of the stations to a certain plant which
had a battery that did not fit the gener
ator. As these batteries might be ex
pected to last only two years or less, : goes successive charges and discharges,
‘ they were advised to get ready to re-; Moral; Don’t judge farm lighting bat-
place them when the time came. This ' teries by the automobile battery. One
I ^ 4 A XU i. VI • IS a truck-horse, the other a race-horse.
, was all very well, but the trouble is -^g’^itell you next week just how long
I that the letter is now being circulated ^ battery ought to last, and why. — P,
by a competitor of the electric plant as H. D.
an argument for their stupid claim that
the electric plant will not survive.
Deliberately Misleading
We have before us a copy of this cir
cular. It is a fair example of the mis
information that is being broadcasted
as scientific fact by untrained people
who we prefer to believe are them
selves misinformed. Here is a sample.
They say, ‘ ‘Do you get a better battery
on your farm electric plant than the
best engineers in the world can devise
for automobiles? You do not?”
This statement made right after they
have reminded you that you know from
an automo
bile battery will last just about one
year, is either deliberately misleading
or else the men who made it ought to
go back behind the ribbon counter
where they belong.
The automobile battery is necessarily
made with very thin, weak plates, which
accounts for its short life. On the other
hand most of the farm lighting set bat
teries on the market now are made
with thick, heavy and strong plates that
can successfully resist the tendency to
warp or buckle as the battery under-
the spring, the students are committed for its post-war readjustment and its
to the student-conducted chapel as a | restoration and advancement of student
successful experiment for improvement I government. The campus community
and development. To call the roll of j set apart in their Orange County woods
the constructive enterprises and achieve- has been adjudged the most completely
ments of the Campus Cabinet, the Stu- ' self-governing and self-functioning stu
dent Honor Council, and the class of dent democracy in the American college
1920, is to mark the year 1919-20 with world.— The University Alumni Re-
the high lights of an outstanding year ; view.
A STUDENT DEMOCRACY
The student body, the sine qua non of
the University, is back with half a
thousand new men academic and pro
fessional. As per usual the student
body is facing the year with confidence.
The momentum of its tradition through’
a century and its typical self-mastery
last year under new, difficult and con
gested conditions, bespeak its resolved
conquest of all obstacle's, whether of
making two beds grow where only one
has grown before, or licking 'Virginia
in football, winning the State champion
ship in baseball and track, putting the
infant Tar Baby on the trains and at
the news-stands in terms of the largest
circulation of any student publication
in the southern states, having the Tar
Heel quoted by the press from one end
of the State to the other, making Ger-
rard Hall platform, by student initia
tive, the jumping off place and keynote
sounding board in the four-cornered gu
bernatorial campaign, winning debates
with Washington and Lee, and Johns
Hopkins, and sustaining an all-round
record-breaking year in spirit and cam
pus morale. The year was an illustra
tion of a restored Carolina spirit that
had reached over the rent and shadow
of war and reestablished its old rootage
and carried forward her great tradition.
No Bolshevism
While a spirit of unrest and dissatis
faction swept over the colleges north,
south and west, the student body of the
University kept its head and went on
its way rejoicing to meet the difficult
problems of congestion and readjust
ment. The news of numerous student
strikes as aftermaths of the war and as
by-products of bolshevism, came to a
non-infected student body intent not
upon kicking against but upon assimila
ting its troubles and mastering its prob
lems. When the issue of the right of
the athletic management to impose a
charge for the Virginia game on the
home grounds was agitated, the studeflt
body, instead of going on a strike against
taxation without representation, met in
lively assembly and voluntarily voted
the additional tax upon themselves.
When a Carolina baseball player inter
fered (clumsily or otherwise) with the
throw of the A. and E. catcher, the
student body under the leadership of a
half dozen students met in mass meet
ing and expressed unreserved regret to
thek'sister college and offered to cancel
.'/’vTTQi'XTrViiilrm'nfr viP'fnT*T7 'fnr a •aiiViQ'}'!-
an ■'Overwhelming victory for a substi
tuth' game. This voluntary student
adtion sent a responding thrill of sports
manship over the A. and E. student
body and they individually and various
ly carried the news to the State this
summer, “They do things white at Ca
rolina. ’ ’
Orderly Self-Direction
The student body took over chapel
and conducted it on practically a volun
tary basis. For two quarters the sub
stance of faculty talks and the liveliness
of the student affairs transacted through
the brief chapel clearing house held a
full attendance and elicited vital interest.
The registrar conducted the attendance
records on the voluntary basis. .Though
the interest and attendance dropped in
REVALUATION AND THE YEAR BEFORE
Per Capita Taxables in 1919 and 1920
Based on (1) The Report of the State Tax Commission, Aug. 10, 1920, and
on (2) the 1920 Census of Population.
L. deR. MacMillan, Wilmington, N. C.
Department of Rural Social Science, University of North Carolina.
State average 1920 Per Capita Taxables $1235; in 1919 they were $436, an
average increase of 183 percent.
Rank Counties
Per Capita
1920
Durham $2907
Graham 2085
Scotland 2022
Forsyth 1912
Mecklenburg 1797
Rockingham 1773
Wilson. 1737
Guilford 1013
Gaston ....: lOU
W ayne 1001
Lenoir 1592
Pitt 1468
Cabarrus 1406
Stanly 1449
Craven. 1447
New Hanover 1391
Buncombe... 1344
Davidson 1334
Beaufort 1324
Vance 1322
Robeson 1306
Edgecombe 1289
McDowell 1286
Johnston 1281
Hoke 1255
Greene 1260
Nash 1248
Cleveland 1247
Richmond 1246
Rowan 1227
Halifax 1226
Martin 1219
Catawba i 1210
Iredell HOO
Pasquotank 1190
Alamance HIO
Jones 1113
Wake 1169
Moore 1153
Harnett 1124
Montgomery 1119
Duplin 1115
Rutherford 1095
Davie 1094
Haywood 1092
Lincoln 1078
Lee 1010
Onslow 1056
Polk 1054
W ashington 1043
1919
$964
561
496
530
576
415
473
505
460
479
402
421
439
365
456
679
543
406
388
642
402
468
396
454
401
365
441
' 416
424
461
522
627
347
457
431
437
397
485
476
419
417
378
308
429
385
446
468
50?
306
417
Rank Counties
Per Capita
1920
Orange $1037
Carteret 1032
Swain 1002
Chowan 996
Anson 980
Mitchell 977
Granville 952
Jackson 952
Sampson 940
Pender 987
Tyrrell 931
Alleghany 929
Union 927
Surry 927
Warren 923
Caldwell 922
Cumberland 921
Person 921
Transylvania 918
Columbus 915
Hertford 915
Franklin 911
Randolph ... 895
Camden 891
Northampton 877
Bladen 869
Bertie 867
Pamlico .' 861
Watauga ,856
Gates 847
Caswell 845
Ashe 844
Burke 844
Currituck 836
Alexander 819
Henderson 817
Chatham 817
Perquin\ans 806
Stokes.. 799
Brunswick 768
Yadkin 763
Madison . 724
Yancey
Hyde
Clay
Aver?
Cherokee
Wilkes 672
Dare .... 565
717
713
615
608
600
100 Macon 660
1919
$467
361
479
404
361
221
449
387
303
415
385
264
366
405
398
321 .
401
314
414
402
406
378
356
364
465
366
354
287
281
413
284
240
321
336
322
376
373
374
326
369
254
367
188
325
266
256
407
240
182
277