I
i
The news in this publica
tion is released for the press on
receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
JANUARY 19, 1921
CHAPEL HELL, N. C.
VOL VII, NO. 9
Editorial Board i S. 0. Branson, L, R. Wilson, E« W, Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt.
Batered as second-class matter November 14, 1914. at the
PostorflcH at Chapel Hill, N, C., under the act of August 34, I91i).
MILLIONS FOR UNCLE SAM
A state that is rich enough to pay
one hundred and sixty-three million dol
lars into the federal treasury in a single
year is rich beyond debate—rich enough
in all conscience to stand in the front
rank in educational advantages of every
sort. No other-state in the South even
begins to be a close rival of North Ca
rolina in taxpaying power, and only
seven states of the entire Union stand
ahead of her.
It is true that one hundred and eight
million dollars of this total consisted of
stamp taxes on tobacco factory products
and that this burden falls upon tobacco
users the world around. But a state is
rich that has in it a business big enough
to buy tobacco stamps at the rate of
three hundred and twenty thousand dol
lars a day throughout the working year
—or thirty-two thousand dollars every
hour of a ten-hour day.
And it is true that forty-four millions
of this amount are taxes on corporation
incomes and excess profits, and that
this burden is laid not on the people of
North Carolina alone but on final con
sumers in every country on the globe.
But a state is rich that has in it four
thousand corporations that can pay into
the federal treasury more taxes than
the entire population pays into city,
county, and state treasuries combined-
more by fourteen million dollars last
year.
And a state is rich that has in it
twenty-two thousand people whose net
taxable incomes are ninety million dol
lars—who enjoy this huge income total
after all exemptions, reductions, and
allowances are written off, and who are
able to pay into the federal treasury
five and a half million dollars in person
al income taxes alone.
And a state is rich that can afford to |
pay another five million dollars of fed-)
eral taxes on railway tickets, Pullman j
car berths, telephone, telegraph, and ,
express charges, legal papers, business
transactions, inheritances, theatre and
moving picture tickets, carpets and lux
urious clothing, patent medicines, toilet
articles, and so on and on.
If twenty-two thousand people and
four thousand corporations in North Ca
rolina can pay fifty million dollars in a
single year into Uncle Sam’s treasdry '
on incomes and excess profits alone, I
how much could the rest of us pay into -
our state treasury for education, health, \
and highways—that is to say, if only we ;
were minded to do it, if only we really '
believed in education, health, and high-,
i
I
ways?
Millions for Luxuries
But there is another way of realizing
the amazing wealth of North Carolina, [
and it perfectly indicates the tax-pay-.
ing power of our people; it perfectly
proves that the people of North Caro
lina do not lack wealth—that perchance
our only lack at present lies in unwill
ingness to convert our wealth into com
monwealth advantages.
Last year the people of North Caro
lina spent one hundred and fifty-seven
million dollars (1) for manufactured to
bacco products, (2) for candy, (3) for
automobiles and automobile parts, (4)
for carpets and luxurious clothing-
clothing so expensiye as to require a
sales tax. On these four articles of
luxury and comfort—these four alone—
we spent four hundred and thirty thous
and dollars a day, Sundays included.
What we spent upon our colleges was a
little less than seven thousand dollars a
day. A little less than fifteen thousand
dollars a day is what we spent to sup
port our churches and religious causes.
And a little more than fifteen thousand
dollars a day is what we spent to sup
port the state and her civic enterprises.
What the people of 'this state spent
last year for manufactured tobacco alone
was fifty million dollars, or one hundred
and forty thousand dollars a day. One
day of tobacco money would keep St.
Mary’s, or Peace, or Meredith going
more than one whole year, and East
Carolina Training School for more than
two whole years.
We spent forty-seven million dollars
last year for automobiles and automo
bile parts, at the rate of one hundred
and thirty thousand dollars a day, in
cluding Sundays. What we spent on
automobiles and automobile parts in a
single day would keep Wake Forest
going nearly two whole years.
We spent last year thirty-five million
dollars for carpets and luxurious cloth
ing, at the rate of ninety-six thousand
dollars a day. What we spent on car
pets and super-fine clothing in a single
day would keep Davidson going a whole
year. And a single day of automobile
and tobacco money would keep the A.
and E. College going a whole year. I
The people of North Carolina spent
twenty-five million dollars last year for
candy, at the rate of seventy thousand
dollars a day. What we spent in a sin
gle day for candy and luxurious clothing
would keep Trinity going for one whole
year. And what we spent for candy,
automobiles, and tobacco in a single day
would keep the University going for a
whole year.
These figures are not guesses. They
are based on a recent report by the
Secretary of the Treasury, who has in
timate acquaintance with the federal
tax returns.
Who, with any competent knowledge
of the facts, can honestly say that the
people of North Carolina are poor—that
they-are poverty-stricken in tax-paying
power?
It is plainer than print that we have
, money in lavish abundance to spend up
on anything we really want.
If we do not spend money abundantly
on public school^ it simply means that
. we do not in our heart of hearts believe
in public schools.
If we do not spend money abundantly
on public health and highways, it sim
ply means that in our heart of hearts
we do not believe in public health and
highways.
If we do not spend money abundantly
upon college education, it simply means
that in onr heart of hearts .we do not
believe in college education.
The Way Out
There is, of course, only one way out
of this galling college poverty—namely,
a bond issue of twenty million dollars,
or something like that total.
Not only in North Carolina but in
most other states the people are shy of
bond issues for state purposes. Not so
of bond issues for county and munici
pal purposes. We have everywhere
learned that we cannot build adequate
county roads or creditable school build
ings without local bond issues. But a
bond issue for state purposes appears
to most people to be a very different
sort of proposition. It is not different,
it is essentially the same. \The bother
about a state bond issue lies in the bo
gey uses to which it can be put by pol
iticians to frighten the folks or by the
folks to frighten politicians.
But tactically wise or unwise it is the
only solution of our present state-wide
problems. We might therefore just as
w’ell look a bond issue straight in the
face and reduce it to simple terms.
The bonded indebtedness of North
Carolina at present is right around ten
million dollars. The bonded indebted
ness of ten other states is greater,
ranging from ten and a half millions in
Louisiana and thirteen and a half mil
lions in West Virginia, to four hundred
and thirty-four millions in Ohio.
Our per capita burden of bonded state
debt is less than four dollars per inhab
itants An additional twenty millions of
bonds would bring this per capita indebt
edness up to twelve dollars per inhabi
tant. And twelve dollars, mind you,
will barely pay for a single Ford tire.
But considering the proposed issue of
new bonds aside and apart from the
present bonded indebtedness of the state,
let us figure out a twenty million, thirty
six-year, five-percent bond issue for the
colleges and eleemosynary institutions
of the state. Reduced to its simplest
terms it means forty-eight cents a year
per inhabitant. That is to say, forty-
eight cents a year per inhabitant not
only pays the annual interest on twenty
millions of bonds but settles the debt in
thirty-six years upon an amortization
plan.
It is a forty-eight-oent proposition.
Does this look like a heavy per capita
PARTY SUPREMACY
The highway of civilization is
strewn thick with the wrecks of
parties, but it is yet to be recorded
that any party was ever wrecked on
a program of progress in education.
Parties come and go, politicians
may rise and fall, says Henry Wat-
terson, but the education of the
youth of the country goes on for
ever.
Party supremacy in North Caro
lina is and forever ought to be related
to statesmanship in education.
That party will last longest that
dares most for the youth of the
state.—E. C. Branson. ,
annual tax? If so, it is pertinent to re
mark that the people of Arizona bear a
per capita annual tax of eighty cents
for their state university alone, and the
people of Nebraska a per capita annual
tax of fifty-three cents for their state
university alone. But in North Caro
lina, forty-eight cents a year per inhab
itant would double the capacity not of
the University atone but of every state
institution of learning and benevolence
as well.
What Arizona and Nebraska are do
ing for their state universities alone
surely the rich state of North Carolina
is able to do with less money for all her
state colleges and eleemosynary institu
tions.
The question of a twenty million bond
issue for state institutions of learning
and benevolence is the simple question
of whether or not the people of the
state are willing to assume an addition
al bonded indebtedness amounting to
eight dollars per inhabitant and an ad
ditional tax averaging forty-eight cents
a year per person.
Reduced to abc terms, the question
is. Do the people of North Carolina con
sider that adequate college education
and adequate care of her afflicted chil
dren is worth forty-eight cents a year
per inhabitant?
Have we yet to learn, in Senator Ben
Hill’s words, that education is the one
thing for which no people ever yet paid
too much; that the more they pay the
richer they become; that nothing is so
costly as ignorance and nothing so cheap
as knowledge?
We ought to be able to learn this fun
damental, lesson as easily as Louisana
has done. The bottom has dropped out
of sugar prices and her sugar planters
are in just as sorry plight as our cotton
and tobacco farmers. Nevertheless her
legislature voted five million dollars the
other day as a two-year building fund
for her University. The money is al
ready available and 'architects, engi
neers, and contractors are now as busy
as bees at Baton Rouge. *
What Will Carolina Do?
In Ohio the building program of the
University is three million dollars. In
Minnesota it is three and a quarter mil
lions. In Wisconsin it is four millions.
In Louisiana it is five millions. In Mich
igan it is nearly nine millions. In Texas
the amount proposed is seven and a
half millions.
And the results are university prop
erties worth six and a quarter million
dollars in Louisiana, ten and a half mil
lion dollars in Texas, eleven million dol
lars in Ohio, thirteen million dollars in
Wisconsin, fifteen million dollars in
Minnesota, and seventeen million dol
lars in Michigan. Beside these hand
some university properties, our two mil
lion dollar university plant dwindles into
insignificance.
What, then, can be the building pro
gram of the University of North Caro
lina during the next five years? and
what can it be for the other state insti
tutions?
The answer lies with the people of
the state and their elected representa
tives at the capital—not in the lap of
the gods but on the knees of the legis
lature. ^
The wool growers are in distress in
Ohio, and the wheat farmers in Wiscon
sin and Minnesota, and the motor car
makers in Michigan, and the cotton
farmers in Texas, and the sugar plant
ers in Louisiana, but they have millions
for their state universities neverthe
less.
Is it waste or wisdom? stupidity or
statesmanship? The people of these
states are not in doubt about the an
swer. Are we in doubt about it in North
Carolina?
Whatever the answer may be, it can
no longer turn upon the poverty of the
people of this state—not when we are
rich enough to pay 163 million dollars
into the federal treasury in a single
year—not when we are rich enough to
spend 157 millions a year on tobacco
products, motor cars, luxurious clothing,
and sweetmeats alone!
People who spend fifty millions a year
on tobacco and twelve millions on pub
lie schools, forty-seven millions on
motor cars and six millions on churches,
thirty-five millions on fine apparel and
seven millions on the state, twenty-five
millions on' confections and two and a
half millions on colleges, may be poV'
erty-stricken in spirit, but they are not
poverty-stricken in purse. And if we
will not mend these shameful ratios
somewhat, we stahd convicted of wan
ton self-indulgence and graceless un
concern about the vital things of a
noble civilization.
Our leaders need not hesitate to lead.
The highway of civilization is strewn
thick with the wrecks of parties, but
it is yet to be recorded that any party
was ever wrecked on a program of prog
ress in education. ‘ ‘Parties come and
go, politicians may rise and fall”, said
Henry Watterson, “but the education
of the youth of the country goes on
forever. ’ ’
Party supremacy in North Carolina
is and forever ought to be related to
statesmanship in education. That party
will live longest that dares most for
the youth of the state.
The time has come for the people of
North Carolina to heed the solemn words
of Solomon: “There is that maketh
himself rich, yet hath nothing; there is
that maketh himself poor, yet hath
great riches. There is that scattereth,
and yet increaseth; and there is that
withholdeth more than is meet, but it
tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul
shall be made fat, and he that watereth
shall be watered also himself.”—E. C.
Branson, address before the Wilming
ton Mass Meeting for College Support.
THE STATE CONFERENCE FOR
SOCIAL SERVICE, RALEIGH,
JANUARY 25-7
The Conference meeting this year is
set for January 25-7, Raleigh.
The special group conferences begin
on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 25, at 2:30
o’clock. They appeal to Rural Commu
nity workers of all sorts. Mill Village
Community workers^ Public Welfare
superintendents and board members.
Travelers’ Aid secretaries, executives
of Associated Charities, Juvenile Court
officials. Red Cross secretaries, Y. M.
C. A. and Y. W. C. A. officials. Rural
School supervisors. Community Organi
zation and Recreation agents, teachers
in Community Schools for Adults, Home
and Farm Extension agents. Public
Health officials, the officers and board
members of Child-Caring institutions,
the heads of Eleemosynary institutions
in general, public and private, church
and state—to nearly 3,500 officials in
North Carolina who are charged with
various public welfare duties, and to
many more thousands of social-minded
citizens whose hands and hearts and
bank accounts are generously devoted
to the relief of man’sestate in the earth.
These are all invited to be present at
some one or another of these group con
ferences.
And also they are invited into the
general sessions, which begin Tuesday
evening, Jan. 26. These general ses
sions will be devoted, in the order named,
to a ebnsideration of (1) The New Day
in North Carolina, (2) Wholesome Rec
reation, (3) the Correlation of Social
Agencies, (4) The Juvenile Court, and
(5) the Needs of Our State Institutions
of Benevolence. ^
Upon request the program in detail
will be sent by Mrs. Clara S. Lingle,
Secretary, Davidson, N. C.
A MANIFEST DUTY
The University of North Carolina is
trying heroically to make bricks with
out straw. It is endeavoring to instruct
young men—who live in fearfully over
crowded dormitoties—with frightfully
overcrowded professors in woefully over
taxed class-rooms. And be it recorded
as a testimonial to the faithfulness of
the faculty of the institution, it is suc
ceeding admirably well.
But the limit of a capacity already
strained to the last point of efficiency
has been reached. Confronted with the
choice of turning its back upon aspiring
young men or of overtaxing its facili
ties, it has elected the alternative. No
one has been denied entrance whose
credentials were acceptable. Seven
hundred and fifty students are living in
dormitories erected to house 460. Seven
hundred and twenty-five young men are
eating in a mess-hall that the optimis
tic architect assured would feed 450.
The University has doubled its en
rollment in ten years and trebled it in
twenty and it now stands on the thresh
old of its greatest era of expansion.
The public schools of North Carolina
are graduating each year a whole regi
ment of young men whose ambitions
incline them toward a college training.
Naturally they look to their state to
provide them the chance of securing
this college education.
Unless relief is immediately secured
the University must restrict its oppor
tunities to a few while the many are
forced to seek elsewhere for the privi
lege of being educated. The education
al leaders of North Carolina have spent
many years in the effort to make the
young men of the state appreciate the
worth of college training. The youth
of the state now clamor for the chance
to secure this education. It would in
deed be a sad commentary upon the pro
gressiveness of our state if our Univer
sity crowded beyond its capacity should
be forced to say to many of these young
men: “You must do without your col
lege education because we haven’t the
buildings and the teachers.” These
young men skipped by their state uni
versity could not look elsewhere, for all
of our colleges and universities are filled
to their capacities.
The General Assembly must act with
promptness and with generosity. A
parsimonious attitude toward the Uni
versity at this critical time would be
little short of criminal. To delay until
the legislature of 1923 would not afford
the relief. It requires time to erect
buildings. The need exists now and the
State of North Carolina is too wealthy
to indulge in a policy of procrastination.
—The Asheville Citizen.
RICH AS CROESUS
Directly and indirectly $172,000,000
was collected for the Federal Treasury
in North Carolina last year. That ex
ceeds by $50,000,000 the total amount
the state has spent for education in its
entire history.
Democracy will certainly not be safe
for the world unless we give the people
the habit of thinking intelligently, to
the end that they will be ruled by truth
instead of by prejudice or emotion.—
P. P. Claxton, U. S. Commissioner of
Education.
A MORE VITAL CULTURE
What the country needs most in the
youth of the next generation is a broad
er horizon of thought through a larger
knowledge of the social sciences. The
youth themselves are ripe for it—their
minds have been laid open for it by the
stirring events of the last six years. It
should be part of our educational pur
pose to make sure that the coming gen
eration knows the world and its needs
better than did their fathers.
It is not difficult to assess the differ
ence between the demand the world
now makes upon the schools and col
leges, and the demand it formerly made.
It can be expressed in one word—prac
ticality. I mean nothing cheap or sor
did by that word practicality. There is
such a thing as being practical spiritually
—as desiring that the power acquired
through education shall not stop at
self-adornment but shall pass on to the
building of a better social oi-der.
And that is the idea stirring in the
heart of the youth of today. The old
loyalty to liberal culture, the pursuit of
learning as a decoration for life and an
endowment for leisure—these will not
and ought not to die out in a nation
such as ours. But the temper of the
time calls for an educational programme
more vital and powerful in its moulding
influence upon the social whole.—Ed
win A. Alderman, President University
of Virginia.