The news in this publi
cation is released for the
’press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
LETTEH
Published Weekly by Uie
University of North Caro
lina for its University Ex
tension Division.
MA.Y 17. 1922
CHAPEL Hn.T., N. C.
VOL. VIII, NO. 26
« *ard i E. C. ^rtiiisoii.S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson, E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bnllitt, H. W. Odum. Entered as second-class matter Noyembor 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. 0., under the wjt of August 24, 1918.
HOLDING DOWN FARM WEALTH
TENANCY AND THE CHURCH
The Church and Landless Men was
discussed by L. G. Wilson at a Febru
ary meeting of the North Carolina Club
at the University of North Carolina. A
report of the study appeared in the
March 29 issue of the News Letter.
The response of the reading public
within and beyond the state was im
mediate and overwhelming. Ministers
of all denominations are calling on us
for the paper in full text.'
We are therefore putting it into bul
letin form for free distribution by the
University Extension Division, but as
usual the edition will be small and copies
will be sent only to the people who
write for it.
The contents are as follows: (1) The
Church and Landless Men, by L. G.
Wilson, (2) The Fifty Religious Bodies
of the State, by E. C. Branson, (3)
Church Wealth in North Carolina, by
E. C. Branson, and (4) Church and Non-
Church Membership by Counties in
North Carolina, by Rev. A. W. Craw
ford, with interpretations by E. C.
Branson.
Address G. D. Snell,--*Director Uni
versity Extension Division, or E. C.
Branson, Chapel Hill, N. C.
A LiSERAL EDUCATION
English, history, biology, political and
social science—these four subjects,, in
the opinion of President H. W. Chase,
of the University of North Carolina,
should be regarded as the fundamental
requirements of a liberal education.
Culture, if it be true and genuine, he
said, must give understanding , and ap
preciation, not primarily of life as it
went on somewhere under quite differ
ent conditions, but of life as you and I
experience it. We may know all that
made a cultured Greek, and yet not be
a cultured American. Every great cul
ture has been close to life as it Was ac
tually experienced and lived.
Culture is real when it is close to
life. Why, then, should liberal educa
tion shrink from life? Is today less
noble than yesterday? Has ever any
generation faced a life that it needed
more to understand and interpret? Why
should we not take life in the 20th cen
tury in America, in the South, Vir
ginia, North Carolina, as the great domi
nant motive of liberal education today?
-President H. W. Chase, University
of North Carolina, Phi Beta Kappa ad
dress, Lynchburg, Va.
PROVOKING COMPARISONS
How rich in farm properties are the
farmers of North Carolina?
The answer is $684 per country inhab
itant, against $1,836 in the United
States, $8,113 in Iowa, $7,261 in South
Dakota, and so on. See the table in our
last week’s issue.
Why do we stand above forty states
in crop totals and per-acre yields, and
below them in the farm wealth saved
and accumulated?
Our farmers produce enormous crop
wealth, but somehow they do not retain
it—Why? What is wrong?
What is the richest farm county in
North Carolina, per country inhabitant?
It falls below the average for the Uni
ted States by more than $300 per person
-Why?
How does your home county rank?
See the county table in another column.
Why is its rank high or low, the state
average considered?
Here are important questions for the
farmers, but they are just as important
for the merchants and bankers and
manufacturers, the teachers and
preachers and social servants of every
sort in North Carolina.
Next week’s issue will rank our coun
ties on the basis of per capita white
taxables, as these appear on the 1921
tax lists.
The tables of the News Letter are
worth putting side by side. They afford
startling comparisons—^t least for peo
ple who have headpieces to think with.
AID TO HOME OWNERSHIP
Far in the lead in the ratio of debt-
free homes—only Nevada makes a bet
ter showing; far in the lead in paying
off home mortgages during the flush
times of the war period, with a better
I
record in this particular than forty-five ^
other states of the Union; with two-1
thirds of our white farmers and one-1
third of our negro farmers owning their j
own farms, but with two-thirds or more I
of our city dwellers living in rented'
houses and nearly ten thousand town ■
families in excess of available dwellings ■
of any sort, even a box-car or a hutch in
the slums — such is the background
against which Mr. J. P. Trotter set his
discussion of Building and Loan Asso
ciations at a recent meeting of the
North Carolina Club at the University.
With one hundred thousand families
in rented houses in our towns and cities,
ten thousand of whom have no chance
even to rent a dwelling of any sort,
there is evident need for an immense
increase of building and loan assets,
said Mr. Trotter.
North Carolina has done well in de
veloping building and loan business
since D. A. Tompkins fathered the idea
in this state in the early nineties of the
last century.. Undoubtedly it was his
influence that put Charlotte ahead in
North Carolina in building and loan ac
tivities. With nearly five million dol
lars of assets, her building and loan as
sociations lead the cities of the state,
followed by Wilmington with two and a
half millions, and Winston-Salem with
one and a quarter millions.
But the housing shortage of these
cities according to the 1920 census is
1,079 in Charlotte, 835 in Wilmington
and 1,353 in Winston-Salem.
Instead of 30 million dollars of B-and-
L assets, the shortage of ten thousand
dwellings in our 65 census-size cities
calls for 75 million dollars—and the need
is urgent.
High Point started a great campaign
to wipe out the housing shortage last
December, but we have been unable to
learn the results to date.
Greensboro is conducting a campaign
to sell fifty thousand shares of building
and loan stock, and Greensboro has a
way of succeeding in great enterprises.
Durham began briskly to campaign
for a hundred new dwellings or about
one-seventh of the number needed.
Salisbury and Fayetteville and Raleigh
are all talking about the housing short
age. We hope soon to report final re
sults in all the cities of the state.
Tax-free stock earning five and a
third percent interest ought to attract
investment capital that is hunting for
safety; and money borrowed at three
and a third percent ought to attract
thrifty people who want to borrow build
ing capital.
The investment feature of B-and-L
stock needs to be campaigned in every
North Carolina town just as in Greens
boro.
A combination of investors, savers,
and borrowers in building and loan or
ganizations would easily put North
Carolina at the top of the column as a
home-owning state.
Our position is already conspicuous;
it could easily be first.
Mr. Trotter’s paper will appear in
full in the North Carolina Club Year-
Book in the early fall.
RAMSHACKLE DEMOCRACY
The Comptroller of the State of New
York has power to send examiners to
any county to investigate and report
upon its financial methods. The law
was a dead letter until Mr. Glynn,
afterwards Governor, became comptrol
ler and secured an appropriation for
the salaries of a few examiners. They
had no difficulty in finding wanton use
of the taxpayer’s money in nearly
every county, not with criminal intent,
to be sure, but in a spirit of simple
recklessness. They found irregularities
in every county. They have now cover
ed fifty-seven of them, and the head
of the staff says: ‘ Tn not a single county
examined has there been found com
pliance with every provision of law.”
The typical county jail is a horror, a
school for crime and unnatural sexual
vices, where men who are innocent, or
at least not vicious, cannot possibly re
main without becoming contaminated
or callous to things that at the begin
ning of their incarceration they find re
volting. At Utica a recent scandal
brought the sheriff’s office into the
courts, where it was learned that the
jail had witnessed scenes of open de
Released for week beginning May 15
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
Respect for the La'w
Angus W. McLean
We hear a great deal today about
our much-vaunted civilization. Are
we civilized enough? No people,
says Ramsey Muir the eminent Brit
ish essayist, can be called fully civi
lized until there is widely diffused a-
mong its members the sense of their
obligation not merely to obey the
law, but to obey it willingly and to
cooperate in enforcing and maintain
ing it.
Not all laws are obeyed as they
should be. Some are taken serious
ly, others receive passing interest,
while a few are entirely ignored.
Any law to be effective must be en
forced not by uniformed police of
ficers but by the will and moral
sanction of the community. Law,
like representative government, is
forceful only when the people re
solve to make it so. That principle
is patent to every one.
But any violator of any law who
goes unpunished or receives nominal
punishment for his offence—whether
he be an influential bootlegger or an
inoffensive beggar—is a serious men
ace to a community. Every such
case weakens respect for authority
and emasculates other laws.
If we have bad laws in North
Carolina, we should abolish them in
order to protect the good ones; and
while our citizens are as upright and
as law-abiding as any State, we
should keep everlastingly before us
our civic duty not only to obey the
laws ourselves but to see to it that
they are enforced. That is a whole
some principle of any highly-ordered
civilization.
bauchery with women prisoners, of
ficers of the jail, and friends of the
latter from outside.
The sheriff is commonly compensated
by fees. This still survives even in
New York county, where the fees net
the sheriff $60,000 a year in addition to
the comfortable salary of $12,000. Ef
forts are made from time to time to a-
mend the law and steer these fees into
the treasury, but there is no assurance
that the plan would work. Hudson
County, New Jersey, tried that, and,
instead of deriving a nice revenue from
the sheriff’s office, the county acquired
an annual deficit, for patronage multi
plied and thrift declined when the fruits
of economy were no longer the sheriff’s
private perquisites.
Ideally Bad
In its form of organization the typi
cal county is ideally bad. It is almost
completely disjoined. Each officer is
independent of all the rest, standing on
his own separate pedestal of popular
election with a full right to tell all the
other county officers to go to glory. It
is like an automobile with a separate
motor at every wheel, each going its
own gait.
Nominally the board of supervision is
at the head of the county because it
holds the purse-strings; but the power
of the purse is only partial, inasmuch
as a multitude of laws fastens various
charges upon the county and sets the
salaries of a great many of its subor
dinate officers. Practically the board’s
only power consists of an ability to
hamper the other elective officials by
making restricted appropriations. It
has no real power to supervise them or
to compel them to expend the appro
priations with care and discretion.
Even if they had the power, the
board of supervisors is not properly
organized or equipped to handle such a
task. The running of a county 'is a
complex administrative problem, re
quiring incessant and active supervi
sion; but the supervisors meet only at
stated intervals, quarterly or monthly,
for instance, and are in no position to
keep continuous oversight of affairs.
Frequently the board is too large to be
anything but a debating society, any
way.
Any form of organization which at
tempts to be a common denominator
for varying types of counties ought to
be primitively simple, a mere skeleton,
and a model so far as it goes. But the
framework of county government as
laid down in the written law is no skele
ton. A diagram of it looks like a ball
of yarn after the cat has got through
with it.
The Way Out
A satisfactory solution of county
problems can be worked out only by a
steady process of evolution, under con
ditions that give scope for experiment,
freedom from needless constitutional
restrictions. The counties must be free
to advance individually and not in per
petual lockstep. Let the more pro
gressive counties feel their way cau
tiously forward, to be followed by the
others when the value of a given step
is clearly proved by experience.
The path of progress will surely be
in the general direction of unification
and simplification.
Some of the elective officers must be
transferred to the appointive list, and
those who remain elective must be
built up in power, influence, and con
spicuousness until they command the
discriminating attention of the electo
rate.
The bafiot must not continue to be too
long to remember, but must be short
ened sufficiently to come within the
complete oversight of the voters.
The county must be given a definite
head. The limbs and the body must be
joined together and put under the easy
control of a brain. Responsibility must
be clearly located. Not otherwise can
the people of a county secure an organ
ism that will be an effective and obe
dient servant.
Political science—there is such a
thing, but no true American will re
spect it—teaches that no technical of
fice should be elective; th'at none, in
fact, should be elective except truly
representative officers where the func
tion is to interpret public opinion.
Members of the legislature, congress
men, aldermen, and county supervisors
(or whatever you call them in your
state) should be amateurs, spokesmen
for the people, samples of the ignor
ance as well as of the enlightenment of
the voters, and from them all the oth
ers, the experts, should take their
orders.
That is the pathway towards effici
ency and economy. —Richard S. Childs,
in Ramshackle County Government.
THE DISTRICT SCHOOL
The South is primarily a rural re
gion and the rural school is its primary
educational problem. It is persistent
and difficult to solve because it is the
product of the outworn district system.
Small in size and population, feeble in
resources of economic wealth, often ‘in
men and women of real leadership, the
district school has served its usefulness.
To new ideas and methods of reform it
is sluggish and inert. It is provincial
and selfish and extremly individualistic.
The district system of educational
control constitutes the most unfortunate
educational practice the south has ever
known. It has done more than any
one thing to keep the schools backward,
the people illiberal and selfish, and to
warp the correct conception of demo
cratic ideals. It produces and perpet
uates not the social and co-operative
but the individualistic and suspicious
mind.
No substantial and safe progress in
in education in rural communities can
be made so long as the district system
of school support and control is allowed
to continue.—Edgar'W. Knight.
FARM WEALTH IN CAROLINA COUNTIES
Per Country Dweller in 1919 and 1909
Based (1) on the 1920 and the 1910 censuses, (2) referring to wealth in farm
properties—farm lands and buildings, farm implements and machinery, and
livestock, and (3) to dwellers in the open country outside all incorporated towns
and cities.
Total value of farm properties in North Carolina in 1919 as reported by the
farmers themselves to the census takers $1,260,166,996; average per country in
habitant $684, against $322 in 1909. In the United States the average was $1,-
836, in South Dakota $7,261, in Iowa $8,113.
Per capita tax wealth by counties will be exhibited next week.
S. H. Hobbs, Jr.
Rural Social Science Department, University of North Carolina,
1919
1909
1919
1909
Per Rural
Per Rural
Rank
County Per Rural
Por Rural
Inhabitant
Inhabitant
Inhabitant
Inhabitant
1
Wayne
. $1,497
$381
61
Caswell
. $626
$246
2
Pitt
.. 1,482
341
62
Currituck ....
. 600
329
3
Greene
. 1,391
388
63
Orange.”
.. 695
218
4
Lenoir
.. 1,290
386
64
Davie
. 588
286
5
Wilson
. 1,286
377
55
"Vance
.. 687
249
6
Scotland
. 1,190
466
56
Clay
.. 584
288
7
Nash
. 1,123
286
67
Randolph
.. 577
266
8
Edgecombe..
. 1,088
363
58
Haywood
. 668
291
9
Alleghany ...
.. 1,008
660
69
Chatham
.. 667
248
10
Johnston ....
. 1,004
330
60
Buncombe...
. 665
439
11
Sampson ....
997
329
61
Gates
. 664
302
12
Alamance ...
972
249
62
Onslow
.. 560
197
13
Jones
966
251
63
Columbus ....
. 548
213
14
Martin
920
244
64
Alexander ....
.. 643
294
16
Robeson ....
889
366
66
Perquimans ..
. 640
221
16
Rowan
862
273
66
Henderson....
.. 636
370
17
Hertford ....
853
322
66
Polk
.. 636
305
18
Beaufort....
838
267
68
Anson .......
.. 520
257
19
Duplin
821
274
69
Guilford
.. 612
299
20
Cleveland....
812
386
70
Caldwell
.. 609
290
21
Hoke
810
—
70
Warren
. 509
218
22
Craven
798
281
72
Gaston
498
276
23
Wake
788
272
73
Cabarrus
.. 496
348
24
Iredell
786
377
74
Pender
.. 493
229
26
Yadkin
783
314
74
Moore .......
. 493
166
26
Pasquotank..
762
361
76
Richmond....
486
176
27
Franklin ....
758
227
77
Tyrrell
.. 484
216
28
Person
733
237
78
Rutherford...
.. 474
293
29
Harnett
730
225
79
Bladen .......
.. 473
211
30
Mecklenburg
726
466
80
Montgomery..
.. 449
180
31
Bertie
710
245
81
Madison
.. 444
284
32
Ashe
707
425
82
Yancey
. 429
318
33
Watauga....
706
363
83
Carteret
.. 408
108
34
Halifax
702
206
84'
Stanly
.. 400
231
36
Pamlico
697
263
85
Transylvania..
.. 391
301
36
Davidson....
688
449
86
Rockingham...
.. 382
191
37
Granville....
679
266
87
Wilkes
.. 377
222
38
Catawba ....
663
349
88
Mitchell
.. 371
231
39
Camden
650
303
89
Jackson
.. 369
217
39
Union
650
300
90
Macon
.. 367
224
41
Hyde
647
300
91
Burke
.. 364
260
42
Lee
, 645
195
92
Avery
.. 351
—
43
Stokes
644
279
93
Durham
.. 389
210
44
Northampton
642
258
94
Graham
.. 293
175
44
Surry
642
251
95
Cherokee
.. 278
164
46
Chowan
638
287
96
New Hanover.
.. 268
181
47
Cumberland .
636
313'
97
Brunswick....
... 269
161
48
Forsyth
634
333.
98
McDowell....
.. 258
204
49
Washington..
628
185
99
Swain
. 222
149
50
Lincoln
627
291
100
Dare
.. 39
47