The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
DECEMBER 20, 1922
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
CHAPEL HTTT., N. G.
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
VOL, IX, NO. 7
Eiitorinl Boards B. 0. Branson, B.H. Hobbs, Jr., L. B. Wilson. B. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt, H. W. Odam. Enterod as second-class matter November 14.19U, at tho Postoffine at Chapel Hill, N. O., under the act of AuFrust34,1913
TWELVE MILLION FOR STOCK-FEED
STATE AID IS NECESSARY
The town of Chapel Hill is hard put
to it because one owner of more than
half the property within the corporate
limits is exempt from taxes. This cir
cumstance makes the tax rate here ab
normally high—much higher than in
other North Carolina communities.. The
combined town and county rate is
$2,326. Homes are the principal source
of revenue, and home owners groan
under the burden.
The exempted property owner is the
University. A committee appointid
by the board of aldermen appeared be
fore the executive committee of the
trustees here this week and asked that
the institution contribute $5,000 a year
for the next two years to the munici
pal government. This amount would
be divided among sanitation, police,
fire, streets, health, street lights, and
hydrants.
Mayor W. S. Robeson, Aldermen
H. W. Odum, G. M. Braune, and M.
W. Durham, and City Manager Knox
made up the petitioning committee.
“The University students number a-
bout 1900 and the town has a popula
tion of 1800,” said Mr. Knox after the
hearing. “The town has to provide the
various municipal services—fire, police,
sanitation, and so on—for the total of
3700. But the burden falls on the per
manent residents. The town pays the
the University for water for fire hydrant
and for electric current for street
lights. The fire company and the lights
benefit the university but the univer
sity is not taxed for them as other
property holders are. It is true that
the university contributes something
toward fire protection, but it is a small
sum compared with what the town
pays to the university for light and
water.
“We are not asking a contribution
anything like as large as the univer
sity’s tax bill would be if its property
were subject to taxation, but for only
$5,000. The executive committee gave
us a most sympathetic hearing. Natur
ally they can’t give us any definite re
ply now, because such a matter has to
be passed on by the l^islature. We
feel sure that the legislature, when it
knows all the circumstances in the
case, will decide that the University
should bear part of the cost of services
that it so plainly benefits from.”
The United States, government pays
half the expenses of running the city
of Washington, and the taxpayers pay
the other half. The situation there is
similar to that now existing in Chapel
Hill, in each case a great public insti
tution, exempt from regular taxation,
dominates the community.—University
Press Item.
mill communities whereas the New
England operatives are continually
leaving the mills for other kinds of
work?
Fall River, even today, is manufac
turing print cloths on plain looms and
trying to compete with the automatic
looms of the South and always the
Southern mills have been quicker to a-
dopt improvements and labor-saving
devices.
The cotton manufacturing industry
of New England is not going out of
business but will specialize more and
more while the South expands in cot
ton manufacturing along ordinary lines
and also advances in the manufacture
of fine goods.
The great market for cotton mill
machinery and supplies will be in the
South.—Gastonia Gazette.
THE SOUTH’S SUPREMACY
The supremacy of the Scijith in tex
tiles is not due to the fact that the cot
ton mills are located in the cotton fields,
which is popularly supposed to be an
advantage. Northern mills get their
cotton about as cheap as Southern
mills, as David Clark points out in the
Southern Textile Bulletin. By reason
of low water rates, New England mills
get cotton at fair prices. The real
reason for the supremacy of the South
ern mills is in its employees.
The greatest asset of the Southern
cotton mills is the character of their
employed helpers, all of whom are pure-
blooded Anglo-Saxons, speaking the
English language and with none of the
bolshevik traits of the foreign-born
operatives of New England.
The climate of the South requires
less fuel for heating of the homes and
less expensive clothing, and the soil per
mitting the operatives to raise their
own vegetables, the cost of living is
much less than that of the New Eng
land operatives. •
The Southern operatives live in the
mill village at a rent of 26 cents per
room per week, often including lights
and water, while the New England
operatives usually live in houses rented
from individuals and pay several times
that amount in addition to the expenses;
of lights and water and often street
car fare to and from the mills.
Is it any wonder that the Southern
operatives can live better on less
wages and are content to live in the
THE TWIN-CITY I F ADS
The Twin-City now has under con
struction, contracted for, or to be con
tracted for by uie lirKt ox next year,
buildings to cost uerriy as much as the
entire value ol tne school property in
Durham. The Twin-Ciry Sentinel of
last Wednesday carried the following a-
bout the school program of that city
which we pass along as evidence of the
great progress other cities are making
in school work:
First, in the carrying out of the au
thorized program, the following grounds
have been bought:
R. J. Reynolds high school; Skyland;
new North; new Central; new South-
side; new colored school on Fourteenth
street; Fairview; Granville; Woodland
avenue (colored).
The following grounds are yet to be
bought:
New West End; new Oak street (col
ored); Columbia Heights (colored).
The following buildings have been
completed, the figures given represent'
ing approximate cost, or amount allowed
in bond issue:
Six-room addition and enlarged au
ditorium at Granville, $35,000.
Twelve-room Columbia Heights col
ored junior and senior high school $66,-
000.
The following buildings have been
contracted for and begun:
R. J. Reynolds high school, $100,000;
Skyland, $116,000; New North, $180,000;
New Fourteenth Street colored grade
and junior high school, $120,000.
The following authorized building
projects will be ready for contract be
fore Janurary 1, 1923:
New Central school, $90,000; new
Southside school, $76,000 to $80,000.
The new West End and new Oak
street (colored) buildings are to be de
signed as soon as the ground is bought.
Durham’s school system is making
rapid progress. During the past five
years, the appraised value of the city
school property has increased from ap
proximately $330,000 to about $1,330,-
000. In other words, the value of the
city’s school property has increased by
one million dollars in five years, and
the cost of operating the schools is now
about $295,000, which represents an in
crease of a little more than $39,000 a
year for the past five years. That'may
seem large, but it is not out of propor
tion to the progress that is being made
by other cities, in fact the program
is not as extensive as some, Winston-
Salem being an example.—Durham
Herald.
WHAT NEXT IN CAROLINA
Farm Ownership in North Carolina,
its present status and the means of
ass'sisting our landless farmers to own
apd successfully operate their own
farms, was the subject presented to
the North Carolina Club at the Univer
sity in its fourth meeting of the col
lege year by Mr. Andrew Joyner, Jr.,
of Guilford county.
Mr. Joyner had made a thorough
study of his subject, and he showed
that the tenant situation in this state is
becoming more and more acute. Unless
this growing menace to our agricultur
al, social, and economic development is
checked, he said, it is easy to perceive
consequences of a grave and serious
nature. He showed that there has been
tremendous increase in the number of
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
A Tennessee Verdict
The St. Louis Globe Democrat re
minds some of the Western States
that vaunt themselves much over
good roads, that North Carolina has
a pre-eminent record in good roads
building.
The experts say that North Caro
lina is next to Pennsylvania in the
, quality of its highway system.
North Carolina has a program in
volving an expenditure around $90, -
000,000. It has more than 3,000
miles of hard roads.
Among the other records North
Carolina has are these: Leads in
the manufacture of tobacco. It con
sumes one-fourth of the tobacco
crop in the country. It has more
cotton mills than any other state in
the Union. In the number of em
ployes and in output North Carolina
leads all the other Southern states
in cotton manufacturing. It has the
largest pulp mill in the country and
the biggest aluminum plant in the
world.
North Carolina has large water
power possibilities. Tennessee has
greater water power possibilities.
North Carolina has little coal or
iron. Tennessee has both.
While the Globe Democrat calls
North Carolina to the attention of
Missouri, we might well call the
same progress to the attention of
the people of Tennessee.
North Carolina is homogeneous.
Tennessee is divided into three parts.
North Carolina has fierce politics,
but after the men are elected to
office they try to do something for
their state.
The mental caliber of officeholders
in North Carolina is higher than that
of officeholders in Tennessee.
We might learn much from our
neighboring state. A committee
from the Tennessee Legislature this
year might go over to North Caro
lina and study that state’s road pro
gram and other things subject to
legislation which are factors in the
great advancement of the Tar Heel
State.—Memphis Commercial Ap
peal.
tenants within the last four decades,
and that many farmers who own their
own land are pulling up and moving to
the towns and mill centers, along with
great numbers ,of tenants and crop
pers.
The speaker enumerated several rem
edies that have been advanced for al
leviating the present ^tuation, such as
(1) Land Nationalization, (2) a Gradu
ated Land Tax, (3) State-Aided Land
Colonies, (4) A Transfer Tax, and (5)
A State Rural Credit System. He
then added that it might be possible
for the approaching General Assembly
to adapt one or more of these plans to
local conditions and evolve a perma
nent, practical solution; but he added,
legislation at best can only sanction and
support self-effort at economic and
social progress; and unless the farmer
is willing to help himself legislation
can do little for him; there must be
something deeper and of more endur
ing value than mere legislation.
Mr. Joyner stated that North Caro
lina had already made a beginning in
various measures calculated to relieve
present conditions, as illustrated by the
Torrens land-title system passed in
1913 which promised to offer relief by
making titles sure; by enacting legisla
tion in 1916 which authorized the crea
tion of private cooperative credit unions
and other cooperative associations; by
adopting a constitutional amendment
in 1917 exempting from taxation all
notes given for the purchase of homes
costing $3,000 or less, provided the
notes matured in not less than five nor
more than twenty years, and provided
further that the rate of interest was
not more than five percent. He added
that slight if any relief resulted from
these legislative efforts; that intelligent
legislation may render collateral aid
but we must resort to the more sub
stantial and effective measures of self-
help.
In order to treat the disease of ten
ancy, Mr. Joyner said that a diagnosis
of the case was necessary. According
ly he divided the tenants up into four
classes: First, those who are young,
vigorous, and thrifty and are climbing
rapidly. Second, those who possess
energy and knowledge of farming but
are poor managers. They are capable
of producing if properly directed. Third,
those who possess qualities and capital
that would permit them to own farms,
but who prefer to rent. They may
figure that it is cheaper to remain a
tenant than to own land, and there
fore invest their funds in livestock,
banking, city property, etc. Fourth,
the class which comprises the incompe
tents, familiar to every observer of
rural life. They are an ignorant, illiter
ate, thriftless, and irresponsible mass.
It is clearly evident, he said, that
this last class is the infected group,
and that farm tenants in this class
differ in no respect from all other forms
of illiteracy and its accompanying pov
erty as found the world over.
The only true course toward perma
nent relief requires the letting in of
light and air, and this light and air is
education. We flatter ourselves with
the belief that we have done much.
True it is that we have made great
gains in this matter within the last
twenty years, yet we have made but a
beginning, he said. We must educate
and educate'and educate! Our system
of education must afford an equal op
portunity for the children of the farm
er, the mill operative, and every other
class of citizens. We must teach men
to think, and then we should teach them
subjects of practical value. We must
teach health and sanitation, as well as
the various sciences of good husbandry,
and we should lay stress on the strength
of cooperative endeavors. In this en
deavor the schools must render a maxi
mum of service, and there is also an
opportunity for the church, the press,
and big business. Legislation may
prove of partial aid, and it is possible
that temporary auxiliary relief may be
obtained from such a source, but funda
mentally there is but one cure for this
public distress—and that is public edu
cation, directed to make men thought
ful, merciful, and just.—A. M. Moser.
PROGRESS OF THE STATE
Doctor Holland Thompson, professor
of history in the College of the City of
New York, back home for a brief spell
after an extended absence, saw many
evidences of progress in this state and
was deeply impressed with develop
ment of its industrial interests. He
saw abundant tokejjs that North Caro
lina “is soon destined to be one of the
greatest in the Union, ” and if he had
tarried for a while that he could have
had opportunity to cover more terri
tory, he might have arrived at the con
clusion some of us hold, that it is al
ready the “greatest.” Doctor Thomp
son was particularly impressed with the
educational advancement, not only at
the University, but throughout every
county in the state. It will not be long
until North Carolina will be considered
big enough and good enough for any
body to live in.—-Charlotte Observer.
FARMS BUYING STOCK FEED
In North Carolina in 1919
Nearly half or 47.8 percent of all the farms in North Carolina in 1919 bought
feed for their livestock and spent for this purpose $12,291,860.
The ratios vary all the way from 19.7 percent in Swain county to 77.8 per
cent in Nash and 84.8 percent in Dare, running highest in the cotton and tobac
co counties, and lowest in the grain and forage counties of the Albemarle coun
try, the mid-state and the mountain regions.
The first business of a farm is to feed the farm ^ family and the farm ani
mals. If it fails to do this, it runs the risk of failing altogether.
George Sparrow, Orange County
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank
Counties
Percent
Rank
Counties
Percent
1
Swain
19.7
61
Pender
46.3
2
Clay
25.4
52
Bladen
46.5
3
Cleveland
26.5
63
Columbus
47.5
4
Hyde
26.6
54
Hertford
48.1
6
Montgomery
. ... 28.3
65
Cabarrus
48.4
6
Washington
28.4
56
Guilford
48.6
7
Bertie
29.7
67
Samnson ..
8
Martin
30.2
58
Carteret. .
9
Craven
30.6
69
Wayne
49.3
10
Orange ..
32.3
60
Macon
49.4
11
Currituck
34.9
61
Tyrrell
49.6
12
Pasquotank
35.4
61
Ashe
49.6
13
Rowan
35.8
63
Chatham
49.8
14
Rutherford
36.0
64
Edgecombe
49.9
16
Madison
36.3
66
Duplin
60.2
16
Gates
37.0
66
Wilkes .. .
17
Harnett
37.3
67
Anson
51.2
18
Randolph
....... 37.6
68
Avery
51.4
19
Cumberland
38.0
69
Lenoir
51.5
20
Northampton
38.1
70
Perquimans
61.7
21
Alleghany
38.3
71
Wilson
52.2
22
Stanly
38.4
72
Richmond
52.3
23
Yadkin.
38.6
73
Davie
53.1
24
Person
38.6
74
Chowan
53.6
26
Beaufort
38.7
75
Watauga
63.8
26
Halifax
38.9
76
Moore
55.3
27
Gaston
39.0
77
Cherokee
56.3
28
Yancey
39.6
78
Jackson
57.6
29
Alamance
39.9
79
Caldwell.*
57.7
30
Pitt
40.6
80
Warren
67.8
31
Burke
40.9
81
Granville
68.8
32
Robeson
42.3
82
Jones
60.1
32
Scotland
42.3
82
Surry
60.1
34
Mecklenburg
42.6
84
Lee
61.2
35
Davidson
42.7
85
Buncombe
61.6
36
Hoke
42.7
86
Forsyth
61.9
87
Union
42.9
87
Caswell
62.4
38
Alexander
43.2
88
Wake
62.7
39
Pamlico
43.4
89
Rockingham
63.2
39
Graham
43.4
90'
McDowell
65.1
41
Polk
43.5
91
Transylvania ......
66.4
42
Brunswick
43.6
92
Vance
66.7
42
Catawba
43.6
93
Franklin
67.4
44
Haywood
44.2
94
Greene
68.6
45
Iredell
44.4
95
Durham
69.4
46
Mitchell
44.7
96
Stokes
70.8
47
Camden
45.8
97
Henderson
71.5
47
Onslow
46.8
98
New Hanover
71.8
49
Johnston
46.9
99
Nash
77.8
60
Lincoln
.... 46,1
100
Dare
84.8