The news to this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
the LftSHVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
APRIL 25, 1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 23
Editorial Boards ’E. C. Branaon, S. H. Hobbs. Jr.. L. B. Wilson, B. W. Knight. D. D; Carroll, J. B. Bullitt, H. W. C
Entered as second-class matter November 14.1914, at thePostofficeat Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24. 1912
TAXES ON FARM LANDS
NOT HIGH IN CAROLINA
Elsewhere in this issue will be found
a table ranking the states of the Union
according to the total tax borne by
each acre of farm land in 1921-22, The
tebie also shows the percent increase
in taxes on each acre of farm land dur
ing the last eight years.
In the United States in- 1921-22 the
average acr^ of farm land paid a total
tax of nearly 71 cents. This tax repre
sents the total paid for state, county,
and local purposes, virtually all the tax
a farmer pays, especially in this state.
In 1913-14 the average acre of farm
land paid a tax of 31.4 cents. The tax
on the average acre of farm land for
the entire country has increased 126
percent during the eight-year period.
In North Carolina eight years ago
the average acre of farm land paid a
total tax of 16 cents, while in 1921-22
the total for county and local purposes
was 44 cents. We have no state prop
erty tax. The tax burden borne by
each acre of farm land has increased
169 percent in this state during the
eight-year period.
Why the Increase
In only four states has the tax bur
den per acre increased faster on a per
cent basis than in North Carolina. This
is largely due to the fact that the aver
age acre of farm land in this state
eight years ago paid a very small tax,
so that a fair tax today means a big
percent gain. The Revaluation Act of
1919 did much to cause land to be assessed
at much nearer its true value, and
is largely responsible for the large per
cent gain in taxes paid per acre of farm
^ land.
But even todays when some farmers
are complaining about high taxes,
JNorth Carolina farmers have just
grounds to congratulate themselves.
ducing power. Land that yields a big
value per acre is valued high. So for a
state that leads in per-acre production
of crops, and ranks 35th in taxes paid
per acre of farm land, certainly there
is room for contentment. And especial
ly so where practically every cent is
spent in the community, and on the
people who pay it.
The Empire State of the South con
tinues her program of progress because
her tax system is equitable and just.
Certainly the farmers are not over
taxed, and what they pay they spend
on themselves. They could not pay less
taxes and hope to get more benefits.
S. H. H., Jr.
SOCIAL FORCES
The March number of The Journal of
Social Forces prides itself upon the
North Carolinians who have contribu'
ted articles dealing with the common
good. Heretofore attention has been
called to the distinguished writers from
outside the state who have contributed
likewise in the May number there will
be notable articles by Professor Frank
lin H. Giddings of Columbia University,
Dean Roscoe Pound of Harvard Uni
versity, Professor James H. Tufts and
Charles E. Merriam of the University
of Chicago, and many others. The
March number also has a number of
notable writers outside the state, but
the special emphasis here is upon North
Carolina contributors.
Among the articles listed are: The
Social Hope by President W. L. Poteat
of Wake Forest College; The Social
Program of the Protestant Episcopal
Church by Bishop Edwin Penick; The
Work of Women’s Organizations in the
Church by Mrs. W. A. Newell of Wins
ton-Salem; Community Organization
and the Crowd Spirit by Jesse F.
Steiner of the University of North Ca-
The average of farm land in this state rolina; also from the University are
articles by Professor Walter J. Matherly
on Social Aspects of Labor, Turnover,
Professor Homer Hoyt on The_ Control
of Social Forces, Professor E.C. Branson
on Farm Tenancy in the South, and
Professor Howard W. Odum on Funda
mental Principles Underlying the Race
Problems; while other North Carolin
ians contributing are Wiley B. Swift,
on A Decade of Child Labor in North
Carolina, Miss Emeth Tuttle on A Crip
ple Census Week in North Carolina,
Miss Nell Battle Lewis on The North
Carolina Conference for Social Work,
and Mayor T. B. Eldridge of Raleigh
on the new North Carolina Municipal
Association.
One of the most interesting and
stimulating articles that has appeared
recently is that by Gerald W. Johnson,
Mr. Babbitt Arrives at Erzerum, in
which he describes in a critical way the |
relation of the average citizen to social |
progress in North Carolina. It is s
challenge to thoughtful folk and pre
sents a new viewpoint.
bears a tax of only 44 cents, against an
average of nearly 71 cents for the en
tire Union. In only 13 states does the
average acre pay a smaller tax. These
are mainly Southern and Rocky Moun
tain states. The New Jersey farmer
pays $2.22 in taxes on each acre, while
in Indiana the farmers pay an average
of $2.09 per acre. The 44 cents paid
in this state is very small in compari
son with the rate paid in the majority
of states.
Our Farmers Contented
We believe the people of this state,
farmers and all, pay taxes more freely
now than ever before in our history. It
is hard to get our farmers wrought up
over high taxes. True, some complain,
and always will. But the complaints
are not as audible as they used to bp.
Why? The answer is that this state
has a logical tax system, the best tax
system in the South, and perhaps the
most equitable in the Union.
Our entire state machinery is sup
ported through taxes paid by corpora
tions, income taxes, inheritance taxes
and the like. Practically ,every cent
paid on real estate, especially the taxes
paid on farm real estate, is spent in
the county, and largely in the commun
ity, in which the property is located.
This money is simply a cooperative in
vestment in local public welfare-
schools, roads, bridges, and the like.
This money is spent on the people who
pay the taxes. It all goes for local
purposes. In no state does the tax
paid on real estate and personal prop
erty do more for the community and
county in which it is paid than in North
Carolina. In no state does the farmer
get more for hi? tax dollar than in this
state. And our farmers realize it.
They see exactly where and how their
taxes are spent. ^ And when people
know that they are getting full bene
fit, they do not mind spending on them
selves. Did any automobile owner com
plain over a tbree-cent tax on gasoline?
But a vital point is that the average
acre of farm land in this state pays a
rather small tax—44 cents to be exact.
This is 27 cents leas than the average
for the United States. Now consider
ing the fact that North Carolina is al
most the first state in the Union in the
annual value of farm products produced
per acre, a low tax of 44 cents is even
more significant. Land is capitalized
SUMMER MEDICAL COURSES
* Arrangements for summer post
graduate medical courses for physicians
to cover nearly all sections of the state
not reached last year are now being
made by the University Extension Di
vision in cooperation with the Medical
School, according to Chester D. Snell,
director of the Division.
Three circuits of six centers each are
to be organized and there will be a
competent instructor for each circuit.
Each group or class of doctors will re
ceive twelve lectures and clinicial dem
onstrations, there being one meeting a
week. The courses will begin about
June 18 and^fend September 8.
As a result of the success of this
work in the central part of the state
last summer, physicians in all sections
of the state have requested that the
system of postgraduate lectures and
clinics be extended so as to reach them.
Accordingly the University Extension
Division is now busy organizing three
circuits for this summer—a western cir
cuit, a southern, and an eastern circuit.
On the western circuit the series of
lectures and clinics will be given in the
following places: Waynesville, Ashe
ville, Marion, Morgonton, Hickory, and
Statesville. Dr. Frank A. Chapman,
Iwgely according to its per-acre pro- of Rush Medical College and Washing-
KNOW NORTH CAROLINA
A NebrasKa' Verdict
I have just read yohr interesting
editorial in the January 22 issue of
The Observer, commenting on Pro
fessor Branson’s astonishing revela'
tions, showing the noteworthy prog
ress of North Carolina within a few
years, illuminated by comparison, or
rather with contrasts, dating back to
20 years ago—along economical, ed
ucational, manufacturing, agricul
tural and other lines.
I admire your spirit of pride in
your men of enterprise, when you
say, “Not natural resources, but
men make a state.’’ I would vary
and broaden the thought by saying,
when “Men and natural resources
are combined,” as they have been
in North Carolina—then you have
united power capable of producing
such results as you mention in your
splendid article. Without either,
any state must become chronically
paralyzed and stand still, instead of
moving in the march of progress.
There is no state in this Union
that has been so signally blessed
with natural resources, or so favored
by Providence also in natural advan-
tages-^climatically, topographically,
geographically, and geologically, as
your state has been. They are. all
factors, combined with the magnifi
cent courage, determination and
will power, and devotion of her sons
to their state—to put her in the
front line of the progressive march
among all the most forward states of
this country. The natural resources
of your state are the lights that
nature has placed on the hill tops to
attract the attention of those who
are in search—like the children of
Israel—of a better, if not the prom
ised land. And many have found
it.' Their efforts and capital com
bined have supplemented those of
your people to the manor born, «nd
made your state not only the pride
of your own people, but the wonder
of all others.
Your editorial, and the amazing
figures and facts presented by Pro
fessor Branson, seem a revelation to
people everywnere. To' a non-resi
dent, but not a stranger to North
Carolina, the change they show,
seems like a Rip Van Winkle sleep
with its mystifying wake-up. I have
a distinct recollection of the days im
mediately succeeding the “times
that tried men’s souls,’’ during the
unpleasantness between the north
and the south, when the only axe-
handle • and pick-handle factory in
Greensboro was a small affair, op
erated by hand labor. Now there
are three immense establishments
there—or more when I last visited
Greensboro—in which almost every
thing that can be made from the
second-growth ,hickory with which
that part of your state abounds, is
converted into something of com
mercial value. Col. McMahon, of
Wisconsin, an ex-United States offi
cer in the war just terminated, was
the pioneer. He saw its hickory a-
mong the wonderful resources of
your state, and was not slow in tak
ing advantage of it. I_.-'remember
distinctly when there was no manu
facturing enterprise of any kind at
High Point. Now there are, I think,
12 furniture factories there. Michi
gan men, soon after the close of the
war, saw another of North Caro
lina’s wonderful natural resources,
in her magnificent walnut trees, and
were not slow to avail themselves of
the opportunity to invest money,
with an absolute certainty of satis
factory returns—doing the state
good as well as themselves. I mar
vel when I think of then and now —
when your state holds such a com
manding place in so many ways;
when her educational appropriations
have increased from $1,000,000 to
$20,000,000 in 20 years; when her
hard-surfaced roads have cost and
are costing, in recent years, millions
annually; when her manufactured
articles for the year 1922 have ex
ceeded $832,000,000, and other state
products in like marvelous propor
tions; when she ranks fifth in crop
values air^png the states of the Union
—an almost unbelievable exhibition
for the good old agricultural state
that once was credited only with the
production of tar, pitch, and turpen
tine; and then, to top the climax of
her marvelous development and pro
gress, to find from Professor Bran
son’s showing, that she paid for the
year 1922 internal revenue tax to
the United States government a-
mounting to nearly $122,600,000, to
say nothing about state taxes, being
surpassed in that figure by only
seven other states, which were
giants in development when she was
scarcely known commercially.
Surely North Carolina is cashing
in on her assets.—T. T. Duffy, Oma
ha, Nebraska, in Charlotte Observer.
ton Boulevard H(*spital of Chicago, who
gave one of the successful courses last
summer, will be the instructor for this
circuit. It is expected that the physi
cians for many miles around will come
to these centers once a week for twelve
weeks to hear Dr. Chapman’s lectures
on the subject of Internal Medicine and
to take part in the clinics.
What will be known as the southern
circuit will consist of centers at Raleigh,
Sanford, Southern pines, Hamlet, Lum-
berton, and Fayetteville. Dr. F. Den-
nette Adams, forpier Resident Physi
cian of the Boston City Hospital and
now of Washington, D. C., who gave
the other course la^t summer, will be
the instructor for this series. The sub
ject will be Internal Medicine.
For the eastern circuit, centers are to
be organized at Kinston, New Bern,
Washington, Plymouth, Williamston,
and Greenville. Dr. S. Burwell of
Boston, Massachusetts, last year Resi
dent Physician in the Johns Hopkins
Hospital and now Director in the Out-
Patient Department, will be the in
structor for this circuit. The subject
for the lectures and clinics for this
circuit will be Internal Medicine with
special emphasis on physical diagnosis.
Letters explaining this work in de
tail and containing application blanks
are being mailed ' to physicians in the
vicinity of all the centers on the three
circuits. At least fifteen members are
necessary in order for the series of
lectures and clinics to be located in any
of the cities or towns mentioned above.
Should less than fifteen applicctions be
received from any center, another town
will have to be selected. However no
such difficulty is anticipated, for due to
the success of this work last summer it
is expected that practically 100 percent
of the physicians in the locality of the
places chosen as centers will take part
in the work this summer.
OUR CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES
II—Chemistry and Cotton
Cotton and cotton products are en
tirely dependent upon chemistry for
their success. Some of the products of
chemical investigation and production
daily used and applied in the cotton
mills of the state are lubrication and
spindle oils, special alloy steels in the
carding, combing, roving, and spinning
machines, and more uniform and
stronger cotton products resulting from
humidification researches on thirsty
cotton. Besides these remote chemical
applications, the production of mercer
ized and dyed fabrics and yarn requires
a very careful and scientific treatment
of cotton products with chemicals.
Cotton is mercerized to produce a
sheen so that the fabrics made from
the thread appear like silk. This effect
is produced by passing the cotton yarn
or fabric into caustic solutions, whose
concentrations and temperatures must
be within narrow limits to prevent the
cotton from goin|; into solution. The
lye causes the formation of a hydro
cellulose, and when this treated cotton
is .dried under tension to prevent
shrinking, which would naturally result
from such chemical treatment, the
fibre changes into firm, twisted rods
with a glossy surface. After once dried
this new substance which was formerly
cotton can be washed, the process of
changing back to cotton being so slow
as to make the life of the material
longer than that of the pure cotton
fabric. The product is much stronger
than the original cotton and easier to
dye, but is very susceptible to any
bleaching treatment such as is given in
some of our modern laundries, such
treatment being more destructive to
mercerized cotton than to raw cotton.
In the dyeing of well-washed hosiery
as carried on at Burlington, the knit
ted hose, are first subjected to the action
of certain chemicals which bleach them
to a pure white. This bleach treat
ment is very dfficult, requiring great
skill in the control of the strength of
the solutions and the temperature and
time of treatment, or otherwise the
hose will be weakened and destroyed by
the bleach. The bleached hosiery is
washed free from bleach before it is
placed in dye vats, where it remains
for a specified time at a given tempera-
ture.in solutions of the dyes. Subse
quent batches of hosiery are dyed in the
same dye vat until a certain amount of
the dye is taken out. It is impossible
to use up all the dye in the vat, a large
amount of it remaining in the solution
when it no longer dyes the hose. The
dyer must be able to judge when the
vat is sufficiently exhausted so as not
to waste any more of the dye than is
necessary.
These applications of chemistry to the
cotton milling industry involve a capi
tal investment of $900,000, a plant val
uation of $250,000, a yearly production
value of $670,000, with 267 employees
on a yearly payroll of $170,000.
The plants in operation in this state
are subsidiary to the big cotton milling
interests, the latter sending their pro
ducts to be treated to these conveni
ently located chemical treatment
plants. The larger individual treat
ment plants are located at Burlington,
Mt. Holly, and Tryon. Several small
chemical treatment plants are also in
cluded in the buildings of the big cotton
mills in the state.—Frank C. Vilbrandt,
Professor of Industrial Chemistry,
University of North Carolina. '
TAXES ON FARM LANDS
I
Average Tax Per Acre of Farm Lands, 1921-22
Based on the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s publication Weather,
Crops, and Markets, March 17, 1923, and covering all taxes, state, county, and
local, paid on farm land. The table ranks the states from high to low accord
ing to the average total tax per acre of farm land. The accompanying column
shows the percent increase in taxes per acre from 1913-14 to 1921-22.
United, States tax 70.9 cents per acre of farmland. North Carolina aver
age 44 cents per acre, rank 36th. The average tax was 16 cents in North Ca
rolina in 1913-14; eight-year increase 169 percent. United States average in
crease 126 percent.
S. H. Hobbs, Jr.
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank States
Perct. Inc.
1913-14 to
1921-22
Tax per
Acre
1921-22
Rank States
Perct. Inc.
1913-14 to
1921-22
Tax per
Acre
1921-22
1
New Jersey...
.... 132
$2.22
23
Mississippi...
169
.67
2
Indiana
.... 131
2.09
26
Vermont
.... 87
.65
3
Michigan
.... 140
1.68
26
Florida
.... 129
.66
4
Iowa
.... 120
1.49
28
North Dakota.
.... 168
.63
6
Idaho
136
1.40
28
Kansas
.... 129
.63
6
Ohio
.... 104
1.24
30
Maine
.... 72
.60
7
Illinois
.... 122
1.23
31
Oklahoma
.... 101
^.67
7
Wisconsin....
.... 124
1.28
32
Tennessee
.... 171
. .63
9
Massachusetts
.... 89
1.20
33
Kentucky
115
.62
10
New York....
.... 94
1.13
88
West Virginia
.... 14r
.62
11
Pennsylvania.
.... 92
1.11
35
North Carolina
.... 169
.44
12
Rhode Island..
.... 68
.99
36
Nevada
106
.43
12
Connecticut..,
.... 96
.99
87
Utah
76
.42
14
Minnesota....
.... 146
.91
38
Missouri
.... 126
.39
16
Maryland
.... 70
.85
38
Arkansas
.... 143
.39
16
South Dakota..
.... 192
.80
88
Wyoming
104
.39
17
California.....
.... 87
.78
41
South Carolina.... 162
.36
17
Oregon
.... 190
.78
41
Texas
.... 114
.36
19
Louisiana
167
.77
43
Virginia
.... 76
.34
20
Washington...
115
.70
44
New Mexico..
.... 72
.33
21
Colorado
.... 240
.68
45
Georgia
.... 88
.30
21
Delaware
.... 82
.68
46
Alabama
.... 88
.27
23
New Hampshire... 89
.67
47
Montana.
.... 140
.16
28
Nebraska
. .. 149
.67
48
Arizona
.... 0
.07