The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina Press for the Univer
sity Extension Division.
JULY 18, 1923
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL. IX, NO. 35
Eiitorial B;>ardt B. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr.. L, R. Wilson, B. W. Knifsht, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Ballitt. H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24, 1912
BANK CAPITAL IN NORTH CAROLINA
III IN SOUTH GERMANY
Stuttgart gives us a look into the life
of a South German City, and what we
see is perhaps the town life of all Ger
many outside of Berlin, the Rhineland,
Munich, and such like centers of manu
facture, trade, and tourist travel.
The Marquardt hotel where we are
staying corners on the Schlossplatz, a
four-acre public square, the street-car
center of the city. The Schlossplatz is
a beautiful open space, rimmed by full-
leafed limes, lindens, and horsechest-
nuts, and parked with grass plots flow
er-beds, monuments, a band pavilion,
walkways, and benches—a charming
spot in which to sit and study the crowds
surging through it and alongside it on
their way to and from their daily tasks
in a busy city of 400,000 people.
Vanished Pomps
East of the Schlossplatz is the King’s,
palace of 366 rooms, all empty now
save a small portion of the north end
which the city uses as a school of in
formation for new comers seeking
homes in Stuttgart. On the south is
the mighty Altes Schloss; once the
^ headquarters of the 13th Army Corps,
but empty now save the half dozen
rooms occupied by the caretakers. Next
to the Altes Schloss is the palace of the
Crown Prince, the secondfloor of which
is now an apothecary shop. On the
west is the impressive Koenigsbau or
Kings-building, now an arcade of shops.
A little way north along the Koenig-
strasse is the immense quadrangular
two-story building that once housed
the royal race horses and the stable
boys. The street side of it is being re
modeled for petty shop keepers. Palace
buildings and military garrisons are
deserted. The pomp of kings and army
■v»f¥icers has vanished. No soldiers are
seen, except an occasional member of
the reichwehr—what we call at home
the national guard. Doubtless we shall
see more soldiers in a garrison city,
say in Tubingen which we visit tomor
row to have a l(«ok at an ancient Ger
man university.
An Existence Struggle
When I think back to the strut and
glittter of the German soldiery as I
saw it in the Rhine towns in 1908, I re
alize that war has ceased‘to be an up
permost thing in the mind of Germany;
or such is the unmistakable look of
things in Stuttgart. The people I see
day by day are grimly struggling for
sheer existence. If there is any thought
of war, there are no signs of it percep
tible here.
The masses in every country of Eu
rope realize now, perhaps for the first
time in history, that wars must here
after be paid for in taxes and never a-
gain in loot. Not impossibly there'may
be other wars in Europe, but war-mad
leaders in every country must now
reckon with the tax-bearers. The va
cant thrones of Europe are a tragic re
minder of this arresting fact.
The thing I hear discussed daily in
every group is taxes. Doubtless it is true
that reckoned in dollars, the Germans
are paying no such taxes as the Ameri
cans, the English, or even the French.
But what they are paying is paid in an
almost worthless currency. For instance
Baron von Der Lippe threw up his hainds
in amazement when I told him I
paid 3,000 marks, or ten cents in our
money, for a haircut in the Marquardt
barber shop. My barber in Schorn-
dorf charges me only 600 marks, said
he. Which is only two cents in our
money. These figures fairly represent
the minimum value of goods and ser
vices, in the citiesj and country towns
of Wurtemberg ana perhaps of all Ger
many. Think of a farm laborer work
ing a whole month of fourteen-hour
days for money enough to buy a single
pair of Sunday shoes.
Taxes and Wage-Earners
Far more than war, taxes are the
agonizing concern of these people; for
taxes must be paid by everybody, and
paid in money, and money of value is
what they do not have. The thirty
billion gold marks offered to France the
other day represent a tax burden that
the people of Germany would stagger
under for a full century; and the fifty
billions demanded by France mean irre
trievable bankruptcy. So I hear it
said on every hand, not by the million
aire factory owners, or the politicians,
but by the wage earners with whom I
talk on Sunday mornings on the park
benches and by the farmers among
whom I am now living.
The Hard Hit
And mind you, the farmers and the
factory wage earners in Germany have
suffered far less than any other classes.
The only really undernourished people I
have so far seen in- Germany are the
people who lived aforetime on rents
and interests, the owners of annuities
purchased by pinching self-denial in the
days before the war, the pensionnaires,
and salaried social servants in general
—in particular the teachers of every
grade and rank.
For instance the salary of a librarian
and author of distinction, whom I visit
ed just outside Stuttgart the other day,
is now around $10 a month in our
money, and on this pitiful sum he must
keep alive a wife and three children.
But of this, not a word from him. I
see the public school teachers of Stutt
gart, largely men, shepherd their
classes in long columns through the
streets and into the school buildings
these mornings after the fashion of
the pedagogues of ancient Athens. Al
most without exception, their clothes
are frayed, their shoes ragged, their
faces and frames pinched and gaunt.
On yesterday I saw the same Cassius-
like figure in a village schoolroom
twenty miles out in the country. Oh
yes, there is suffering in Germany,
which no man can miss who looks about
with alert eye. With existence com
modities high and marks nearly noth
ing in purchasing power, wars and
taxes will be one in the mind of Eu-
rooe for long centuries to come.
A Neat People
The crowds in the streets in every
quarter of the city are neatly dressed
—usually in black, grays, and browns,
with rarely ever a touch of bright
color. When I look closely I see that
the uniform neatness is due to endless
patching, darning, and pressing. There
are not many brand new clothes to be
seen even on Sundays. Shoes are in
good condition, and always they are
freshly polished every day. It seems
to be the habit of Germany.
Frugal Fare
The men, women, and children on
the streets look healthy, well set up
and strong, but the overly fed are a
bare baker’s dozen. No poultry or
milk appears on any table bill of fare.
We have a little jug of milk, or what
is called milk, for our breakfast coffee,
but it is milk that the cow had little to
do with. By law all milk must be re
served for the babies and the old peo
ple 70 years of age and over. I, have
seen dairy milk cows only once—out at
Degerloch, a little town on the edge of
Stuttgart, the other afternoon. Real
butter can be had at high prices in the
first-class restaurants, but the butter
of the masses is margarine made from
cocoanut oil and other* substitutes. It
is frankly so labeled in the city market
and stores. Poijk and cheese, veal and
sausage are more abundant, but the
prices make them rare luxuries for city
wage-earners. The native fruits on
display are apples, very small, unap
petizing in look, and costly. Vegeta
bles are abundant but high. Oranges
and lemons from Spain and Sicily sell
for distinctly less than in the United
States, but the prices are prohibitive
for all but the well-to-do in Stuttgart.
As for coffee and tea, they are the lux
uries of the very rich or the occasional
dissipation of the middle classes; and
usually the coffee is exactly of a
sort with that our grandmothers used
in the ISouth during the War Between
the Stktes—parched peas, barley grains
and the like.
Honest Tobacco
Smokers’ wares are poor and cheap,
but at least they are honest tobacco
not substitutes. Heaven alone knows
what tobacco is in some other countries
—in England for instance, where you
buy not tobacco but mixtures. Wills
mixture, Cavendish mixture, Craven
mixture, shag and the like.
A MATTER OF HABIT
I have for many years been pretty
well convinced that saving money
is largely a matter of habit, and
people who make a good beginning
at it presently discover that it is by
no means impossible, and it is alto
gether a good thing to do. Just at
this juncture in the world’s-and our
country’s affairs it is certainly one
of the most useful contributions
that people could possibly make to
putting the world right. I do not
believe there is any other way to
straighten out the tangle of finan
cial and economic concerns into
which the world has been precipita
ted by the war, except to produce a
good deal more than we consume,
which means to save, and by our sav
ings to reestablish the world’s stores
of working capital. — President
Harding.
Human Motor Power
Labor is abundant and unbelievably
cheap. There are nowhere any signs
of idleness. Store deliveries are com
monly by hand, frequently by girls and
old men. Delivery wagons drawn by
horses are few, and delivery trucks
still fewer. Wagons of all sizes are
the common vehicles, and usually they
are pulled and pushed by hand power.
It is SfO even in the market place, where
the truck and fagots of the! farmers,
sometimes in heavy loads, come in from
long distances pushed by the women
folks and guided by their man in front
—guided not pulled.
I have seen fewer automobiles and
motor trucks in Stuttgart in a week
than can be seen any day on Franklin
street in Chapel Hill. Think of living
in a land where a Ford car would put
the owner in the millionaire class.
Low Rail Fares General
But almost the most impressive thing
in Germany is the volume of railway
travel. Every train is crowded, and it
is so because work people in multiplied
millions must live in the country vil
lages and go into and out of the city
centers by trams and trains. No resi
dences for rent have been built in Ger
many for nearly ten years because
rents no longer pay dividends. And the
cheapest thing in Germany is railroad
fares; so because stores and factories
must depend largely on outside work
ers, and outside workers must travel
cheaply or not at all. My second-class
ticket to Winterbach and back to Stutt
gart the other day, thirty-two miles all
told, was less than ten cents. - The
fares are even cheaper for wage-earn
ers who go and come on third and fourth
class tickets good for a week or a month.
What is Missing
Some of the things I miss in Germany
are silk stockings, paint and powder,
dance halls and cabarets, and the gay
abandon of night life in American cities.
The German masses are evidently liv
ing on Ben Franklin’s sawdust pudding.
—E. C. Branson, Schlossgut Eagel-
berg, April 30.
BANK CAPITAL
The total bank capital and surplus in
all national, state, and private banks
in North Carolina on December 31,
3^921, was $56,6^0,983, or $20.90 for each
inhabitant of the state. The bank
capital of the state ranges from $90.86
per inhabitant in Mecklenburg county
to hone in Camden which has no bank
of any kind. In Caswell it was 63
cents. »
On the basis of bank capital per in
habitant this state ranks forty-fifth in
the entire Union, with only Arkansas,
Alabama, and Mississippi below us.
The bank capital per person is sixty
percent below the average for the
states of the Union. The four states
bordering us all rank ahead of us in
bank capital per inhabitant, notwith
standing the fact that we are ahead of
them in industrial development and in
agriculture. It matters not in what
particular of banking the states are
ranked, whether in capital, resources,
deposits, loans and discounts. North
Carolina makes a very poor showing on
a per inhabitant basis. Always there
are less than a half dozen states below
us. In no major^field other than banking
does the state so consistently rank low.
Why is this true? Is it because we
are not thrifty and do not accumulate
savings? Is it because we engage in
activities that do not call for banking
facilities? Is it because we are poor
on a per inhabitant basis? The reason
does not lie in any one answer. There
is a combination of factors that explains
our low rank in the banking world.
Some Reasons
In population we are a rural state,
one of the most rural in the Union.
Only four states have a larger farm
population ratio. Eighty percent of
our people live on farms, and in sAiall
towns with fewer than 2,600 peo
ple. Sixty counties have no town of
as many as 2,500 people. There is no
large city-in the entire state. The coun
ties that have large towns rank well
in banking resources but the purely
agricultural counties make very little
use of banks. There is not a fair-sized
town in the forty counties with less
than ten dollars of bank capital per in
habitant. These are all purely agri
cultural counties, and mainly counties
with small values to market. They are
mainly Mountain and Tidewater coun
ties.
The farms of the state are very
small, the smallest in the Union except
in Massachusetts. Except in the cotton
and tobacco belts the farmers have lit
tle to sell, and consequently buy little,
and it does not require much of a bank
to supply the banking needs of these
farmer communities. Even cotton and
tobacco call for a seasonal banl^g and
the money required to market these
crops is largely imported during the mar
keting season. The average farmer
who grows neither cotton nor tobacco
has very few contacts with any bank.
Again some of the major industries
of the state do not make large de
mands on the banks. The demands
are more of a clearing house nature,
balancing accounts, and the capital re
quired to carry on such a banking busi
ness does not need to be large. Much
of the banking business of our big in
dustries is handled by banks in northern
cities, the local bankers acting as
agents.
We Must Develop
But whatever the reasons for mea
gre banking facilities,‘the fault lies not
with the banks or bankers,but with the
people themselves. Banks grow in re
sponse to banking needs. The size of a
bank depends upon how much business
the bank can do in the community, upon
demands for loans and discounts, the
volume of time and savings deposits,
habits of thrift, industry, frugality,
upon accumulated capital. The size of
the local bank is the best index of ac
cumulated savings and the volume of
trade in the community. Where there
is a small amount of accumulated sav
ings, and^where people buy and sell in
small amounts or during certain seasons,
there the banks will be small. Witness
the Mountain and Tidewater counties.
The people of the state need to be
come better acquainted with the busi
ness of banking. As a rule our people
live on farms or in small towns and
have few contacts with banks. They
need to know more about the nature pf
banks. Their accumulated savings
should be placed in banks for safekeep
ing and to earn interest. Savings ac
counts should be built up. The habits
of thrift and industry should become
more prevalent. Our state bonds are
bought by northern investors. Our lo
cal accumulated savings are too small
to enable the state to develop itself
out of these savings. We are not as
thrifty as we should be. It is high
time we build up a banking business that
compares favorably with the industrial
and agricultural rank of the state. We
need to accumulate more capital, to
save more of what we produce, to rely
on ourselves for our banking needs.
As a banking state we are in bad com
pany.— S.H.H.,Jr.
BANK CAPITAL PER INHABITANT
In North Carolina in Decetnber 1921
Based on Comptroller of the Currency Report of December 6, 1921, and
Report of State Banks of December 31, 1921, and covers the capital and surplus
in all national, state, and private banks in each county, divided by the popula
tion.
State average $20.90. United States average on June 30, 1922, was $50.91
per inhabitant; North Carolina’s rank was 46th. Mecklenburg leads the state
with $90.85 banking capital per inhabitant. Camden has no bank. Only six
counties in the state rank above the average for the United States.
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank
County
• Bank Capital
PerInhab.
Rank
County
Bank Capital
Per Inhab.
1
Mecklenburg...
$90.85
61
Franklin
$12.66
2
New Hanover .
76.12
62 .
Craven
12.61
3
Durham
62.94
63
Lee
12.00
4
Vance
67.03
54
Northampton ..
11.88
5
Edgecombe ....
'65.58
66
Cumberland ....
11.24
6
Guilford
63.50
56
Caldwell
11.12
7
Pasquotank....
48.74
57
Watauga
10.77
8
Gaston
44.34
58
Carteret
10.58
9
Scotland
42.08
59
Duplin
10.33
10
Wilson
36.79
60
Haywood
10.10 '
11
Forsyth
36.67
61
Davie
9.98
12
Wayne
34.43
62
Harnett
9.74
13
Wake
37.06
63
Washington ....
9.69
14
Beaufort
26.63
64
Stanly
Orange
9.34
15
Lenoir
26.19
65
8.80
16
Chowan
23.92
66
Tyrrell
. ...... 8.66
17
Graham
23.65
67
Burke
8.60
18
Alamance
22.88
68
Chatham
8.53
19
Hertford
22.61
69
Alexander
7.37
20
Catawba
22.08
70
tolk
7.30
21
Cabarrus ......
22.05
71
Wilkes
7.27
22
Greene
22.02
72
Macon
7.05
23
Anson
21.24
73
Nash
6.87
24
Granville
20.54
74
Perquimans ....
6.73
25
Pitt
20.10
75
Warren
6.71
26
Martin
19.64
76
Yancey
6.62
27
Montgomery...
19.36
77
Hoke
6.6i
28
Lincoln
18.91
78
Brunswick
6.55
29
Richmond
18.45
79
Madison
6.47
30
Union
18.41
80
Columbus
6.42
31
Person
18.37
81
Stokes
6.24
32 .
Moore
17.60
82
Bladen
6.22
33
Robeson
17.29
83
Onslow
6.12
34
Clay
17.21
84
Cherokee
6.06
36
Rowan
17.02
86
Avery
5.84
36
Halifax
16.63
86
Sampson
5.46
37
Rockingham....
16.80
87
Alleghany
5.20
38
Surry
16.34
88
Ashe
5.10
39
Johnston
16.24
89
Swain
4.30
40
McDowell
14.66
90
Hyde
4.29
41
Davidson
14.20
91
Mitchell
4.20
42
Bertie
14.13
92
Jackson
4.16
43
Transylvania...
13.86
93
Pender
3.82
44
Cleveland
13,81
94
Jones
3.63
45
Iredell
13.54
95
Pamlico
3.31
46
Rutherford ....
13.48
96
Currituck
2.75
47
Gates
13.36
97
Yadkin
2.74
48
Randolph
13.33
98
Dare
1.96
49
Buncombe
12.98
99
Caswell
0,63
60
Henderson
12.87
100
Camden
0.00