THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
The news in this publi-
ep ^ ^ ^
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
APRIL 30,1924
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OP NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
VOL. X, NO. 24
Biitorlal Boardt B}. G. Braosoo. S. H. Hobba, Jr., L. B. Wilaon, B. 97. Knisht, D. D. Carroll, J, B.Bollitt, R. W. Odai
Entered aa second-elaaa matter November 14,1914, at the PostoSee at Chapel Hill, N. C., nnder the act of Auguat S4, ISSil
BONDED DEBT IN NOSTIi CAROLINA
OUR BONDED DEBT
The net total bonded debt of the
State of North Carolina and all sub
divisions of the state for every purpose
whatsoever, at the present time, is a-
round 240 million dollars. Elsewhere
in this issue of the News Letter ap
pears a table which shows how the net
total bonded debt exclusive of the state
government debt, on June 30, 1923, is
distributed by counties on a per inhab
itant basis. The state debt is excluded
from the table because it lays no di
rect burden on property. Tne bonded
debt of all other divisions of govern
ment within our state rests directly on
property listed for taxation within the
local governmental units which issue
the bonds. The county debt lays a tax
on all property listed for taxation with-
iji the county. The town and city debt
is borne by town and city property.
The state debt lays no direct burden on
property.
The County Debt
The bonded indebtedness of counties
is made up of bonds issued for the erec
tion of schools that come under the juris
diction of the county board of educa
tion, bond issues for the construction
of county roads and bridges, court
houses, county homes, jails and other
county purposes, railroads in a few
counties, and the funding debt. Special
drainage and other district bonds are
also classed as county debt.
The net total indebtedness of our
counties for all county purposes on
June 30, 1023, as reported to the State
Auditor, was $68,370,616. The debt is
distributed as follows: roads and bridg
es $44,222,653.67, schools $9,184,287.88,
county homes, jails, court houses and
other similar county purposes $4,726,-
269.50, railroads $765,800; and funding
debt $4,471,500.
Buncombe has the largest net total
county debt, the amount being $3,884,-
000. Lenoir has the second largest
total county debt, $2,390,000, and the
largest county debt per inhabitant,
amounting to $74.70. The accompany
ing column in the table shows the dis
tribution of the county debt on a per
inhabitant basis. Northampton is the
only county in the state that reports no
bonded debt, county or town.
In the vast majority of the counties
the balk of the county debt has been
incurred for the construction of roads
and bridges, mainly before the state
highway program was adopted. Only
200 thousand dollars of the countyTdebt
of Lenoir county is charged to schools.
The rest of it is charged to roads and
bridges. More than 90 percent of the
Buncombe county debt is charged to
roads and bridges, and funding debt
which most likely belongs to the same
account. In very few counties does
the debt incurred for tbe erection of
schools amount to more than 25 or 30
percent of the total debt. More than
three-fourths of the total county debt
is chargeable to roads, bridges, and
the funding of bonds issued for these
purposes.
The total county debt is distributed
as follows: roads and bridges 69,8 per
cent; schools 14.5 percent; court houses,
jails, and county homes, 7.6 percent;
and railroads, 1.2 percent.
Town and City Debt
The net total bonded debt of the 174
towns in North Carolina that had bonds
outstanding on June 30, 1923, was $71,-
072,600. It was nearly eight million
dollars more than the total county
debt, and the municipal debt is increas
ing much faster than the county debt.
Winston-Salem had the largest total
debt of any North Carolina city, the
amount being $7,760,000. Next in order
came Charlotte with $5,906,700, Ashe
ville $3,800,000, Durham$3,791,000, and
Greensboro $3,001,000.
The cities and towns closely parallel
the counties in the purposes for which
bonds have been issued. The great
bulk of the city and town debt has
been incurred for the construction of
streets and sidewalks, sewer systems,
fire departments, and lighting plants,
all of which represent long-time invest
ments in permanent improvements.
The funding debt again is chargeable
largely to this account.
The net debt of these 174 cities and
towns is distributed as follows: streets,
sewers, lights, water, and fire depart
ments $48,500,904 or 68.3 percent;
schools $10,343,650 or 14.6 percent;
funding debt $7,260,946, or 10.2 per
cent; public improvements $4,793,000
or 6.8 percent; and railroads $174,000
or less than three-tenths of one per
cent. Gastonia is the only city of fair
size where a considerable part of the
debt has been incurred in the erection
of schools. Of her net debt of $2,229,-
000, $840,000 is for school purposes. In
a few small towns the entire debt is
for schools.
County and City Debt
The net total debt of the 99 counties
and the 174 cities and towns reporting
bonds outstanding on June 30, 1923,
was $134,443,016, which is less than the
value of property listed for taxation in
either one of three counties in the-
state. The total bonded debt of North
Carolina which rests on property lacks
21 million dollars of being as much as
the value of property listed for taxa
tion in one county alone. The total
debt of our counties, cities, towns and
all other subdivisions capable of in
curring debt, exclusive- of the state
government debt which does not fall
on property, is 5 percent of the amount
of property listed for taxation, «nd it
is less than 3 percent of the true value
of the principal forms of wealth of the
state as estimated by the federal De
partment of Commerce.
Forsyth rank.s first in total bonded
debt for all purposes within the bordei;s
of the county, the amount being $9,-
198,000. Buncombe rank.s first in total
bonded debt per inhabitant for all pur
poses within the county, the amount be
ing $114.15. The table which appears
elsewhere shows the distribution of
the total bonded debt within each coun
ty, on a per inhabitant basis, while the
accompanying column shows the per
inhabitant debt for county “purposes
only.
The net total bonded debt of the
counties, cities, towns, and all other
divisions exclusive of the state govern
ment, is distributed as follows: For
roads, bridges, streets, sewers, lights,
water works, and fire departments $92,-
723,662, or 69 percent of the total debt;
for schools $19,627,938, or 16'6 percent;
for refunding old debts $11,732,446, or
8.7 percent; for court houses, county
homes, jails, municipal buildings and
the like $9,619,269, or 7 percent, and
for railroads $939,800, or 7 percent.
The State Debt
The debt of the state government is
treated separately from the local debt
because the local debt, unlike the state
debt, is borne exclusively by taxes
on property listed for taxation
within the issuing governmental
unit. The state debt may be
divided into two classes, roads and
other. The road debt is carried exclu
sively by license taxes on motor cars
and the three-cent gasoline tax, and all
other state bonded debt is carried by
the general state fund derived from
taxes on incomes, inheritances, corpor
ations, licenses, and earnings of the
state departments.
The bonded debt of the state govern
ment on March 1, 1924, amounted to
$68,937,600. The state government
debt, the bulk of which has been in
curred since 1921, is distributed as fol
lows: highways $34,552,600 or 60.2 per
cent; schools, charitable and eleemosy
nary institutions, and, school building
loan fund to countiesA$24,012,500 or
34.9 percent; funding debt $8,480,000
or 12.2 percent; and public buildings
and ' improvements $1,892,600 or 2.7
percent.
It will be noted that slightly more
than half of the state debt is for high
way construction and it is important to
remember that the entire burden of
carrying this debt falls on owners of
motor cars. The bonded debt of the:
state which is paid out of the general
fund of state governmental receipts a-
mounts to $34,386,000. The cost of
carrying this burden falls almost ex
clusively on urban people and urban in
dustries. Unless a farmer pays an in
come tax he contributes nothing direct
ly to the general state treasury fund.
For all practical purposes the only
state tax paid by farmers is the motor
IDEALS FOK THE STATE
I would have all our people to be
lieve in the possibilities of North
Carolina: in the strength of her
men, the purity of her women, and
their power to accomplish as much
as can be done anywhere on earth
by any people.
I would have them to become dis
satisfied with small things; to be
anxious for higher and better things;
to yearn after real greatness; to
seek after knowledge; to do the
right thing in order -that they may
be what they ought.
I would have the strong to bear
the burdens of the weak and to lift
up the weak and make them strong,
teaching men everywhere that real
strength consists not in serving our
selves, but in doing for others.—
Quotations from the speeches of
Charles B. Aycock.
car license and gasoline tax, which is
used exclusively for highway purposes.
The outstanding bonded debt of the
state government at the present time
amounts to 2.6 percent of the aggre
gate of property listed for taxation in
the state. It amounts to only 1.6 per
cent of the value of the principal forms
of wealth as estimated by the federal
government. When all state bonds
that have been authorized by the legis
lature have been sold the state debt
will be 93 million dollars, or 3.6 per
cent of the aggregate of property now
listed for taxation, and just 2 percent
of the true value of the state’s wealth
as estimated by the federal govern
ment. One county has on her tax
books almost twice as much property
as the state debt v/ill total when all
authorized bonds have been sold.
It might be of interest to note that
the average interest rate on the entire
state debt is 4.5 percent. No state
bond issue has sold for more than 5
nor less than 4 percent.
The Total Debt
As stated at the beginning, the pres-
ent bonded debt of the'state and all
subdivisions of the state is around 240
million dollars. The bonded debt of
the state government to date is $68,-
937,600. The bonded debt of counties
and municipalities on June 30, 1923,
was $134,443,016, while the present
debt is around 170 million dollars. The
bonded debt of the state at the present
time, and of counties and municipali
ties as of June 30, 1923, totals $203,-
380,616.
The total bonded debt of North Caro
lina and all subdivisions of the state
has been incurred for the following
purposes: for roads, streets, water and
sewers, lights, and fire departments
$127,276,162 or 62.6 percent of the
total; for education and charitable in
stitutions $43,540,438 or 21.4 percent;
for refunding old debt $20,212,446 or
10 percent; and for court houses, jails,
county homes, municipal buildings and
other public improvements, including
county and urban railroads, $12,351,569
or 6.1 percent.
The total bonded debt of $203,380,616
amounts to 7.7 percent of the aggre
gate of property listed for taxation,
and to 4.4 percent of the estimated
true value of tbe principal forms of
wealth of the state. Or to put it on
another basis it amounts to $76 per in
habitant, or to $360 per family.
The cost of carrying the present debt
of 240 million dollars, for both interest
and sinking fund payments, s amounts
to about $5.36 per inhabitant per year,
or to $25.72 per family per year. The
cost of carrying that portion of the
debt which falls on property amounts
to $3.82 per inhabitant per year.
The present total bonded debt of the
state and all its subdivisions, for every
purpose whatsoever, is only 53 percent
larger than the aggregate of property
listed for taxation in one single county
in the state, and it about equals the
real wealth of this same county.
Seventy percent of the present bond
ed debt is supported by direct levies on
property, while 30 percent of it is sup
ported by license taxes and taxes on in
comes, inheritances, corporations, and
earnings of the state departments.
A study of the foregoing facts shows
that practically every dollar of bonded
indebtedness of the state, counties,
cities, towns and other units represents
long-time investments in permanent
improvements. The money has been
spent for roads, bridges, water works,
sewerage systems, streets, side-walks,
government buildings, school buildings,
and buildings for charitable and elee
mosynary institutions. It is not the
volume of the debt that should concern
us, but the purposes for which the
bonds were issued, and the terms on
which they were sold. The most eco
nomic way to secure desirable perma
nent-improvements is through the sale
of bonds at fair interest charges, and
the retirement of the bonds distributed
over the period of usefulness of the
improvement. Assuming that we need
and want improved roads, streets,
school buildings and the like, there is
no other way to get them, for to at
tempt to erect permanent improve
ments on the pay-as-you-go basis would
not only reduce our investment capital
but v/ould put into force a tax burden
that would be unbearable. —S. H.
Hobbs, Jr. -
TWO DISTINCTIVE BOOKS
Robert E. Lee: An Interpretation, by
the late President Woodrow Wilson,
and Religious Certitude in an Age of
Science, by Professor Charles Allen
Dinsmore, of the Yale Divinity School,
have recently been published by the
University of North Carolina Press and
were placed on sale throughout the
state and nation on April 8.
Rarely do two more distinctive books
come from any publishing house in any
one week or month. The volume on
Lee presents not only a remarkable in
terpretation of the great Confederate
chieftain, but a most vivid self-revela
tion of Wilson himself. It strikingly
portrays the nobility of Lee and sets
forth the creed by which Wilson lived
and through which he fortified himself
in his self-sacrificing effort to secure
for humanity a new covenant of under
standing and goodwill.
Dr. Dinsmore, in Religious Certitude
in an Age of Science, discusses illumi-
natingly the relations between science
j and religion. He maintains that the '
word knowledge belongs to religion as '
well as science. Religious truth can
be ascertained as definitely and con
vincingly as scientific truth.
Both books are splendid examples of
book making, and add to the growing
distinction of the Press, which began
publication in 1922. Copies of the vol
umes can be secured from bookstores
or direct from The University Press,
Chapel Hill. The prices are: Lee $1.00;
Religious Certitude $1.50.
NET BONDED DEBT BY COUNTIES
In North Carolina Jane 30, 1923
In the following table the counties are ranked according to the per inhabit
ant net bonded debt for all purposes—counties, cities, towns, school districts,
drainage districts, and all other divisions capable of incurring debt in North
Carolina. The accompanying column shows the per inhabitant net debt of
counties for county purposes only, as county roads and bridges, schools, court
houses, jails, county homes and the like.
The total net bonded debt of counties, cities, towns and all other divis
ions, exclusive of the,state government debt, on June 30, 1923, was $134,443,016.
or an average of $50.00 per inhabitant. Buncombe ranks first with $114.15
while Northampton reports no bonded debt within her borders.
Total bonded debt of counties for all county purposes $63,370,516, or an
average of $23.52 per inhabitant. Lenoir is first with $74.70. The bonded debt
of all cities and towns on June 30, 1923, was $71,072,500.
The bonded debt of the state government to date is $68,937,600, or an aver
age of $25.65 per inhabitant. It is not included in this study since the . state
deb.t lays no direct burden on property.
The total bonded debt of the state and all subdivisions of the state for every
purpose whatsoever at the present time is around 240 million dollars, or an
average debt of $90.00 per inhabitant.
Based on reports in the office of the State Auditor.
S. H. Hobbs, Jr.
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank County
County
Total
Rank County
County
Total
Debt per Bonded
Debt per Bonded
Inhab.
Debt per
Inhab.
Debt per
Inhab.
Inhab.
1
Buncombe ....
...$56.07 $114.16
51
Brunswick
. ...$30.87
$36.25
2
Lenoir
. 74.70
112.26
52
Avery
35.76
36.76
3
Durham
.... 24.63
109.45
53
Swain
31.25
34.13
4
Forsyth
.... 15.18
104.25
64
Surry
21.56
33.80
6
Beaufort
... 64.60
89.70
65
Mitchell
32.65
32.66
6
New Hanover..
.... 26.65
87.07
66
Rutherford...
.... 19.35
32.60
7
Mecklenburg ..
.. 14.37
86.90
67
Polk
22.24
32.05
8
Guilford
... 18.68
77.90
58
Moore
17.60
31.90
9
Craven
... 62.72
77.00
69
Caswell
.. .. 30.35
31.52
10
Lincoln
.. 42.74
74.08
60
Duplin
.... 27.07
30.44
11
Montgomery ..
.... 60.68
73.30
61
Tyrrell
... 29.65
29.65
12
Henderson
.... 6.01
71.18
62
Wilkes
17.83
29.66
13
McDowell
.... 66.30
70.08
63
Lee
20.87
28.66
14
Pasquotank....
... 45.20
69.07
64
Burke
20.80
28.61
16
Edgecombe....
... 7.18
68.00
65
Jackson
18.91
28.44
16
Cumberland....
.... 40.77
66.30
66
Yadkin
27.30
27.30
17
Transylvania ..
... 55.33
63.21
67
Granville
19.10
27.05
18
Rockingham ...
.... 46.46
62.32
68
Martin
24.63
26.83
19
Wake
.... 26.84
62.27
69
Sampson
17.82
26.46
20
Wilson
... 24.20
61.53
70
Stokes
19.94
24.80
21
Greene
... 55.00
60.85
71
Caldwell ... ,
13.96
24.64
22
Pitt
... 46.04
60.33
72
Pamlico
24.18
24.18
23
Gaston
... 11.02
69.43
73
Yancey
24.08
24.08
24
Rowan
... 15.23
69.36
74
Harnett
13.73
23.74
26
Washington ...
... 44.12
67.97
75
Randolph
.... 17.47
23.00
26
Haywood
23.15
57.67
76
Columbus
14.46
22.89
27
Vance
... 29.66
57.00
77
Anson
17.45
22.75
28
Iredell
... 14.84
56.10
78
Chowan
8.74
22.40
29
Wayne
... 14.74
53.86
79
Cabarrus
33
22.16
30
Cherokee
... 28.90
53.30
80
Watauga
19.93
21.96
31
Carteret
... 44.80
51.57
81
Scotland
9.61
21.05
32
Davidson
... 14.64
48.96
82
Hoke
.... 16.42
19.50
33
Person
... 31.13
48.81
83
Pender
18.58
19.38
34
Perquimans,...
... 26.86
46.96
84
Franklin
4.20
18.76
36
Stanly
. . 26.24
46.37
85
Alleghany . i..
17.09
17.09
36
Ashe
... 44.60
44.60
86
Nash
6.31
13.78
37
Union
... 26.63
43.60
87
Hyde
12.16
12.74
38
Davie
.... 19.82
41.36
88
Camden
12.22
12.22
39
Catawba
8.65
40.96
89
Alexander .,..
12.08
12.08
40
Madison
.... 38.06
40.95
90
Onslow
.... 7.65
11.58
41
Cleveland
... 18.21
40.76
91
Currituck
9.11
9.11 -
42
Hertford
... 31.84
40.67
92
Graham
8.16
8.16
43
Halifax
... 20.10
40.08
93
Chatham
7.10
8.00
44
Alamance
... 22.40
39.81
94
Macon
6.17
7.86
46
Richmond
... 16.92
39.40
95
Warren
1.26
6.96
46
Johnston
... 29.70
39.25
96
Bertie
5.69
5.59
47
Clay
... 39.00
39.00
97
Gates
2.45
2.45
48
Bladen
.... 38.30
38.56
98
Jones
1.46
1.79
49
Orange
... 27.70
37.82
99
Dare
72
.72
60
Robeson
... 16.32
37.76
100
Northampton.
.... None
None