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 for the University Ex
tension Division.
JULY 2,1924
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVEKSITT OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. X, NO. 33
Bdlfozlal Boardt B, G. Branaon, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. WIIsod, B. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J, B.BalUtt, H. W. Odom.
Entored aa aecond-elaBa matter Novambor 14, 1914. at thoPostofficoat Chapel EUH. N. C., ander the actef Aagnat 24, 1111
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT IN N. C.
XXIX-DANISH STATE-OWNED RAILWAYS
Danmark owns and operates its own
railroads, or at least the main line sys
tem, some 2,000 miles pf trackage all
cold. Seventy-live million dollars are
invested in the road beds, rolling stock,
terminal facilities and accessories of all
sorts in the state system. The state
also owns and operates the thorough
fare telephone and telegraph lines.
Every first-class post office is a tele
phone and telegraph station. The
state also owns and operates the steam
ferries that bridge the water gaps in
trunk line*travel and traffic, so that swift
freights can go from one end of the
state to the other without trans-ship
ment. Express trains move without
any considerable delay from Copen
hagen across two straits to Espberg for
the English markets, or south across
twenty-six miles of sea into Germany.
A sleeping-car passenger goes to bed
in Copenhagen and wakes up in Ham
burg or Berlin. The steam ferries, or
moving railroads as the Danes call
them, have solved all the difficulties of
de luxe travel in Denmark. The Danes
have around one hundred million dol
lars invested in these state-owned and
state-operated transportation and com
munication facilities. It is a tremen
dous enterprise for a little state one-
third the size of North Carolina and
with only 600,000 more inhabitants.
For thirty years this brave little
kingdom has been operating its own
railway, telegraph and telephone lines
for two distinct purposes:(l) to reduce
passenger rates, freight charges, and
communication costs to the lowest pos
sible figure, in the interest of farmers,
manufacturers, merchants, and con
sumers alike; and to render these ser
vices as a fundamental contribution to
common prosperity in Denmark, and
(2) to develop the remote and less pros
perous territories of the state. The
developmental purpose is as pronounced
and emphatic as the commercial
purpose. Left to private enterprise
the remote regions of north and
west Jutland, for instance, would have
been dreary, sparsely inhabited wastes
for long years to come. The state pene
trated these regions with railroads
long before there was any profit-pro
ducing business in passengers and
freights. For lack of such rail facili
ties our Lost Colonies have languished
in both life and business, and the Al
bemarle counties have become tribu
tary trade areas for Norfolk.
While the state does not own the
lines that branch out into the marginal
territories of Denmark, it does own as
a rule from one-half to one-fourth of
their capital stock, and these subordi
nate lines are operated as a part of the
state system in schedules, freight
charges, and passenger rates. The
trains are slower on these secondary
lines, the equipment is not so good as
on the main lines and the rates are
higher, because the volume of traffic
and travel is less. But the dwellers in
these remote regions are satisfied be
cause they realize that without rail
road facilities life and enterprise in
these lonely places would be impossible.
The Danes long ago realized the funda
mental contribution that railways make
to private enterprise on the one hand
and to commonwealth development on
the other.
A State Service Agency
Almost the only cheap thing in Den
mark is freight and passenger service.
The charges for both were from one-
third to one-half of the charges on the
German railways in 1913, and they are
still distinctly less than they are today
m Germany. It goes without saying
that the rates are less than they are in
America. The de luxe trains of Den
mark, what we call through Pullman
car service, are just as good as we
have in America and the charges are
not a great deal less. The express
freight trains are another story. No
kind of freight traffic is as’expensive
in Denmark as it is in,,^America. And
this statement applies to short-haul
freights in particular.
Another matter of interest is the
fact that the conductors on the de luxe
tr^ns are the whole show. They in
spect your tickets, make down your
beds, answer the call bells and gener
ally serve as porters as well as conduc
tors. They do not consider it beneath
their dignity to serve in these multifar
ious capacities. The same thing is true
on the sleeping cars of Germany and
France.
Another thing of significance is the
fact that the Danish railways were
never planned to be money-making en
terprises; they are and have always
been service enterprises on part of the
state regardless of dividends. How
ever these dividends have commonly
ranged from one percent to two percent
annually. Danish railway dividends
have twice dwindled to nothing or less
in the last twenty years. But all rates
have been raised of late to cover losses
and insure reserves for extension, re
pairs, equipments and replacements.
I frequently see the statement in A-
merican papers that the Danish rail
ways are a failure, that the cars and
road-beds are ill-conditioned and the
waste enormous. True the local trains
and the combination freight and pas
senger trains are slow especially on
the private lines, but the same thing is
true on our cross-country lines at
home. Otherwise I did not discover
the charges against the Danish rail
ways to be true. Somebody has been
misinformed or is indulging in propa
ganda against the state ownership of
railways.
Business, not Politics
The railroad employees of Denmark
wear uniforms, they are public offi
cials, and they are on the civil service
pension list. Their jobs are secure so
long as they are efficient and courteous
to travelers and shippers. They are in
positions of honor, and manifestly the
men respect themselves and the public
they serve. The railway employees
neither expect nor accept tips, and an
attempt to bribe a Danish customs of
ficer would promptly land the green
horn in jail. The same thing is true in
France. It is another story in Ger
many of late years.
Just as in the state promotion of
home and farm ownership, the railway
business of Denmark is business. It
has nothing to do with partisan poli
tics, because the Danes are firmly con
vinced that politicians and politics play
the very deuce with any business en
terprise of the state.
1 may add that at present the direc
torate of the Danish railway system
shares moderately in the annual divi
dends of the railroads, in New Year
bonuses ranging all the way from five
to fifty percent of the profits according
to the rate of dividends declared. The
directors receive no bonus checks if
the system declares dividends of two
percent or less.
Where Business is Politics
I am not arguing the state ownership
and operation of railways. I am not
saying that what is possible in Den
mark and Germany succeeds in France
or Italy. As a matter of fact the state
ownership and operation of railways
does not succeed in either of these
countries. Both countries have tried
it and they know that it does not suc
ceed. A portion of the French sys
tem is operated directly by the state.
The state railway service is fairly good
in northwest France under govern
ment operation but it is distinctly less
efficient and less profitable than in the
other French railway systems that are
operated by leasing companies.
The state operation of railroads in
America is not a hopeful proposition in
my opinion, and it never can succeed
in a great country like ours unless (1)
our railroad business can^be taken out
of,politics and immeasurably removed
from the influence of party^politicians,
and (2) unless railway employees from
the director general down to the track
gangs can feel themselves to be trusted
business men conducting in a business
like way a business enterprise of the
government—unless rail way ^employees
can esteem themselves as business men
honored and rewarded in life-long jobs
that depend solely on their efficiency,
their faithfulness, and their courtesy.
All these things are true of the pub
lic servants involved in the Danish sys
tem of transportation and communica
BANKERS CAN HELP
While the bulk of the money that
the farmer borrows necessarily
comes from the large reservoirs of
wealth controlled by the city banks,
the country banks are in more inti
mate touch with the farmer and are
in a position to do things for him
that no city bank can do. In a
small publication called The Rural
Market, an editor of The Bankers’
Magazine declares that these coun
try banks are doing more than their
share in promoting better methods
of production in their respective
communities. He notes a few of
the activities of some of the pro
gressive country banks which be
lieve that by helping their commun
ities they will also be helping them
selves:
Financing the importation and
distribution of pure-bred cattle.
Promoting and encouraging local
fairs and exhibitions.
Developing the interest of boys
and girls in better farming by or
ganizing pig, sheep, calf, poultry,
and garden clubs.
Encouraging the keeping of some
live stock on every farm and pro
moting greater crop diversification.
Promoting local dairying by keep
ing dairy records, financing local
creameries, establishing cow-testing
associations, teaching better feed
ing methods.
Urging and financing the construc
tion of silos.
Arranging for regular banker-
farmer conferences to discuss mu
tual problems.
One bank by financing the impor
tation and seeding of alfalfa, in
creased the number of alfalfa acres
in its community from 10,000 to 13,-
000, resulting in an increased pro
duction of nearly 12,000 tons, which
at prevailing prices amounted to
$180,000 in new wealth. The in
crease in land values was estimated
at $30 per acre and amounted to
$120,000. The increased quantity of
fded made it possible to winter some
60,000 additional sheep in the valley.
And the banks, we are told, are
not losing, as a result of this sort of
activity; one bank in Pennsylvania
as a result of two years’ community
agricultural development increased
its deposits 48 percent.—The Liter
ary Digest.
of farm enterprise in Denmark. The
farmer found in his fields an extensive
deposit of very rich marl. Instead of
operating it himself for private profit,
he took his neighbors into a good thing
and the combined capital of the coop
erating group was sufficient to erect
the buildings to house the miners, and
to buy the necessary plows, teams and
carts, drags, picks, shovels and wheel
barrows. With their enterprise proper
ly organized and equipped, they peti
tioned the prison authorities of the
state for fifty able-bodied convicts, the
necessary guards, and a domestic force
for the prison house-keeping at the
mine. Then they petitioned the state
railway authorities for a spur track a
mile or so in length, a shift engine,
dump cars and railway employees suf
ficient to serve an active mine. The
state authorities lost no time in com
plying with the requests of the farmer
group. I found the convicts wearing
no stripes, balls or chains. And I have
never seen men work harder and more
cheerfully. Their mine quarters were
clean, their food was abundant and ex
cellent, and the prison guards, as I re
member it, were only four in number.
If any one of them had a gun I did not
see it. My comment was. This is the
first time I ever saw farmers bunch up
and beat the lumber and coal mine
companies in this sort of game. And
by the way, the guards were state
prison officials of a manifestly superior
type. No company of any sort is per
mitted. in Denmark to have its own
cheap guards and to stand between the
law and its penalties, as in more than
one state of the American Union. The
aim of these farmers, said the Danes
who accompanied me, is first of all to
get a rich quality of lime for their own
I fields at the lowest possible cost, and
I then with the help of the railroads to
i sell it over a wide area at a minimum
• price to outside purchasers. The lim-
■ ing of fields is a universal practice in
' Denmark. Our marl deposits in East-
i ern North Carolina although quite as
I rich as those of Denmark have prac-
1 tically no commercial value.
! It is an extremely rare thing in Den-
■ mark, for a farmer to surround an ad-
I vantage and to squeeze his neighbors
j to the limit.—E. C. Branson, Copen
hagen.
tion. If they cannot become true in
America we shall be wise to leave
these service agencies to private capi
tal and its employees, no matter what
it costs the public in the recurring
damages of repeated wars between
railway managers and railway em
ployees.
Stifling Agriculture
Meanwhile no matter how rapidly
American farmers multiply their vol
ume of farm wealth year by year, by
cooperative effort or otherwise, they
are likely to be ground to powder be
tween the upper and nether mill
stones or railway dividends on the one
hand and unionized labor on the other.
Farm cooperation succeeds in Denmark
becau.se the state owns and operates
the railway, telegraph and telephone
lines, and extends these services to
business in general at the lowest possi
ble rates. Cooperative enterprise and
private business alike would have had
a dog’s chance in little Denmark under
any other conditions.
An Illuminating Experience
One morning in a motor car ride in
North Jutland we came within sight of
a mine, the first mine I had seen in
Denmark. What is it? I asked. It is
a marl mine, was the answer. As we
walked across the field toward it my
host told me the story—the usual story
j MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
i The unprecedented urban growth in
; North Carolina due to expansion along
; industrial lines has been the means of
focussing attention on the antiquities
in the forms of municipal government
now in practice in this state, says a
treatise on Municipal Government writ-
j ten by T. Glenn Henderson, Greens
boro, and I^uxton Midyette, Jackson,
for the Department of Rural Social
Economics.
I When Washington was inaugurated,
' only about one-thirtieth of the popula-
; tion lived in cities of over eight thous-
' and. In a little more than one hundred
years more than half of the population
' of the United States have become city-
j dwellers. In North Carolina at the
1 present time, more than thirty percent
I of the population live in urban or in-
j corporated areas. Only, recently has
I any effort been made to bring munici
pal government into conformance with
the expansion of the cities,
i There are four principal types of
city government in the United States:
(1) the decentralized plan; (2) the com
mission plan; (3) the centralized may-
' or-council plan, and (4) the t ity-man-
' ager plan. Three of these types are
; to be found, in the main, in North Ca-
. rolina—the decentralized plan, the
commission plan, and the city-manager
' plan. An examination of the funda-
: mentals of each of these systems is
' necessary to a correct understanding
j of the various problems which are oc-
I cupying the thought and effort of polit
ical reformers.
Mayor-Alderman Plan
In the decentralized plan or mayor-
alderman plan, the mayor is elected on
a partisan ticket among numerous oth
er officers, and a city council made up
from representatives of the various
wards. Its supporters claim that the
large council, elected by wards, assures
representation to every section of the
city; and that autocratic rule is elimi
nated because the mayor must share
the appointive power with his council.
On the other hand, ward lines are pure
ly arbitrary divisions of the city and
I as such start log-rolling among the
various wards for special favors. Fur
ther, the voter is confusedjbyjthe large
number of officials to be voted upon;
administrative responsibility is diffused
because of the confusion as to whether
the official is responsible to the mayor
or the council, and there is no minority
representation.
Commission Plan
In the commission plan, the people
elect a number of commissioners, usu
ally three to five, who are responsible
both for legislation and for administra
tion. One is named mayor. Sitting
together they pass ordinances and de
termine administrative policies while
the work of the city is.^divided into
from three to five departments with
one commissioner heading,'each. Pro
ponents of this plan argue that all of
the affairs of the city are , centralized
in the hands of a single commission
which can easily be watched by the
voters while the election-at-large se
cures minority representation and a
high type of official. On the other
hand, commission government is a
three- to five-headed administration,
and administrative policy, therefore, is
liable to be a series of compromises. It
would not be unusual for the head of a
department to find himself constantly
over-ruled by the vote of other mem
bers. One of two results therefore nat
urally follows: either friction develops
among the members, or each commis
sioner is permitted to follow his own
course without consideration of other
departments of the city as a whole.
In further support of their stand,
opponents of this plan mention
the possibility of departmental bar
gaining; the impossibility of se
curing the best citizens for the salary
usually paid, and the mistake in plac
ing the spending and taxing functions
in the same body, a policy which they
contend is conducive of extravagance.
Mayor-Council Plan
In the centralized mayor-council plan
the mayor is elected by the people; no
other administrative officials being
elected except perhaps the auditor or
comptroller. Here confirmation of ad
ministrative appointments by the coun
cil is not required. The administrative
services are organized into five or more
departments, each headed by a director
appointed by and responsible to the
mayor. The advantage of this plan is
the.mayor’s inability to pass the buck.
The opposition advances that the mayor
is usually a politician, elected because
of personal popularity or because he
stands for certain general policies or
plans of public improvement. Rarely
is he a good administrator. Usually
as soon as he learns something about
his job his term expires and another
man new to the job is.elected.
City-Manager Plan
In the city-manager plan a small
council is elected whose functions are
confined to legislation. It appoints
the city-manager who can be removed
at any time. The city-manager is a
full-time executive head, chosen upon
a basis of experience and ability and
I not because of political considerations,
j The contention most often met in ob
jection to this plan is that it places too
much power in the city-manager. Its
^ supporters point to the fact that under
; it there is no division of-‘function or re-
; sponsibility; that competent men are
I secured for the council since only part-
j time service is required; that it cannot
be argued with justice that too much
power is placed in the hands of the city-
manager because his duties are purely
of an administrative nature; that each
manager’s success and hope of promo
tion to a higher salary or larger city
depends upon his results, and not upon
political favors or political service, thus
placing a premium on efficiency,
j The f(»llowing North {Carolina cities
I have placed this plan in “operation;
[ Chapel Hill, Durham, Elizabeth City,
' Gastonia, Goldsboro, Greensboro, Hen-
; dersonville. Hickory, High-JPoint, Mor-
j ganton, Reidsville, and Thomasville.
t In conclusion the authors say that
I the city-manager plan is not perfect.
They do say with assurance, however,
that it is the best plan of Municipal
Government so far devised.