Newspapers / The University of North … / Feb. 11, 1925, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The University of North Carolina News Letter (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
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. FEBRUARY 11, 1925 CHAPEL HILL, N. C. THE UNIVERSITY OP NORTH CAROLINA PRESS VOL. XI, NO. 13 Eiiitorlal Br> B. C. Bcaason. S. B. Hobbs. Jr., L. R. Wilson, H W. Knlffht. D. D. Carroll. J. B.Bollitt. H. W. Odom. Bnterod as aecond-elasa mattor November 14.1914, at thePoatoffleeat Chapel Hill, N. C.. ander the act of AcsraBt 84, *1912 A REMARKABLE EXHIBIT County taxes in North Carolina are now more than double our state taxes. Our state taxes are paid by a handful of rich and well-to-do people who have productive properties sufficient to yield net incomes beyond $2^000 a year, by producing corporations, some 4,000 in number, and by wage and salary earners with incomes of more than $1,000 if sin gle persons, or of more than $2,000 if married. Altogetherit is a small group, closely estimated to be a half-million people all told. Right around 80 per cent of our state taxes are paid by fewer than 80,000 people out of a pop ulation of 2,700,000. On the other hand, county taxes are property taxes and everybody pays this tax who owns land or has more than $300 of personal effects. In seventy-two rural counties it is paid almost entirely by the farm ers. It is paid very largely by the pub lic utility companies and manufacturing corporations in the industrial areas of the state, that is to say in twenty- seven counties. Amazing Differences County tax burdens in North Caro lina range from $1.47 per inhabitant in Onslow which foots the list, to $16.26 in Durham which heads the list. County taxes per inhabitant in Dur ham are almost exactly twice the aver age for the state; neatly 60 percent more than in Mecklenburg, around 60 percent more than in Guilford, up wards of 80 percent more than in For syth, and more than ten times the per capita tax burdens in Onslow. ' An Eye-Opener The per capita county tax burden in .Forsyth is $8.39, in Dare $8.43, and in Graham $8.52. Forsyth is by long odds the richest county in the state, Dare and Hyde are certainly among the very poorest, but it actually costs less upon an average for a taxpayer to live in Forsyth than among the fisher-folk in Dare or among the highlanders in Graham. It sets a body to wondering how such a thing can possibly be true. In Buncombe county the average taxpayer carries a county tax burden a good deal less than the average for the state—$6.94 against $7.82; his bur den is less than half that of his fellow taxpayer in Durham and not much more than that of his fellow taxpayer in Wake. The per inhabitant burden of county taxes is greater in Alamance ($10.66) than in ninty-one other counties of the state. And ninty-five counties run their county governments at less ex pense per inhabitant than Pitt county. On the other hand, a taxpayer can live in Edgecombe at an average per-inhab- itant tax expense that is less than half the county tax burdens of the seven teen counties that head the list in per capita averages. But perhaps enough has been said to provoke the reader to study the table elsewhere in this issue, and especially the paragraphs that preface this table. MUSIC CLUB PROGRAMS The Women’s Clubs Section of the University Extension Division is offer ing a program for music clubs. Pro fessor Paul John Weaver, of the Music Department of the University, in pre paring this course has made it possible for music lovers and music clubs to ; get a general survey' of music by means of a study of the lives and com positions of outstanding musicians re presenting different periods of devel opment from 1600 to 1900. During the course of sixteen meet ings the following composers are pre sented: Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Men delssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Tschaikowsky, Debussy, Rim- sky-Korsakoff, and Strauss. An interesting arrangement of each meeting is provided. A paragraph concerning the life and works of the composer introduces the meeting and, although emphasis is placed on the mu sic rather than on discussions and pa pers, it is suggested that, if papers are given, the writer spend considerable time in study in order to present only .live points that will be of interest from the standpoint of the effect on the musician’s work. Several illustra tions of each composer’s work are sug gested for presentation by members of the study group. The use of Victor records is advocated and suggestions are made concerning their use in the program. A registration fee will be required for which ten copies of the program will be supplied and Fratt’s History of Music and Hamilton’s Outlines of Mu sic History will be loaned to each club for the duration of the course. The Extension Division has pur chased a complete set of the Victor records used in the program' which may be borrowed by clubs that are un able to procure them locally. Should conflicts arise, preference will be given to tbe first request. All records will be carefully packed and sent by insured parcel post, the club borrowing them assuming responsibility for their safe return. All correspondence concerning this program should be addressed to the Women’s Clubs Section of the Univer sity Extension Division, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. —University Extension Publicity. OUTSTANDING NEEDS I favor progress in public education, because it is the foundation stone of our civilization. The classic utterance of a great North Carolinian, “A der mocracy cannot be built on the backs of ignorant men,” sounded an everlasting truth. The fundamental factor in our sys tem of education is the public school system, because every process of edu cational development must begin at the bottom. Therefore we need to stress Ehore and more the work of our elementary and high schools. If I should be asked to say what I found to be the outstanding needs in North Carolina, as I visualized them during my travels c{>vering some forty thousand miles in ninety-eight counties in the past twelvemonths, I would un hesitatingly reply: Agricultural im provement and rural betterment. If I should then be asked to suggest what I considered the prime remedy for sup plying this need, I would say: More Education, both academic and voca tional.—Gov. McLean in his inaugural addres s. A PENNY FOR EDUCATION The total wealth of America in 1922 was...$320,803,862,000 The yearly income of America was 66,000,000,000 America spent for luxuries in 1920.. .. 17,361,000,000 We put into the sav ings banks 17,331,479,000 All governments cost.. 9,000,000,000 We spent for public elementary and high schools 1,580,671,926 — Home, School and Community. A VOICE FROM GEORGIA From Superintendent Ballard’s an nual report in School Items of June 1, we find the following estimated figures for Georgia which will bring the mat ter closer home to us. It is estimated that Georgia spends annually eight and one-half million dollars for cold drinks, one and one-half million for chewing gum, thirty-six million dollars for ci gars and cigarets, twenty-two million for chewing' tobacco and snuff, thirty million for perfumes and fancy soaps, eighty-five million for automobile ac cessories, food luxuries, one hundred and thirty-seven millions, making a grand total of three hundred and twenty-seven million dollars. For pub lic education we spent about twenty- two million dollars. Stated other wise, we spent fifteen times as much for the things we could have done without in Georgia in 1920 as we did for the education of our’children, our chief asset. When the people know these things “Dreams will come true” in Georgia, too. Oh, for an Aycock!— Home, School and Community. THE NEED OF THE HOUR Edwin Markham What do we need to keep the nation whole. To guard the pillars of the state? We need The fine audacities of honest deed; The homely old integrities of soul; The swift temerities that take the part Of outcast right—the wisdom of the heart; Brave hopes that Mammon never can detain, Nor sully with his gainless clutch for gain. We need the Cromwell fire to make us feel The common burden and the public trust To be a thing as sacred and august As the white vigil where the angels kneel. We need the faith to go a path un trod, Th^ power to be alone and vote with God. A HOME-MAKER What is this thing, now broadcasting artists like Bori and McCormack to an unseen audience of 6,000,000* people, if not the first great contrivance of this inventive age for keeping people home? Heretofore we have had a succession of things which make it easier or more inviting to switch off the parlor lights and go seek pleasure and excitement elsewhere. There has been the automobile, so popular now that there is a motor-car for one American in every six. There has been the movie, bringing first-rate actors into towns which used to see one minstrel show each season. There has been all man ner of development in rapid transit, making it easier for people to reach dance-halls, theaters, and Coney Is lands. Now comes the radio insisting that the place of entertainment is in the home. Improved County Government in North Carolina and other states of the Union. Both these young men are M. A. graduates, one from the University of Pennsylvania, and identified'^ with North Carolina by marriage. The other is a M. A. graduate of the Uni versity of Texas, a former county school superintendent familiar with de tails of county government in Texas. For a month these young men have been at work in Alamance, where county government is headed by a full time officer who is the executive agent of the county commissioners. , Ala mance is one of the few counties in the entire United States that is under a county-manager plan. Another county or two is under a full-time county-commission government, each commissioner taking over a section of county affairs and be^ng responsible for it as in the commissison plan of city government. One or two other coun ties are under the plan of fiscal control by a county auditor. Most other counties of the state are operating un der the go-as-you-please plan. In one of these counties the commissioners answered an inquiry about the annual statement of finances by saying, “The receipts just about equal the expendi tures so the commissioners thought it wasn’t worth while to publish a county statement.” Our two Research Fellows have had nothing but courtesies and kindnesses in the court house at Graham. They* have had from every court-house offi cer the utmost willingness to open up every detail of county government. They are starting the work of the col lege year by having a close look at one of the half-dozen best governed coun ties in North Carolina. One of them goes next weet week into Edgecombe to settle down for a thorough study of county affairs during two or three months. The other goes into Stanly county upon a similar invitation to find out how Stanly manages its county business. Everybody has learned that tbese young men are students of a subject, interested in a large section of politi cal science, namely county govern ment; that they are in no wise inter ested in partisan politics, in party family squabbles, cliques, or coteries; that they are interested in one thing and one thing alone, namely the best possible plan, the simplest and most effective plan, for county government in North Carolina. It will be interesting to watch the tug and pull of rival forces. We have something here like the time-honored contest of naval guns and naval arma ments. First, science produces a gun which pierces any.steel. Then science produces a steel which defies any gun. Then gun conquers steel again, and so forth. Radio is the new defensive arma ment of evenings spent at home—dar ing the movies and the theaters to come to closer quarters for a test of strength.—The N. Y. World. A WISCONSIN WIRE My return to Wisconsin has been ac companied by unusually fruitful memo ries of my brief stay in North Carolina. Th? vigor and power of the work of yo'ur University must impress even the casual visitor. It is natural that I should be espe cially impressed with the results se cured by the Extension Division. By the scope and liberality of its work and the business-like way in which it is handled, it is quite clear that with you the results of research are being made to an unusual degree effective and useful to the people of the state. The faculty members whom I met, and I met a number of them, were full of the spirit which leads to the end. This spirit seemed to permeate the en tire institution and one must conclude that it is the intimate union of scholas tic and humanitarian interests in the University of North Carolina that has led to its becoming so.~Louis E. Re- ber. Dean of the School of Extension, University of Wisconsin. COURT HOUSE STUDIES Two Research Fellows are now busy in the field making county court-house studies for the Research Institute of the University of North Carolina, the purpose being to ascertain the facts of county government, the excellent things in the best governed counties, the weaknesses and deficiencies of our county government system or lack of system, all in the interests of a plan of COUNTY TAX BURDENS IN 1922 > Per Inhabitant in N. C. The, table elsewhere in this issue rank's the counties of North Carolina from high to low, according to the average taxes paid per inhabitant in 1922,’ as per the recent Federal Census bulletin entitled Taxes Collected. The state over, upon an average, our per capita county taxes averaged $7.82 in the year named, distributed as follows: General Property Taxes .. ? $7.47 Special taxes—Incomes, Inheritances, etc OO Poll Tax Receipts 25 Licenses and Permits W(iich is to say, county tax burdens, unlike state tax burdens in North Carolina, rest almost entirely on direct taxes on general property—farm lands buildings and livestock, city lots and factory sites and improvements'thereon, merchandise, mill products on hand, solvent credits and so on. Less than one half of one percent of county revenues come from poll taxes, licenses and permits. County taxes are now more than double state taxes—$20,732,000 against $9,933,000 in 1922; and county taxes are an unduly heavy burden because of (1\ the inequities and iniquities in the county tax lists, (2) uncollected taxes, (3) fees and fines uncollected or unreported, and (4) primitive methods of book keeping and reporting to the public in annual statements. Improved County Government alone can save the taxpayers of this state from bankruptcy. Edgar T. Thompson Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina. Rank Counties Taxes per Inhab. 1 Durham $ 16.26 2 New Hanover 13.33 3 Henderson 12.29 4 Beaufort 11.97 6 Pitt 11.48 6 Mitchell 11.42 7 Cabarrus.... I 11.26 8 Stanly 10.71 9 Alamance 10.66 10 Caswell 10.45 10 Lincoln 10.46 12 Lenoir 10.36 13 Mecklenburg 10.29 14 Wayne 10.26 15 Pasquotank 10.23 16 Gaston 10.13 17 Montgomery 10.11 18 Davidson 9.73 19 Wilson 9.68 20 Guilford 9.64 21 Rowan _ 9,49 22 Camden 9.12 23 Clay 9.07 24 Rockingham 8.99 25 Craven 8.92 26 Scotland 8.90 26 Perquimans 8.90 28 Washington 8.54 29 Graham 8.62 30 Dare 8.43 31 Forsyth 8.39 32 Halifax 8.38 33 Iredell 8.37 34 McDowell 8.32 36 Transylvania 8.28 36 Tyrrell 8.14 37 Anson 8.09 38 Moore 8.06 39 Cumberland 8.04 40 Jackson 7.99 41 Chatham 7.98 42 Davie 7.92 43 Vance 7.78 44 Caldwell 7.68 45 Haywood -.... 7.62 46 Union 7.60 47 Orange 7.63 47 Greene 7.63 49 Jones 7.62 60 Currituck 7.48 Rank Counties ^ Taxes per Inhab. 61 Duplin 5 7.46 52 Richmond 7.41 53 Pender 7.39 54 Person 7.19 66 Pamlico 7.10 66 Buncombe 6.94 66 Polk 6,94 58 Granville 6.93 69 Catawba 6.80 60 Hertford .. 6.71 60 Yadkin 6.71 62 Swain.. 6.68 63 Hoke 6.64 64 Nash 6.61 66 Carteret..... 6.35 66 Wilkes 6.34 67 Randolph 6.27 68 Johnston 6.20 69 Lee 6.10 70 Wake ‘ 6.06 71 Hyde 6.97 71 Madison 6,97 73 Chowan 5.96 73 Rutherford 6.96 76 Sampson 5.91 76 Columbus 6.79 77 Surry 5,77 78 Cleveland 6.68 79 Stokes 6.65 80 Yancey 5,58 81 Burke 5.53 82 Martin 5.46 83 Alleghany 6.36 84 Ashe 5.34 86 Bertie 6.26 86 Bladen 5.13 87 Cherokee 6.12 88 Edgecombe 4.89 89 Watauga 4.84 90 Northampton 4.71 91 Alexander 4,63 92 Robeson 4.39 93 Franklin 4.32 94 Macon 4.12 95 Warren 3.84 96 Gates 3.83 97 Brunswick 3.42 .98 Avery.., 2.95 99 Harnett 2.09 100 Onslow 1,47
The University of North Carolina News Letter (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 11, 1925, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75