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.
DECEMBER 16, 1925
CHAPEL HILL, N C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XII, NO. 7
Editorial Boardt E. C. Bcanson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr.. L. R. Wilson. E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt. H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914. at the Postoffice at Chapei Hill. N. C.. under the act of August 24, 1912
THE NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
[We are reprinting in this and the
»pxL two issues of the News Letter an
article on North Carolina and the New '
Industriul Revolution, by C. R. Fay,
emin;nt English economist, which re
cently appeared in the Economic Journal,
of trie Royal Economic Society, London, i
North Carolina is attracting the atten
tion not only of other states but of
foreign countries as well.—S. H. H., Jr.,
Editor. ]
“Such has hitherto been the rapid
progress of that country in wealth, j
population and improvement, that in ■
the course of little more than a century, ^
perhaps, the produce of American might!
exceed that of British taxation. The;
seat of the empire would thenpaturally ,
remove itself to that part of the empire j
whii h contributed most to the general
defence and support of the whole.” —
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations. IV. 7,
Pc. 3.
1. A citizen of North Carolina, that
“Old North State” of some 60,000 sq.
miles (nearly the size of England and
Wales), with a population of two and
a half millions, slightly more than two-
thirds white and less than one percent
foreign-born or of foreign-born parents,
apparently can say with truth all these
things:—
“My house, or rather the house in which
1 live, is made of wood which quite prob
ably was cut from the mountain forests
of my state. It is lighted with the
cheapest electricity in the U. S. A.
My furniture was made at High Point,
N. C., a furniture town second only in
its output to Grand Rapids (Mich.),
and rejoicing in a Furniture Exposition
Building with six acres of floor space.
My kitchen utensils were made at
Badin, N. C.. on the river Yadkin, the
aecond largest Aluminum plant in the
world. My towels come from Kan
napolis, N. C., the world's largest towel
mills: my table-covers from Roanoke
Rapids, N. C., the largest damask mills
in the U. S. A. My state produces
more cotton goods than any other ex
cept Massachusetts: $62 millions in 1912,
$229 millions in 1922. The stockings
which I and my family wear were knitted
at Durham, N. C., the hosiery centre
of this continent. It is the fault or
vagary of our distributive system if I
eat any but native-grown foods—grape
fruit and bankas excepted. For my
state, which some years ago was twenty-
second in the list, is now fourth in agri
cultural production, following Texas,
Illinois, and Iowa. North Carolina has
corn, wheat, sorghum, peaches and
apples more than sufficient for its own
people. Its raw cotton rose in value
from $63 millions in 1921 to $104 millions
in 1922; its tobacco from $65 millions to
$93 millions. The boll-weevil has hardly
touched us yet, and we are ready for
him, if he should come, with Sou^h-
gotten calcium arsenate. Our largest
town, Winston-Salem, the home of
‘Camel’ cigarettes and ‘Prince Al
bert’ smoking tobacco, is the largest
tobacco market and the largest centre
of tobacco manufacture in the world.
In North Carolina we smoke and we
work; and after a ten-minute lunch in a
cafeteria or on occasion a half-hour
a la carte meal at the Sir Walter, the
O. Henry, or the Robert E. Lee, we
jump into a high-powered Studebaker
jitney (with competing half-hourly ser
vices ail day long from everywhere to
everywhere else), and at an average
speed of forty miles an hour we sample
our state highways, of which 2000 miles
(mostly paved) have been completed
and as many more are in hand. In our
villages there are as many public houses
as in those of the Old World, but the
signs are different. Instead of King
Williams, Burton Arms, Threlfalls, and
Cains, we have filling stations brightly
blazoned with Texaco, ‘That Good Gulf
Gasoline’, and Standard Oil. Alcohol
(they tell us) is the sheet-anchor of
British finance. In North Carolina spirit
is consumed in the tank of an auto in
preference to the human stomach, and
the proceeds of the tax go to the state
and not to Washington. With 3 cenis a
gallon on gasoline we pay interest and
amortisation on our $77 millions of high
way bonds, and our road experts aver
that ‘improved roads so lessen the con
sumption of gas per mile and the wear
and tear on car and tires that 'the auto
owner actually makes money by paying
a tax on gasoline in order to get good
roads.’’’—(The South’s Development,
Manufacturers Reci-rd, 1924, p. 282.)
“However, not all the taxes go to the
state. Though we have only two and a
half millions population and no large
cities, we are fifth in the list for amount
of federal taxation. The tobacco tax
revenue from North Carolina in 1922
was $136 millions. But come and live
here! For we grow and manufacture
the tobacco, while the consumer pays
the tax. House rents are only half of
those in the North, and a little coal for
a short three months is all that is needed
for warmth. If you cannot live here,
come and see us. Drive one of those
tourist cars of which one per minute
passed down the ShenandoahValiey in ide
fall of 1924, there observing (we hope)
certain spots which recall the memory
of Stonewall Jackson.”*
2. North Carolina is much wider than
it is long and it has three well-defined
regions: the Coastal Plain, the rolling
Piedmont (the state capital Raleigh be
ing on the border-line between the two)
and the hill district of the Southern
Appalachians. The Blue Ridge Moun
tains separate the most westerly coun
ties of the state from the Piedmont,
which, because it lies at the feet of
these mountains, is so named. The
Piedmont region follows the line of the
Blue Ridge into South Carolina and has
upon its whole area 73 percent of the
manufacturing enterprises of the two
Carolinas. In North Carolina itself the
industrial belt has the configuration of
a broad-handled reap-hook with the
handle resting on Gaston county and
the tip of the blade touching Raleigh.
Along the handle from Shelby W.
through Gastonia to Charlotte E. there
is an unbroken factory district resem
bling S.E. Lancashire. Gaston county
alone has 100 cotton factories. Further
north, on the outer edge of the blade,
the cities of Winston-Salem, High Point
and Greensboro form an industrial tri
angle, within a seventy-mile radius of
which live one million out of the two
and a half million people of North Caro
lina. Greensboro is the insurance center
of the Carolinas, having in the Jefferson
Standard Life Insurance Company the
largest life insurance company in the
South. Situated on the main line of the
Southern Railway, for which it is build-
inga$l,300,000 Railway Depot (Station),
and lying nearer to New York than any
other important city in North Carolina,
Greensboro claims to be the “logical
location” for a branch of the Federal
Reserve Bank.
The orientation of North Carolina’s
commerce is the reverse of that which
prevailed in the days before the Civil
War. Today it is North and South,
then it was East and West. Railways
were built in the states along the At
lantic seaboard within a year or two of
the first railways in Lancashire, and in
order to handle the same commodity-
cotton. They were pushed inland from
the Atlantic ports—from Wilmington,
N. C., Charleston, S. C., and Savannah,
Georgia, following the lie of the land in
a northwesterly direction. Their pur
pose was to do what the rivers did less
well, to bring down the cotton and to
bacco to the coast. On their course
they passed through a. stretch of un
profitable barrens, and that was one
reason why the state built the North
Carolina Railroad from the coast to the
mountains, and why it failed and was
subsequently split up. Another and
major reason was, that New York, with
its more central position and happier
political fortunes, was able to focus
upon itself the traffic in people and
goods to and from the West. Thus
Wilmington and Charleston suffered as
ports more heavily even than Boston
and Portland (Maine). Moreover, the
navigation along the coast of North
Carolina from Norfolk to Cape Fear is
in many places difficult owing to the
river deltas, sand bars and narrow in
lets. But the development of trade
with the West Indies and South America
(the Panama Canal having opened to
the Atlantic seaboard both coasts of
South America) is promoting a new
orientation of ocean traffic. The lead
ing Gulf ports have enjoyed in the last
ten^years phenomenal increases in
traffic, Galveston a tenfold increase:
partly because of this new orientation,
and partly because the Mississippi
states back of them are the main source
BANKS PROSPERING
For long decades North Carolina
ranked near the bottom as a bank
ing state. Even today our aggregate
bank capital, resources, loans and
discounts and so on are not as large
as one would expect them to be, our
high rank as a producer of wealth
consi'^ered. However, few states are
making more progress in the field of
banking than North Carolina. At
the rate we are developing it will not
be long until we will compare favor
ably with other states in bank re
sources. The following basic facts
are significant.
In 1917 the bank resources of the
state totaled $213,204,000. In 1924
they amounted to $469,417,000.
In 1917 loans and discounts totaled
$136,727,000. In 1924 they amounted
to $331,689,000.
Bank capital increased during the
seven years from $20,873,000 to $37,-
274,000 while surplus and undivided
profits increased from $14,800,000 to
$29,882,000.
In every particular North Carolina
is developing more rapidly in the
field of banking than the average
state. Which is the best indication
we know of that North Carolina is
rapidly accumulating wealth, far
more rapidly than the average state
in the Union.
of Europe's cotton today. The North
Carolina Ship and Water Transporta
tion Commission in 1924 reported strong
ly in favor of a public port for North
Carolina. Southport by Cape Fear ap
pears to be the most promising site.
Whether Southport, N. C., or Charles
ton, S. C., is the terminal point is
mainly a matter of particular state
advantage, but a great port for ocean
traffic somewhere along the coast should
carry with it as its complement a new
artery of transportation through the
mountains into the southern part of the
middle west. The state highways have
opened the mountains to passenger
traffic. East-west railroads exist, but
the railroad system requires reorganiza
tion before North Carolina and its sister
state can valorize their continental
hinterland. Just as the porta of Liver
pool and Hull called into being the rail
way system across Lancashire and the
West Riding of Yorkshire—the centre of
the English cotton and woollen manu
factures—so Southport, N.C., or Charles
ton, S. C., by their offers of new ocean
traffic should shortly call into being a
new trunk railway system from East
to West, south of the Mason-Dixon
line.—(To be continued.)
CORRESPONDENCE COURSES
One thousand four hundred and eighty-
two students made 2,309 correspondence
course registrations with the University
of North Carolina Extension Division
during the year ending October 31,
according to figures given out by Chesr
ter D. Snell, director of the Division.
Ninety-four different courses were
offered and 62 instructors in the Uni
versity corrected 34,204 lesson assign
ments. As to course completions, an
average of one course was completed
during the year by each student regis
tered, while many more will complete
their work early this year. Many stu
dents completed from two to four
courses. With an average of 64.2 per
cent on completions this is thought to
be a record in this coifntry, for the best
previous report has been 66 percent
made by the University of Chicago.
The ages of those taking correspon
dence courses with the University range
from 17 to 67 years. The leading occu
pation represented among the students
is that of school teaching. Other occu
pations are listed as follows: Ministers,
farmers, house-keepers, office workers,
book-keepers, musicians, stenographers,
salesmen, bacteriologists, clerks, super
visors, principals and superintendents of
schools, insurance agents, realtors, tele
phone operators, printers, manufactur
ers, post-office clerks, statisticians, civil
engineers, and chautauqua managers.
Some are working for credit toward
teachers’ certificates, some for credit
toward Bachelors’ degrees, and some
do not apply for credit. Practically
every county in North Caroiina is repre
sented and a number of students from
other states are enrolled.
XVI. AN EXPERIMENTAL LINE IN NORTH CAROLINA
Ih the News Letter of November 18
appeared an article dealing with the
organized efforts of 16 states to grapple
with the peculiar problem of rural elec
tricity from all its angles. The usual
method is for experts from some state
college to join with an electric power
company in operating an experimental
line for scientific study of the problem.
In this way the reasons which have, up
to this time, made electric power less
available to the farming population than
to city dwellers and industrial plants
may be located and conditions corrected.
Two Southern states, Alabama and
Virginia, have set up such experimental
lines and have made progress in laying
the foundations of knowledge upon
which future rural elecLrification may
be built. North Carolina has no such
experimental line. Perhaps it is not
needed if there is some definite attempt
to study the problem in another way,-
but is this the case?
Great Power Expansion
Recent developments in the power
situation in North Carolina have been
of great size and importance, but rural
electrification has played a very minor
part. In the first place a great power
expansion is taking place in the eastern
part of the state. Twenty thousand
horse-power was recently added to the
capacity of the Roanoke Rapids Power
Company through a connection with the
Virginia Railway and Power Company.
Even greater developments are in pros
pect. All this, of course, means an in
dustrial awakening in the Tidewater
section. As one newspaper in eastern
North Carolina, the Commonwealth,
puts it: “People may have speculated
and wondered why it was that the great
cotton manufacturing plants as a rule
became established in central rather
than in eastern North Caroiina, in the
heart of the cotton belt. The answer
is simple enough. Central and western
North Carolina furnished cheap electric
power while eastern North Carolina
did not.” And the Secretary of the
Eastern North Carolina Chamber of
Commerce goes on to add: “There we
have it, electric power the great busi
ness go-getter.” This is one concep
tion of electric power, and a reasonable
one too, but it throws into the back
ground the tremendous possibilities of
electricity as a means to making farm
life more productive and more comfort
able.
Lines Consolidating
Then turn to the Piedmont section.
Here power developments have already
grown into a huge system of lines
which forms the basis of the industrial
prosperity of the state. It has reached
the point where the new developments
usually take the form of consolidation
of existing lines. The Carolina Power
and Light Company has recently merged
with the National Power and Light
Company which also has large holdings
in Tennessee and Alabama. Over 90
percent of the horsepower in the state
available for general and industrial use
is controlled by two corporations, ac
cording to the figures of the State De
partment of Conservation and Develop
ment. In this period of electric con
solidation, only a very little attention
is paid to the farmer’s need for elec
tricity. An electrically lighted rural
highway between Greensboro and High
Point is now in prospect, but the farm
ers would not necessarily be enabled to
use the ‘‘juice” for actual production
on the farm premises. One of the large
electric companies in the Piedmont sec
tion states that it hasn’t a single line
that could accurately be called “rural.”
The position is taken that rural lines
frequently don’t pay and shouldn’t be
installed until they do pay their way.
This is quite reasonable, but the answer
is that through further study and the
development of increased uses of elec
tricity on the farm, the lines might be
made to pay.
In the mountain section, great power
projects are being planned which will
link up western North Carolina with
Tennessee in a large hydro-electric
power system. Here is an opportunity,
before the developments are completed,
to plan out the role that farm electrifi
cation will play in the finished scheme.
More light on the problems of rural
electricity is needed in North Carolina,
whether it be by the method of experi
mental lines or some other method.—
A. T. Cutler.
HELPING YOUNG WOMEN
Having as their aim the promotion of
education for girls who plan to enter
the business world, the North Carolina
Federation of Business and Professional
Women’s Clubs last year established a
loan fund, from which high-school girl
graduates who desire to take further
training for business or professions may
secure loans.
The loan fund was launched by the
Greensboro club which contributed one
hundred dollars, in case the plan should
be endorsed by the state federation.
The plan was enthusiastically received
at the state convention, and the various
clubs subscribed a total of eight hundred
dollars. The land is known as the Elsie
G. Riddick State Loan Fund, in honor
of Miss Ridaick, who for the last four
years has been president of the state
federation. One girl is now securing
her college education by the aid of a
loan from this fund, and it is hoped that
at an early date many girls will be able
to secure loans from this fund. Miss
Elsie G. Riddick, Raleigh, is chairman
of the loan fund.
FARMERS MUST COOPERATE
The farmer is an individualist. Phys
ical environment and tradition tend to
keep him so. In the matter of produc
tion he will likely remain an individ
ualist, to a marked degree at least.
But in the matter of marketmg his
products he must necessarily, and I be
lieve he will, accept speedily the great
lesson of the time—cooperation.
As a producer he will not likely suc
ceed to any great extent in a coopera
tive movement—and it is not essential
to his prosperity and success that he
do so. But when it comes to disposing
of his crops he must accept in the full
est and most practical way the princi
ple of cooperative marketing. If he
does not do so he will con,tinue to be the
over-worked and under-paid victim in
the economic life of our countryJ —
Senator William E. Borau.
NEW CREDIT FACILITIES
The North Carolina' Agricultural
Credit Corporation, organized in 1924,
has had a successful experience in mak
ing short-term crop loans to farmers at
low interest rates. The organization is
not cooperative, but its stock is owned
by individuals and banks interested in
reducing the interest burden to farmers
and in making short-term credit avail
able in sufficient amounts to farmers
who really need it. In the year 1924
the corporation loaned $1,000,000 at 6^
percent per annum for production credit
to the members of cooperative associa
tions of cotton and tobacco growers in
the state. Loans are made on crop
mortgages to “solvent” farmers. ‘'In
solvent” farmers may receive money
on endorsement by solvent neighbors.
During 1926, $2,000,000 has been loaned
for te/ms of from six to nine months at
6^ per cent.
The total authorized capital of the
corporation is $2,000,000, and it may
secure $i0 for every $1 of capital stock
from the Intermediate Credit Banks of
the federal government, established by
the special credits legislation of the
spring of 1923. The corporation is in
dependent of the cooperatives but has
thus far served only “co-op” members.
Opinion is developing that the resources
of the corporation should be made avail
able to non-members throughout the
state.
A SUPREME CONCERN
Public education is now, as it always
has been, of supreme national and state
concern. Our future safety and wel
fare depend upon the effective main
tenance and operation of our public
schools. The privilege of free instruc
tion in schools maintained and supported '
under state authority is the constitu
tional birthright of every child in the
nation. The schools must therefore be
continued with an increasing degree of
efficiency, so that all the children may
receive instruction which will fit them
for the responsibilities of citizenship and
adapt them to the vocations which they
propose to adopt.—Alfred E. Smith.