Newspapers / The University of North … / Aug. 25, 1926, edition 1 / Page 1
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f The news in this publi cation is released for the press on receipt. THE UNlVERSiTY OF NORTH CAROLINA NEWS LETTER Published Weekly by the University of North Caro lina for the University Ex tension Division. AUGUST 25, 1926 CHAPEL HILL, N C. THE UNIVERSITY OP NORTH CAROLINA PRESS VOL. XU. NO. 41 MJiloti.l tioara. E. C. Branson. S. H. Hobbs, Jr.. L. 8. Wilson. E. W. Knisht, D. D. Carroll. J. B. Bullitt. H. W. Odum. Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914. at the Poatofflcc at Chanel Hill. N. C.. under the act of Aoitust 21. I9H IMPROVED COUNTY GOVESNMENT COOMTY GOVERNMENT The unifying ,if county governments under competent official families with business managers, budgets and pur chasing ggents was recommended by the commission on county government to the state association of county commissioners. There are seven functions that every county must safeguard if its operations are to be successful, de clares the report. They are: (1) main taining unity in the official family of a county in fiscal management; (2) preserving the taxablesof a county; (3) collecting the revenue fairly and justly: (4) safeguarding the revenue through proper accounting; (6) safe guarding the expenditures through budget control and a central purchasing agent; (6) protecting the physical prop erty of the county, and (7) providing properly for the administration justice. Defects Pointed out The fiscal management and unity of the official family have fallen short in most counties, declares the commission, because the officials have little or no conception of the total value of service to be rendered, and because of duplica- of taxes finally brings about ruin. Under the recommended manner of govern ment “the collector is held to a strict accountability” by the board of county commissioners. Wherever the function of safeguard ing the expenditures is not safeguarded points out the commission, there is an absence of budget receipts, loss through unwise contracting, the starving of one department with corresponding favorit ism to another, an ignorance of the bonded indebtedness and an increase in prices. Safeguards Mecommended The commission recommends as safe guards a budget of receipts, a budget of expenditures and a centra! purchas ing agent. Whenever there is nut a proper ac counting of all funds there is negli gence on the part of officials, failureito have a continuous audit of ail funds, a failure to hold officials responsible for not keeping proper accounts, a failure to guard the credit of the county, and a lack of balanced books. The commission makes the following recommendations: A continuous audit should be required of the several depart ments of the county; the credit of the SELF HELP ^ BEST A nation can exhibit no greater political wisdom in the mass than it generates in its units. It is the pregnant idealism of the multitude which gives power to the makers of great nations, otherwise tbe prophets of civilization are helpless as preach ers in the desert and solitary places. So far I have always preached self help above all other kinds of help, knowing that if we strove passionate ly after this righteousness, all other kinds of help would be at our service. —George Russel), Irish Statesman. KNOW KOaiH CAROLINA North Carolina The Firth State To day is the title of a very valuable book let just issued by the State Department of Conservation and Development. It is brim full of information about the state: her resourcesof all kinds, such as water power, soils, seasons, minerals, resort development; agriculture and agri- he was a wealthy man. But that does not mean anything these days. Through the difference in the exchange values of what a farmer raises and what he ; has to buy, most of the time the more: I he produces the less he has. Industry ! has become a highly organized thing, j and he does not deal with combinations I of individuals. These, combinations jwere at first small, but they have ] increased in size and multiplied in [number so that the immediate future I holds the prospect that all business I will be conducted by mammoth corpora- I tions. The • days of the little business i man appear to be numbered. Confronted with this situation, the farmer cannot be the trader he used to be. One man cannot whip fifty men in combat and one farmer can’t out-trade fifty men. It is absolutely impossible. So, the farmer's only recourse so far bas been tbe organization of bis cooperative associations in an effort to restore his old that he has lost to industry. Until he builds his organizations to the size of those of industry, the farmer cannot hope to improve his situation or restore the county on account of the careless and indifferent manner in which the tax records were compiled, in the lax and unbusiness-like handling of financial affairs v;ith the different sheriffs, but in our opinion the loss certainly must have run into thousands of dollars.” The auditors found that the only book of records kept of the general county fund except those of the treas urer, were the minute docket and the “Record of Claims Issued,’' both of which were inaccurate and incomplete. No attempt was made to keep rrack of revenue or expenses of the general county fund, so that it could be de termined whether expenses were ex ceeding revenue, deficit being created and the county going into debt. We ex perienced great difficulty,” says the report, “in determining the true status of the treasurer’s accounts; for instance, he paid, and was ap parently given credit for interest cultural opportunities; industrial de velopment and industrial opportunities;, maintain his equality as a trader, historic sketches, and so on and on. The ! Q Moser, in Smithfield Herald. book is very readable. A very valu-! '■ able feature is the splendid collection ] COUNTY GOVERNMENT of pictures scattered through the book, j Those who read the book will have a : Watauga County financial affairs from .'June 1921 to June 1926, have fallen tion of effort and a disproportionate county should be properly safeguarded distribution of revenue. Moreover, by providing for prompt payment of all “there is adiffusion of authority, lack of interest, principal or notes and by concertea programs for county endeavor' safeguarding the expenditures by en- and a curtailment of authority and digni-; trusting them to one official, an auditor ty which rightfully belong to the com-1 elected by tiie county board, missioners.” Likewise under these! The failure to preserve the physical circumstances it is impossible for the j property of the county, declares tbe quality in bargaining and trading banks for carrying county - warrants, though no warrants were issued or record made of such interest allowed. No record made of note issued on December 7 1922 to take up warrants from the Watauga County Bank, nor was any record made, even on the minute docket, of the $20,000 note is sued August 4, 1924, the proceeds of which were turned over to the school fund, and the present commissioners did not know of the existence of such much better knowledge and apprecia^ . - tion of the state. The department! under auditorship of the firm of Lmmett ^ ^^iig^tion until notified of the ma- states that this is the first ot a series i Smith -nd Co., and an elaborate sum- of the semi-annua! interest pay- of bulletins on North Carolina. ' mary of findings is given m The Wa- j tauga Democrat. The revelation of the ... ' state of affairs may be taken as typical OOR MINEKAL IfHODUCTS ; of eonditions existing in many North Only one state has a greater variety i Carolina counties under the antiquated of minerals than North Carolina, yet: system of county government that has we are not an important mineral state i prevailed and for modernization of which ; - - u I # a commercial point of view. The; ^ movement was recently launched by commissioners to control the budget of i commission, is followed by the loss ot j Department of Commerce in a ; publicity organization at Chapel receipts and expenditures, and delega-1 property and makes for an additional Mineral Resources : found that the “final tionsofpeopleareserved as they appear'tax burden, a defect which can be I Prod-! balances” due by two sheriffs for the monthly and funds are appropriated as j remedied by having one ! ucts for North Carolina for the year | yg^rs from 1920 to 1924 footed 1924 was$9,261,467. Thirty-seven states$63,d33.66. The auditors did not delegates come and go. ! county as custodian of all physical Where there is no unity of man- [ property belonging to the county. agement, in many cases, declares the; commission, which has investigated t provide properly for the administration systems in the majority of the coun-1 of justice, makes for an increase in ties in the state, counties frequently: crime, added costs of jails, court ex spend special tax funds for general, penses and the failure to keep adequate i purpose funds and general funds for ; court records. The commission was j special tax purposes, while some counties , liot prepared to make suggestions on| do not even know’ how much it coats to , ^bis function of the county government i operate their government. i and asks that it be referred to the How to Effect Unity i bar association for further study and . The commission suggests that unity ; ^Bggestio „ , „ • , ' Machinery Satner Simple machinery necessary to safe. in the official famil.y in fiscal manage ment may be maintained by center-1 The machinery necessary ing administrative authority in a busi- i guard these seven major functions is | ness manager, appointed by and acting ; rather simple and does not involve any ! for the board, who may be chair-1 marked changes in our system of county ; man of the board or may be the ’ government; in fact many counties ^ auditor; by requiring all boards that ^ already have adopted it in part. How-1 expend public funds to account to the [ ever, the machinery should be elastic. ; board ot county commissioners for all J and at first it should be optional with funds received and expended; by giving ' the counties as to which of these sug- the commissioners authority to select; gestions shall be adopted. Counties m ' all administrative officers such as au-; which the annual expenditure amounts ditors, collectors of revenue and the ; to more than a million dollars might ranked ahead of North Carolina in value of mineral products for that year. The following table shows the min- erals in order of their importance, to- gether with value of products for the year 1924. .Mineral Value of Product Clay products $ 4,000,431 Stone 3,133,510 Sand and gravel 889,050 640.403 Clay, raw 277,526 Coal 224,000 Mica 168,276 Talc and soapstone .. ,81,523 Iron ore 32,512 Gold 4,540 Silica 2,447 Millstones 1,615 Silver 21 ! Total eliminating duplicates $9,261,467 ! charge the penalties required by law, j thfc commissioner::. There was inJica- i tion of looseness in management of county road money; all tax books were found to be in “exceedingly bad shape,” copies of tbe abstracts of listed tax- ables rendered to the State annually not agreeing in any particular with the tax books, these being full of errors and omissions.” There was no record of par- 1 tial or final settlement with one sheriff tor the year 1922. In commenting on the status of the accounts of the [sheriffs, the auditors say: 1 known how much money “It is not it has cost ment. The recording of tbe tax re leases on the minute docket seems to have received careful attention, but the recording of the creation of bond issues, notes, etc,, seem to have been ignored.” it is a surprise to the auditors that uch lax and inefficient methods of con ducting the affairs of the county “have not resulted in even larger deficits than those that exist.” For all this, the circumstance is to be borne in mind that there was no misuse of public funds in evidence. The county has simply lost money because of the independent manner in which its funds were administered as privileged under the existing system of government, and it is further to De held in mind that the situation in Watauga is a situation of duplication in many other counties, and all because of the antiquated system which the State has so long countenanced in the administration of county affairs. The Watauga revelations are submitted as additional evidence of the need for legislative attention to the important matter of modernizing the court house situation.—Charlotte Observer. BANK FAILURES IN THE UNiTEB STATES, 1921-25 In the following table, based on information supplied by the comptroller ol county budget and a centralized account- tv ere were no .....w—_ - , North Carolina ranks first in the 1 like; by a careful administration of a need a separate official to pertorm each ^ feldspar, and, of the first six major functions. second in the production of alumiuam. j The commission recommec s a oard ^ principal mineral products in order 1 panic failures, and in four other states oniy one state bank failure each elec e y , ,.lav nrndnets alone, i Northeastern states make the best showing, and the Western states the poorest. The Southern states rank from mid-way to very poor. ing of all funds and purchases. The commission gave Pitt, New'of county commissionors, t are: clay products, slon H.^nover. and Buncombe counties as j the people, for a term longer than two gravel, and feldspar. The I the currency and appearing in the Congressional Record of June 9; the states are [ranked according to the number of state banks and banks other than national j banks that failed between 1921 and 1925. The second column gives the number j of national bank failures during the Jive-year period, while I gives total estimated deposits lost due to bank Jailures. positors are not available in cases of state bank failures, mated at three-fourths of liabilities. Two slates had no bank failures, in seven other states tbe third column Actual losses to de- Deposits lost areesti- within oniy mineral of which North Carolina! 1921 and 1926 fifty-seven state and six national bank failures are examples of unified fiscal management. | years, all members not to retire _ X4y.:.x awx When the taxables of tbe county, any given year; a ousiness a virtual monopoly is mica which is j Carolina, with estimated losses to depositors aggregating are not preserved, declares the com-j selected by the commissioners; a .super- counting losses to shareholders and what they had to pay mission in its report, there are irreg-j visor of taxables selected b^tuecimn^y ^ percent of aU mica j North Carolina ranks low as a banking state, yetonly 12 ularities and unju.st tax asse.ssments; | commissioners; a tax collector, frequently much property disappears 1 by the county commissioners, with i produced in the United States comes j experienced more state and national bank failures. Our condition. while granite, and feldspar, | little commercial i uous record of all taxablea of the county; by inspecting property in every listing taxes; township scrolls are j auditor selected by the commissioners,, frequently in disorderly conditions and j a purchasing agent, selected by i there is no method of keeping up with j commissioners; a treasurer selected by | ^re of land transfers and no real estate maps the commissioners; a custodian of phy-1 We have variety but are lacking showing property location. sical property, selected by quantity. By keeping a permanent or con tin- missioners; a register of deeds, shenff j ======;=============== and clerk of court, elected by the j 'rn fiTir The offices of surveyor and! NEED TQ UMGAN14L The prosperity of the nation is from North Carolina. In quality our j alarming, can be greatly improved. Id "»'oi'rr*passed. The same is true of- r-s l 1. ..e But except for clay prod from the tax books; there are errors in ^ aathority to select his assistants; an unsurpassed. The same is true of ; Bgpartment of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina people. failed 1 Delaware 0.. 1 New Jersey 0.. section of the county periodically for coroner should be abolished. The several improvements or depreciation; by keep- boards, .such as the boards of education, ing a record of all officials who receive I agriculture, public welfare, highway, fees, fines, forfeitures and penalties, and the like, should be required to re- taxables may be adequately preserved Ome Man To Collect Revenue “The commission believes that the collection of all revenue should be placed in the hands of an official care fully selected by the board of county commissioners, and he should be held to a strict accountability for the collec tion of all funds, and for depositing the same with the county treasurer as they are collected.” When these functions are not care fully safeguarded there is lay in collecting taxes, sometimes be borrowed until all col lections are completed and the collector avoids .settlement with the coinmis- sioners and accumulated uncollected port annually to the board of county commissioners on how money appro priated to each has been spent, and what service has been performed. The general assembly should by a general act make it possible for any county to adopt and maintain an im proved form of local government. The general assembly should set up a state department of finance and accounting to aid counties in readjusting them selves to any improved plan and should wrapped up in the tilling of tbe soil, and ’ there are few business men whoappre-. ciate this relationship with the farmer. ; 3 Nevada 3 Rhode Island 3 Vermont 1.... , L, 1.. to regard the farmer in a spirit of 7 Maine. LUiCi l.VW W-.W.- 1 _ him. They don’t appreciate the fact ^ 9 Ohio ^ • - that the measure ot their prosperity 11 New York...... o.. has got to come from the farmer. 12 West Virginia .. So, here we have this situation of 13 California »... agriculture against industry. Let us i 14 Utah 10-- look over tbe situation in retrospect. '16 Alabama 13.. Back in the old days the farmer dealt i 16 Massachusetts 16 . with individuals and he ranked high as : 16 Tennessee . a trader. In those days if a farmer ; 18 Virginia.... ..16.. great de! | provide for the P^eparaLon a co^ ^de f ^ funds must | of county government law and a man ual on county government-Prom A. P. summary o.f County Government Commission’s report to State Associa tion of County Commissioners. being a clever trader, those days was measured by the quantity of his productiori from the soil. If bis Dins were filled with grain, his barns with cotton and other things. 22 Kentucky 19.. 22 Louisiana 19.. 24 Mississippi 21.. Lost Rank State Number Number Lost National Deposits State National Deposits Banks (estimate) Banks Banks (estimate) failed failed .. 0 $ 24 Michigan ... .. 21 0 ... .$ 1,834,043 22 ... 6 .... 5,782,644 ... 0 1,009,139 27 Arizona .. 23 5.... . 7,652,240 .. 0 143,000 28 Indiana ... 24 2.... . 4,943,841 .. 0 168,000 29 Washington .. 30 3.... . 11,461,242 . 0 2,031,737 30 Arkansas... .. 3i 1-..- . 10,213,724 ... 1 3,546,076 31 Illinois .. 36 2.... . 13,838,853 ... 0 1,124,164 31 New Mexico.. 36 20.... . 16,984,263 ... 1 681,995 33 Idaho ... 38 20. .. . 15.935,630 .. 2 3,664,420 34 Colorado... ... 39 7.... . 11,425,687 ... 1 2,215,771 35 Wyoming.. ... 46 11.... . 16,441,097 ... 1 3,725,822 36 N. Carolina .. 57... 6... 12,555,048 ... 6 3,660,976 37 S. Carolina ... 67 6.... . 12,899,776 .. 3 2,443,199 38 Kansas ... 80 6.... . 26,066.507 ... 1 1,200,961 39 Nebraska.. ... 87 14. .. . 19,678,788 .. 1 68,894,648 40 Missouri... ... 96 1.... . 33,055,467 ... 2 3,141,706 41 Texas ...116 22.... . 27,994.182 ... 1 2,865,449 42 Montana.... ....125 46... . 42,122.778 .... 1 7,666,378 43 Oklahoma . ..126 32.... . 33,915,860 ... 6 9,001,470 44 Minnesota. ...133. ..17..., . 40,603,761 .... 6 24,279,807 46 Georgia ...141 6... .. 20,718,642 .... 0 2.628,764 46 Iowa .. 168. ...12... .. 64,631,495 .... 1 3,150,354 47 S. Dakota ...162 30... .. 63,080,684 ... 1 5,730,901 [48 N. Dakota ...241 32... .. 52,523,849 . -"■'J
The University of North Carolina News Letter (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Aug. 25, 1926, edition 1
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