The news in tiiis 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.
JANUARY 26, 1927
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIII, No. 11
Editorial Boardi E. C. Branson, S. H. Hdbbs, 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 Postofiice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 24, 1912.
and much more in some than in others.
For the details concerning county
bonded debt see the table which appears
elsewhere.—Jr.
COUNTY BONDED DEBT
The bonded debt of the one hundred
counties of the state on June 30, 1926,
was nearly one hundred and thirteen
million dollars, according to a recent
official bulletin released from the office
of the state auditor. The table which
appears elsewhere ranks the counties
according to the percent the county
government bonded debt is of all
wealth listed for taxation in the county,
column three. Column one shows the
total county bonded debt as reported
by the State Auditor; column two
shows the county bonded debt on a per
inhabitant basis. The county debt aver
ages $46.85 per inhabitant, using 1926
estimates of population, and amounts
to 4.16 percent of the aggregate of
wealth listed for taxation in the state.
Outstanding Facts
Clay county leads in the percent the
county bonded debt is of all wealth
listed for taxation, with 18.08 percent,
which is more than twice the limit as
now fixed by law, for a county of Clay ’ s
wealth.
Buncombe county has the largest ag
gregate county debt, the amount being
nearly seven million dollars, followed by
Wake with more than four and a half
million, and Guilford with more than
four and a quarter million.
Henderson county has the largest
county debt on a per inhabitant basis
with nearly (Mie hundred and twenty-
four dollars, followed by Carteret with
one hundred and one dollars.
Northampton has the smallest debt
per inhabitant, and also the lowest
debt-wealth ratio. The debt as reported
for Cabarrus is probably greatly in
error.
Tbe bonded debt is a high percent of
taxable wealth in the poor counties as
a rule. Tbe first twenty-nine counties
in the table are all mountain or tide
water counties except three, all exces
sively rural, and practically all below
the state average in wealth. Only two
of the state’s city counties appear in the
upper half of the table. The county debt
is only a small percent of the taxed wealth
in the city counties, as a rule. Guilford
ranks seventy-seven, Gaston eighty-
two, Durham eighty-seven. New Han
over ninety, Mecklenburg ninety-one,
and Forsyth ninety-seven. The county
debt per inhabitant is below the state
average in all the above-named coun
ties except one.
Purposes of Debt
The county bonded debt has been in
curred for the following purposes: roads
and bridges nearly seventy-five million Our tax system is far from being j
CONCERNING TAXES
Fifteen percent of the national in
come for taxes! An outrage and a
calamity according to some, an evidence
of civilization according to others.
Which is right?
The answer is found by examining
the sources from which the taxes are
derived and the purposes for which
they are spent. If fifteen percent is
extracted each year from the family
budget, from the channels of production,
from the savings of the thrifty, and is
dissipated through war or the mainte
nance of an elaborate military machine,
through political patronage, through
governmental inefficiency, through the
support of the criminal and the im
provident, or by paying interest on the
debts of extravagance, it is a calamity
and an outrage.
If, on the other hand, the taxes are
equitably assessed and are expended
for the common good by wise and
honest administrators, taxes are a true
measure of civilization. They repre
sent the collective expenditures of
society, the cost »f those services which
have been mutualized. Government is a
gigantic cooperative enterprise, to which
the individual should contribute accord
ing to his ability and from which he should
benefit according to his need. When
government is characterized by honesty
and efficiency and is supported with
universal loyalty, then public expendi
tures will yield a greater return than
private expenditures, and high taxes
will reflect a high degree of coopera
tion and a high plane of civilization. '
It may be that the sphere of govern
mental activity has expanded too fast,
— faster than tbe machinery of govern
ment could be adjusted. It may be that
it has expanded too far, though it would
be difficult to name a governmental ser
vice that even ten percent of the people
would be willing to see discontinued.
Most of the people who are complain
ing about high taxes are not in favor of
less governmental activity. They want
more roads, more schools, more hospi
tals, more public support of everything
that affects them personally. What
they really desire is to have the tax
shifted onto the other fellow-no par
ticular other fellow, just somebody else, j
FULL OF WEALTH
England is full of wealth, of multi
farious produce, supply for human
want in every kind; yet England is
dying of inanition. With unabated
bounty the land of England blooms
and grows; waving with yellow har
vests; thick-studded with workshops,
industrial implements, with fifteen
millions of workers, understood to
be the strongest, tbe cunningest, and
the willingest our Earth ever had;
these men are here, the work they
have done, the fruit they Lave real
ized is here, abundant, exuberant,
on every hand of us: and behold, some
baleful fiat as of Enchantment has
gone forth, saying, ‘Touch it not ye
workers, ye master workers, ye mas
ter idlers; none of you can touch it,
no man of you shall be the better
for it; this is enchanted fruit.’—
Thomas Carlyle, in Past and Present.
BONDED DEBT BY COUNTIES
In North Carolina Jane 30, 1926
In the following table the counties are ranked according to the percent the
county bonded debt is of all wealth listed for taxation in column 3. Column 1
shows the total county bonded debt for county government purposes as reported
in the 1926 Report of the State Auditor. Column 2 shows the bonded debt per
inhabitant, using estimates of population for 1926. The third column is based on
the 1926 bonded debt as reported by the State Auditor, and taxable wealth as
given in the 1926 report of the State Commissioner of Revenue. In most cases
there has been very little change in taxable wealth.
State total of county bonded debt $112,734,486. The county debt averages
$40.35 per inhabitant, and amounts to 4.16 percent of the state total of wealth
listed for taxation.
S. H. Hobbs, Jr.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
thorough-going tax reform. The future
progress of the state demands it. But
it must be tax reform anl not merely
tax revision. The task must be ap
proached with the sincere desire to de
vise a tax measure that is economically
sound and that is fair to all classes and
interests. It must be approached with
a higher aim than to shift burdens. It
must be more than a scramble for
favors. —Paul W. Wager.
OUR CORN CROP
The average annual production of
corn for North Carolina for the five-year
period 1921-26 was 48,616,000 bushels.
North Carolina ranks eighteenth among
the states in the production of corn in
average years. Some corn is grown on
almost every farm in the state, but
due to our small quantity of livestock
per farm, the production of corn per
farm is very small in North Carolina.
We rank second in farms but eight
eenth in the total corn crop.
The production of corn and the swine
and cattle population are closely inter
related. The thirteen states which in
ave*age years produce over three-
fourths of the corn crop have in their
boundaries three-fourths of the swine
population, and more than fifty-five
percent of the cattle population in
average years.
dollars; schoolhouses nearly twenty mil
lion dollars; court-houses, jails, county
homes,etc. nearly ten million dollars;
funding debt nearly seven and three-
quarter millions; and for railroads over
six hundred thousand dollars. The table
does not include short-term debt obli
gations for current expenses.
Debt Limitations
The legislature has fixed the limits
beyond which a county is forbidden to
go in incurring bonded debt. The pre
sent limits are as follows; for counties
with less than ten millions of taxed
wealth, eight percent; ten millions to
twenty millions, seven percent; above
twenty millions, five percent. See Chap
ter 93, Public Laws, Extra Session 1924.
The table shows that there are a good
many counties whose debt is beyond the
present legal limits. The presumption
is that tbe debt was incurred before the
limits were fixed by law. Manifestly
there was grave need for such limita
tion in several counties. Unless there
have been material increases in wealth
listed foe taxation during the last two
years there are twenty-eight counties
whose counly debt is beyond the legal
limits as now fixed by law. But as we
have said, the debt was probably in
curred before the limits were fixed.
There appear to be seventy-two coun
ties which are privileged to further in
crease their bonded debt, but the limit
has been almost reached in many of
these. However, there are many coun
ties which have abundant room for ex
panding their debt before reaching the
legal limits.
If property were listed at its true
value the debt ratio to the wealth would
be materially reduced in every county,
MECKLENBURG BULLETIN
.. i The Department of Rural Social
Nearly everyone as go en e i g^i)] has on hand a consider-
that he or his class is being d.scr.mi- ^ Meckenburg county
nated against. In some cases he is cor- [ . .AgHcultural Mecklenburg
and Industrial Charlotte. ” One of these
large instructive books of 317 pages
may be had by anyone who will send
eight cents to cover postage.
scientific. But not all of the tax com
plaining is to be taken seriously. When
a man with five children in the public
schools complains about a four-dollar
school tax, his complaint doesn't de
serve much attention. Neither does the
complaint of a man with a chest full of
tax-exempt securities deserve much
HOME RULE FOR StATES
No method of procedure has ever
lax-exeiupi. which liberty could be
svrapathy when he complains that his; ^ , xt
^ "L, ^ ^ J L,- L ! divorced from self-government. No
house and lot are assessed too high. | * i - u u
^ . , f i P aH of centralizatioH has ever been
There IS one class of people, however, ^ ^ u- i j j * i.. • i
1 • 1. u 1.4U u ! adopted which did not result in bureau-
whose complaint should be heeded. They,!
are those who desire no special favors,
cracy, tyranny, inflexibility, reaction,
and decline. .Of all forms of govern
ment those administered by bureaus are
about the least satisfactory to an en
lightened and progressive people. Being
but who see injustice, discrimination
and subterfuge all about them and who
cry for reform. We must not permit a
system to continue that penalizes the;. . .i u 4. *.•
ayaiKin tu • irresponsib 6 they become autocratic,
conscientious, pauperizes the home-1 J
owner, and
competition in perjury,
we permit a system that chokes
encourages a wholesale i being autocratic they resist all
Neither must! Unless bureaucracy is
constantly resisted it breaks down rep-
panding sources of revenue.
There is another group of critics who
also deserve a hearing. It consists of
those who demand efficiency ih govern
ment. People justly complain about
high taxes if they see a considerable
portion of the taxpayer’s dollar lost in
the processes of collection, another
portion absorbed by the custodian of
the public funds, some more wasted in
careless expenditure, and even some
diverted into the form of patronage.
In federal, state, and local govern
ment there is great and unpardonable
waste. - Perhaps an individual or a small
group of individuals cannot influence
federal or state government, but a
handful of earnest men and women may
revolutionize the government of a city
or county. There is a good starting
point in seeking tax relief.
There is no more pressing need in
the state at the present time than a
resentative government and overwhelms
democracy. It is the one element in
our institutions that sets up tbe pre
tense of having authority over every
body and being responsible to nobody.
While we ought to glory in the Union
and remember that it is the source from
which the states derive their chief title
to fame, we must also recognize that
the national Administration is not and
cannot be adjusted to the needs of local
government. It is too far away to be
informed of local needs, too inaccessible
to be responsive to local conditions.
The states should not be induced by
coercion or by favor to surrender the
management of their own affairs. The
Federal Government ought to resist the.
tendency to be loaded up with duties
which the states should perform. It
does not follow that because something
ought to be done the national govern
ment ought to do it.—Calvin Coolidge.
(1) (2) (3)
County Bonded Percent
Rank County bonded debt debt is
debt per of wealth
inhab. listed for
taxation
1 Clay $ 431,600 $ 84.00 18.08
2 Cherokee 1,178,000 73.64 13.63
3 Carteret 1,666,900 101.20 13.60
4 Henderson 2,421,600 123.60 13.11
6 Ashe 1,446,000 64.90 11.80
6 Swain 1,403,600 92.96 11.26
7 Macon 646,600 48.66 10.60
8 Perquimans 822,000 73.40 10.18
9 Montgomery 1,306,600 89.60" 8.97
10 Mitchell J61,667 72.80 8.76
11 Avery '4^5,000 44.90 8.72
12 Pamlico 641,000 59.78 8.64
13 Transylvania 976,600 91.20 8.62
14 Washington 698,600 60.20 8.03
16 Madison 846,000 42.30 8.02
16 Graham 214,600 43.36 7.96
17 Stokes 1,000,600 48.08 7.93
18 Rockingham 3,342,000 67.82 7.77
19 Lenoir 2,236,000 65.63 7.68
20 Beaufort 2,262,220 72.70 7.47
21 Wilkes 1,146,000 33.60 7.37
22 Brunswick 636,000 41.90 7.22
23 Craven 2,096,600 66.94 7.13
24 Jackson 780,760 67.10 7.08
26 Watauga 606,000 43.20 7.03
26H^woo7~. 1.281.500 51.00 6.94
27 Bladen 966.600 46,10 6.83
28 Greene 931,000 60.82 6.82
29 Jones 488,000 46.68 6.76
30 Rutherford 2,104,000 63.00 6.60
31 Johnston 2,772,000 61.27 6,39
32 Wilson 2,918,600 68.75 6.21
33 Duplin 1,681,000 67.80 6.12
34 Yancey 496,000 29.00 5.99
36 Buncombe - 6,946,000 94.26 6.86
36 Lincoln 909,600 49.60 5.79
37 Pitt 2,861,000 56.36 6.71
38 Cumberland 1,729,300 46.10 6.61
39 Polk 368,600 37.28 6.60
40 Caswell 481,100 26.76 6.47
41 Pasquotank 1,018,200 66.63 6.36
42 Martin 866,000 37.60 6.16
43 Surry 1,401,000 40:85 5.16
44 Wake 4,647,000 64.70 5.09
"55 Alamance 1,727,000 48.80 4.97
46 Hertford 669,000 38.86 4.96
47 Iredell 2,261,600 66.80 4.96
48 Union 1,241,000 32.82 4.90
49 Yadkin 447,500 26.30 4.86
60 Randolph 970,000 30.10 4.71
51 Stanly 1,376,000 42 45 4.56
62 Columbus 917,355 29 06 4.43
53 Hyde 264,341 31.66 4.41
64 Sampson 1,018,000 26.45 4.40
65 Alexander 354,000 28.04 4.35
66 Onslow 473,000 31.60 4.32
57 Burke 724,600 29.50 4.30
68 Granville '922,600 32.90 4.29
59 i^ee 646,000 37 00 4.17
60 Caldwell 779,000 87.28 4.14
61 Pender 438,000 28.06 3.97
62 Scotland 660,700 42.10 3.70
63 McDowell 769,500 40,67 3.67
64 Davie 454,600 38.18 3.67
66 Tvrreli 143,160 31.87 3.66
66 Person 690,000 28.06 3.64
67 Oranee 601,000 30.36 3.38
68 Davidson 1,141,000 29.20 3.34
69 Chowan 346,000 32.60 3.33
70 Harnett 789.600 24.37 3.25
71 Richmond 1,064,500 36.60 3.22
72 Vance 861,000 34.26 3.20
73 Alleghany 201.000 27.12 3.16
1.310,000 27.40 3.14
avne 1,366,000 27.94 2.86
76 Robeson 1.194,600 19.97 2.74
77 Guilford 4,270.167 46.60 2.71
78 Catawba 1,039,000 27.42 2.66
79 Dare 65,269 12.30 2.65
80 Camden 96,000 17.83 2.69
81 Edgecombe 880,000 20.94 2.66
82 Gaston 2.263,500 37.13 2.63
83 Cleveland 939,000 26.10 2.46
84 Moore 672,000 23.60 23.4
86 Hoke..’.'. 263,000 19.60 2.33
86 Currituck 113,700 16.66 2.14
87 Durham 1,708,000 36.60 2.06
88 Warren ’ 291,600 12.97 2.04
89 Nash. 636,800 13.84 1.94
90 New Hanover 1,060,400 22.90 1.90
91 Mecklenburg 2,761,000 30.73 1.89
92 Bertie 298,000 12.10 , 1.88
93 Chatham* 302,600 12.28 1.69
94 Franklin 240,000 8.58 1.63
96 Gates 122,600 11.66 1.62
96 Rowan 836,000 17.26 1.60
97 Fnrsvth 2,286,000 23.49 1.36
98 Anson. 235,600 7.80 i.oe
99 Northampton 114,000 4.81 0.74
100 Cabarrus* 181,376 4.68 0,46
^Probably wrong. The 1926 report of the State Commissioner of Revenue
reports outstanding bonds for Chatham $1,007,000, and^for Cabarrus $936,707.96