The news in this pubii-
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTEK
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
MAY 16, 1928
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. XIV, No. 27
Ediforfal Boardi E. C. Branson. S. H. Hobbs, Jr., P. W. Wager. L. R. Wilson, E. W.'KnIght. D. D. Carroll, H. W. Odum.
Entered as second-class matter November 14. 1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill. N. C.. under the act of Anguat 24, 191S.
assessing real estate
At the last meeting of the North
Carolina Club at the University, James
M. Mitchelle, a senior, read a paper on
the Assessment of Rural Real Estate.
An abstract of his paper follows:
The tax on real estate is the back
bone of our present system of taxation.
Sixty-six percent of all the taxes col
lected in the counties of North Carolina
in 192G was from real estate. The fact
that other forms of wealth can be more
easily hidden and that other forms of
taxation can better elude the tax col
lector, has led to the use of the real
estate tax as the basic source of
revenue. Nevertheless, the system
contains numerous weaknesses and is
justly criticized. The chief complaints
are the high rates and the inequalities
of assessment. In fact a high rate is
often the result of inequalities in as
sessment. •
There has been some improvement
in the assessiog of urban real estate,
but the prevailing methods of assess
ing rural property are extremely back
ward throughout the United States.
The system in use in North Carolina is
antiquated, inaccurate, and unfair.
The plan, as outlined by the law, is not
bad, but in practice it is very unsatisfac
tory. The constitutional requirement
that property be assessed at full value
is not enforced. The ratio of true to
assessed value varies greatly. Much
taxable property escapes the eye of the
tax assessor entirely.
Assessors Deficient
Most of the trouble arises from the
lack of importance assigned to the
office of assessor. The average as
sessor is unqualified, unequipped, and
underpaid. Perhaps he is not under
paid for what he does, lout the salary
paid does not attract men of the calibre
needed. Assessors in North Carolina
are not, as a rule, drawn from the most
capable class of citizens. The position
is one which few are anxious to have,
and consequently it falls into inefficient
bands. The assessors are not alto
gether at fault, for they, have little
equipment to work with and generally
no standard to go by.
Without any standard to guide them,
assessors will almost invariably assess
properties of small or moderate value
at a higher rate than the more valu
able properties. A study of several
counties in Pennsylvania showed that
in nearly ev|iy ease a small farm was
assessed higher relatively than a large
farm. In Westmoreland county prop
erty valued at $2,600 and under was
assessed at 91 percent of its true value
and property valued at over $100,000
was assessed at 27.4 percent. It is not
surprising that an untrained assessor,
working without adequate records to
guide him, can guess better at the value
of small estates such as he has himself
bought, sold, or owned, than at the
value of the larger estates with which
he is not familiar.
It is also generally true that valu
able land yielding a large income is not
taxed as high in proportion as land
which yields a small income. Refer
ring again to the Pennsylvania study of
1926, it was discovered that taxes on
business and residential property ab
sorbed 17.6 percent of the net income
while taxes on owner-operated farms
represented 33,9 percent of the income
derived. Many land-owners in North
Carolina are willing to rent their farms
for the amount of the taxes.
Great Inequalities
Two assessors will differ greatly in
their estimates of the value of the
same or similar property. In Kansas
the assessments of adjoining tracts of
similar quality, but separated by town
ship lines, varied about 100 percent.
There is great variation among the
counties of North Carolina in assess
ment standards. A report of a special
tax investigation committee of the
railroads placed the ratio of assessed
to true value in certain counties as
follows: Guilford 70 percent; Davidson
64; Forsyth 71; Stokes 69; Cherokee 66;
Clay 71.6; Henderson 87; Surry 66;
Buncombe 69; Bertie60.6; Carteret 98.6;
Washington 62; Durham 68; Wayne
36. In these cases true value was
based upon sale value.
The entire escape of a large acreage
of land from the tax books is due to
. the lack of tax maps and to the lack of
a full-time tax supervisor -who is con-!
stantly endeavoring to perfect the tax- j
roll. Assessment maps of every county, I
showing the boundary lines of farms, i
the number of acres, the class of land, ^
and its location in relation to highways, ^
railways, towns, etc., should be made. ‘
These maps can be made by the ■
old survey method or by the newer
system of aerial photography. By I
means of aerial maps Connecticut re-'
cently discovered vast amounts of land |
that had for years escaped the tax:
books. Along with the tax maps there I
should be a card file with a card for
each property owner, which can be cor- I
rected every time a transfer of prop-'
erty is made in the taxing district. '
The general property tax may in;
time be abandoned but the land tax is |
not likely to be discarded. It is there- i
fore important both in the interest of i
expediency and of justice that the as- ^
aessment of real estate be put upon a
scientific basis. This means the selec-!
tion of expert assessors through civil |
service examinations or some other •
means, and then that they be furnished j
with every possible aid in the way of
maps and records.
THE FORGOTTEN MEN
Is there no way to bring the state
to the realization of the fact that
men who are^making the cities, the
men who are occupying high places
in affairs of the states, in profes
sions and in the business world are,
many of them, born and Treared in
the blue of the sparsely settled
mountains and along the blue of the
surging seas? Can we not join
hands and hearts in bringing this
good state to a realization of its
duty to the sparsely populated sec
tions that are within its borders? —
Dr. JohnT. Burrus.
EQUALIZING SCHOOL TAXES
The act of the legislature which in- [
creased the equalizing fund to $3,260,-i
000 left the distribution of the fund to ^
an Equalization Board which in turn'
had the authority to determine the val
uations of each county independent of;
the local assessment. This was neces-'
sary, because there is no uniformity
among the counties in the ratio of as
sessed to true value of taxables. If the
distribution of the fund were based en
tirely on local assessment it would offer
a temptation to the participating coun
ties to keep assessments as low as pos
sible.
We are presenting elsev/here in this
issue a table showing the 1927 valua
tions as fixed by the local assessors,
and in a parallel column the valuations
determined by the State Board of
Equalization and used as a basis for
distributing the equalization fund this
year.
Of the ninety-seven counties shown
in the table, sixty-nine were given in
creased valuations by the State Board
of Equalization and twenty-eight re
duced valuations. The board had such
a short time to complete its work that
it does not maintain that its estimates
are correct, and it is continuing its in
vestigations in the effort to make sub
sequent distributions as scientific and
just as possible. The board has only
one objective in mind, and that is to
equalize the burden of school support
just as far as its funds will permit.
Of course the equalization is limited
now to the eighty-eight participating
counties, and for the six-months term.
The twelve non-participating counties
have relatively low school tax rates,
and are not severely burdened as it is.
The most burdensome aspect of school
taxation now is the local district tax.
The rate is often 40, 60, or 60 cents
on a hundred dollars’ valuation. Fre
quently the local district tax is half or
nearly half as large as the total county
tax. The rates are high because these
special taxing districts generally con
tain little or no corporate property. The
special school tax is thus essentially an
additional tax on farm lands. The only
alternative to paying these burdensome
taxes is to deny the children more than
a six-months school term. There can
be no equality of school taxation or
equality of school opportunity until
there is a state-wide eight-months term
and equalization on that basis.
SOUTHERN FARM COLONIES
Rural regeneration of the South,
involving ultimate reclamation of farm
land, is seeking organized impetus
now while representatives from seven
southern states and officials of the
Interior Department plan the $10,000,-
000 farm colony plan submitted to Con
gress by Senator Kenneth McKellar of
Tennessee and Representative Charles
R, Crisp of Georgia.
Acting on congressional authority,
the department already has selected
seven widely separated development
tracts having an aggregate area of
about 136,000 acres. If the proposed
colony project is approved the govern
ment would purchase the land, divide
each tract into from 100 to 300 farms,
conduct whatever engineering work is
needed to place the soil in shape for
immediate tilling, erect houses and
necessary buildings and even seed
the ground to a cover crop before set
tlers ore admitted.
Directed Farm Business
The department can buy the land at
all prices, ranging from six dollars an
acre in Mississippi to twenty-seven
dollars an acre in Georgia. The actual
cost of development would be added to
the purchase price of the land which
would be sold to white settlers on a de-
ferred-pajment plan. A community
director would be in charge of each
colony.
By its southern plan the Interior De
partment is blazing a new trail in rec
lamation. The new settler will have
every advantage and none of the hard
ships that wrecked the western “home-
stender.” He will be started right,
with the best type of agriculture
suited to climate, soil and market con
ditions. He will have the benefit of
community cooperation, financial as
sistance from the government and
skilled supervision in diversified proj
ects.
Dr. Elwood Mead, federal commis
sioner of reclamation, expects the
beneficial effects of the farm colony
system to result eventually in restor
ing southern waste land to productivity.
Weeds, brush and impoverished'cotton
and corn “patches” cover vast areas
once owned and cultivated by pros
perous white planters.
Organized Farm Life
"Agriculture in the South,” Dr.
Mead declares, “is suffering from bad
ly organized farming and a dreary
rural life. Large areas are cultivated
by Negroes or unskilled white farmers,
who as tenants or hired laborers are
unsuited to any but the most primitive
farm practices. Slovenly cultivation
and depletion of soil fertility are caus
ing a decline and decay of rural pros
perity and an exodus of farm workers,
“The advantages to settlers in this
new scheme would attract a superior
type of farmers and create a perma
nent community of earnest, intelligent
people, able to utilize the benefits of
scientific knowledge, modern farm
machinery and teamwork in selection
of crops to be grown and in the prep
aration and marketing of products,
“The farm colony plan, giving 200
or more families complete agricultural
independence, has solved the reclama
tion problem in Australia. It has
operated 40 years in Denmark and
where 90 percent of the land once was
held by tenant farmers 92 percent of it
now is cultivated by prosperous
owners. ”
Reclamation of southern farm land is
expected to add tremendously to the
economic independence of the South.
Dr. E. C. Branson of the University
of North Carolina estimates that $2,-
500 000,000 worth of food.and feedstuffs
is purchased annually by southern
states, all of which could be produced
at home under an efficient agriculture.
—The Durham Herald.
To hasten this Utopian period for
North Carolina, we need a system of
county and joint-county sanatoria to
give each county in the state a bed for
each tuberculosis death in that county.
The total number of deaths is found by
taking the average for a year over a
number of years.
Sanatorium treatment is universally
realized today as the essential cure for
tuberculosis. A few sanatoria scat
tered here and there throughout the
state are really very little more than
demonstration stations. They cannot
hope to treat all cases of tuberculosis.
Demonstration stations that point the
j way toward what might be accom
plished if we had an efficient state-wide
system.
! Tuberculosis can be banished to the
land of forgotten things. But it is not
in that land yet. It may cost money
to build sanatoria, but tuberculosis
costs money, and not only money, but
suffering, heartache, and poverty.
When a case of tuberculosis is pro
longed for years, the cost in money,
suffering, heartaches, and often poverty
is fearful. Many cases of tuberculosis
are prolonged for years. Over a period
of years the citizens of a county would
actually pay out for their tuberculous
sick enough money to build, equip, and
maintain a first-class sanatorium.
Mighj; as well go about the job in an
efficient, up-to-date, businesslike man
ner, build sanatoria &nd maintain a
clinic and nursing 8ervii*e and get rid
of another one of civilization’s curses
—Tuberculosis.—The Sanatorium Sun.
COUNTY SANATORIA
It is not too much to visualize a
time when the tuberculosis death rate
in North Carolina will be reduced to
the irreducible minimun and a case of
tuberculosis in the state becomes a rare
thing.
SCHOOL FORESTS
Schools in this section are to have
forests. One is to be located in the sec
tion between Kenansville and Warsaw,
we understand, and maintained by the
schools in the two towns jointly.
It is a bright idea. There will be half
a dozen of such forests, to start with.
We predict that the idea will spread
until nearly every rural school in North
Carolina has its “forest”—or' thicket.
For these will be small forests, an acre
or a fraction of an acre in a forest, say.
The state will furnish the trees.
The big good that will result -will be
the teaching of forestry rudiments to
the young generation. That generation
will need to be interested in trees.
This generation has just begun to take
stock of its wanton recklessness and
plan the protection of what is left of
our once tremendously valuable woods.
It will be up to the new generation and
those that follow it to restore the for
ests. They must be restored for too
many good reasons to enumerate.
The forests in the future wiil be big
groves—park-like affairs. For men will
nurse and cherish the trees for their
own preservation and the underbrush
that throttles trees will be banned.—
Kinston Free Press.
ASSESSED AND DETERMINED VUALUATIONS, 1927
The Latter Being Fixed by the State Equalizing Board
Wc are presenting below a comparison of the valuations of each county
as fixed by the local assessors, and the valuations adopted by the State Equaliz
ing Board as a basis for the distribution of the equalizing fund for schools.
These figures were supplied by Leroy Martin, Secretary of the Equalizing
Board. The valuations for three counties are omitted because they had not
been determined at the time this statement was prepared. After-listings and
releases will cause the final figures in some counties to differ slightly from those
given here.
It will be noticed that determined valuations exceed assessed valuations in
sixty-nine counties and are less than assessed valuations in twenty-eight coun
ties. The total assessed valuation in the 97 counties amounts to $2,767,999 246
and the determined valuation to $2,817,174,373. The amount by which determined
valuation exceeds assessed valuation in the 88 counties which participate in the
equalizing fund is$80,740,064.
Department of Rural Social-Economics. University of North Carolina
County
Assessed
valua
tions
1927
Alamance $33,036,787.
Alexander 8,773,401.
Alleghany 4,893,131.
Anson 21,660,460.
Ashe 11,961,362.
Avery 6,021,243.
Beaufort 29,661,372.
Bertie 16,042,703.
Bladen 13,980,646.
Brunswick 10,069,964.
Buncombe 172,987,846.
Burke 24,366,009.
Cabarrus 46,697,747.
Caldwell 22,114,101.
Camden 3,386,841.
Carteret 16,066,621.
Caswell 8,622,650.
Catawba 40,666,628.
Chatham 18,637,924.
Cherokee t 8,978,208.
Chowan 10,106,264.
Clay 2,372,297.
Cleveland 38,069,314.
Columbus 21,469,616.
Craven 28,137,866.
Cumberland 29,928,341.
Currituck 6,088,476.
Dare 2,760,927.
Davidson 38,460,414.
Davie 12,689,986.
Duplin 23,011,273.
Durham 96,161,761.
Edgecombe 34,241,701.
Forsyth 198,666,211.
Franklin 14,799,062.
Gaston 96,994,267.
Gates 7,434,174.
Graham 6,300,136.
Granville 21,101,890,
Greene 12,762,290.
Guilford 192,823,410.
Halifax 38,476,368.
Harnett 24,599,441.
Haywood 23,142,322.
Henderson 31,489,261.
Hertford 11,391,646.
Hoke 9,971,698.
Hyde 6,186,847.
Iredell 46,208,284.
Jackson 10,644,946.
Valua
tions
deter
mined
by state
equal
ization
board
I 34,624,128
. 8,400,000
. 6,060.000
,23,362,339
. 12,660,000
6,000,164
. 26.413,631
. 16,810.916
. 13,069,088
. 9,634,804
.166,937,677
. 22,411,286
. 41,676,067
. 22,200,000
. 4,286,836
. K, 604,431
. 9,603,890
. 44,029,978
. 19,266,684
. 9,638,260
. 10,682,988
. 2,396,260
. 43,274,678
. 21,166,643
. 29,638.929
. 31,813,793
. 6,301,722
. 2,263,966
. 39,703,609
. 13,068,231
. 27,481,292
. 89,277,424
. 36,216,967
.189,793,068
. 16,009,732
. 97,636,041
. 7,471,326
. 4,899,000
. 24,034,418
. 12,092,630
.179,913,473
..43,821,386
. 27,730,316
. 23,962,600
. 23,430,000
. 12,162,639
. 10,164,627
. 6,267,328
. 47,660,000
. 12,636,070
County
Assessed
valua
tions
1927
Johnston $ 43,079,931..$ 68,814,203
Jones 6,610,800... 7,261,662
Lee 13,662,323... 16,160,314
Lenoir 27,189,707... 31,296,133
Lincoln 16,392,037... 17,190,211
Macon 7,316,848... 7,721,260
Madison 10,606,877... 12,476,837
Martin 16,941,167... 17,686,879
McDowell 20,366,920... 22,684,600
Mecklenburg 173,064,390.. .183,066,361
Mitchell 9,416,260... 10,406,190
Montgomery 16,476,938... 12,260,903
Moore 26,776,909:,, 26,706,496
Nash 33,863,373... 33,806,484
New Hanover...
Northampton ... 14,366,483... 16,428,868
Onslow 10,611,410... 11,176,776
Orange 17,646,194... 18,607,823
Pamlico 6,800,167... 6,716,972
Pasquotank 19,144,687... 20,861,466
Pender 10,104,118... 11,236,330
Perquimans 8,236,830... 8,441,991
Person 12,864,486... 13,969,247
Pitt 48,800,242... 61.670,670
Polk 8,110,066... 7,987,600
Randolph 27,466,362... 21,066,616
Richmond 32,241,646... 31,279,616-
Robeson ...
Rockingham 43,796,970... 46,794,379
Rowan ...
Rutherford 36,802,627... 37,008,760
Sampson 22,611,324... 26,116,974
Scotland 16,240,264... 17,024,866
Stanly 31,810,997... 31,960,000
Stokes 13,027,780... 13,436,249
Surry 29,877,683... 30,'384,614
Swain 12,619,646... 13,312,600
Transylvania 11,686,923... 9,686,000
Tyrrell 3,917,202... 3,9_42,310
Union 22,721,934... 29,706,011
Vance 20,292,993... 22,809,040
Wake 96,921,396...101,488,168
Warren 13,417,876... 13,862,966
Washington 9,821,982... 8,923,133
Watauga 9,136,646... 8,960,000
Wayne 49,012,146... 64,120,813
Wilkes 16,622,286... 21,024,923
Wilson 48,646,916...^49,681,727
Yadkin 9,288,424...“ 9,093,938
Yancey 7,786,607... 9,002,747