Tuesday, July 16, 2019

'If Ever We Talk About Being Poor In North Carolina, We Ought To Be Ashamed of Ourselves' July 16, 1919

From the University of North Carolina News-Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., July 16, 1919. The amount of money is bank savings accounts increased from $22 million in 1915 to $61 million in 1918.

Our Savings Deposits
….
We ended the war with $61 million dollars in our banks, in time certificates and savings deposits.

Our surplus cash in the banks of North Carolina today is more than we have been able or willing to invest in church and school properties—church and state, public and private—in 250 years of history!

It is just about equal to the total we have invested in motor cars during the last 10 years!

If ever again we talk about being poor in North Carolina, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. We are rich enough to invest in anything we really care about—in church purposes, college endowments, school houses and school support, improve highways, whatnot. If anywhere we ever again balk at investing in these primary agencies of civilization, it will be because we are incurably tight-skinned and close-fisted.

The day of pint-cup thinking about the big-scale concerns of life and destiny is surely at an end in the Good Old North State.

Three counties have no banks—Camden, Currituck and Graham. And seven counties with banks have no savings deposits or time certificates in December 1918, or none reported—Clay, Dare, Jackson, Macon, Stokes, Swain and Tyrrell.

Million Dollar Counties

New Hanover and Forsyth lead the state with $110 and $106 per inhabitant, county men, women, and children of both races.

Forsyth is far in the lead in the grand total of bank-account savings, with $6,428,000 in round numbers,….has more money laid away in bank savings than the 670,000 inhabitants of the 43 counties at the fag end of the table in this issue.

Our Bank Account Savings Per Inhabitant in December 1918 (Corrected)
Department of Rural Economics, University of North Carolina

New Hanover, $110 per person, $3,866,363 total savings

Forsyth, $107 per person, $6,428,273 total savings

Durham, $69 per person, $3,111,224 total savings

Vance, $47 per person, $1,027,386 total savings

Granville, $43 per person, $1,140,873 total
Wilson, $43 per person, $1,396,316 total
Scotland, $43 per person, $772,636 total
Nash, $43 per person, $1,827,117 total

Pasquotank, $40 per person, $797,321 total savings

Guilford, $39 per person, $3,264,474 total

Alamance, $35 per person, $1,106,301 total savings

Mecklenburg, $34 per person, $2,643,191 total savings

Rockingham, $32 per person, $1,245,895 total savings

Craven, $31 per person, $836,418 total savings
Hertford, $31 per person, $503,074 total savings

Cleveland, $30 per person, $996,566 total savings
Surry, $30 per person, $1,006,344 total savings

Carteret, $29 per person, $456,044 total savings

McDowell, $27 per person, $390,243 total savings

Martin, $26 per person, $476,320 total savings

Catawba, $25 per person, $846,762 total savings
Duplin, $25 per person, $693,829 total savings

Lincoln, $24 per person, $450,874 total savings
Person, $24 per person, $428,912 total savings
Orange, $24 per person, $372,610 total savings

Chowan, $23 per person, $277,922 total savings

Gates, $22 per person, $229,113 total savings

Pitt, $22 per person, $924,961 total savings
Gaston, $22 per person, $1,006,659 total savings

Beaufort, $21 per person, $533,843 total savings
Iredell, $21 per person, $829,959 total savings
Cabarrus, $21 per person, $626,405 total savings

Franklin, $20 per person, $482,913 total savings
Bertie, $20 per person, $497,469 total savings
Wake, $20 per person, $1,413,695 total savings

Pamlico, $19 per person, $220,852 total savings
Davie, $19 per person, $271,633 total savings

Wayne, $18 per person, $734,395 total savings
Rowan, $18 per person, $804,859 total savings
Randolph, $18 per person, $548,806 total savings
Lenoir, $18 per person, $472,511 total savings
Halifax, $18 per person, $800,027 total savings

Washington, $17 per person, $198,868 total savings
Yancey, $17 per person, $212,163 total savings

Onslow, $16 per person, $256, 193 total savings
Buncombe, $16 per person, $868,487 total savings
Columbus, $16 per person, $566,417 total savings

Wilkes, $15 per person, $504,380 total savings
Sampson, $15 per person, $486,015 total savings
Polk, $15 per person, $124,787 total savings
Edgecombe, $15 per person, $548,498 total savings

Cherokee, $14 per person, $230,833 total savings
Warren, $14 per person, $288,771 total savings
Transylvania, $14 per person, $105,736 total savings

Northampton, $13 per person, $295,071 total savings
Alexander, $13 per person, $158,362 total savings
Jones, $13 per person, $115,578 total savings
Henderson, $13 per person, $244,983 total savings
Rutherford, $13 per person, $398,775 total savings

Harnett, $12 per person, $348,145 total savings

Pender, $10 per person, $173,627 total savings
Burke, $10 per person, $248,780 total savings

Stanley, $9 per person, $231,439 total savings
Johnston, $9 per person, $457,592 total savings
Montgomery, $9 per person, $140,953 total savings
Yadkin, $9 per person, $156,595 total savings
Bladen, $9 per person, $160,142 total savings

Ashe, $8 per person, $146,818 total savings
Perquimans, $8 per person, $99,390 total savings
Richmond, $8 per person, $181,883 total savings

Brunswick, $7 per person, $115,296 total savings

Greene, $6 per person, $85,245 total savings
Davidson, $6 per person, $227,549 total savings

Alleghany, $5 per person, $37, 885 total savings

Madison, $4 per person, $74,580 total savings
Anson, $4 per person, $114,296 total savings

Hyde, $2 per person, $18,688 total savings
Caswell, $2 per person, $34,182 total savings
Union, $2 per person, $76,643 total savings

Camden, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Currituck, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Graham, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Clay, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Dare, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Jackson, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Macon, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Stokes, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Swain, $0 per person, $0 total savings
Tyrrell, $0 per person, $0 total savings

Ten counties are omitted for lack of authoritative population figures: Avery, Caldwell, Chatham, Cumberland, Hoke, Lee, Mitchell, Moore, Robeson and Watauga.


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