Josiah Bailey Says State's Dreams Haven't Come True Yet, Jan. 15, 1925

Boosting Overdone. . . J.W. Bailey Decries Exaggeration in Claims for the State

Josiah W. Bailey, in his speech before the North Carolina Club in Saunders Hall Monday night, deplored the extravagant boosting that is being done for this state by North Carolinians themselves and by outsiders.

“The average income for the whole Untied States, as shown by official figures,” he said, “is $687. For North Carolina it is $383. Forty-three states are ahead of this one in the average incomes of their citizens. This state stands 43rd in bank resources per capita. The statistics gathered by the government and read by Senator Walsh recently in the Senate, show that, in the whole United States, 8 ½ percent of the children between 10 and 15 years are employed in labor, while in North Carolina the percentage is 16 percent. In the literacy of our inhabitants, we are still far below the average for the United States.

“Do not these things prove that the statements you hear made about the marvelous achievements of North Carolina are gross exaggerations? Our state has done some fine things in the last few years, but in genuine progress it has just begun.”

Mr. Bailey disputed the truth of the title of French Strother’s article in a recent issue of The World’s Work, “North Carolina’s Dreams Come True.” They have not anywhere near come true, he said, there are just beginning to be signs that they are going to be made to come true some day. He said that, among all North Carolina’s achievements within the last quarter of a century, he would rank first in improvement of the public health.

He discussed the evils of farm tenancy and laid emphasis upon the iniquitous system under which farmers have to pay as much as 40 percent for the money they borrow.

Monday morning Mr. Bailey read a paper on “Law and Freedom” before Mr. Williams’ philosophy class.

From page 3 of The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 15, 1925. Adjusted for inflation over the last hundred years, the average national income of $687 would be $12,552.72 in 2024, and the average North Carolina annual income of $383 for 1924 would be $6,791 in 2024. (from AmortizationTable.org).

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