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SI
GASTON COUNTY:
ECONOMIC AND
SOCIAL
by s. h. hobbs, jr.
University of North Carolina
February, 1920
O
THE BANK OF BELMONT I
BELMONT, N. C.
We cordially invite your banking business, ivhether
it be large or small, and assure you of every
courtesy and accommodation consistent
with safe banking.
Your transactions treated confidentially.
R. L. Stowe, President
W. B. Puett, Cashier
THE
Third National Bank
Gastonia, N. C.
i
Capital, $100,000
i
Your Credit — Your Success
f
This is the day when no one can succeed without
CREDIT. The entire world is built and financed on
credit.
The logical and successful way for one to secure
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on savings and certificate of deposits.
GASTON COUNTY:
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
ByS. H. HOBBS,Jr.
A LABORATORY STUDY IN
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH
CAROLINA, DEPARTMENT OF
RURAL ECONOMICS AND
SOCIOLOGY
THE EXPENSE OF PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION IS BORNE BY
THE ADVERTISING OF WIDE-AWAKE AND GENEROUS BUSINESS
MEN. WE WISH TO EXTEND TO THEM OUR HEARTIEST APPRECIA-
TION AND BEST WISHES
February, 1920
RALEIGH
Edwards & Broughton Printing Co.
1920
Contents
PAGE
1. A Brief History of Gaston County 5
2. Natural Resources 13
3. Gaston County Industries 18
4. Facts About the Folks 27
5. Facts About Wealth and Taxation 32
6. Rural White Schools 39
7. Farm Conditions and Practices 48
8. Food and Feed Production and the Local Market
Problem 56
9. Things to be Proud of in Gaston County 71
10. Gaston's Problems and Their Solution 79
Acknowledgments
I wish, first, to extend my thanks to the business men of Gaston for
making possible the publication of this booklet by furnishing the
business manager with liberal advertisements. I am sure the citizens
of the county this bulletin is trying to serve will extend to these firms
their heartiest support.
The publication of this booklet was made possible by the efforts of
Mr. T. J. Brawley of Gastonia, a Senior at the University. He has
worked untiringly and has displayed good business abilities as Busi-
ness Manager of this publication. The advertisements were secured
by Mr. Brawley by letters and in personal visits to the concerns during
the Christmas holidays.
The first chapter in this publication, The Historical Background, is
the work of Mr. J. J. Rhyne of Bessemer City, a member of the 1919
class at the University. This chapter was prepared by Mr. Rhyne
during his Senior year, being a laboratory study in the Department
of Rural Economics and Sociology.
The data in this booklet have been collected largely from the files
of the Department of Rural Economics and Sociology, founded and
guarded by an untiring worker and faithful public servant, Prof. E. C.
Branson. His aid has been invaluable in shaping this booklet for
publication.
S. H. Hobbs, Jr.,
Department of Rural Economics and Sociology,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C, February, 1920.
A Brief History of Gaston County
Origin, Location, and Early History
Gaston county was formed from the neighboring county of Lincoln
in 1846. The county gets its name from the Hon. William Gaston, a
noted supreme court judge of North Carolina. The bill authorizing
the erection of the county also contained a provision for the site of
the county seat, the same to be within two miles of Long Creek Bap-
tist church. In accordance with the authorization, the town of Dallas
was laid off and built. Dallas is named in honor of the Hon. George
M. Dallas, Vice-President of the United States in 1844. This town
remained the county seat until 1911 when, after a very hotly contested
election on the part of those wishing the county seat to remain at
Dallas and those desiring it to be removed to Gastonia, the latter won,
and Gastonia. from 1911, has been the capital city of the county.
Gaston county lies in the southwestern part of the state and
borders the South Carolina line. It is bounded on the east by Meck-
lenburg county, on the north by Lincoln county, and on the west by
Cleveland. The northern and southern boundaries are straight, while
the eastern and western are irregular, the eastern boundary being
formed by the Catawba river.
Gaston is one of the smaller counties of the state, being seventieth
in size, and containing about 370 square miles, or 236,800 acres, with
a dimension of 17% miles north and south and an average width of
20 miles east and west. The county is situated in the Piedmont region,
with a view of the foot-hills of the Blue Ridge, which can be seen
from the higher points in the county with clear weather prevailing.
The land in general slopes toward the southeast, the extreme eastern
side to the south, and the extreme northwest corner to the northeast.
The surface is from gently rolling to hilly and breaking into several
mountainous areas. The mountain peaks are Pinnacle and Crowders
mountains of the Kings Mountain chain, with heights above the sea-
level of 1.705 feet and 1,624 feet respectively. The other two peaks
worthy of mention are Spenser mountain in the east-central part of
the county, and Payseur mountain to the northwest central part of the
county. Spenser mountain gets its name from one Zeb Spenser, a
Tory in the Revolutionary War, who resided there. The story goes
that he was caught, tried, and condemned to be shot. He begged hard
for his life and promised allegiance to the Revolutionary cause if he
were spared. He was allowed to live, oath being taken on an old
almanac, in the absence of a Bible.
6 Gaston County: Economic and Social
In the vicinity of Cherryville the elevation above sea-level is about
1,000 feet and around Bessemer City 900 feet, while the mountain there
is considerably higher.
The South Fork river which flows across the county in a south-
easterly direction, with the Catawba, which forms the eastern boundary,
constitute the two principal streams, although there are several creeks
traversing different parts of the county that are of minor importance.
As regards railroad transportation the county is advantageously
located, being crossed from east to west by the main line of the South-
ern Railroad, and from north to south by the Carolina and North-
western Railroad. The Seaboard Air Line Railway enters the county
at Mt. Holly, crosses the northeastern part of the county into Lincoln
county, and again enters Gaston to the northwest, passing through
Cherryville. The fourth railroad is the Piedmont and Northern which
comes only as far as Gastonia by way of Belmont and Mt. Holly. The
ample railway facilities have been of great benefit in helping to develop
Gaston county along all lines. The ample railway mileage has made
it possible and easy for Gaston, through its textile industry, to develop
into its present position of importance — namely, as the textile center
of North Carolina. And what is more, Gaston county leads the whole
United States in the number of cotton mills. The mills now number
nearly 100.
There are more towns in Gaston than in any other county of North
Carolina. Gastonia, the county seat and chief commercial center, has
a population in 1920 of 12,871 while Dallas, Cherryville, Mt. Holly,
Belmont, Bessemer City, Stanley, Lowell, and McAdenville are all
thrifty business towns. Some of the smaller towns, each of which has
one or more cotton mills, are High Shoals, Hardins, Mountain Island,
Tuckaseege, Phillipsburg, Mayworth, and Spenser Mountain.
The large number of towns offer good markets for all farm products
grown in the county. The demand so far exceeds the supply obtain-
able that high prices generally prevail. Cotton, the chief crop, finds
a ready market, a great amount being consumed by the mills at home.
Other crops are corn, wheat, oats, the hay crops, and a number of
well paying truck crops, grown for the local markets and mill village
sections. The usual local market problem is made much simpler by
the big demand for home-grown products on the part of the mill opera-
tives. This one factor has doubtless contributed greatly toward safe-
guarding the farm and the farming industry, and enabling the rural
sections to keep pace with the progress and development of the urban
areas. The attractive wage paid the mill operative certainly would
have tended to draw, and has drawn, many people from the ranks of
the farmers. However, Gaston is the most densely populated rural
county of the state, as well as the center of the textile industry of
Gaston County: Economic and Social 7
North Carolina — a fact which goes far toward proving that farming
can be made a successful business alongside the cotton mill industry.
The history of Gaston county can very easily be divided into two
distinct epochs. The earlier period, representing the period of slow
progress and development, has its beginning in early colonial days with
the coming of the first settlers to this region, and extends on down
to the year 1872. The year 1872 is very important in the history of
Gaston county. It marks the date of the building of the first railroad
through the county. The later period, representing the period of rapid
progress and development, begins with the year 1872 and extends on
down to the present time. It is this later division with which we are
particularly concerned, because it has been since the year 1872 that
Gaston has emerged from a position as one of the most backward coun-
ties of the state to a position of first importance. This period has seen
its transformation from banner whiskey-making county to the banner
cotton-mill county of the state, which position she now holds. It has
witnessed an unprecedented increase in the county's population among
other counties in the state, Gaston having risen from the 48th place in
1880, to 10th place in 1910. And it must be remembered that Gaston
is a small county — only 29 other counties of the state are smaller.
The earlier historical period of Gaston county is one in which we
have nothing to boast of. Progress was slow. Population was scarce.
The county roads, the only means of transportation, were rough and
very badly cut up, especially during the winter months. Agriculture
was the chief means of making a livelihood and the absence of ample
marketing facilities made it necessary for the farmers to engage in
the live-at-home type of farming almost entirely. The numerous small
local markets of the cotton-mill period had not yet come into exist-
ence.
Although the population during the days of the Revolution was
small, and means of transportation meagre, the spirit of freedom soared
high in the breasts of the brave sons of Gaston. That spirit of free-
dom was of the true and lasting type, the type that never failed even
amid all the hardships and sufferings the thirteen colonies went
through during their seven years' fight for freedom. The victory at
Kings Mountain was not a mere accident; it was due to the energy
and fighting ability of the brave heroes of Gaston, Lincoln, Cleveland,
and Rutherford.
The post-revolutionary days were days of slow, but gradual, devel-
opment for Gaston county. Her history during all this period up to
1846, the year that Gaston was formed from Lincoln county, is con-
nected with the history of Lincoln. Information as to the events that
took place in the territory later to be known as Gaston county is suf-
ficiently definite to give an exact summary of the most important
historical events of pre-Gaston days.
8 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Early Settlers
Just here it might be well to give some idea of the nationalities of
the settlers in this territory. The three largest racial elements to
settle here, and from whom are descended the great bulk of the present-
day population of Gaston, were the Scotch-Irish, the Germans, often
called the Pennsylvania Dutch, from whence they came, and the High-
land Scotch. The Scotch-Irish were the first to come. They settled
mainly in the regions directly bordering the Catawba and nearby
streams. These people, like both the Germans and Scotch Highlanders,
were an industrious folk, prepared to tackle and overcome the diffi-
culties ever in the path of the pioneer. The Indian soon proved him-
self an unfriendly neighbor to his newly arrived competitor, who soon
showed the Red Man, through his energy and ability, that he had come
to stay. Farming was the chief industry. A number of the Scotch-
Irish element were well educated, some having studied at English
universities, while others had received their training at Princeton,
then known as the college of New Jersey.
Some of the larger families, descendants of the Scotch-Irish, are
the Moores, the Armstrongs, the Brevards, and the Masons.
The German group settled west of the Catawba river about the year
1750. Like the Scotch-Irish, their predecessors by a few years, these
people were thrifty and capable of development, first along agricultural
lines and later along industrial lines. To-day some of the most promi-
nent mill men of the county are descendants of these early German
settlers.
The following are some of the larger families descendants of this
group : Eddleman, Finger, Henkel, Hoover, Killiam, Keever, Leper,
Long, Lutz, Miller, Nantz, Rhyne, Taylor, Weber, Yoder, and Zim-
merman.
The third group, the Scotch-Highlanders, came to this section of the
state from Fayetteville, and played a great part in the future devel-
opment of the county. The Alexander, Graham. Henderson, Johnson,
McLean, and Morrison families are of this group. The other groups
of settlers are all smaller in number than the Scotch-Highlanders. All
the different racial elements in Gaston, and they are many, have each
contributed their part in making the county what it is to-day. All of
them have helped to put it in the very forefront of the progrrs ivs
counties of the state.
Later History
Not until we come into the field of textile manufacture do we reach
the predominating industry in the county. Gaston is truly the textile
center of the state.
The first cotton mill was built in Gaston county seventy years ago.
This was the Mountain Island mill, constructed in 1848, two years
Gaston County: Economic and Social 9
after the formation of the county from Lincoln. The growth of the
mill business was slow for the next twenty-five years. During all these
years, from 1848 to 1872, only one additional cotton mill was built.
The third was established in 1872. This slow beginning was probably
due in part to the undeveloped resources of the section, as well as in
part to the War Between the States, during which time all industries
in the South were at a standstill. The fourth mill was built in 1S76.
There arose during this period another industry that rivalled the
mill business and even threatened to exterminate it. The whiskey
business first made its appearance as an important industry in Gaston
county during the decade from 1870 to 1880. Its growth was very rapid.
Much of the farmer's corn found its way into a new channel of con-
sumption. Whiskey soon became so plentiful and the licensed distillers
so numerous, that "all you can drink for a nickle" was one of the
common phrases used in advertising.
A Moral Revolution
The experience of Gaston county has been unique. It was first the
banner whiskey county of North Carolina, and now it is the banner
cotton-mill county. The cotton mill completely displaced the distillery
in less than thirty years or so. How did this transformation come
about? This is a question that deserves special consideration. The
common theory and general belief prevailing in Gaston during the later
years of the nineteenth century was that the mill worker would never
be content to allow his drink of whiskey to be taken from him. The
belief that whiskey was essential to industrial efficiency was also
prevalent. Nevertheless the transformation of Gaston from a wet to
a dry county occurred during the period when the textile industry
witnessed its greatest growth.
In 1880 the county was dotted with licensed distilleries. In 1885
the number had reached forty, and three years later the maximum
number of forty-eight was reached. The whiskey business in that year
reached its greatest development. The following years saw it gradu-
ally decline, through the repeated efforts of prohibition advocates.
Full credit must be given the prohibitionists for combatting the liquor
business and finally obtaining the legal provision that sounded the
death knell of whiskey making in Gaston county.
Also, the advocates of prohibition deserve the credit of having indi-
rectly, at least, contributed to the change from whiskey making
to cotton manufacture, for clearly, when the former was generally
discredited and later disallowed by the law, the interest centered in
whiskey making had to be diverted to other fields of activity. The
cotton-mill industry natiu-ally received its proportionate share of the
capital thus released. It is fair to say that some of the men who had
10 Gaston, County: Economic and Social
been engaged in distilling were men of business ability and integrity.
During the decade from 1878 to 1888, the period of greatest activity
in the distillery business, the county saw a comparatively slow devel-
opment in the textile industry, only four mills being erected during
this ten-year period. The seven-year period from 1888 to 1895, the
years that witnessed the first big decline in the number of distilleries
(eight ceasing operation during this period), gives us an entirely
different story to relate. During these seven years, while the distil-
leries were decreasing by eight in number, the total number of cotton
mills constructed was twenty. The conclusion to be drawn from the
above figures is that as the manufacture of whiskey declined, the
interest centered in it was shifted over to the textile business, with
the result as mentioned above.
In 1900 the population was 27,903, the valuation of taxable property
was $5,166,129, the cotton mills reached thirty or more in number,
and the number of distilleries was reduced to sixteen.
The year 1903 saw a great victory for the prohibitionists of Gaston.
The law passed in that year "prohibited the manufacture and sale of
liquors in Gaston county." Wine was still allowed to be manufactured,
while whiskey could only be secured by prescription of a qualified
physician.
The five-year period following the passage of the first prohibition
law witnessed remarkable growth in Gaston county along all lines.
The population of the county increased to 36,000 in 1908, the valuation
of taxable property amounted to $10,000,000, and the sum of $35,782
was expended for educational purposes.
The death blow to the shipment of whiskey into Gaston was dealt
in 1915. By a special Act of the Legislature a law was enforced for
Gaston county alone. This law forbade even the .shipment of two
quarts per month, the amount still allowed in the state, within the
boundaries of the county. Since the year 1915, it has been illegal to
ship any amount of liquor into the county.
It has been during the last twenty-five years, the period during which
the liquor business has been abolished in Gaston, that the cotton-mill
industry has assumed its present proportions. Gaston county has
emerged from the shadow of the liquor evil into the greatest textile
county in the South, without any loss of efficiency by her industrial
workers. On the contrary, increased efficiency has come through pro-
hibition.
The fact that, as interest in the manufacture of whiskey declined,
the interest in the manufacture of cotton was stimulated is proved by
the history of the decline of the former and the development of the
latter.
By whatever means the transformation may have been accomplished,
and however much credit for this transformation we may attribute
Gaston County: Economic and Social 11
to the enemies of the liquor traffic, the transformation has, neverthe-
less, been made, and to-day many a prosperous cotton mill is occu-
pying the same site formerly occupied by distilleries in various parts
of the county. To-day there are more than ninety mills in Gaston
county, "representing one-seventh of the textile capital of the state;
operating upwards of 1,000,000 spindles, one-sixth of all the .spindles in
operation in the state, and one-fifteenth of the looms; consuming one-
fifth of the raw material consumed annually in North Carolina, and
furnishing employment to thousands of Gaston's 52,000 inhabitants."
Numerous small industrial enterprises of other sorts are in opera-
tion in all parts of the county. These are eclipsed, for the most part,
by cotton manufacture.
Gaston County As It Is Today
But no history of Gaston based on conditions existing in 1910 can
begin to do justice to the real Gaston county of to-day. During the
intervening nine years the county has made gigantic steps forward
in economic, social, and civic enterprises, especially in school affairs.
A state hospital for the crippled is now under construction just out-
side the limits of Gastonia. Gastonia received this recognition from
the state through the influence of a number of its citizens interested
in the welfare of the Tiny Tims of North Carolina.
The most progressive cotton-mill men are recognizing the good
results obtained from satisfied workers, and are endeavoring to make
their employees contented by means of better village homes, better
sanitary conditions, parks and playgrounds for the young people, profit-
sharing plans for the wage earners, and so on and on.
The expanse of the cotton mill since 1912 has been great. During
the period of the World War there have been as many as four mills
under construction at a time in Gastonia alone. Five are now in
process of erection within county limits.
The rapid multiplication of cotton mills has promoted the increase
of illiteracy in our county during the last few years. In the literacy
of her people Gaston county does not stand toward the top of the
column of counties in North Carolina. She occupies a position a little
below the average. This difficulty must be solved. It is now, and has
always been, a great temptation to the children in the mill sections
to stop school at an early age to work in the mill, and they have very
little opportunity later to go to school. This has often been the prac-
tice in spite of the law. However, under the labor and school laws
combined, young children under 14 years of age ought now to have
a better chance at primary and grammar school education.
The educational facilities of the county are sufficiently ample to take
care of every child of school age. Since 1910, practically every town
12 Gaston County: Economic and Social
in the county has erected a new school building, with all the modern
conveniences. The towns of Belmont, Bessemer City, Cherryville, and
Lowell have each constructed new school buildings in the last few
years, while the city of Gastonia has constructed three — a central
building, and an East and West Gastonia School. The only problem,
as yet unsolved, is to get every child of school age into school. This
problem will soon cease to exist, once the child labor law and the com-
pulsory school attendance law work together effectively for the wel-
fare of Gaston county children.
With the problem of education for the mill child settled, the pros-
pects of a greater Gaston in the future are exceedingly bright.
References
1. Soil Survey of Gaston County. — United States Department of
Agriculture.
2. Gaston County: A Short Economic History- — F. B. Xims.
3. The Story of Gaston County. — Gastonia Chamber of Commerce,
Gastonia, N. C.
II
Natural Resources
1. Timber
Gaston is a comparatively small county having an area of only
236,800 acres. Its topography is typical of the Piedmont region, its
broad, rolling ridges being broken by steeper and more hilly regions
along the streams.
Half of the present area, if cleared, would be susceptible of prof-
itable cultivation, though more careful handling than a majority of
the farms have received or are now receiving would be necessary to
prevent erosion and to increase its fertility. The other half can
profitably be kept under forest cover.
There are no large timber tracts in the county, the greater part of
the land being held in medium and small sized farms. Only about
thirty holdings exceed 500 acres in extent, and a considerable portion
of these is cleared. Only six of the above tracts exceed 1,000 acres
in extent and very little good timber is found on any of them.
The original forests of Gaston were the typical hardwoods and pines
of the Piedmont region, though there were certain areas of stiff, red
clay soils, on which no pine was found. With the exception of a few
small wood-lots which the farmers have carefully preserved, no virgin
timber remains in the county. What old timber remains is largely
oak, most of it over-mature and stag-headed, with occasional tracts of
old growth of forest short-leaf pine.
The present wooded area consists of twenty-three percent hardwood
timber, containing little or no pine; sixty-three percent hardwood and
pine timber; and fourteen percent old-field pine stands. The pine is
absent from hardwood forests either because it has never been growing
there or because it has been cut out and conditions have been unfavor-
able for its reseeding; this latter is probably the more likely.
Hardwood and pine forests are composed chiefly of second growth
oak, hickory, and short-leaf pine, with some old culled trees of these
species on the original forest land. A small proportion of the old
fields is being covered with second-growth hardwoods, such as oak,
hickory, poplar, and sweet gum, chiefly along the streams, in old fence
jambs, and other waste spaces. The pine is practically all second
growth, having come up since the old trees were cut. Probably three-
fourths of the merchantable timber in these wooded areas is second-
growth pine. The old field pine type consists of pure or nearly pure
14 Gaston County: Economic and Social
stands of short-leaf pine, varying in size from saplings to large poles.
Probably not more than a third of these stands now contain merchant-
able timber. These pine stands, where large enough for timber, are
valuable and add materially to the value of the farm on which they
are growing.
Something over thirty small sawmills, with an average annual cut
of just over 100,000 feet of lumber, are operating in Gaston county.
The lumber output consists of old field pine especially in the southern
part of the county. In the northern and eastern sections consider-
able oak is cut in addition to the pine. The lumber industry is at a
low ebb in Gaston for the county has long ago passed from a lumbering
stage to an agricultural and manufacturing stage.
2. Drainage and Power
The natural drainage of Gaston county is excellent, with the excep-
tion of a few spots of meadow and bottom lands, and even these could
be drained, reclaimed, and made productive by straightening out the
natural drainage ways. The Catawba river flows southward along the
eastern side of the county, and the South Fork river, entering the
county near the middle of the northern boundary and flowing south-
easterly, empties into the Catawba at the southeast corner of the
county on the South Carolina line. Crowders, Catawba, and Long
creeks are the principal streams which flow across a part of the county
and empty into South Fork river, while Dutchmans and Stanley creeks
flow into the Catawba river.
These rivers and creeks, with their intricate system of smaller
streams, drain the county admirably.
Gaston has but recently begun to turn her streams into power for
operating mills of all sorts. The streams have been largely used to
run grist mills and cotton gins, and a few cotton mills have been
located at favorable points. South Fork and Catawba rivers have
good falls at many places, and these places will in the near future be
utilized for power to operate mills and factories. At present only one
of the 77 cotton-mill companies of the county operates its plant by
water alone; five use water and electricity, while the rest are oper-
ated by electricity, or steam and electricity.
3. Minerals
In a few localities in Gaston there are found rocks of sedimentary
origin. However the more important rocks and those which cover a
large area are granites, gneisses, and schists. Granite is particularly
noticeable around Gastonia, Dallas, Highshoals, near Union Church,
northeast of McAdenville, and between Dallas and Bessemer City. In
certain parts of the northwest section around Cherryville, and also to
Gaston County: Economic and Social 15
the west of Mountain Island, a very coarse-grained granite is promi-
nent, together with gneisses and schists. The weathering of the
coarser granites has given rise to the Durham coarse sandy loam and
the Cecil coarse sandy loam, and also in part to the Cecil sandy loam.
The Cecil sandy loam and also the Cecil fine sandy loam have been
derived from granites and gneisses. There are small areas of talcose
schists and felcite schists which give rise mainly to the Cecil loams.
East of Pasour Mountain and east of Bessemer City there is a fine-
grained sandstone, which has modified to some extent the Cecil fine
sandy loam and the Cecil fine sand found there. Throughout the
county and especially in the eastern section the underlying rocks are
gneisses and schists with some fine-grained granite, and these have
weathered down to form the Cecil clay loam and the Cecil clay.
On the mountains, knolls, and peaks, quartzite is the principal rock.
Its resistant action to the weathering forces is the direct cause of
these various elevations. In many places are seen a green diorite and
other dark-colored basic rocks, which have weathered into a dull-col-
ored soil with an impervious subsoil called Iredell clay loam. Through-
out the various formations are to be found veins of quartz, and frag-
ments of this rock persist in the soils.
The more precious minerals are not to be found in Gaston but she
has some granite of good quality.
4. Soils
The soil types in Gaston county are those characteristic of the
Piedmont section, which extends from northern Pennsylvania to east-
ern Alabama. They have been grouped mainly in the Cecil series.
The Durham and Henderson are associated with the Cecil .series but
they occupy less than three percent of the area of the county.
Gaston is fortunate in having more than half her area composed of
the two best soils in the Piedmont province. These are the Cecil sandy
loam and the Cecil clay loam. All of the more important towns of
the Piedmont are situated on either one or the other of these soils
and their growth has been due largely to the superior adaptability
of these soils to the cotton, hay and forage, and grain crops of this
part of the state.
The Cecil sandy loam, in all of its varieties, is a mellow and easily
tilled soil. Improved machinery can be used over a large part of it.
It is one of the most extensive types in Gaston and occurs in large
unbroken areas extending north and south through the central part
of the county.
The surface of this type is gently rolling, becoming more rolling as
the streams are approached. Its surface drainage is all that could be
desired and the inter-stream areas lie beautifully for general farming
purposes.
16 Gaston County: Economic and Social
A large percentage of this type is cleared and cultivated. Cotton
is the principal crop grown on it at present and with good cultivation
the farmers secure yields averaging from one-half to one bale per acre.
This soil is also well adapted to corn, wheat, hay, and sweet potatoes,
unusually high per acre yields of all these crops having been secured
where proper methods of farming are practised.
It can be easily and greatly improved and such improvement is
quite lasting on account of the red clay subsoil foundation, which
prevents leaching. By crop rotation, deep plowing, and turning under
of leguminous crops and coarse manures this soil can be brought to
an extremely high state of productivity.
The Cecil clay loam covers about 28 per cent of the area of the
county. It is one of the two most valuable soil types to be found
in the Piedmont province. This soil is usually called "red land," con-,
sisting typically of a red or brown loam or clay to a depth of 5 to 7
inches. The texture of this soil has a wide range; in some portions
it is sandy and friable, and in others it is a tough, stiff red clay.
The Cecil clay loam when plowed under proper moisture conditions
is easily handled, otherwise the soil will clod and bake. The areas
which contain the largest amount of sand are more friable and the soil
works up into a better tilth and is more easily handled than in the
heavier areas.
The Cecil clay loam is particularly adapted to the production of
corn, wheat, oats, clover, grasses, and cowpeas. It is also good for
cotton, but this crop does not mature here as easily as on the Cecil
sandy loam. Where good methods of cultivation are used and an early
maturing variety is planted, yields of one bale to the acre are common,
though the average production is below this amount. Corn yields
from 12 to 86 bushels per acre on this soil, high yields being secured
by proper methods of farming. "Wheat fills out well, and yields of
25 bushels per acre are common; but the average is below this, about
18 bushels. Oats yield on it from 20 to 60 bushels, and cowpeas 1
to 2 tons of hay or 20 to 30 bushels of shelled peas per acre. Clover,
both crimson and red, and orchard grass do well on this soil, and
cabbage, turnips, apples, cherries, and pears give good returns.
Better Farming »
There are too many eroded or bald spots, "turned out" as they say,
in the cultivated fields of Gaston. Most of these unsightly places
could easily be reclaimed and made productive by applying coarse
manures and sowing cowpeas and clovers for a few years. Plowing
slightly deeper year by year, and a better pulverizing of the seed bed
would give results in increased production. This applies particularly
to the Cecil clay, Cecil clay loam, and the heavier areas of the sandy
loams. These stiff lands ought to be loosened up and aerated in order
Gaston Counti/: Economic and Social 17
to give the plant "roots a larger feeding area and to allow more rain-
fall to be absorbed and retained, thus insuring more moisture during
dry seasons. All kinds of coarse manures — straw, leaves, or cotton
bolls — when turned under on the clays are very beneficial in loosening
up the soil, and result in marked improvement in the yields.
In this region where the soils and climatic conditions favor the
growing of cowpeas. clovers, vetch, and rye, all the nitrogen needed
for crops can be easily and cheaply secured by growing these and
the farmers may thus save a large part of their fertilizer expense.
If the land has been properly prepared for cowpeas the stubble when
plowed under makes an excellent seed bed for wheat. One of the
main reasons why the results with wheat are not more satisfactory
is the poor preparation of the seed bed.
A greater diversification and a more systematic rotation of crops
should be practiced in order to build up the soils and increase the
yields. Cotton has for many years been the favorite crop, and not
enough attention has been given to corn, grain, and hay crops. More
corn, hay, wheat, and oats should be produced; more pigs and cattle
kept on the farms, so that Gaston county could export instead of
having to import flour, meat, hay, corn, butter, and a variety of other
foods and fe^ds. The large number of people in the towns and fac-
tories provide excellent markets for the products of the farm, par-
ticularly for such crops as sweet potatoes, cabbage, Irish potatoes,
turnips, beans, tomatoes, dairy products, and poultry. The soils of
Gaston are well adapted to the cultivation of all these crops and their
production in vast quantities would cause a saving to the county of
about two and a third million dollars, the sum annually spent for
imported food and feed supplies. Or at least this was the bill for
imported food and feed in the census year. It is safe to say that the
total is around five million to-day, unless the farmers of Gaston have
greatly increased their food and feed crops since 1910.
Sources of Information
Soil Survey of Gaston County.
Report of the North Carolina Commissioner of Labor, 1916.
Timber Resources of Gaston County.
North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey.
Ill
Gaston County Industries
Cotton Manufacture
In miscellaneous manufacturing industries Gaston ranks well. But
when it comes to cotton manufacture Gaston county leads, not only
in North Carolina, but in the South and the nation — not in the
number of spindles but in the number of mills. She has within her
borders 90 cotton mills, more mills than any other county in the
United States. She now leads all the counties in the South in the
number of active spindles. Only three counties in the entire United
States, Bristol and Middlesex counties, Massachusetts, and Providence
county, Rhode Island, have more active spindles. This is due to the
fact that their mills are on an average larger, but Gaston has more
mills. No other county in North Carolina begins to approach Gaston
as a cotton mill center.
The textile business has accumulated enormous wealth for the
county for those holding stock in these concerns. Especially has this
been true during the past four or five years.
Whatever the profits, they are large enough to attract all the
capital needed in the business and most mills are selling stock, if it
can be procured at all, away above par. New concerns have no trouble
getting stock subscribed. In fact stock in new textile mills sells
above par. One mill recently organized sold stock at 190 before a
brick was laid.
The latest figures we have are, in part, for the year 1918, taken
from the Report of the State Commissioner of Labor and Printing.
During the following year several new concerns have sprung up and
several new plants are now under construction. The capital stock of
many plants has been increased; the raw cotton consumed, the value
of the yearly output, and the yearly payroll of almost all the mills
have increased. The data of the Labor Commissioner are incomplete,
because the mill owners neglect or refuse to supply the information
called for. However, we have at hand data supplied by the Secretary
of the Gastonia Chamber of Commerce and the Gastonia Gazette.
The Gastonia Gazette has recently published a complete list of the
cotton mills of the county. They did this to correct the current false
impression that there are 100 mills in the county. A strict count
revealed the fact that there were 84. Recently six new corporations
have been organized, bringing the total up to 90. These 90 mills
are owned by 77 corporations, and the list, with combined spindleage,
is published at the end of this chapter.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 19
Forty-one of these mills are found in Gastonia, which is by far the
biggest textile center in the state.
The report of the Commissioner of Labor and Printing for the year
1918 gives more or less accurate information about 56 corporations
which own 69 of the 90 mills in Gaston, or just about three-quarters
of the total number. Twenty-one new corporations own the remain-
ing 21 mills. Assuming that the remaining 21 mills are average
mills, the reader can gain for himself a fairly accurate idea of totals
for the 90 mills in operation or organized in January, 1920.
Fifty-five cotton mills in 1918 had a capital stock of $11,044,200.
In January, 1920, with 8 mills unreported the capital stock is $25,151,-
126. Thus the total capital stock of the 90 mills is about $27,500,000.
Forty-eight corporations owning two-thirds of the mills report 22,975
horsepower, an average of almost 500 horsepower for each corpora-
tion or about 35,000 horsepower for the 90 mills. Forty-eight corpora-
tions in 1918 used raw material valued at $43,676,000 making it fair
to assume that the 77 corporations now operating or organized use
raw cotton valued at about 70 million dollars annually. Seventy-two
of the 84 mills in 1919 used raw material valued at 55 million dollars.
The estimated value of the 1918 output of these 48 corporations was
$28,321,000 or almost exactly 40 million dollars for the 84 mills in
1919. The 56 mills had 699,454 active spindles giving a total of more
than a million spindles for the 90 mills now in the county. This is
substantiated by figures just compiled by the Chamber of Commerce.
A strict count revealed the fact that there are 1,012,696 spindles in
the county.
The pay roll in 1919 with a dozen unreported, was $4,000,000.
Knitting" Mills
Four knitting mills in the county in 1918 reported a total capital
stock of $72,600 with an estimated yearly output of $400,000. These
four mills had 154 knitting machines installed.
Gaston has within her limits one-sixth of all the cotton mills of
the state, one-sixth of the capital stock, and one-sixth of all active
spindles. She made rapid progress during the two-year period 1916-18.
In 1916 she had one-seventh of the cotton mills, one-ninth of the capital
stock, and one-ninth of the active spindles. Since 1918 twenty-one cor-
porations have built or organized 21 mills.
Not only this, but Gaston people own big mills in other counties
of this state and in South Carolina. This is especially true of Messrs.
Cannon, Armstrong, A. K. and H. G. YVinget, J. H. Separk, Lineberger
and Stowe, and the late George A. Gray. Mill stock in all of the
county mills is pretty well disseminated throughout Gaston county.
The mill owners are coming more and more to consider the mill
workers as part of their tangible assets. They are providing good
20 Gaston County: Economic and Social
schools and are insisting on the children's attending school. They are
providing better health conditions, nurses for the mill women and
children, recreation grounds, and better moral surroundings.
The mill operatives of Gaston are as well paid as any in the state.
The daily wages of the highest-paid men range from $3 to $6.50; of
the lowest-paid men from $3 to $1.50 per day. The highest wages
paid to women range from $1.50 to $4 a day; and the lowest, from
$1 to $2 per day. This was in 1918. The wages are higher in all the
mills at the present time.
The 56 companies owning 69 mills in the county in 1918 employed
8,339 operatives. It is estimated that 21,000 people, the employes
and their families, were dependent on the mills for support. Taking
that as an average, the 90 mills in the county in 1920 will employ
11,000 persons and 27,000 people will be directly dependent on the
mills for support.
Gastonia is the textile center of the state. Forty-one of the 84 mills
operating are located in Gastonia, and as the average mill in Gastonia
is larger than the average in the rest of the county, it is fair to assume
that Gastonia has within her limits one-half the capital stock, one-
half the spindles, looms and cards, uses half the raw material and
turns out half of the finished products of the county. Also that half
the people dependent on the mills for support, or about 14,000, live in
Gastonia. This population alone makes a small city, and this fact
serves to emphasize the overshadowing importance of the textile
business in Gastonia.
Big 31111 Concerns
Lineberger-Stowe Mills
"From its premier position among the pioneer cotton mill builders
of Gaston county, the Lineberger-Stowe corporation at Belmont has
never been displaced, and to-day it holds first rank in the county in
number of spindles operated and capital stock invested. From the
organization of the Chronicle Mill in 1901 with a capital stock of
only $100,000 and R. L. Stowe as chief promoter, the mill business
at Belmont has grown to the magnificent total of eleven mills in Bel-
mont alone, representing approximately 145,000 spindles and an author-
ized capital stock of $7,000,000. Soon after the Chronicle Mill was
built came the Imperial and Majestic; and Mr. A. C. Lineberger, one
of the foremost cotton mill authorities in the South, became asso-
ciated with the Belmont mills as president."
"Mr. Lineberger is president of the Rowan Mills at Salisbury, a
concern with 10,000 spindles and $600,000 capital, and is interested in
the Vance Mills at Salisbury and Superior Yarn Mills at Statesville."
"The growth of the mill business in Gaston has been truly magical
Gaston County: Economic and Social 21
and the rise of the men connected therewith has been equally as won-
derful. For instance, a few days ago there were organized in the
town of Belmont within the space of 36 hours three new cotton mills
with a combined capital stock of $3,800,000. Listed on the board of
directors of these mills are men who, twenty years ago, were nothing
more than doffers and ordinary helpers in the first mills built here-
abouts. Such facts as these are illustrative and typical of the cotton
mills of Belmont. All the superintendents have risen from a low
place in the ranks to positions commanding annual salaries of $4,000
and $5,000."
"All the mills at Belmont manufacture fine yarns, the managers
being among the first in this section to recognize the difference in
the selling power of fine and coarse yarns."
The Armstrong Mills
"The story of the growth and expansion of the Armstrong chain
of cotton mills in Gastonia and surrounding counties starts with the
modest beginning in 1907 of the Clara Armstrong Company with a
$200,000 capital stock and 10,000 spindles. To-day the corporation
has a combined capital stock of $4,041,000, and 119,600 active spindles.
It is one of the most marvelous of the many wonderful fairy-like
stories of the textile industry in Gaston county. From one mill in
1907, the industry headed by Col. C. B. Armstrong, A. K. Winget and
others, has grown to 13 mills in 1920. On an average a new mill has
been added every year."
"The rapid rise to unparalleled heights in cotton manufacture has
been due to the wonderful insight into the future coupled with busi-
ness skill and foresight possessed by few captains of industry, notably
Col. C. B. Armstrong and his able lieutenant, Mr. A. K. Winget."
"The Clara Mill was built in 1907 at a cost of $200,000. It has
10,000 spindles. Late in 1919, the Mildred was organized with 20,000
spindles. It will cost $1,200,000. These figures give some idea of the
difference in cost 13 years ago and now."
The Separk-Gray Mills
"As a monument to the industry and far-seeing vision of the late
Geo. A. Gray, generally recognized as the founder of the cotton mill
industry in Gaston county, there are in active operation to-day. hum-
ming and spinning their song of industry and contentment. 104,082
spindles in six cotton mills, the Gray, Arrow, Parkdale, Myrtle. Arling-
ton, and Flint. These mills represent at present an authorized capital
of $3,650,000. Contemplated changes will increase this to $4,400,000.
"The history of the Separk-Gray interests has been one of continual
growth and expansion. There has been a policy of sane, safe building
22 Gaston County: Economic and Social
under favorable conditions, and wise investments in holdings already
under construction. As illustrative of this last policy, two years ago
the Arlington and Flint, two of the best mills in the South, were
taken over by the Separk-Gray interests."
"One of the outstanding policies of the Separk-Gray Mills is welfare
work for the employes of the mills. This work has been developed
to a high state of perfection. This policy was fully vindicated during
the recent epidemic of influenza when the two community workers,
Misses Pickens and Potts, were on duty day and night, and succeeded
in alleviating and checking the ravages of the disease. Miss Potts,
the head of the work, is a graduate nurse and has had a rich and
varied experience, having served with the American Expeditionary
Forces as a member of the Army Nurse Corps."
The Lokay Mill
"The Loray Mill itself is a good sized show. When it was built
20 years ago it was one of the largest mill buildings in the Southern
states. In fact the claim was made for it then that it was the largest
textile plant under one roof south of the Mason and Dixon line. It
is five stories high, exclusive of the basement. Capitalized at $1,500,-
000 the Loray was a giant enterprise in the textile industry. It is a
much larger concern now. It has recently been converted into a yarn
mill alone, manufacturing automobile tire fabrics. Within the last
few months the weaving has been discontinued and the looms sold.
The 57,000 spindles are being increased to 90,000. Under the old
regime 550 people were employed. There are now 850 employed and
when the installations of machinery are complete the number will
be 1,400."
"The owners of the Loray Mills are spen.ding, all told, somewhere
around a million dollars in improvements and enlargements in and
around their plant. Of this total more than half is going into new
buildings, including 150 of the best constructed, most convenient and
withal most attractive bungalows for their operatives that can be
found in any manufacturing town in the country. These houses of
four, five, and six rooms, are costing $2,000 and up and are not lacking
in modern conveniences. In the 150 homes are to be found several
types of architecture. In addition to these homes for operatives, two
large dormitories, one for men and the other for women, with a large
cafeteria between, are being erected at a cost of considerably more
than $100,000."
"Each dormitory has 23 bed rooms besides matrons' rooms, reception
rooms and halls. They are of brick veneer construction, a dark red
tapestry brick being used. Each building is thoroughly equipped with
baths, writing rooms, etc. In the basement of the men's dormitory
Gaston County: Economic and Social 23
will be a bowling alley, a pool room, and probably a barber shop, to
say nothing of shower baths and locker rooms."
Occupying a position midway between the two dormitories is
a cafeteria which will be the most up-to-date establishment of its kind
between Washington and Atlanta. The main dining room is 85 by
36 feet. The furnishings alone will cost $15,000. This cafeteria will
be run by the Waldorf System and will feed the 1,400 operatives in
an hour.
Mention must be made of the Loray Community House which has
been greatly enlarged and improved during the past year. This build-
ing is proving not only a great convenience for the operatives but is
coming to have a great influence in their lives in the way of increased
interest in educational and civic matters. Household management
and sewing are taught here. The day nursery affords a splendid
place for the care of infants while their mothers are in the mill or
at their household duties.
Recently a laundry has been established for the use of the mill
operatives. It is equipped with modern machinery and is under the
care of a superintendent and 15 assistants. Though it has been run-
ning only a few weeks it is being liberally patronized by the workers.
The Rankin Mills
"While their figures as to number of spindles and capital stock
are not so pretentious as those of some of their neighbors, the Rankin
chain of mills, the Osceola, Hanover, and Mountain View, owned and
controlled by the W. T. Rankin interests, and the Pinkney, Rankin,
and Ridge Mills, owned and controlled by R. Grady Rankin interests,
is one of the most successfully operated and cleanly managed chain
of mills in the county. The combined spindleage of the Osceola,
Hanover, and Mountain View is 20,000 with a capital stock of $415,000.
"Not since the Osceola was built in 1916 has it lost a working hour,
night or day, and the same is true of the Hanover. The Pinkney,
Rankin, and Ridge Mills represent a capital stock of $675,000 with a
spindleage of 22,500."
"Mr. W. T. Rankin originated the idea of sharing with the em-
ployes the profits from his mills. About a year ago he returned from
Europe where he visited the manufacturing centers of France and
Belgium. This trip impressed upon him the necessity of closer co-
operation between employer and employe and he, together with
several other corporations, inaugurated a profit-sharing plan. As a
result there was paid out during the last six months of 1919 a sum
of $56,000 to employes representing 10 per cent of all the spindles
in the county. Other corporations are folllowing this example."
24 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Miscellaneous Factories
Besides cotton and knitting mills there were 23 other miscellane-
ous concerns reported in Gaston in 1918. These 23 concerns had a
combined capital stock of $147,955. Leaving out of account the Coca-
Cola Bottling Company of Gastonia, the other 22 concerns had plants
valued at $154,332; with an estimated yearly output of $685,565, and
a pay roll of $374,000. These concerns are grouped and listed, together
with important information concerning them, at the end of this
chapter.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 25
COTTON MILL CORPORATIONS IN 1919
Seventy-seven Corporations Owning 90 Mills
GASTONTA.
SPINDLES
Loray Mills ..90,000
Arlington Cotton Mills 25,352
Rex Spinning Company 25,000
Priscilla Spinning Company 25,000
Flint Manufacturing Co 23 , C-10
Ozark Mills 20.0C0
Victory Yarn Mills 20,000
Mildred Cotton Mills ....20,000
Gray Manufacturing Co IS, COO
Modena Cotton Mills 17,536
Parkdale Mills, Inc _.. 15,360
Groves Mills, Inc. ..15,000
Seminole Cotton Mills 13,000
Gastonia Cotton Mfg. Co 12.50C
Myers Mills 11,592
Dunn Mfg. Co 10,500
A. M. Smyre Mfg. Co 10,336
Avon Mills 1C,080
Myrtle Mills, Inc 10,240
Osceola Mills __10,000
Pinkney Mills, Inc 10,000
Clara Mfg. Co 9,800
Trenton Cotton Mills 8,448
The Shuford Mills 8,000
Winget Yarn Mills . S.0C0
Spencer Mountain Mills 7,072
Dixon Mills 6,144
Mutual Cotton Mills 6.5CC
Ridge Mills. 6,500
Ranlo Mfg. Co 6,048
Ruby Mills 6,000
Adams-Spencer Mills 6,000
Rankin Mills 6,000
Hanover Thread Mills 5,000
Mountain View Mills 5,000
Armstrong Cotton Mills, Inc 4,500
Piedmont Spinning Co.. 2,500
BELMONT.
Climax Spinning Co 21,760
Stowe Spinning Co 20, COO
Acme Mills 16, COO
National Yarn Mills 15,232
Crescent Yarn Mills 13,056
Sterling Mfg. Co 13,056
Majestic Mfg. Co 12,768
Imperial Yarn Mills 12,500
Chronicle Mill 10,276
Perfection Spinning Co 10,000
Linford Mills, Inc 10.CC0
Stowe-Puett Mills 10, COO
MOUNT HOLLY.
SPINDLES
Adrian Mfg. Co.... 13,056
Woodlawn Mfg. Co 10,080
Catawba Spinning Co.. 10,000
Nims Mfg. Co 8,100
Tuckaseege Mfg. Co 5,696
Globe Mills 5,040
Alsace Cotton Mills 3,568
DALLAS.
Monarch Cotton Mills Co... ___ 8,400
Morowebb Cotton Mills Co. 7,168
Dorothy Mfg. Co. 7,0C0
CHERRYVILLE.
Gaston Mfg. Co 12,000
Melville Mfg. Co 11,000
Cherryville Mfg. Co 7,536
Vivian Cotton Mills 5,200
Rhyne-Houser Mfg. Co 5,000
Howell Mfg. Co 4,752
BESSEMER CITY.
Osage Mfg. Co.. 16,272
Gambrill & Melville Mills 15,000
Huss Mfg. Co 6,000
Atlas Mfg. Co 4,860
American Cotton Mills 3,600
LOWELL.
Lowell Cotton Mills 23,500
Peerless Mfg. Co 14,500
STANLEY.
Lola Mfg. Co 4,160
McADENVILLE.
McAden Mills 28,000
MAYWORTH.
Mays Mills, Inc 68,000
HIGH SHOALS.
High Shoals Mfg. Co 18,512
WORTH.
Harden Mfg. Co 8,000
Total for Gaston County 1,012,690
26
Gaston County: Economic and Social
MISCELLANEOUS FACTORIES
FACTORY
Post Office
3mer Ginning Co Bessemer City.
Southern Cotton Oil Co Gastonia
Model Ginning Co ..Cherryville
Flemming's Saw Mill Gastonia
Fox Saw Mill Stanley
Henry Lumber Co Gastonia
Morgan Lumber Co Cherryville
Robinson Saw Mill Mount Holly...
Speneer Lumber Co Gastonia
Styers Sash and Door Shop Cherryville
Bludwine Bottling Co Gastonia
Coca-Cola Bottling Co.*.. Gastonia..
Chero-Cola Bottling Co Lowell
Kendrick Brick and Tile Co Mount Holly. .
Mo-Ho Brick Co Mount Holly..
Beaver Dam Roller Mills Lincolnton
Cocker Machinery Co Gastonia
Gaston Iron Works Gastonia
Gaston Mattress Co Gastonia
C. L. Lawton (Baritel Bessemer City.
Piedmont Metal Roofing Co Dallas
Riverside Sand Co Charlotte
Capital
Stock
$ 1,955
10,000
2,100
2,000
7,000
25,000
2,000
16,000
5.0C0
5,000
3,000
8,700
S,0C0
6,400
5,000
20, CC0
6,300
4,500
Value
of
Plant
8,400
1,000
1,000
5,000
20,000
2,000
4,000
6,706
563,109
6,000
12.0C0
6,400
5,000
36,400
12,000
5,000
6,300
5,000
Yearly
Out-
put
$ 2,166 %.
229,000
2,000
75,000
100,000
3,000
7,000
22,000
,869,725
25,000
50,000
17,500
15,000
70,000
12,000
25,000
12,000
12,000
Yearly
Pay
Roll
220,000
5,000
4,000
75,000
1,500
4,500
693,299
3,500
8,000
7,000
800
25,000
6,000
290
500
5,000
*Other establishments included.
Sources of Information:
1918 Report of Commissioner of Labor and Printing.
Gastonia Gazette.
Gastonia Chamber of Commerce.
IV
Facts About the Folks
At the close of this and subsequent chapters will be found tables
indicating (1) certain fundamental facts about Gaston county, (2)
the rank of the county in each particular among the hundred counties
of the state, and (3) the state and national averages that serve to
show how far Gaston is leading or falling behind the state and the
nation. These tables are based on the latest reports of the federal
Census Bureau and refer to the year 1910 unless otherwise indicated.
It ought to be borne in mind that only once in every ten years can
a county take stock of itself in any thorough-going way. We know
from the authorities at Washington many things about the state year
by year, but nothing about the counties of any state except the
annual production of cotton and recently of tobacco. And so only the
1920 census will reveal in detail just what progress the county has
made during the decade just closing.
Other sources of information have been the 1906 and 1916 Censuses
of Religious Bodies, the 1914 Census of Industries, the latest reports
of the state departments, the University News Letter, and corre-
spondence with local authorities in Gaston.
Increasing Population
One of the most significant facts discovered concerning Gaston is
that her rural districts have more people to the square mile than
any other county in the state, the number being 84.4. Her rural
districts are five times as thickly settled as two or three counties in
the eastern part of the state. And she is still growing in rural popu-
lation. Only two counties in the state made a greater increase in
rural population during the decade from 1900 to 1910. An important
fact concerning this gain is that seven-eighths of the increase con-
sisted of whites. The negroes of the county are a decreasing ratio
of the population. In 1900 they were 26 percent of the population,
but in 1910 they were only 23 percent. Most of the white increase
went into the mill villages and the people came mainly from the sur-
rounding counties. Mecklenburg lost nearly 12 percent of her country
population, a great part of it going over into Gaston to work in the
cotton mills, of which Gaston has a greater number than any other
county in the South.
The census reports show the marked effect this increasing mill
28 Gaston County: Economic and Social
population has had on the level of general intelligence, due to lack
of effective labor laws before the 1910 census was compiled. Children
of almost any age were allowed to remain out of school in order to
work in the mills. If the present laws are enforced, and we have
no doubt they will be, the next census will show a much higher
educational status.
In 1910, fourteen and a half percent of all the white people of the
county 10 years old and over could neither read nor write. There
were 69 counties in the state that had a smaller percent of white
illiterates than Gaston. These were sheer-illiterates. How many near-
illiterates there were in the county no one knows, but in Gaston just
as in all other counties they far outnumber the sheer-illiterates. Peo-
ple who can barely read or write are in almost as bad condition as
those who do not know their letters at all.
The native white illiterate voters numbered 879 and were 14 per-
cent of the total white voters. In most counties of the state in 1910
illiterates of voting age were a larger percent of the total population
than were illiterates under 21 years of age; but not so in Gaston.
Fathers who can read and write have evidently allowed their children
to stay out, or have kept them out, of school to work in mills or at
other trades. Usually mill owners are more desirous of complying
with labor laws and more interested in school and school attendance
than parents in a village of mill operatives. This is a good spirit on
part of mill owners, and parents who think of their children as wage
earners merely should be forced to comply with mill and school laws.
Gaston also ranked below the state average in white school attend-
ance. Only 72.7 percent of the children 6 to 14 years of age attended
school in 1910, and in 1914 only 67.9 percent of those enrolled were
in average attendance. Gaston should not be willing for 72 counties
in the state to have a larger percent of their school children in regu-
lar attendance. As long as this condition lasts, all efforts to reduce
the percent of illiteracy will be in vain.
A Big Church Problem
Church as well as school authorities should be active in curing this
fundamental social ill. The problem calls for religious as well as
educational fire and fervor. Most of the illiterates above 20 years of
age, here as elsewhere in North Carolina, are beyond the reach of day
schools. If they are ever to rise out of sheer illiteracy they must be
taught in night schools that represent the efforts of religious workers.
Churches have been slow to recognize this important home mission
task. They could be, if willing and anxious, a mighty force in redu-
cing illiteracy in Gaston as well as in the South generally, where nearly
two-thirds of all the white illiterates of the United States are massed.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 29
The cure of adult illiteracy is the fundamental home mission task in
North Carolina and the South. It is more a church problem than a
civic or secular problem. But if the church attempts to solve this
problem, she must approach it with exceeding care. These people
do not like to be reminded of their shortcomings, and to make them
realize the need of education requires the greatest skill on the part
of workers.
It is fundamentally a religious problem because illiterates tend to
stay away from churches. Fifty-four percent of illiterates and sheer
illiterates in three southern communities have been found to be
habitually absent from church services, and this ratio is probably
true of all our communities. They are ashamed to go because, as
they commonly say, they cannot pick up a song book and sing with
the rest, and rather than display their ignorance they prefer to stay
at home.
The church must either destroy illiteracy or illiteracy will destroy
the country church in the South.
Church Membership
That illiteracy is directly related to church membership is borne
out by the fact that 12,135 people over 10 years of age in Gaston in
1906 belonged to no church whatever. The non-church members were
45 percent of the population over 10 years of age, and 61 counties in
the state made a better showing. This is further evidence that the
fundamental home mission problem is the cure of illiteracy. In 1916
the non-church members numbered 12,938 and were 42 percent of the
population over 10 years of age. Church membership ratios are low,
(1) in sparsely settled areas afflicted by social isolation, (2) in areas
of excessive illiteracy and near-illiteracy, (3) in areas of excessive
farm tenancy, and (4) in trade and factory centers where home owner-
ship ratios are low.
Pauperism
Gaston leads the state in the number of cotton mills and in the
ratio of mill hands to total population. Massachusetts holds the same
pre-eminence among the New England states; with this difference —
the almshouse paupers in Massachusetts number 447 per hundred thou-
sand population, while in Gaston county the rate is only 84. Which
is to say pauperism in Massachusetts is relatively more than five times
the pauperism in Gaston county, North Carolina.
After all is said, it is true that the wages of mill hands in Gaston
are better than in Massachusetts; the cost of living is less, mill village
conditions are wholesomer; the operatives are better housed, clothed,
and nourished; they are a superior type of civilization; they are more
30 Gaston County: Economic and Social
law-abiding and more self-respecting; they have a better chance to
save money out of their wages, and they have money enough laid up
against a rainy day to invest liberally in the capital stock of new
cotton mills that are now being organized. Conditions can be still
better in Gaston, but from any angle of consideration they are better
even now than in Lawrence or Lowell, Massachusetts.
Facts About the Folks
The following facts are based on the 1910 census except where
indicated. Rank indicates the number of counties making a better
showing.
In the census year, Gaston with 236,800 acres of land was 71st
in size in North Carolina; 9th in population with 37,063 inhabitants;
and 1st in density of rural population with 84.4 people to the square
mile. Gaston ranked 3rd in rural population increase during the ten-
year period 1900-09. The increase was 34.4 percent.
The whites in Gaston in 1910 outnumbered the negroes more than
three to one. The negroes are a decreasing ratio of population, the
ten-year decrease being 3.1 percent.
Further social facts are indicated in the following table:
70th in Native white illiterates 10 years old and over, per-
cent 14.5
State average 12.3 percent; U. S. average 4.2 per-
cent.
46th in Native white illiterate voters, 879 in number, per-
cent 14
State average 14 percent; U. S. average 4.2 per-
cent.
73rd in White school attendance, 6 to 14 years of age, per
cent 72.7
White children of these ages not in school in Gaston
in 1910 numbered 1,682.
69th in Negro school attendance, 6 to 14 years of age, per-
cent 60.9
Negro children of these ages not in school, 849.
54th in Marriage rate per 1,000 population 15 years old and
over in 1914 10
State average, 10.1; Pasquotank, 23.6.
Marriages in Gaston, 370.
22nd in Birth rate per 1,000 of population in 1910 34.8
Average for the United States 26.6 in 1913.
Average for Gaston was 33.4 in 1917. Average for
North Carolina 31.8 in 1917.
&
Gaston County: Economic and Social 31
80th in Death rate per 1,000 population, 1914 13.4
Average for United States 13.5 in 1915.
Average for Gaston was 15.2 in 1917. Average for
North Carolina 14.1 in 1917; died of tuberculosis
47.
54th in Church membership, percent, 1916 42
12,938 people 10 years of age and older, outside the
church, or 42 percent of the population of these
ages. State average of church membership, 45
percent.
49th in Homicides, average annual rate per 100,000 inhab-
itants, 1910-14 88
Robeson last with 408; three counties, Hyde, Pam-
lico, and Randolph had no homicides in 1910-14.
State average, 95; United States average, 72.
43rd in Blind inmates in North Carolina State School, in 1914,
ratio per 100,000 16
State average, 20.
Total number of inmates from Gaston county, 6.
21st in Suicides in 1913, number 1
Twenty counties had more than 1. Two suicides
in Gaston in 1917.
36th in Outside paupers in 1914, rate per 100,000 inhabitants.. 189
State average, 234.
Total number of outside paupers, 70.
36th in Paupers in almshouse, 1910 census, rate per 100,000
population 84
State average, 96; United States average, 190;
Mass., 447.
Total number of almshouse paupers, 31.
44th in Divorces, rate per 100,000 population in 1916 25.6
State average 31. Transylvania leads with a rate of
119.2 divorces per 100,000 population.
V
Facts About Wealth and Taxation
Wealth
Gaston ranks well above the state average in most particulars of
wealth and taxation, as can be seen in the table that closes this
chapter.
Gastonia and Gaston county have been advertised far and near by
the Chamber of Commerce, a very active body that is now expanding
into county-wide membership and purposes.
Farm Prosperity
We find that Gaston county in the census year had farm property
valued at more than eight and a half million dollars, and that only
fifteen counties in the state had a larger total wealth in farm prop-
erties. It is a highly creditable total for a county that ranked only
71st in size. The popular impression is that Gaston is pre-eminently a
manufacturing county. She is, but she is also one of the fifteen most
important agricultural counties in the state. Her people know that
farm prosperity is the basis of all prosperity, and however much they
increase in manufacture they cling to the fundamental idea that their
ultimate prosperity rests on agriculture.
As proof of this, she is one of the few counties in the state that
has been willing to tax herself in order to employ a farm demonstra-
tion agent and also a farm life school specialist. Several counties
have either one or the other, but rarely have they been willing to
afford both. The bankers, merchants, and mill owners know that
their business success and development are directly dependent upon
a well developed agriculture in the surrounding farm regions. It is
these capitalists in particular that have been working to get the county
to employ these two important agencies in agricultural regeneration.
Property Increases
During the census period from 1900 to 1910, the increase in value
of farm properties was 165 percent and only 16 counties made greater
gains in this particular. This is further evidence that Gaston does
not intend to develop a one-sided prosperity.
Her increase in taxable property during the ten-year period from
1903 to 1913 was 85 percent and only thirty counties made a better
Gaston County: Economic and Social 33
showing. The total taxable wealth, property actually listed on the
tax books in 1913, amounted to $14,015,566 and only 11 counties had
more. The tax commission report for the year 1918 shows that she
had $21,068,775 worth of property listed on the tax books, and only
7 counties showed a larger total. Her gain for the five-year period
was a little over 7 million dollars, or considerably more than one and
a third million dollars each year. This represents a per capita
increase in taxable property amounting to $33 per year.
Country Wealth
When it comes to per capita country wealth in 1910, Gaston does
not rank so well, but many of her mill population were counted as
country population because they were living in towns and villages
of less than 2,500 inhabitants. The per capita wealth on this basis
was only $275, while the state average was $322 and the average for
Alleghany was $560. Hut even Alleghany, our richest farm county,
is poor when compared with the average for the United States which
was $994, and with the average for Iowa which was $3386 per country
inhabitant. Counting the farm population alone the per capita coun-
try wealth of Gaston in 1910 was only $410.
Think of it! The average countryman in Gaston county was worth
$410 dollars in 1910 while the average countryman in Iowa the same
year was worth $3386 or more than 8 times as much. The conditions
that cause this vast difference in per capita country wealth will be
discussed in the chapter on the Local Market Problem.
Tenancy
One of the fundamental economic and social disabilities of Gaston
is the excess of tenant farmers. She is below the state average ratio
of white and colored farm owners. In 1910 only 23 out of every 100
negro farmers in Gaston owned the farms they cultivated. With
whites the conditions were better. Sixty out of every 100 white farm-
ers owned the farms they cultivated. In North Carolina 66 percent
of the white farmers own their farms. Gaston should set about mak-
ing it possible for a thrifty, industrious tenant to rise into ownership.
Agricultural prosperity can never attain a maximum until the farm
populations are a home-owning, home-loving, home-defending people.
Tenancy was the only solution of the land and labor problem directly
following the Civil War, but it has lingered on to become the curse
of the South wherever the system has rooted itself firmly. The evils
arising from tenancy farming are obvious to all, and legislation should
assist in making tenancy a rapidly disappearing social obstacle in
North Carolina and the South.
34 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Farm Mortgages
In 1910 16 percent of all white farms and 28 percent of all
negro farms were covered by mortgage. These figures are below
the state average for white farmers and above for negro farmers. Con-
ditions sometimes make it absolutely necessary for a farmer to mort-
gage his property, or a mortgage may mean capital borrowed for
productive purposes — more land and better buildings and equipments.
But too often a farm owner is willing to cover his holdings with
paper in order to indulge in some of the luxuries of life. In recent
years many farmers have been mortgaging their farms in order to
buy automobiles. I know one small automobile salesman who holds
mortgages on more than $200,000 worth of farm property in a single
county in this state. The family which rides in a motor car bought
with a farm mortgage is fast riding out of farm ownership into farm
tenancy. The tendency to mortgage farms in order to indulge in luxu-
ries is less pronounced in Gaston than in a score or more other coun-
ties in North Carolina. The state over, our investment in motor cars
is at present 5 times greater than the value of our school property
of every sort.
Motor Cars and Koads
Only 33 counties had more automobiles in 1918 than Gaston. She
had a total of 1398 cars, or nearly one for every 6 families in the
county. These cars were valued at $850,000 while the total value of
public school property, city, town, and country in 1918, was only
$352,000; which was less than half of the value of her automobiles.
In January of this year, 1920, Gaston had 2,162 automobiles worth
nearly 2 million dollars, placing an average value of $900 on each
machine.
Gaston ranked well in the percent of improved roads. Only nine-
teen counties made a better showing. One mile of road out of every
three in the county in 1914 was either graded or surfaced. There
were 155 miles of improved roads, 140 of which were surfaced. In
the state at that time, only one mile out of every five was improved.
Since 1914 much work has been done on Gaston roads. In January,
1920, she had 250 miles of sand-clay road, 76 miles of macadam, and
16 miles of asphalt. This means that, for a county the size of Gaston,
she has a remarkable mileage of good roads. The people of Gaston
recognize the economic and social necessity of good roads and realize
that every dollar invested in good roads is a dollar well invested.
Taxation
Gaston may be proud of the fact that she is one of the 79 counties
that pay more money into the state treasury than is received back
Gaston County: Economic and Social 35
in pensions and school money. Indeed there were only 18 counties
in the state in 1914 that paid in a greater excess. Her clean contribu-
tion to state support on this basis was $20,240. Eleven counties, 10
of them in the northwestern part of the state, receive from the state
treasury more than the taxes they paid in.
But look what has happened in Gaston since 1914! In 1918 the rich
county of Gaston had fallen from 18th place to 93d place and had be-
come a burden on the state treasury to the amount of $6,334. That
is, she drew out of the state treasury in pensions and school funds
$6,334 more than she paid into the treasury. The fact that the rich
county of Gaston is a dependent child of the state passes our under-
standing. It is a matter well worth the consideration of everyone in
Gaston county.
The tax rate, state and county, on the $100 in 1914 in Gaston county
was $1.03. The combined rate was greater in 44 counties. In 1917
it was $1.10, and only 32 counties were willing to bear a heavier bur-
den. In almost every instance the heavier rates were made necessary
because their lands and other properties were listed at a good deal
less than their actual value. Looked at in this light, Gaston does not
lag so far behind. A low rate on property listed at its true value is
preferable to a high rate on property listed at minimum values, as in
most counties of the state. This is the philosophy embodied in the
recent Revaluation Act.
Willingness to support schools is shown by the material increase
in local school tax rates on the $1000 worth of assessed values. A
progressive county like Gaston should not be willing for 61 counties
in the state to have higher local school tax rates. There are too few
local tax districts in Gaston. Not even in Gaston do the teachers
receive the salaries they deserve and the only way to pay them prop-
erly for the services they render is to increase the local school tax
rates. The rate in Gaston was only $4.80 on the $1000 assessed valua-
tion in 1913-14. Pamlico, a rather poor county, led the state with
a local school tax rate of $8.98. The local school tax rate in Gaston,
county and local, was $5.04 on the $1000 of taxables in 1918.
In state income taxes paid in 1917, Gaston ranked 8th among the
counties of the state. Nine counties paid no state income tax in 1917.
The total income taxes paid by prosperous people in Gaston in 1917
were $2417. Only nine counties paid more income taxes in 1915. Pro-
fessional taxes paid by 62 lawyers, doctors, dentists, photographers,
and the like in the county amounted to $310 in 1914; in 1917, 83
professional men paid privilege taxes amounting to $418.
The wealthy mill owners of Gaston paid federal taxes on incomes
and excess profits amounting to 5 million dollars in 1919. A princely
sum.
36 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Banks
In 1914 Gaston had 10 banks, or one for every 4004 people, ranking
23rd in this respect. These banks had a total capital in 1915 of
$325,500, and resources amounting to $2,689,000. The total loans and
discounts in Gaston for 1915 amounted to $1,888,519; the three national
banks loaned and discounted $1,486,028 of this amount.
In 1915 the per capita bank capital of Gaston was $7.12 and thirty-
one counties made a better showing; the per capita bank resources
were $64.20 and only 19 counties had more; while the per capita bank
loans and discounts amounted to $43.70 and only eight counties did
a larger per capita business in loans and discounts on the capital
invested. Manifestly at this time Gaston like Forsyth was deficient
in local banking facilities, in capital, resources, loans and discounts.
There is room in both counties for immense expansion in the banking-
facilities and business.
In 1917 the banks of Gaston had a combined bank stock amounting
to $312,155 and only 18 counties had more. These were all counties
with large towns with big trade and manufacturing interests.
War Thrift
Gaston responded nobly to the appeals of our government during the
World War. She invested $80 per inhabitant in Liberty Bonds and
War Savings Stamps, making a total investment of $3,729,358. Her
thrifty citizens had laid up against a rainy day bank account savings
in 1918 amounting to $1,006,659, and only 12 counties had larger totals.
These bank account savings averaged $22 per inhabitant, counting
men, women and children of both races.
Facts About Wealth and Taxation
16th in Total farm wealth, 1910 census $8,628,686
17th in Farm wealth increase, 1900 to 1910, percent 165
State average increase, 130.5 percent.
31st in Increase in value of domestic animals, 1900-10, per-
cent 118
State average increase, 109 percent; Robeson, 200
percent.
8th in Total taxable property in 1917 $21,068,775
Mecklenburg leads with $38,972,780.
31st in Increase in taxable property, 1903-13, percent 85
State increase, 81 percent. State average in-
crease, whites, 69 percent; negroes, 137 percent.
Ten-year increase in Gaston, 1907-17, was 95
percent. Land values increased in Gaston,
1900-10, 188 percent.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 37
47th in Per capita country wealth, 1910 $275
Alleghany, $560; State, $322; U. S., $994; Iowa,
$3386. In 1913 in Gaston the per capita taxable
wealth was $394. White per capita taxable
wealth in 1910 was $321, and negro per capita
taxable wealth was $20.70.
79th in Negro farm owners, percent of all negro farmers. . 23
State average 33 percent. Negro farm owners in
Gaston numbered 178. White farm owners in
Gaston are 60 percent of all white farmers; in
North Carolina 66 percent.
33rd in Tax rate on the $100, state and county in 1917.... $1.10
Forty-three counties had higher tax rates in 1914,
and 32 had higher rates in 1917.
62nd in Local taxation for schools, rate per $1000 assessed
value, 1913-14 $4.80
Pamlico led with $8.98.
7th in Tax value of farm lands compared with census value,
percent 73
State average, 39 percent.
Sth in State income taxes paid, 1917 $2417
Thirty-two counties paid no state income tax in
1914, and 9 counties paid none in 1917. None
in prosperous counties like Pitt, Watauga,
Person and Caswell!
10th in Professional taxes paid, 1917 $418
Eighty-three lawyers, doctors, photographers, den-
tists, and the like in Gaston.
43rd in White farm mortgages, 1910, percent 16
State average for whites, 17 percent.
46th in Negro farm mortgages, 1910, percent 28
State average for negroes, 26 percent.
State average for both races, 18.5 percent.
20th in Improved roads in 1914, percent 31
Miles of improved roads, 155. Miles of surfaced
roads, 140. In February, 1920, Gaston has 250
miles of sand-clay, 76 miles of macadam, and
16 miles of asphalt roads.
34th in Automobiles, June 30, 1918, number 1398
This is an average of nearly one for every 6
families.
Amount invested in motor cars $850,000. In
January, 1920, they numbered 2162 and were
^vorth almost 2 million dollars.
Amount invested in public school property in 1918
was only $352,000.
38 Gaston County: Economic and Social
19th in Taxes paid into the state treasury in excess of pen-
sions and school money received, in 1914 $20,240
Eleven counties in the state were dependent; that
is they received back from the state treasury
more money than they paid in. These eleven
counties, all in the western part of the state,
are Ashe, Jackson, Clay, Alexander, Yancey,
Alleghany, Wilkes, Mitchell, Burke, Yadkin,
and Watauga. Mecklenburg paid into the state
treasury $88,241 more than it received back in
pensions and school funds.
37th in Confederate pensioners, 1915, rate per 10,000 of
population 73
Number of pensioners in the county, 293. Clay
ranks first with a rate of 166 per 10,000 of popu-
lation. Perquimans last with 16 per 10,000 of
population. State average, 62.
23rd in Banks, 1914, ten in number, one bank for the fol-
lowing number of people 4,004
State average, one bank for every 4,800 people.
United States average, one bank for every 3,700
people.
Camden, Currituck, and Graham had no banks in
1914.
32nd in Per capita bank capital, 1915 $7.12
Ten banks with total capital of $330,000.
State per capita $4.80; New Hanover leads with
$40.65.
20th in Per capita bank resources, 1915 $64.20
Total resources $2,689,000. State per capita
$62.25.
New Hanover leads with $432 per capita,
19th in Per capita bank loans and discounts, 1915 $43.70
Total bank loans and discounts $1,888,519.
State per capita $45.00.
28th in War thrift per capita, 1918 $80.00
State average $90. Total investments in Liberty
and Victory Bonds and War Savings Stamps in
Gaston, $3,729,358.
27th in Bank account savings, per capita, 1918 $22.00
Total bank account savings in Gaston in 1918
were $1,006,659. The total was larger in only
12 counties.
VI
White Rural Schools
Nine-Year Gains, 1908-09 to 1917-18
Progress in the rural schools of Gaston county during the nine years
from 1908-09 to 1917-18 has been highly creditable in many respects.
We have no adequate figures later than 1917-18. (Repeated requests
for detailed information for the year 1918-19 have been made but
these have met with failure so far.) The only notable decreases that
meant actual loss were in the percent of the school population attend-
ing school, in teachers with 4 years' experience, and in teachers having
college diplomas. Either the highly educated teachers and teachers
with four years or more of experience went to the town schools or they
moved out of the county entirely. Gains have been made in these two
particulars since 1915-16, for in that school year no rural school teacher
in the county had four years of experience or a college diploma. The
decrease in schools with home-made desks was 100 percent, every
schoolhouse in 1918 being furnished with patent desks. The gains in
this nine-year period run all the way from a decrease of 100 percent
in schools with home-made desks to an increase of 280 percent in the
number of local tax districts. The most significant and important
gains were in the rural school fund, 189 percent; the increase in
funds raised by local tax, 111 percent; the increase in the fund spent
for teaching and supervision, 197 percent; the increase in the amount
spent for administration, 225 percent; the increase in the value of rural
school property, 218 percent; and in average annual salaries paid
rural white teachers, 99 percent. The last particular represents no
relative gain since living costs had increased as fast as teachers' sala-
ries up to 1917-18, and have far outstripped the increase in salaries
since 1917-18.
Consolidation of Schools
One of the most important gains any county in this state can make
is in the number of two- or three-teacher schools. In practically every
county in North Carolina we have too many one-teacher schools. So
it was in Gaston in 1908-09, so it is to-day. But she has made im-
portant gains. During the nine-year period there was an increase of
two in the number of districts and of nine in the number of school-
houses. The districts and houses should be reduced. They should be
combined and consolidated and the county re-districted.
40 Gaston County: Economic and Social
There was an increase of 131 percent in the number of rural schools
having two or more teachers and an increase of 30.9 percent in the
number of such schools. Still 44.8 percent of the rural white schools
have only one teacher and must necessarily be one-horse, microscopic
schools, I say microscopic because some of them in this state are
so small that it would require a microscope to find them. A few of
them in North Carolina the county superintendents have never seen.
The increase in two- or more-teacher schools showsi that the people
are giving up the individual benefits derived from schools at their
front gates for the social benefits of larger and better schools not so
favorably situated with respect to each family. Good roads and
modern school trucks facilitate community transportation of school
children thus enabling schools to consolidate. Instead of increasing
the number of schoolhouses from 61 to 70 as she did during the nine-
year period, she could better have reduced the number. Gaston is
too small and too densely populated to have so many one-teacher
schools. Being the most densely populated county in the state she
could more easily consolidate her schools than many of the eastern
and mountain counties that made miore progress in this essential
particular during the nine years under consideration.
What It Means
The consolidated school means a strong school with two or more
teachers. It means the combination of two or more weak, one-teacher
schools into one strong school centrally located. Such a union would
make it possible to have better schools, more and better teachers with
better salaries, larger classes, better classification and better instruc-
tion. Besides it means the enthusiasm of numbers. The little one-
room school is likely to be a lifeless, listless school.
A thorough survey of the county should be made and choice school
sites mapped to the end that future buildings shall be for permanence
on principles of consolidation.
Rural School Fund
Gaston has made considerable progress in her rural school fund.
During the nine-year period the school fund increased from $37,217 to
$107,505, an increase of 189 percent. The totals raised by local taxes
and the general county property tax for 1908-09 and 1917-18 were $30,420
and $65,095, an increase of 111 percent.
These are very material gains and show increasing willingness on
the part of the taxpayers to bear heavier burdens for the support of
better schools. This is expressed by their willingness to levy local
taxes for school support. However, this willingness is not found in
48 of the rural districts. Only 19 of the 67 rural districts levy a
Gaston County: Economic and Social 41
local school tax. The districts must provide more local money if they
wish better educational advantages for their children.
Better Salaries
A very significant gain was in the average annual salaries paid
rural white teachers. In 1908-09 the average of such salaries was
only $203.76 while in 1917-18 it was $406.30, or an increase of 99 per-
cent in nine years. In 1915-16 only ten counties paid their rural
white teachers more than Gaston. Teachers are human and they
will go where salaries are largest and naturally so. They are even
leaving the teaching profession altogether because even though they
love the calling they find it impossible to make ends meet on the
small pittance allowed them. They are becoming carpenters, elevator
girls in cities, ship workers, clerks, etc. They are seeking jobs that
require less intelligence and training but offer larger compensation.
Schools are closed by the thousands in the South to-day because no
one can be found who will teach for the pay offered. More than a
third of the schools in six southern states are now closed for this
reason. And the youth of the land are going uninstructed. The nation
is losing by thousands its most valuable asset, the teachers. One
thousand have resigned during the last five months in New York City
alone.
Gaston will be wise to pay her teachers more than adjoining coun-
ties, for a county plays a losing game when it serves as a training
ground for teachers who leave for other counties for better pay. As
long as Gaston pays her teachers more than her neighbors she will
have better schools and better teachers.
Better Teachers Needed
Gaston took a great slump in the years between 1908-09 and 1917-18
in the number of rural teachers with college diploma and four years
of experience. Of the 160 rural white teachers in 1917-18, only 21
had four years of experience and they were 52.5 percent fewer than
such teachers in 1908-09. Only 25 of the 160 teachers had college
diplomas and they were 32.4 percent fewer than in 1908-09. Then
what becomes of the teachers? To ask the question is to answer it.
Just this, they leave the county or quit teaching after practical proof
that they cannot earn a decent living. Is $406 a year just pay for a
teacher's work? Can he or she live on it? That was the average
pay in 1917-18. It was above the average for the state. In 1914-15
Gaston had 75 rural white teachers with four years of experience
and 47 with college diplomas. To-day a majority of these are fol-
lowing more remunerative pursuits and their places have been taken
by inexperienced teachers with a minimum of preparation. The
penalty of course falls on the children.
42 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Rural School Property
The value of rural school property increased during these nine
years from $49,269 to $169,850, or 218 percent. The three new rural
houses built in 1917-18 cost only $4,000, so the total value of white
rural school property is worth very little more than $175,000 at the
present time. Superintendent Hall estimates that in February, 1920,
the total value of town and county school property is $500,000. The
school properties in Gastonia and Eessemer City constitute the big bulk
of this total value. Seventeen years ago the value of all public school
property in the county was only $13,000. Which is to say, the value
of all school property increased in a thirty-nine fold ratio during this
period. A remarkable instance of progress.
The total value of all school property is likely to be doubled during
this year. The Chamber of Commerce states that plans are under
way for constructing a $500,000 modern high school building in Gas-
tonia. It sounds fabulous to us who have been accustomed to think
in small terms, but it can easily become a reality in the remarkably
rich city of Gastonia. But while Gastonia is building palatial schools
she and other rich Gaston cities should be considering the less fortu-
nate country regions with inadequate school facilities. It is the
country schools in Gaston and in nearly every other county that need
to be more liberally supported. Gaston should initiate the county-unit
system of school support as New Hanover has done in this state and as
every county in Florida has done. It means that every taxpayer's
dollar in the county goes to help support every school in the county —
the schools in the poor country regions as well as the schools in the
rich city wards.
Modern Advantages
Seventeen years ago Gaston had no public high schools. To-day
there is a public high school in each of the six townships to which
all children of rural schools who have passed the 7th grade can go for
eight months in the year. These schools have eleven grades so that
graduates go directly to college or university. There is a domestic
science teacher in each of these schools.
Enrollment and Attendance
The compulsory school law does not seem to have had a hearty
support in Gaston. The rural school population has increased 18.8
percent during the nine-year period and enrollment increased 19.3
percent. But the percent of enrollment increased only four-tenths of
1 percent, while there was an actual decrease of 2.1 percent in
the percent of school population attending school. Under compulsory
Gaston County: Economic and Social 43
school attendance laws a smaller percent were attending school In
1917-18 than nine years earlier. Poor attendance and enrollment are
not confined to rural schools. In 1918-19 only 59.8 percent of all
children of school age in the county were so much as enrolled on the
school registers, and only 42.7 percent of the total school population
were in average daily attendance. More than half the school children
of Gaston were out of school in 1918-19. However, this is partially due
to the influenza epidemic of last year. In 1917-18 only 39 percent of
the rural white school children were in average daily attendance and
there was no epidemic that year. The truth of the matter is that the
school attendance in Gaston is hardly creditable.
In 1910 seventy-two counties ranked ahead of Gaston in white school
attendance 6 to 14 years of age. Sixty-eight counties ranked ahead
of Gaston in school attendance on enrollment in 1915-16. This is a
deplorable state of affairs. Too many children of school age are work-
ing in mills, or staying at home. This condition is not existing be-
cause schools have not been provided. The taxpayers have been liberal.
Gaston ranks seventh in investment in rural school property; 12th in
investment in rural school property per capita; 29th in amount spent
upon rural buildings and supplies; and 11th in salaries paid white
teachers. Why should she tail the counties of the state in enrollment
and attendance?
Rural School Equipment
Gaston has made remarkable improvement in the equipment of her
rural schoolhouses. In 1908-09, thirty of the 61 rural white schools
were provided with patent desks. Now every one of the 70 country
schools is provided with up-to-date patent desks. She has provided
libraries in many schools. Nearly all the schools have basketball and
tennis courts. The high schools are provided with domestic science
departments and the children are learning to live better in their homes.
Constructive Suggestions
Gaston needs first to introduce the county-unit plan of school sup-
port. Every taxpayer's dollar in the county should go toward the
support of every school in the county, town and country.
Next, she needs to reduce greatly the number of school districts by
consolidation. Too much is written and said about consolidation and
not enough is done. No county in North Carolina is big enough to
have within her borders sixty-seven school districts and sixty-seven
rural white schools. Rural schools in this state as elsewhere in
the South are a mired wheel. Their salvation lies in consolidation.
Twenty rural school districts with twenty good, wide-awake schools
would spell progress in Gaston. Each school should have a dormitory
for its teachers, and motor transportation for distant children.
44 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Teachers' salaries must be increased or the profession will fail to
hold the best teachers in Gaston. Their places will be filled by incom-
petent and inexperienced teachers, or not filled at all as is now the
case all over the land.
School support has been liberal in the past. It must be more liberal
in the future or Gaston will fail to derive the maximum benefits that
come from an educated citizenship.
And Gaston is abundantly able to invest in public school education.
On January 1, 1920, she had two million dollars invested in motor
cars, which was nearly six times the total she had invested in public
school property. Comment is unnecessary.
Gaston County: Economic and Social
45
GAINS IN WHITE RURAL SCHOOLS
From 190S-9 to 1917-18
1908-09
Total school fund S37.217.00
Raised by local tax 30,420.00
Spent for teaching and supervision 23,868.00
Spent on buildings and supplies 9,070.00
Spent for administration 1,104.00
Total school property 49,226.00
Total school population 9,872.00
Total school enrollment 6,627.00
Average daily attendance 4,071.00
Percent enrolled .- 67.1
Percent of daily attendance. 41 1
203.76
66
16
24.3
100
27
40
37
61
30
31
4
!, 500.00
65
5
115
Average annual salaries, white S
Rural white schools
With two or more teachers
Per cent with two or more teachers
Total rural white teachers
With normal training
With 4 years experience
Having college diplomas
School houses
With patent desks :..
Home made desks
Xew school houses
Cost of new houses 8
Total school districts
Local tax districts
Average term in days, white..
1917-18
S107.505.C0
65.C95.C0
70,926.00
30,956 00
3,585.00
169,850 CO
11,721.00
7,906.00
4, 635. CO
67 . 5
39
S 406.30
67
37
55 2
160
21
25
70
70
0
3
S 4,000.00
67
19
134
Per Cent
Increase
189
111
197
241
225
218
18.8
19.3
13.8
.4
2.1*
99
1.5
131
30.9
60
47.5*
32.4*
14 8
133
100*
25*
60
3.2
280
16.5
Note: — *means decrease.
The Rank of Gaston County Schools
16th in Total farm wealth, 1910 $8,628,686
7th in Investment in rural school property, 1918 $182,350
Wake leads with an investment of $338,303 in
rural school property. Gaston ranked 47th in
per capita country wealth, but 7th in invest-
ment in rural school property.
29th in Amount spent upon rural buildings and supplies,
1917-18 $7,349
Buncombe leads with $56,632.
11th in Annual salaries paid white teachers, 1916 $389.49
State average, $264.36. New Hanover leads with
$531.69. In 1918, of the 160 rural white teachers
in Gaston only 25 had college diplomas and 21
4 years' experience. The average salary paid all
white teachers in 1918 was $443.30; rural white
teachers $406.34.
46 Gaston County: Economic and Social
74th in Salaries paid negro rural teachers, average in 1916. $110
In 1917-18 the average salary was only $96.
59th in Number of local tax districts, 1916, percent 21.7
19 local tax districts in 1917-18. 48 white rural
school districts have no local tax.
22nd in Total revenue from local district taxes, 1918 $12,538
Received from state appropriation and equalizing
fund, $19,753, and from high school and farm
life school fund, $4,500.
59th in School expenditures per $1,000 worth of property in
1914 $7.37
McDowell first with $20.85 per $1,000 worth of
property. State average $8.03. In 1918 it was
$10.04 on the $1,000 in Gaston.
12th in Investment in white school property, per capita,
1916 $6.24
Per capita investment in school property in 1919
was $10.70. Per capita investment in automo-
biles in 1919 was $42.80.
73rd in White school attendance, 6 to 14 years of age, 1910
census, percent 72.7
24th in Per capita expenditures on rural school buildings
and supplies, 1913-14 $0.45
69th in School attendance on enrollment, 1916, percent 64.4
Henderson leads with 86.2. State average, 68.8.
44th in Rural white schools with two or more teachers,
1916, percent 46
In 1918, 37 of the 67 rural white schools had two
or more teachers.
54th in Average expenditures per high school pupil enrolled,
1916 $23.10
It is a decrease of $6.71 over the previous year.
Harnett leads with $65.13 per high school pupil
enrolled. Halifax is lowest with $8.37. State
average, $25.92.
Sources of Information :
Reports of State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Department of Rural Social Science Files, University of N. C.
Gaston County: Economic and Social
47
VII
Farm Conditions and Practices
Too Much Idle Land
Although Gaston had more country people per square mile than any-
other county in the state in 1910, only 42.8 percent of her total area
was under cultivation. The average for the state was only 29 per-
cent. Second-growth wood lots, broom-sedge, and the like occupied
57.2 percent of the total area. There were 135,744 acres of land not
under cultivation while only 101,696 acres were under the plow.
Calculated in census values Gaston has one and a third million dollars
of dead farm capital buried in idle farm land; or five and a half mllion
dollars in current market values.
Gaston does not have such vast areas of idle land as many other
counties, but she has enough to challenge considerable attention. If
she were to reserve 50,000 acres for wood lot uses and allow 75 acres
to each family, there is room in Gaston for 1,140 new farm families.
Most of the idle land is wooded or worn out acres on farms larger
than the owner wishes or is able to cultivate. Some of this land is too
hilly to plow conveniently and is lying idle awaiting the awakening of
the people to the economic advantages of live-stock farming. Some of
the hills are already sodded with good grasses and are spotted with
improved cattle. These hills are fertile for the most part and produce
good grass and forage abundantly. The farmers who have experimented
have found that grazing good cattle on them is sensible farm business.
Farms Too Small
In 1910 there were 2,859 farms in Gaston averaging 35.6 cultivated
acres per farm. The county is 71st in size but 37th in number of
farms. These figures indicate farms of smaller size than in most
counties. A little more than half the farms were less than 50 acres
in size, both cultivated and uncultivated acres considered. No farm
was larger than 1,000 acres in size, and only 16 were between 500
and 1,000 acres. The farms of just about the right size for profitable
farming numbered fewer than 600. It is thus apparent that expan-
sive farm operations are the exception. The population is dense, the
holdings as a rule are small, and farmers are forced to engage in
intensive farming — which means hand-made crops, little improved
farm machinery, high production costs, small profits, and little accu-
Gaston County: Economic and Social 49
mulated farm wealth. So of necessity, unless these disadvantages
are overcome by scientific knowledge, technical skill, and co-operative
farm enterprise as in Denmark.
Decreasing Livestock
Gaston suffered two significant losses during the census period.
These were her two-fifths of one percent loss in poultry and her three
percent loss in swine. While she was gaining over 32 percent in
population, she was losing in two of the most important sources of
meat supply. Only 21 counties lost in poultry production during the
last census period and Gaston was one of them. Poultry is probably
the cheapest possible source of meat supply for the farm table.
The fowls eat waste grain and other things scattered in the fields and
around the barn and yard, and while the farmer is missing nothing
they are getting ready for the Sunday dinner table. Gaston people
should take a lively interest in poultry production in sheer self-defense.
Meat of every sort is soaring in price and they cannot afford to pur-
chase it at present prices. Poultry yields quick returns and if used
for egg production, is a constant source of income for the farm home.
Poultry raising takes some time, attention and skill, but it is mostly
clear profit on the farm.
The three percent decrease in swine production during the last
census period was a cardinal loss; a mistake by the way that was
made by 68 other counties in the state. Producing pork at 10
cents a pound is a better proposition than buying salt pork sides
at 35 cents a pound as our farmers are doing to-day. It has been
conclusively proved that the South, because of her cheap land and mild
climate, can raise hogs more cheaply than any other section of
the United States. This has not always been the case, but is to-day.
It cannot be done when they are fed on corn alone but can be
done when hogs are turned to rape, velvet beans, peanuts, and
fattened with corn mixed with cotton-seed meal mixed in the ratio
of three to four parts corn and one part meal.
The hog yields the quickest returns. One year is sufficient to grow
a large porker while from three to four years is required to grow
cattle of market size. The hog is the readiest source of meat supply
in the cotton belt counties. Fease and beans can be planted with the
corn and these with cotton meal make about the best and cheapest
hog feed.
In 1910 only nine counties had more cattle per 1,000 acres than
Gaston. She had 37 cattle per thousand acres while the state average
was only 23. However the average for the United States was 61.
In a densely populated county like Gaston the market demand at
home for milk and butter, poultry and eggs, beef, pork, and mutton
4
50 Gaston County: Economic and Social
offers steady profits to the nearby farmers — to say nothing of Char-
lotte and the mill towns In South Carolina.
Gaston is in every way admirably conditioned for livestock farming
and livestock enterprises. Her farmers were wise in materially in-
creasing their cattle during the census period. The ten-year increase
was 27 percent and only 20 counties made greater gains. An agricul-
tural prosperity based on livestock farming and livestock industries
is the surest and safest prosperity. Livestock feeds the farm family
and enriches the farm, and makes cotton a surplus money crop.
Although Gaston was one of the first 10 counties in cattle per 1,000
acres when the 1910 census was taken, her rank in swine was only
41st. The simple truth is that the county is 70 percent below the
level of even a lightly stocked farm area. There is room for an im-
mense increase in livestock farming in Gaston.
A Cotton County
Gaston is one of the 28 counties in North Carolina in which more
than half of the total annual crop wealth is produced by cotton alone.
Or so it was in 1910. Gaston, being a small county, does not produce
as many bales as some of the large counties, but the percent of total
crop values produced by cotton is high. It was 59 percent or nearly
three-fifths of the total crop wealth produced in 1910. In 1914 she
produced 13,206 bales and ranked twenty-third among the other coun-
ties in the state in total number of bales produced. This total was
952 bales more than the crop of 1910; but in 1916 her cotton crop fell
to 5,617 bales, and the production of food and feed crops probably
increased proportionately. If so the county is at last headed in the
right direction. The state average of non-food crops in 1910 was 53
percent; in 1919 it was 66 percent. Thus we see that Gaston, with 59
percent, was considerably below the state average in the production
of food and feed crops. This fact largely explains why Gaston is
below the state average in per capita country wealth. Her farmers
failed to see the economic fallacy of buying bread and meat with cotton
money — a policy that never yet made a farm community rich any-
where on earth. Holding down cotton money by a system of live-at-
home farming would make Gaston and other cotton belt counties rich
beyond the dreams of avarice in a single ten years. The present high
cost of all food and feed supplies only emphasizes this truth. The
live-at-home farmers of the middle west are the farmers that are
reaping the largest profits and swelling their bank accounts most
rapidly; not the cotton and tobacco farmers of the South, even with
36 cent cotton and 52 cent tobacco. If the automobile is a yardstick
of prosperity the South holds about the same rank in wealth that she
held in 1910. In Iowa in 1919 there was one automobile for every
Gaston County: Economic and Social 51
6 inhabitants and in North Carolina there was only one for every 23.
High-priced cotton and tobacco have meant no more to the South than
high-priced food and feed crops have meant to the West.
The Department of Agriculture has suddenly realized that the
South for long years has been committing economic suicide by her
erroneous system of one-crop farming. The southern states are the
natural garden spot of the nation. Our opportunities have been plainly
visible but we have failed to see them. Thousands of experiments
have proved that no section of the United States can compete with
the South in the production of staple bread and meat products. Nev-
ertheless we have allowed our time and effort to be consumed in the
production of cotton and tobacco.
We should continue to produce these crops but not until we have
fed ourselves and our farm animals. After that cotton and tobacco
are mostly clear profit.
In Gaston and most other counties there are some dozens of farmers
who clearly prosper beyond their neighbors. They are invariably live-
at-home farmers, with cotton or tobacco or both as surplus money
income. They are the farmers whose credit is good and whose bank
account is large. But even demonstrations like these do not appear
to influence the farmers who are cotton crazy. As Mr. Branson says,
"Nothing short of sheer necessity and dire calamity will ever cause
the southern farmer to change his ruinous method of farming." Our
crop system came near bankrupting us in 1914, but we seem to have
forgotten the calamity that hit the South that year.
Our Commissioner of Agriculture says he has never known a man
who raised cotton to the exclusion of other crops escape a sheriff's
sale. He also states that he has never heard of a man being sold
out for taxes or debt who had a crib full of corn.
Probably you have observed the same thing.
Home Gardens
The population of Gaston is not only large to the square mile but
some 16,000 of the people are town dwellers and mill operatives. They
are consumers, not producers of food — unless they are devoted to the
cultivation of garden spaces around the homes. Here is not only a
field of development open to Gaston people, but here is also a neces-
sity that is a little keener in Gaston than in any other county in the
state because a larger percent of her population is industrial. People
here and elsewhere must raise a large measure of the food they eat or
they will undoubtedly go hungry, under present conditions. We need
to foster the impulse and the fine art of gardening. It should be
ingrained in us as in the Chinese, the Italians, and the Portugese.
If we get the gardening habit out of this time of high prices, we will
52 Gaston County: Economic and Social
have been well paid in the end. The most prosperous men in the
faculty at the University are home gardeners.
The total farm wealth produced in Gaston by both crops and animal
products in 1910 amounted to $2,179,082. The total farm wealth pro-
duced in the county in four years is more than the farm wealth
the farmers have been able to accumulate in 71 years of history.
This is due mainly to the erroneous system of farming that has pre-
vailed in Gaston these last 50 years. These farmers create wealth
abundantly and spend it unnecessarily because of the prevailing defec-
tive system of cotton farming. Nearly half the total farm wealth of
the county is produced by cotton alone. Cotton production need not
be less but food crops should be more. It can be so: indeed it was
so in Gaston and all over the South in 1915. We were driven to it
by the low price of cotton. We ought to be driven to it now by the
sheer force of common sense.
1S60 and 1910
The following table is compiled from the 1860 and the 1910 census
reports and shows the animals on farms and the crops raised at these
two periods.
Of the 19 particulars noted Gaston suffered a loss in 8. These
losses were in horses, sheep, swine, wheat, rye, rice, tobacco, pease,
and beans. Some of the gains look large but when we consider the
increase In population, from 9,307 in 1860 to 37,063 in 1910, which
was nearly a threefold increase, we see that in only three particulars
did gains in crops or livestock really keep pace with gains in popula-
tion. These were in cotton, butter, and hay production.
While there was a slight gain in the total amount of corn during
the 50 years, the production per inhabitant decreased from 36.7 bushels
in 1860 to 11 bushels in 1910. Similar per capita decreases are also
true of other crops, with the exceptions named, but the largest per
capita decreases were in the production of beef, pork, and mutton.
Facts About Farm Conditions and Practices
14th in Amount of land under cultivation; percent of total
area 42.8
State average, 29 percent. Land under cultiva-
tion, 101,696 acres. Idle land, 135,744 acres, or
57.2 percent of the total area. Reserving 50,000
acres for wood-lot uses and allowing 75 acres to
each family, there is room for 1,140 new farm
families.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 53
37th in Number of farms, 1910 2,859
Average cultivated acres per farm 35.6. Size of
cultivated farms larger in 38 counties, 1,483, or
a little more than half, are less than 50 acres
in size, both cultivated and uncultivated land
considered. There is no farm of more than
1,000 acres in the county; and only 16 are more
than 500 and less than 1,000 acres. Gaston is
a land of small farms — and the average size is
too small for profitable farming. Fewer than
600 farms are about the right size.
79th in Poultry increases, 1900-10, percent — .4
20 counties lost in poultry production and Gaston
ranks 20th in losses. In 1900 there were 62,756
fowls of all kinds in Gaston, in 1910 there were
only 62,535 fowls. Johnston leads with 127,254.
10th in Cattle per 1,000 acres, 1910 census 37
State average, 23; United States average, 61. In
1S60 the cattle in Gaston numbered 5,495; in
1910 they were 7,552 for a population four times
greater.
21st in Cattle increase, 1900-10, percent 27
Caldwell increased 62 per cent; state average
increase 12 percent.
41st in Swine per 1,000 acres, 1910 census 34
State average, 39; United States average, 66;
Iowa, 263. In 1860 the swine in Gaston were
15,335, but in 1910 they were onlv 6,585.
33rd in Swine decrease, 1900-10, percent 3
Gaston was one of the 69 counties that decreased
in swine production from 1900-10.
57th in Sheep losses, 1900-10, percent 64
In 1860 there were 5,386 sheep in Gaston, but in
1910 only 501. The average value of sheep on
the tax books of Gaston in 1917 was $1.24 each;
dogs $15.27 each!
20th in Livestock level, percent 30
19 counties make a better showing. There is room
for a 70 percent increase in farm animals of all
sorts.
28th in Investment in farm implements per acre, 1910
census $2.47
State average, $2.00; United States average. $2.52.
54 Gaston County: Economic and Social
20th in Horsepower; one work animal for the following
number of acres 22.69
State average, 25.85; United States average, 19.81.
68th in Farm tenancy, 1910, percent 49.8
State average, 42.3 percent. Increase in farm
tenancy in Gaston, 1900-10, was 5 percent.
Forty-seven counties in the state decreased in
farm tenancy. White farm owners in Gaston,
1,243; negro owners, 178. White tenants, 810;
negro tenants, 613. The landless, homeless
white tenants and their families number about
4,000 souls; 1,116 are share tenants, and only
243 are cash or standing rent tenants. Tenants
raise cotton mainly and neglect food and feed
crops.
Diversified crops and livestock farming are impos-
sible in an area of excessive farm tenancy.
29th in Cotton production, total number of bales, 1915 9,046
Robeson first with 47,102. In 1914 Gaston pro-
duced 13,206 bales, but in 1917 the crop fell to
5,564 bales and 34 counties raised a larger total.
The 1919 crop promises to be the largest crop
since 1915.
18th in Non-food crops produced — cotton and so on $1,055,931
Non-food crops produce annually 59 percent of
total crop values. Food and feed crops produce
only 41 percent of the total crop values. State
average of non-food crops is 53 percent. Mani-
festly Gaston is deficient in food production.
22nd in Annual farm wealth produced $2,179,082
This total covers both crops and animal products.
In four years' time the farmers produce more
farm wealth than they have been able to accu-
mulate in some seventy odd years. Fifty-nine
percent of all crop wealth was produced by
non-food crops. The need is for more and better
livestock and for livestock industries such as
cheese factories, creameries and the like.
41st in Crop yielding power per acre, 1910 $16.54
State average, $20.18 in 1914.
75th in Annual production of farm wealth per inhabitant. . . $69.60
State average, $85. Average for the French
farmer, $126. Gaston's low average is largely
due to the large number of mill operatives
counted as country population.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 55
GASTON FARMS IN I860 AND 1910
Livestock and Crops
1860 1910
Milk cows 2,299 4,192
Other cattle 3,196 3,360
Horses 1,650 1,642
Mules and asses • 853 2,847
Sheep 5,366 501
Swine 15,335 6,585
Butter, lbs 85,509 603,038
Wheat, bushels 74,060 45,677
Rye, bushels . 637 573
Corn, bushels 343,893 410,058
Oats, bushels 17,216 59,080
Tobacco, lbs 4,821 None
Cotton, bales 714 12,258
Pease and beans, bushels 8,808 3,621
Potatoes, Irish, bushels 4,922 10,888
Potatoes, sweet, bushels 21,304 • 48,791
Hay, tons 1,136 5,220
VIII
Food and Feed Production and the Local
Market Problem
Shortage, Two and a Third Million Dollars
The farm and pantry supplies consumed in Gaston in the census
year amounted to two million, three hundred and seventy thousand
dollars more than the farmers of the county produced. Which is to
say the farms of Gaston failed by this sum to produce the food and
feed needed for consumption by man and beast. And this deficit in
home-raised supplies is a minimum figure, based on the annual con-
sumption averages as given out by the federal authorities from time
to time. This sum covers staple bread stuffs, not dainties, extras, and
luxuries.
This shortage in detail covers 2,900,000 pounds of meat; 1,176,000
pounds of butter; 279,400 fowls; 335.900 dozen eggs; 738,900 bushels
of corn; 102,600 bushels of wheat, and 4.100 tons of hay.
The one noticeable fact is that Gaston did not produce a surplus
in any of the staple food and feed commodities. Most counties have
a surplus of some one or two home-raised food supplies, but not so
with Gaston.
Such is the deficit in home-raised food and feed products in 1910;
the deficit was around 5 million dollars in 1919, unless the farmers
of Gaston have given increased attention to food crops during the
last nine years, which does not seem likely, considering the increase
in cotton production.
Why Our Farmers Fall Behind
Our farmers did not supply the two million, four hundred thousand
dollar local market demand, because of (1) excessive attention to
cotton; (2) excessive farm tenancy, under the crop-lien, time-credit
system; (3) the lack of ready cash markets for home-raised supplies;
and (4) the large proportion of town and mill population.
Too Little Home-raised Supplies
Fifty-nine percent of the total crop wealth produced in Gaston year
by year is produced by cotton alone, and up to 1914 this ratio had
steadily increased for half a century.
Gaston County: Economic and Social .37
The farmers of Gaston have been giving increasing attention to
cotton and decreasing attention to grain crops, hay and forage, domes-
tic animals and livestock. One proof of this is that 81 counties made
greater increases than Gaston in farm sales of dairy products during
the census period 1900-09. Seventy-eight counties made more rapid
progress in poultry. Gaston actually had fewer poultry in 1910 than
in 1900.
In 1910 the population was nearly 33 percent greater than in 1900,
and the corn crop was 43 percent greater, but the increase in cotton
production during the same period was 126 percent. The cotton
increase was three times the corn increase. As a result the shortage
in home-raised corn in 1910 was 738,895 bushels. A corn shortage
of this sort in 1919 would take out of the county more than a million
dollars in cash. Producing corn at 38 cents a bushel, as 12 of your
Corn Club Boys of Gaston did in 1916, is far better than paying $2.00
a bushel for it, as the farmers are doing to-day.
During the ten years 1900-09, the county lost 64 percent of her
sheep. Gaston has been steadily losing in sheep since 1860, at which
time there were 5,366 sheep in the county; in 1910 there were only
501.
Furthermore the loss in swine during this period was 3 percent.
Between 1860 and 1910 swine in Gaston fell from 15,335 to 6,585.
During this half century there was a 57 percent loss in the total
number of swine.
Gaston was one of 20 counties that decreased in poultry during the
census period 1900-09. Her loss was two-fifths of one percent.
Even in 1860 with crude methods of thrashing, nearly twice as
much wheat was produced in Gaston as in 1910. In 1860 the farmers
produced nearly 8 bushels per inhabitant, or twice as much as needed
for every man, woman, and child in the county. During the fifty
year period the wheat crop fell from 8 to 1.23 bushels per inhabitant,
or less than one-third the amount needed for human consumption.
In 1910 Gaston was the most densely populated rural community
in North Carolina, having an average of 84.4 country people to the
square mile. But there were 135,744 idle acres in the county; which
is to say, 57.2 percent of the total area was in broomsedge, old field
pine, and scrub timber.
In 1916 twelve Corn Club Boys in Gaston averaged 46.8 bushels to
the acre, or more than three times the average for the county at
large in 1910. At this rate the farmers in Gaston could have pro-
duced 1,250,000 bushels or 100.000 bushels more than were needed for
man and beast. Raising a surplus of corn beats importing or needing
to import over 700,000 bushels at two dollars a bushel.
In 1910 nearly exactly half of the farms of Gaston were cultivated
by tenants, and farm tenancy under the crop-lien, time-credit system
58 Gaston County: Economic and Social
in the South means more cotton, and less attention to food and feed
crops such as grain, hay and forage, nuts, vegetables, poultry and
dairy products, beef, mutton, and pork.
The annual consumption of these products in Gaston in 1910
amounted to three and a half million dollars' worth, but the farms
of the county produced less than twelve hundred thousand dollars'
worth of them. As a result over two and a quarter million dollars
in cold cash went, or needed to go, out of the county to pay for food
and feed supplies that might have been raised at home; and the
power of the people to accumulate wealth was lessened by just so
much.
The Penalties We Pay
As a result, the per capita country wealth in Gaston in the census
year was only $275 and forty-six counties in the state made a better
showing. In Alleghany it was $560, in the United States $994, and
in Iowa $3,386.
Gaston ranked 22nd in North Carolina in production of total crop
values but only 47th in per capita country wealth. Alleghany which
raises no cotton and very little tobacco leads the counties in North
Carolina in this particular.
Gaston suffers a steady loss of cash year by year amounting to
over two and a quarter million dollars. Or so it is in average years.
This fact largely explains why the food and feed farmers of the
Middle West grow rich and the cotton and tobacco farmers of the
South remain poor. We produce wealth amazingly but retain wealth
feebly.
The high cost of living in the towns and cities of the cotton belt
results from the fact that they have to import their food from the
far-away West over more than a thousand miles of railroads. An
innumerable host of middlemen add to the consumer's bill, because
each must have his profit. The part of the consumer's dollar which
goes to pay for packing, transporting, jobbing, retailing, and delivery
is much more than the producer gets for his products, and this part
increases as the distance increases. If the farmers of nearby towns
and cities produced the food needed for home and town consumption,
both consumer and producer would be benefited, for the consumer
would get more for his dollar and the producer would get more for
his product.
Gaston's Interest in Local Produce Markets
Gastonia and other towns in Gaston, like towns and cities else-
where, are interested in the local market problem, because, in the
first place, it concerns the increasing high cost of living. The whole
world is menaced by this primary problem to-day, because once more
in the round of history population presses upon the food supply. It
Gaston County: Economic and Social 59
is next to impossible to pick up a newspaper and miss seeing a long
article about the high cost of living, its causes and the remedies.
It is the fundamental question facing the American people and the
rest of the world to-day. The cost of foodstuffs is everywhere higher
while the purchasing power of the dollar is less. To-day it is barely
a third what it was twenty years ago; that is to say, 30 or 35 cents
then would buy as much food as a dollar will buy to-day. Forty-
nine cents in 1915 would buy as much of home necessities as one
hundred cents will do to-day.
If Gastonia and Gaston must depend on the far-away West for
food and feed supplies to the extent of over two million dollars a
year, the overhead cost of transportation and handling by a swarming
multitude of middlemen will of course add enormously to the cost
of pantry supplies.
Gaston's Crop-Producing Power
Gaston county farmers can easily produce all the standard food
crops, meat, and milk needed for consumption in Gaston. Her soils
are good and capable of being brought to a high state of cultivation
with proper methods of farming. The crop yielding power per acre
in 1910 was $16.54 and only forty counties of the state made a better
showing. Much of Gaston's area is better suited to livestock farming
than to cotton production. The hillside areas of Gaston are better
suited to pasture-land farming than much of more level lands else-
where in the state. Only thirty-seven counties produced more corn
per acre in 1910. The Corn Club Boys of the county averaged over
46 bushels to the acre in 1916 and the county could easily produce
corn enough and to spare. But Gaston has been and is now depending
upon the West for meal and flour, when she can produce these com-
modities as cheaply and abundantly as any other county in the Pied-
mont region, if only the farmers were minded to do it. Not even
35-cent cotton will buy much corn at $2.00 a bushel and flour at $15.00
a barrel, the price they are bringing to-day.
In the census year the per-acre producing power of Gaston averaged
$16.54. It was slightly higher than the average for the country-at-
large. In North Carolina her rank was 41st in this particular. The
average for the county was high because 59 percent of the total crop
wealth was produced by cotton alone. Cotton is a hand-made crop
and tends to yield large gross values per acre, but low values per
worker. This is shown by the fact that Gaston fell to the 75th plac?
in the production of farm wealth per inhabitant in 1910. This aver-
age was only $58.70, while the average for the state was $85.00.
Gaston's low average is also due in part to her large mill population.
who are consumers not producers of food supplies.
However Gaston and other cotton belt counties raise cotton because
60 Gaston County: Economic and Social
the whole world is an organized market for it. The farmer does
not need to seek markets for his cotton, the market seeks him. He
can sell it for instant ready cash and can establish credit upon it
even before it is planted. But not so in the case of food crops and
animal products.
Poor Market Facilities
There is no organized local market in Gaston for food and feed
crops. The farmer must peddle his vegetables, fruits, butter and eggs,
meat and poultry, from door to door or sell it to a merchant at a
shamefully low price. Often the merchant will not buy the supplies
outright, but will offer to sell them on commission. Then again, the
farmer floods the market in seasons of plenty, and at other seasons
when things are high and scarce he has little or nothing to sell. The
producers and consumers are not organized in ways advantageous
to both. They are as far apart as though they lived on separate
planets.
The producers and consumers of Gaston suffer from the Iron Law
of Trade as do any other people. This law is: keep producers and
consumers as far apart as possible; pass economic goods from the
one to the other through as many hands as possible; charge con-
sumers as much as possible; and pay producers as little as possible.
As long as this law is in operation both consumers and producers
must suffer. They can be brought together only through co-operation.
Wherever there is lack of organized co-operation between producers
and consumers, or wherever there is suspicion, disunion, and collision,
both suffer alike. Producers receive too little for their produce, and
consumers pay too much.
Missing An Opportunity
Gaston with her large town population and her dense rural areas
is missing a great opportunity. Few counties in the state have a
finer chance for the co-operation of city and country people in pro-
ducing and marketing home-raised food supplies. These city people
must consume food, and there is no place in the world where it can
be raised more cheaply for the cities and towns in Gaston than in
Gaston county. When raised by home farmers and delivered to home
consumers, the heavy cost of transportation and the vast host of
middlemen are eliminated. The producer could get more for his
products and at the same time consumers would pay less. Gaston's
greatest chance to achieve abiding prosperity lies in the co-operation
of her city and country populations, upon the basis of good will and
mutual advantage.
For instance, there ought to be a co-operative creamery in Gaston,
as in Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Union, and a half dozen other counties
Gaston County: Economic and Social 61
in the state. This creamery would of course need to have a constant
milk supply. It would need milk wagons to collect cream at regular
intervals. A manager would have charge of every detail of the
finances and make out the checks at the end of a week or two weeks.
The farmers would receive profits in proportion to the amount of
cream they supplied. This creamery could help to supply the vast
demand for butter in Gaston, in Charlotte, and farther afield, and
besides it would furnish the farmers and housewives with a steady
cash income week by week. The creamery helps to build up dairy
farming as a profitable community enterprise; it means permanent
pastures, winter cover crops, silos, and better breeds of dairy cows.
Such creameries ususally engage in related business, as collecting
and shipping eggs, poultry, meats, fruits, and the like, for their
patrons. This would be a profitable side-line in the proposed creamery
for Gastonia.
The capital required to start a co-operative creamery in Gaston
would not be prohibitive, considering the wealth of the county. What
is required is an energetic man who understands the business of
creameries and the marketing of creamery products. Farm pros-
perity in Wisconsin is based directly on her 3,500 creameries, con-
denseries, and cheese factories.
Doubling Our Farm Wealth
But leaving city and town consumers out of consideration, the
farmers ought to produce the supplies that they themselves need for
their farm families and their farm animals year by year. If only
the farmers could or would stop spending a million or so for these
things year by year, the farm wealth of Gaston would be doubled
within the next five years.
Gaston farmers cannot afford not to raise cotton — in fact they need
to raise more cotton; but while they do it they will be wise to have
their barns, cribs, pantries, and smoke-houses filled with home-raised
supplies.
As for the additional million and a quarter dollars' worth of such
products as consumers in the towns of Gaston need, the farmers
are never likely to raise them till city consumers and country dwellers,
bankers, boards of trade, and farmers get together to solve the local
market problem. The nearby farmers will produce these food sup-
plies if they can sell them for ready cash at a fair price and profit
in Gastonia and the other towns in the county; and not otherwise.
The Test of Success
The local market problem, created by the demand -for breadstuffs
at high prices and the failure of the nearby farmers to supply this
62 Gaston County: Economic and Social
demand, is perplexing every city in America. And now that we
must feed an impoverished Europe, the solution of the problem has
become a great national and international necessity. The time has
come when every farm must be self-feeding; and more, it must pro-
duce a surplus. Every inch of garden space around town homes must
be cultivated by town dwellers. Especially does President Wilson
urge southern farmers to grow larger food crops, for unless they do
they will be a burden on the rest of the nation.
The law of markets is a greed for gain. It is the tooth and claw
struggle for price and profit. This primary law of human nature
organizes a world-wide market for cotton; and at the same time and
for the same reason it denies producers and consumers of breadstuffs,
living side by side in the same county, an even chance or opportunity
for direct dealing with mutual advantage.
The Solution of the Problem
Greed safely counts upon the dull unconcern of both producers and
consumers. Finally consumers wake up to the fact that the cost of
living is a national problem. And it is intensely a local problem with
the mass of wage earners in Gaston who as elsewhere in America
have failed to cultivate vacant fields and lots at odd hours as the fac-
tory people of Belgium have long been in the habit of doing. Con-
sumers and producers are too far apart. The cost of marketing is
now too great, and the price of food supplies is too high to leave any
doubt about the necessity of farm and garden production of food-
stuffs in every community.
How Great?
How great the cost of marketing is can be shown from figures com-
piled by the Citrus Fruit Growers' Association of California. These
growers have done everything in their power to reduce the middle-
men to a minimum and pass fruit from producers to consumers with
as little cost as possible. Yet even with all their business skill they
have found that the part of the consumer's dollar that gets back
to the producer is only twenty-seven cents. The middlemen — pickers,
transporters, and merchants got seventy-three cents of the consumer's
dollar. The hard fact about marketing is that as a rule it costs more
to get goods from producers to consumers than it costs to produce
those goods; and the greater the distance the greater the cost. This
is especially true of fruit and vegetable marketing. This fact coupled
with our unsurpassed natural advantages of climate and soil makes
it foolish for us to fail to produce these things at home.
What we want to do is to get the farmers of Gaston to produce
these things and sell first to people in Gaston and then to outsiders.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 63
The county must keep its money at home if it wishes to accumulate
wealth in accelerated ratios, in town and country regions alike.
The problem is to get Gaston producers and consumers together;
the principle of action lies in co-operation, and success is achieved
when farmers get more for their products and consumers get more
for their "money. If farmers do not get more for their products and
at the same time consumes do not pay less, then the problem is not
solved, no matter how elaborate the attempt or expensive the market
house.
More Grain Crops Needed
The fact that Gaston ranked 82nd in North Carolina in corn pro-
duction per person should cause her to stop and consider somewhat.
The people in Gaston probably would not need as much corn as many
other counties in the state for they do not have their proportion of
work animals. This is due to the fact that many town and mill
people have no horses, mules, or cattle for that matter. These people
would not need to have 31 bushels of corn per inhabitant, the average
needed in the United States; but the people in Gaston fail sadly to
produce even what they do need. They produced only 11 bushels for
each person in Gaston in 1910, while the state average was 15 bushels
and the state deficit was 16 bushels per inhabitant. It is poor busi-
ness policy to import corn when over half the land in Gaston is
lying idle. That she can produce corn abundantly is shown by the
rank of the county in yield per acre in 1910. Only 37 counties pro-
duced more bushels per acre in the census year.
Wheat
Wheat and corn together constitute the two chief grain crops the
county needs. At present wheat is selling in Charlotte at $2.25 a
bushel, and the price in North Carolina is higher than in any of
the main wheat producing states. Flour is now selling at the enor-
mous price of $15 dollars a barrel, and Gaston as well as other coun-
ties in the state is failing to produce this year of' all the years the
wheat that is needed for home consumption. There is a need for 4
bushels of wheat per inhabitant but in 1910 Gaston farmers produced
only 1.23 bushels per person. The deficit was 102,575 bushels. This
year the county faces as great a wheat shortage as ever and as high
prices as ever will prevail. And this at a time when the idle acres
of Gaston number 135,000 or more!
3ieais
In the production of meat Gaston makes one of the poorest show-
ings in the state. The production of livestock products in 1910 was
64 Gaston County: Economic and Social
only $10.70 per person and her rank was 77th among the 100 counties
of the state. Her rank was 61st in beef production per person, the
amount produced being 21.6 pounds while the state average was 33.8
pounds. Eighty-three counties produced more poultry per person than
Gaston. The fowls produced were only 4.46 per inhabitant while the
need was for 12 per inhabitant. Eighty-three counties produced more
eggs per inhabitant. But the saddest fact of all is that Gaston took
92nd place in pork production per person in 1910. Her need was for
122 pounds per person, and she produced only 19 pounds of this
amount. In 1860 Gaston had 15,335 hogs while in 1910 she had only
6,585. The growing of hogs is equally important with the growing
of cattle. It is the form of livestock activity from Which the farmer
gets the quickest returns; because twelve months is sufficient time to
get returns from a hog, while from two to four years is required
to get returns from cattle.
An expert in the livestock industry says: "My contention is that
hog growing is the phase of lhres.tock industry that should be given
the first attention by the cotton farmers in the South, for the reason
that returns can be had from this kind of liveiStock growing more
quickly than from cattle, and taken as a whole the hog is more
easily grown and handled than cattle." By the time our farmers have
had experience with hogs for a few years, they will have absorbed
enough livestock information to make them better fitted for cattle
growing.
Gaston farmers can raise meat for home consumption for less money
than it costs them when it is imported from the West. This is true
at ordinary times, but doubly true to-day.
Cooperation JYecessary
Producers alone cannot solve the local market problem. Success
calls for the direct co-operation of producers and consumers; and in
big scale marketing it invariably calls for and depends upon the
credit accommodation of the local banks. If consumers are uncon-
cerned and unorganized, or if banks and transportation companies
are neglectful or hostile, the farmers' chance of success is reduced
to zero. Success lies in collusion, not collision; in co-operation, not
in contest.
Texas Leads
Texas has taken a long step forward in solving the local market
problem on a big scale, and one of the many things she does with the
help of her boards of trade in city centers is to maintain free telephone
market information exchanges in charge of competent officials, whose
business it is to furnish reliable, disinterested market news to city
dwellers and farmers and to bring consumers and producers together
in direct dealings for mutual advantage.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 65
What the Banks Can Do
Texas banks are refusing to loan money to supply-merchants who
do a crop-lien business protected by cotton acreage alone. They have
a half-and-half system. They stipulate a minimum acreage which
must be planted in foodstuffs, and farmers who receive loans are
required to raise a specified amount on this acreage. What they
call a half-and-half crop-lien (one-half cotton and one-half food and
feed crops) is the only kind of crop-lien the supply-merchant can
borrow money on at the bank. In short, the bankers are forcing the
supply-merchants to force the farmers to raise a sufficiency of bread
and meat on every farm. It is sound sense and safe business policy,
they say, to keep in Texas the 217 million dollars that have been
leaving the state heretofore year by year to pay the bill for imported
food supplies.
This policy insures a food producing farm civilization, and this
means prosperity. It also means safer, bigger, better business for
the supply-merchants and bankers.
Progress in Texas
The following comment is taken from a report issued by the Texas
Bankers' Association: "There have been more hogs, more cattle, more
poultry, more food for the table and more feedstuffs for livestock
produced in Texas this year than in many years, and the farmers
of the country are in better financial condition than they could pos-
sibly have been if they had continued the one-crop policy heretofore
followed. A few more years of wise diversification in lines promul-
gated by the Texas Bankers' Association will place in an independent
financial condition the farmers who follow the policy, and will ensure
a permanent continuance of progress in agriculture that will make us
the richest section in the United States."
"The bankers and merchants, then, have in their hands the most
powerful weapon in the cause of sound agriculture — credit. So long
as money is loaned on the prospect of a single cash-crop alone, so
long will the average farmer be compelled to raise that crop alone,
with all the attendant evils of such a system. When credit is made
available for other purposes, when cash markets are encouraged, and
the teaching of sound agricultural practice fostered, the road to pros-
perity is opened."
In North Carolina
This same system could be put to work in this state, especially in
the cotton counties of the east and along the South Carolina line
where conditions are similar to those in Texas. We have conclusively
5
66 Gaston County: Economic and Social
proved that we cannot accumulate farm wealth in largest measure
under our one-crop, or single crop, system of farming. We stay poor
while the West grows rich. The bankers can do more to solve this
problem in a single year than all other agencies are likely to do in
a lifetime; and they can do it almost by lifting or lowering of their
eyebrows. They can kill the crop-lien by starvation better than the
state can by legislation. The old-time crop-lien means more cotton
and less bread and meat.
And at the same time Gastonia and other Gaston towns must get
ready with arrangements, conveniences and facilities for doing a
larger business in home-raised food and feed supplies.
One North Carolina bank lends money for the purchase of breeding
stock only on condition that the borrower agrees to follow the advice
of the county agricultural agent or the animal husbandry expert from
the agricultural college. In this way the county agent becomes of
direct value to bankers and merchants, protecting their interests by
increasing the security of their loans at the same time that he benefits
farmers by increasing profitable production. It follows that the main-
tenance of these county agents should receive the financial support
of all classes in the community.
The Farmers' End of the Problem
On the other hand the farmers must not only produce food and feed
supplies for home consumption, but a million and a quarter dollars'
worth more for the city and town consumers in Gaston in average
years. To-day, the town consumers call for three million dollars'
worth of home-raised bread and meat. The farmers must know more
about market demands. They must not dump all their food products
on a small market at one and the same time. What they offer for
sale in competition with the big wide world must look and taste just
as good as imported products. They must become expert in picking,
handling, grading, packing and crating. They must produce grain
and hay, meat, butter, and eggs in steady and reliable sufficiencies,
and stand ready to supply market demands just as western markets
do upon telegraphic orders. They must can and store vegetables and
fruits that otherwise go to waste. They must learn the arts of butch-
ering, curing and sacking ham, bacon, and shoulders, fly and skipper
proof packer-fashion, and create a steady year-around business in meat
products.
The blame at present rests upon farmers, bankers, merchants, and
consumers. In Gaston in 1910 the local market problem in home-
raised products was a two and a third million dollar proposition. In
1919 it is a five million dollar proposition. It is worth solving. It
is worth the consideration of the best intelligence in the county.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 67
THE LOCAL 3IARKET PROBLEM OF GASTON
Based on the 1910 Census
1. Food axd Feed:
Needed— 37,063 people @ $84.00 $3,112,292
5,115 work animals @ $39.39 $201,480
5,212 dairy cattle @ $18.55 96,683
3,589 other cattle @ $8.09 29,035
529 sheep @ $1.79 947
8,163 swine @ $6.69 34,610
382.755
Total food and feed needed $3,496,047
2. Food axd Feed:
Produced— Food and feed crops $729,993
Dairy products $127,344
Poultry products 115,616
Honey and wax 3,408
Animals sold and slaughtered 149,417
$395,785
Total food and feed produced $1,125,778
Shortage in home-raised food and feed 2,370,269
Cotton and other non-food crop values 1,055,931
3. Distribution of Food axd Feed Shortage: Pounds.
(1) Meat needed for 37,063 people @ 152 pounds 5,633,576
produced 1,166 calves @ at 150 lbs... 174,900
1,789 cattle @ 350 lbs 626,150
165,354 poultry @ 3y2 lbs 578,739
6.863 swine @ 200 lbs 1,373,600
Total meat produced 2,733,389
Shortage 2,900.187
Pounds.
(2) Butter needed for 37,063 people @ 48 lbs 1,779,024
produced 603,038
deficit 1,175,986
Foicls.
(3) Fowls needed for 37,063 people @ 12 fowls 444,754
produced 165,354
deficit 279,400
Dozen.
(4) Eggs needed for 37,063 people @ 17% dozen 648.602
produced 312,718
deficit 335,884
68 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Bushels.
(5) Corn needed for 37,063 people @ 31 bushels 1,148,953
produced 410,058
deficit 738,895
Bushels.
(6) Wheat needed for 37,063 people @ 4 bushels 148,252
produced 45,677
deficit 102,575
Tons.
(7) Hay needed for 5,115 work animals @ 10 lbs. per day. 9,335
produced 5,220
deficit 4,115
HOW GASTON RANKS IN FOOD AND FEED PRODUCTION
Based on the 1910 Census
86th in Food and feed production per person $30
Needed, $84.00 per person; deficit $54.00 per per-
son. As long as Gaston sends out of her borders
$54.00 per inhabitant for food she could easily
produce at home, her farm wealth accumulation
will remain small.
82nd in Corn production per person, bushels 11
Needed per person per year, 31 bushels (for man
and beast) ; deficit per person, 20 bushels. Total
deficit for Gaston, 738,895 bushels. State aver-
age production, 15 bushels per person.
28th in Corn production, bushels 410,058
Robeson ranked first with 1,142,000 bushels.
Ten-year increase in corn production, 1900 to
1909, was 43 percent, or 176,000 bushels.
38th in Corn production per acre, bushels 14
State average, 14.3 bushels per acre. Dare ranked
first with 28 bushels.
39th in Wheat production per person, bushels 1.23
Needed 4 bushels per person; deficit per person,
2.77 bushels, or a total deficit of 102,575 bushels.
Only 15 counties in 1910 raised wheat surpluses.
Ten-year decrease in wheat production in Gas-
ton, 52 percent. State average decrease, 1900-09,
was 12 percent.
48th in Wheat production per acre, bushels 7
State average, 8 bushels per acre. Wayne ranked
first with 30 bushels per acre.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 69
13th in Oats production, total crop, bushels 59,080
The oats raised amounted to 2.31 pints per work
animal per day; rank, 15th. Ten-year increase
in oats production, 1900-09, 190 percent; rank in
this particular, 9th.
16th in Hay and forage production, total crop, tons 5,220
Ten-year increase, 1900-09, was 78 percent; rank,
41st. The hay and forage produced was 5.6
pounds per work animal per day; the need is
for 10 pounds per day.
7th in Percent of farms buying feed, 1910 census 17
Four hundred and eighty-five, or about one-fifth
of them bought feed averaging $38.25 per farm.
61st in Heef production per person, pounds 21.16
State average, 33.8 pounds.
92nd in Pork production per person, pounds 19
State average, 93 pounds. State average of hogs
sold and slaughtered, .47 of a hog; United
States, .57; Iowa, 2.72 hogs. Needed for home
consumption, 122 pounds per person per year.
Deficit, 103 pounds.
84th in Poultry production per person, fowls 4.46
Needed 12 fowls per person per year; deficit, 7.54
fowls. Total deficit, 279,400 fowls.
84th in Egg deficit, dozens 335,900
Needed 17.5 dozen per person per year. Produced
8.25 dozen, leaving a deficit of 9.25 dozen per
person.
82nd in Increase in farm sales of dairy products, 1900-09,
percent 38
Total sales in 1910 were $54,151. State increase
was 146 percent. Gaston produced 16 pounds of
butter per inhabitant in 1910. The average
amount needed was 48 pounds. Per capita de-
ficit was 32 pounds per person.
77th in Livestock products per person $13.00
Alleghany, $65.00; state average, $17.00.
71st in Per capita crop production in Gaston $48.00
Total farm wealth produced was $65.00 per person.
46th in Crop wealth produced per farm worker $230.00
90th in Bill for imported food and feed supplies $2,378,000
In less than four years the value of such imported
supplies equals the farm wealth accumulated in
71 years of history.
70 Gaston County: Economic and Social
8th in Boys' Corn Club enrollment in 1915, reporting 32
Caldwell and Wake stood first with 75 boys report-
ing in each county. The average per acre pro-
duction by the club boys in Gaston was 44.1
bushels, or three times the average for the
county at large. At this rate the grown-ups
might have produced enough for home con-
sumption and 100,000 bushels to sell. Instead
they had a deficit of 741,000 bushels.
33rd in Girls' Canning Club, reporting in 1916 37
These 37 girls prepared 4,715 tins and glasses
of fruits and vegetables, and their profits aggre-
gated $946.30. The profits of the 3,453 canning
club girls in the state for 1916 were $88,384.
They prepared 680,551 tins and glasses of fruits
and vegetables.
GASTON COUNTY LIVESTOCK 1910 CENSUS
I. Animal Units on Hand.
4,349 Mature work animals
100 Yearling colts
33 Spring colts
4,192 Dairy cows .
3,360 Other cattle
4,646 Mature hogs
1,939 Spring pigs 1/10
394 Mature sheep
107 Lambs 1/14 = 8
62,535 Poultry 1/100 = 625
Total animal units 12,091
II. Animal units needed = 237,440 A -*- 5 = 47,488
Percent of animals in a lightly stocked farm area 25%
Below the level 75%
Anima
Z Units.
= 4349
1/2
= 50
1/4
= 8
= 4192
1/2
= 1680
1/5
= 929
1/10
= 194
1/7
= 56
Note. — (1) A lightly stocked area has 1 animal unit for every 5 acres.
(2) An animal unit is 1 work animal, 1 milk cow, 2 other
cattle, 2 yearling colts, or 4 spring colts; 5 hogs or 10
pigs; 7 sheep or 14 lambs; or 100 laying hens.
IX
Things to be Proud of in Gaston County
We shall not attempt to mention all the things that Gaston county
has to be proud of. Such a. task would be impossible in the brief
space of a single chapter. Gaston like every other county has within
her borders conditions of all kinds. Some are good, some are bad,
others are indifferent. Let us note a few of the fine things in Gaston
county.
Population
In the census year, 1910, Gaston ranked 9th among the counties
of the state in population, having within her borders 37,063 people.
Much of this population is distributed among the numerous towns-
but not an over proportionate amount of it, as is proved by the fact
that Gaston ranks first in density of rural population with 84.4 people
to the square mile. Gaston's population is well balanced with respect
to town and country dwellers. The prosperous towns in Gaston are
not growing at the expense of her country regions. Only two counties
in the state had greater increases in rural population from 1900 to
1910 than Gaston. The increase was 34.4 percent, and seven-eighths
of this increase consisted of white people. The negroes are a dimin-
ishing ratio of population in Gaston, the ten-year decrease being 3.1
percent, Gaston is a county of rapidly increasing population, and it
is white, home-bred, and wholly American — not a mongrel mixture of
alien races as in the leading cotton-mill centers of New England,
Bristol, Providence, and Middlesex.
The towns of Gaston are growing rapidly. They are springing up
almost over night, largely at the expense of the surrounding counties.
Some of her neighboring counties lost in population, great numbers of
them going to the nourishing towns and mill centers in Gaston.
Gaston may well be proud of the fact that industrial conditions in
her borders are such as to attract population from neighboring coun-
ties.
Assuming that Gaston has inceased in population as fast since 1910
as she increased during the preceding ten years, she had within her
borders in 1919 a few more than 48,000 people.
Gaston is not an area of race suicide. Only twenty-one counties of
the state have a higher birth rate. Our rank in 1910 was 34.8 per
1,000 of population while the average for the state was 31.2 in 1914
and for the United States only 26.6 in 1913.
72 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Neither are the people of Gaston a self-destroying population. Only
one man in the county committed suicide in 1913, while in many other
years not a single case of suicide occurs. Suicides are usually the
outcome of dissipation, money troubles, unhappy home life, specula-
tion and the like. Evidently instable nerves and unhappy conditions
are rare in Gaston.
Wealth
Gaston can boast of unusual wealth, as wealth is estimated in North
Carolina. She is one of the smallest counties in the state, yet one
of the richest. Nor is the wealth of Gaston as unevenly distributed
as one might suppose — as it usually is in industrial areas. For in-
stance, Gaston ranks 16th in total farm wealth, and bear in mind, she
is only 71st in size in North Carolina. She has not built her great
textile plants at the expense of the farm regions. Indeed, she was far
advanced in agriculture before her textile mills became prominent, and
agriculture continues to play an important part in her life. This is
strongly evidenced by the fact that Gaston gained 165 percent in farm
wealth from 1900 to 1910, and only 16 counties made more rapid in-
crease. Her total farm wealth in 1910, the last census period, was
$8,628,686 and only 15 counties were wealthier in this respect though
70 were larger.
Then too, the people of Gaston country regions show a greater
willingness to list their farm properties at something like their census
values than 91 other counties of the state. Only- six counties put their
farm properties on the tax books at a higher ratio of census values.
A county can easily have a low tax rate on farm properties when this
condition exists.
Gaston has made rapid progress in taxable wealth, and the total
now reaches a large figure. In 1918 she had a grand total of property
listed for taxation amounting to $21,068,775 and only seven counties
in the state had larger totals. Gaston to-day is making more rapid
progress in taxable wealth than ever before in her history. During
the ten-year period 1908-1918, her taxables almost doubled. That is
to say, in ten years her taxable wealth increased almost as much as
all her properties listed and assessed for taxation amounted to in 1908.
At this rate only five years hence, 1925, will find Gaston ranking second
in wealth among the counties of the state, or first it may be.
Gaston with her numerous cotton mill towns has few superiors in
the production of wealth. She has a rare combination of conditions
favorable to the steady and continuing creation of new wealth; a
densely settled farm area, a prosperous agricultural region supporting
thriving towns devoted mainly to manufacture. As long as the county
preserves and promotes her agricultural interests she will continue to
have a distinct advantage over competing counties which are destroy-
ing their surrounding farm regions in order to build up mill centers.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 73
Banking
In 1915 Gaston ranked 32nd in combined bank stock with $7.12 per
inhabitant, and 19th in bank loans and discounts, with $43.70 per
inhabitant. In 1918 her bank account savings amounted to $1,006,659
or $22 per inhabitant, and in this particular 26 counties made a better
showing. It will be seen that Gaston's rank on these dates is far
behind what might have been expected of a county ranking 7th in
total taxables and first as a textile center.
However, the combined totals of the last figures in 1918 showed that
Gaston made three-year gains of 21 percent in invested bank capital,
100 percent in total deposits, and 225 percent in bank account savings.
These figures mean that banking in Gaston is rapidly climbing to the
top of the column. Nevertheless, the banking facilities of Gaston
probably fall short of the local demands of business, as in Winston-
Salem and Durham. There is ample opportunity for immense expan-
sion in the business of banking in Gaston. The First National Bank
of Gastonia is seizing upon it. This bank has just moved into a new
ten-story, half million dollar building. The building projects of Gas-
tonia all told run into ten million dollars in 1920.
Agriculture
Gaston may congratulate herself because while establishing a textile
industry that leads the South she has pursued the wise policy of
never allowing her agricultural interests to lag. The far-seeing men
of the county have been steadily at the heels of the farmers urging
them on to the development of a wholesome, healthy, and prosperous
agricultural life. A group of a half-dozen public-spirited men or
women is always to be found in any progressive county. This group
has been conspicuously active in Gaston.
However, do not let us get the idea that Gaston is a model agricul-
tural county. Far from it. But being so highly developed in the
textile industry, she makes a very favorable showing in many ways.
Probably the most striking fact discovered in this particular is
Gaston's high rank in total farm wealth. She is one of the smallest
counties of the state, yet she had greater farm wealth in 1910 than
any one of 85 other counties in the state. This is a remarkable fact.
And she is gaining in farm wealth with amazing rapidity. In the
ten-year period from 1900 to 1910 there was an increase in farm prop-
erties amounting to 165 per cent. Only 16 counties made greater gains.
The total farm wealth, land, buildings, livestock, and farm implements,
amounted to $8,62S,686 according to census values, which, by the way,
are always lower than current market prices. Since 1910 there have
been wonderful gains and to-day, 1919, the total of farm wealth in
Gaston is well up and round $20,000,000.
74 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Land and Farms
The average farmer in Gaston cultivates only 35.6 acres of land.
The size of cultivated farms is larger in only 38 counties. The point
is, we have no cause to worry about the lack of land, with 136,000
uncultivated acres in the county. We have abundance of unused farm
land, and we need a thousand or more new farm families to bring it
under cultivation. There is ample elbow room in Gaston for home-
seeking farmers.
The county is a land of small farmers and the problem of one man
or firm holding large tracts for speculation is almost unknown. There
is no farm of more than 1,000 acres in the county and only 16 com-
prise more than 500 acres. It might indeed be said that farms in
Gaston are, as a rule, too small for profitable farming. There are
about 600 farms in the county of the right size for diversified cropping,
improved farm machinery, and livestock farming.
The county may be proud of the fact that the farmers of Gaston
have awakened to the need of cattle and their importance on every
farm. The saddest thing in our agricultural life in this state is the
amazingly small part cattle and other forms of livestock play on our
farms. Our farms are too lightly stocked and will continue to be
so as long as the craze for cotton or tobacco lasts. We have not been
wise in our farm practices, especially during the last two decades.
We might by now have been one of the richest farm regions on earth
had we been self-feeding and self-financing in our farm regions. We
have sent out too much money for grain, hay, and forage, beef, pork,
and mutton, butter, cheese and canned goods that could have been
produced at home. Gaston has been guilty along with all the rest
of the counties of the state, but she is awakening earlier than most
of them. She has made gains in the number and breed of cattle. Only
20 counties made more rapid gains in livestock from 1900 to 1910 than
Gaston. Her increase was 27 percent while the state average increase
was less than half that ratio. In 1910 only 9 counties had more cattle
per 1,000 acres, her number being 37. She may be proud of her gains
in cattle, and the last census period, it is hoped, will show even greater
increases. However, in swine, poultry, and sheep we are playing a
losing game for there was an actual decrease of 3 percent in swine
over 1900, and a decrease of 64 percent in sheep from 1900-1910. All
these forms of livestock should play an important role on Gaston
county farms, for they lessen fertilizer bills, add fertility to soils,
feed farm families in large part, and leave cotton to form a main
source of cash income. A permanently prosperous farm life is im-
possible wherever there is a dearth of livestock.
Gaston may also be proud of her high rank in the annual produc-
tion of farm wealth which in 1910 amounted to $2,179,000. Only 21
counties produced a greater total. The same quantity of products
Gaston. County: Economic and Social 75
this year would be worth around $5,000,000, a neat sum for a textile
county.
Scotchmen claim that oats when fed to man or beast produce supe-
rior qualities in both. The Scotch are a large element of the popu-
lation in Gaston, which goes far toward explaining why the county
ranks ahead of 87 others in oats production. The crop of 1910
amounted to 59,000 bushels, which was nearly a three-fold increase
since 1860. The need is for more and larger grain crops of all sorts.
Livestock farming calls for grain, hay and forage in ample measure.
Transportation
Perhaps no county in North Carolina has made more wonderful
progress in agricultural, educational, and industrial development
within the last 25 years than Gaston. This has been made possible
because of her advantageous transporation facilities.
Few counties of the state are more abundantly supplied with rail-
roads and electric lines. The main line of the Southern Railway
crosses the county east and west, the Carolina and Northwestern
Railway traverses it north and south; the Seaboard Air Line Railway
enters the county on the east side at Mt. Holly and swings north-
westward, leaving the county near Alexis, and again enters it further
west and crosses the northwest corner, passing through Cherryville.
Besides these there is the Piedmont and Northern electric line that
crosses the county in an east-west direction and does good business
hauling both passengers and freight. No farm in the county is more
than 8 miles from a railroad station.
The county has 76 miles of macadam roads, 16 miles of asphalt
roads, and 250 miles of sand-clay roads that are as good as are to be
found in many counties over the entire state. The cross country roads
are not so good and become badly cut up during the winter months.
Manufacture
Gaston is nationally famous as a cotton textile center. She has
more cotton mills than any other county in the United States and
more active spindles than any other county in the South. Only three
counties in New England have more spindles. Named in order of
importance they are: Bristol county, Massachusetts, Providence
county, Rhode Island, and Middlesex county, Massachusetts. There
are 90 mills and 1,012,696 spindles in Gaston county. Her next nearest
competitor in the South is Greenville county, South Carolina, with
758,144 spindles.
Two main reasons have contributed to the wonderful success of
Gaston's mills. First, she is located in a cotton growing territory and
the cost of raw material is not so great as it is to mills in the North.
76 Gaston County: Economic and Social
Second, these mills are situated in the densest rural-population area,
in the state. Her people together with the great numbers drawn
from adjoining counties, furnish adequate labor supply to run the
mills. Cotton mills have been found to be practical and successful
in the South in densely populated areas of white tenant farmers.
Elsewhere cotton mills are a hazardous venture. Counties with sparse
white tenant populations in this and other states have few or no
factories nor is it possible to maintain such factories successfully in
such areas. Gaston being the most densely populated rural county
in this state has, other conditions being equal, the best chance to
operate mills successfully. When competent mill managements main-
tain wholesome mill and village conditions, pay reasonable wages, and
evidence a human interest in their employes success is easily assured
almost anywhere in a well defined area of North Carolina. The labor,
supply is practically unlimited in this area which lies like a reap hook,
the handle reaching from Lincoln and Rutherford eastward to Meck-
lenburg, and the blade following the curve of the Southern Railway
from Charlotte to Raleigh and on to Selma. There are fewer than
75,000 cotton mill operatives in North Carolina; but there are 200,000
white tenant farmers in North Carolina. Our labor supply is equal
to a hundred percent increase in spindles and looms.
Towns
Gaston has within her borders more towns than any other county in
North Carolina. They owe their existence mainly to the mill business.
Most of the towns are small and consist almost entirely of mill peo-
ple who are enabled to exist because of the mills in the village. Gas-
tonia, the largest town in the county, has a population of about 15,000.
It is the county seat and chief commercial center. It has within its
limits 41 cotton mills — far more than any other town or city in the
state. It is a brisk, busy little city, with handsome church buildings,
and a high school building in sight, to cost half a million dollars.
Everything and everybody in Gastonia is vibrant with business.
A large part of the busness activities of Gastonia is due to her
efficient Chamber of Commerce. It is thoroughly wide-awake and
active and has been well managed in the past. Its chief activity is
to advertise the advantages offered in Gastonia and Gaston county. It
has been instrumental in bringing in many newcomers and new con-
cerns. The business men of the city are lined up behind this organ-
ization and are cognizant of its possibilities.
Belmont, Cherryville, Dallas, Mt. Holly, Bessemer City, Lowell, and
McAdenville are all thriving towns. Kings Mountain, a prosperous
town, lies partly in Gaston county. The smaller towns of Highshoals.
Stanley, Mayworth, and Worth have each one or more cotton mills.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 77
Where Gaston Leads
1st in Number of cotton mills, 1920 90
Leads the South and the United States.
1st in Active spindles 1,012,606
Leads the South, and ranks 4th in this particular
in the United States.
1st in Density of rural population, people to the square
mile in 1910 84.4
9th in Population, 1910 37,063
3rd in Rural population increase 1900-10, percent 34.4
22nd in Birth rate per 1,000 population, 1914 34.8
16th in Total farm wealth, 1910 census $8,628,686
17th in Farm wealth increase, 1900 to 1910, percent 165
State average, 130.5 percent.
31st in Increase in value of domestic animals, 1900-10 per-
cent 118
8th in Total taxable property in 1918 $21,068,775
7th in Tax value of farm lands compared with the census
value, percent 73
10th in Professional taxes paid in 1917 $418.00
Eighty-three lawyers, doctors, photographers, den-
tists, and the like in Gaston.
20th in Improved roads, 1914, percent improved 31
12th in Per capita investment in school property, 1915-16.. $6.24
19th in Taxes paid into the state treasury in excess of pen-
sions and school money received, 1914.... $20,260
Eleven counties, all in the western part of the state,
are dependent.
23rd in Banks in 1914, ten in number, one bank for the fol-
lowing number of people 4,004
State average, one bank for every 4,800 people.
United States average, one bank for every 3,700
people. Twelve banks in 1918 with invested capi-
tal of $807,572, and deposits amounting to $4,334,-
184.
20th in Per capita bank resources, 1915 $64.20
Total resources, $2,689,000; state per capita, $62.25.
New Hanover led with $432 per capita.
32nd in Per capita bank capital, 1915 $7.12
Ten banks with total capital of $330,000. State per
capita. $4.80; New Hanover led with $40.65.
19th in Per capita bank loans and discounts, 1915 $43.70
Total bank loans and discounts, $1,888,519. State
per capita, $45.
78 Gaston County: Economic and Social
14th in Amount of land under cultivation; acres under
cultivation 101,696
Idle land, 135,744 acres, or 57.2 percent of the total
area. Reserving 50,000 acres for wood lot pur-
poses and allowing 75 acres to each family, there
is room for 1,140 new farm families in Gaston.
10th in Cattle per 1,000 acres, 1910 census 37
State average, 23; United States average, 61.
21st in Cattle increase, 1900-10, percent 27
State average increase, 12 percent. Caldwell in-
creased 62 percent.
28th in Investment in farm implements per acre $2.47
State average, $2.10; United States average, $2.52.
20th in Horsepower; one work-animal for the following
number of acres 22.69
State average, 25.85; United States average, 19.81.
22nd in Annual farm wealth produced, 1910 $2,179,082
This total covers both crops and animal products.
13th in. Oats production, total crop, bushels 59,080
The oats raised amounted to only 2.31 pints per
work^animal per day.
9th in Increase in oats production, 1900-10, percent 190
X
Gaston's Problems and Their Solution
In the preceding chapter a few of the many things Gaston can pride
herself in possessing have been enumerated. Every citizen takes
pleasure in telling of the things in which his county leads or makes
a capital showing. Hut it is just as important to consider the weak-
nesses of a county and to devise remedies for their cure. It is not
the purpose of this chapter to point out the things of which Gaston
is proud, but rather the ills that challenge patriotic concern and action.
A few remedies are suggested here. For the most part the remedies
for Gaston county deficiencies must be thought out and applied by
the home students and the home folks — the public-spirited citizens
of Gaston. A score or more such men and women are seeking to
strengthen the weak places in Gaston county civilization. They have
accomplished much in the past, and will accomplish vastly more in
the future should they combine their ideas and energies and act
in intelligent, hearty accord. The far-sighted and public-spirited
Superintendent of Schools is endeavoring to give the people of the
county the best of opportunities. And it is education of the right
sort that strikes at the root of community ills. A few individuals with
rare native endowments may prosper with little or no education, but
not so with a whole community or county. No community can ever
hope to rise unless it lifts all the people to the highest possible levels
of culture, taste, and skill.
Public School Education
1. The level of intelligence in a community is fairly well measured
by the percent of school attendance of children of school age, and the
number of illiterate people in the community. In both of these par-
ticulars Gaston makes a poor showing. There are 69 counties in the
state that have a smaller percent of illiterates 10 years of age and
over. The state average of white illiteracy is nearly three times the
ratio for the United States, and the rate of Gaston is two percent
higher than that of the state. One white person in every seven, 10
years old and over in Gaston, was illiterate in 1910. The illiterate
white voters of Gaston numbered 879 in the last census year. They
were 14 percent of all the white voters of the county. These men can
neither read their ballots nor write their names, nevertheless they
have the right to vote.
The number of illiterates is in direct ratio to non-school attend-
ance. Gaston ranks low in the school attendance of both races. In
1910 only 72.7 percent of the white children 6 to 14 years of age went
to school at all. IMore than a fourth of the white children of these
80 Gaston County: Economic and Social
ages did not go to school for so much as a single day — 1,682 of them
in all. It is unwise for children of tender age to be kept out of school
and allowed to work in cotton mills, except in cases of dire necessity,
and such cases are few in Gaston. Every child who is kept out Of
school suffers a definite loss in his future earning power. It is said
by educational authorities that each day spent in school will in after
years net the student nine dollars in money. It is a good policy to
invest time in education. But this is the least value of schooling.
The true value and worth comes from being trained to think sanely
and to act wisely on one's own initiative. The ignorant man is bound
to be the physical slave of the man with an intelligent brain. He is
destined to drag out a weary existence eating the bread earned by
the sweat of his face. Ignorant people retard progress in any com-
munity and wisdom demands that every member of it be educated.
Gaston is spending money for education more freely than the average
county but she has not heretofore been enforcing the school attend-
ance laws of the state, and is therefore not getting full value for
every dollar she spends on public education.
2. Gaston ranks well when compared with the rest of the state in
average salaries paid white rural teachers but not so with respect to
colored teachers. The average annual pay of negro teachers about
equals 20 days' pay of the most ignorant negro working in a shipyard
or a brick plant.
A determined effort should be made in Gaston to increase the num-
ber of local tax districts. In 1914 only 14 of the 64 school districts
levied a local tax for school support. This helps to account for the
low expenditure of $7.37 per $1,000 of taxable property. In 1918 only
19 of the 67 rural white school districts levied a local school tax.
Every school district should be a local tax district. It is so in Dare,
the poorest county in the state. Only so may a larger school fund
be obtained and only so can the interest of the community in educa-
tion be stimulated. The people who levy a special tax on themselves
are always the people who keep their children in school the greatest
number of days.
3. Gaston needs more consolidated schools. Fifty-four percent of the
schools were one-teacher schools in 1914, and the same percent holds
for 1918. No progress in consolidation appears during these four
years. This would not be so bad in one of the sparsely settled coun-
ties of the Tidewater country, but Gaston has the densest rural popu-
lation in the state, and could most easily lead in this kind of modern
progress. One-teacher schools cannot be as efficient as consolidated
schools in a thickly settled rural county. Instead of 67 white country
schools, it would be wise to redistrict the county and establish not
more than 20 or 25 strong consolidated schools with six or seven
teachers each. The pupils at a distance could be safely transported in
Gaston County: Economic and Social 81
motor car trucks as in Edgecombe, Wake, and Orange. Family interest
in small nearby schools ought to give way to community welfare in
large, well equipped, and well supervised schools capable of serving
effectively the needs of the various country communities.
4. Gaston does not rank well in church membership. Only 58 per-
cent of her people, 10 years old and over, were on the rolls of any
church in 1916; and 56 counties made a better showing. The people
of these ages not on church rolls numbered 12,938. The deadliest
menaces to country churches are farm tenancy, near-illiteracy, and
sheer illiteracy. The curing of illiteracy is primarily a country church
problem, and in self-defense if for no other reason the country churches
must help to solve it. Churches do not prosper as a rule in regions
blighted by farm tenancy and illiteracy. This outstanding fact has
been proved beyond debate by the researches of the department of
Rural Social Science at the University.
Farm System
1. The tables at the end of this chapter show that Gaston does not
possess a well-balanced farm system. Gaston county farmers do not
grow too much cotton but they do not produce food and feed supplies
in sufficient abundance. Gaston is not a self-feeding and therefore
cannot be a self-financing farm community. It was not so in the
census year nor is it so now. The money sent out of the county for
food and feed supplies in 1910 amounted to two and a third million
dollars. In less than four years a sum is spent for food and feed
supplies that equals the farm wealth accumulated in Gaston during
her entire history. Gaston needs to produce more feed for her farm
animals, her farm families, and her mill centers. We may add that
in 1919 something like five million dollars went out of the county to
pay for bread and meat that could have been produced at home.
When these millions slip through the fingers of her farmers year
by year, her accumulation of farm wealth will be slow and the totals
saved will be small. In 1910 the per capita country wealth of Gaston
was only $275 and the average for the state was the meager sum of
$322. The average for the United States was $994, and for Iowa, a
self-feeding farm civilization, was $3,386. "Bear in mind that the
self-sustaining, self-protecting, self-elevating abilities of a community
are based (1) upon its stored up wealth, and (2) upon the willingness
of the community to convert its wealth into weal, its wealth into
commonwealth, and its commonwealth into commonweal."
2. Gaston should change her farm system from tenancy and absen-
tee landlordism to a home-and-farm-ownership basis. Almost exactly
one-half or forty-nine percent of all Gaston farmers are tenants. They
do not own the roofs they live under or the fields they labor in, and
6
82 • Gaston County: Economic and Social
therefore they cannot develop into the highest type of citizenship.
Their interest in the land and the community usually extends over
a period of one year. From a third to a fourth of them move every
year. They rarely take an interest in the condition of the house they
live in, or the field they cultivate, or, worst of all, in the welfare of
the community in which they live. What interest could they have,
when the chances are they will be in a new locality the next year?
Their interest in better schools, better churches and Sunday schools,
better roads, better law and order, and better community conditions in
general is faint and feeble, as a rule. They live a careless, lax exist-
ence at variance with the civic ideals of the neighborhood. They are
racked with suspicion of being cheated and ready for trouble with
their landlords. The permanent prosperity of a community depends
fundamentally on home- and farm-ownership. Intelligent citizens,
bankers, merchants, and farmers should do their utmost to increase
the ownership of farms in country regions and of homes in mill cen-
ters. The Standard Oil Company has definitely entered upon this
policy for its employes. It is wisely casting an anchor to the wind-
ward in the stormy days ahead. The R. J. Reynolds Company is fol-
lowing suit; Home ownership by mill and factory operatives is a
policy that the mill owners of Gaston can afford to think through.
3. Gaston ranks well in the ratio of land under cultivation, but still
there are more than 135 thousand acres lying idle in the county.
Less than 43 percent of the land was under cultivation in 1910. Re-
serving 50,000 acres for wood-lot purposes and allowing 75 acres to
each family there is room for 1,140 new farm families in Gaston! An
increase of around 50 percent in farm population and a safely balanced
farm system by small home-owning farmers would mean better schools,
better roads, greater prosperity, better business for trade centers, and
more social life and liveliness in the country regions.
More Livestock in Gaston
In cattle per 1,000 acres, Gaston makes a good showing when com-
pared with the other counties of the state; but in nearly all other
forms of livestock Gaston fails to make a creditable shoAving. The
county is 70 percent below the level of even a lightly stocked farm
area. There is room for a threefold increase in farm animals. She
suffered absolute loss in the number of poultry, swine, and sheep
during the ten-year period from 1900 to 1910, and still greater relative
decreases between 1860 and 1910. Poultry and swine are the two
cheapest forms of meat that any farmer can provide, for they can be
fed and fattened largely on farm surpluses and wastes. Poultry on
the farm is practically all profit. The general high level 'of prices
for pork, poultry, and eggs for many years to come ought to stir
Gaston County: Economic and Social 83
Gaston county farmers into activity in these directions. But more
than this. The abiding prosperity of Gaston as a combined farm and
city civilization depends upon safe and sane livestock farming. Her
numerous towns must have meat and milk, butter and eggs. Gaston
can accumulate wealth in abundance by producing these commodities
at home. She needs to establish co-operative creameries and to form
closer business relationships between country producers and city con-
sumers. Her idle acres could be turned into profitable pastures if
sown in grasses and clovers. She needs to import the best breeds of
livestock, and to establish her livestock farming on a sound basis at
the very start. Scrubs and runts ought to disappear.
Her farm-life school and farm demonstration agent are invaluable
helpers in establishing a safely balanced, prosperous agriculture in
Gaston. They need to be supported and consulted. It will pay busi-
ness men and farmers to co-operate with them heartily. It will take
a long time to bring about any very great change in the farm system
of Gaston, but there is no need for delay in making a beginning. In-
deed a beginning has already been made and the census just closing
will probably show marked improvements in the farm activities of
the county.
First of all, the farms of Gaston must be self-feeding, at least so
far as the standard staple food and feed crops are concerned. They
have not been so in the past nor are they now. The philosophy Henry
Grady uttered years ago should be followed in Gaston to-day. He
said: "When every farmer in the South shall eat bread from his own
fields and meat from his own pantries, and, disturbed by no condition
and enslaved by no debt, shall, amid his teeming orchards and vine-
yards, dairies and barns, pitch his own crops in his own wisdom and
grow them in independence, making cotton and tobacco a clean surplus,
and selling these in his own time and his own chosen market, and not
at a master's bidding, getting pay in cash and not in a receipted mort-
gage that discharges his debt but does not restore his freedom, then
and not until then shall be the breaking of the fullness of a new day."
Cooperative Solution of Gaston Problems
Xone of the problems that present themselves can be solved by the
farmers alone. The larger interests of farmers, bankers, merchants,
and consumers lie in co-operation, not in contest. When each class
works with all its might and main for its own selfish ends, the benefits
derived from the whole will be less than if all were unselfish servants
of the common good.
Farmers, merchants, bankers, manufacturers, and transporters, are
closely knit into an intricate whole of business interdependence.
They are members of one body, and when one suffers, all suffer. In
84 • Gaston County: Economic and Social
order for the farmer to bridge the gulf between producers and con-
sumers, he must have the help of bankers and supply-merchants. He
must also have the help of boards of trade and transportation com-
panies. The Gastonia Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Gaston
Club have been efficient in working up county and city interest but
their work in this direction is barely yet begun.
City civilization is dependent upon farm production. The business
of the whole country is determined largely by farm conditions.
Market prices in Wall Street change as the wires flash news of good
or bad conditions in different farm regions. Poor crops and poor
prices in the fall mean sad times for the merchants and ministers
alike. We depend primarily upon the farmers' fields and forests for
food, clothing, and shelter — the trinity of inescapable necessities in
this work-a-day world. The demand for these on the one hand and
the farmer's supply of raw materials for them on the other furnish
for manufacturers, transporters, and merchants their business, their
business opportunities, and the bulk of their fortunes. Over half the
railway business of this country consists in transporting supplies to
farmers and the products of the farm to the markets of the world.
Southern cities in particular are dependent upon the surrounding
countryside for population, for renewal of population, for business and
business genius, for civic and social conscience, and for spiritual guid-
ance. Three-fourths of the men in authority in our churches were
born and bred in the country; and nearly the same is true of our
successful, influential men of affairs, the merchants, bankers, manu-
facturers, and lawyers. Five-sixths of the college professors and six-
sevenths of the ministers of all denominations were born and reared
in the country. On the other hand the country depends upon the cities
for market opportunities, ready cash, and credit facilities; for manu-
factured commodities, the artifices of civilization, farm tools and
machinery, the instruments of increased production, the articles of
comfort and luxury in farm homes; and for ideals of progress and
prosperity, material and social. Our town and country civilization are
mutually dependent. This fact is fundamental for the nation as well
as for Gaston county. The countryside must be efficient, prosperous,
satisfying, and wholesome, or else the prosperity of Gastonia is built
on shifting sands.
Mutual Prosperity
It is well to remember that no city can grow fat in a lean country-
side. Many cities in the nation have realized this fact and are doing
all in their power to promote prosperity in the surrounding farm
regions. They know that their prosperity depends largely upon tha
prosperity of the country regions roundabout; that better living con-
ditions for the farmers in their trade territories mean larger business
Gaston County: Economic and Social 85
and less disturbance in the cities. The city must help the farmers
solve the problem of local markets for home-raised food and feed
supplies; must help to convert them into instant ready cash at a fair
price and profit. Any help short of this is a vain pretense and a
hollow mockery.
The bankers of Gastonia and other Gaston towns can do more in
a single year to promote a bread-and-meat, live-at-home system of
farming in Gaston than our gospel of diversified farming is likely to
effect in a lifetime. The Texas bankers see this fact clearly. They
are refusing to discount a merchant's paper when it is protected by
crop-liens based on cotton acreage alone. They will discount no crop-
lien unless it contains a detailed written agreement by the farmer
with his supply merchant to plant a certain acreage, usually about
half the total, in specified food and feed crops. This kind of col-
lateral changes the character of the merchant's business, but it in-
creases its volume and bases it on principles of safety instead of
hazardous risks.
The mill population of Gaston is better housed and better paid than
in most other counties of the state, and far better than in the mill
towns of New England; but the conditions in many centers of Gaston
can be improved. Her mill owners have taken an active interest in
the welfare of their operatives. They have been wise enough to con-
serve the life, health, and strength of their employes. They have been
busy considering the problems of human efficiency as well as machine
efficiency. The mill owners as a'rule are actively interested in getting
the children to go to school and to become sturdy in mind and body
before entering the mills for life. Good schools have been provided in
the mill towns, grounds have been set apart and equipped in many
of the mill centers, and small parks have been laid out and beautified,
as for instance at High Shoals.
Opportunities and wages are both better than they have been in
the past, and most of the present-day ills are the direct result of the
desire on the part of parents to make their children earn a living
instead of going to school. Whenever under-age children are in the
mills, the blame is apt to lie on the parents rather than on the mill
owners. The parents are not educated as a rule and they fail to see
why their children should be educated. The mill owners have co-
operated with state laws very consistently. This much must be said
in all fairness.
"Where Gaston Lags
70th in Native white illiterates 10 years old and over in
1910, percent 14.5
State average, 12.3 percent; United States aver-
age, 4.2 percent.
86 Gaston County: Economic and Social
73rd in White school attendance, 6 to 14 years of age, in
1910, percent 72.7
White children of these ages not in school in
Gaston, in 1910, numbered 1,682.
69th in Negro school attendance, 6 to 14 years of age, per-
cent 60.9
Negro children of these ages not in school, 849.
79th in Death rate per 1,000 population in 1917 15.2
State rate was 14.1.
Gaston's rate is 1.8 points worse than in 1914.
Rate for the United States registration area was
14.
57th in Church membership in 1916, percent 58
12,938 people, 10 years old and over, outside the
church, or 42 percent of the population of these
ages. State average of church membership 62
percent.
74th in Salaries paid negro rural teachers, average in 1916. $110.00
In 1918 the average annual salary was $96.
59th in Local school tax districts in 1914, percent 21.7
14 local school tax districts; 50 white school dis-
tricts had no local tax. Only 19 local tax dis-
tricts in 1918.
59th in School expenditures per $1,000 worth of property
in 1914 $7.37
McDowell first with $20.83. State average $8.03.
It was $10.40 on the $1,000 in Gaston in 1918.
68th in School attendance on enrollment in 1916, percent... 64.4
In 1918 it was only 60 percent. Henderson led
with 86.2 percent. Mitchell was lowest with
51.2 percent. State average, 68.8 percent. The
average in Gaston was only 60 percent in 1918 —
a loss of 4 percent in two years.
44th in Rural schools (white) with two or more teachers
in 1916, percent 46
In 1918, 55 percent had two or more teachers.
54th in Average expenditures per high school pupil enrolled,
1915-16 $23.10
It is a decrease of $6.71 from the previous year.
Harnett led with $65.13 per high school pupil
enrolled; Halifax was lowest with $8.37. State
average, $25.92.
Gaston County: Economic and Social 87
47th in Country wealth, per capita in 1910 $275.00
Alleghany, $560; State average, $322; United
States, $994; Iowa, $3,386. In 1913 in Gaston
the per capita taxable wealth was only $394.
79th in Negro farm owners, percent of all negro farmers.. 23
State average, 33. Negro farm owners in Gaston
numbered 178. White farm owners numbered
over 60 percent of all white farmers; in North
Carolina they were 66 percent.
62nd in Local taxation for schools, rate per $1,000 assessed
value, 1913-14 $4.80
Pamlico led with $8.98. In 1917-18 the rate was
$5.04.
79th in Poultry decreases, 1900-10, percent .4
That is to say, 78 counties made a better showing.
Twenty counties lost in poultry production and
Gaston was one of these. In 1910 there were
only 62,535 fowls. Johnston led with 127,254.
41st in Swine per 1,000 acres, 1910 census 34
State average, 39; United States average, 66;
Iowa, 263. In 1860 the swine in Gaston were
15,335, but in 1910 they were only 6,585.
33rd in Swine decrease, 1900-10, percent 3
Gaston was one of the 69 counties that decreased
in swine production from 1900-10.
57th in Sheep losses, 1900-10, percent 64
In 1860 there were 5,386 sheep in Gaston, but in
1910 only 501.
68th in Farm tenancy, 1910, percent 49.8
State average, 42.3 percent. Increase in farm
tenancy in Gaston, 1900-10, was 5 percent.
Forty-seven counties in the state decreased in
farm tenancy. White owners in Gaston, 1,243;
negro owners, 178. White farm tenants in
Gaston, 810; negro tenants, 613. The landless,
homeless white tenants and their families num-
ber about 4,000 souls; 1,116 are share tenants,
and only 243 are cash or standing-rent tenants.
Tenants raise cotton mainly and neglect food
and feed crops.
41st in Crop yielding power per acre in 1910 $16.54
88 Gaston County: Economic and Social
75th in Annual production of farm wealth per inhabitant. . $69.60
State average, $85. Average for tfee French
farmers, $126. Gaston's low average is largely
clue to the fact that a large part of the mill
operatives are counted in her country popula-
tion.
86th in Food and feed production, per person $30.00
Needed, $84 per person; deficit, $54 per person.
82nd in Corn production per person, in 1910, bushels 11
Needed per person per year, 31 bushels (for
manufacture, man, and beast) ; deficit per per-
son, 20 bushels. Total deficit for Gaston, 739,-
000 bushels. State average production per per-
son, 15 bushels.
48th in Wheat production per acre, in 1910, bushels 7
State average, S bushels per acre. Wayne ranked
first with 30 bushels per acre.
61st in Beef production per person, in 1910, pounds 21.6
State average, 33.8 pounds.
92nd in Pork production per person,. In 1910, pounds 19
State average, 93 pounds. Needed for home con-
sumption, 122 pounds per person per year.
Deficit, 103 pounds per person.
84th in Poultry production per person,. In 1910, fowls 4.46
Needed 12 fowls per person per year. Deficit, 7.54
fowls. Total deficit, 279,400 fowls.
84th in Egg production in 1910; deficit, In dozens 335,000
Needed, 17.5 dozen per person per year. Produced
8.25 dozen, leaving a deficit of 9.25 dozen per
person.
82nd in Increase in farm sales of dairy products, 1900-10,
percent 38
Total sales in 1910 were $54,151. State increase
146 percent. Gaston produced 16 pounds of but-
ter per inhabitant in 1910. The average amount
needed was 48 pounds. Per capita deficit was
32 pounds per person.
77th In Livestock products per person, in 1910 $13.00
Alleghany, $65; state average, $17.
71st In Per capita crop production $48.00
Total farm wealth produced was $65 per person.
90th in Bill for imported food and feed supplies in 1910... $2,378,000
In less than 4 years it equals the farm wealth
accumulated in 71 years of history.
IF IT IS
Stylish Wearing Apparel of the Better
Kind for Ladies, Misses or Children
VISIT
THE McNEELY COMPANY
135 West Main Avenue
Gastonia, N. C.
C. B. Armstrong, President
A. G. Myers, Vice-President
W. H. Adams. Cashier
C. C. Myers, Asst. Cashier
STATEMENT
THE CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK
OF GASTONIA. N. C.,
At the Close of Business November 17, 1919
RESOURCES
Loans and discounts $2,178,244.15
Overdrafts 158.98
United States and other bonds 188.708.26
Stock in Federal Reserve Bank 4.500.00
Banking house, furniture and fixtures 20.000.00
Other real estate 13,388.49
Cash and due from banks 934,728.91
Total $3,339,728.79
LIABILITIES
Capital $ 100.000 00
Surplus and undivided profits (earned) $261,952.06
Less cash dividends paid stockholders 124.000.00 137.952.06
Circulation 100.000.00
Rediscounts 122,801.33
Deposits 2,878.975.40
Total $3,339,728.79
Directors— Andrew E. Moore, H. W. Cleveland, W. T. Rankin, A. G.
Myers, C. B. Armstong, D. M. Jones, W. D. Anderson
Depositary — State of North Carolina, Gaston County, City of Gastonia
EFIRD'S DEPARTMENT STORE
The greatest money-saving opportunities are to be found at Efirds.
"One price only and for cash" explains in a measure our remarkable
success in always being able to bring to the public the market's
choicest merchandise at prices lower than to be found anywhere else.
If there is not an Efird Store in your town, mail your orders to the
nearest one. Satisfaction guaranteed, or your money refunded.
Everything ivorn by men, women and children sold by the Efird Stores, i
and alivays for less. Get it from Efird's and save the difference.
STORES EVERYWHERE— SELECT THE NEAREST ONE
Charlotte, N. C.
J. B. Efird, Mgr.
Winston-Salem, N. C.
E. L. Efird, Mgr.
Durham, N. C.
J. W. Efird, Mgr.
Raleigh, N. C.
J. R. Efird, Mgr.
Concord, N. C.
A. E. Harris, Mgr.
EFIRD'S
Gastonia, N. C.
W. E. Haynes, Mgr.
Salisbury, N. C.
R. C. Teague, Mgr.
Laurinburg, N. C.
J. J. Earl, Mgr.
High Point, N. C.
W. S. Lee, Jr., Mgr.
Rocky Mount, N. C.
E. L. Davis, Mgr.
Monroe, N. C.
P. M. Kendall, Mgr.
EFIRD'S
Columbia, S. C.
P. H. Efird, Mgr.
Rock Hill, S. C.
W. C. Caveny, Mgr.
Anderson, S. C.
F. C. Proctor, Mgr.
Greenville, S. C.
S. B. Hagler, Mgr.
Grier, S. C.
R. A. Pounds, Mgr.
EFIRD'S
Rankin- Armstrong Furniture Company
GASTONIA, N. C.
We solicit, appreciate, and take care of your business.
We furnish the home complete. Phone 37
THE GASTONIA DAILY GAZETTE
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For forty years Gaston County's leading newspaper
By mail $4.00 per year
The Weekly Gazette, $1.25 per year
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Send your subscription to Gazette Publishing Co., Gastonia, N. C.
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I BESSEMER CITY BANK
j BESSEMER CITY, N. C.
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R. C. Kennedy, President 0. M. Vernon, Cashier
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i Directors — Moses Stroup, I. A .White, John J. George, John J. I
Ormond, R. C. Kennedy, 0. M. Vernon, Rev. R. R. Caldwell |
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| We appreciate your business. All business, large or \
small, given our prompt and careful attention. Five
per cent paid on certificates of deposit. Join our {
Pin-Money Christmas Saving Club
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SOUND SAFE SECURE j
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I BESSEMER CITY GARAGE |
BESSEMER CITY, N. C.
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| ALL KINDS OF REPAIRING SUPPLIES, OILS, GAS j
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| LEWIS & RIDENHOUR !
Mount Holly, North Carolina
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I Druggists j
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! NORRIS CANDIES CONKLIN FOUNTAIN PENS |
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| J. A. Costner, Cashier H. A. Rhyne, President \
J. M. Springs, Vice-President \
j MOUNT HOLLY BANK j
I MOUNT HOLLY, N. C. \
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Capital % 25,000.00 j
Deposits 250,000.00 j
We solicit your account.
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i We expect to have our new bank building completed early in 1920. |
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| SAUNDERS TAILORING COMPANY
I 231 West Main Street Phone 144 Gastonia, N. C.
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Hats Cleaned and Reblocked
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{ Suits Made to Measure
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Cleaning — Pressing — Altering j
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j PADGETT TAILORING COMPANY I
j R. T. Padgett, Proprietor GASTONIA, N. C. I
Suits made to measure. Fit, style, satisfaction, quality. •-
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Sanitary Steam Pressing. j
! CAROLINA CAFE GASTonia, n. c.
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When in Gastonia visit the Carolina Cafe I
[ A sanitary place to eat at a popular price
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KIRBY- WARREN COMPANY
! 203 West Main St. GASTONIA, N. C. Phone 159
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"The Home of Good Clothes'"
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Sellers of the Better Kinds of Men s and Boys Wear ,
Furnishing Goods, Hats and Caps, Trunks and Traveling Bags
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''The Right Goods at the Right Price"
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! SPENCER LUMBER CO.
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INCORPORATED i
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GASTONIA, N. C.
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Lumber and Mill Work
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\ H. M. VANSLEEN
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GASTONIA, N. C. )
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| Jewelry, Watches, Silverware A square deal and one price to all
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I A. R. HOLLAND
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DALLAS, N. C. |
Dealer in Plain and Fancy Groceries, Notions, Glassware, Crockerv
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I H. SCHNEIDER
j GASTONIA, N. C.
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We recommend to all young men and those who like to look young the
Varsity Fiftv-Five Suit, made by Hart, Schaffner & Marx.
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A.^^nM. .. _ __ ..♦.
j SHERMAN BROTHERS !
GASTONIA, N. C.
I Kuppenheimer Clothing Crawford Shoes Specialties
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j J. R. LEWIS COMPANY
DALLAS, N. C.
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j Department Store (including Hardware and Groceries)
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♦;..«
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j A. P. H. RHYNE & SON I
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DALLAS, N. C. j
Dealers in Dry Goods, Notions, Shoes, Hats, Caps, and Groceries
THE B.-J. COMPANY
j GASTONIA, N. C. (
Wholesale Fruits and Produce
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| It will pay you to see us |
We carry a full line of Fruits and Produce
Gaston Loan and Trust Co.
GASTONIA, N. C.
Solicits both checking and savings accounts.
Extends to its depositors all accommodations
permitted by good banking. We want your
business.
T. L. Craig, President. E. G. McLurd, Vice-President
M. A. Carpenter, Treasurer
A. M. Smyre, President Fred L. Smyre, Vice-President
C. M. Boyd, Secretary-Treasurer
Gastonia Hardware Co.
GASTONIA, N. C.
General Hardware and Mill Supplies
Horse-drawn and Tractor Implements
Auto Tires and Sundries
Yours for Service
Ph
j B. H. PARKER I
GASTONIA, N. C.
j FORD -the Universal Car
zens of Gaston and adjacent counties
SALES — SERVICE — REPAIRS j
Use genuine repair parts
*
Fordson Tractors, Farm Implements, Engines
Lighting Plants, Fresh-water Plants, Saw Out-
| fits, Pumps, and anything to lighten the load
| of farm work
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SPENCER ATKINS BOOK CO.
I GASTONIA, N. C.
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Office Outfitters j
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j Books, Stationery, Office Supplies, 'n Everything
1 PHONE 265
I ROBINSON SHOE COMPANY j
! GASTONIA, N. C.
| Phone us when you are in need of j
j shoes for any member of the family
We give you prompt local delivery service, and
mail parcels post packages out on first train after
receiving order. We distribute shoes to the citi- j
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"The Home of Good Shoes" j
Phone 121 I
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j GASTONIA, N. C
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SWEETLAND CANDY COMPANY i
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The leading place to get at wholesale or retail price |
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The Best Ice Cream j
j Fine Home-Made Candies '
Fruits of All Kinds ,
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! In their retail store at 113 West Main Avenue, you can
get the best of anything in the above mentioned as *
well as excellent service in their ice-cream parlor for *
i ladies and gentlemen. Come or call. [
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SWEETLAND CONFECTIONERY j
113 West Main Avenue Phone 197
Standard Hardware Company
DEALERS IN
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i 1J.O wesi lviain /wenue riiune ii»/ t
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I l-ht'.li , : I ,' I I M ■; . : II
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Gastonia, North Carolina
( General Hardware
j Stoves and Ranges, Farm Implements
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j Toys and Sporting Goods, Paints and Varnishes
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I Builders' Hardware, Cutlery, Fire Arms
j Gasoline Engines and Tractors
PINKNEY MILLS, Inc.
RANKIN MILLS, Inc.
RIDGE MILLS, Inc.
OF
GASTONIA, N. C.
Offer every advantage to those seeking
indoor employment. Equipment con-
sists of good schools, churches, mod-
ern bungalows, well ventilated and
lighted mill buildings, and good living
conditions.
Fine combed yarns of the highest qual-
ity are manufactured at these plants.
R. G. Rankin, President and Treasurer
Henry Rankin, Vice-President
L. S. Rankin, Secretary
THE MODENA COTTON MILLS
GASTONIA, N. C.
AND
THE MOROWEBB COTTON MILLS
DALLAS, N. C.
Offer splendid advantages to textile
workers seeking employment in Gas-
ton County. Excellent school facili-
ties, good churches, modern homes,
and a clean, healthy environment.
Fur further information write
J. 0. White, President
Modena Cotton Mills Morowebb Cotton Mills
Gastonia, N. C. Dallas, N. C.
I THE GREENSBORO DAILY NEWS
f GREENSBORO, N.'C.
!
I The State's Leading Neivspaper- — Independent in Politics
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With unexcelled news-gathering facilities, with its own Washing- i
I ton office and private wire to convey each night the exclusive dis- )
patches of Theodore Tiller, David Lawrence, and C. W. Gilbert, the |
Daily News each morning presents, clearly and without prejudice, the t
political news of the day. If you want to read each morning the news
'■'! of the world, presented truthfully, intelligently — facts, not opinions —
\ subscribe now. ■
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1 CRAIG & WILSON
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GASTONIA, N. C. j
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Automobiles and Accessories i
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' Horses, Mules, Wagons, Buggies
j and Farming Implements
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Call and see our line j
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I W. H. WRAY GASTONIA, N. c.
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HIGH-GRADE AUTOMOBILES
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Dodge — Reo— Hudson — Essex
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The
University of North Carolina
Maximum Service to the People
of the State
Regular Instruction for students in Accounting, Foreign
Trade. Banking, Transportation, Political Economy, Business Law,
Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Highway Engineering,
Soil Investigation, Journalism, Social Science, Government, Education,
Music, and all subjects embraced in the College of Liberal Arts, the
Schools of Applied Science, Law, Medicine, Pharmacy, Commerce,
and the Graduate School.
Special Instruction for teachers and those preparing to
teach in subjects offered by the School of Education and the Summer
School.
Military Instruction under the direction of the Faculty
and the United States War Department for students in a regular
Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
General Instruction for the public through the follow-
ing departments of the Bureau of Extension: (1) General Informa-
tion; (2) Lectures and Study Centers; (3) Home Study Courses;
(4) Debate and Declamation; (5) County Economic and Social Sur-
veys; (6) Municipal Reference; (7) Educational Information and
Assistance; (8) Women's Club Activities; (9) Home Comforts and
Conveniences.
Write to the University when you need help.
For further information, address
The President of the University
Chapel Hill, N. C.
i GASTONIA FURNITURE CO., Inc.
I GASTONIA, N.C. I
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I WE CARRY THE PRETTIEST LINE OF HOME FURNISHINGS
IN A PRETTY, WELL ARRANGED STORE. YOU ARE
I INVITED. MAIL ORDERS HAVE PROMPT ATTENTION
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GASTONIA FURNITURE CO., Inc.
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The Home of Fine Furniture
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Greetings to the University Boys!
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Jewelers-Opticians
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I GASTONIA, N.C.
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Expert Repairing Artistic Engraving
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Established 1885
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TORRENCE-MORRIS COMPANY
THE
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FIRST NATIONAL BANK
GASTONIA, N. C.
Capital $250,000
Surplus and Profits $325,000
Depository
U. S. Government
State of North Carolina
County of Gaston
City of Gastonia
This Bank has been a factor in the development of the
resources of Gaston County for many years.
Commencing business in 1890, we have since that time
sought opportunity to assist every enterprise which would
add to the moral and industrial welfare of our county.
We invite interviews with any one having plans for the
further development of this community, pledging in advance
our sympathy and support.
L. L. Jenkins, President
J. Lee Robinson S. M. Boyce, Cashier
R. R. Ray M. T. Wilson
Vice-Presidents Assistant Cashier
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