- Title
- Journal of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina ... [1931 session]
-
-
- Date
- 1931
-
-
- Creator
- ["North Carolina. General Assembly. House of Representatives."]
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Journal of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina ... [1931 session]
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18
HOUSE JOURNAL
[Session
Message of
0. MAX GARDNER
Governor of North Carolina.
We are met today to consider North Carolina and to take thought of her
future.
This solemn duty, which is also the highest privilege of citizens of a self-
governing commonwealth, comes to us at a time when most of our old
problems appear aggravated by the condition of economic maladjustment
in which we find ourselves, and when an unprecedented number of new prob¬
lems are clamoring for solution. It is not any exaggeration to say that
North Carolina stands today at a crossroads in her history: to a degree per¬
haps few of us realize, the whole future of this State will be profoundly af¬
fected by your work here in the eventful days that lie just ahead.
We are face to face with the supreme test of our collective common sense,
of our intellectual and moral courage, and of our faith in the essential
soundness of this commonwealth.
To get a perspective of our problem we should look back over the road
we have traveled in recent years of prosperity. In the twelve-year period
from 1918 to 1930 the total cost of government in North Carolina increased
from twenty-three and one-half million dollars a year to the present total
of one hundred million dollars. As late as 1913 the cost of public education
was only $5,500,000. Today the cost of public education amounts to twenty-
eight million dollars a year. In 1913 the state bonded debt was eight million
dollars, and as late as 1920 only eleven millions. It is now more than one
hundred and seventy millions. In 1918 the total debt of local governments
was sixty million dollars; today it is three hundred and seventy-five mil¬
lions. The sum total of this period of expansion presents us today with a
bonded debt for the state and its subdivisions of five hundred and thirty-
seven million dollars.
While our movement to lift the state from its position of prostration and
backwardness in the nation commenced in 1911, it was the period from 1921
that witnessed its major fulfillment. In this period we spent one hundred and
sixty millions of public funds for the state highway system, eighty millions
for school buildings, and thirty-two millions for the enlargement of the State’s
institutions. The counties, cities, towns, and districts followed the example
of the state in providing permanent improvements and in increasing operat¬
ing expense.
1, for one, do not wish to be understood as repudiating the wisdom or
policy of the program of progress to which, through ten years of stirring
achievement and growth — -we have within sound economic limitations — be¬
come committed.
It is true, as I think we are all ready to admit, that such a fiscal and de¬
velopmental program could not have been carried out without some mistakes.
But they were honest mistakes ol' judgment. In all of the State’s expendi¬
tures of millions during this period, there has never been an instance of
dishonesty or graft in the handling of the people’s money. It costs money
to reclaim “lost provinces,” whether it be in the realm of the geography of
an imperial commonwealth or in the conservation of human life and op¬
portunity. I ask you this question: Where would North Carolina be today
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