THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW 63 



report, is now spending $150,000 in road construction. Our 

 mountain counties are falling into line about as rapidly as other 

 sections of the State. And North Carolina is doing well in high- 

 way building. In 1914 she stood ahead of twenty-nine states 

 in per cent, of surfaced roads, and outranked thirty-two in the 

 expenditure of road funds locally raised. 



5. As a last word in my attempt to show that our mountain 

 conditions and problems are state-wide conditions and prob- 

 lems, let us consider the investment made by our Highlanders in 

 their schools and children; say, their per capita investment in 

 country school property in the census year. In 1910 it was only 

 $1.86 per rural inhabitant. But then, it was only $2.08 the whole 

 State over. Seven mountain counties were well above the state 

 average with per capita investments ranging from $2.56 in 

 Swain, one of the three poorest counties in the State, to $4.56 in 

 Transylvania. 



Our mountain counties are moving forward in rural school 

 property about as rapidly as the rest of the State. Between 

 1900 and 1914 the value of such property in seventeen highland 

 counties rose from $408,000 to $637,000, an increase of 56 per 

 cent., against an increase of 45 per cent, in the State at large. 

 Ashe and Yancey more than doubled their investments in rural 

 school property during these four years. In Cherokee the in- 

 vestment was more than trebled. And it is proper to add that 

 under the superb leadership of Hon. J. Y. Joyner, the State 

 School Superintendent, our State as a whole has made mar- 

 velous gains during the last ten years in the education of all our 

 people. As a matter of fact, these gains make a story of un- 

 paralleled achievement. 



The mountain people I know are democratic by nature, high 

 spirited, self-reliant, and proudly independent. They scorn 

 charities, and scent patronage afar. They are not a weakling 

 people. They are sturdy and strong in character, keenly respon- 

 sive to fair treatment, kind hearted and loyal to friends, quick 

 to lend help in distress; and salted unto salvation by a keen 

 sense of humor. 



They are not a submerged race. They are not down and out, 

 after a hand to hand struggle with advancing civilization. They 

 are not victims of social mal-adjustment. They are, as yet, the 



