The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-09-24
he THRIVING SOUTHWEST.
Mr.. Charles n. Grasty Discusses
the Situation.
A Wide Experience brought to Bear--At
the seginping of Our Prospcrity--now
Kansas City Grew--h Kind Word for
The Times--Roanoko Is the Center
Keep In the Middle of the swim.''

SHtrleS IL. OraSCy, IL Wcll-kilOWH
newspaper man, for ten years managing
editor of tho Kansas City Times, and
now resident Of Baltimore, is in the
city. To TIMES reporter, who called
on him at the Hotel Roanoke yesterday,
Mr.. N,irasty talked enthusiastically of
Roanoke. lie has had wide experience
in real estate investment and spccula-
ton, having gone through the great
Kansas City movement as an extensive
operator, and his observations include
such centcrs as New York, Chicago,
London and Shangai, China. lie visited
the latter place in 1886 when, a tremcn-
dous boom in acres and town lots was
going on.
Mr.. Grasty is now intcrestedin the
South, which he considers field for
fortunes with which no other section
can compete. lie is Il native of Botc
tourt county and is especially enthusi-
astic over this part of Virginia.
Southwest Virginia" said he, sis
the center of industrial activity and de-
vclopment. The boom, so-callcd. is
only in its beginning hero. AS the cen
ter of the magnificent territory, rich in
agriculture and minerals, and thor
oughly organized and equipped to take
advantage of all it has, Roanoke has Il
future which has not yet begun to be
discounted Toa man who understands
the conditions, it requires no stretch Of
the ims gination to sec in his minds eye
a solid city from Roanoke to Salem.
h N ic hDr tn M. ,l.n f.it x
uated as it is. every town that is built
in Southwest Virginia will contribute.
From less promising beginnings |
saw Kansas city built up from Il town
Of $4,000 to l7j.0O0 people. We had
only agriculture and railroads there.
You've got agriculture. mining ard
manufacturing: you've got the outside
backing: you've got the ci;y-:raliing
spirit, as shown by the activity and en-
tcrprisc OF your citizens.
"Anothcr factor, and il is Il very i'm
portant one, is your live newspapers.
That is q tower Of strength which will
be shown more and more as the city
grows. People abroad accept the local
newspapers rs representing the
town. II is worth no end OF money to a
city TO haze such d newspaper rs TIEE
ROANOKE HINES going abroad and speak
ing fOr It's growth and enterprise and sol
idi5y. Furthermore. this is great help
IN building mp Il iDbbing trade. People
buy goods in cities whose ncwspapcrs
they read, in other words, II gooG news
paper IS 4 missionary. Il commercial
traveller. OF rnthcr a thousand CONNER
cial travellers going out every day and
soliciting business for Il city.
another noteworthy feature is tho
way Roanoke is organizing SO rs to meet
l,sp ~ VI. .u half Il 1,
them concertcdly Your Commercial
Club ought to be Il great lover OF prcg-
ross.
What will he the effect of the money
stringency ON the real estate movement
in the South"
lin the first place. there is no money
stingcncy. There is some Squeezing Of
the bulls and bears in Wall street. and
people who lend money may take adj
vantage OF IL to shovc iip rates y few
points. AS a matter of fact.thc sO-cailcd
stringency helps places like Roanoke,
because it disgusts capitalists with Wall
street and turns them coward better and
solder investments, which arc plentiful
in Southwest Virginia. mad an cxpc-
rience in this very line which showed me
the effect OF Wall street sca"cs in way
shall never forget was in Bombay.
India. in December, 1856. at which time
owned considerable property i'll Kansas
City. Reading dispatch in morning
paper That there was 4 Wall street panic,
calculated that the effect would be dis
astrous in Kansas City on account of
the large debtor class in real estate
speculation there. J at once cabled to
sell my property. Within a few months
the effect OF the Wall street scare was
felt in kansas City, but it was diamct-
,,f., 49,. 10,
posed it would be. Capital rushed into
Western real estate in IL fiji of disgust Il
the uncertainty OF railway sccuriti
When returned home | found that my
property, which sacrificed. had been
rcSold at an advance of $3.50 900"
what about the continuance of the
movement in the South?"
1T has just begun. 1t is based on
actual development and in the line of
development the surface has lust been
scratched | have information of outside
investment in the South which will
eclipse anything that has yet been
done.''
Roanoke is in the center of the in
dustrial movement replied Mr. Grasty
cautiously. "The South is the cyno-
sure of all eyes on both sides of the
Atlantic. Roanoke has every advant-
age enjoyed by another point, and it has
men in its own midst and friends in
Philadelphia and elsewhere that could
make big city on a Western prairie, if
they made up their minds to do it. The
backing OF the Norfolk and Western
crowd and the work Of your own wide
awake citizens added to the natural
position of the city in the midst of un-
rivaled resources. and with long start
in the race for the supremacy in this re-
gion make the future greatness Of Roa-
nollo only q matter of degree. Bv TIC