The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-11-01
a BANK PRESIDENT
Gives Ills views 0. The Coming
prosperity OF Virginia.

on wednesday evening, says the
Staunton Vlndlcator, learning that
there was u party of Western manufac-
turers at the Virginia Hotel on pros
pccting tour in this section of Virginia,
representative of the Vindicator called
there to got their views about the era of
progress which is now prevailing here.
lilo found the party to consist of Messrs.
l.. Link, of Rushvillc, Ind, president of
the Rush County National Bank; Noble
Brann, lumberman, the largest stock
holder in the Rushvillc School Furni-
ture Company, in which Mr.. Link is
largely interested; Geo. S. Mcgee, secro-
tary and treasurer of the company, and
NJ. Nolan, of the firm of Nolan, Madden
& Co., manufacturers Of tile and brick
machines at Rushvillc, and stock
holder and director in tho Nashville
School Furniture Company. They were
Western business men, typical repre-
sentativcs Of the go-ahcad people of
that section of the country.
"What do you think of the boom we
are having in Virginia." asked the Vim
dictator representative of Mr.. Link.
"Oh," said he, laughing, 'you people
down here haven't had any boom yet to
speak of. Wait till next spring and you
will sec one. You are new to the rapid
growth of country, and because you
see towns located and lots selling at
high prices, you think that the end OF
the world has come. You have got the
what is more, you have got everything
else added to it. Your boom as you
call it, ought to be greater than it is.
for, you see, you had got the bulk OF the
work done before any booming was
started. You had your country built up
already.
"Out West. you sec, that isn't tho
case. The trouble out thcrc is that you
start town in ction where the farm
ing country isn't built up, and the town
grows faster than the country. Here
you've got fine, rich farming country,
thiclily settled and far ahead of any
town building that you may do for a
long time to come. Tho only wonder to
us is that you were so long finding out
how to build up and improve your coun-
try, and how little of it has been done
Now that you have taken it up, it is so
new that you think you are going hun
drcd miles an hour, and don't suppose
it will do any harm to let you think you
are"
GLOW came you to turn your eyes to-
wards this section to manufacture in ?"
was asked Mr.. Link"
well, you sec, up North especially
in the East, the people have grown rich
doing the manufacturing for your people
of the South, and we believed that the
time had come, and you people of the
South showed by your spirit that it had
come, for the South to have its manu-
features located right among it's own
people. If a man wants to make an axe
helve no don't take tho sapling up out
Of the woods and carry it two or three
hundred miles to get man to cut il and
dress it for a helvc-hc just cuts and
dresses it right in the woods where he
finds it. That's what the Southern
people are going to do hereafter. They
arc going to dress their own hclves right
in their own woods where they cut the
sapling, and we are here with our money
and our labor to join in tho business
with them.
There is big reason for what is
going on in your State. The time and
tho conditions have come when the
manufacturers have got to get nearer to
the raw material and to the new con-
sumcrs that have their homes in the
South. That is the big, round reason,
and these lot speculations are flies on
its surface that have been Matched out
by the prosperity. 1t will not be long
before the boomer will give way to the
man with the overalls on, who brings
permanent wealth with him wherever
he goes. The Southern country is the
coming country of the world"