The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-10-23
A GREAT CITY park
Judge Clark Makes Four In
teresting Suggestions
An Air Line Railroad to Washington, Extension
Of Mills Road To Fayetteville. A Great
Park, and Extension Of Boundary.

J%osephus Daniels, Esq, President Cham-
Der of Commerce.:
In answer to your inquiry, what steps
would advance the interest of the city
of Raleigh, it would easy to point out
many, but l will mention three or four
of those most apparent.
!. An airline railroad from this city
connection with our nearest seaport.
Such a railroad would be about 100 miles
in length and would pass through or near
Wilson and Greenvi1le. and a most fertile
greater part of it's length run through a
very level country and would require light
grading. BY giving the interior of the
State water connection with New York
and all foreign ports, it would make Raj
eigh a competing point and materially
reduce freight rates, which are far higher
over Southern railroads than over any
others in the Union discrimination
which is doing more to retard the pro-
gress and development Of the South than
all other causes combined. Cheap trans
portation is the first element of progress.
At some future day, the airline from
Washington, N. c., once completed would
extend itself from Raleigh to Salisbury,
through Pittsboro and Asheboro, shorten
ing the distance to that and all points
west of it some 80 miles.
2. The railroad now running down
| through southern Wake should be ex-
| tended to Fayetteville, some 60 miles
from Raleigh, thus giving us for most of
the year the competition of water rates
at our nearest river port. Mr.. Mills,
the public-spirited manager of that road,
is already giving the public a rate of
one cent per mile for passenger, proving
that he is up-to-date. With water COM
petition at both Fayetteville and Wash
ington, N. c., the consequent reduction
of rates to Raleigh and adjacent terri
tory would give us an advantage which
e%ighWould quickly double our population.
8. Another necessity for the growth of
the city is a great park, such as all pros
porous cities possess. This work should
be laid out now, for it takes time. The
| city is grateful to the late StanhOpe Pull
len, who Except Mr.. Raney) was the most
liberal citizen in his donations to the
city whom we have had, for his donation
of Pullen Park, but what he started can
be largely added to. Any one who will
climb to the upper story of the main
building at the State Agricultural and
Mechanical College and look out south
east, will see a vast body of forest land,
reaching from the Hillsboro road clear
across to the Rhamkatte road, which is
largely unoccupied, unimproved, and in
accessible. This land is in one c%ontigu-
Gus tract and belong to the State and
the city. It is composed of the lands of
the Hospital for the Insane, the peniten-
tiary, Pullen Park and the A. and M. Col
lege. 1T would not interfere with the
use of these lands for their present uses
ii by act Of the Legislature the whole
were thrown into one great park and
opened up to the public by carriage drives
and footpathS from end to end, laid out
with an eye to beauty by competent land
scape gardeners, the underground clear
ed away and the ground SOWn with blue
grass. 1t would cost the State nothing
and the addition of so large and hand
some a park to the city would add to It's
a1tractiveness. The State has now near
ly 2,G00, 600 inhabitants which will in
crease with each coming year. Steps
should be taken that the capital city o
so great a people should always be {
source of pride to them. We must pla1
for the generations that are to follow us
if we wish a title to their remembrance
and gratitude.
4. Lastly Raleigh does not figure a!
high as it should in the list of cities
because, probably, a third of it's popula
ton live outside of the city boundaries
designated several decades ago. Will,
this suburban population enjoy the ad
vantages of the city, they contribute moth
ing to the support of it's government no
to it's figures in the census. If the Boar,
of Commerce should ask an extension o
our limits, there can be no doubt tina
our two able and progressive represen
tatives-Messrs. B~roughtOn and Simms-
could, with such backing procure the pas
sage of this much-nended measure.
Clark.