The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-07-18


The Yankee then sswent back" and gave
a man $3.50. 90 to cut the tree and put it on
board the cars at Waynesville, and, as it
lay on the cars before it was moved, he
sold it for 81 10000 There is simply no
telling HON much money the purchaser
made out of his treasure after shaving 1t
up into veneering in some northern FUR
niture factory, for sometime after he came
back and paid $4,000 for the stump ard
dug it up by the roots. And there have
been and are still thousands of such trees
all over this section, but the ruthless
timber hunter is Staying them rapidlyand
their owners are selling them for mere
song without the dance thrown in. All over
this mountain country, from the foot of
the Blue Ridge on the east to the Great
Smoky range on the Tennessee line, in
every town We have been, at every station
along the road, there are great stacks
of tan bark. All along the road were teams
hauling tan bark. We have seen trees
that would make $4,000 worth of lumber
each left on the ground to rot, stripped of
their bark and the bark taken from the
tree did not bring the man who stripped
it off more than $3.50 or $500, delivered
at the station. OF course, where the tree
is utilized it is economy to sell the bark
too. 1t was this ruthless stripping OF the
magnificent forest trees that so shocked
Secretary Wilson when on his recent trip
here that he simply stood aghast. gen.
tleman told us that only short while ago
he saw man, in order to clear field,
cut down forest of the finest kind OF
walnut timber, roll it into heaps and burn
it. Oh, the sin of such Ignorance! How
can such men as these expect their chill
dren to rise up and call them blessed?
If Congress doesn't accept Secretary Will
sons recommendation and establish here
national park for the preservation of
our forests, can't the great State of North
Carolina enact some legislation to prevent
the destruction of timber? The work of
Mr. George Vanderbilt in buying up and
fencing in 10000 acres of land and of
the Taxaway Company in preserving $4,000
acres, and of like companies is doing much
in the right direction, but the wholesale
buying up of these timbered lands by
Northern capitalists is not q solution of
the question, for all they want is to go
into an even greater wholesale destruc
ton. What we want is to preserve intact
this great wealth for our own people I'M
intelligent use of their own, and no one
feels more keenly the necessity of such
a consummation than the intelligent peo-
pie of this section. What they want is
the National Park and they are striving
with might and main to get it. 1t is II
matter of congratulation that Secretary
Wilson announces that he will recon-
mend to Congress to establish it.
A COUNTY RICH IN MINERALS.
Sylvia is small but growing town on
the railroad where you want to alight
from the train and drive out to Webster
and then back to Dillsboro a town two
miles further down the railroad in time
for the next down going train, thereby |
working all three towns in day. Web |
ster is the county seat of Jackson county |
1t is only four or five miles from the |
railroad and small unpretentious town.
but is filled with some of the best people |
that live in North Carolina. They have |
great faith in the resources of their ma |
tive county and all they want is capital |
to make this lovely country, rich in
natural resources, rich in money. Jack /
son county has possibly more rich mineral |
deposits than any other county in the |
nickle, tale. kaolin and other minerals, |
besides quarries of marble, granite and |
other building stones. The most noted |
mine probably, is the great Kaoln mine,
near Webster, on the TuGkaseegee (these |
People pronounce the last two sylables |
separately and accent them. just as you |
would pronounce this: (Tucky C. CD |
river. The kaolin of this mine is about |
as pure as is found in nature, and the |
supply is inexhaustble.' We did not |
learn who owned the mine nor what |
property rights the parties who are
operating it have, but the crude dirt from
this mine is carried down on a tram road |
TO Dillsboro, where ii is loaded on cars |
and shipped over mountains, through tun-
nels and away to Connecticut, where it Is |
manufactured into porcelain, and the |
finest kind of chinaware. Indeed it is |
said that the factory to which it is ship |
Fed depends principally upon this mine
for its kaolin. Now this tram road runs |
all the way right beside the Tuckaseegee
river down to Dillsboro, and this large !
river goes rolling and tumbling right down
bill all the way--one of the finest water |
powers in the world. Coal is as cheap |
here as in Connecticut, wood is simply no |
item, here are the railroad facilities, and
nowhere in the world can labor live as
cheap as here. Now the question natur- |
ally arises: why not build the factory
here and save the freight on the waste
dirt that one thousand miles, We asked
several parties the question and two an
swers were given. One was that Con-
necticut is the disseminating point for the
finished product. and that THE difference
in the freight rates on carloads of crude
dirt and breakable crockery is so great
that it is cheaper to ship the dirt, which
is almost pure kaolin than it is to ship
crockery. Another reason given was that
the labor employed in the manufacture
here Of fine chinaware is of such a high
order that it is impossible to get it to
locate where there are no social advan-
tages. Both of these arguments are un-
satisfactory. Practically these same
arguments we're once used against our
cotton mills. We were told that we would
never manufacture cotton in the South,
because we didn't have the labor, but we
have seen that Southern people have as
much native intellect as Northern people,
and today we are with our own labor