The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-11-13

wait, and wake up at the close Of this
decade to find dozen cities in the State
distancing our city in population.
WHAT WE HAVE FAILED TO DO.
At the risk of being called a pessimist
or a croaker, / feel that it is my duty
upon retiring from the presidency
tonight to speak rather more of what we
should do and what we have failed in
doing than to merely give the figures
4 and not very flatterng ones-of what we
have done.
WHAT RALEIGH NEEDS.
Raleigh needs more people of brains.
| muscle, money, skill 1t needs more
industries to give employment to labor
1t needs wholesale houses to make this
city a distributing point 1t needs a
modern hotel with all the modern con-
venienees to cater to the ever increas-
ing army of Northern people who spend
their winters in the South 1t needs to
| buy all the cotton of the farmers Of the
adjacent country and thereby secure the
country trade that naturally belongs to it,
| 1t needs to establish a tobacco market
to erect stemmeries, prize houses, facto-
ries and to put an end to forcing Wake
county farmers to carry their tobacco to
smaller towns in adjoining counties,
whereby those towns reap the large trade
that legitimately belongs to Raleigh. 1t
needs good roads leading in every sec
| tion of the country that will draw trade to
| Raleigh. 1t needs canneries to make
trucking and gardening more profitable.
1t needs railroad to reach the Eastern
section of the county. 1t needs new
theatre with suitable stage and curtains
and modern facilities for presenting the
/ best plays. 1t needs an auditorium that
will seat three thousand people, There
are other needs but these are most press
, ing and are vital to the fuller and COM
! pleter growth of the city, and necessary
| if Raleigh is to attain the position Of
primacy which it's position gives it the
opportunity to reach.
THE AUDITORIUM.
| A year ago it seemed certain that the
needed auditorium would be built. On
| ly seven thousand dollars is needed to
| give the city such an auditorium as
| would attract and hold all conventions
! and make it easy to have great musical,
religious and other gatherings that would
attract mutitudes to this city 1t is
|
see this enterprise hating for the lack
| OF few thousand dollars. Can it be
| possible that the men of wealth in Raj
j eigh will stand still until they see Rail
| eigh lose the conventions and great
| gatherings which have been held in the
capital city since the city was establish
/ ed? Il is easier now to hold them and
attract others than it will be to regain
thnr,, ftav. I, 1x.,x l.
1 willingness to provide a suitable audito-
rum. Is there no city pride pocket deep
that will act now before the threatened
/ blow falls? There is money enough in
Raleigh to provide this auditorium before
tomorrow night, and the investment
would prove profitable May we not APP
! peal with confidence to the property own
ers, the business and professional men,
who are all vitality interested to provide
the $1,000 needed to secure the audito-
| rum?
| TOBACCO MARKET NEEDED.
| During the past year. seeing that the
tobacco warehouses would be forced to
close unless something was done. pro-
gressiye members of this organization and
other live citizens, undertook to raise
the necessary amount to establish q
! Stemmery in Raleigh. 1t did not require
large capital, but the necessary money
could not be raised. What was the re-
suit? The warehouses which presented a
busy scene in Raleigh a few years ago
are closed. and the men who struggled
vainly without the necessary co-opera-
tion to establish and maintain tobacco
market in Raleigh, were forced to go to
smaller towns which sell millions of
! pounds Of tobacco annually, being large
ly enabled to do so by the investment of
capital in warehouses, stemmeries, prize
houses and factories. The Raleigh mar
ket opened hopefully years before pound
OF tobacco had been sold in Louisburg,
Wilson, Kinston or Rocky Mount These
smaller towns have grown rapidly in
every way their prosperity and growth
being almost entirely dependent upon TIE
big tobacco industry. 1t is painful to
make comparison between the capital of
the State and these smaller towns,
but unless Raleigh moves at once
and earnestly to establish it's to-
large portion of the trade that has Civ
en- 1t its wealth. During the months of
October and September of this year there
on the streets s91 900 in round numbers
| for 2,7S4 bales of cotton. During the
same period of 1900, there was paid ont
in Raleigh $290,000 for 7,19S bales of cot
ton-showing a deficit of 100000 over
last year or $4,000 per day. Most of this
$4,000 would have been spent in Raj
eigh and found it's way into general cir
culation. No foresight could prevent this
loss in the size of the cotton crop, though
Raleigh ought to buy cotton raised in it's
natural territory that is carried to other
towns and sold there. Every bale that
Raleigh loses which should naturally he
sold in the city means a loss of trade
because. the farmer buys his goods where
he sells his money crop. The loss of this
5000, 900 in two months must affect adj
versely every interest in Raleigh for it
has no other source from which to make
good this loss. While the cotton crop
this year has been short and the prices
are low. the prices of tobacco have been
10 hon oil hou