The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-19


track railway connected it with the in
terror, it would remain as insignificant
as Morehead City is today, which has
fine harbor and is connected with the
interior by a State railway.
Before the railroad era, and when con-
ditions were much nearer to nature than
now, the force of the wagon borne traf-
fic in wide area proceeded along the
line of least resistance and found water
at Fayetteville, which is the head CT ma
vigation on the Cape Fear and the inland
end of the improvement now asked for.
BY reference to the map it will be seen
that Fayetteville lies so miles West of
line from Norfolk to Charleston. the
nearest existing 'tasing points for
freight rates. little to the West Of a
line from Richmond to Charleston; and
eli the line from New YORK to Savannah,
the normal coast line. Wagon borne traf-
fic. century ago, from Central and
Western North Carolina South West
crn Virginia arl North Eastern Soulh
Carolina. naturally, therefore, fixed upon
this town as it's port, for it was nearer
to them than any other. By striking
but entirely logical incidence, the ter
ritory whence this ancient traffic came
Is almost precisely the same as that
which this improvement would delimit
under the rule of equal railway charges
per ton per mile.
What we are asking, then, is not the
establishment of novel conditions, dis
turbing natural ones, but the restora-
ton of those as old as our civilization
and as natural as the flow of water.
These conditions have been changed
by circumst ances which 1t would con-
sumo too much of your time to Recount in
detail-antagonisms resulting from the
different origin of the immediate settlers
of the Cape Fear and the Albemarle
sections; errors of State policy,
as In the attempt to build up a great
port near the Eastern coast line; the
novelty of through railway trains which
the necessities of the Confederacy
caused to be established on North-and
South going railways; the partial de-
struction of the town by war in 1865; and
deforestation at the headwaters OF the
Cape Fear. which curtailed the boating
period in summer and rendered the river
an easy prey to those competing rail-
ways.
While these circumstances have re-
tarded the normal conditions in Fayette-
Vile, the same fierce competition which
has hammered out the unit of railway
transportation, has caused the estab-
lishment there of many thriving indus
tries-cotton mills, silk mills and the like
and the cheap freight rates which they
enjoy have turned the eyes of the State
again to this ancient capital. The result
is: the recognition of the geographical
peculiarities which | have referred to
and which arc more fully described in the
note APPENDED to the map which / have
submitted; the realization that except
approach be had through the port OF
Fayetteville, freight rates on equal terms
with those enjoyed by the people of other
Seaboard States are impossible for
North Carolina; and the embodiment OF
these facts in the unanimous resolution
of the General Assembly, asking for this
appropriation, which l presented to you
at the outset. i
Now, while it Is plain that the reasons
recited amply justify the State in ehel
present attitude toward this proposed
work, and while it is true that the gem
eral government has, by it's action in
taking over this river and making it a
national highway. undertaken the seri-
Gus responsibility of improving and de-
veloping it, il does not follow that it is
called upon to undertake a scheme of i'm
provement more costly than a reasonable
expectation of results would justify. We
have therefore made an estimate of these