The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-12
HARBORs MOST NEEDED.
Will North Carolina Ask Anything
For Hersalf i'm The National Con-
yention, or Make Known her Wants
in the State Convention!

|
vention, or Make Known her Wants
in the State Convention?
To the Editor: In matters that re-
late to the good of the state, ulodesty
is naroly virtue. Inc Nt I.,sl al,
used to have a man indicted VINO ala
not have civic virtue enough to take
sides on public question. III; curry
said at Chapel Hill once that ne was
| surprised that the audience ulu not
| applaud a certain sentiment Oh MS,
and he proceeded to reiterate 1t un-
til almost everybody applauoed. 4
was surprised that this Suggestion
that North Carolina make known her
wants in the coming State and Ma
tional Conventions did not receive a
second. 1t will be observed that l
did not ask for any office Tor the
| State, though l will stop long enough
| to say that l think il the Federal
judiciary is to be one OF the issues,
Mr.. Josephus Daniels will run IKE
streak OF creased lightning Tor sec
ond place on the ticket. But l want
something for North Carolina more
| substantial than office. L want TO see
her put in her political platforms
| demand that the nation Spenu TOT ner
some of her forty or fifty mllllon uol-
| lars that we are giving every year
directly and indirectly, for the up
| building of other sections OF the
Union. The national government is
now collecting and spending, mostly
in the North, about eight hundred
million dollars of taxes a year, be
sides what it is allowing the great
corporations to collect and not spend.
Thomas H. Benton claimed that the
States of North Carolina, Virginia,
South Carolina and Georgia had con-
| tributed eight hundred million DOL
| lars toward the wealth of the North
ern States before the year 1880. The
only way to tell how much these
States and the others in the South
| have contributed since 1S30-dlrect-
| iy or indirectly, is to assess all the
| taxable values of the North and find
the difference between them and the
taxable value of the property IN the
| South.
/ am sorry to say this does not
| get it all because some hundreds OF
| millions have been married out OF
the United States to save from bank
ruptcy effete nobility in Europe. Thls
marrying away of our wealth is
new method of alienation not sufh-
GENTLY defined in the law. books.
But coming back to the subject
my idea is to demand a million or
two for North Carolina to improve
our seacoast facilities, to deepen our
rivers, make us some harbors ana
cut at least one canal, the cutting of
which would enable the United States
to pay us back something hlH a
hundredth part of what we have con-
tributed to the national treasury in
the past few" years.
Everybody will observe that / can
not be accurate in figures. The sub
ject of taking from thirty to fifty
million dollars out of the State every
year in the form of taxes and eXorbl-
tant freights and fares is apparently
of such small concern to our people
that nobody knows how much we are
actually losing. Nobody is trying to
get up any statistics that | know.
I have heard the amounts we are
losing by the internal revenue tax
alone estimated at from five to ten
million dollars, and it may be, if the
national government is collecting
eight hundred millions a year that
five or ten millions would be our fair
share, if that We're all, and the IN
ternal revenue. would be the best
means of paying it,
About sixty years ago the state
employed an engineer to ascertain
and report upon the costs of opening
an inlet in the Banks opposite to
the Albemarle Sound, and the report
was favorable. Nobody ever hears of
such improvements now.
Experts say that a great harbor at
Morehead City is practicable at no
very great cost. If our State LegiS-
lature has ever Endorsed the propo-
sition / am not aware of it. good
harbor at Morehead would mean
swift steamers from Europe to bear
away our fruits and vegetables. The
profits of what we make must be-
long to other States and their cities
until we can have provided facilities
for the shipment from our own har-
bors.
More interest has been excited con-
corning this eastern section of North
Carolina in the last three or TOUR
wears than / have known in the last
twenty-five. Syndicates are now anxl-
Gus to buy the only road from central
Carolina to the sea, because a mar
Dor at Morehead City, which a united
people could easily obtain, would in
crease the value of that road many
fold. The harbor cannot be very
long postponed One strong man IN
Eastern Carolina believing the propo-
sition would make it an accomplished
fact in five years. A live railroad
syndicate in charge of the muilet
road" with no rival or hostile in
terests would make the harbor an ac-
complished fact in a short time; and
the State should see to it that the
road does not fall into the hands or
those whose interests are to retard
or destroy all harbor facilities on our
coasts
If the United States will not, then
the State ought to make harbor at
Morehead City-at least, begin 1t and
begin to talk about it and 1t Will
soon be done or begun in earnest.
The State has spent twenty million
dollars west of Raleigh in the last
quarter of a century, and not MIL
lion for permanent improvements east
of Raleigh. Is it not time to begin
to help the fairest part of our heri-
tage?
w. J. PEELE.
Raleigh, N. c., June ~.