The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-03
Building Masonic Temple
the Growing Event.
WHAT RALEIGH NEEDS
With a, United Effort of Her People,
Great Progress Will be Made by
the Capital City During the
Year of 1904.

The year 1903 was year of growth ana
progress for Raleigh, though no single
great public work was inaugurated anc
carried to completion. But there was
steady advance all along the line and the
city begins New Year insfine shape. Be
low are the we'll considered views of Raj
eigh's outlook for 1904.
take an optimistic view of the New
Year and what ia has in store for Raj
eigh its progress, its prosperity and its
business interests.
We are assured the monetory fright,
which in the fall proved so disastrous
to Wall street and its stocks has passed,
thanks TO the South and its cotton. The
hundreds of millions of dollars added to
the value of our export trade by the
high price OF cotton has turned the tide
in our favor and brought gold again to
our shores. The South, Notwithstanding
the temporary arrangement of our milling
interests, is deriving the greatest benefit
from this situation.
The ratification of the treaty with
Panama, which is assured means the
canal will be built in the near future
While the South would have preferred
the Nlcaraguan route, the transcOnstit-
mental lines of the North, feeders to the
northern coast cities, would have pre-
ferred a continuance of the battle be-
tween the two, and assuredly all men Ct
probity and honor would have preferred
its construction with no stain on our
national escutcheon. But the canal will
be built and the tide of trade turned
southwark. making our Southern ports the
place OF shipment for our vast and greatly
increasing agricultural and manufacture.
ing products. The certainty of its early
completion will turn eyes of investors
Southwark before the close of the current
year.
l believe, with our natural advantages
our educational institutions, our excel
lent banking facilities, our Transports
ton lines, and the public spirit Of our
people, that Raleigh will reap her share
in the great industrial progress that is
spreading over the entire South, and is
destined to greatly increase.
Already steps are being taken in much
needed directions, and more are talked
oil by earnest men. The important I'm
pfovements now in progress looking to the
comfort and convenience of the travelling
public will remove one great barrier to
her progress. Raleigh needs yet another
hotel accommodation.
The new life infused into the Auditor
lem Company is another most import
ant step in the right direction. But our
public spirited citizens, who have cash,
must enlarge their subscriptions to the
stock of this company if we are to have
such an Auditorium as the present needs,
tc say nothing of what the future re-
quires.
The Masonic Temple will mean much
for the city. Not only will it be its hand
somest building, but it will greatly en-
large the number of modern and up to
date Offices available for business men.
There is no reason why Raleigh should
not then become the headquarters OF
every foreign insurance company doing
business in the State and the center
of all business which requires Home
Office" Its building here is assured, put
its early completion will depend on Raj
eigh's increasing her subscription to the
second mortgage bonds. I believe thi.
VIII be done.
At the next meeting of the Chamber
OF Commerce an address will be delivered
upon the advantages of Raleigh as an
advertising center. There is no city IN
the State equal to it in this respect. But
l will not anticipate our speaker.
Later the benefits which Raleigh and
the State University have derived from
locating the Medical Department of the
University in the city will be discussed
1t is now suggested that steps be taken
at once by the city to secure the loca-
tion of the Law Department of the Uni
versity and of Wake Forest at this place.
The great benefits to be derived by the
students pursuing their studies here,
where almost daily courts are in session,
from the highest to the lowest, and where
there is one of the finest law libraries
in the South, and the State and Olivia
Raney Libraries, instead of where these
advantages are not accessible, must be
apparent. The benefit to Raleigh needs
no comment.
is frequently said that each of Raj
eign's female colleges, to say nothing OF
the A. and NJ. College, and her business
college, is CT more financial benefit to the
city than a mill. Let us increase III
each.
The proposed enlargement of the Bap-
fist Female University will add greatly
II the ability of that institution, and our
city will derive corresponding benefit
The summer school at the college of
agricultural and mechanic arts is now
a fixture, and promises much to our
city during the coming summer, end more
as the years roll on.
These are mere sggestions of what is
Tow in sight. I shall be greatly disap-
pointed if a review one year from now
shall not mark the year 1904 as one OF
the most progressive and prosperous years
in the history of the Capital City.
THOMAS B. WOMACK,
President Chamber of Commerce.
Raleigh's progress during the year 1908
was not what it ought to have been.