The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-29


tages of it's situation as the Capital
of the State, it's magnificent schools
and colleges and it's unrivalled adapta-
biity as a residential city. These be
good things which have brought to-
gether> in the capital of the State a
PEOPLE that for culture, for general re-
finement, for the possession of pretty
homes, for all that goes to make a
city pleasant place to live in, cannot
be equalled on the continent Yet these
things should not be the destiny of a
city, but it's moral foundation. On
them should be built the great indus
tries, the wide-a-waKe business VEN
lures. that bring ambitious men be-
cause they see in the community a
chance of wealth. We have been con-
tent to grow slowly. Perhaps, in the
future, that may be seen to have been
q policy fraught with wisdom. We
have been conservative and have es-
capped disasters. Raleigh has not stood
still That statement is a libel. But,
in an excess of caution, she has looked
too long before taking the leap.
Now is the time for the leap to be
made. The ground work is here. The
money is here. The men are here in
business and in various enterprises
trained for the moment when the pro-
cession will begin to move. This is
no raw town of night with a capital
of energy and nerve. No city in North
Carolina is better prepared to foster
and take care of a true industrial
awakening. Raleigh desires no
boom" But the men she has, the
banks that are seeking investment, the
general if modest prosperity of her
citizens should be put together into
a movement that has for it's end some
thing more than a simple growth in
the sunshine. The Chamber of Com
merce, reorganized, put on n new basis
and with a determined policy, stands
ready to foster the new era. 1t only
waits for the people to learn one les
son: that big results follow only on
risks, and that risk is minimiZed when
a community takes it with confidence.
Just now the prospects are brighter
for the desired end than they have
ever been. The county, the township,
the city have prOspered. AS shown
from the tax returns the increase in
real and personal property in Wake
county was $45S,432 over 1904. while
the increase last year over 1903 was
only $215,075, the increase this year
being therefore twice that of the year
before, the total value of real and
personal property being $14,399,155.
This wealth is not doing what it
ought to be doing. That it is growing
steadily the tax returns eloquently
show. This available money should
be making smoke, it should
be reaching out throughout the
country through manufactured pro-
ducts of all sorts, bringing in more
dollars and building new factories. II
should be invested in real estate COM
panies. i'm building and loan companies
in insurance companies, both life and
fire, which would help to stop the
drain of other dollars to other States
and to other cities. In short, the
money that Wake county has, the
money that Raleigh has, should be en-
gagged in missionary work instead of
going to support the enterprises of
other cities that have already taken
the leap. The three or four cotton
factories now situated near the city
should be dozen, or two dozen; High
FONT should not continue her monop
civ of the furniture business; Green's
boros pre- emnence as an insurance
centre should be contested; Charlotte
should not be alone in the machinery
trade. These things look hard In
the telling, but they only await the
spirit to accomplish them. Quick men
SNAP" What town needs is new
blood, alert, busy men working out
their futures, men who have accumu-
lated, not fortunes necessarily, but
money to invest; men with experience
who are looking for help to aid them
to carry through big ideas That is
the class of folk who build town.
They don't grow, all of them, in the
city itself They come in from the
outside. they flock to the center of
activity. They are seeking co-opera-
ton. 1t doesn't need any prospectus
to get them All that they want is
to see a place "get busy" They wish
a spot in which to work off surplus
energy, in which to get rich them
selves. Such men get rich, not from
the town in which they settle but from
the outside. So it is that they enrich
the town. They get faith in the place
that helped them and are ready to
help others In such manner comes
the larger growth.
We believe that Raleigh is just now
about ready to seize on this inner
working of the spirit. There are signs
of gratifying restlessness. The
Glenwood company, which has ac
uuired hundreds of acres of beautiful
suburban property which will be made
into an ideal residential section, is an
evidence of the trend GlenWood is