The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-24
PEPPERS TRIP 10 ROANOKE
ROANOKE PAPER TALKS.
Visit There Too Brief to Show Hospitality as Southern
 CTS Gould Wish.

The visit of the Governors Foot ' Guard of Connecticut to this city, says the Roanoke Evening World, was all
 too brief to extend to them as large hospitality as the people of the city would have been glad to extend to them. Had time permitted, it would have been desirable to carry them in a body to some of the most attractive points around the city and in it's inn mediate vicinity to show them some l of the industrial operations now here and the favorable opportunity for many others in nearly all branches of industry. In our view of such occas- ions, no opportunity should be lost to present to such body of visitors not only the hospitality of feast for the inner man, gratifying merely his phy- sical appetite, but they should be pre- sented with such facts as exist to en- Tighten their minds upon the physical resources of the section which they are visiting and its opportunities for prof itable business enterprises. Int people of the north have never bee. fully in- formed as to the real resources Of the south. They have been led to believe tlat much of the larger part Of the south consists of Worn-ouI farming lands, with here and there perhaps a small indication of mineral deposits. To publish to such body ot men the fact, ro generally known by our own pcoI le, that during the yea 1906 the wealth of the south ir,cresset at the l rate of $7,S0O,OOO per day for every day of the year, or to tl.c amount of over $2, ,50O, LOGO for the year, and that of this vast sum the State of Virginia l contributed her full share, would have s helped to open their eyes to the trenaen- . dous growth of this section of the } country To have told them of the ] great water powers of the south, and ' the facility with which they can be 1 applied to the production and trans mission of electric power for manu- t featuring purposes, might have sug- !, gested to some of them further re- t search. To have given them some idea e of the great mineral deposits particu- z larly in Virginia and in close proximi- a ty to the city which was their host s would have been at least conveying in 9 formation which might be treasured s for use in the near future.
 -s To tell them that from the hills sur.
 rounding the city of Roanoke are pro. Il duced the finest apples, peaches and Y other fruits that grow in any section [ of the country, and that these fruit n are annually sought for shipment di' rectly to Europe from our station here
 would indeed be a revelation to many = of them, and the statement of simple
 truth that can be verified almost an.
 day during the shipping season, I
 might have been a surprise to every
 man in that organization to be inform
 ed that during the present year, ont
 man in one of the counties of south
 west Virginia engaged freight or
 steamers for 2500 beeves of choic
 quality, fattened for the markets G
 Europe upon his own lands; and tha
 in addition there are many otfer stool
 raisers who reularly sell the fattet
 stock to people who buy for export,
 It was probably matter of aston
 ishment to all who were informed o
 the fact that twenty-five years ago th
 very spot on which they were being en
 tertained was a. wheat Or corn field sur > rounding village at q railroad sta J ton, but now occupied by a population
 of near or quite 10000 more than $50 of whom are employed in various man
 ufacturing enterprises
 One gentleman of that company wa
 heard to remark that he had been s
 much impressed with what he had see
 of the surroundings that he felt tn
 very strongest desire to come back an
 spend not less than two weeks in rid
 ing over it on horseback. He had bee
 talking with some resident who ha
 told him something of the nature V wealth of resources of the immediat
 vicinity They were supplied wit
 copies of the brochure published fc
 distribution by the city, but that doe
 not fully supply the need of such a ,- occasion. True, our visitors were ( E pleasure bent, and were eager to mini
 ter to it, but men on such errands 0,
 ten get their greatest pleasure by
 combination of little business with