The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-09-07
NORTH CAROLINA THE BEST

~1A1lO1lN I1E BESI
The text from which his paper baa
preached a ermo almost every dav
for nearly half a century has been:
Stay in North Carolina" 1t has
shown that while a few of the dis
persed abroad have won great success
most Of those who have, gone would
have done better at home.
Twenty years ago there was a great
fever to "go West" in North Carolina
and this State lost many of its best
young men. That fever was raging
also before the war. There are now
more than 25O,O native born North
CarOlinianS living in other States. The
tide outward has been checked. Our
boys are staying at home and making
the old State blossom and whir with
moving machinery. Those who went
years ago have a mind to return.
Some nave returned. The Rutherford
ton SUI this week gives good reasons
and an object lesson that clinches all
the sermons to North Carolinians to
give their lives to the development Of
their own State. We quote:
Some weeks since Mr.. J. Edgar Ell
lott left us to make a trip through the
West and Southwest. He was not a
stranger to hat section, as he lived
there for three years up to about
twelve month ago, and to be truthful.
liked that country and wanted to see
it again possibly, with a view to in
VeStlng. He went out by way Of
Memphis, Tenn, Pin Bluff, Ark, and
Texarkana-going four undred miles
into Texas.
MY. Elliott is an observant. keen
eyed business man, and not one given
to exaggerated statements. The de-
scription he gives of the northeastern
and central part of Texas is almost 4
distressing one.
Going into the State from TeXar-
kama, he says everything is burned up.
Even the timber in many places is
dead. In some parts of the State there
has been, as he was Informed, no rain
since last January. Imagine what that
means, in a country where the sun
blazes, and the wind half the time is
sufficient to raise the dust. The writer
spent a year in Texas in 1891. There
was not a drop of rain in the black
belt from June 29th to October of
that year. How we sweltered travelling
that summer all over the State, is not
a pleasant recollection.
Mr.. Elliott says he. was told by
booiiICSS lis u IyISI, JdChSoINIiIt
ald Nacogdoches, Texas, that there
would be thousands Of people in cen
trail and west Texas that would have
to be furnished God for next year
Does anybody eve recall a time,
unless possibly during the Civil War,
when any section of Old North Caro-
lima ever was in that condition?
Mr.. Elliott has come home, and
to stay. It is full time that our
people had learned to appreciate the
advantages Of North Carolina-espe-
cially our young people. The writer
seen much of the West and South"
west. Every section has, OF course, its
W special advantages and disadVan-
But for the hundredth time
he writes it down that, taken all IN
this belt in the Old
State is the most favored region
OF which he has knowledge.
Mr.. Elliott, too, has Travelled all
over the South and West. He thinks
our people SHOULD cut up their large
into small farms-make
these small farms models of intelligent
known by adVertis-
Ing the advantages of our State. and
invite population and investment
say our righteous prayers in thank
fulness night and morning-gO to
church with wife and children every
sunday, and join in all the doxolo-
gies."