The farmer and mechanic., 1913-01-07
THE SERVICES OF
JOHN NJ. MOREHEAD
A Governor Of North Carolina Who
Was Also an Architect and buiI0er
Of Public Works.

of Public Works.
Address nv =. u. W. CONNOR Upon
the Presentation Of Bust Of Gov
.rnor Morehead to the State Oy the
North Carolina Historical Commls-
sion.
Along the line Of the North Carolina
Railroad, from its eastern terminus at
Goldsboro TO its western terminus AT
Charlotte, lie eleven counties en-
bracine six thousand square miles OF
territory. now one of the most pros |
porous and productive regions IN
North Carolina During the decade
from 1910 to 1850, perhaps no other
state on the entire Atlantic seaboard
could have exhibited a stretch OF
country of equal area which presented
TO the patriotic citizen SO dlscourds-
ing prospect or so hopeless an out
look. Such "a citizen traverslns TINS
region would have found public roads
and methods of travel and transpor-
tation that were primitive When
George III claimed the allegiance OF
the American colonies. Delays, IN
conveniences, and discomforts were
the least Of the evils that beSet the
traveller who entrusted his life and
limbs to the public conveyances OF
that period. The cost of transporta-
ton was so great that the profits or
one half the planters crops were con-
sumed in getting the other half to
market. and hundreds Of them found
it profitless 10 produce more than
their own families could use. In 1888
a traveller, within thirty miles or the
state Capital. saw three thousand
barrels of an article worth a dollar
and a half a barrel in New York
thrown away, mere heap Of useless
offal, because il would cost more TO
transport II than it would be worth
Under such conditions there could
be, of course, no commerce, and With
out commerce no markets. Such COM
merce as the produce of the fertile
valleys and plateaux Of the Pied
mont section created found its way
to the markets of Virginia and South
Carolina, and among the people who
dwelt west Of Greensboro, declared
Governor Morehead in 1912, "CheraW,
Camden, Columbia, Au-
gusta and Charleston are much more
familiariy known than even Fayette-
Vile and Raleigh" In all the region
from Goldsboro to Charlotte, Raleigh,
then a Struggling country village, was
the only town Of sufficient Importance
to be noted in the United States CEN
sus Of 1850. This section. now the
heart of the manufacturing region OF
the South, reported TO the census
takers Of that year no other manu-
factures than a handful OF home
made articles valued at $396,473
The social and labor systems upor
which the civilization OF the State
was founded confined the energies O1
the people almost exclusively to agri
culture yet their farming operation!
were SO crude and unproductive tina
"A traveller, commenting on the agri
culture in the vicinity Of Raleigh
found it "a mystery how town O
$500 inhabitants can obtain sufi1cien
SlnnlieS from ii TO exist This wa
not the view merely Of an unsympa
thetic stranger. Calvin II. Wiley, at
tempting to arouse his fellow-mem
bers of the Legislature of 1882, from
referring to the magnificent capitol,
in which they sat, exclaimed, "Bu
what is the view from these porticoes
and what do we see as we trave
hither? Wasted fields and decayin
tenements: long stretches Of siien
desolation with here and there a rude
ly cultivated farm and a totterin
barn."
But more forcible than any othe
evidence, because incontrovertible,
census. The census reports Of 1S4
show that nearly one-third Of til
adult white population of the Stat
could neither read nor write. Th
population OF the State was at a Stan(
still. From 1880 to lS40 thirty-tw
Carolina lost in population, while tt
increase in the State as a whole ":
less than 2.5 per cent. The best bloc
Of North Carolina, refusing to remaj
At home and stagnate, was flowing
q steady stream into the vast and fe
tile regions Of the South and Wes
and that brain and enerev whit
should have been employed in d
veloping the resources of North Car
lima was being forced to seek an ou
let In other regions where it we
to lay the foundations Of Alabam
Mississippi. and Texas. of Ohio,
linoia and Indiana. Dr. Wiley "
guilty Of no exaggeration when he d
ciared that North Carolina had 10
been regarded by her own citizens
q mere nursery to grow up in; th
the State had become q great cam
mg ground on which the inhabital
were merely tenanted for a whi
and that thousands were aEnua
seeking homes elsewhere whose sac
0ces in moving would have paid
twenty years their sh8re of taxatj