The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-07-10
Grdanville and Hendersonville

could look down sheer precipice
for several hundred feet, while al
most as far as the eye could reach
there spread out before the vision
beautiful green valleys dotted here
and there with SMALL settlements of
mountain folk. The scenery was ty-
pical of western North Carolina,
which it is said, equ; Is that of almost
any country in the world.
Returning from Hendersonville the
party barely had time to refresh
themselves before they were seated
at banquet table in the, large din
ing room at The Imperial Hotel. Here
they were joined by many of Green
ville's representative business and
professional men who helped to make
the evening one of the pleasantest of
the many pleasant occasions crowded
into the three days program.
The Piedmont is a great manufac-
turing centre. 1t has so many manu-
featuring enterprises that one is
scarcely out of sight of smoke
stack during a railway journey of
hundred miles or more. 1t reminds
one of the great manufacturing Sec
tion one finds on ride in rail-
way train from Albany to Buffalo, N.
Y. Paralleling the Southern Railway
from Spartanburg to Greenville is the
Piedmont Northern electric line,
known locally as the "Inter-urban.
This is a trolly line that runs from
Gastonia, N. c., to Anderson, S. c., a
distance of about 125 miles. 1t oper-
ates steel coaches from SO to 60 feet
in length and maintains a schedule
of 80 to 40 miles an hour. The Inter-
urban has contributed largely to the
of the Piedmont section.
1t has brought town and country to-
gether.
A visitor from the Pee Dee section
to the Piedmont section wonders why
the former is so far behind the latter
in the matter of industrial develop
ment. You can count the number of
cotton mills in the Pee Dee, on
the ends of your fingers. This no
doubt is due to the fact that the Pee
Dee has wonderful natural resources.
Agriculturally speaking, it is the gar
den spot of South Carolina. The fer
tile lands have not made it necessary
for us to build industries in order to
find an outlet for the peoples ener-
sies. Lands were so productive that
fortunes could be wrung from the soil
with less effort, and following the
ines of least resistance, we have
made agriculture the leading industry
Of the Pee Dee. If we had in ad-
1ition to our fertile lands, half the
Industries one finds in the Piedmont
he Pee Dee would be the greatest
section in South Carolina. And right
here it may not be out of order to
Jay that we cannot hope to develop
much more as section until We be-
lin to build manufacturing plants.
Dur lands have about reached their !
highest point of productivity and if
We are to add to the wealth and pop
llation of the Pee Dee we must build
that will convert our raw
materials into the finished product.
We dream of net work of trolly and
lines reaching out over
he Pee Dee and supplying energy for
he further development Of our Won
erful resources, but these things
Till not come until We show that we
ave faith enough in our section to
ack such enterprises with our own
ollars. There must be in all things
day of beginnings, and there is no ::
etter time than the present to turn
ur attention to the development of
hose enterprises which VIII not only
Increase the wealth of our section but
rovide employment for a rapidly in
reasing population that must seek an
utlet for its energies in other fields
II remain at home in a state of in
.olence.
Without the aid of highly produc-
i've lands the people of the Piedmont
lave dug from the soil enough wealth /
o make the Piedmont the leading
manufacturing section Of the. state.
With our fertile lands that produce
10 abundantly with so little effort
Why shouldn't we take from the soil
enough wealth to dot every hillside
md meadow with an industry that /
will convert our raw materials into
he finished product?