The daily times., 1921-08-04
A GRE4TER NORTH CAROLINA.
BY
Miss F.. VI. Berry, Secretary, North
cs-1lics- Coed Roads AsSo-
cLALOM
A Short Address DeliSered at the
Noeih Carolina Press COnven-
tion at Morehead City,
July o, 1921.

This press convention has for its
aim a worthy object. North Carolina.
while not a large state as compared
with some OF the others. stretches
from the seacoast on the east across
the piedmont plateau and on beyond
a distance of approximately 500 miles
over three distinct photographic re-
gions. Physical barriers and lack OF
adequate transportation agencies and
facilities have isolated many sections
Of the State and the people of these
sections are familiar only in gener-
al way with the resources and posi-
bilities, aims and achievements of
that this Press Association, when it
undertakes to discover all parts of
the State to all other parts has as
sumed a worthy task and one which
should command the support of all
true North Carolinians. Perhaps no
other agency can more effectively
lead the way in this undertaking
than the newspapers OF the State. AS
program and travel and communica
tion between the people of the vari-
GUS sections of the State becomes
freer, the problems OF knowing
simpler.
But 1t seems to me that there is a
need not only of discovering North
Carolina to North Carolinians, but
OF making known the States great
resources and possibilities to the out
side world
1 have thought for a long time
that there should be some statewide
agency whose purpose should be to
advertise North Carolina, as it were,
both within and without her borders.
How few of us have enjoyed the
grandeur and beauty of Lihville or
Crabtree or Grassy Creek Falls of
Avery and Mitchell counties and the
countless other exquisitely beautiful
falls and cataracts which festoon the
mountains in other sections of the
Blue Ridge? To most of us western
North Carolina means Asheville or
Waynesville or Hendersonville or
similar resorts which have been
widely advertised; and yet there are
vast areas in northwestern and south
western Carolina more charmingly
beautiful and possessing greater po-
tentialities than any of these, await
'ng only vision and imagination to
eognize their hidden possibilities
nd the magic touch Of capital to re-
ease them for human benefit and
.nan enjoyment. To most of us the
;-ches and beauties Of eastern Caro-
ma are closed book To the aver
Piedmonter or mountainese. the
coastal plain brings vision of mos
qultos, swamps and super-heated
climate. And yet to the favored ones
who have Ssited the land of the
Chowan, or the Cape Fear or the
Neuse or the Pamlico, there is con
Jured up visions of mighty rivers and
sounds stretching into a horizon rim
med with primeval forests, a land OF
pleasure and profit to the agricul-
turfst, to the hunter, to the pleasure
seeker. Many of these rivers are
banked with bluffs covered in spring
time with laurel and other flowers
Craggy or Grandfather. Along these
streams nestles our oldest civilization
rich in tradition and story. and TODAY
are found the old colonial homes sur-
rounded by their broad acres of in
tensfvely cultivated lands. In the
northeastern and central eastern
counties there Is perhaps the high
est percentage of cultivated acreage
Win the highest average yield to the
acre OF any section of the state. Most
OF US know little of that great section
and they have little knowledge of
the balance of the State. Their crops
go to Norfolk and their money is de-
posted In Norfolk banks; their social
and economic ties are mainly with
virginia. No effort up to the present
time has been made to tie in this
unDei1evably rich section and its
splendid people with the balance of
the State.
me rich muck and alluvium of
the drained swamp acreas of Hvda
ana beaufort, Washington and TYR
rell and other counties of the coastal
pain are being appreciated more nv
tne New York, Norfolk. Boston and
ohio capitalists than by the moneved
men OF North Carolina. Corporation |
farming came into being in these
sections through foreign capital and !
brain rather than through tho i... /