The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1921-07-28
RAILROAD MAN
ASKS FOR DATA

The following interesting letter has
just been received by the Glacier from
Jesse M. Jones, general development
agent for the Seaboard Air Line Rail
way Company. Mr.. Jones, whose head
quarters are at Norfolk, Va, says:
Editor Glacier: On a recent Sun
day, | was in Hood River, accompanied
by Mr.. C. l.. Smith, better known per-
haps as Farmer Smith, agricultural
agent of the Union Pacific Railroad, to
look over your valley and see some of
the general conditions there. We were
the host of Mr.. Leslie Butler, who
drove us about the valley and showed
US many wonderful things therein.
am on an extended trip through
the North, Northwest and West study
ing methods of land development and
settlement, and how business men and
farmers get together to finance agri-
cultural development, and to produce,
handle and market their products CO.
operatively
Our road. which is about four thou
sand miles long, traversing six states.
Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama and Florida, carries a portion
of the Hood River apples to the mar
kets of the Southeast We buy them
there at ten cents piece or two for
fifteen cents, so | naturally felt that
must spend some time seeing the con-
ditions under which these were pro-
duced. have been greatly pleased to
find many of the Florida grapefruit
which are produced along our line be-
ing used in the Northwest. This year
we will have many millions of boxes
of citrus fruit in Florida so you see
we have many things in common; GER
tainly in the way of exchange of COM
modities.
With Mr.. Butler we visited the Riv
erside church and were greatly pleased
| to learn of the community effort that
is manifested there. We should have
more of it everywhere. We then had
dinner at the Columbia Gorge Hotel,
an institution which certainly does
credit to Hood River and is a great at
traction there. Next we drove for
several hours over the highways and
byways of the valley, looking at orch
ards, going through them and talking
with the growers. We stopped consid-
erable time with Mr.. James r. Nuna-
maker, who told US his methods of pro-
ducing and handling crops. Time and
again the auto was stopped SO that /
could view the splendor of Hood River
on the one hand and the beauty of
Mount Adams on the other. The
mountains skirting the valley on either
side, the great wooded gorge in the
center with the tablelands covered
with orchards, and here and there
spires of poplar and fir marking the
comfortable homes of the growers,
caused me to realize why the Hood
River folk are proud of their valley.
All this, learned, was supported by
highest standards of production and
marketing, and backed by principle
and fair dealing worthy of the day on
which visited your town and vicinity.
The territory our railroad serves has
eighty million acres of available agri-
cultural lands, much of which is of
splendid fertility, near markets, and
some day will be turned into verit
able garden. There are not sufficient
people there now to man it. My visit
was to learn how your vicinity had
succeeded, and to carry some of the
best methods back with me and apply
them where conditions fitted. | was
y
have room for expansion, and that your
Young men and women can be taken
care of for years to come.
When | started this letter | did not
intend to write you as | have, but to
express my regrets for not seeing you
and your colleague to learn how it came
about that your paper and his were
awarded first and second prizes, re-
spectively, for the best general news
papers for a rural community by the
Editorial Association of your state.
would like to know your program with
reference to the agricultural, the coun-
ty, the community and the city devel-
opment respectively, and the basis on
which the award was made. Will.you
not also give me the name of the chair
man, or president, of your State Edi-
torial Association, so that | may write
to him for information on this general
subject. | am interested in this, be-
cause | know the great value of live !
newspaper to the community in which
it lives.
shall return to my Office by August
5th or 7th, and will be anxious to have
your reply. | congratulate you and
your contemporary on the distinctions |
which you have achieved.