Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-07-30
I'm OUR
VALLEY

cost less in Brownsville
Less than heretofore and less
than almost any place in Texas.
Good fire records, first class wa
ter system and many other things
already had contributed their mite
to bring the key rate down to II
cents with Is per cent good fire
record credit.
Then the modern fire alarm sys-
tenn was installed and additional
city streets were paved.
The key rate was cut to Is cents,
5 cents off, and the Is per cent
credit stands.
Leaving only San Antonio with
Il cents and Ell Paso with Is cent?
below Brownsville. Dallas has
rate of Is cents but her good rec
ord credit is only six per cent.
Fire insurance agents say the
limit has not been reached.
Brownsville may yet be known as
the city with the lowest rate in
Texas.
Building a water tower in Vic
toria Heights to increase the pres
sure in that part of the city will
bring a further reduction of to 3
cents in the key rate.
After that about the only i'm
provement possible will be to elm
mate frame buildings and Shingle
roofs from the business section of
the city. This is provided for n
the city building code but it will be
several years coming.
BUSINESS CONDITIONS in the
Valley, already fair, are improving
rapidly.
This in spite of the fact that the
cotton crop is going to be much
smaller than early prospects indi-
Gated.
The signs of improvement are
sem on every hand, but most pro-
ndNnced in new building opera
tionS.
Millions of dollars Of new con-
struction already under way or to
be started within the next few
days. And this likely will continue
for many weeks. Winter does not
stop building in the Valley.
Business buildings, school houses
and airport improvements lead in
Brownsville. San Benito and Har-
lingen both are to have fine new
schools and business buildings and
homes under construction in both
towns.
The Harlingen high school, one
of the finest in the South, already
contracted for and San Benito
planning to spend like sum, $780,
600.
Canning factories, citrus and
vegetable packing plants, cotton
gins, ice plants, new water filtra-
ton plants, homes and store build
ings are being reported under con-
struction from one end of the VAL
ley to the other. Good times ahead.
THE MOST DISTANT parts of
the United States eventually will
learn about the Valley and Valley
grapefruit.
AS yet many of the citizens Of
this great land are entirely ignor-
ant of the existence of the Lower
Rio Grande Valley and of the fact
that "the finest grapefruit in the
world" is grown right here.
But one midwest editor has been
educated.
1t all came about through a trip
10 Grand Rapids, Mich, of K. Has
ness, McAllen merchant.
While Mr.. HasneSS was in Grand
Rapids, the Press, daily newspaper
of that town exposed its entire ig-
norance of the Valley and, being
a real believer in his homeland, the
McAllenite set the editor straight.
But let the editor tell it himself.
Tcre is what he says:
HE PRESS in a recent issue
c6nnented that the Florida grape
fruit, whose infestation by the
Mediterranean. fruit fly has caused
a number of bank failures, was the
only really satisfactory grapefruit
grown anywhere except in "a few
western desert spots" It was think
ing of the territory around Yuma,
Arizona, and the Coachella desert
in California. A tall Texan visitor
with an infectious booster spirit
has dropped into the office to en-
large our view. 1t seems that down
in the Brownsville, Texas sector,
along the Lower Rio Grande, they
grow a grapefruit with "a higher
sugar content than any other
grapefruit grown in the United
States''-so sweet, in fact, that our
informant tells US putting sugar on
it is just like painting the lily. Get
this territory is so far south-six
hundred miles nearer the Byrd ex-
nedition tl.an Los Angeles-that its
output is consumed before it gets
farther north than Missouri and
kansas.
PEANUT PUSHING, originated
by Bill Williams of Rio 'ondo,