The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-01-19


EDITOR.
Hendersonville, n. c., r, 2.
January 16, 1885.
Editor, The Times-News:
| have read the three letters OF
Walter Smith, Mr.. Whitesides and
Mrs. Ralph Edney of 18th issue
of your paper and was much in
terested in reading them, in par
ticular, Mrs. Edney's letter. 1t IS
possible that our female sect of
this county are greater financlers
than our mail sect? Everything
she has said is facts and she
might have gone back further to
the time when Hamilton Ewart
undertook to drain Mud creek
With $4,000 and made a failure
when it would have taken mil.
lions of dollars to have lowered
Buck Shoals and drained Mud
Creek. Now, l am 81 years old
and have been living in Hender-
son county ever since the oath
of December, 1868, and remem-
Der all those opportunities that
Mrs. Ednev refers to, and more
wherein lot of our best farmers
stood in their own light, holding
out capital from this county
which would have built cotton
mills and other great plants that
would have employed thousands
of hands that would have spent
their wages right here in our own
curb market, instead of Column
bia, S. c., as is the case now. Is
it. possible that those 200 people
of Mills River township cannot
see where they are standing in
their own light when they kick at
this dam being built? 1t does
seem to me tina tany man with
reasonable common sense can see
that it is an impossibility to raise
money enough to lower Buck
| Shoals and the bed of French
Broad river sufficient to drain
this river and its tributaries.
Furthermore, they are bound to
see that the flood of 1916 cover
ed those bottoms, washing away
a lot of the topsoil, leaving it
covered with sand, a perfect
sandbar.
Now when this dam is built, all
the rich mountain dirt where the
land is being cleared off will stop
in the bed of this river and its
tributaries in time Of highwater,
backing out of those lakes, set
Ting in good bottoms along those
lakes, and beside this, if the gov
eminent ever decided to take
down and drain it, it would be
built back up by the settings of
this dam. 1t would be a richer
bottom valley than i ever has
been.
Now | want to say to the peo-
pie of Henderson county if we
| let this opportunity pass by fail
| ing to cooperate with it, you will
miss the greatest fuVre prosper
iity that has been offered the
south or ever will be- again. You
know all our great men that have
! gone to congress, Ransom, Tom
johnson, Bob and Zeb Vance, Pat
Harrison of Mississippi and Other
southern members, have tried to
get appropriations in congress to
harness these waters of the Mis-
sisippi and its tributaries, the
greatest water power of the Uni
ted States and never could get
them until Franklin d. Roosevelt
got in office and now it surprises
one that any people would try to
block this move. Now l will try
to show you all what I mean by
this. You all know that compe,
tition is the life of prosperity in
any country. You all know that
we have 81 miles of Southern
railroad and it pays a heavy tax
on that Fl miles to helD run om
county government. What would
Fl miles of an electric road pay
US in taxes. If all the citizens
will get behind this move, We
stand a chance in the future te
get an electric line from the
mouth of the Mississippi river tt
the seaport, Charleston, our At
lantic seaport, right along by thu
side of this Southern line. thru
our town, Hendersonville. This il
one thing the great coal miners