The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1938-01-27
Traces Growth And Develop
ment Of State From It's First
Settlement.

(Radio address before the North
Carolina Society by Senator Rob-
ert r. Reynolds over a network of
the Columbia Broadcasting System
at the Shoreham Hotel, Washing
ton, d. c., at 1870 P. M, Saturday,
January %, 1889
Mr.. President, fellow Tar Heels,
ladies and gentlemen of the radio
audience-the noted actor and auth
or, Irwin Cobb, once said that North
Carolina needed a press agent-it
has everything else. With charac-
teristic foresight, our people have
now provided that need. By means
of the printed page and word of
mouth, the story of our state of
North Carolina is being effectively
told to the world. Tonight l want
to pay my respects to that construc-
tive program and our beloved Tar
Heelia-old and new. In word, I
went to speak as ''press agent" for
North Carolina
Interest is shown in the Old
North State by people everywhere.
It is evidence of the fine standing
of our great commonwealth. This
interest has been source of much
pride to me since I entered the
United States Senate. Hardly a
day passes without someone asking
me questions about our state. Why
we cling so tenaciously to our fine
traditions? How we stood the shock
of the depression with so little in
ternal damage? How we have
moved ahead in such substantial
fashion?
Answers to these questions are,
of course, known to the loyal sons
and daughters of North Carolina,
whom I have the honor of address,
ing. The answers to these questions
are known to our people 'back
home. I would like to have them
known to the world. So, ask the
indulgence of North Carolinians
here in this auditorium with me
tonight while I speak to listeners
tuned to the Columbia Broadcasting
System everywhere.
North Carolina has triumphed ov-
er time. It's beginning digs back
into the carrier history of the New
World. Sir Walter Raleigh landed
his colonists on Roanoke Island
thirty odd years before the first
human foot touched Plymouth
Rock. The first child of English
parentage, born in America, was a
daughter of one of Sir Walters Col
onists. The faint memory of that
child born more than three CEN
turtles ago still lives in Carolina. It
is evidence that Tar Heels do not
forget the past as they accept new
promise and plan for the future. It
has been aptly said that "while we
read history, we make history.
The course of North Carolina has
always been certain. Able men
have always kept our state faced
to the weather When English OPP
preston tried the patience of our
struggling colonists, North Carolina
was first to break the ties from the
mother country. The Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence pre-
date the national declaration by
more than a year.
Having found the yoke of Eng
land heavy, North Carolinians
moved cautiously in accepting a
new Union. This is true despite the
fact that North Carolina patriots
turned the Revolutionary War to-
ward victory. It was next to the
last of the thirteen colonies to enter
the Union. But once having en-
braced this new cause, the state
was hesitant to break away. 1t was
next to the last of the Confederate
states to secede from the Union.
Speaking of early history, it is
interesting to note that the first
flight in the history Of aviation
when the Wright Brothers lifted
their plane from the sand dunes of
Kitty Hawk in 1903-occurred only
a short distance from where was
settled the first English colony.
Thus aviation began almost where
America began.
I mentioned the devotion of
North Carolinians to the Old North
State. Evidence is found in the
bitter protest registered on the part
of what is now Tennessee, when
that territory was coded by North
Carolina to the United States. Fear
ing that it would remove residents
of that territory from Carolina's
protecting arms, without the as
sured protection of the United
States, the people formed the short
lived State of Franklin. Later the
State of Franklin, like wayward
child returned to its mother, North
Carolina, and was welcomed back.
Still later, Tennessee became ter