Wilmington Star
Before the vast land area of the west was penetrated by a railroad, the late James J. Hill, president of the Northern Pacific system, called “the builder of the west” made this famous remark: “Land without population is a wilderness; population without land is a mob.”
With our thoughts centered upon eastern Carolina and its vast undeveloped area, let us conjure with the Hill declaration, which is a veritable economic philosophy. The west was a wilderness without a population and since it was an immense pioneer proposition, it would have remained a wilderness without railroad transportation. The continental railroads cleaved the continent, and the west became a romance. Transportation and romance combined attracted millions of population and North Carolina contributed a liberal share of that westward-bound population. Many of the people of Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, and about 20 states west of the Mississippi river can trace their sturdy ancestors back to the good Old North state. Whither soever Carolinians go, “North Carolina claims her children,” and it is even so that she claimed Uncle Joe Cannon, who helped to make Illinois famous.
The denouncement of the western romance has been reached and the day of romance for North Carolina is being staged. Horace Greeley’s “Go West, Young Man,” has been replaced by Roger Babson’s Go South, All who Seek Opportunities.” Back of the western movement of population was the urge which appealed to the red-blooded pioneer. The latter-day urge of Roger Babson appeals to the capitalist and to the homeseeker for whom opportunities to the south are constantly being emphasized by the Boston house of Babson, known all over America and Europe. Roger Babson is a “bull on south” and he says so every day in every way. The south is on Babson’s map and North Carolina is in bas relief on every map.
North Carolina puts herself n the map and it is up to coastal Carolina to let it be known that it is a marvelously resourceful and advantageous section of progressive North Carolina. If eastern Carolina wants her share in the new romance of the times, she must figure in the romance. Alluvia: Carolina is a rich land largely without population. It contains only one-fourth the population that it should have and we must realize that the time to get population is right now.
The famous remark of James J. Hill was intended to emphasize the advantages, the uses, and the results of transportation and surely we all know what railroads running into the west did for the unsettled west. The west had to have railroads before it could be pioneered. Eastern Carolina has long ago been pioneered and its transportation facilities have been taken care of by 1,800 miles of railways, more than 1,000 miles of interior navigation, and five ocean gateways. With the means of transportation at hand and millions for betterments being provided every year by enterprising and progressive transportation companies, what an immense opportunity we have to attract tens of thousands of homeseekers into this veritable Eldorado, with most of the 22 million acres of undeveloped land credited to North Carolina!
It would really take a book to emphasize the opportunities here for us and the right class of newcomers who can be attracted to this wonderful section because of the proved advantages of every description. Wilmington is the clearing house for all these advantages and opportunities.
Around Wilmington there is such a far-flung area to be settled that the late secretary Lane called this section the “nation’s new frontier,” and it is just that.
From the front page of The Alamance Gleaner, Graham, N.C., May 24, 1923
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