Newspapers / Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, … / July 22, 1945, edition 1 / Page 4
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Direct East-West Super Road Advocated ForN. C. By JAMES MacCLAMROCH Greensboro, N. C. Although the railroads have been accused of having some de sign in the matter it is probably accurate to say that Greensboro’s and in general North Carolina’s handicapping lack of adequate east-west railroad transportation facilities is an accident of history. At any rate North Carolina is the only state on the Atlantic seaboard which does not have direct trunk line rail communication with the Midwest. There is a great void of longstanding in our rail system westward'y and northwestwardly, and now it appears that the gap left by the missing rail links is to be perpetuated in both the fed eral inter-regional super- highways system and the airlines systems to be built and established after the war. But not only should we have adequate direct instead of inade quate roundabout rail communica tion through the coalfields to the Midwest, we should also have a federal inter-regional super - high way from Wilmington and South port, and probably from Morehead City-Beaufort as well, through Greensboro northwestwardly to the Midwest and a trunk-line air line in the same direction. Rail Lines Eash of our three rail lines westwardly out of Greensboro dead-ends the Southern southwest wardiy from Greensboro through Asheville dead-ends at Murphy, the Southern westwardly from Greensboro through Winston -Sa lem dead-ends at North Wilkes boro and the Atlantic & Yadkin northwestwardly from Greensboro cead-er.ds at Mount Airy. The Asheville branch of the Southern should be extended the approxi mately 70 miles from Murphy to Chattanooga, Tennessee, the North Wilkesboro branch of the Southern should be extended the approxi mately 50 miles from North Wilkesboro to Mountain City, Ten nessee. or some other connecting point in that general area, and the Atlantic Yadkin should be ex tended the approximately 80 miles from Mount Airy through the coal fields to Eiuef.eld, West Virginia, or some other connecting point in that general area. *T"r-r-. A 11 nnti o S. i c *i i of the old Cape Fear Yadkin Valley which was built in the eighties from Wilmington to Mount Airy, and was supposed to con tinue on to the coalfields of south west V.rginia. southern West Vir ginia and southeast Kentucky and a direct connection with Cincinnati which could have been made at Bluefield with the main line of the Norfolk & WTestern. The road got into financial difficulties before the last link northwestwardly out of Mount Airy was built and was taken over by tire Southern and the Atlantic Coast Line. The lower end of the old Cape Fear Yad kin Valley from Sanford to Wil mington was taken over by the Coast Line and is now an integral part of that system. The upper end from Sanford to Mount Airy was taken over by the Southern, is a separate corporation known as the Atlantic ft Yadkin and is though all of the stock is owned by ihe Southern. While it is true that generally speaking we are overbuilt on rail roads in this country and with the development of bus and truck lines and air transportation of passenge and freight there is probably little likelihood of much more railroad building, nevertheless it is still highly urgent, it seems to me, that certain missing links in our ra:l systems be closed. I have in mind in particular the three links I have mentioned which I think are vital to North Carolina and I under stand there is a great need for a line in northwest Florida so that passengers and freight rr.3y be fcauled directly northwestwardly #ut of Florida without having to fto away roundabout through Jack sonville. I understand that, to build the approximately 30 miles from Mount Airy to Bluefield would cost only from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 ^ __i:_ . _ . il . i_ _ . t a _ vrtjy-.i.uinf, ujyvn mu Wl 'ail c»iii encountered and I take it 'hat the Murphy-Chattanooga link and the North Wilkesboro- Mountain City link could be built for comparable •urns. At least as far as the North Carolina rail gaps are concerned the mountainous terrain was un doubtedly a formidable barrier lo the westward extension of our rail lines when they were built nearly a century ago, but with the pres ent development of engineering techniques and methods as well as excavating and tunneling machin ery these rail extensions should fet prove to be unduly difficult to build. North Carolina has never de veloped a great part and it hardly ever will until we have adequate direct rail lines to and from the coalfields and the Midwest to feed such a port. With the addition of the rail link now missing the rail haul from most any point in the Midwest to Wilmington and South port and Morehead City-Beaufort is no greater and in most in stances it is less than to any At A " 11 I lantic port north of North Caro lina and of course the water haul for southbound traffic is much less. For the Atlantic ports south of North Carolina the rail haul is usually greater and on account of the direction of the coast inward south of North Carolina and then outward again at the Florida pen insular the water haul is seldom less. These North Carolina ports have practically every other natu ral advantage, but they lack rail lines extending far enough and di rectly enough to the west. By con trast Hampton Roads — Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News have such great railroads as the Norfolk & Western, the Chesa peake Ohio and the Virginian. In view of the growing interest of the federal government in pub lic works projects of gigantic pro portions such as the Tennessee Valley development, the great hy dro-electric power and irrigation dams in the far west and the pro posed developments in the Missis sippi and Missouri valleys and the inter-regional super- highways sys tem to be built after the war, it would seem proper that the fed eral government build or subsidize the building of such needed links in our rail system as the three I have mentioned to run westward ly out of North Carolina to con nect with existing lines in Vir ginia and Tennessee. While it is difficult to understand why, the railroads have shown no inclina tion to undertake these projects. Air Lines Recently the Civil Aeronautics Board has held hearings for sev eral weeks at Sedgefield inn, near Greensboro, to take evidence upon which to base allocations of air lines in the Southeast and I don’t recall any proposal of a main line or trunkline direct from the Mid west into this area although I be lieve one carrier did ptopose a feeder line from Greensboro into Bristol, Va., or some other point in that area. I understand that it is likely that the Pennsylvania Central will re sume flights from Norfolk through Greensboro and Asheville to Knox ville after the w'aj and that a main line or trunk-line trom De troit to Florida through Greens boro will be established and al located to one of the great air lines systems, but the latter will probably come southwardly by way of Washington several hun dred miles too far to the east and from which we already have East ern Air Lines while the former comes from Norfolk instead of Wilmington. What we need in a line direct from Wilmington north westwardly through Greensboro to Cincinnati or Louisville and on to Detroit or Chicago and possibly St. Louis. Super-Highways Announcement was made in the Daily News of July 1 of the tenta tive designation and approval by the North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Commission of North Carolina’s portions of the federal inter-regional super - high way system to be built shortly aft er the war, the entire national sys tem to cost billions of dollars. At present it is proposed to build one of these super-highways in the eastern part of the state from the Virginia line southwestwardly through Rocky Mount, Wilson and Fayetteville to the South Carolina line, another from the Virginia line northeast of Henderson south westwardly through Henderson, Oxford, Durham, Burlington and Greensboro. From Greensboro there are two routes southwest wardly, one through Winston-Sa lem, Statesville, Hickory and Mor ganton into Asheville and from Asheville North westwardly to Knoxville, and the other from A s h e v i lie northwestwardly to Greensboro southwestwardly to High Point, Salisbury, Concord, Charlotte and through Gastonia to the South Carolina line and on to Spartanburg and Atlanta. From Asheville there is also a route southeastwardly to the South Carolina line and on to Charles ton. This last route is the lower end of the route from Knoxville and extends on northwestwardly to the Midwest. Charleston, South Carolina, then is to be the termi nus of a federal super-highway northwestwardly to the Midwest. Norfolk, Virginia, is also to be the terminus of a federal super-high way northwestwardly to the Mid west. Virginia to the north of us and South Carolina to the south of us is each to have a northwest southeast federal inter-regional su per-highway feeding its chief port, but the entire North Carolina coast is in icrrmrpH I I 1to« objection has been made llfcat the existing grades on roads through western Virginia and West Virginia are so steep that the trac tors pulling heavy freight trailers cannot carry the payloads that they can on roads of lesser grade. But I call attention to the Penn sylvania Turnpike, the first super highway built in this country of any distance, which crosses sev eral ranges of mountains in its length of 169 miles from outside of Pittsburgh to Harrisburg. There are seven tunnels under the moun tains on this super-highway and by tunneling where there are no natu ral gaps in the mountains it should be possible to establish satisfac tory grades northwestwardly out of North Carolina either for ai rail link or a super-highway. It is pro posed to build federal inter-region al super-highways through the mountains northwestwardly from Norfolk and from Charleston on either s de of Norih Carolina and in fairness to this state we should have a similar route northwest wardly from our coast. In demanding the northweal southeast super-mgnway nere sug gested North Carolina could not be said to be demanding too much, for both Virginia and South Car olina are to have such routes and in addition the same northeast southwest routes as have been proposed for North Carolina. Our siser sates to the north and south of us are not being content with only two northeast - southwest routes are to have northwest southeast routes as well. Why shouldn’t North Carolina? The State Highway and Public Works Commission should be urged to give soerious considera tion to approving and designating a federal inter-regional super-high way from Wilminton and South port through Greensboro and on northwestwardly to Cincinnati or some other Jlidwes* point and it also should consider designating a route from Morehead City - Beau fort through Raleigh to Greens ooro. If the latter route is desig nated then Raleigh which has raised objections to the routes al ready proposed will be only a short distance from the two north sast-southwest routes and on a northwest-southeast route connect ing it with the other two. It appears then that' under pres ent plans and proposals of the state Highway and Public Works Commission and the airlines the gap left by the missing rail link we have so long needed across the state from Wilmington through Greensboro and on northwestward ly to the coalfields and the Mid west is to be perpetuated in both :he fddjjwpi.pfg-regonjwvuvag supe nighway system and the airlines systems, but Greensboro and the considerable portion of the state more directly affected, if not the state as a whole, should not be satisfied to let these most impor tant omissions in our future trans portation facilities stand. -V One Killed, Two Hurt In Auto-Cart Crash NEW BERN, July 21.— (U.R)—One man is dead and another is in local hospital today as the result of a collision last night between an automobile and a mule cart in the Spring Garden section of Cra ven county. The dead man is Luther Slaugh ter, 19, and the injured person was listed as E. Ward Rogers, 30, al so of the Spring Garden section. Meanwhile, officers are holding William Nelson, 20 Negro, of the Maple Cypress section under $5, 000 bond for the inquest Monday night. Officers said Nelson was the driver of the car which struck the mule5 cart in which Slaughter and Rogers were riding. -V An Ohio farmer was arrested charged with selling chickens foi three times the ceiling price. Th( last word in fowl play! Spueeze Play 1 I ® aa_EEhhrhIIesSH1' Of the four occupants of the auto pictured above, three escaped without injury apd one suffered a cut finger when car was crushed between two trolley cars in Philadelphia. i U. S. RAPPED FOR TODDLING’ JAPS WASHINGTON, July 21.— (tP) — Rep. Springer (R.-Ind.) asserted today that “our nation has elected to coddle and pamper. . .high of ficials of Japan without any justi fication or excuse.’’ Japanese military, naval and dip lomatic officers captured in the fall of Germany, Springer said in a speech prepared for house deli very, “were taken to a fine and commodious hotel" at Bedford Springs, Pa., for detention. “There they are now establish ed in those luxurious suites in that super-fine hotel, having rich food to eat and every accom modation available to the rich and the exclusive among the people,” Springer said. f “The people are wondering what character of treatment Japan is extending to General (Jonathan) Wainwright and our high army of ficials who are prisoners of war in the hands of Japan. “They are wondering what kind and character of treatment is ex tended to all of our boys, some 35,000 of them, who are prisosers of war in the ghostly prison camps , of Japan. . . “They are not coddled or pam pered in any degree by our ene my, the Japs, but they are tor tured and beaten as a part of their daily menu.” i^— ■■■ ——. ROACHES! ROACHES! Kill Your Roaches with Shep ards Roach Powder . . . Also Bed Bur Killer . . . ON SALE AT Schutt Bros. Grocery Store A. & D Food Store Greenfield Drug Co. Jarman’s Drug Store T. W. Wood & Son* Lane’s Drug Stores A. D. Ilobbs Hardison's Gro. Store C. & S Gro Store T. W. Brown Rhodes Gro. Store Clyde Wolfe Gro. Store F. X. V. Market T. L. Brown Gro. Store 6 1*. A. Marshburn Gro. Store Carl Murshhurn Gro. Store W. D. Mills Gro. Store Loveless Gro Creech Gro. Store Herring’s Gro. Stor* Batson Gro. Store Mayhan Gro. Store Reid’s Super Market Open Air Market R. T. Henry. Atkinson C. S. Roberts, W’rightsville Beach R. B. McRoy & Co., Whiteville name’s Gro. Store, Carolina Beach Finer Purol Service, Carolina Beach E. L. Robinson, Carolina Beach 5 Jones Gro. Store, Carolina Beach Carolina Beach Drug Store, Carolina Beach Evan’s & Schley Gro. Store, Carolina Beach Dec’s Druk Store. Burgaw Finlay Carr Gro. Store. Wallace Warsaw Drug Store, Warsaw F„ C. Baldwin Stnrr Castle Haynes Lewis Food Store, Burgaw Manufactured and Guaranteed by JOE C. SHEPARD 317 s. 2nd St. Phone *456 The Jewel Box GIFT SHOP Wilminfton’s Only Downstairs | Stor* . . Headquarters Far FINE GIFTS Come In and Make Your Selections! Located Downstairs THE JEWEL BOX 1*9 North Front St. MALARIA CHECKED IN 7 DAYS WITH LIQUID for MALARIAL SYMPTOMS Take only as directed PROPOSAL INVITED FOR FURNISHING REINFORCED CONCRETE PIPE Sealed proposals will be received by the City of Wilmington, N. C. urjtil 10 o’clock A. M., E. W. T. on Wednesday, August 1, 1945, and then publicly opened and read at a meeting of the City Council for furnish ing the following materials: 650 feet of 36 inch reinforced concrete pipe. A. S. T. M. Specifications. All prices are to be F. O. B., Wilmington, N. C. > Further information can be obtained from the City Engineer. Sealed proposals should be submitted to J. R. 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Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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July 22, 1945, edition 1
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