USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina since 1860, Volume III > Part 33
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By 1879 there were 1,300 miles of road in the state, but
396
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
much of it was scattered and unconnected; only forty-nine of the ninety-four counties had railroad connections. Obvious necessities were the completion of the Western North Caro- lina, which was finally about to reach Asheville, but which had to be extended to the Tennessee line at two points; the con- nection of Goldsboro and Wilson with Greenville and Wash- ington; and of Edenton and Elizabeth City with Norfolk. Other desirable points for connection were Edenton and Suf- folk, Scotland Neck and Halifax, and New Bern and Onslow County.
The sale of the Western North Carolina by the state assured its completion, and its later acquisition by the Rich- mond and Danville meant better connections and through traffic. The opening of the western part of the state was also furthered by the completion of the Asheville and Spartanburg, which reached Hendersonville in 1879 and Asheville in 1886. Other western roads constructed in the decade following 1880 were the Chester and Lenoir, connecting Lenoir with Lincoln- ton and Charlotte, which had been begun before the war and finally reached Lenoir in 1884; the East Tennessee and West- ern North Carolina, completed in 1882, between Johnson City and Cranberry; the Statesville and Western, opened in 1887, from Statesville to Taylorsville, a distance of twenty miles; the Marietta and North Georgia, later absorbed by the Louis- ville and Nashville, which ran thirteen miles through Chero- kee County towards Knoxville, and the Charleston, Cincin- nati and Chicago, which connected Marion with the South Carolina line. This became the Ohio River and Charleston in 1894. These roads transformed the western part of the state and brought a prosperity never before known.
In the central part of the state construction was more rapid. The most important single road was the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley, which succeeded the Western in 1879. An extension of four miles from Egypt to Gulf was finished in 1879 and extended by Greensboro to the Virginia line in 1884. In the same year the road was extended from Fayetteville to Maxton and on to the South Carolina line towards Ben- nettsville, a distance of forty-six miles. In 1886 another
397
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
branch was carried from the Greensboro line to Belew's Creek and on to Ramseur, and the next year a second one to Pilot Mountain, and on in 1888 to Mount Airy. The Madison branch was built in the same year, and the extension of eighty-two miles from Fayetteville to Wilmington in 1890.
In the period the Wilmington and Weldon built four branches : the Scotland Neck branch, from Halifax to Kinston, a distance of eighty-five miles, in 1885; the Fayetteville branch, running seventy-four miles from Wilson to Florence in 1886; the Clinton branch, from Warsaw to Clinton, a distance of thirteen miles in 1887; and the Nashville branch, running nineteen miles from Rocky Mount to Spring Hope in 1888. The Cheraw and Salisbury was built in 1880, but only reached Wadesboro. The Albemarle and Raleigh, running fifty-six miles, from Tarboro to Plymouth, was opened and later acquired the Williamston and Tarboro. The Oxford and Clarksville, from Durham to Bullock's, was finished in 1888, and the Durham and Northern, from Durham to Henderson, was opened the next year. The High Point, Randleman and Asheboro was opened the same year. The Roanoke and South- ern, from Winston and Salem to the Virginia line towards Martinsville, was built in 1887.
Minor roads and extensions of the same period were the Oxford and Henderson, and the University, both built in 1881; the Danville, Mocksville and Southwestern, from Cascade Junction, Virginia, to Leaksville, built in 1882; the Maxton, Alma and Rowland, in 1887; the Atlantic and Danville, con- necting Danville and Norfolk, a small part of which was in North Carolina; the Roanoke and Tar River, from the Virginia line to Lewiston; and the Georgia, Carolina and Northern, from Monroe to the South Carolina line, all built in 1887; the Carthage road to Cameron, built in 1888; and the Midland North Carolina, from Goldsboro to Smithfield.
In the East, the Norfolk and Southern, connecting Norfolk with Elizabeth City and Edenton, was completed in 1881; the Wilmington, Chadbourn and Conway, and the Wilmington, Onslow and East Carolina, the latter between Wilmington and Jacksonville, were in operation in 1887; and the Chowan and
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1
A. B. Andrews
R. R. Bridgers, President of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad
Two RAILROAD BUILDERS
399
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Southern, later the Norfolk and Carolina, from Pinner's Point to Tarboro, was completed in 1889.
By 1888 there were 2,550 miles of road in the state, owned by fifty-one companies, and several times as much more planned with a considerable part under way.
In 1890 the Durham and Lynchburg and the Aberdeen and Asheboro, the latter connecting Aberdeen and Candor, were completed, and the following year the Yadkin road from Salisbury to Norwood, the North Carolina Midland, from Winston to Mocksville, and the Egypt, from Colon to Egypt, were added.
When in 1891 the railroad commission made its first re- port there were sixty-seven railroads in the state with a mile- age of 3,433, penetrating every county except Alleghany, Ashe, Clay, Davie, Graham, Hyde, Pamlico, Transylvania, Tyrrell, Watauga, Yadkin and Yancey. They had been as- sessed for taxation in 1890 at $12,321,704 and in 1891 they were assessed at $18,423,298. Several roads were still exempt from taxation under the terms of their original charters, nota- bly the Raleigh and Gaston and the Wilmington and Weldon.
The period which follows, while one of continued construc- tion, was notably one of consolidation. That process had com- menced in 1871, when the North Carolina Railroad was leased to the Richmond and Danville for thirty years at 6 per cent in- terest on $4,000,000, which was, on the whole, a good bargain for the state. The Richmond and Danville also operated the Piedmont road and thus was begun the first great railroad system in the state. About 1880 it began to extend and by 1891 had either acquired or leased the Atlanta and Charlotte, the Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio, the Asheville and Spartan- burg, the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta, the Danville, Mocksville and South Western, the High Point, Randleman and Asheboro, the Milton and Sutherlin, the North Carolina Midland, the Northwestern North Carolina, the Oxford and Clarksville, the Oxford and Henderson, the Danville and Western, the Statesville and Western, the University, the Western North Carolina and the Yadkin, which with the ones already controlled gave it a mileage of 1,091 in the state. In 1894 the Southern Railway was organized to take over the
400
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Richmond and Danville, which had gone into the hands of a receiver during the year. The North Carolina Railroad was necessary to its existence and to make sure of its control the Southern applied for a new lease, that to the Richmond and Danville being due to expire in 1901. As will be recalled, the new lease was made for ninety-nine years. Between 1895 and 1900 the portion of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley from Sanford to Mount Airy with all its western branches was ac- quired when the road was sold. In 1916 its total mileage in the state was 2,092.
The second great system in the state was the Atlantic Coast Line. In the eighties the Richmond and Petersburg and the Petersburg roads united as the Atlantic Coast Line of Vir- ginia. This system operated by agreement the Wilmington and Weldon and the Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta, which the latter had leased in 1885; the Cheraw and Salisbury ; and the Albemarle and Raleigh. The total mileage in 1891 was 537. In 1892 the Norfolk and Carolina was added, and by 1900 the Wilmington, New Bern and Norfolk, formerly the Wilmington and Onslow, now completed to New Bern, and the eastern portion of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley from Sanford to Wilmington had been acquired. In addition, the Washington branch from Parmele to Washington had been built. In the years since that time the road from Pender to Kinston has been completed and several smaller sections acquired. In 1916 the system, which in 1899 was consolidated into one road, owned 1,033 miles in the state.
The third great system was the Seaboard Air Line, also formed in the eighties, with the Raleigh and Gaston and Sea- board and Roanoke as its chief constituents. The former al- ready owned the controlling interest in the Raleigh and Au- gusta, the Durham and Northern, the Carolina Central, and the Georgia, Carolina and Northern; the latter had a large in- terest in the Raleigh and Gaston, the Raleigh and Augusta, the Georgia, Carolina and Northern, the Roanoke and Tar River, the Pittsboro and the Carthage roads. All these were grouped together and operated as one. Their total mileage in North Carolina was 600, which had increased to 616 by 1916. In 1900 a consolidation into one road was effected.
401
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
In 1892 the Norfolk and Western Railway of Virginia leased the Lynchburg and Durham and the Roanoke and Southern, a total of eighty-seven miles, which it still operates and controls as a part of its system.
In 1906 the fourth great system was formed. The Norfolk and Southern, the Virginia and Carolina Coast, formerly the Suffolk and Carolina; the Raleigh and Pamlico Sound, and the Atlantic and North Carolina, the last of which had been leased from the state in 1903 by the Howland Improvement Company, were consolidated into the Norfolk Southern Rail- road. In 1914 a further consolidation took place with the Raleigh and Southport, running from Raleigh to Fayette- ville; the Durham and Charlotte, connecting Sanford and Troy, and the Aberdeen and Asheboro, which in 1912 had merged into the Raleigh, Charlotte and Southern Railway. In 1916 the system owned and operated 941 miles of road in the state.
Since 1900 the most important new road is the Charleston, Clinchfield and Ohio, which now runs across the state from the South Carolina line by way of Rutherfordton and Marion through Mitchell County to Virginia, a distance of 117 miles.
During this period forty-five small roads, with a mileage ranging from three to ninety-five, have been built. Their com- bined mileage is 983. They have helped the state immensely and will doubtless in time be absorbed by the larger roads or the great systems.
In 1916 there were fifty-four railroad companies in the state with a total mileage of 4,958. Every county of the state, with the exception of Alleghany, Dare and Hyde, is now touched by at least one road. Their value as assessed for taxation was $125,836,003.
The creation of the railroad commission in 1891 was of great benefit to the people of the state and to the railroads as well. The latter had held quite the contrary opinion and had resisted its creation with all their influence. But the fact of the existence of the commission and its forcing the roads to better service tended to remove from the minds of the people a great deal of the prevalent ill-feeling against the roads. Railroad property was assessed much more equitably Vol. III-26
402
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
and much higher. In two years after the creation of the com- mission the assessment was nearly double what it had been before. The table indicates the rise of assessed valuation, chiefly explained, of course, after the first year or two by the growth of the roads.
1890
$12,321,704 1902
$42,627,261
1891
18,423,298
1906
57,247,650
1892
19,726,760
1908 85,580,803
1893
24,228,954 1916 125,836,003
The Raleigh and Gaston, the Wilmington and Weldon, and the North Carolina, it will be remembered, claimed exemption from taxation. By the early nineties there was much popular feeling against them on this account and a growing conviction that all the roads should be subject to the taxing power of the state. The legislature and the state authorities began a determined effort to force or persuade them to submission and finally by indirect means won their point. The Raleigh and Gaston claimed exemption for the Seaboard and Roanoke and the state treasurer brought suit for the taxes. In a result- ing compromise the road agreed to surrender its immunity. In 1893 the Wilmington and Weldon was forced to take the same action in order to secure the re-charter of the Peters- burg Railroad, which was vital to the operations of the At- lantic Coast Line. When the North Carolina was leased to the Southern the abandonment of exemption was part of the agreement.
From time to time there have been bitter quarrels about rates for both passengers and freight. Of the former the most notable was that of 1907, elsewhere described. So far as freight rates are concerned, discrimination against North Carolina towns has aroused more discussion than anything else, and the question has never been fully settled. The rail- roads have been, of course, a most vital factor in the develop- ment of the state. They have had to contend with much popu- lar criticism and unpopularity, in part deserved, without a doubt, but in part scarcely based on sufficient grounds. The railroads were active in politics during the first three decades following the close of the war, and their participation was not,
403
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
¥ on the whole, beneficial to the state. Nor was it in the long run a good thing for the roads. It excited hostility and sus- picion which were slow in dying. When political activity on the part of the roads lessened, the habit of "baiting" rail- roads had been formed by many politicians, while many pri- vate citizens were unable to rid themselves of instinctive dislike and distrust of the roads. And for this the roads were to blame. For many years, too, there was no policy of con- sideration for the people and the demand, open or implied, for special privileges fostered public hostility. But in recent years, particularly within the last decade, there has been a growth of a very healthy and friendly public sentiment to- wards the roads, due partly to a better knowledge of their difficulties, partly to a recognition of the interdependence of the roads and people, and partly to the changed attitude of the railway managers, who have come to realize their position as public servants.
The growth and development of the four systems has meant much to the territory served by them. Through traffic better and cheaper service, and the stimulation of agricul- tural and industrial development along their lines have every- where resulted. Their managements have all faithfully sought to accomplish this, moved, of course, by self-interest, but also by a sincere and patriotic ambition to play a large part in the making of the new South.
CHAPTER XIX
SOCIAL TENDENCIES
A view of social conditions in North Carolina requires, of course, knowledge of the population, its elements and its dis- tribution. The following table shows at a glance the more important facts.
1860
1870
1880 1,399,750
1890
1900 1,893,810 1,263,603
2,206,287
White
629,942
687,470
867,242 532,508
1,055,382
624,469
697,843
Urban
186,790
318,474
White
60,049 55,695
110,576
202,438
Negro
115,975
Rural
1,502,190
76,169 1,707,020
1,887,813
White
...
.....
.. .
. .. .
.. .
........
995,333 505,323
1,153,027
1,298,073
Negro
548,300
581,868
Foreign born
White
3,298
3,029
3,742
3,662
4,394
5,942
Total population.
991,464
1,071,361
1,617,949
It will be noted that the white population is increasing faster than the colored and that the number of foreigners in the state is negligible. The distribution of the negroes is interesting. No county has a larger percentage than seventy- five, but two, Warren and Halifax, have between 621/2 and 75 per cent. Twelve, Anson, Bertie, Caswell, Chowan, Craven, Edgecombe, Hertford, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Scotland and Vance have more than 50 per cent, twenty-five have more than 371/2 per cent, seventeen more than 25 per cent, sixteen more and twenty-five less than 121/2 per cent.
Probably the most notable change taking place is the growth of urban population. This is the more significant when it is remembered that there is no large city in the state but that this population is diffused among many small places. In 1910 North Carolina had only two places, Charlotte and
404
1,500,511
Negro
361,522
392,891
561,018 115,759
.. . .
.. ..
......
........
1910
CURRITUCK
ALLEONANY (
NORTHAMPTON
ATEG
AgHE
BURRY
ROCKINOHAM
WARREN
ORAN
HEATFORD
IFAX
WATAUOA
WILKEB
-
FORSYTH
QUILFORO
ALA
FRI
BERTIE
HOWAN
NACH
YANCEY/
ALEX ANDER
OAVIE
EDGECOMBER
MARTIN
WASHINGTON
YRMELL
CHATHAM
WILSON
BEAUFOR
DE
JOHNSTON
LEE
GREENE
NENDERSON
CLEVE
ABARAUS.
NARNETf
CRAVEN
PAMLICO
CUMBERLAND
SAMPSON
JONES
ANSON
LESS THAN 123 PER CENT
SCOT
LAND
ONSLOW
ROBESON
BLADEN
PENDER
375 TO 50 PER CENT
50 TO 622 PER CENT
COLUMSUS
624 TO 75 PER CENT
BRUNSWICK
75 PER CENT AND OVER
ORANGE
YOURHAM ST
MANCE
.MITCHELL! 1.2
CALOWELL
MADISON
IREDELL
BURKE
DAVIDSG+
WAKE
DARE
RANDOLPH
CATAWBA
BUNCOMBE
MCDOWELL
ROWAN
PITT
/{ NAYWOOO
SWAIN
RUTHERFORD
ORANAM
LAND
MONT
JACKSON
POLK
OASTON
STANLY!
CHEROKEE
MACON
TRAN SYLVANIA
MECKLEN
BURG
CLAY
RICHMOND
UNION
DUPLIN
CARTERETS
124 TO 25 PER CENT
25 TO 373 PER CENT
GOMERY MOORE
LENOIR
PERQUIMANS
PASQUOTANK 5
CAMDEN
STOKES
ACASWELL . PERSON
VILLE
VANCE
NA
--
YADKIN
PER CENT OF NEGROES IN TOTAL POPULATION OF NORTH CAROLINA BY COUNTIES, 1910
LINCOLN
406
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Wilmington, with a population of 25,000, only five more, Ashe- ville, Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh and Winston above 10,000, and only thirty-three more with a population above 2,500. The movement to the towns has meant leaving the farms but it has not meant the congestion of any community. The drain of other states upon North Carolina which was so great in the ante-bellum period continues. In 1910, 237,229 white North Carolinians were residing in other states and only 75,073 natives of other states had come to take their places. The balance was against North Carolina in all the states except Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Throughout its history North Carolina has been an indi- vidualistic and, for a large part of the time, an unsocialized community, lacking in community consciousness and a sense of community responsibility. The state was marked by a sort of hereditary characteristic, derived from the facts of its origins and early development. Lying in an eddy between the currents which brought outside influence and stimulus to its neighbors immediately to the north and south, settled largely by people of small means and limited education, it remained, so far as the mass of the people were concerned, a sort of backwater. It was conservative because it was ignor- ant and poor and it remained poor because it was ignorant. From being conservative it became static and, retrograding in comparison with the other states, it began finally to look as though it was actually a decadent community. A vast throng of its more progressive citizens sought elsewhere the opportunities denied them at home. Some, usually those of means, turned to the Southwest where the rapid extension of cotton culture brought a vast and swift increase of wealth. Others, in the main the non-slaveholding poorer elements, went to the Northwest where, out of competition with slavery, free labor had a chance and where educational advantages were open even to the children of the poor.
Beginning, however, in the years immediately following 1835, progressive movements appeared which seemed to prom- ise a social revolution. The development of systems of trans- portation and public schools, the removal of suffrage limita- tions, the movement for ad valorem taxation of slave property,
407
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
all gave promise for the future. But all these things were checked by the war and to a greater extent by Reconstruction, which imposed a new set of problems, the influence of one at least of which-the negro-was deadening and destined to check progress in the state in an alarming fashion for several decades.
In 1865 Huxley, in speaking of emancipation, said :
The question is settled, but even those who are most thoroughly convinced that the doom is just must see good grounds for repudiating half the arguments that have been employed by the. winning side, and for doubting whether its ultimate results will embody the hopes of the victors, though they may more than realize the fears of the vanquished. It may be quite true that some negroes are better than some white men; but no rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average negro is the equal, still less the superior of the aver- age white man.
But whatever the position of stable equilibrium into which the laws of social gravitation may bring the negro, all responsibility for the result will henceforth be between nature and him. The white man may wash his hands of it and the Caucasian conscience be void of reproach for evermore. And this, if we look to the bottom of the matter, is the real justification for the abolition policy.
True as was the first part of his analysis, the latter part shows a strange ignorance both of the necessities of the case and of Southern feeling. It was an impossibility for the Cau- casion to "wash his hands" of the negro, and to the credit of the people of North Carolina it must be added that in the main they have not desired to do so, though politics, or rather a certain stripe of politicians, have often made them appear in that light. But the very sense of responsibility made the presence of the negro, so long as he was a political factor, one of the most retarding forces in the life of the state.
Slowly the two races, after the failure of the attempt at forced equality made by the conquerors during Reconstruc- tion, worked out a fairly satisfactory modus vivendi. The fusion régime interrupted this but disfranchisement began a new day in the relations of the races. White men, with the negro out of politics, began to see clearly that North Carolina could make no rapid progress if the negroes remained what Charles Francis Adams aptly termed a "terrible inert mass of domesticated barbarism."
-
408
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
The case was clear. If crime was to be lessened the negro must be trained in obedience to law. If public and private morals were to be elevated, the morals of the negro must be cared for. Before public health could be improved the negro must be taught sanitation and hygiene and prevented from endangering the welfare of the whole community. And so he must learn honesty, industry, thrift, and all the other quali- ties which go into the making of good citizens. In other words he must be educated.
Leaders of thought saw this, but naturally the masses are not always able to see the fundamental necessity to the white people of the uplift of the inferior race. A certain type of politician desired still to use the negro as a political argu- ment. Most of this probably was unintentional; they had simply formed the habit and could not realize the changed conditions. For the others, John Charles McNeill wittily sang :
I cannot see, if you were dead, Mr. Nigger,
How orators could earn their bread, Mr. Nigger. For they could never hold the crowd,
Save they abused you long and loud
As being a dark and threatening cloud, Mr. Nigger.
and told the whole story.
In 1901 as has been seen, a demand arose for the division of the school fund on the basis of what each race paid. This had two underlying motives. One was a feeling that the pri- mary obligation of the state was to the white children; the other was a conscious purpose to restrict the opportunities for the negro to become educated and qualify as a voter. Aycock's splendid courage in his fight in behalf of justice checked the movement but the question arose again in 1902 and again Aycock threw himself into the fight. Never falter- ing, he opposed it as unjust to the negroes and injurious to the whites. As he said:
The amendment proposed is unjust, unwise, and unconstitutional. It would wrong both races, would bring our State into condemnation
409
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
of a just opinion elsewhere, and would mark us as a people who have turned backward. * * * Let us not seek to be the first State in the Union to make the weak man helpless. This would be a leader- ship that would bring us no honor but much shame. *
* Let * us be done with this question, for while we discuss it the white chil- dren of the State are growing up in ignorance.
Aycock's opposition was effective and today no such prop- osition is ever considered.
The race problem is of course not settled in North Caro- lina, but the whole matter is on a new basis. There are un- doubtedly many individual cases of injustice and oppression but steadily they grow fewer. The purpose of the white men to rule is none the less fixed, but more than ever he is deter- mined to rule in righteousness. As Aycock phrased it :
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