Our Two New Tools
After nearly 100 years of neg¬
lect, North Carolina seriously
attempts to use» the deep water
of its ocean.
By
н аш:
LUCAS
They grumbled about it nearly 400
years ago — North Carolina's scacoast,
difficult of access and lacking natural
advantages for commerce. Then for
over a century Tar Heels dreamed of
port facilities good enough to compete
with those of Virginia and South Caro¬
lina and other southeastern states.
This month those dreams begin to
take concrete shape as new and
improved port terminal facilities for¬
mally are put into operation at Wil¬
mington and Morehead City. Around
the corner are believed to lie sub¬
stantial benefits to the slate.
Benefits to Slate
These benefits, ports backers be¬
lieve, will come in the form of cheaper
freight rates that will enable North
Carolina farmers and industrialists to
import as well as export such widely
known Carolina commodities as tex¬
tiles, tobacco, fertilizer, furniture,
canned goods, wheat, and other prod¬
ucts.
Not to be overlooked arc the
already steadily rising imports of com¬
mercial gasoline at the Port of Wil¬
mington, as well as greatly increased
activity at the Port of Morehead City
in handling of incoming shipments of
aviation gasoline and jet plane fuels for
the large U. S. Marine Corps installa¬
tions at Camp Lcjeune and Cherry
Point.
Ceremonies dedicating the two
State-owned and operated ports have
been set, at Morehead City August 14,
and at Wilmington on September 16.
The $7,500,000 in Stale funds were
appropriated for port development by
dissenting vote of its 170 members,
the 1949 General Assembly without a
after Governor W. Kerr Scott and
others interested in development of
North Carolina’s two principal sea¬
ports had given endorsement to the
proposal. Farlier, in the 1945 General
Assembly, legislative action was taken
authorizing the then Governor R.
Gregg Cherry to name a State Ports
Authority. But the 1945 Assembly
provided no funds for development
purposes. Still earlier, in 1924, former
Governor Cameron Morrison had led
an unsuccessful movement for issu¬
ance of $8,500,000 in State bonds for
development in a special election in
November of that year.
Both Wilmington and Morehead
City have long had ports, but until the
State of North Carolina stepped in to
lend a helping hand the two port cities
lacked ocean-shipping facilities on the
scale now being completed.
What did the money buy? For the
most part it has gone into improving
and enlarging existing facilities, and
constructing new ones. The two ports
are being equipped with modern and
efficient loading gear, railway track¬
age. and warehouse storage and
handling equipment. It was argued
that no matter how feasible it was to
bring deep water ships into port, they
would not come until they could
handle cargoes.
The Future
Colonel George W. Gillette, execu¬
tive director of the Stale Ports Author-
T1IE STATE, Vol. XX: No. S. Entered as second-class matter. June I. 1933, at the Postomce at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the act ot
March 3, 1879. Published by Sharpe Publishing Co., Inc., Lawyers Bldg., Italelgb, N. C. Copyright, 1932, by the Sharpe Publishing Co., Inc.
