Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-08-10
LET EVERY OWE READ TH1s.


Enquirer was publishing valuable statistics con-
corning the immense resources of this state,as
lit was and had been found from underground
Explorations The ablesketches showed what
vast fields of latea wealth we're concealed in
the earth within our borders. 1t was enough
i TO make ones heart sink within him TO read the
accounts of this universal wealth, and contrast
its possession with our progress in the indus
trial arts and sciences. These statistics have
been made the subject of comment by orr ex-j.
Z changes The Philadelphia 1Amerioa1 las IA
very able review of the subject from which we
extract the following. Let every one read it
THE american, in the course of its remarks,
| Will not the Enquirer. bring the logical con-
sequences of its recent discoveries before its
readers, in few terse arguments in favor of
buying iron Mt home, and not in Liverpool or
! Glasgow? Cannot the blood of democrats in
! Virginia be stirred at the startling purchase ola
million dollars worth of Glasgow refuse iron for
| the national capital2 A century and a half of
! time has elapsed siDce-A Virginia furnace was
| first opened, and the State has gone back to-
ward humble and pitiable dependence for, the
Inst halfof this time EVerYsraiiroad init sends
abroad for its rails, and entails on its owners of
coal and ore beds ruinOus Indebtedness to paw
foreigners for what exists in profuson in their
own soil.
Virginia is democratic, and TO be democratic
entails perpetual blindness, irremovabic obsti-
macy, and suicidal folly in regard to the protec-
ton OF labor. an excellent faithful and persist
ent service of British interests at the same time
that American are ovcrthrown. DelnocratsJin
Virginia and elsewhere sometimes build railroads
but they always buy iron abroad. They some
times advocate o: authorize public buildings
and improvements, but the iron which modern
ic hnr,rr hi o6,
OF profit democratic contractor would require
in Virginia we cannot say, but probably dollar
or two a ton would be enough, as the measure
Of the excess to be paid for tile foreign article.
in order to make sure that the purchase goes to
Glasgow or Liverpool. - p . -
faith that the destiny of'the darkness now lying
over even Virginia may presage a CLEAN of light,
and that in 1863 the State may not ibe more
pitiably weak i'll iron making than in 1892 A
hundred and forty years have hude their marks
IN many incidents of progress elsewhere, but in
virginia they have driven the car backward. ~
The State is loaded with debt; it's improvements.
sPasmodically prosecuted, are valnefcss, because
they only carry raw material out Of the State
The citIzenw who speaks of its mineral resources
does so in establishment at the natural Veal he
came accidentally to discover. A broodibe
thing has settled on it, and sucks its life blood
tho vampire called democratic policy. The old
plantations of the tobacco age long since fell
ASiA
into silence and desolaton, and the furnaces
forever went out Restless fellows have re.tlis-s
covered some of these elements of wealth, and.
strangely enough, report them in democratic
Journals but the wrong headedness Of the polt-
lca leaders of the State is too hopeless and the
popular Ignorance too dense to permit a ihoue
thatany considerable or prevailing number there
will ever aid in establishing 4 policy through
winch Virginia mightprofit from its vast natural
| resources.
Even the Eageirerlitself contains a. most
whitening comment Ilpon Ilnlicy which it,
mas .u'1ry"e 'zsr advocating. SpeakiTg the
Buena Vista furnace, in Iockbrikge county,
which has still some little vitality, it proceeds
in the following strain, which must sound
strange to thesncaders of.tha6 paper Itsays
"a few years ago, when the great southwes-
tern inc OF our improvements was upon the
tapIs the proprietorsof the Buena Vista furnace
among others did all in their power to induce
our people use Virginia iron hut in vain did
/ they offer to sacrifice, frequired their fine
and their fortunes, aud urge the superiority of
our own iron. English iron was preferred md
the country was drained Gifts silver and gold.
to our everlasting loss aud regret lThevthat
is the railroad company, reasoned tbus:-let
ourareaders Imagine how practicay-that.o our
/ manufacturers could not make iron upon their
own terms; men inacqaintetl with the business
knew better than the manufacturers themselves
N' She consequences was, that the q0tEtsIi
'nO0'entwas lost. English houses got the .pre.
ference, and got much higher prices, too, than
those atThich, our own people Offered to make
It. We were then prepared to make iron. even
better than VIC are now, and an iron, too. which
would wear out two rails Of the miserable Enc.
fish manufacture, which we got to one Of our
own. Our furnaces were built, our canita1 in.
vested. We had iron to SELL and only awqited
demand; but Virginiaus would moi Inv Vir-
GINA iron; they would not patronize .,iir iron
masters, for fear it would 'sbreak them Buts
IN their wisdom, they had forgotten that, if our
manufacturers could. not sell their iras. they
would he forced to close their ftiraaees or
smash, and the result was most tremendous
smash. "0h! what fall was that my ooun.
trymcn, when you and and all fell down. ~
Our manufacturing interest was prostrated, and
ever since, it has dragged a miserable existence
whilst tue State it drained otis cnffenc7. nj.
mostlruined,in its=credit, and dependent on for.
eign capital TO carry on its great works of i'm. +
provsnent, upon the, completion of which We
Had the S20,ooo,Oo0 which We have paid to
foreigners foriTon hlnne been invested at home.
even suppose we did at first pay higher prices
we NE would not now be forced to 90 begging,
Those who have had the hnanci9l troubles Of
our public works to fight through, VIII appre.