The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-02-28

We print on our first page this morn
ing, several acts lately passed, which
we regard as having very important
bearing on the development of the re-
sources of our State, especially the |
Southwestern portion of it, and more |
particularly the Kanawha Valley. The
first and most important feature of the |
scheme, is the act providing for the i'm
provement OF the Great Kanawha river |
from its mouth up to the Great Falls, a
distance of 81 miles, so as to make it
navigable all the year round. When
this is done, it follows as matter of
course, and In short time, too, that |
the tributaries of that river, such as
the Coal, the Elk, the Poeotalicoi Gau-
ley, New and Greenbrier, will be inn
proved in the same way, the object be-
ing to open up and bring into market
their vast coal, mineral and timber
lands.
The present situation in the Kanawha
Valley is not unlike that of the Mo-
nongahela Valley a few years ago,
prior to the marvellous system of locks
and dams adopted along that river.
And, really, it is the grand success of
that project that has suggested the same
idea in reference to the Kanawha. Why
should the Southern cities and towns
be supplied with coal from away up the
Monongahela, if they can be supplied
cheaper by developing fields much
nearer to them This Is the question
that Eastern capitalists have been
called to consider for years past. And
a number of them are now going to try
and effect a satisfactory answer to it.
They have seen that during tine last year
upwards of forty-two million bushels
ofcoal were brought down tie Monon-
gahela and carried to Cincinnati, Louis
vile and the South, when the Ohio was
ut flood tide. They have also seen that
it was owing to 81 miles of artificial
navigation, accomplished mt n cost of
nearly one million of dollars, that the
coal was thus reached in the Monon-
yahela Valley and brought into mar
ket. Furthermore they have seen that
ths tolls collected last year on the Mon
ongahela amounted to upwardslof $780,
600, and that the company were enabled
TO declare net dividend of 10 per cent.
And still more important than all these
considerations, they have seen that the
Monongahela coal fields have increased
in value from 10 to 800 dollars per acre.
In view of these facts it is not strange
that attention has been turned toward
the development of region which,
while it is in some respects similar in
its situation to the Monongahela val
ley, has characteristics far more attrac-
tive and important in their relations
and bearings. We look upon the ulti-
mates of the Karawha improvements as
comPrehendIng the attainment of that
magnificent idea SO long and so hope
lessly cherished in the old Stnte in con-
nection with the James river and Ka-
nawha Canal. And two of the acts
which We print to-day in connection
with this charter to the Kanawha COM
pany, show that it is. the intention of
capitalists at no distant day to realize
that idea. Throughout the present ses-
sion OF the Richmond Legislature the
absorbing question, even amid their
political distractions, has been the con-
solidation Of all the Virginia rail-
roads into one mammoth company,
under one management, with view of
securing AN Ohio river terminus, and
by that means draining the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys of their products
and transporting them to Norfolk or
Newport News, and thence direct to
Europe and other quarters of the world.
Had Virginia never'b been cursed with
slavery, such II through line OF rail and
water would long ago have been built,
and Norfolk or Newport News would
have been a great city, rivaling perhaps,
New York. But its accomplishment
now is more than ever u necessity to
Virginia, and while the results can
never be what they might have become,
yet IA future will follow that no man
can estimate at this time. The Virginia
coast is the natural sea-board OF the
lower Ohio and middle Mississippi VAL
ley. The route is almost direct from
st, Louis to Norfolk. The grades are
immensely less, and the cost of trans
portation would be largely diminished.
The climate will always give water
line through Virginia, or u railroad
either, signal advantages over more
Northern competition.
These are some of the views to be
taken in connection with the Kanawha
river Improvement. The railroad lines
existing and projected are parts we
may say of the same Improvement. a
survey of the maps will show that all
the Virginia roads, excepting the Yir-
Einia and Tennessee, can be brought
To bear direct upon tho kanawha inn
provement. They can all concentrate
simultaneously upon the present ter
minus of the Virginia Central at Gov
ington and push it through to Charles
ton or the mouth of the Big Sandy,
where it will meet its connections
throughout Kentucky, Ohio, and the
entire West and Southwest.
One OF the frs. indirect effects of the
sure, as we think, the building of the
West Virginia Central Road, already
chartered. Philadelphia, and even
Baltimore, will see the necessity of that
road as n feeder to their trade, and the
pressure upon the capitalists of one or
both OF these cities for its building will
Increase as the IoldsVirginIa system,
now projected. becomes more and more
OF an accomplished fact. The Balti-
more and Ohio Company have been no.
ticing the "manifest tendeucyn of the
situation for some time, and a move or
two ola counter character has already
been made up theValleyofV Virginia with
:, y-ia,,- ~, Z, copna.tin,, will, tho CantroI