Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1876-02-26
Manufacturing Company

In the last files of your paper
some notice is taken of a corporate
manufacturing company in the
town Of Martinsburg, the names
of the incorporators of said enter
prise being composed of some Of
the best business men the county
affords, is certainly deserving of
the attention of the capitalists and
business men of Berkeley county,
and certainly from the presidents
established from such enterprises
in other sections, would prove to
be OF invaluable interest to persons
who would feel disposed to con-
tribute their means to its advance
ment, es well as to the friends Of
progress Of our County Town, and
to the people of our county gener-
ally.
tits we'll known that at all times
heretofore, our people have been
dependent almost entirely upon
manufacturing esta b / 1 shments
for much of the machinery used,
and even down to your rolling pins
and shoe pegs used among the peo-
pie, when all these most useful
articles could be made at home,
provided our people weuld turn
their attention to the manufacture
Of them, and in doing so would
not only swell the population of
our county town, but keep the
money, so much needed, among
our people, which would not only
benefit the cOrporaters but the
people Of the county generally.
The mechanic arts and the man
ufacturing of farming implements,
household furniture, material for
building purposes, are certainly
landmarks to the farming inter-
ests wherever IL exists. 1t will
not then be denied that the nearer
the proximity to each other these
several arts of mankind are, the
more beneficial they can be made
to subserve the interests Of each
other, hence 1t will be readily per-
ceived that had we the facilities
to manufacture these articles at
home, the cheaper and perhaps the
better it would be for the pur-
chaser, besides the very important
fact that money paid for the man
ufacture of such articles would be
retained at home, enabling the OPP
eratives to return to the farmers
the same money in payments for
articles of life's subsistence, as well
as building up houses for them
selves, thereby swelling and en-
HANGING the population ofour town
and county generally.
To contemplate the beneficial
effects of these home efforts, we
have only to turn our attention to
our neighboring States, where al
most every town has its own man.
ufactories, which turn out work
for their own country people, as
we'll as to send their work theus-
ands of Jules abroad, even among
us, draining us OF our money, and
by their industry and energy, en-
riching themselves and impover.
ishing others less epterprising,t the
worst feature in the whole bill
being the fact that the very mate
rial these articles are manufactured
out of are first taken by them from
our forests, drawn hundreds of
miles by railroad, manufactured
into articles of use and returned to
us. We then buy them, and our
money goes to benefit other Sec
tons, when by proper action on
the part of our people, these things
could all be done by ourselves, ad-
vancing eur own interests and the
community at large.
AT this era of our country; many
of the later settled states are far
in advance of us in point of COM
merce and manufactures. No rea-
son in the world can be assigned
ior this state of things except that
the people from various reasons
have embarked in different enter
prises from our people, form large
ly the business and material wealth
of the States North and West; be-
lieving that in "union there is
strength" what one man cannot
do many can, by each one sparing
some of his means, making in all
a sufficient fund to go on success
fully in the prosecution of any OBJ
ject conducive to their interest and
their whole community around
them.
Our people have either lost sight
of the advantages of these objects
and enterprises, or have never
contemplated it; they have never
thought of the fact that PhiIadel-
phia sends out men here to buy
and fell the hickory of our forests,
transport it to their manufacturing
establishments, and return to us
frem our own material articles in
daily use among us-articles the
most useful, yet the simplest and
most easily made.