The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-12-09

The Rev. j. 7. Browplee, otWest Mla
dletowp, Washington county, Pa, writes
IA hat considerable interest is iels in that
locaIi1y in the proposed rsilrosd:irom this
citv to the coke fields. HethiEks that the
rop,e ought 10 pass at least that distance
70 The north OF the Hempdeld. road, to In
spre ~ local aid from The people along
tho npe. and t2) to command as much
local basipsss AZ possible. We concur IN
tbis view, and suggest that there Is also
ths advantage Of easy grades by that
routs.t Atleast 100000 should be raised q
in Washington county, and this with the
assistance that our county and the coke
man Of the OonnelEsyille region will give
The road. should assure It's building in the
wear 1881, We do not exargetate It's i'm
nortSpce when we say that there Is more
IN this road 10 increase the population
and wealth Of the city OF Wheeling than
ipauy half dozen enterprises oil hrstclAss
magnitude that could be started In our
midst. 1t is the one thing needed to put
us on a par with tho iron manufacturers Of
Pittsburgh, and it would do more than )
mt ma on a psr with them. They pay sl4
ner car On coke to-day, and We pay S2e
This gives them an advantage Of 81 6V
per lon In The manufacture Ofiron, which,
as wa have heretofore said, is the differ
ence between profit and loss, or, per-
chance, solvency and bankruptcy. The
nroposed line, constructed as 3 narrow
ouape road. and chfaply built, will be able
tosupply coke here Of $40 per car, which
will effect a saving Of 81 over Pittsburgh,
and thus total saving Of not less than
81 Is to 81 per ton oliron can be effected
This would impGtt new life to iron enter
prise in this locality, and should the pro-
TACT 90 hand in hand with the building oil
a road down the river TO connect with the
Chess peake and Ohio road, as 1t assurediy
would, and thereby tap the New River ore
fields, our position as an iron centre would
be invulneIable. /,
It's we'll for our peopleto understand
that the Baltimore and Ohio Company
have no intention Of completing the
Hempaeld to their COnneIlsville road
Their pre.euss OF revived interest In the
project IL simply pretense and nothing
else. Their whole interest centres in the
pruposed line from Pittsburgh 10 Chiceso
function. They have been nibbltng at
that project for long time, and now that
they have the cooperation oil the people
along the line Of the proposed road, their
whole soul is in 1t. The Hempaeld pro.
iect has simply died out, and while they
NAV make ieiut oil reviviug it in order to
discourage the building OF a,iyal line, they
will lake good care that the ieint costs
them co little money as possible
and amounts to nothing in the
end. What Wheeling needs to do
is to cut loose entirely from the de-
fusion that we are to have any aid what
ever from the Baltimore road in reaching
the coke fields. It would have been untold
wealth to the city, and would have re-
suited in adding Thousands to our popula'
ton this census, had there never been
stroke Of work done on the Hempfeld
east OF Washington, Pa, for thereby we
have been misled from year to year into
an expectation OF an early completion Of
the line, whereas otherwise we would long
since have seon the necessity OF helping
ourselves in another direction. Had we
done so We would have been paid over and
over again by the wealth created and the
money saved by such line. There is no
proposition more susceptible Of demonstra'
ton as matter OF dollars and cents than
the great importance OF this line. The
coke men OF Connellsville see Its
great advantages to them as an independ'
ent outlet and the iron men Of Wheelingare
deeply impressed with It's vast value to their
business. The people OF Washington
county, north OF the Hempaeld, have long
been seeking the building OF such line.
They hays held meetings, and subscribed
money and done great deal to get the
project on It's feet, but until now there
never was enough interest attached to the
two ends Of the route to assure success,
owing iu,part to the fact that Wheeling
was under the delusion that the Baltimore
road intsaded to complete the Hempfeld
tan early day. Now, however, we know
better, and therefore the. time has come
to cut loose from any expectation in that
direction. Let the B & o. complete the
Hsmpfield at her leisure, should she by
any chance ever d. so, but let us no
longer be deceived by any pre,ense Of that
sort. She has fooled US to our detriment
long enough. The thing to do is to cast in
cur lot literally and unreservedly with
this new movement