The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-04-21
A Right Movement.

of large experience in the iron business the
other day, he informed us that number of
gentleme have been consulting about the
feasibility of establishing. a Rolling Mill.
Nail Factory, Machine Shops and Car
Wheel Factory in Staunton-that meet
ing would take place at an early day to eff
feet preliminary organ ization, with view
to asking for charter of-incorporation, the
maximum capital stock to be 100000, but
tie initiatory operations to commence as
soon as sufficient stock has been subscribed
to justify the Undertaking, The scope of
this proposition is embraced in the CLASH
tication we have given to the industries to be
started, but it is not expected to commence
them all at once. The first thing would be
Rolling Mill, which, if the assurance of
success were guaranteed by its practical OPP
GRAFTON, would be followed, by degrees, by
the other manufactures named.
The movement has our hearty sympathy,
and we earnestly hope for its success. The
time is propitious for the undertaking.
Already there are six furnaces in opera
ton along the line Of the Chesapeake and
Ohio Railroad, and we learn the construc-
ton of four more is soon to be undertaken.
These would furnish the crude iron for the
Rolling Mill, land when its operations would
justify it the Nail Factory would follow,
with the others as soon as the business as
surance would warrant. When it is re-
~, sx@1,. ~
the kind named in the entire Valley of Vir-
ginia, nor in West Virginia outside of
Wheeling, and that there are few in the
South, it would be reasonable to assume
that success would attend the undertaking,
if managed by practical men. with the pru-
dence that controls in ordinary business af-
fairs. StauntOn presents advantages, too,
rarely possessed by any locality for this
description of manufactures. We are in
direct communication with the furnaces
and coal and coking operations on the Ches-
apeake and Ohio Railroad, where all the es-
sential ingredients could be speedily COM
manded. We are at the point of competi-
ton for transportation north and south,
reaching the markets of both sections, with
direct rail communications east and west.
Soon the Valley Railroad will be completed
to Lexington, giving us connection with the
South by the Richmond and Allegheny
Railroad from that pointer by the Shenan-
doah Valley Railroad from Waynesboro to
the South, which is now under contract to
its intersection with the Atlantic and Mis-
sissippi road at Big Lick or Salem. We
could not only command the material for
the operat ion of the mill, but the markets
| for the sale of its products. The iron bust
ness is in very healthy condition and must
nece ssarily so remain for years, in
view of the vast railroad schemes and COM
binations now engaging attention in the
| South and other sections of the Union -
| In short we are at the centre of one of the
most remarkable and atf1uent iron districts
on the continent, with not single Rolling
! Mill, n all. Horse Shoe or Car Wheel Fac
tory within one hundred miles of us at the
| nearest point, and none at all that could
successfully compete with the trade that
would reasonably centre here. Were the
mineral wealth which exists in radius OF
fifty miles of Staunton, now reached and
to be reached by rail, located near any
town similarly situated, in the east or west,
and so accessible to iron furnaces, and coal
and coke, the proposition that has been
suggested for the establishing of iron indus
| tries, would at once command all the capital
| Al. IL. IL.
table operation.
1t is admitted by all that our town and
section will not grow in wealth and popu-
laUion as it should without manufactures
of some k ind or another. What is wanted
now is for the advantages we possess to be
utilized, and this can only be done by oul
own people showing their confidence in the
success of such undertakings as are named
by putting their money and energies into
organized form for the purpose of erecting
them. When this is done, and our own
confidence thus manifested, there will be
no want of uside aid to enlarge and build
up the enterprise. AS an eastern iron OPP
orator, now prospecting in this county for
! iron properties, remarked to US the other
day, the field is here and the money and
experience in the east. The two must
come together, for the field there is occu.
pied, and no place in the United States pre-
SCENTS more advantages for the profitable OPP
Grafton of iron industries than right here
in the Valley of Virginia. What is wanted
is the start. This our own people are able
to give if they are willing. The nucleus
once formed, the. way would be open for
the establishment of manufacturing cen
tire in Staunton, and all that it means-rap-
idly increasing population, enlarged bust,
ness operations of every description, a
market for home products, land general thrift
and prosperity throughout the section.
When the start has been given, let the
example of Atlanta be mitated-some, one
of our intelligent, practical business men
go north and present the situation to capt.
talists there. They will soon grasp the
subject, and see in it advantages for invest
ment, just as they did in the cotton fac
tory at Atlanta. We must put our own
shoulders to the wheel first. and then call
upon others to aid in the important enter
prise.
We will have accomplished the object of
this writing if the favorable consideration
of any portion of our citizens is drawn to
the subject mentioned, and their practical
aid secured. If we do not avail ourselves
of the propitious surroundings we now
have, it will be our own faults and if the
opportunity should, be lost by neglect or
Indifference we will have none others than
ourselves to blame for it if other localities
reach out and grasp the benefits that are
now at our command.
Hon. Zeb. Vance, now a Senator of the
United States from North Carolina, in his
speech in Staunton last summer, referred to
the manner in which North Carolina settled
her State debt In substance he said that
net calculation was made of the loss sustained
in the emancipation of the negroes, and like
calculation was made of the amount of the
State debt which should be repudiated in con-
sequence thereof, and it was done. This he
aroued was very nice under the law Or eol1iya-