The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-10-17
WEST vrRGrNrA,s FUTURE.
How She Has Been Growing
And How She VIII Grow.

Genius of Liberty says that too ma
ny people have focked to the COX,
and mining regions. Americans
should be more independent. They
should study how to make a living
for themselves some way so as to b.
less dependent upon capitalists. TIL,
! thousands of uncultivated acres O
land, even in western Pennsylvania
should be laid under contribution t.
support many who are yet houseless
and homeless.
If a paticular community shall at
tract attention, once the current OIL
immigration is directed into that
locality the current flows on anc
increases as it flows until the local
ity is over run with people.
And so it seems that business
men have been turning their atten
ton to the business of manufactur
ing coke and the people-capital
lists as we'll as laborers-have beer
f1ocking to the coke regions until
the business is becoming overdone
and the laborers are becoming too
abundant. In such case the atten
ton of the thousands and thous.
ands of men who regularly fall into
the great stream Of emigration and
float out to engage in some bust
ness by which to gain a livelihood
or fortune must be called to some
other enterprise or field. In early
times emigrants went to seek cheap
lands on which to settle and be-
come agriculturists. For a while
the great stream of emigration seem
ed to be turned into the coke re-
gion and that region has become
SO crammed and jammed that it
will soon not hold those that are
there. They must seek cheap
lands and become tillers of the soil
if they wish to prosper.
West Virginia has thousands and
thousands Of acres of cheap lands
which might in the language of our
contemporary be laid under contri-
button to support the many who
are yet houseless and homeless.
And the current of immigration is
thitherward as we think can be
shown.
When the southern States had
slavery on their hands West Vir-
ginia was on the border of slave
territory. 1t was not safe place
to keep slaves because Of the facil-
ity which slaves could break away
from their masters and flee to the
North. Northern emigration eth
went to the West or passed further
to the South to enjoy the benefits
of secure slave labor. The result
was that WestVirginia became what
the slave territory south of it wished
it to be, barrier between the slave
holding and the non slave holding
States. While this state of affairs
existed nothing could be expected
of West Virginia. In this respect
no people have been SO greatly ben
Gifted by the emancipation of slav-
cry as have the people of West
Virginia. The result is that the
current of emigration is now turn
ing to West Virginia and her I'M
cultivated lands are rapidly being
brought into market and the house
less and homeless are being gather
ed into her borders and they have
become householders and landlords
without travelling SO great dis
lance from the homes of their child
hood as is required to get lands
equally as cheap in the Northwest.
1t appears from census reports
that in 1860 the population Of the
state of West Virginia was 376, 6S6
in 1870 it was 442, Ola, and in 1880
reached oI8,457, having nearly
doubled in twenty years. The in
crease from 1860 to 1870 is less
than 100, 900, while the increase
from 1870 to 1880 is nearly 200, 600,
showing rapidly increasing cur
rent of immigration. The rate of
increase from 1860 to 1870 is less
than 20 per cent Of the population
Of 1860. The rate of increase from
1870 to 1880 is nearly 40 per cent
Of the population of 1870.
The per cent of increase between
1870 and 1880 doubles that be-
tween 1860 and 1870.
We may therefore calculate that
with the same ratio of increase the
per centum of increase of popula-
ton between 1880 and 1900 will
double that between 1870 and
1880. 1t will therefore be about
30 per cent. But supposing that
It should not reach our figures can
we not reasonably estimate that the
increase will at least reach 50 or 60
per centum Of the population of
1880, which will swell it in 1900
to one million or more. In addi-
ton to West Virginia. vast area
Of farming lands she has vast
coke and mining region. The
Kanawha country in West Virginia
has become celebrated as coal
country, and the coal and coke
traffic of the Monongahela Valley
S rapidly spreading upwards until
t will literally over run the whole
upper Monongahela. West Vir-
5inia has coal fields that are equal
70 any in the world. 1t is only a
natter of time their development
S inevitable. West Virginia is not
only a grazing and agricultural
country but she has vast resources
Of undeveloped coal and other
Her hills in some places
Are little too steep for easy and
convenient farming but the fertility
Of the soil is unexcelled. The hills
and valleys of West Virginia are
,arpeted with a sod of blue grass
and the cattle fattened from the
$40 Al