The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1886-02-20

OF corn nail dozen more VIII rush
tn the spot to see if they can't find
another like it. SO it mas been
with the rush of immigration to the
mining and manufacturing regions
of Pennsylvania and the farming
lands of the west. Immigrants pas
sing along the b. d. o. railroad and
seeing the rugged and barren coun-
try as they crossed West Virginia,
never dreamed of the fertile soil and
rich mineral resources that our State
possesses. 1t has only been of late
years that there has been any con
siderable immigration to the State
This is now fast on the increase
The cheap and fertile lands that can
be bought to suit are great incen-
tives to persons who want to secure
homes. The mineral wealth must in
the course of a few years attract
thousands, and there will be great
mining and manufacturing regions
like there are in Pennsylvania and
Ohio.
Bat however great the population
in the mining regions of our State
becomes there can never he the
amount of discomfort and depend
ence upon large capitalists as there
is in Pennsylvania. Dissatisfied
men will buy little piece of land
and go to farming. 1t is likely that
for Il long time yet land can be
bought in any quantity desired. as
so much of it is too billy to be cult
waited with improved machinery, thus
atiording little inducement to the
large landholder and large farmer as
in other States where one man can
cultivate and oversee large tracts.
The poor man who is industrious
can always build a home of his own
in West Virginia and be free and
independent. There is real truth in
our motto, that ''Mountaineers are
always free"
Here is something from the Han
cock county Courier that is worth
reading carefully: 1T appears from
census reports that in 1860 the pop
ulation of the State of West Virginia
was 376,6S9, in 1870 it was 442,Ol4.
and in 1880 reached 6IS, 456. having
nearly doubled in twenty years. The
increase from 1860 to 1870 is less
100000, while the increase from 1870
to 1880 is nearly 100000, showing
rapid increasing current of immigra-
ton. The rate of increase from 1860
to 1870 is less than 20 per cent. 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 between
1860 and 1870.
We may therefore calculate that
with the same ratio of increase the
per centum of increase of population
between 1880 and 1890 will double
that between 1870 and 1880. 1t will
therefore he about so per cent. But
supposing that it should not reach
our figures can we not reasonably es-
innate that the increase will reach
so or 60 per centum of the popula-
ton of 1880, which will swell it in
1890 to one million or more. In adj
dition to West Virginia's vast area
of farming lands she has vast coke
and mining region. The kanawha
country in West Virginia has be-
come celebrated as a coal country.
and the coal and coke traffic of the
Monongahela valley is rapidly
spreading upwards until it will lit
orally over-run the whole upper Mo
nongahela. West Virginia has coal
fields that are equal to anv in the
world. 1t is only a matter of time
their development is inevitable.
West Virginia is not only grazing
and agricultural country, but she
has vast resources of undeveloped
coal and other minerals. Her hills
in some places are u little too steep
for easy and convenient farming, but
the fertility of the soil is unexcellei.
The hills and the valleys of West
Virginia are carpeted with sod Of
blue grass and the cattle fattened
from the grass are in the principal
markets of the world. West Virgin.
ia certainly has splendid future,
but the time will probably come, and
perhaps not long hence, when our
people will complain like our neigh
bors in the coke region that too
many people are flocking thither
And it is perhaps wise now for our
people to bear in mind that the un-
cultivated lands of West Virginia
must be laid under contribution to
support the millions that are house
less who will certainly come within
onr borders in the future. 1t is true
as suggested that Americans should
study how to make q living for them
selves in such way as to be less
dependent upon capitalist. The
method and the means are found in
West Virginia just outside the Con-
nelsville coke and oil region and
capital and labor are boiling aud
suffering out Of the coke and min
ing region into West Virginia's re-
gions of various scsouic es. - Wheel