National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-11-13
The virginia of the Future.

anu on the defensive.
The Virginia of the Future.
Virginia has taken its place in the line of
Republican states. II will no longer be
governed and misgepresented in the ma
tional councils by men who neither compre-
heud nor care for the splendid natural adj
vantnges possessed by the state, but merely
represented dead or decaying ideas, which
were wrong while they had life, and dead
are a stencil In the nostrils.
AS the NATIONAL REPUBLICAN stated
yesterday, at the formation Of the federal
constitution Virginia was the foremost state
in wealth and population, and now 1t Is
fourteenth in population and seventeenth
in wealth, and this, too, in the face of the
fact that no one Of the original states was
the equal in soil, climate, commercial facili-
ties, or mineral wealth.
The curse Of slavery during its existence
readily accounts for the failure OF Virginia
to keep in the front rank when It started in
the race for wealth and power.
But slavery, and the war for its abolition,
has been thing of the past for over
twenty years, and Virginia should have
been far on the road to the recovery OF its
former position.
No state or territory equals Virginia in
the possession Of oil the natural advan-
tages from which an enterprising people
create wealth.
The soil OF Virginia is as varied as the
colors in a crazy quilt. Parts of 1t produce
wheat equal to Dakota, corn equal to Illi-
nois, potatoes equal to New York, cotton
equal to Georgia, while its tobacco is the
hest made. Apples, pears, peaches, and
grapes could be grown almost without
labor and cattle at half the cost In colder
climates.
The earth, which was so fertile on its
surface, contains beneath 1t coal, IRON
limestone, geld, copper, and lead, with
every variety of superior building stone.
One Of the best harbors on the continent
is upon the coast of Virginia, while its tide
waters furnish an inexhaustible supply of
oysters and fish,
Good navigable rivers traverse Virginia,
and the state was one Of the first to secure
artificial highways, both canals and rail
ways.
And yet what picture did this great
state of Virginia, rich in everything, pre-
sent short time since?
It's fertile soil by unskillful cultivation re-
duced almost to barrenness.
Its iron mines, among the first worked
on the continent, lying idle aud unproduc-
tive.
Its enormous wealth Of coal undisturbed
in the beds where the laboratory of nature
manufactured 1t for the benefit of the human
race.
Its gold and lead mines but deserted
shafts.
Its beds of limestones, quarries of marble
and brownstone untouched.
Its rivers without boats, its railroads with.
out freight, its harbors without ships, its
people without money,
Whyg
Because the people Of Virginia, pretend
ing to desire, really ostracised foreign capt.
tai that sought investment within its Dor.
ders.
The men who desired to invest their
money in farms, mines, quarrles, railroads,
steamboats,, ships, furnaces, rollingmills,
manufactures, and the hundred other ways
in which it could be made profitable, found
themselves barred out by the iron doors OF
popular prejudice.
They were tabooed.
Some Of them forced the doors aud de-
fed the taboo that they might make money.
The younger men of Virginia saw these
daring investors living in plenty and Sc
curing competence or wealth, while they
were dragging alongan aimless existence.
I These young men sought the cause and
found it-fouud that 1t was their own fault,
their own folly, in following blind leaders Of
the blind; that they had fallen iuto the ditch
Of poverty.
These men saw that millions of dollars
were waiting, seeking, hoping for invest
ment in Virginia, and they saw that If it
came each and every one Of them who had
| brains or energy would secure n share OF it.
Aud they took down the iron doors.
The result Is that for some years past
millions Of dollars have been poured into
| Virginia for investment.
You can now see farms that were "worn
out, reclaimed and producing as Well as
they did when the virgin soil first felt tue
| plow Of the husbandman.
You can see tons Of coal and iron waiting
upon the 'dump" for the cars to trans
! port them upon the Overburdened railways.
! You can see the blaze ascending from the
stack of the furnace and rolling mills, and
hear the whIr of the machinery in the
factory.
The rivers and harbors have their air
darkened by the smoke from the steamships
which bear across the ocean the products
Of Virginia.
! But those men who broke down the doors
Of prejudice have taken another step; they
| have raised the "taboon
| 1t is no longer a crime to be a Republican
| and protectionist in Virginia. "They
themselves have said it,"
Now the men who have money to invest
in farms, in mines, in manufactures, in
mills, or In any other profitable industry
will not find their investments endangered
hy tLe action Of the men who should work
to protect them.
Virginia has entered upon new era-the
! era Of prosperity aud advancement-an era
in which the politics of the state will not be
allowed or used to destroy its material pros
| ltllty'
The NATIONAL REpUBLIcAN proposes, in
a series Of articles, to show what the re-
sources Of Virginia are.
e,--
Most of the really able newspapers ofthe
country lave lcguu writing the Presidents $
message for him, and they will assiduously
keep i up til December The amount of pro-
phcuc talent which thus runs to waste every
year Is something enormous and the President
would probably not be able to get along Mt all
| were II not for the skeletons and padding thus