West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-01-27

leglslate intelllgently and with sale
ty upon subjects calculated to adj
vance the developments of the State"
The object of this report is to make
public q character of information
which seems to have been assidu
ously suppressed and to scatter
facts which, as we believe, many per
sons are anxious to conceal.
STATE PROSPEROUS IF PROPERTY OWNED
BY CITIZENS.
1t is mistake to suppose that
this State is prospecting as much as
she ought to do A State is pros
pering when, and only when, those
who permanently reside within her
limits are increasing in wealth; a
State is prospecting only when her
citizens are accommodating property.
A State is unprosperous when the
wealth is being absorbed by few
individuals; State is doubly I'M
prosperous when the property is
rapidly passing from her present
population or home people into the
hands of non residents.
Persons who have not considered
this matter are apt to be deceived
by appearances; railroad may be
constructed, mines may be opened,
temporary and fugitive population
may gather in rude shanties about
the mine, stores may be built and
there may be for while decep-
tive appearance of development, but
if the entire enterprise is owned by
non residents, if all the profits be-
long to persons who reside abroad.
if those who are permanently iden
titled with the locality do not par
ticipate in the harvest, the State is
going backwards. For example,
some yeare ago nonresident cor
poration opened q mine in the coun-
tv of all the coal
in several hundred acres was taken
out and when the treasure was eX-
hausted the property was abandon
ed, and that locality is to-day poorer
and worse off than it would have
been if that coal had never been
touched; that foreign corporation
carried away the entire harvest and
all the profit;-the permanent or
home wealth was diminished, not
increased. The history of this To-
calitY will be repeated in many
places in this State, which are now
pointed out, by thoughtless persons,
as illustrations of our prosperity,
and those who reflect see to-day
what those who do not reflect will
surely witness in the near future
our State despoiled of her wealth
and her resident population poor,
helpless and Respondent.
OUR CONDITION CoNTRAsTED WITH 1865
When we run our memory back
and contemplate the changes in this
State during the past twenty years
we seem authorized to declare that
if the same practices be continued
twenty years longer West Virginia
will be grievously injured if not ir-
retrievably ruined. When the war
ended, here stood $4,000 square
miles richer in mineral, timber and
natural resources than the same
area anywhere else. This "a, 900
square miles was not new or I'M
known territory; 1t was State, pop
ulated long before the western ter
ritory was settled; it was State
within the very heart of the civiliza-
tion, population and wealth of this
Union and adjacent to the capital
city of 40 millions of people. but
above all and more important than
all, the mines, the minerals, the tim
Der (all untouched were owned by
the people whose homes were here
and whose hopes could not be sepa-
rated from the fortunes and future
of the locality where they resided.
The contrast between the then
condition of West Virginia and a
Western territory is full of instruc-