Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1889-02-09
". VA, SATURDAY, FEB. 8, 1889.
make Martinsburg a bee hive of COM
merce, trade and industry.

make Martinsburg a bee hive of COM
merce, trade and industry.
We have all the shipping facility
necessary, all the motive power that
could be wanted, timber at our doors,
farm land of the best,-limestone,
coal, iron, clay but no industrial
activity.
Men want homes,-are seeking
lots. sand have money and labor to
provide tbem,-but only million
aire can get the ground to work up
on. Idle bonanzas kill town, just
like inactive energies in man waste
his strength and hasten decay.
There are many improvements in
town, fine new houses, but they are
private enterprises that pay their
own rent. In the country farms are
being divided up and there are many
signs of agricultural prosperity.
And yet all these sources of wealth
are permitted to lie idle, while our
own people run off to other localities
in search Of booms built upon air aud
promises which in the very nature
of things cannot last, and must bring
disaster upon somebody.
Where is there u locality so well
adapted to manufacturing purposes
as Martinsburg? We are at the in
tersection of two great lines OF trunk
railroads, running to the four cardi-
nal points and linking together the
oceans, and the lakes and the gulf.
We have the whole country before
us for a market. We have the iron
manufactured in large quantities
almost at our doors. We have the
supplies for all demands of labor,
and all the requirements of capital.
We are right on the highway be-
tween the North and the South and
East and West, and can reach right
across the sea, without changing
bulk except to dump our prouducts
into vessel.
Could any sensible man ask for
greater inducements for a boom
that would mean something-that
would bring out the wealth that lies
dead in the mountains-the coal, the
iron, the clays, the timber, and every
element of substantial, enduring al
fuence and prosperity.
And with these natural advan
tages availeG of--these wonderful
benefactions> of nature utilized-the
energy and push Of our people and
the capital that could be command
ed, by earnest effort and well direct.
ed purpose, where else could such
an assurance be found for booms
OF course it will never come if our
own people look away from home to
other fields, and grasp at air castles
to realize that they have sown to
the wind and reaped the whirl-
wind, instead of coming down to
real business, taking hold of the I'M
developed wealth that is all around
them, and utilizing the splendid ad.
vantages that are theirs, without the
asking or the seeking.
Well, it will not always be thus.
While some of our people are carried
away by the rosy fictions of other 10.
calities, and others clipping coupons
and slicing off the corners of the pa.
per Of the unfortunate, and others
are sucking their thumbs while wait
ing for something to turn up, men of
sagacity, of wise business foresight,
will come in and seize upon the
wonderful natural wealth that in.
vltes capital and enterprise and will
not only cause boom but reap the
benefits of it. Northern eyes are up
on West Virginia. Northern capital
is looking this way. Northern enter.
prise will come with swift pace and
take hold of the fabulous wealth that
lies here, and will appropriate to it.
self that which our own people have,
in effect, thrown away.
We make the prediction now, that
it will not be- twelve months before a
new birth will be given to the mater
iaI life of this portion of the Valley,
and that the beneficiaries of it will
not be our own people, except as
they may catch the drippings, but
the live and daring men of other
States, who recognizing the immense
value of our natural resources, will
Join their means and their energy
with them to convert them into ae-
tive values and assured wealth.
The boom will come and stay, but
it will not be because we have done
anything to bring it, but because
others, seeing that to which we have
shut our eyes, and approaching that
which we have been blind to, will
seize upon and utilize it to their own
advantages and benefit. 1t will
come to stay, and not be driven
away by the first gale of depression.
1t will be built upon the marvellous
wealth of our mountains, and endure
when the balloons and paper fictions
of other localities have collapsed and
brought distress, if not ruin upon
the credulous and thoughtless who
have been captivated by craze and
infatuated by a guady delusioa.
Never promise more than can be done
l I'll