The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-06-19


We have received the prospectus of the
Virginia Manufacturer, to be issued
weekly at Buchanan. Va, at $500 per
annum. Hon. sJos. D.>eWeeks,' Of 1.-The
Pittsburg Ame,scamf Mamayacturer,l is
the protector OF the enterprise, andW
E. Lindsey is to be the managing editor
The first number will be issued aboutthe
LIST of July. The primary purpose OF
the publication Is to furnish reliable in
formation as to the mining, metallurgical
and manufacturing Industries of the
Virginias. An important feature OF the
Manufacturer is stated in the prospec-
tus as follows: sit will be the policy of
the Virginia Manufacturer to encourage
the working up at or near the point OF
production, of these mineral and cruder
forms of product, into the higher forms
of manufacture. 1t will ever inculcate
the idea that the prosperity of tina South
will not be found in producing ore, or
pig iron, or pig zinc, or pig lead and
sending it out of the State to be worked
up into bars, hoops, plates and sheets,
and into higher forms of manufacture
which requires large expenditure OF
first-class and high priced labor, and
then to return them to the South for
consumption, but it will insist that the
true policy is to work it's minerals within
| its own borders into the highest forms
possible. As this is a policy that is ap-
! plicable to all States as well as the Vir-
| ginias, it is unnecessary to point out that
it's advocacy and adoption will benefit
| all States and sections"
| There is no question that is the true
4 policy, not only as it affects our mineral
resources, but our timber and forests.
The cream of Virginia's wealth has been
taken from her to feed industrial enter
prises and employ labor in other States
and sections, instead of being kept at
home and utilized as suggested in the
paragraph we have above quoted. In
minerals Virginia is one of the richest
if not the richest, States in the Union
yet there is scarcely anything here te
represent it. A few furnaces turn out
one or two hundred thousand tons O
pig metal. As soon as it cOols off, it ii
sent away to be worked up into thu
higher forms of the metal, and then re
turned here to be purchased with thu
money gotten from the crude product
We are thus constantly being dlainet
of our wealth, and forced to hold tn,
relations of "hewers of wood and draw
:. ! of of01 for ar rnriS
| ing and sagaciOus communities. 1t is
duplication of the old system which pre-
vailed in slavery times as to agriculture
We then worked for other people thai
ourselves. What we produced was ap
propriated to buy that which we did no
produce. and at the end of the year W
we're just about where we started, if no
little worse off. 1t is time this polio,
t were changed, now that we have entere'
upon new era, and have our minds di
, rected into new channels of endeavo
and industry.
We welcome the Manufacturer to tn
J fled of Virginia journalism. 1t will
contribute largely to the good of tn
, Commonwealth, and the enlightenment
of our people as to their duty to them
? selves and the true policy to adopt. TIL
, South is an inviting field for such ne,
3 industries as the Manufacturer suggests
and they should be encouraged ant
built up here. 1t is to be the para
mount source of our growth and pros
perity, and largely instrumental il
making Virginia what nature designe
she should be, one of the first and mos
affluent Commemorative In the Union