Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-22
In THE NICK OF TIME.
Twenty Million Dollars Invested in
0il-Boring Makes Much Work.
MANY FARM MORTGAGES LIFTED,
And the Day Postponed When the Native
Farmer Must YamoOse,
GENERAL PROSPERITY is PROMOTED

The story being current that ex-Mayor
Shannon, of Braddock, George Barnsdall
and others had organized a company with
IS. 900 900 to drill for petroleum in this
county, a call was made on Mr.. Shannon,
Yesterday, at his Office on Fourth avenue,
for particulars. MIR. Shannon stated that
he knew of none, and was confident there
was none. but in conversation with him an
idea Of the immensity of the oil business
contiguous to this city was gained, and
though on q little reflection, one who keeps
trace of the development will not be sur
prised to be told that there is large
amount of capital invested, yet few, per-
haps, have an idea of the extent Of it.
MIR. Shannon states that there is in the
neighborhood of SIC, 600, 900 invested in ter
ritory lying within the district ofwhich this
city is the center. This capital is largely
diverted from other sections. 1t must not
be confou nded with money tossed back and
forth In speculation. That has its uses, to
certain extent, in facilitating the movement
of commodities, but it does not create
wealth, while petroleum development does.
A DEFENSE OF FUTURES.
People who propose to make others
righteous bv act OF Congress rather over
shoot the mark when they propose to pre-
vent dealing in futures, and some of them evil
IDENTIFY do not understand what they are about.
No large manufacturing firm can do business
without purchasing for future delivery. I'm
less 1t can cah make contracts to run for 3, 6, 9
or II months, it cannot be assured OF its
ability to employ labor, and in order
to make those contracts it must
contract supplies at stipulated
price to be delivered as they are needed in the
future. Here an element of chance enters that
cannot be eliminated. Take for instance, -four
ing mill that makes 200O barrels of -four day. 1t
must carry stock of $4,000 bushels of wheat
in order to supply its monthly events. NOW, it
it absurd to suppose that it could afford to
carry L times that amount in order to insure
years work at profit Buying for future de-
livery in such cases is not gambling in the Of
fensIve definition of the word 1t is no more
chance than the farmer takes when he puts his
seed into the ground-not so much.
But the oil development in Allegheny, But
Ter, Beaver and Washington counties during
the past three or four years has been more
beneficial, perhaps. than the outlay of any
other similar amount of capital. 1t has not
only furnished vast amountof labor to tool
makers, drillers tool dressers, carpenters and
teamsters, but has enabled many impecunious
farmers to lift mortgages which their sioveny
methods of farming would never accomplish.
1t would astonish many people to know how
many Allegheny county farms, whose owners
inherited them from their parents, have been
mortgaged during the last decade, and mort
gagged. not TO make improvements, but for
money to live upon. The boys don't
care about staying with the old
man long as thev can secure
S40-a-month clerkships, or a chance to become
brakemen on railways, or to drive street cars
and though there are thousands of tramps
wandering to and fro in the land 1t is difficult
for a farmer to get hand at SIG month and
his board.
HARD TO MAKE IT PAY
Some are now hunting for help and cannot
get it at that price, and the manner in which
not support help at the price named
The German manages to make it win but the
average native farmer either mortgages his
farm or sells it OFF piecemeal. and partly sub
sists on the proceeds.
If the reader will drive u miles in any direc-
ton from the CITY, these days. he will find
plowmen turning up the soil from four to six
inches-soil that has been uniformly plowed
that depth for the last SO or
IS years. If you ask one WHY
he doesn't plow deeper and make more soil and
provide depth that will stand either dry or
wet weather, he will reply that it would spoil
the ground to turn up the clay. Suggest that
the addition of manure would prevent that, and
at the same time create more SOIL and the
sloven will answer that he hasn't any manure
and yet these cities are yearly wasting more
fertilizer than would equal all the guano i'm
ported.
The oil development has given these farmers
a new lease, and those who cannot get a bonus
or on whose land no grease is secured, find en-
ployment for their teams Were they to study
the sciences, they might extract the aluminium
from their farms. and make some money this
way, but they will not do it SO long as the
petroleum operator delves for the amber-coI-
ored fluid that is In the Hundred-Foot