Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1891-01-10
WEST VIRGINIA.
Railroad Kings end SNndicatcs Cobbllng
up the Immense Mineral Wealth of
the Mountain state.

the Mountain Stalt.
A telegram from Baltimore states that
the officers of the West Virginia rail
roads that have their headquarters in
that city speak with eXultation of the
great Developments which they contem-
plate this year in the railway system OF
the Mountain State. The Davis Elkins
syndicate is extending its lines both
north and south with the purpose of
establishing a connection with the Penn
sylyania Railroad system at the States
northern border, and of getting a south
ern route to tidewater. The Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad is building branches
into the coal, iron ore and timber dis
triCts Of the State. The kanawha and
Michigan Railroad Company has line
from Charleston to Mount Pleasant, on
the kanawha, and has connections with
various roads that run to Richmond and
Washington, to all points III the OHIO
Valley, to Detroit and other lake ports,
and to Chicago and st. Louis. The road
has nearly finished an extension from
Charleston to Cedar Grove, at the mouth
of kelleys Creek, that will enable it TO
handle and distribute the coal and lum-
Der products Of the Great kanawha dis
triCt through all the territory it trayer-
SEES. The Norfolk and Western, that
now handles the output of the poCahan-
tas coal mines, will this year complete
its New River Division across the State,
and put the Eikhorn coal field 500 miles
nearer to Chicago than it now is,
The completion Of Senator Camden's
! system, consisting of the West Virginia
and Pttsburg and the Monongahpla
roads, will make new trunk liue
| through some Of the richest coal, iron
and timber counties of West Virginia.
| There are IL 600 square miles of work
able coal seams in West Virginia While
there was an output from the eastern or
| New River coal district in 1890 of 1000
| 600 tons the demand increased faster
than the production. The Kanawha
| districts have, becaus" of available river
transportation, a great advantage of tn"
eastern coal fields. Along kelley's Creek
| are TWO mites Oh water lfblIl ~ winch
barges can DO loaded. The freight tariff
for coal there is only two mills per ton
per mile, rate for transportation SO
low as to insure to the output of the
! kanawha mines monopoly of the coal
trade of all the great cities Of the OHIO
and Mississippi Valleys. Because of the
lack of railroads there has been no large
iron development although belt Of
carbonate and oxide ores extends across
the entire State from the Virginia to the
kentucky boundary, The Camden and
the Davis syndicates have made large
purchases of iron properties in sections
which their completed railways will
traverse and before long iron and steel
industries will be established on scale
equal to any now existing in the South.
The centre of the iron and steel industry
will be at and around Shenandoah juno
ton and at this point locations have
been secured for many enterprises.
Among these are 300,tOn steel plant,
which will make steel by a continuous
process from Bessemtr and non. Bessemer
ores. With the furnaces will be rolling
mills to work up It's products into
finished merchantable steel These in
dustrles alone, they say, will employ
more than 1000 skilled wage saves.
Martnsburg and Charleston in the same
vicinity will also be the seats of iron
| industries.