Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-05-14
West Virginia Railroads.

The statement in our telegraphic
columns Of yesterday that the business
men of Charleston. w. Va, held on Mon
day evening meeting to devise means TO
construct railroad up Elk river to con-
meet at Braxton Courthouse (Sutton) with
the Camden system Of roads is one that
concerns, we were about TO say, the people
of the whole State of Virginia. Such q re-
gion as the Camden roads penetrate for
timber, coal. iron, oil, and what not. 1t
would not be easy 10 find in any other
part of these rich United States,
or perhaps we should say In any
part of the world except the United
States. A road from Charleston to
Braxton Courthouse would not seem to be
in direct line from Charleston to Rich
mond. Nevertheless, we in Virginia must
see to IL that, as was said of Rome, All
roads lead TO Richmond" 1t will not be
possible to construct new railroad
through tho fabulously-wealthy region
which Baltimore and Pittsburgh are en-
deavoring TO render tributary to those
cities without suggesting 10 the people
owning those treasures that to carry to
Pittsburgh such freight as that region
furnishes Is to carry it away from its ma
tural market. Richmond surely ought
TO be able to attract to herself her due
share of the trade of West Virglnia-cer-
tainly as soon as she has been brought
nearer than Pittsburgh to the rich trea-
sures of the mountains.
1t Is not certain that straight railroad
is better for all purposes than meander-
ing one. We are inclined to the opinion
that in the beginning railroads were con-
structed by men who made all other con-
alterations secondary TO the one object OF
accommodating the travelling public; and
that the people have not yet all abandoned
that theory. But would the Chesapeake
and Ohio road have done for West Vir-
gina one half it has done had that road
run on O direct line from Richmond TO
Charleston?
The State Of West Virginia is likely to
be ere long grid-ironed with railroads.
What with the DAVIS road from the direct
North-the Monongahela-river routes from
the Northwest-the Ohio-River road-the
road from the State of Ohio connecting with
the West Virginia systematic Elk-River
road-and these are not alive say that
what with these numerous roads and their
branches the State which Virginia claims
as O daughter must soon prove to be as
thoroughly grid-ironed with railroads as
OHIO, Indiana, or Illinois. The DAVIS road
or roads ought to open up, and will open
up, O wild region of country. but one
whose treasures (of coal particularly are
such that TO describe them would be to
cause the uniformed listener to set you
down as totally unworthy OF belief.
II has often been said that if Virginia
had forty years ago built road to her
northwestern border her territory would
never have been divided. Nay, perhaps
there would never have been. war be-
tween the States; for surely the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad contributed largely to
the defeat of the southern armies. 1t
seems to be still true that there Is a bar
rier between US in Virginia and that same
northwestern and western region. We
read year after year of new roads being
projected or constructed there, all pro-
missing to connect with the Virginia sys-
tenn of roads, and yet that same barrier,
whatever il is, seems TO stand between us
and a region whose trade ought to be ours.
Is it not time that we had made good our
title to the possession of much of the
trade of West Virginia 1?