The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-04-07
The Promise of the Future.

a rule, follow. Sixty years ago, Penn
sylvania was comparatively a virgin |
State, so far as material development
was concerned. Railroads were few and
far between, wanting in system and com
prehensive policy, su:h as now are ASSOC
ciatei with the great public carriers of
that State and the nation. Farm lands
were in crude state; mineral properties
were valued at nominal prices; manufac>
tories were scare and the most primitive
kind; and altogether that which is now
the second State in the Union in wealth
and progress and development, was an
undeveloped waste, with few evidence
of progress AMI no assurance of tn
affluent future that laid before her. Til
pick and shovel. however, were intro
duced to uncover her iron ore aud Goa
capital, in very limited quantities, wa
attracted to the mineral fields; railroad
were constructed; development and im
provement inaugurated, until by slow
process. IS at first, and then by long
strides, as artificial agencies were apple
to natural conditions, she moved for
ward to her present commanding posi-
tion in potiticl II and III ,terial strength
Lands that W ere valued as waste dis
tricts, yielding no revenue to the State
and producing no wealth, were probed
for the treasures hidden in valleys and
hills; that which was practically worth
less became sources of industry and cCm-
merce; art and nature combined in thei,
mission of civilization and advancement
properties valued at hundreds of dol
lars advanced to millions; furnaces and
factories dotted the plain; railroads net
worked the State; towns and cities were
built up; the rivers and the ocean were
flecked with the sails of commerce,
carrying to and fro the products of her
development until to-day no State in
the Union and no district in the world
concentrates more wealth and sends out
more products than Pennsylvania.
What Pennsylvania was fifty years
ago Virginia is to day. With natural
advantages even greater than those of
Pennsylvania. she lags in the race of
Commemorative when she was once in
the lead; her mineral ladened mountains
have scarcely been scratched over; the
imperial endowment of nature is not
known nor appreciated by nine tenths
of our own people; the outside world
has no conca ption of the vast uncovere
wealth which awaits developm MT; cap
ltal, except in limited quantities, has not
passed into her borders; enterprise has
halted and hestated; AMI we now stand
upon the Threshold of new dispen
sation, waiting for the power of capita
to break the bonds which fetter her and
for skilled knowledge to put in motion
the agencies that will bring her forth as
fair as the moon and as powerful as ar
army with banners.
We entered the race with Pennsylvania
sixty years ago, in the manufacture O
iron. We looked to the negro and til,
MULE as our motive power, but tn,
steam engine and the railroad soor
threw us in the back ground and oul
charcoal furnace plants became rem
iniscence, while huge furnace plant
and hundreds of furnace fires and in
Vulnerable railroads accentuated thu
progress of our more energetic sister
With far greater area OF coal land
than Pennsy lvania, we did not mine
ton for the uses of commerce, until 3
years ago. With iron ore unsurpassed
in quality and quantity, our product o
the metal was limited to few out of th
way furnaces of minimum capacity, anC
there had to surrender in obedience to
law of trade, leaving nothing but dis
mantled stacks and scattered debris t,
mark the spots where the fires were
lighted. Without railroads and mpderr
machinery we could not compete will
our more advanced neighbor and we fel
back to state of naction, returning t.
the cultivation of the soil as the sole de
pendence of the people, while our vas
mineral wealth remained dormant an,
dead, with no one to modest its repose.
What Pennsylvania is, Virginia will
be. The natural conditions here ar
superior to those of the Keystone State
We are in comparatively virgin State
while there the raw material has beer
seriously drawn upon and greatly di
minished. We have every natural con
dition that is necessary for making irol
at a minimum cost, and with capital ant
improved methods we can offer the mos
attractive fields for profit that is known
to the country. 1t is just becomin.
known abroad that we have in Virgini;
81
world Heretofore the impression ha
prevailed that there were no persisten
veins within the Blue Ridge or the Ap
palachian range. So quiet and non
demonstrative have been the operation
here OF the most successful furnaces il
the country, that it was rarely they wer
ever seen mentioned in the public print
either at home or abroad Longdal
and Low Moor, however, have been il
constant blast for the past fifteen years
the former for more than that time. The,
have been turning out the best foundr,
iron that is produced anywhere, ant
making money right along by attendin,
to their own business and leaving out
siders alone. Notwithstanding the fac
that the district in which they are 10
Gated has been so effectively proven Il
be one of the richest in the world il
brown ores and that the quantity i
practically ineXhaustible for general ions
to come, learned men had expressed be
lief that no ores could be found in Vir
ginia except in pockets and consequent,
too unreliable to justify the cost of de
velopment And this opinion was ad
hered to until they came here and mad
satisfactory investigation, convincin:
them of their error and demonstratin.
beyond doubt that the iron wealth o
Virginia is unsurpassed in the Union.
We have now too great main lines 0
railroad, traversing the State east ant
west and north and south, that are aliv,
to the Importance of the development O
the natural resources of the State. The,
are prepared, now that they have ar