Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1896-02-05

Washington in Honor of
The West Virginia Delegation
Following is the speech deliver
ed by Congressman Warren Miller
at the banquet given by West Vir.
ginia residents of Washington in
honor of the West Virginia Con
gressional delegation:
ut is not my purpose to indulge
in rhetoric on this occasion, bu,
to briefly state some facts concern.
ing the State of which l am al
hum bic citizen, and which l have
the honor to represent in part.
On the Goth day of June, 1858
West Virginia was admitted as a
State of this union, and her star
then took it's place on the flag OF
our country, where it is destined to
become Of the brightest in that
American constellation. Born in
the midst of war, while her terri
tory was occupied by the contend
ing armies, in that great struggle,
she has been aptly called the
"child of the storm" Of her then
population of 393,230, which in
cluded those who had cast their
lot With the Confederacy, she sent
into the army in defense Of our
country 32,06S as brave men as ev-
er carried a musket or kept step to
the music of fife and drum.
Of these valiant men, thousands
gave their lives on the battlefield.
that freedom aud it's institutions
might live. Hundreds of them,
wounded and diseased, yet survive,
and appeal to the government
which they, with others, preserved
intact, not as mendicants, but as
patriots, for n pittance to save
them from death in the aims house
and burial in a rotter's field. Will
the Republic in this behalf prove
to be ungrateful?
West Virginia, sometimes called
the Little Mountain State, is a
great commonwealth, "rich beyond
the dreams of avarice." Border
ing for nearly three hundred miles
on the Ohio, the most beautiful
river on the continent, her busy
cities and towns aud well cultivat-
ed farms present scenes of indus
try and thrift nowhere surpassed.
Flowing from the mountains to
the Ohio, and bearing upon it's
waters each year millions in com
merce, the products of our forests
and our mires, is the Great Kama
wha. Upon its banks is the capi-
tai of our State, surrounded by
picturesque hills and lovely val
leys. Along this river the lands
are productive and the climate in
viting. This section has been de-
scribed as the land of perennial
summer
We now have population OF
$4,000. In the year 1900 we will
number $4,000. Fifty years hence
at our present rate of increase
5000, 600 of people will be within
our borders.
Our area is 24,645 square miles
We are larger than Vermont, New
Hampshire and Connecticut to-
gether. We have three times as
much territory as Massachusetts
possesses, and almost twenty-four
times as much as the State oil
Rhode Island.
Our mountains are filled with an
inexhaustable deposit of coal of
the finest quality. OF this valua.
BILE product the State has 1900
square miles, 5,1O0 square miles
more than England, 5000 square
miles more than Pennsylvania,
and 1000 square miles more than
Ohio.
1t has been declared by a geo.
logist of national reputation that
the quantity of coal In West Vir.
giDia is sufficient to supply the
WhUle world for five hundred years,
We will soon be the greatest coal
producing State in the union.
We have the greatest and the
richest oil fields and the most
ebundantly producing oil wells in
the world. Fabulous fortunes are
there made in a day. Iron ore OF
the richest kind abounds on every
hand. Nature seems to have ar.
ranged the coal in the mountains
on the one side, the iron ore on
the other, and the outlay whereon
may be built the furnace between
Our hills are yet covered with
the most valuable timber. Nine
millions Of acres of it remain un.
touched today. After it's removal
nature has adapted the lands Il
grazing. Under proper protectior
no industry would be more pro.
fitable than wool growing in WesI
Virginia.
We owe no State debt. We ar'
bound by 10 State bonds. We are
controlled by no syndicate. BY
wise provision ia our constitution
we cannot incur State indebted
ness except in a few instances