Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-06-23
The Development, Of Ohio.

In 1900 Ohio had 5000 people, and
ranked eighteenth among the States in
point of population. In the next ten
years it's rate of increase was greater
than that obtaining in any other State,
being 4OS per cent, and in 1910 it had
230, 600 habitonts, and came to be the
thirteenth most populous common
wealth. In 1920 it sprung to the fifth
place, having 5s1, 900 people; in 1880 it
advanced to the fourth; in 1910 to the
third place; and the third place it con-
tinued to hold till 1890, when it fell
back to the fourth, Illinois having
come to haYe 100000 more people than
her own 3,672, 316.
In Ohio, as in most of the Western
States, agriculture was the first en-
ployment of the early settlers. The
immigrant found the State well wood
ed, and he, unlike the colonists in such
States rs Wisconsin and Minnesota,
cut down the walnut and the pine not
to make lumber, but to get patch for
planting corn and potatoes and wheat.
It is probable that the present value of
the timber destroyed by the settlers in
Ohio would be more than the present
value of the cultivated land on which
that timber stood But necessary as
the soil was to the settler, he did not
know that beneath the sod lay
treasure far more valuable than the
soil itself The coal-mine and the oil
we'll have proved to be in not few
counties of far greater worth than the
loan lying above them. Ohio has thus
become, through the same condition
which makes England great manu-
featuring nation, great manufactur-
ing commonwealth. These manu-
factures are largely of iron and of allied
products. The conditions of the prob
lem are very simple. Iron ore is taken
from the mines of Michigan and Min
nesota Soft coal is necessary to it's
manufacture, Manufactured iron is
needed in every part of the country.
Iron ore is not adequately produced in
Ohio; soft coal is not adequately found
in Michigan or useless
each without the other" The definite
part of the problem is, where can iron
ore and soft coal best meet? From what
point can the results of the meeting of
iron ore and soft coal be best trans
ported to those points where they are
needed? 1t is now known and con-
fessed that the spot where iron ore and
soft coal can best meet, and the spot
whence can best be shipped the pro-
ducts of their union, is TO be found on
the shore of Lake Erie between Toledo
and Buffalo, Upon this curve 4ies the
meeting and the distributing point Of
iron products
Since 1872 Ohio has been the second
State in the making of iron and steel
Penusylvania was then and is still
ahead of her neighbor. The Lake Su-
perior mines produce more than one
halt OF the iron ore OF the United
States, and these mines are very large
ly owned in Ohio, and mostly in CleYe-
land. The total value OF the products
of iron and steel in this country in 1890
was SAYS, 6s7. sic, and about one-seventh
of this value is to be credited to Ohio.
In the making and distribution OF iron,
the ship plays a part second only to
the furnace. The chief city of the
State on it's northern boundary has be-
come one of the great ship building
points of the world. If the construc-
f;on ~ xvar-shins be omitted il has be-
come the second greatest ship-building
porti in the world, being excelled alone
NV the Clyde. When warships are in
ciuded. Cleveland is obliged to fall be-
hind Philadelphia. The total foreign
and coastwise commerce of New York
is, of year. somewhat more than 49,
600, 900 net tons; of Cleveland, about
Ia. 600 600 net tons. Thus the State,
which was primarily agricultural, has
become. though still remaining agri-
cultural, State of iron and steel max
ers. of mine-owners, and OF ship-build-
ers. II Harper's Magazine for July.