Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-03-18

posed 10 protection, and consequently
TO any interest that asked for protec-
ton.
The sstorm centre"-to use a term
which IS often applied very appropri-
ately, yet through which we often seem
| TO catch on better than any other
this world renowned wool-growing
region. is 10 Washington county, Penn
| sylvania, and Jefferson county, Ohio.
with the Panhandle OF West Virginia
In between.
Few sections have been more richly
endowed by nature. 1t is billy, and in
some parts the hills are very steep.
This is an objection and before sheep
were introduced, the soil being rich, IL
was one Of the best grain-growing Sec
tons in the country.
With constant blowing, the rain
washed away much soil. BY pasturing
sheep, q rut sod was formed and the
droppings OF the sheep have made the
ground fully 90 per cent. richer within
fifty years.
No better cattle are raised anywhere,
and the soil and climate, which pro-
duce the best wool, also grow a grass,
which pasturage and hay Is not excell-
ed, az 1t produces a beef and butter,
that for flavor, is u~nequalled in most
renowned butter and cheese regions Of
the world. Blue grass and white clover
for pasture, timothy and red clover for
hay. Yet with all these surface adj
vantages, the wealth lies principally
below; coal Of the finest quality
lies underneath, the veins lying nearly
horizontal, and in many places the
team could drive up to the bank and
the coal could be dug out and shoveled
ia the wagons. "Coal banks" the
mines were called. The privilege OF
the coal underneath Is often sold for
more than the surface.
Besides this, oil has flown ont and
been pumped out, in uncounted mil
lions of gallons; then comes natural
gas, natures last and best gift to man,
which both lights and warns his
hearth, cooks his food, runs his man.
ufactories, and what not in the work
M enjoyment VI ilio.
With ali this wealth, the wool grow
ers and sheep breeders have been IN 1t,
and more than any others they have
made the section what it is, one OF
American homes. Yet, where are they
nowP Plesding with the politicians TO
give them ssome more" protection!
This is also q great iron manufacture
ing section. Once an "iLfant industry
now, through Carnegie, 1t asks not f. I
protection. He can make iron as cheap
as anybody and build fine ''homes."
After being protected into the accumu-
lation of millions, think you, he will
assist the wool grower to the extent
OF his abilityP as much as the silver
crankP
Forty or more years ago, a business
man, who was in his time, the richest
west of the Allegheny mountains, ate
his last meal at the expense of the
county. He was q wool-grower and
did more than any other man probably
to further that interest Ia the above
mentioned section. His memory lives
in towns and counties, named for him
in the Ohio river valley.
He engaged in wool manufacturing
and wove the first carpet for the state
house of Ohio. On the banks of the
Ohio river still stands his mill, with its
old fashioned machinery, used to card
a little wool, and weave some common
cloth now and then. The eastern
nlan---------- MIN UuuIr Improved
machinery, got ahead Of "protection''
and the west got away with his wool.
growing, they having cheaper lands.
II IS said that the wool trade has
financially ruined more men and firms
than any other business. Where is the
eastern firm that did business In the
east "forty years ago, dear TomP" or
even twenty, except those who handle
"only on commissionP The answer
causes many men to think Of the sneer
Of John Randolph, of Roanoke.
And yet the wool grower is the
builder of homes, American homes, the
highest type of civilization. He does
not accumulate millions. Those who
do, rob his country, destroy his
pasturage and make sad inroads into
his pastoral life. In getting the wealth
from underneath the surface, they
leave ruin and wreck behind-Ah
often socially The glitter and glare
of business, as 1t piles up the gold
dollars in the banks, allures to destruc-
ton. Very often, the sons and daught-
ers OF our American wool grower,
while he himself is often induced to
venture on the careful savings of years,
maybe generations, the end of many,
aye, most of these ventures, need not be
written here.
The great American cheek, OF
heart, has grown hard, or q tear would
course down the former as the latter
beat in sympathy with those who have
"wandered" (driven, some would say
from the homes that were happy, when
wool was 80 cents a pound. Are they
now with wool at ID ceDtsP
Read the moral of these lines as you
go, patient reader. Is it over produc-
ton, that has caused this fall in priceP
With nine-tenths OF the American peo-
pie wearing shoddy clothes, including
the wool growers themselvesP
Many o youth, aye, and middle-aged
man, with family, has come west, and
tried to follow his occupation. on the
or In the mountains of Colorado
and New Mexico. With what successP
Still asking for protection, while he
sells his wool for 5 cents o poundl '
Some have gone 10 mining,
forsootb, to a silver camp. Silver Is
something the world cannot do with
With gold, il has always been
nsed as money. II he can find it, be