Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-08-10
SOUTHERN DEVELOPMENT.

Significant as are the recent move
ments of coal for export from balti-
more. Newport News and other SOUTH
ern ports and Of the outward-bound
trend of iron through the Gulf ports,
they are really but indications OF the
immense business in that direction
which may be expected with full deyei-
opment of the South's powers. Touch-
ing this matter writer in this week
Manufacturers Record makes the FOL-
lowing suggestive STATEMENTS:
IF one will look at the map it VIII
be very plain that the big btuminous
coal districts of Pennsylvania ana
West Virginia are naturally tributary 10
the ports of the Chesapeake. The near
est export outlet and the point where
Connellsvlle coke can best meet ores
from the West Indies or from Nova
Scotia is Baltimore and its surround
ing plants. And the Norfolk & West
est and Chesapeake & Ohio are natu'
rally tributary to Norfolk, Newport
News, Gloucester Point and other low
er Chesapeake harbors which will be
equally meeting points for imported
ores.
"That from this on there will be
steadily growing European demand
for American coal and coke is as GER
tain as any future event can be. But
the growth of domestic consumption
of coal and coke along the coast and
concentrating on Chesapeake ports
will be even greater
1T is in the hands Of the iron men
oround 4na Cboco lyo and nj hppc WIN
will follow them there to control the
enormous export trade in steel rails
that will grow out of Siberian, Chi
nese, African and South American
railway construction, because, for eX-
port, they can put their product Oh
board vessels at a lower cost than can
be done by the great works at Pitts
burg, Cleveland, Chicago or in the in
terror of Pennsylvania. That propo-
sition is so self-evident that it needs
no argument. 1t only awaits the de-
velopment of the ore fields of the West
Indies and Nova Scotia.
THE recently discovered enormous
deposits Of basic ores in Antagonist
county, Nova Scotia, lays a foundation
for unlimited interchange of coke and
ore between Northumberland Straits
and Chesapeake Bay
Again, while Newport News has
great pioneer shipbuilding plant and
Baltimore smaller ones, there is room
for expansion, and from year to year
all of these concerns will find increas-
ing work to do, and there will be other
plants on the west side of the Chesa-
peake, both in Maryland and Virginia.
These will call for big plate mills and
for facilities for making all the forms
Of iron and steel, including machinery
that go into shipbuilding on the grand
est scale. And angles, beams and what
ever goes into the construction Of great
buildings pipe and all that goes into
municipal underground work, for
which the great cities of the coast will
furnish so large a market, can be made
at coast plants at as low cost as
anywhere in the world.
LAS to the fuel side of it, Pennsyl-
vania and West Virginia, the great
coal yards full Of steam coal to supply
our coastwise and foreign commerce
and for export, can lay down at the
Chesapeake ports an unlimited guam
tity of the finest steam-raising coal
and the best smelling coke in the
world, and at a cost below that at
which these great staples can be else
where assembled. That is an indis-
putable fact, and one that can't be got
over, and which will not be much
longer overlooked The reaction now
going on in the iron and steel trade is
already calling very marked attention
to it.
THE development of the coal inter-
ests in West Virginia has proceeded
steadily until the State is just coming
into second place, and will soon not
only be ahead of, but will distance
Illinois, now next to Pennsylvania"
The writer just believes that the
Tennessee and Alabama fields will be
able to take care of themselves. Their
development points the conditions on
the Gulf somewhat similar to those
promised for the Chesapeake ports.
When it is remembered that the de-
mand for industrial fuel is steadily on
the increase, that much of it for many
years must be supplied by the South
and that the uncovering Of such re-
sources there has not begun to affect
their strength to an appreciable extent,
the part to be played by the South In
the worlds industrial history may be