Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1902-08-09

West Virginia is full of coal, oil and
timber. The coal is the best property
one can have; it even beats New York
real estate. | am out of the West Vir-
ginia Central now, for we sold that
to the people who are going to extend
it to the Little Kanawha, and some
day that is going to be connected with
the Wabash There is quite gap to
be filled between the line at Cumber-
land and the Western Maryland Rail
road. but the boys that have it in
hand will not take very long to make
that connection, and in the meantime
both of these lines are paying for them
selves and have big fortune before
them.
II am still buying coal lands, for,
as have said before, shat is the best
property one can have, and some day
there will be built the line known as
the Coal and Iron Railroad that will
help to deliver the product OF West
Virginia at tidewater. There is going
to be plenty of work for all the rail
roads that will be built, and there
will be profit to them because the
demand for coal is going to be great
enough to avoid the necessity of any
cut rates for carrying it, don't fear
the Baltimore and Ohio, or the Nor
folk and Western, for they have got
all they can do, and they will have
plenty to do TO take care of the ton
mage that will come to them from the
development along their lines.
According to the report of the
chief mine inspector of West Virginia,
the production of coal last year was
%. 916. 434 tons, and when the great OPP
erations of the United States Steel
CORPORATION and others down i'll the
Pocahontas district are fully under
way it will not be surprising to find
onnage of 30, 900, 900 or 40, 600, 900 as
the yearly product. Some of the lar
gest of the Pennsylvania operators of
both the hard and soft coal districts
are putting their money down in that
part of the country because they know
what the future of it is likely to be-
By the way. it will not be surprising
some day to find that the Southern
Railway is pulling out lot of coal
from the Virginias. "
These West Virginia evidences of
what Senator Elkins regards as good
times ahead for the South are phases
of the development which has been
marked by an increase in the produc-
ton of bituminous coal in the United
States from 5, 700, 600 tons in 1860 to
AZ, 5000, 90 in $780, and to probably $50,
600, 900 tons this year, and the produc-
ton of pig iron from 5000 tons in
1860 less than one third of the pres
ent output in the South alone, to about
$500, 600 tons in 1880, and 17,000 600
or 1e, 900, 600 tons this year. And West
Virginia and Virginia are fully carry
ing out their part of the prediction
made in 1890 in the Manufacturers
Record by Mr.. Edward Atkinson, who,
reviewing the increase in iron and
steel consumption, and pointing to the
time when the productive capacity of
the iron works of the United States
would be pushed to their utmost capac-
ity to meet home and foreign demand
referred to the Southern Appalachian
region, extending from Wesv Virginia
to Alabama, and especially to Western
Carolina, Southwest Virginia, Eastern
Tennessee, and Eastern Kentucky,
as possibly the future sites of the prin-
cipal iron production of the world.
Mr., j. f. Snapp a well known far
mer, of Frederick county Va. died