The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-03-08


TAHE first impression of the Yankee
at Richmond is one of disap-
N pointment. He looks over the
city and thinks what difference would
be apparent if some Of the communities
of the North had the chances that seem
to be wasting at Richmond. In the
first place, at Richmond there is found
enough water-power to make one OF the
foremost manufacturing cities of the
country. That water-power is just at
the edge of tde.water so that the city
which might use the enormous energy
could distribute its products by water
to all the markets of the world. South
of Richmond is the cotton country, from
which supply of raw material for
textile manufacturing can be drawn so
loug as man shall cultivate the soil
To the westward, in the great Valley
of the James, is timber, and COAL and
mineral wealth. The rivers and the
bay afford harbors, and fisheries, and
fertile bottom lands, until Richmond
can Justly claim that Nature has over
looked but little in the wealth of gifts.
Even the climate is such that the in
hsbitant is compelled to make less
provision for winter than in the cities
farther North.
There are several reasons why Rich
mond is not forced by her abundance of
facilities to be a leading manufacturing
city, but perhaps the chief one is that
so may other places of the United
States have likewise an abundance Of
resources and facilities, so that the
place that lacks energy and habit of
progress is not crowded by its natural
advantages. Richmond some day will
come in, and theu the gait will be swift
and decisive. The United States is yet
to be built.
1t was in l61l-almost three hundred
years ago-that Sir Thomas Dale led a
colony from jamestown to commence a
new colony at the falls of the james
River That was the beginning of
Richmond. When Virginia, one humid
red and fifty years later, sent Washing
ton, with the Forbes Expedition,
against the French Fort Duquesnes,
Richmond as community, was just
about as old as Pittsburg is now. The
capture of the fort at Duquesnes mark
ed the beginning of settlement in the
vicinity of Pittsburg, as the colony, led
by Dale, marked the beginning OF the
community which has grown up to
make Richmond. The contrast is sharp.
Pittsburg has been growing rapidly
from year to year. Richmond not so
fast But Pittsburg keeps up with the
rest of the country. Richmond does
not. The settlement at the falls of the
james River is the Oldest one made By
the English and now inhabited. 1t
possessed all the advantages and op-
portunities. 1t has figured conspic-
uously in history from its beginning,
and yet no other city of the size of
Richmond has taken so long to grow
At this later day shops are building
about Richmond. Down at Newport
News is one Of the finest shipyards in
the world. Great railroad and steam
ship terminals are arising on the ter
ritory at the mouth Of the James River
Railroad managers are recognizing the
economic position of the James Valley.
Rolling mills and machine shops are
finding Richmond an excellent point
Stillit is hard to get away from the
dream Of what Richmond might have
been to-day if the Carnegies, the Fricks,
the Parks, the Joneses and the Laugh
Inns had been boys on the James River
instead of at the headwaters of the
Ohio. Unfortunately they would have
been hampered by one thing, and that
was slavery-the dark heritage that
England gave to the Colonies at the
start. Slave labor robbed men OF self
reliance, which is the greatest factor in
the progress of the human race. In
Pittsburg the boy Carnegie had an
unhampered field and he made use of
the chance. In Richmond the white
boy was not encouraged to work, for
that was the business of the slave. In
dependence was sacrificed.
Luckily, all this is of the past. Slav-
cry is done but thet rice is not yet all
paid. The free States gained start
that tho slave States will be long
in overcoming, although there is
no reason why it should not be over
come eventually, for tbs resources still
remain, and all through .he South
manufacturing is growing at enormous
strides. Already the lumberman is
coming into prominence in the South.
Norfolk is great timber market.
The most important sign is that
manufacturing is established on a sub
! stanfial basis When that is done the