The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-11-01
west WRG|N|A'S wealth IS GREAT
Vast p"t"rtialities Are Buried Beneath
the Hills OF the Mountain State,

Vast p"t"~tialitles Are Buried Beneath
tho Hills OF the Mountain State.
kicnara H. Edmonds, editor of the
Manufacturers Record, Baltimore,
speaking before the convention of the
West Virginia board of trade, said:
West Virginia is unique in the un-
paralleled location wich she enjoys.
midway between the activities of the
Atlantic seaboard and the center of the
worlds iron and steel industry around
Pittsburg and the lakes. she has on the
one side the whole Atlantic seaboard
at her command, and, on the other
hand, not only the almost limitless de-
bnand of the great steel and iron and
lake regions, even into Canada, but
also the open waterway to New Or
Jeans, the West Indies, South America
and Panama.
Even now her steel barges are be-
ing built, which, when loaded with
West Virginia coal, will not break
cargo until they discharge at Havana
and other West Indian ports. The old
wooden barge is doomed With steel
barges built to stand an ocean vOy-
age the coal trade of the West Indies
and Mexico is already practically in
your grasp. James J. Hill, president
OF the Great Northern railroad, Us
quoted as having explained the south
ward trend of foreign commerce by
saying: Kick barrel of flour over
at Minneapolis and it will roll to New
Orleans OF West Virginia it might
be said, start ton of coal and it will
roll or feat downhill either to the
Atlantic on the one side or the Mis-
sissippi and the gulf on the other.
Surrounded by the most stipend
GUS activities of the industrial world,
here is storehouse of limitless
wealth. Great Britains financial and
commercial power, her dominance on
every sea and in nearly every land,
gre largely based upon coal. 1t is
goal that gives strength to her iron
md steel and cotton, to her ships of
war as we'll as those Of peace. With
out coal Great Britain cCulu not Tor
the last century have existed as the
leader of the worlds affairs.
Against Great Britain's 5000 square
miles, much of it in thin seams and of
vast depth, much of it already worked
out, stands West Virginia with her
virgin field of over 10000 square miles
of coal piled up in her vast mountains,
easy of access, mined at an amazingly
low cost, in quality the highest, in
quantity almost limitless.
ut may be safely calculated that if
West Virginia's coal should be capital
lied at 10 cents ton you would have
wealth enough to buy nearly all the
railroads of America, or nearly enough
to pay the national debts of the United
Gtates, Great Britain and France COM
biraI.
"The average coal land of West vir-
Tinia will carry 5000 to 10000 tons an
acre. Putting it at minimum of
5000 tons, and remembering that agri-
pultural land furnishes on the aver
age less than one-half ton of freight
per acre a year, an acre of coal will
furnish traffic equal to that of an
acre of agricultural land for 10000
years. In this striking fact, in con-
nection with the vast number of acres
of coal land of which you boast. is
found the reason for the titanic strug-
gle Of the giant railroad powers of
America to hold strategic positions in
this mountain state.
I'm this is seen the reason why the
Pennsylvania, the Baltimore & OHIO,
the Goulis, the Vanderbilts, the Ches-
apeake & Ohio, the Norfolk & Western
End others are struggling like great
armies in battle to gain the strongholds
of this state. Here is more freight
ready for the mining and loading than
an 100000, 000-bushel wheat crop
would furnish in 5000 years. The total
coal production of Great Britain is
nearly 250,000,000 tons year. West
Virginia could duplicate that quantity
for 400 years.
"Had you no coal nor iron nor agri-
cultural advantages, your timber alone
would be enough to enrich state;
all combined are enough to enrich an
empire.
Growing even more rapidly than the
coal and iron industry is the manu-
Iacture of cement. This young giant
vt the industrial world has come at
propitious time to supplement, not to
tupplant, iron and lumber.
Throughout earth's remotest bounds
there is probably no other state which
has within its limits vaster potential
tiles for wealth than lie buried be-
meath the soil Of West Virginia. For
tunate. indeed, are the people, who,
whether by choice or by the accident
Of birth, are the jewellers in this fav-
ored land"