Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/531

WEST VIRGINIA. the Alleghanies. The closely allied foundry and machine shop industry has had a rapid recent growth, in the manufacture of coke the State ranks second, and the Flat Top district, in the southern part of the State, is the second most important coking region in the United States. The availability of natural gas has led to a thriving glass-manufacturing industry. There was a significant development between 1890 and 1900 in the manufacture of pottery, terra-cotta, and fire-clay products in the region adjacent to East Liverpool, Ohio. Flour and grist milling shares in the State's general industrial progress. The extensive oak and hemlock forests furnish bark for tanning and a thriving leather industry has recently developed.

The following table shows the industrial status according to census reports:

. West Virginia owes its rapid growth and industrial importance to the excellent transportation facilities with which it is favored. The navigable streams include the Ohio, Monongahela, Great and Little Kanawha, and the Big Sandy. The natural commercial advantages of the Monongahela and the Great Kanawha have from time to time been augmented by the deepening of their channels and the construction of locks and dams. The improvements wrought in the Great Kanawha by the National Government in 1899 enable coal to be shipped via this river at all seasons of the year, and in 1902 the navigable length of the Monongahela was extended as far as Fairmont, affording an outlet for the large coal area of that region. The bulk of the State's foreign trade is carried on by way of the Ohio, which offers means of water communication with the Gulf. The sections of the State remote from navigable waterways have to a large extent been brought into touch with the trade centres

by the development of the railroads. There are three trunk lines traversing the State from east to west—the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Norfolk and Western. The Chesapeake and Ohio, built in 1872, and extended to Cincinnati in 1888, forms an outlet for the vast deposits of bituminous coal in the region drained by the New and the Great Kanawha rivers, while the building of the Norfolk and Western in 1884 made possible the exploitation of the coal fields in the extreme southern part of the State. In 1902 five railroads in all had extended their lines into the different coal regions of the State. The rapid development of the railroads is disclosed by the fact that a mileage of 1847 in 1894 had increased to a mileage of more than 3500 in 1902. Additional lines aggregating 1000 miles in length are projected.

. The condition of the banks of West Virginia in 1902 is given in the following table, which is based upon the report of the Comptroller of the Currency:

. The right to vote is given to male citizens twenty-one years of age who have resided in the State one year and in the county sixty days. Upon the demand of a majority of the members elected to either House of the Legislature the question of calling a constitutional convention must be submitted to the people, and the issue is decided by a majority of the votes cast. The acts of the convention must be