Lincoln and Wayne counties. Much of the natural gas is piped out of the state into Ohio (even into the northern parts), Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Maryland; within the state gas has been utilized as a fuel in carbon black and glass factories.
Brine wells have been mentioned above; the salt industry is still carried on in Mason county, and in 1908 145,157 bbls. were produced with a value of $10,481; and there is a small output of bromine. Iron ore is found in the state in the coal hills (especially Laurel Hills and Beaver Lick Mountain), but the deposits have not been worked on a large scale. Pig iron is manufactured cheaply because of the low price of fuel; in 1907 the value of pig iron manufactured in the state was $6,454,000. There are deposits of excellent clay, especially for pottery, and in 1907 ($2,159,132) and 1908 ($2,083,821) the state ranked after Ohio and New Jersey in the value of pottery. The total value of all clay products in West Virginia was $3,261,736 in 1908. An excellent glass sand is procured from crushed sandstone near Berkeley Springs, Morgan county. Grindstones have been quarried in Wood and Jackson counties. There are black slate deposits near Martinsburg. There are mineral springs, mostly medicinal waters, in Greenbrier, Summers, Webster, Ohio and Preston counties. Among the more noted medicinal springs are: classed as calcareous and earthy, Sweet Springs, 74° F., in Monroe county, diuretic and diaphoretic; and Berkeley Springs, 74° F., in Morgan county, reputed restorative in neuralgic cases, and as containing sulphur; Salt Sulphur Springs, in Monroe county, of value in scrofula and skin diseases.
Manufactures.—Manufacturing is largely localized in the north-western part of the state along the Ohio river. The value of the factory product in 1905 was $99,040,676. The principal manufacture is iron and steel: in 1905 the product of steel works and rolling mills was $13,454,802. The iron mills are almost all in the vicinity of Wheeling. The first rolling mill west of the Alleghanies was probably one near Morgantown. Next in importance among the state's manufactures are lumber and timber, and flour and grist mills. The tanning, currying and finishing of leather, an industry largely dependent on the plentiful supply of oak and hemlock bark for tanning, is centralized in the northern and eastern parts of the state, near the forests. The glass industry began in Wheeling in 1821, and there a process was discovered by which in 1864 for soda ash bicarbonate of lime was substituted, and a lime glass was made which was as fine as lead glass; other factors contributing to the localization of the manufacture of glass here are the fine glass sand obtained in the state and the plentiful supply of natural gas for fuel.
Transportation and Commerce.—Railway development in West Virginia has been due largely to the exploitation of the coal and lumber resources of the state. The Baltimore & Ohio railway leads in trackage: it enters the state with several lines at its northern end; its main line crosses this portion of the state from east to west, striking the Ohio at Parkersburg, and one of its lines (Ohio River railway) extends nearly the length of the state from Wheeling in the north through Parkersburg to Kenova in the south. This road serves as a carrier for the northern coal producing districts. The Chesapeake & Ohio traverses the southern part of the state, from White Sulphur Springs in the east, through Charleston to the Ohio, serving the New and Kanawha rivers coal district as a freight carrier; the Norfolk & Western runs just within the south-western boundary along the valley of the Big Sandy, carrying coal both east and west from the Pocahontas coal-field; and the new Virginian railway entering at the south-east taps the coal-producing region (the Kanawha and Pocahontas districts) at Deepwater, serving in addition to the Norfolk & Western as a carrier of coal to Norfolk on the Virginia coast. The railway mileage of the state grew with great rapidity in the decade 1880-1890; it was 691 m. in 1880, 1,433.30 in 1890, 2,473.34 in 1900 and 3,215.32 in January 1909. Natural facilities for transportation, afforded by the Ohio river and its branches, the Monongahela, at the northern end of the state, and the Little Kanawha and the Great Kanawha, are of special value for the shipment of lumber and coal. The Monongahela has been improved by locks and dams to Fairmont. It is the carrier of a heavy tonnage of coal to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The Little Kanawha, which has also been improved, serves chiefly for the transportation of logs which are floated down to the Ohio.
Population.—The population of West Virginia at the various censuses since its organization as a state has been as follows: 1870, 442,014; 1880, 618,457; 1890, 762,794; 1900, 958,800; 1910, 1,221,119. In 1890-1900 and 1900-1910 the increase in population was more than one fourth. Of the total population in 1900, 97.7% was native-born, 892,854 were native whites, 43,499 were negroes, 56 were Chinese and 12 were Indians. Of the inhabitants born in the United States 61,508 were natives of Virginia, 40,301 of Ohio, 28,927 of Pennsylvania and 10,867 of Kentucky; and of the foreign-born there were 6537 Germans, 3342 Irish, 2921 Italians and 2622 English. Of the total population 71,388 were of foreign parentage—i.e. either one or both parents were foreign-born, and 18,232 were of German and 10,534 of Irish parentage, on both the father's and the mother's side.
In 1906 there were in the state 301,565 members of religious denominations, of whom 86.2% were Protestants. The Methodist bodies with 115,825 communicants (38.4% of the total communicants or members) were the strongest. There were 67,044 Baptists (2226 United Baptists, 2019 Primitive Baptists and 1513 Free Baptists); 40,011 Roman Catholics; 19,993 United Brethren, all of the “New Constitution”; 19,668 Presbyterians; 13,323 Disciples of Christ; 6506 Lutherans, and 5230 Protestant Episcopalians. The principal cities of the state are Wheeling, Huntington, Parkersburg, Charleston (the capital), Martinsburg, Fairmont and Grafton.
Administration.—The first constitution of 1863 was superseded by the present instrument which was adopted August 1872 and was amended in 1880, 1S83 and 1902. The constitution may be amended by either of two methods. A majority of the members elected to each house may submit the question of calling a convention to the people; and if a majority of the votes cast approve, an election for members of a convention shall be held, and all acts of the convention must be submitted to the people for ratification or rejection. On the other hand, a two-thirds majority of each house of the legislature may submit an amendment or amendments to popular vote at the next general election, when the approval of a majority of the qualified voters is necessary for ratification. All male citizens above twenty-one years of age have the right of suffrage, subject to a residence of one year in the state and sixty days in the county in which they offer to vote. Paupers, insane, and those convicted of treason, felony or bribery in an election are barred, “while the disability continues,” and no person in the military, naval or marine service of the United States is deemed a resident of the state by reason of being stationed therein. An official blanket ballot containing the names of the candidates arranged in columns according to party is provided at public expense.
Executive.—The executive department consists of the governor, secretary of state, superintendent of free schools, auditor, treasurer and attorney-general, all elected by the people at the time of the presidential election and serving for four years from the fourth of March following. The governor must have been a citizen for five years preceding this election, must have attained the age of thirty and is ineligible for re-election during the four years succeeding the expiration of his term. In case of the death, resignation or other disability of the governor, the president of the Senate acts as governor, and in case of his incapability the Speaker of the House of Delegates; and these two failing, the legislature on joint ballot elects an acting governor. A new election must be called to fill the vacancy unless the unexpired term is less than one year. The governor appoints, subject to the consent of a majority of the members elected to the Senate, all officers whose appointment or election is not otherwise provided for. In case of a vacancy in the court of appeals or in the circuit court the governor appoints until the next general election, or if the unexpired term is less than two years, until the end of the term. The governor sends a message at the beginning of each session of the legislature, and may convene the houses in extraordinary session when he deems it necessary. He may veto a bill, or in case of an appropriation bill, the separate items, but this veto may be overridden by a simple majority of the total membership of each house. Any bill not returned with objections within five days after presentation becomes a law. An appropriation bill cannot be vetoed after the legislature adjourns.
Legislative.—The legislature, consisting of the Senate and the House of Delegates, meets at the capital on the first Wednesday in January of the odd years. The Senate is composed (1910) of thirty members, chosen from fifteen districts for a term of four years, but one half the membership retires biennially. A senator must be twenty-five years of age, and must have been a citizen of the state for five years and a resident of the district for one year preceding his election The Senate elects a president, confirms or rejects the nominations of the governor, and acts as a court of impeachment for the trial of public officers, besides sharing in legislative functions. The House of Delegates is composed (1910) of eighty-six members, of whom each county chooses at least one. A delegate must be a citizen and have resided one year in the county from which he is chosen. No person holding a lucrative office under the state or the United States, no salaried officer of a railroad company, and no officer of any court of record is eligible for membership in either house. Besides its legislative functions the House prepares articles of impeachment and prosecutes the proceedings before the Senate. The length of the legislative session is forty-five days,
