682 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



In fourteen counties in western Pennsylva- 

 nia there are 51,575 farms and 1,267,000 sheep, 

 producing a yearly fleece of 5,000,000 pounds 

 of wool, worth, at 40 cents per pound, $2,000,- 

 000. To this sum add the value of the sheep 

 at $3 each $3,801,000 and the total for sheep 

 nnd fleece of one year is $5,801,000. 



The Secretary of the Bonrd of Agriculture 

 reports that the true jute-plant can not be 

 profitably cultivated in Pennsylvania. The im- 

 portation amounts in value to $7,000,000. The 

 investigation relative to the cultivation of jute 

 has developed the fact that there are in the 

 State already several native or acclimated plants 

 which will produce a fiber equal or superior to 

 that of India jute, and it can not be doubted 

 that energy directed to the improvement and 

 cultivation of these will meet with a greater 

 reward than in the acclimatization of the jute. 

 Prominent among these is the mallow family, 

 notably the Indian mallow (Abutilon avancen- 

 noes), and the wild primrose ((Enothera Mennis). 

 The former grows wild in nearly all portions 

 of the State, and from samples obtained it is 

 evident that the plant may be made to yield a 

 fiber fully equal to that of jute, with this ad- 

 vantage in its favor, that the residue may be 

 used for the manufacture of paper. 



The petroleum export has grown to be the 

 third in value of all the exports of the country. 

 By management the shipment of the petroleum 

 from the wells in Pennsylvania to the seaboard 

 has been brought principally under the control 

 of the Standard Oil Company. The shipments 

 in 1877 amounted to 13,000,000 barrels. The 

 established rate of transportation was $1.50 

 per barrel, which should have given to the 

 railroad companies $18,500,000; but, instead 

 of that, the railroad companies had actually re- 

 ceived only $5,000,000, the other $13,500,000 

 having been diverted from the stockholders 

 and from the shippers, and paid to the Stand- 

 ard Company. Applications by the parties op- 

 pressed or nearly ruined by the unequal com- 

 petition were made to the Legislature without 

 success. Finally suits were commen ced against 

 the railroads under the act forbidding a dis- 

 crimination between the shippers of freight. 

 These are still pending. Pipe companies have 

 also been chartered, of which the works of the 

 Seaboard Pipe-Line Company are the most ex- 

 tensive. This company, established for the 

 purpose of constructing a pipe line for trans- 

 porting petroleum to the seacoast, similar to 

 the lines which have been in use in the oil re- 

 gions for several years, have commenced the 

 actual construction of the works. The ob- 



Bthre point is Baltimore. The line, which 

 I be 233 miles in length, will cost, it is es- 

 timated, $8,000 per mile, or $1,750,000. It is 

 proposed to use a six-inch pipe, affording a 

 discharging capacity of 6,000 barrels a day. 

 Ine line is to be worked at a pressure of 400 

 ounds per square inch, and the pipe to be 

 tested for 1,800 pounds per square inch. The 

 pressure of 400 pounds at the stations is equal 



to a head of 1,200 feet of oil. The pumping 

 stations are expected to be four in number, 

 their distances from each other differing ac- 

 cording to the surface of the country. The 

 first station, at Parker City, is to force the oil 

 35 miles; the second pumping station will 

 drive it 26 miles farther; the third 70 miles 

 more ; and the last station, to be situated on 

 the western slope of the Tuscarora Mountain, 

 will send it into Baltimore, a distance of 102 

 miles farther. It is extremely difficult to cal- 

 culate the hydraulic pressure in a long line and 

 to estimate the contraction and expansion due 

 to changes in temperature. 



A State Convention of the National party 

 was held in Philadelphia on May 8th. Dele- 

 gations were present from nearly all the coun- 

 ties in the State, and were about 230 in num- 

 ber. In 1876 this party cast in Pennsylvania 

 5,000 votes, which had increased in 1877 to 

 nearly 55,000. The Convention was perma- 

 nently organized by the election of Frank W. 

 Hughes, of Schuylkill, as chairman. The plat- 

 form adopted, after long discussion, was as fol- 

 lows: 



The United States, by reason of its vast territory, 

 fertile soil, varied productions, rich minerals, and 

 temperate climate, could, wisely governed, sustain 

 in comfort, and even luxury, a population tenfold 

 greater than that at present occupying it. Is'ever- 

 theless, with an enterprising, industrious people, 

 after a series of abundant harvests, manufactories are 

 idle, business prostrate, labor unemployed, and star- 

 vation impending. This condition of affairs lias 

 been produced by the control of the producing in- 

 terests of the country by the non-producers, and by 

 legislation in favor of non-productive capital and 

 against the interests of the laborers of the country, 

 The policy adopted has reduced the value of prop% 

 erty, public and private, over one half, while nation-- 

 al, State, municipal, and private debts, nominally 

 the same, have been by reason of such reduction 

 practically doubled. From such policy, bankruptcy 

 of the producing interests has been the natural and 

 inevitable result. For such control both the Repubi 

 lican and Democratic parties are responsible, as the 

 wisdom of such policy has been affirmed by the Re- 

 publicans at Cincinnati and the Democrats at St. 

 Louis, and by both parties in their State platforms 

 adopted in Pennsylvania. Wisdom would dictate 

 as the remedy for the existing evils not only the 

 repeal of the pernicious laws and the establishment 

 of a wise and judicious financial system, formed in 

 the interest of the productive labor of the country, 

 but also the condemnation by the people, manifested 

 at the ballot-box, of the Democratic and Republican 

 parties, by whom the producing interests of the coun* 

 try have been betrayed. Therefore, it is 



Resolved, That neither the Democratic nor the Re- 

 publican party of the country is entitled to the CQn- 

 fidence of the people or worthy of their support, and 

 that their records in the past have been such as to 

 render any pledge they may make in the future un- 

 reliable and unworthy of credit, to be regarded as 

 pledges made under fear of public wrath, to be un- 

 redeemed if by reason of such pledges public indig- 

 nation is allayed. 



Resolved, That we reaffirm and endorse the plat- 

 form of principles adopted by the Toledo National 

 Convention on the 2'2d day of February, 1878. 



Resolved, That as the power to create money is the 

 highest prerogative of government, and as upon the 

 regulation of the volume and value of such money 

 by wise and judicious legislation depends the pros- 



