the hands of the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company, while the coal of Alabama, of which so much has been noised abroad, has been quietly gathered in by the Louisville and Nashville corporation. The Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, which owns 76,000 acres of coal lands, and mined 1,145,000 tons in 1882, is owned by parties largely interested in the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad system. West Virginia has probably the most valuable untouched coal deposits of any State in the Union, but these also are rapidly being gathered up by railway corporations.
To sum up, in the words of one of the best informed authorities, the coal business of the country is at the mercy of the railroads.
It is to be noted, however, that this is simply the result of natural causes. Railway managers, in seeking to develop and place on a sound basis the mineral properties which could furnish a heavy and profitable traffic to their lines, have only done what they regarded as their duty to the owners of their roads. And that this policy has effected a rapid development of our resources is beyond question.