On the occasion of the coming of the Midland Pennsylvania Railroad, the Harrisburg Telegraph gave the following editorial comment in its 1 August 1910 edition:
LYKENS VALLEY OPPORTUNITY
The proposed Midland Pennsylvania Railroad ought to be a paying enterprise from the start. It will traverse the rich Lykens Valley from one end to the other and as indications point to it as a purely business proposition, instead of the wild-cat scheme so many new railroads turn out to be, the profit to the people and the promoters should be mutual.
The methods of organization tend to confidence in the company. The bonds to be issued against the $2,000,000 mortgage recorded here by the company will all be underwritten privately by the promoters of the road and their associates. Arrangements to this end have been practically completed. The stock will be taken by the same interests, and none of the securities are likely to appear soon in the market. The company is really a close corporation.
The proceeds of the bonds will be used in building the line, which will extend from Ashland, Schuylkill County, to Millersburg, Dauphin County, as soon as the details of the underwriting are completed. The line will extend through a rich agricultural country, and although it touches the anthracite coal territory in Ashland, it is expected that the chief revenue of the road will be from the carrying of farm produce and passenger traffic.
With this new road in operation the people of the Lykens Valley are in a position to do some much needed advertising. Everybody knows the qualities of Lykens Valley coal, but how many know that Lykens Valley cheese, Lykens Valley butter and Lykens Valley fruit are among the best in the State? To how many does Lykens Valley mean much more than a long line of anthracite breakers?
Lack of railroads has kept the public from knowledge of this beautiful valley, its charming people and its superior products. All that can now be changed and Lykens Valley be made famous for other things than coal, it its people advertise properly.
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Transcribed from Newspapers.com.