The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-02-13
s,,n,r az THE MORNING PRESS.

SPIRIT OF THE MoRNiNo TNS1
The ENQUIRER asks its readers "How W
shall improve the mistakes of the past,
ONE Of which it thus indicates:
The fatal mistake of Virginia-it was th
result of country leisure--was that she became
addicted to reverie and playing statesman
She read too much, of Burke, and about Greco
and Rome.
While our lawyers were discussing at count.
court-houses abstract propositions IN poiitics-
talking about Nicholas Biddle and nuiiincat,on
and RIGHTS of the States Northern neign
bors ere building railroads and founoing neP
States. While we we're expounding our right
in the Territories they were taking possession
of them. Thus they built up an empire of re
alities, and we reared an empire.of distractions
Thus they multiplied and grew rich, ana we be
came a province. Thus Boston became
mighty city, and Norfolk magnificent har
Dor. Thus sprung up Pittsburgh, Buffalo,
Cincinnati Chicago-while Richmond con
Times clamorinp for help. Thus Illinois be-
came the fourth State in the Union, with her
d,0O0 miles of railroad, while cod Virginia
Never Tire" has only some ten electoral votes,
and about 500 miles of railway.
We have been struck by bomb like France:
We realize for the first time the genius and
spirit of the 10Th century. We realize in blood
and tears the necessity of poicer and we COM
.prehend that power is nourished at the breasts
of population and capital. We want muscle
and we want money. Then we can ventilate
our distractions in congress.
Then our contemporary says we need
three things for our recovery-work. inn
migration and capital; but it asks, "What
is the use of work without markets for the
product of labor And how can there be
a market without road to it2 Roads
lead to markets, and create markets.
Roads build cities in the desert
Next it compares the State to the
human body, with its heart arteries aud
veins, to carry about and keep in constant
circulation that great motive power the
blood, that the body may live and move
and have its being. The heart is the great
city the veins and arteries which receive
and discharge the blood, are the high
ways which carry the food converted into
blood through the system "but the body
and all its functions are dead without
supply of Food ; and so the State is dead
without Capital. Capital must be masti-
Gated and digested by Labor and the
products of Labor must have avenues to
market over the Public Highways; and
the cities and towns must receive aud dis
tribute those products; !" and now for the
application
Now this body polite of Virginia has no
Food, Heart, or Arteries, and a very weak
Stomach.
And here comes the Pennsylvania Central
and says: 81 can feed you with capital;
can supply you with arteries; and can make
your heart beat"
III am afraid you are going to play some trick
0nssme," says one. " Whereabouts are you going
to place my heart ?" says another. "You are
going to tap my arteries" says another.
1t reminds of the man who lived in hollow
tree. His neighbor, the Carpenter offered to
be allowed to sleep there. "Oh no." said the
root eater. 81 can't have anybody in my
house. That is my CASTLE And so they part
ed-the carpenter about his business, and the
philosopher to gum.
The conclusion of the Enquirer is that
we must have moro railroads in the South,
and capital to build them, and that il when
rich corporation, like the Pennsylvania
Central company, comes with unlimited
capital, we should welcome it with open
arms, and not drive it away as some Of our
people seem disposed to do. 1t says:
IF these people come here and begin to spend
their money, they may invest millions in the
State. They are just the sort of people ace
aoant to interest IN our affairs. We want immi-
grants and the more money they bring the
better. MUSCLE AND MONEY will develop the
old Commonwealth, and place her where she
once stood--foremost and peerless. We wish
more Northern capitalists would turn their at
tention to the boundless resources of Virginia.
We wish they would come down here and
utilize our immense water power We wish
they would come here and mine our coal and
iron. We wish they would come here and
plant a factory on every hilltop and in every
valley. We wish they would come here and
dredge our rivers. We wish they would come
here and push our commerce. We wish they
would come here and cover every county with
railroads like the meshes of net.
In all of which progressive and enlight-
ened wishes we heartily join. We can do
nothing without money in Virginia.
The Enquirer has an article in which it
declares that mixed schools will be a death
blow to the public education of the white
population 10 the South, aud it deprecates
any action on the part OF Congress in that
direction.
The Enquirer and Dispatch both again
devote the major part of their space to
reports of the unnecessary railroad debate
now going on 10 both Houses Of the Gen.
eral Assembly. On so plain question,
argument is unnecessary.
The Dispatch tells Of new use for tel
egraphy. A gentleman in Washington
was taken suddenly i'll, and his physician
was in New York. He had his symptoms,
and at even the beat of his pulse, telegraph
cd, receiving in return prescription which
perfected his cure. How sensational. No
doubt if the battery had been applied to
his pulse, it would have cured him withol
the telegraphed prescription. We will
next marry and do everything else by tel
egraph.
The Wing carries on the war against The
Bucktails in true Bobtail style--talking
about the Pennsylvania "advcnturers" aud
"vultures" which epithets serve it for
the lack of argument Its arrows are
Parthian and harmless. They fall short,
or overshoot. In closing a brief article,
in which it refers to the proposition OF the
Bucktails to buy the States interest in the
Fredericksburg road, and denounces it as
a fraud and pretence, like everything from
these dishonest" people, the Wing says:
1t does look strange that any representative
of Virginia should vote to sacrifice the stock
of the State to these foreign yultures.
Yes; and it would look strange, too, to
see an owner of James river water-power
sell his interest to a foreign manufacturing