Peninsular news and advertiser. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1872-1904, 1872-09-27
WHOLE NO. 455

| change ?" Are we sated with the sweets
of prosperity, and do we want little of
the bitterness of adversityp Have the
| American people, indeed, a desire to
| change, so restless that they are now
willing to exchange the best condition
they ever enjoyed for the uncertain and
doubtful, at best, and as far as human
wisdom can foresee, unfortunate .condi-
tion which change will bring. Are we
to play the pr0digal with our own pros
perity? Are we to barter off our birth
right for mess of pottage? Patriotism
and individual interest-the memory of
the past and the hopes of the future, all
forbid. We cannot hope for a better
condition of things-we might have one
infinitely worse. We will choose. there
fore, as Nation, as Maine, Vermont
and other individual States have already
chosen, to hold fast to that which is
good, running no risks, incurring no
hazards in the vain hope of possibly i'm
proving q condition already unapproach-
able in all the elements of genuine pros
perity. Weekly Ftedonian.
No Favor to the Working Classes in Our
State Legislature.
The present State laws for the collec-
tion of debts are unduly severe, and place
excessive hardship upon debtors. This
| is especially true in reference to the
poorer class of the people, and the ear
nest complaints made at recent meetings
ftheiworkingmen of Wilmington against
the operation of the home attachment
law are grounded i'll good reason. This
law Is perhaps the most unjust in its dis
ordinations of all the statutes of the
kind, and it seems to have been framed
by the Legislature-likem many other laws
now upon our bO0ks-in total ignorance
and disregard of the interests of the in
duStrlal classes. Its determinations we
may hereafter particularly point out.
Akin to this scandalouS attachment
law is the lack of any exemption from
seizure. 1t has become the settled
and approved principle in other States
to exempt from sale on execution a sum
not less than three hundred dollars, and
the humanity and general sound policy
OF the law are universally conceded. But
the Legislature ut Dover has again and
again refused to enact such an exemption
for the State at large, and has barely
permitted the retention of the 500 ex-
emption i'll New Castle county. This is
a second instance of the severe and un-
fair countenance which that body has
turned toward the laboring interests in
our population.
Besides these, the tax on the savings
in the Loan Associations is crying
injustice enacted in the face of strong
protest, and maintained most unfairly,
after this iniquity had been fully ex-
planned to the Legislature. 1t is third
instance, and not less fragrant in charac-
ter, even if less important in degree.
Justice, in all these particulars, as well
as i'll others which we do not attempt to
take up in this article, demands mate
rial amendments i'm thp nOltcV of thp p0-
islature. 1t is evident that that policy
has been established and controlled, eli
ther without "a just conception of the i'll
terests of the laboring masses of the peo-
pie, or in deliberate disregard of them.
In either case, new intelligence needs to
be given to the Legislature, and an in
tiuence brought upon it to amend the
courses which now Cypress and prey upon
our working people. Commercial.