The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-09-27
ELECTlON-DAY: ,.!.E- ar
TUESDAY NOVEMBER a, 1873.
rfnM FIGURES LIE.

liz Is SAID that figures never lie. AS
naked proposition this is no doubt true.
They never lie of themselves. 1t is only
the way in which they ore handled by
others that the vicious quality of lying is
got out of them, and when adroitly manip-
ulated for that purpose they can be made
to lie by the Greek stadia, or faster than
horse can run. We have seen whole
columns and platoons of figures marched
up to the work of mendacity, while the
strong bulwarks of truth were tumbl;ng
before their assault as did the walls of
Jericho before the blast of the rams horns.
The vicious quality oflying is in them, and it
only requires slillful arithmetician, man
ipulating them to that end, to bring it out.
Judge Meredith uses just figures enough
in his address to the voters of Virginia to
show their servile character in this respect,
as well as vicious quality in the direction
named. He goes all the way out to Aikan-
sas to drum up his servle recruits of
figures, and finds there, where his friends
figured largely inthe late rebellion, an array
of tax-bills, 6 taken at random from the
textbooks of the county" lit is not stated
which county,, and covering a period Of five
years. assessment, in order to show (by
tlgures) that Virginia wonld be utterly
ruined, were the ticket headed by
Colonel Hughes to be elected.
There is, of course, an insuperable
non seq,tit,r in the politlco-mathematica
argument, but this does not stand at all
in the way Of the Judges iniallible parti-
san conclusion. q His figures are boldly
pushed forward 10 do their work of
mendacity, and they tell the biggest sort
OF story when taken at random,n Ia
mere chance shot in the numerical locker
against the very naughty "RadcaIs" of
Arkansas. -
We feel sorry-very sorry--for the tax
paying Democrats of that state, and if
we were residing out there, and felt that
the figures of Judge Meredith told any,
thing like the honest truth, we should
pitch into the "Radicals' of Arkansas
just as unsparinglyrss we now do into
the CONSERVATIVES" of Virginia. Had the
Judge beerlinpursuito of honest ,truth-teling
figures only, he would have gone no fur
Their than the Valley the garden spot of
Virginia, if not of the contnent-for the
inspection Of tax-lists in the present en-
barrassing emergency. For he might have
found there-all the way from Staunton
down to Harper's Ferry-a worse state Of
things altogether than exists in Arkansas or
any other tax-ridden state in the Union
Instead of taxes being increased in the
cratic of eight or ten times the amount"
as compared with the previous years, he
would have found them in the ratio
of ten and twenty times the
amount, which might have served as
an eye-opener" under his present afflic-
ton Of political strabismus a disease for
which there is really no greater grief to
medicine the less, and nothing to rectify
vision that is once thoroughly distorted
politically. Ed a
Had this been the honest purpose and
intent of our Arkansas figurer, in the adj
dress to which we refer, he would have
found any number of Valley farmers, of the
Industrious and Manifested class, who
are now paying fifteen and twenty
times the amount of tax on the
same and even less property than
they held before the war. And what
makes the political showing a great
deal worse than anything that can be
scared up in Arkansas. our state was With
out apenuy's weight Of debt resting upon !
her IN 1867, the date from which the Judge |
makes his estimate. In fact, she was no |
state at all at that time, and did not breathe
her first breath Of organic life until two
years afterwards, as the political record
will show. And yet in less than
four years from the date of her
existence as state, she has, under the be
nefcent rule of Virginia Conservatism. a
debt Of not less than SAC, coo, 900 saddled
upon her. We have shown how this debt !
was created, and by what rrscally appli- |
ances it was fastened on the neck of VIZ.
glnia. Judge Meredith is not isaorant
oil our position on this subject, nor
will he deny the irrefragabe PROPOSE
ton we have repeatedly laid down
as to the liability of the new |
state OF Virginia for the Indebtedness Of !
the old. And had he and The other leading |
Conservatives Of the state taken our posi-.
lion, instead of seeking to fasten indebted.
ness by the tens Of millions upon our pee, |
pie, prosperity would have been the page /
of our industry, and hundreds of thriving
Immigrants would have focked to our bor-
ders where we have as yet had but one.
Go to the Valley and not Arkansas for
your tax-bills, good Judge. and there you |
shall lind increased impositions to your
hearts content. Men who paid ten and
fifteen dollars in taxes before the war are
now paying two and three hundred dollars