Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1875-07-29
Thursday Morning, July 90, 1875. .

Thursday Morning, July 80, 1875.
Every citizen of Virginia sees ant
feels the tremendous weight of pecun
iary embarrassment which is crushin!
the very life out Of the old Common
wealth. Ever since Che war the diff
culties have yearly increased, the bur
aens of taxation have annually grow,
heavier, until now the demands of thu
tax-gatherer amount almost.to con6sca
Iion-Statesmen, so called, and fnan
ciers have theorized and figured to en-
deavor to find some plan by which ou
people are to be relieved. Scheme afte
scheme has been devised and put into
:. operation, and the evils which bese
MS instead of diminishing have only
increased in magnitude. Is there M
,elief'7 is the cry from every quarter
In all modesty we suggest that ou1
people can, to e great, extent, be reliev
Cd; and only in one way Let us re
store the government Of the State te
its original simple and economical sta
tdS. .. F
Every observer of events will be
struck vii H. the facts that men who
were carried from their business pur-
suits and made to lounge around camp
fires for four years, with no concerns
OF business to trouble them, very natur-
ally lose their tondntss for toll Sc
shat at the end OF the war men, other
wise Industrious and energetic, acQuir
ed habits of .idleness. The result OF
this is a desire to live without work.
Add to this large influx of carpet
baggers who came TO prey. upon the
exhausted energies of a ruined section,
aud we have host of men who are
seeking, by hook or by crook, to make
money.
Our readers will remember that at
the close of the war the State was at
the mercy Of this class. The present
Constitution was the off spring of their
hands The Convention which framed
ii was composed largely Of carpet bags
gers, scallawags and negroes. A large
number of them had never before been
honured with such a thing as Office;
aud the necessities of the case only
threw them into the Convention. Their
election to the Convention made them
wild. The taste of blood put them in
perfect rage for more. They at once
Welt to work to make a Constitution
by. hich provision should be made
for there cormorants by creating a
large number Of offices, A compari
son of the present organic, law of the
State Of Virginia with the old constitu
ton, will show that the pay of officers
is not only doubled, but treblcd and
quadrupled, and yet the machinery OF
the government is not managed any
better than it was before the war; The
character and ability OF tic officers be
fore the war were equal in every re-
spect to any that ever served any pco
pls.
Let US take, for instance tie magis-
tracy. Under the old Constitution
magistrates received no pay. Then
patriotism and interest in the welfare
Of the people and the State were sufii
cient incentives to secure from them a
faithful discharge of all the duties i'm
posed upon them by their position
Now~a days, a desire TO serve the peo'
pie may be the controlling motive
which causes them to seek these posi-
tons; but we fear very much that il
there was not some pay attached theil
patriotism would be found to be OF
stunted growth.
In addition to this, under our present
system we have an army of paid officers
unknown to the State before the war
Now the only way to correct this evil
is to cut off the pay of one set of Off
GERS and decapitate a large portion of
the remainder.
among the good~poying places is
that of County Superintendent OF
Schools. This is an office created under
the Free School System. We do not
know precisely the amount the State OF
Virginia pays for the luxury of County
Superintendent. The. State Super
intendent does not furnish the informa
ton We think. however, that we arc
not far wrong when we say from $50. :
900 to $4,000 annually. We call it 6
luxury, because we are satisfied that by
few amendments to the school law
the work performed by the County
Superintendent can be as well done as
at present and without the expenditure
of a dime And in saying this we dc
rot, by any means, wish to reflect upof
the manner in which County Superln
tendents discharge their duties. W.
have in our mind S eye a school system
now in operation, and acknowledged t.
be one of the most perfect in th'
world, which provides that the duties
now performed by County Superin
tendents shall be discharged by Dis
trict Trustees, and without cost. VIZ
assert, and challenge contradiction, tha
there are plenty Of gentlemen in Rock
ingham, county perfectly competent tt
examine candidates for teachers, ane
visit schools, and who would willingly
and cheerfully perform their duties, o,e'
qCithont salaries.
But we have not room to enlarge
upon this point. Our object in intro'
ducing these subjects at this time is tt
call the attentiorof the people to them
so that the position of candidates TO
the Legislature may be known before
we vote for them.
The per diem of members of the Eeg
islature ought to be reduced. Tht
humber of members in the Senate and
House ought to be reduced. The
Judicial Circuits ought to be enlarged
md the number of judges diminished
Besides score Of other reforms, every
one of which would diminish the ex