Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-07-17
For the SPECTATOR.
The State Debt.

We noticed in the issue of the SPEC
TAToR, following the publication of the
farmers meeting, some comments upon
an editorial taken from a Lynchburg
paper, in which it is clearly intimated
that politics is no business of the farm
er, and that he would be more thrifty if
he would attend to some other matters.
We hardly know whether the SPECTA-
TER endorsed that sentiment or not, or
whether few words from q farmer, as
innocent of anything like politics as can
be, would find admission into it's col
umns. The farmers had complained
that light had been studiously withheld
from them, and have thought it very un-
gracious that they should be tainted
with their ignorance by their trusted rep.
resentatives, to whom they have been
looking imploringly for information, if
it was ever so small bit more than they
possessed themselves. Is the editorial
referred to the key to solution of the
mystery involving this ominous silence,
not only of the peoples representatives,
but of the partisan press as we'll? They
love darkness rather than light, and ev-
cry one is left to draw his own inference.
At last, though little late, Mr.. Stuart
condescends to enlighten his late con
stituents. But Mr.. Stuart has not done
himself justice in his late address; we
all know he has not, when he seeks to
create the impression abroad at home
he cannot-that the people anywhere,
or in any numbers, are opposed to aUeU
regulated internal improvement system.
Not word has fallen from anybody to
give the least color of excuse for such
insinuation. We might, it is true, be
willing to be set back forty years if we
could have the two hundred millions
that these improvements have cost the
State, cash in hand, now to begin with.
The producer would have the vantage
ground then surely. Nine-tenths of the
people of the county have to trudge over
mud roads to reach their county-town
and courthouse now, and ought to know
about as well as their fathers what the
thing means, barring the old stage coach.
The producer would have his houses
and lands, his necessaries of life, his
ton, his famine prices and his leisure
be free from taxation for railroads, while
the favored few could send their sons
and daughters away to schools and
colleges, just as they did before there
were any railroads. The tendency
of any internal improvement system
is to increase and cheaper production to
the point of furnishing food and raj
ment, in abundance, to all Consumers
In this view any internal improvement
system is a concession from the pro-
ducer, and not to him. The producer
in fact makes this concession, just as
every member of society has to surren-
der good deal for the good of the whole
community. The school of political
economy that teaches the contrary the
ory is the school that puts the cart be.
fore the horse. Then, if you have cheap
food and raiment in abundance, all else
follows as necessary result. Then
will spring up a demand for labor-edu-
ucation will not be confined to the fa-
vored few then will be schools and col
leges that can be reached by the masses !;
then will be general improvement, and
material, social and moral elevation,
State charities, division of labor with
out which no State can prosper; then
will be no aniperiuna in inlperio to dwarf
the State authorities, defy the majesty
of the laws, and make of the State a
mediatized sovereignty. All this under
a0eH regulated internal improvement
system! The State debt was created to
inaugurate and build up a system very
different from that which now obtains,
1t is disingenous and illogical to mix up
the State debt question with the post
6elluna status of the railroad system in
Virginia. The State and individuals
might have afforded to throw away all
their stock in ante belluna improve
ments to keep up State system, but to
do all that, to introduce into the citadel
the iron-horse, more fatal than the
wooden horse, the gift of the Greeks, is
enough to arouse the Indignation and
excite the alarm of all who have al
heart the honor and future welfare o
the mother of States. There is now 9
railroad commissioner. Why have 8
railroad commissioner? Because it il
well known that all the railroad regula
tions heretofore have never sufficed tt
control railroad corporations. Their
why not be content when you have 6
railroad commissioner? He must have
the backing of the government, and o
the farmers to boot, in any way in which
they can make their power felt, as by
putting the right men into the righ
places, to make his best services efficient
We can have some idea of what mus
have been the situation of affairs on th'
several roads constituting Gen. Ma
homes consolidated line, when hi
schedules show, as asserted, that h'
had brought down freight on all thes'
lines below what it had been before h'