Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1878-03-01
WHAT SHALL COME OF ITs

into bankruptcy wrong end foremost. The
7,saal proceeding is to call the creditors to-
cether, ascertain the assets and divide pro
rata. the debtor being the man who doesn't
share in the division. The AdjuSters have
reversed the order, taken care OF the
States officers, the education of her chill
dren and the pay Of the lawmakers, and
handed over the rest to the creditors. The
old State has, as it were, plead the home |
stead act, and stepped out of the ranks OF
solvent commonwealth, where she will
remain, unless the strong hand OF the law,
which her legislature is violating, shall
force her back into line with all the shame
and none of the profits of reputation. We
have the highest assurance that this action
of the legislature is not immoral, and that
it is, on the contrary, the only thing that
could be done to avoid swindling our
creditors out of all we owe them-this
cheating them out of only part. Let us
see about this.
We don't suppose anybody outside OF
Virginia will credit the statement that
million of Industrious people, with twenty
seven millions of acres of land, that has
front of one hundred miles on the ocean,
and whose surface is scanned with rail-
roads and canals running over beds OF the
richest minerals and ores, cannot pay two
dollars and forty-Six cents per head a year
That is the exact fgure-the Adjusters'
Committee of Finance puts the debt at
forty-one millions. No one, we say, will
believe this. In Virginia we would not
believe it Of Georgia, OF Illinois, or any
other State. indeed, our own people never
believed it of themselves. No man believes
that il we were to make an earnest, self
sacrificing effort to pay the interest on our
debt, we should fail. If we had practiced
one-half the economy we practiced during
the civil war, Virginia would be rich to-
day, and meeting her obligations and even
discharging them, if the holders so wllled
it. If for the past thirteen years our men
had practiced the self-denial, and our wo-
men the economy and industry that they
showed during the conflict of arms, we
should to-day stand on footing in pros
perity and ease with any State OF the
Union. Why we have not done so. is be-
cause then we were in earnest, and since
we have not been. 1t is sad truth that
while we were in earnest to be free, VT
have not been in earnest to be honest.
A strange picture mot to us who hav'
become accustomed to it, but to the world
IA people that little while ago were will
ing to starve. to go half clothed. to 60
half shod, to be strangers to comfort and
aliens to luxury, i'll cause which they be-
lieyed right, have since failed to make
sacrifices for cause that the whole
world believes to be right-the redemption
of our plighted faith.
But the damage does not end in this de-
faults as time will reveal. No advocate Of
adjustment will contend that the public
Obligations are the only, or even the chief
burdens he will tell you that the public
obligations acith the private debts can't be
borne Very good. The man who owns
two hundred and fifty acres of good land
worth forty dollars an acre, Or ten thou
sand dollar house in the city, pays to th'
State only fifty dollars in a year. Then il
this man is hard pressed and staggering
under debt you should say that the little
sum of fifty dollars must be a very gnat
indeed compared with his private debts.
and it is so. And you will find that the
next step will BE- some legislation to aid
him in adjusting his private debts. The
mechanic, the merchant. the laborer, and
all to whom this man with the fine house
or the fine farm owes money on bond OF
relief laws will stand between them and
him. through which only the narrow slice
of an ssadiustment' can be handed. 1t is
the logic of the situation. A State that
refuses to pay her debt because she was
ravaged by the war. can It make her clti-
szen who was also ruined by the war, pay
his. The father of the family can't lie to a
creditor on the front step and then come
md enforce high morality on his children.
fen will cease to trust each other as the
Safe has set the example OF fraud. The
d,btor will not listen patiently to the
ssCod save the Commonwealth OF The
co:rts. if the Commonwealth has just
swlpdled others out of half She owes them
IF she has cheated them of half, he will say
she must not make me ray all to my credi
tors. And when he goes to the ballot box
again he will vote for that sort of law
maker. s 4r
The spirit that has characterized the
legislation we are writing Of. fully jastifies
this inference. Ithas not been calm inves
tiaation of the ability of the State. d franz
Sta teinent of her resources. as WIS hoped il
would be, but the very fact that mai
as a creditor has been set forth as puttinf
ihiel in the light Of an OppresSer. to secure
release from whom all means were justihf,
Ole. The ex hibition of this feeling ha!
been damaging. not only to the financia
but the moral staining of the state, md
its fruits will not be long coming to the
surface. aslg.
Since the above was written Governor
Holiday has anticipated tie action Of the
Court of Appeals, and stopped the Bar
bour tax hill with veto, because it vio-
lates the constitution. is no settlement OF
the debt question, and arrays the legisla-
sore against the highest law OF the State
on a question already decided, we pub
.lshlt. elsew here. and hope everyone will
read It carefully.
Everybody knows that Illinois is the
greatest cornsp5ad ucing State in the
Union, Minnesota the first wheat State
east of the Rocky mountains; and New
York the first hay State ; but it is not gen
erailys known that Virginia su'pasaes these
States in the value per acre OF their re-
spective crops The report of the Depart
,oe,,t IF Arrieulture for 1876 shows that