The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-07-25
CAUSES OF HARD TIMES.

Y IRGlNlA, y OL4 70, j
CAUSES OF HARD TIMES.
SPEECH OF HON. JOHN T. HARRIS, OF
| VIRGINIA.
Mr.. Harris, Of Virginia. Mr.. Chairman,
the last twelve years of our history have no
parallel for fruitfulness in return for labor
when we depended upon cooperation from
nature or the beneficence Of our Creator.
Our fields have been alternately bathed and
fertilzed by sun and rain until our granaries
are groaning with their fullness. Every
where, from ocean to ocean, untold mil
lions of acres unequaled for fertility ia any
other land on earth yet remain undeveloped )
minerals of priceless value are slumbering
in all our mountains; our forests offer to the
artisan the most valuable material in mex
haustable quantity to contribute to the COM
| fort of the fireside and to the advancement
| Of material civilization. Our political sys-
tenn has responed to the popular demands
and each State is rehabllitated and their
people secure in the forms and the substance
Of liberty. Peace and sincere desire to
perpetuate it between the sections and c!as-
ses is the common sentiment exhibited over
the whole of our vast extent. The moral
shock that war usually entails for genera
ton, and frequently for centuries, has
through the wisdom of the masses passed
from the face of society. For many years
preceding the civil conflict the tendency in
church and state, in trade and politics, rep
resented by sections, was toward disintegra-
ton the tendency in all localities and in
terests is now toward beneficial reciprocal
ton and harmony. If, then, there be dis
tress, it must be conceded that it proceeds
| from causes Independent OF visitations of
Providence and contrary to the will of the
masses.
It is my intention, Mr.. Chairman, briefly
to recur to the chief influences that have
subjected us to the financial maelstrom that
now ingults every industry, devastates every
locality, and threatens every home. In the
older societies Of the world where every ma
tural resource is developed, where every
acre of soil is forced to its highest capacity
of production, where every mine teens with
labor, where every manufacturing industry
is expanded to the uttermost limit that will
secure profitable return, where populations
are dense and the chief concern Of the ruler
| s.k 1oho n no
government becomes an intricate science
and difficulties and dangers necessarily be-
set the pathway of those clothed with au-
thority. But none of these conditions sur
round us, for our undeveloped resources are
almost unlimited and cannot be exhausted
for centuries. Our populations are sparse,
and diversified resources offer an extensive
field for profitable labor in all the different
pursuits that 60 to make up the sum of hu-
man action, and therefore reasonably de-
cent consideration of the public welfare
would have averted the misery that now
surrounds us and would have made OUR peo
pie happy and prosperous.
| What are, then. Mr.. Chairman, the causes
that have contributed to the universal deso-
lation that surrounds us? 1t is attributable
sir. and attributable only to the existenee
Of the mountain of debt, public and private,
encouraged and built up by shameless NAL
administration OF public affairs. OF the
manifold curses that befall society none ert-
tails such destructive and demoralizing in
fuencs as debt Sleepless in its vigilance
and its accumulations against its victim,
whether that victim be great state or an
individual, it absorbs all the elements of in
dependence and vitality with which either
| is clothed. Let us ADMIT. for argument.
that this state of affairs was created by over
expansion of business and improper expan-
sion Of values through the influence Of re-
dundant circulation, but let us not forget
that redundant circulation was loan forced
against the people, and if decisions in re-
gard to values and in regard to the necessi-
ties of trade were created, that it was the
direct result of the action of those in author
ity and that the highest duty of the admin
istration responsible for this condition Of
affairs was to protect them to as great ex-
tent as possible against the shock of the in
eyitable reaction.
What have they done? Instead ofconsid-
ering the debt-ridden masses, instead OF
considering expanded values and protecting
society by wise legislation from speedy re-
action, we find those in authority for the
last ten years directing all the energies of
the State, legislative. judicial, and execu-
tive departments toward sudden and vio-
lent depreciation of lands, merchandise,
grain, meats, and labor OF all character and
description that enter into the economy OF
society. In following the administrative ca.
reer of the ruling party, it will be found
that every legislative act, every judicial act,
and every executive act OF the country since
the conclusion of the war has tended to in
crease the debt against the masses, depre-
ciate the value Of property and labor, double
the value of the private and public bond Of
the creditor, and lessen the value largely
over one-half of the property and the pro-
country on the earth in which the people
could have maintained themselves against
such system. There is no other country
in which rulers would have dared such ex-
cesses against the people. In the long cata.
logue of crimes against the public welfare
that belong. to the history of a republican
rule, none have been followed by such dire
results as their financial legislation; they
educated the people by their expansions to
believe in its perpetuation.
Property was purchased and debts con-
tracted with full knowledge of the amount
of money in circulation and under the be-
lief that there would be no change until
their property was paid for or their debts
discharged. With this state of things ex.
isting the Government commenced rapid
contraction OF its circulating medium
Whether property represents money or mo
new represents property is not material