The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-01-31
Communication.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, Jan. "A, 1878

| CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, Jan. "a. 1919.
Editors of Tirginian
! Being . constant and attentive reader III i
admirer OF your paper, am panied and sur
prised at the tone and sentiment OF your ar
ticle on Labor and Capital in the last
number With the lessons of the last year
before us, aye! three years written in such
terms, that all vito read may learn, if in-
deed, ''all who ruu' may not read.
With the vast destruction of values and
shrinkage of capital and destruction OF capt.
talists financially; the total humiliation OF
one thousand millions Of dollars invested in
from losses directly resulting from shrink
ing of securities, perfectly good when taken
often OH lands at half of their estimated
value; and this, in a country remarkable
alike for it's rapid creation of wealth, as well
as for its rapid transferable poor man o: to-
day being the rich man of tomorrow, the
royal road being open to all so true being
this, that it is doubtful if any prosperous
community can be found where many indi
viduals cannot be found, who have worked
their way to wealth from the bottom round
Of the ladder. And this too, in a country
where the rewards of industry, perseverance
and frngalty are so certain and rapid as in
ours, and where the wonderful expansion Of
its industrial energies are such as to create
| surprise and admiration in other lands.
After all this, to hear Senator Eaton's re-
! buke of the Wabash demagogue's wild
threats, in his arraignment against capital,
criticised in the broad manner chosell seems
so Inconsistent with the general tone OF the
paper and so consistent with much OF the
agrarian talk of the day, that I wonder.
What is capital? and who are the capitalists?
Is the struggling mill owner or iron mas
ter running his mills often at a loss, rather
than lock cut operatives, depending on their
daily toll for bread, when it may be he is
himself next to bankruptcy. the capitalist
Are the railway managers while struggling,
as against fate to keep their roads open and
their thousands of employees at work, even
| when under the competition and the wild
work of the so called labor organizations of
the day, they see values shrinking to zero,
are they the capitalists? We think not.
| Are the holders of bank stock? If there
be such, more than is the farmer who,
through their aid, is enabled to purchase his
seeds, his implements, his fertilizers, or, it
may be his stock cattle to fatten, through
their aid until his reward comes from the
sale Of his crops, then [ fail to see it, Is
not all estate capital? Every owner OF II
horse and dray or pillow, to that extent is a
capitalist.
But, sirs. to go out in to the broader field,
who are the bankers Of your thriving city :
The owners of the banks. Are they not the
| active business men of the city largely?
Without knowing, but only judging from
my own knowledge OF other like institu-
tions, they are. Sir, it does sound too much
like the slang whang of sBriek PomerOy"
in his paImy days about the ''bloated bond
holders and not like the truly Conserva
tive ssVirginian.' that has done such manly
work towards right thinking as well as free
thinking.
When Hon. Jas. Ii. Garfield made his
grand speech in Congress, exposing so COM
pletely the pretensions of the ranters against
the bondholders, he stated the fact that thir-
teen hundred millions of the capital OF the
country were held by saving banks, owned
by countless thousands of small depositors,
and that large share of these aggregate
savings of the people were represented by
our government bonds. Also that several
hundred millions were held by life, fire and
marine insurance companies. And for
whom? Are not those vast resources the
security of countless thousands against dis
tress and want, as we'll as assurance against
bankruptcy and ruin for other thousands of
prudent and careful men?
| Is it consistent for lis, who are seeking inn
migration to renovate the old lands, to say
Il
three per cent. interest? Show me farmer
who says that, and will show you thrift
less and improvident one. While so many
thank they can make money on short loans,
and often do at II per cent. interest, it is
idle to talk thus. Why, !, myself farmer,
know scores of brother farmers who would
think the royal road open, if they could but
get what they could profitably use at six
per cent. People are arraigning the banks
as monsters; heartless and soulless while
they send representatives to make the laws
which are to govern them, like lis.
The representatives of the people made
the laws giving them life and restricted the
rate of interest to six per cent, it may be,
and then laid on taxes. which made it i'm
possible for them to continue without loss.
am not holder of bank stock, but have
many friends who have been ruined, be-
cause they were such under the laws wisely
made for the protection of bill holders and
depositors.
In times of distress. sirs, it is natural that
the widest vagaries should be floated on f.
nance, and that men be ready to catch at
straws, as though drowning hence the thou-
men who never learned the rudiments Of po-
litical economy, and it may be, never had an
intelligent thought on finance.
When men in blindness reach the point
touched last summer, and commence tear
ing down the very fabric OF society by de-
strOying the sources of wealth, as the rail-
road rioters did, is it not time for men with
level heads to step to the front If the hard
times were peculiar to this country alone
we might hope that the causes could be
speedily remedied. But look abroad and
the same tale comes from every civilized
| land, leading some to think it disease,
contagious, causing the general distrust.
What is the remedy? More greenbacks?
More mint drops of silver? Will that bring
us relief? If one thousand millions were
| printed or coined tomorrow, how would we
get them? Sirs. the only way would be by
earning them. We must produce more than
we spend to regain prosperity. Sitting on
the curbstone will not do it, curse we never
so loud and long at the national bank mo-
nopoly and bloated bondholders.
But, is it seemly in this free country,
where all the avenues are open and with
free banking law, to denounce the banks as
a monopoly? Then let us have none of it,
but, reason as intelligent men as to the best
methods OF restoring prosperity to our be-
| loved State and country.
| You say ''capital apart from industrial
enterprise, IS in conflict with labor" Not
necessarily. Capital invested in wild lands
| by the owner too timid to trust it to the
chances OF business, or invested in Govern
ment bonds, as a provision for future sup
port by the retired worker, desiring and
needing rest, most assuredly is not. Neith-
err is that invested for profit, in boarding
| grain or other commodities not needed now
! by the public, for their time of need. The
| late John Stuart Mill said that the specula-
| tor was useful member of society," as with
out him there would be much improvidence
and suffering. again, is it not law, in
force though unwritten. that the charges for
use of money are proportioned to the risk.
Capital accumulated as money is sensitive
and must be so, or it would melt away as
ice under the summers sun. Why is it that
money in London and New York is so often
loaned at one and two per centum, unless 1t
be caused by the general distrust? Here in
| Virginia we have laws passed ostensibly in
the interest Of the debtor class, which have
become oppressive to that class in driving
from US capital, that should ana would be
attracted to us by Our great natural re-
sources. The enforcement Of contracts is
so embarrassed by law, that capital, as mo-
ney, is rarely ventured except under safe
guards evasive of the spirit, ii not the letter
l Of fho lou TO Oh.