The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-10-24
,TAUNTON. VIRGINIA. OCTOBER "a. 1878.

By long years of patient economy we ba,
fought our way back to a specie basis.
| The difference between coin and paper
now only one-half of one per cent. W
have almost reached hard ground. 70
know the suffering and effort it has cost. D
not turn back into the quicksands. On
stroke more and we are out of the breakers
Do not turn back into the waves.
Honesty is not only right, but in the lon
run honesty pays. Honesty not only pays
but in the long run it is the only thing tha
does pay.
have not come to preach any new dec
trine. have not come to tell you that gam
bling will do or can do the work OF patien
industry. There is but one road to endurin
personal success. 1t is the old-fashioned
hard road Of industry. economy and honesty
These virtues make good men. They max
happy homes; they make successful IAN
prosperous States. We won great victorie
in war. Let us achieve greater victories il
peace. A false balance and false weigh
are forever an attenuation.
An irredeemable dollar is forever false
hood. 1t is lie, forcibly injected into tn
arteries Of trade. AS poison in the bloot
first brings fever and then death, so falls
money will poison industry, and will final.
kill credit, and bring inevitable bankruptcy
Such bankruptcy will fall not only upon thu
Nation, but will bring disaster to millions O.
workingmen, and to hundreds of thousands
of homes all over the land.
Mr.. Bllson--You have stated that this
Government sells off more than it buys
Now. cannot see where it sells more than
it buys, for If man sells flour, which is q
modify in the shape Of gold, don't see that
he sells any more than he bought. He
bought gold with flour, and has only the
same amount Of wealth in the gold that he
had in the flour; at least it looks to me so.
Governor Woodford-I am glad you asked
that question. There was an hour when it
troubled me [laughter], and being like your
self, seeker after truth, asked friend the
very same question you have asked, and I
think his answer will satisfy you the same
way that it satisfied me. 1.-THE flour we sell
gets eaten up." Tremendous cheering and
laughter
Mr.. Billson-I would like to have some of
it eaten in this country.
Governor Woodford-Hold on one mo-
meEt-and after it is eaten up, it goeth into
the belly, and is purged out in the draught,
according to Holy Writ, but the gold we get
for it, the gold money, stays here, and when
ever famine comes we will have that gold
to buy corn with. My friend says he would
like to have the corn here to be eaten up.
So would I and let me say that all over
your great State and this great Western
country there has been bread enough and to
spare, and the tramps have been burning
the threshing machines rather than work.
Mr.. Billson-You have not shown me at
all that the exchange OF the flour for the
gold made us any more wealthy. You say
we can spend the gold for corn when fam
inc comes, but we have not more wealth in
the gold than in the flour we paid for that
gold !; therefore, the gold is worth no more
to us than the flour. Therefore, I say this
Government is no more wealthy to be worth
millions of dollars III gold than millions of
dollars in flour.
Governor Woodford-I am glad that my
friend has said that. have no doubt he has
thereby converted at least fifty Greenbackers
from the error of their way. will repeat
again: When the million of dollars worth
Of -four is sold to Europe it gets used up,
but when we get the gold for it we get that
which is absolutely wealth, absolutely mon
ey. 1t was money in the days of Abraham.
1t will be money ong after the Greenback
party shall have gone out of existence, and
it will be the same thing the world over
Mr.. Billson-Yes, but the flour is gone
Roars of laughter.l
Governor Woodford-And that was wall
II anguish from the anxious bench, which
me that even my friend is in the
process of conversion. Renewed laughter.]
Now let me pass on. You can get these
,reenbacks into circulation by paying off the
Southern war claims. You can get them into
circulation by extravagant expenditure.
You can get them into circulation by giving
hem away. You can get them into clrcula-
ion by course that will tlemcralize bust
less and rot labor.
Mr.. Billson. Greenbacker--I can tell you
low you can get them Into circulation
mother way. Stop taxing the people for
ew years, and pay the Governme mt en-
'loyees, and think that would get them
tut. [Great laughter and appiause.]
Governor Woodford-My friend has struck
very original way of getting them into cir
ulation. know from the way in which
hat statement was made that it was made
honestly. Now let me frankly say / have
lot come here to plead alone for the Repub-
lean party. If the Republican party were
alse on the question Of money, God helping
ne, would fight the Republ lean party just
S earnestly as tonight fight initiation and
.eenbacks. [Great applause.] Therefore,
m bound. as citizen who wants to be hon.
st and fair, to respect the conviction Of my
leighbor, and to give him an answer that
hall either satisfy him, If he be reasonable
nan, or an answer that shall show him that
am right and he wrong. That is the condi-
ions of American discussion, and have no
lesire to shun or shrink it. Applause.
My friend says that we can get the green
JACKS into circulation by stopping taxation,
o that we would get no money on the one
land, and then pay it out for the expenses
# the Government on the other. Now, the
objections to that are these one-thifd Of the
income Of the Government comes to-day
rom duties that are levied on foreign goods.
md so are paid indirectly by the people.
The effect Of taking off those duties would
,e to admit free all articles OF foreign man
fracture, and TO close up every American
[Great applause.] God helping
ne, when American labor is hard pressed to
he wall as now, propose for one, to keep
he tariff duties on and pay taxes. Renewed
pplause.]
A large amount of our taxes are raised
rom tobacco and whiskey [great laughter