The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-01-30
What will be Done


To-day the creditors of Virginia assemble
in Richmond at the invitation of the repre-
sentatives of the State, for the purpose of q
conference with reference to settlement Of
the State Debt. Whatever sentiments may
be entertained, and honestly entert aimed, by
persons upon this vexed subject, certainly il
is the ardent wish and hope Of every true
virginian that such an understanding will
be reached as will forever set at rest the ag.
itation that has conyulsed the Common.
wealth and brought her to the very verge Of
ruin. This debt question must be settled
and forever, or the consequence will be such
as no one who holds interest in the State
will care to contemplate. Year after year
the exhibits made Lave proclaimed to the
world the bankruptcy that threatened us,
and year after year have the people grown
disheartened at the sight OF the obligations
swiftly and certainly accommodating upon
them. To continue longer as we have been,
is ruin inevitable, and if some conclusion
is not reached to-day. or the foundation laid
for definite settlement in the near future,
the result will not contribute to the good
name Of Virginia, or the interests of he1
creditors.
The subject is one upon which ample light
has been shed. The facts are all known, 'and
it is with these facts that the parties to the
conference will have to deal. Both have in.
terests Of magnitude at stake, and in a
measure those interests lie in the same di-
rection. Neither can afford to stand off and
entrench itself behind definite line, but a
spirit OF Cancellation must be met with q
Xix spirit, and there must be Weddings from
each. The bondholders must take into con-
sideration the true condition Of Virginia to-
day, and the representatives must remember
that the people are looking to them anxious.
ly for The assurance that the annual default
of the treasury is at an erd, and that hence
forth the close of each fiscal year will wit
ness the discharge of every obligation as
sumed. Give them this assurance and new
life and hope and energy will dawn on Vir-
GINA, and under its influence she will press
forward to prosperity. ga-!
Least of all, can the Re-adiusters now
afford to let this opportunity pass unim-
proved. Every substantial principle they
have commended for has been conceded, and
for them now to permit their enemies to
snatch the palm from their hand in the hour
of victory, would be to be guilty of a folly
for which there is neither reason nor excuse.
They have themselves stipulated the terms :;
they have themselves brought about spirit
OF Cancellation among the bondholders :;
they hive made a true exhibit of the real
condition of the State, which must be the
basis of the settlement, and for them now
to surrender the result of their hard labor
to their opponents, would be simple in the
extreme. Thepeople intend to have this
matter settled, and if this opportunity is
lost somebody will have to account for it.
But the time for talk is over for awhile
and We can only hope for the best.
Lucrctia Mott, who lately delivered an adj
dress before the Pennsylvania Peace Society,
and was unanimously elected President for
the ensuing year, is, in many ways, one of
the most remarkable women of the time.
Although vigorous in mind as ever, and TAX
ing part in public affairs, she has just passed
her eighty-sixth year, having been born Jan.
3, 1898. We can hardly think of single
man or woman still in active life, unless we
except, Peter Cooper and Sojourner
Truth, who has reached such an
age as Mrs. Mott. She was one of the very
first Abolitionist in the Republic, having de-
termined in her fourteenth year, while at
Quaker boarding school in New York State,
to abstain from the use of anything produc-
ed by slave labor. This was when William
Lloyd Garrison, usually called the Father of
American Abolitionism, was only 8 years
old. She was also conspicuous in the first
Woman's Rights Convention, held at Sene-
ca Falls, more than 80 years ago, and she
has been devoted to the causes of women
and anti-slavery, aud helped them ever
since, by all means In her power. In her
twenty sixth year she became preacher
she has always been Jealous member of
the Society of Friends-and Travelled after
ward in different States, including Mary
land and Virginia, advocating the interests
and emancipation of the negro and the
most liberal views of the Quakers. She as
cribes her longevity, with excellent bodily
md rnenfal haalfb RI how c;popJo y,fdo ne
living, her continual self-restraint, and her
constant intellectual activity.
A table of wages and the cost of living,
with the price Of staple articles of commerce
going back as far as the year 1900, has been
published. According to the New York
Times, il shows that wages during the thir-
,eenth century were about 80 cents week.
In the next century they advanced some Is
cents, and continued to advance slowly I'M
ii, in the last century they reached
'l.S7. The average for farm,rx rat pres
mt, is $3.50 per week. Wheat in the thir-
zenith century averaged II cents, or eight
Ind half days labor bushel. Now wheat
s worth, wholesale, abe ut LAC bushel, or
wo and half days. labor. In six centuries
neat has nearly trebled in price, but wages
rave increased more than seven fold. Thus
t will be perceived that the improvement
n pay for labor, while it may better the la
,orer's condition, does not tend to increase
lis contentment. Subsistence is surely ea-
er than of old, though the laborer is not
atisfied to live as his ancestors lived. 1t is
With him as it is with all of us-his desires
rave augmented more rapidly then the means
o crafty them. Our wants are innumera-
lie, and to large extent, artificial. Luxu-
les, as they were once considered, have
,rown to be necessities. We think some
lines that we can dispense with necessities,
nut luxuries are essential not only to our
ontentment, but to any tolerable degree Of
vell-beirg.
Peter Sheafer, the geologist and large coal
operator, and Samuel Griscom, proprietor
# the Diamond Drill, were in the city over
sunday, and on Monday went in company
With Maj. Jed. Hotchl1iss to visit the great |
ron belt on the West side of the.Valley, and
he coal fields along the Chesapeake and