Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-08-01
FRIDAY MORNING. AUG, 1. 1879.
A NOVEL WAY TO GET
CAPITAL.

CAPITAL.
Every now and then some of the Demo-
cratic States Of the Union get the start
ling information that if they were changed
to Republican States large amount of
capital would be poured in upon them.
The amount named by these hopeful Mi
cawbers runs up into scores of millions.
This problematical financial speculation is
especially held out to the Southern Stat es.
Not in any practical way it it's true, in no
business proposition with any security to
back it. but as matter simply Of opinion,
an opinion, almost exclusively held by
Republican politicians. OF course if there
is anything in it we should like to know it
and in searching for the information we
may pass by the fact that no such propo-
lions are made to Indiana, or California,
or New York. or Missouri, or New Jersy,
or some other States handsomely and prof
itably bearing the burden Of Democratic
State administrations; it may be probable
that these States do not stand in need Of
the millions of capital. We suppose that
the offer is made exclusively to the States
lately, that is to say fourteen years ago,
at issue with the general government. We
do not lack for examples of the benefit
some of these States have derived in their
day by being Republican. North Carolina
was Republican State for many years
after the war. She is State of great re-
sources. Has any capital poured into her?
West Virginia, our next neighbof, State
teeming with resources was Republican
during and for some years after the war.
It is notorious that in the comparatively
brief time since she became Democratic
she has had more Northern capital
turned into her, and her resources have
been more developed than for the whole
series of years she was aligned with the
Republican administration. These and
other instances we might cite Tennessee
among them, are facts regarding which,
there can be no dispute and to which there
can be no answer. Capital goes just where
it can be made profitable and nowhere
else, and it is very particular to 60 where
the intelligence of the State is in the as
tendency and where there is no danger OF
an ignorant class getting the upper hand
and laying ruinous taxes on the enterpri-
ses it is invested in.
The same groundless statement about
what Virginia might get if she were Re
publican applies to immigration as well as
capital. Texas, the most intensely Demo-
cratic State in the South, where violence is
of every day record, has received more i'm
migration from the North and West in
the last two years than any ten of the
American States combined. It may be
said with truth that immigration and CAPT
tai both are sometimes delayed by the
presence in State of two distinct races
of people, but this objection applies equally
to Republican and Democratic States, and
isjust one of those objections that it is out
of the power of any government to re-
move.
Virginia is orderly, well governed, fair
ly taxed, and fertile, and Astounding in re-
sources that is her national reputation.
Her laws give capital as fair chance to
thrive as those of any State in the Union.
As long as the two races who inhabit her
are divided in politics as they are now, the
strong ascendancy of the more intelligent
race gives guarantee for the present, and
when the present mode Of division breaks
up there will be enough of that intelligent
race in each of the new parties to see that
capital invested within our borders is the
victim of no unreasonable taxation in the
future.
Capital from abroad will come in it's own
time, and in good time, without reference
to the politics Of the State. Let our people
lay all such lazy, idle, demoralizing dreams
aside and strive by their own enterprise
and hard work to begin the work of de-
velopment, and that Of itself will attract
capital. If Million Dollars sees One Dol
lar digging coal bank, a marble quarry,
or hewing ship timber, or cult ing slaves,
and making money at it, the Million will
soon range itself alongside of the One.