The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-11-17


farm work, with limited home markets for
their products. The duty on iron lights the
country with furnace fires and rolling mills.
builds up nall and horseshoe factories and
other industries incident to the iron bust
ness. 1t converts into immense values our
districts of iron ore and limestone, which
bat for them would remain where nature
placed them. an absolute tax upon their
owners.
Whatever tax is imposed upon the farmer
by the laws which fix duties on foreign pro-
auctions, is more than returned by the ac-
tive values created ont of dead wealth, the
employment given to home labor. and the
market afforded for home production. There
is not an avocation or pursuit which does
not feel the stimulating influence issuing
from the manufactures of the country. Eve
nv channel of trade and enterprise is made to
feel the vitalizing effect, and every interest,
whether Of the merchant. the farmer. the
mechanic, or other pursuit, participates in
the activities which are thus brought into
existence and which contribute to the pros
perity and advance the civilization OF CON-
munity. Not only is the duty on WOODEN
goods. paper and iron positive benefit to
America, but the time is coming when
duty will be demanded on iron ores which
are now shipped to this country from Spain,
Africa and other countries as ballast, as q
means of giving value to our immense
mountains of minerals which lie untouched
by the hand OF industry. Here in virginia
especially. where railroads are being con-
structed with especial reference to the de-
velOpment of our wonderful mineral re-
sources-heretofore dead values-and the
establishment Of furnaces and iron indus
tries. is the policy OF protection OF vital
and paramount necessity. Under the DEM
ocratic policy OF free trade our people have
truly been made to play the part OF hewers
OF wood and drawers OF water. Our tim
Der and ores and limestone have been to us
of no commercial value. We titled the sGil.
and all OF the results were speedily sent
away to purchase the manufactured articles
from the workshops of England, operated
by pauper labor. There were no factories
at home to furnish our demands, and to be
an interchange of productions, to add to
the wealth of community and give employ
ment to labor. We were annually drained
of our substance to enrich other countries,
adding DO wealth to our possessions, but
constantly impoyerishing our lands that
others might grow fat,
Thirty years ago Pennsyivania was pure
ly an agricultural State. Her best lands
were rated at $50 and $50 per acre and her
mineral sections at % cents and 80 cents
per acre. Under the operation OF the tariff
laws she has become a manufacturing State.
Farming lands before rated at $50 and $50
are readily sold for $50 and 5000 per acre,
and the mineral belts. rated at % and 90
cents per acre. now command $500 and
s.. 900 per acre. according to the richness Of
the deposits. Railroads have been con-
structed to meet the demands OF the facto-
ries cities and towns have been built up,
and as result the revenues OF that State, be-
fore derived from tax on real property,
are now paid exclusively by the corpora
tions which the protective policy has
brought into existence. From poverty and
the verge of bankruptcy under free trade
policy. that State has become one of the
wealthiest aud most prosperous in the
Union. under the policy of projections
history which Virginia is to repeat just as
certain as the Republican party continues
in power and maintains its policy OF protec-
ton to American industries.
1t is true. as the Farmer md Planter
says, the government has donated vast
areas of land to railroad corporation viii
any intelligent man question the wisdom OF
such donations. when the results are ex-
posed? The lands were practically value
less. They were the range of the Buffalo
and the hunting grounds OF the INDIAN
The influence OF civilization never swept
over them. bringing along the hardy pio-
neer to convert the desert and the waste
places into productive fields for the use OF
man. Railroads now span the continent.
as result OF these donations cities have
been built upon the plains; the m ountains
have disgor ged their precious metals. and
every alternate section retained BY the
government become the scene Of busy in
dustries and wealth creating enterprise
The vast barren waste which interviewed. a
few years ago. between the Mississippi
Valley and the Pacific slope, now presents
numerous organized States and Territories,
alive with the activities of civilization, rich
with the music of industries. and the church
and the school-hous attesting the spread
and influence OF the intellectual and moral
forces OF our people, over the desolate
plains and barren mountains.
The marvellous attainments OF Gug eoun-
try in al. the elements OF progress and
wealth axe the direct results Of the great
American systeUs first formulated and pre-
sented by Henry Clay. but rejected by the
Democratic party, and now resprrected and
operated by the Republican par
". It has made America the greatest man.
and wealth creating nation on
he earth, through the protective policy ;
=
t has linked the oceans together nv iron
lands, and made tie desert TO blossom % /
he rose, under the fostering care OF inter-
lal improvements by the general govern |
aent. and created thriving cities apd towBs !
pon the Indian hunting grounds. by APP /
pnblic lands to the uses Of civ |
iZation.
1t is appropriate that Virginia Bourbons
nouad enter its protest against these inspir.
lg and progressive influences. At felt their
ide shock few dagssago. and it sees ti
,e signs of the times. as they unfold under
le operation OF such enlightened public
3licy, the destruction OF it's idols and the
,cognftion of the great truth that this is not
government for the benefit Of the few,
nj q government ofthe people. BY the peo-
lie and for the people.