Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-07-26
State Poverty and the State Debt.

The poverty of the State, and her con-
sequent inability to pay her debt, is the
string upon which the -debt-paye
have been harping most loudly and
continuously, and its sound has become
pleasant to the ear unattuned to hon
esty, and which has taken mere sound
and iteration for the pure note of truth.
It was announced from one end of this
State to tho other that the property
value of the State had greatly decreased.
To make this prediction true, assessors
were appointed for the special purpose,
with instructions to reduce the value of
real estate at least twenty-five per cent.
This they attempted to do, and in some
counties arrived at their assessments by
taking the former assessment books and
reducing the valuations from thirty to
fifty per cent, without ever examining
the lands or even requesting the owner
to make his own assessment, and in
some cases insisted on valuing property
lower than the owner himself was will
ing to put it at. Under such system
of assessment every one felt sure that a
great reduction in the assessed value of
the taxable property Of the State would
be made; but what was their astonish
ment to find that the increase of prop
erty in the State has been so great that
it will overreach the willful and deliber-
ate reductions made, and when the full
report is reached it will be found that
the taxable values of the State are still
equal to, if they do not exceed, the
former assessment.
OF course everybody knows that Vir-
ginia is daily prospecting and growing
in wealth, and that this cry of poverty
was merely one of the many .subter-
fuges adopted by the Malone leaders
to deceive the people and get themselves
into office. But it will no longer do.
The people are not to be deceived. The
evidences of prosperity are too numer-
GUS. and are daily brought to the very
doors of almost every farmer in the
land. He finds himself getting along
well; he sees his neighbors prosperous
and cheerful; he hears that the chief
cities of the State are increasing in
wealth and population; that manufac-
tories are being erected, iron mines
opened, the mineral wealth of the State
developed, her water-power utilized,
and he cannot longer be deceived by
the cry of the States poverty.
And right here, without noticing the
increase of values in such cities as
Lynchburg, Danville, Richmond, and
Norfolk, we call attention to Allegheny
county, which has been Readjuster
county, and inform our readers, that
leaving out all other sources of increase
of values in that county, the one single
establishment at Low Moor has added
to the county more than the whole
former taxable values of the county.
From all portions of the State comes
the intelligence of increased prosperity
and business enterprise. especially in
mining pursuits and internal improve
ments. Northern capital has already
been largely invested, and would pour
into our State in unprecedented amounts
could only this agitation about the State
debt be settled. With all these present
evidences of increased values in the
State, we firmly believe that with fair
and honest assessment of the taxable
property, the revenues of the State
would be be even more than sufficient
to meet all her obligations and pay fair
interest on the debt without any in
crease of taxation.
DEATH OF J. A. II. ST.. ANDREW
The FarmyilIe Mercx7y comes to us with