The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-02-01
Thieves and Robbers"


thoughtful and penetrating article pub
lished on our first page. The terms used
to indicate the subject discussed are not so
soft and temporizing as ears polite might
wish to hear. but it is we'll enough some
times to call spade spade and black
black, without studying how to reach di-
rection by indirection and sugar. coating a
disagreeable dose. Robbery under the
forms OF law is one of the growing evils OF
the times. and if the people do not unite
for the protection of their own interests,
the time is not very remote when corpora
tions and.kindred influences will pervert the
whole theory of government and make the
people slaves instead of freemen. We have
in our State system of legal robbery in
operation in its chancery practice, which is
just as reprehensible as the methods con-
demned in the article we publish. Hun
dreds of thousands of dollars have been
extracted from unfortunate lit igants, not
necessary for the ends of justice, and absO-
lutely harmful to community, in that it
takes from industry its rewards, and appro-
PIRATES the results of honest toll to the de-
mands OF complicated and litigious legis-
lation not primarily designed, as all laws
should be, for the benefis of the people, but
for their robbery.
We have in the legal methods OF judicial
sales and re-sales costly system of delays
and uncertainties, which consumes estates,
and in many cases ignores, in practice, the
rights and interests of parties directly in
terested, and sometimes inficts grievous
wrongs on innocent and. unsuspecting per-
sons. These processes, sanctioned by leg
islative enactments, conspire against the
interests of the people, take their earnings
without an equivalent, and in the degree
that they do so, constitute legal rob-
berry.
The interest charges by the banks fol
money loaned, in the rat exacted, violating
the law Of their creation, is another form
of robbery, not supported by the law. how.
ever, but an evasion of it.
These are important and vital matters
for the people to consider. No State OF
community can prosper where the results Of
industry are so appropriated, either legally
or Illegally. Every oppression caused BY
them is a detriment to the public welfare
for it cramps and in degree paralyzes the
energies from which the State thrives anG
prospers. 1t extracts vital force from
the agencies upon which community de
ponds for its growth in wealth, its pro
gress in all the appointments of an enlight
ened civilization. These are the sources
whence have sprung much of the misfor
tune which has attended our people, but
which have been scarcely recognized-cer
tainly not given that consideration which
their vital importance demands. We SET
the tax collector when he comes and handle
the tax ticket when it is presented, and here
which We have been called upon to BEAR
But behind these is the pregnant cause Of
the poverty which we have had to deplore
the legal and illegal practices by which
the people are compelled to surrender the
results of their toll, and submit to syste
matte robbery, sometimes under the forms
of law.
1t is the law that inf1icts these wrongs
against which we believe it to be our duty
to complain, land it is the duty of all good citi
zens, who want to see the State prosperous.
to turn their attention to the importance OF
a modification of the legislation, which
justifies the multiplied charges that attend
legal proceedings, the delays and vexations
which prevent quick justice being accorded
to creditors and debtors and the economl-
cal execution of every process, made as
simple and direct as the wit of man can
make it, designed to give to each and every
one his equitable rights.
No more important interests than these
can engage the thoughts of the people oi
Virginia. They are higher than party
They implcate the we'll being of commu
nifty. They INVOLVE the future progress O.
the State, and are intimately related to the
prosperity and contentment of the grea
bulk of the citizenship. They are reform
demanded by the best interests of society
and the country, and Virginia will never b.
what she should be, until the people, VIII,
constitute her power and resource, al,
emancipated from the needless and crue
burdens imposed by the causes we hav'
named.