The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-10-14

peat.
If the editors of the Craig Record and
Sentinel, would look an inch be-
yond their noses they would discover that
the charge Of the VIRGINIAN that the cleo
ton of Democratic President and Dem.
ocratic House was the cause. in a great
measure, of the hard times that are now
upon the people, and that the Democrats
were powerless in the last Congress to
change Republican legislation on the tar
iff, involve no Inconsistency. We explain
ed that matter last week. to which we call
the attention of our contemporaries. The
bare threat conveyed in the result OF the
election two years ago, frightened capital
so that it withdrew from the active chan
nels of business and embarked in new en-
terprises to very limited extent. That
until it was assured that the legislation the
democrats, as a party, favored, could not
be enacted into law, was there partial
suspension of this distrust. A few Dem
ocrats under the lead of Randall united
with all the Republican members of the
House, except four. in opposing the Nor
rison bill, and this defeated it. Then the
Republican Senate stood firm against the
invasion of the industrial interests of the
country, by the free trade notions Of the
Morrison wing Of the Democratic party,
and for this reason partial confidence has
been restored. But the effect of the ap-
prehension caused by Democratic success
was felt throughout the country in the sus-
pension of many Industries and paral-
ysis in nearly all of them. The fact that
the Democratic party, as such, had oppos.
ed the enactment of the laws to protect
home industries and home labor, and that
its purposes and policy were directly In
favor of free trade, was the controlling in
fluence to stagnate the business of the
country. When Congress met, with ma
jority of AZ, it was not known that Ran
dali and 81 other Democrats would not SUI
port Morrison and Carlyle and Cleveland
in raid upon the manufacturing interests
of the country, Consequently so long al
there was doubt on this point capital KEEP
itself locked up, furnaces and factorie
were suspended and labor was thrown GU
of employment. When Randall and hi
following came to the support of the indus
trial policy the Republicans had maintain
ed, supported and established, they wer
denounced as traitors to their party, ant
the leading Democratic journals demand
ed that they should be considered ant
treated as enemies of the Democrat
ic party. These IS Democrats, united wit
the Republicans of the House, and TIL
Republican Senate, saved the country from
a panic that would have brought wide
spread ruin, and placed our industrial in
| terests at the mercy of European opera
| tors.
flour contemporaries referred to above
desire their readers to see both sides of tn
, question and deal fairly with the great in
| terests which reach to the homes and t
| the mouths of the masses of the people
they will at least have the courtesy to stat
the position and the reasons of the VIR
, GINIAN, and not distort and garble them
The people want to vote right. They dc
sire to understand the position of bot
parties, and the effects of their respectiv
, stand that Democratic theories as ito th
tariff will prove as disastrous as did demo
cratic theories as to the rights of the State
: a.quarter of century ago, and that unles
, the party which inaugurated the industria
system of this country is invested with tn
|power to arrest the ruinous tendencies o
Dem ocratic free trade. an era of idleness
want and suffering will come upon us, tn
like of which has never been known before
ut is a matter for the people themselves t
, decide, for it is their welfare that is impli
Gated. The Democratic leaders care moth
. ing for the people. The few who assum
to control and dictate, in that party. ar
Indifferent to everything else but the spoil
of Offices Their presence in any legisla
tive body is a menace to business. is
threat against labor and an aggression up
on the peace and prosperity of the mass
es. In State and Nation it is so. Tha
party has been false to every promise. in
different to every popular interest and
positive curse to the country. And tbi
the rank and file begin to see and feel, ant
with this before them they have determin
ed that hereafter they will be true to them
selves, and then it will follow that the
cannot be false to any other interests at
fecting the welfare of the great mass 0
their fellow men.
Hon. Robt. c. Winthrop, President O.
the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Ed
vocational Fund, at the recent meeting o
that body, in New York, after speaking
of the illiteracy of half million voter
scattered over half the Union and constant
ly increasing in numbers, he advocated a
an imperative demand for the safety o
free institutions the extension of nationa
aid for the education of the ignorant mas
ses on whom the elective franchise wa
thrown after the war. And this is tn
sentiment of all enlightened statesmen an,
philantropists, who are not hedged in b.
refining notions of constitutional iimita
\ ,o11 Of {1n