The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-12-05

orabIy discharged soldiers and sailors of
the civil war as are dependent upon
their own labor for a maintenance, and
who by disease or casualty are incapaci-
ted from earning it. Many of the men
who would be included in this form of
relief are now dependent upon public
aid, and 1t does not, in his Judgment,
comport with the national honor that
they shall continue to subsist upon the
local relief given to paupers.
He recommends that the weather SER
vice be separated from the War Depart
ment and established as bureau in the
Department of Agriculture He favors
laws regulating the sale of intoxicating
drinks in the district, and suggests that
they be revised with view to bringing
the traffic under stringent limitations
and control.
He fayors the proposition to observe
the four hundredth anniversary of the
discovery OF America by the opening of
a worlds exposition in some of our great
cities.
In reference to the civil service law he
says it will be his pleasure, as it is his
duty. to see that the law is executed
with firmness and impartiality. If some
some of its provisions have been fraudu-
lently eyaded our resentment should not
suggest the repeal of the law, but re-
form in its administration.
Instead OF land grants for educational
purposes he recommends an appropria-
tion for this purpose but ''limited in an
nual amount and as TO the time over
which it is to extend, as will, on the one
hand, give the local school authorities
opportunity to make the best use of the
first years allowance, and on the other
deliver them from the temptation to I'M
6rrlxr q ,r,fi of ha
whole burden of Them
He says that in many parts of the
country where the colored population is
large the people of that race are deprived
of effective exercise of their political
rights. The colored man, he says, should
be protected in all of his relations to the
federal government, whether as litignant,
juror or witness in our courts, as an
elect or for member of congress, or as a
peaceful traveller upon our interstate rail
ways. He invokes the attention of Con
gress to the consideration of such meas
ures as will secure to all our people Il
free exercise of the right of suffrage
| and every other civil right under the
Constitution.
The power to take the whole control
of the election of members of the House
of Representatives is, he says, clearly
given to the general government. A
qualified supervision of these elections,
in his opinion, would secure better re-
suits than can be attained by law tax
ing all the processes into federal con-
troll.
There is nothing, he says. more humil-
| itating than the inferiority of our mer-
! chant marine as compared with that
of other nations, and recommends that
appropriations be made for mail service,
in American steam shiDs between our
ports and those of central and South
America, China, Japan and the impor
tant islands in both oceans. The en-
largement of our merchant marine. the
development of sufficient hady Of
trained American seamen, and the adap
tation of large and swift American steam
ships to naval uses. in time of war, are,
he says, public purposes OF the highest
concern