Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-03-28
HOW IT GROWS.

Two years ago, Cleveland was stronger
than Tariff Reform; to-day Tariff Reform
is stronger than Cleveland OF any Other
man in the Democratic party. So much
for the campaign of educati ion" The
courageous advance Of the Democratic
party in its behalf is bringing about q
change of heart among the Western Repub
licans. Gov. Merriam of Minnesota rar
in 1888 on pretty much the same tariff plat
form that Benjamin Harrison did. In that
State there are 700 organized branches OF
the Farmers Alliance and they sent 800
delegates to their State Convention last
week. The spirit of the proceedings was
too plain to escape Gov. Merriam who
proposes to be candidate for reelection.
So he made his appearance last week before
their convention-on the mourners bench.
as it were-and turned somersault with
great agility. He said :
The expenses of administration have to be
nue. for the purpose should fall upon the
shoulders able to bear it. Tax the silks, the
diamonds, the liquor and tobacco, and remove
it from those necessary articles most widely
dlffused in their USE Selling our products, as
we do in competition with the markets of the
world, and compelled, as we now are, to &C
cept unremunerative prices, the people should
not be hampered with legislation effected for
the benefit OF any especial classes, which de-
priyes them of no inconsiderable portion of
the fruits Of their toll. The tax levied upon
articles OF food of various kinds as we'll as
upon many staples of common requirement is
a. burden upon every farmer of the State, and
the laws governing these levies should be
n fIn1D 1Incf cnti III
moment. 1t is certain that the Western farm
er should be relieved from any taxes that are
instituted in the interests of any particular
locality, industry, OF aggregation of capital.
1t is exceedingly difficult to prove to the
farmer that it is to his interest to remove the
tax from luxuries like liquor and tobacco, and
retain it upon sugar. clothing, hemp, from
which binding-twine is made, and the like ar
ticles which he has to have, and fully agree
with him when he declines to understand the
logic Of any such argument.
This would be mistaken for the speech
of Democratic Tariff Reform orator, if
we didn't know that it was delivered by
one of the numerous band of Republican
statesmen in the West now practicing the
craWfish steD.
The death of Gen. Francis II. Smith, for
a half-century Superintendent of the Virgil
mia Military Institute, which occurred in
Lexington On Friday evening last, will be
heard of with regret throughout the South
ern States. He was native of Norfolk and
appointed to West Point from there. After
brief service in the U. S. Army and an
other brief term as professor at Hampden-
Sidney College, he was appointed Superin-
tendent of the Institute, where fifty years
of his seventy eight were spent. Besides
his supervision of the Institute with a
master and a kindly and wise hand, he
found time for the authorship of several
textbooks and works on education, his
last book being on college Reform
in 1850, though, later, he made an in
teresting and valuable report to the Vir-
ginia legislature, on Scientific Education
in Europe When the civil war came on,
the V. M. I. proved to be the West Point
of the South in furnishing from it's pupils
and alumni, officers to the Confederate army,
who made gooa records. During that stir
ring period the venerable Superintendent
himself was also in the field, as the COM
mander of a Virginia regiment. He had
been an able, faithful, and conscientious
officer of his native State in peace and war,
and at the close of his long and useful
life will receive without word of dissent
the plaudit, "Well done good and faithful
servant.