Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-05-14

Ioc bbdiI lu ld1IO u d reputation Oh OU.
600, 0O0 ard to tie giant Developments vet
to take place in this Union of forsy.two
States.
Third. Tho free coinage af silver also pre-
sen's itself as a measure Of relief to the
American farmer, AID to the laborer for
daily wages. Argument against the use of
silver money to the full extent of all cur
silver resources is never beard in the chan
nrls CT trade nor in the fields of active in
dustry. Its enenies are not to be found in
the ranks Of labor, but in the sumptuous
council chambers of the arrogant plutocra-
oy, where the chief aim and end of govern.
ment is to increase the power of money
over lands and houses. and over men and
women, by making it scarce and hard to
obtain by the plain, unprotected people.
Those who affect an alarm at silver in
tfation are mostly those who are bent on the
contraction of all kinds of currency in order
to increase the purchasing power of the
money which monopoly and privilege have
already given them. The financial credit of
10 nation in the world stands higher than
that of France. and the circulation of silver
amongst the French people is $14.e7 per
capita, while it is bat So ~ per capita with
us. With more silver products than all the
world besides, the people of the United
States are demanding fair play for silver
money and the assistance and stimulus Of
its unlimited coinage and circulation. With
| all the discrimination that has been made
against it, with all the sneers and calumnies
that have been heaped upon it, gold can
| buy no more in the markets than silver,
aud can carry it's aristocratic head no high
| er than the dollar of the fathers. The
adoption of the free coinage of silver will
mark an era of prosperity to the American
farmer and to all the industrial classes.
Fourth. Another measure of relief for
the embarrassment and depression of agri-
cultural interests aud the disturbance of
their markets should be the prompt enact
ment of laws, either by Congress or by the
States, or by both, Furnishing with States
prison imprisonment those who speculate
on the great food products of the world and
gamble on their future prices, without ever
having owned bushel of corn or wheat, or
a pound of beef or pork, Or of any other
commodity which they assume to buy and
SELL This is an interference with the hon
est, legitimate trade of the farmer which
should be made felony, and punished as
such.
Fifth. To the foregoing propositions in
| the interest of the farmer would add lib.
eral policy of pensions and a full and gen.
erous recognition of those who served their
country in the hour Of lis peril. Money
paid in pensions to the soldier is not only a
| benefit and blessing to him and those who
are dear to him, but also to the produce
dealer, the merchant, and to all within the
range Of it's circulation. But for the large
sums which for years have been disbursed
by the Pension Office and thus reached
nearly every neighborhood in the United
States and gone into general circulation the
present financial crisis amongst the farmers
and laborers woald have come at an earlier
day. As beneficial measure, therefore, to
all as we'll as a duty of the most sacred
character, the soldier should be paid by his
| Government as one who was willing to die
for his Government. On that lofty basis
| his equities are without limit, and justice
should at all times stand ready to enforce
them.
Mr.. President, those who have sought to
reform the enormous abuses growing out of
consolidated wealth, legalizsd avarice, and
educated rapacity, have in all ages been met
with the most vindictive, unsparing and
sanguinaTy hostility of which history makes |
any record in the affairs of men. Those |
who have invaded the seats of ancient |
wrong, and disturbed the enjoyments of |
pri fileged oppression, have in every era of |
human progress been assaled as enemies of |
law and order, seeking to break down the |
safeguards of society; as agitators, fire. |
brands, iconoolasts, and traitors to their |
government.
| Evils which have grown venerable and |
hoary in plundering the toiling masses of |
mankind have always been upheld By caste |
aud-aristocracy, whether in council, debate, |
or By the steel-clad hand of war, or by the |
gbastly gibbet. It was the awful denuuci- |
alton ofthe mighty Nazarene hurled against |
those who were "full of exterti9n and ex.
CESS" rather than the preaching of new
dispensstion which inspired the accusations
before Pontius Pilste;and those who follow
ed Him with bi..erest execrations and most
insolent triumph to his death agony on the
cross were the usurers, the money changers,
the accursed piutocracY of Judea. And
| from that great hour to this the resentment
Of chronic and corrupt riches, intreaohed
| behind accumulated laws and constructions,
| has known no bounds at the Intrusion of the
reformeF Is has been the most envenomed
| aud merciiess sentiment ever known to in-
fest and pollute the human soul.
| The abest statesmen and the brosdest
| philanthropists have not been spared when
found, in any age Or in any part of the
| globe, laboring to reform the abuses of con-
centratsd wealth. John Bright led the ool-
umn of reform for the repeal of the corn
laws of England, laws imposing tariff duties
| On tic itupUAttLluu VI COtu llbO 0ToAb bTl-
tain, thereby protecting the landed aristo-
cracy in selling their corn at high prices to
the laboring classes, who were compelled
| to have it Or starye. He took the side of
justice to the working people as against the
proprietors Of vast estates, and recent
writer says:
| For many years Mr.. Bright was assailed in
| cessantiy, and with extraordinary yehemence
| 1IEA a Or tQfn Nyfl
provoked the poor to regard the rich with
| envy, jealousy, and hatred; as reekl ess DEM
| agogue who wished to destroy all those ancient
| institutions wnich had made England great;
as the friend and ally of the worst enemies of
| his country; as traitor who cared nothing for
| her safety and honor. Now that the stormiest
| of those times sufficiently remote to be re-
called without bitterness and passion, even
| those who were Mr.. Brights most loyal suo-
porters may see that it was natural, PERHAPS
| Inevitable. that he should have been regarded
$ a revolutiOnist. For during the greater part
of his political lie he the strenuous assaiI-
| ant OF la ws and Institutions witch were pro-
tected by the interests by the affections by the
convictions, and by the traditions of the /
wealthiest and most powerful classes of the |
state He became known by the energy and /
laws. He did not merely argue against the NJ /
as economically indefensible; he denounced |:
them as criminal.
Thomas jefferson, more than hundred |
years ago, laid the hand of reform on the
laws of primogeniture, the laws of entail,
and the union of church and State, and as
a consequence was painted as Jaoobin
and atheist, an enemy to God aud man, by
the orders of privileged society, aud by tho
same powerful classes which afterwards SO
fiercely sought the destruction of the great
British statesman and reformer. No one
need suppose that the same rule will not
prevail now. The tariff reformers of the
United States in the present crisis will en-
co1ntar a hostility filed with all the Uick |