The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-12-04
Presidents Message.

The Presidents annual message was
delivered to Congress on the 1st inst.
Absence from the city has prevented US
from such examination of it as we de-
sired to make, and also interfered with
as full a synopsis as we hoped to give
We take the following editorial reference
to it from the Washington Star of the
lat inst, as much as the crowded state
of our columns and the late hour at
which we reached the office allowed to-
day:
As indications of the policy Of the admins
which refer to the Mckinley bill, reciprocity
and the federal elections bill will doubtless be
read with the greatest interest The tariff leglS
lation OF the recent session Is warmly endorsed,
and neither wisdom nor justice is discovered in
the suggestion that the subject OF tariff revis-
ion shall be again opened before the law Las
had fair trial 1t is pointed out that the ad-
vance in the price of articles wholly unaffected
by the tariff act was by many hastily ascribed
to that act, and enlargement OF the currency by
the silver bill is mentioned as one of the causes
of the general upward tendency i'll trade and
prices The President contends that the pro-
ni6tofy em n s sP6a te at tbe po gt
OF New York for the first three weeks of No
vember being nearly s Per cent n greater than
or than for the same period OF 1888. He states
that the development of larger markets for our
10.
kept constantly in mind. and that no effort has
been or will be spared to promote that end. The
reciprocity clause Of the tariff act, he says,
wisely and effectively opens the way to secure a
large reciprocal trade in exchange for the free
admission to our ports of certain products and
approval. Finally he defends the federal cleo
lions bill, showing that it is not new exercise
of federal elections power but the rendering
effective of q law which has existed for nearly
twenty years, for the purpose OF securing Tree
and honest elections In response to the suS-
geStion that this legislation Will revive race an
fnosities and that intimidation and violence
may supplant the peaceful methods OF fraud, he
saws that If the law is equal and the animOSitleS
1t Is to evoke grow out of the fact that some
electors have been accustomed to exercise the
franchise for others as well as themselves, then
these animosities cannot be given any weight
In the controversy without d1shOnOr, ana That
no choice is left him but to enforce with Vigor
all laws intended to secure to the citizen his
constitutional rights, and to recommend that
the inadequacies of such laws be promptly
remedied. In reply to the suggestion OF sec
tionalism concerning such legislation ne says:
If 1t shall happen that the penalties or laws IN
tended to enforce these rights fall here and not
there it is not because this law is sectional but
because, happily, crime is local and not unlVef-
SAL" The message thus speaks with no uncef-
tain voice all these topics CT greatest present
interest No backward step IS to be taken Ill
tariff legislation, though 1t Is indicated that the
fullest possible development will be given to
the reciprocity feature. Nor does the President
faiter in his approval of the elections bill His
comments upon it are vigorous and pointed. so
far as the message sounds the keynote or the
Republican policy that party will stand firmly
by the positions which it has assumed upon
seek tOcOnvert the defeat Of this year into VIC
tnt.x In