The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-12-10
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1891.
A Year Of Great Prosperity-A Year
Of Still Greater Prosperity Coming.

f OF Still Greater Prosperity Coming.
Part of the Speech of Chauncey NJ Depew q
the recent Chamber of Commerce Dinner a
: New York.
If there ever was meeting of th
Chamber of Commerce when it should
feel joyous, when it should feel happy
it il, the meeting this year There ba
been no time within decade when thi
body, representing SO much as it does o
: the commerce, of the finance, and of thu
industrial conditions of this country
should feel as we'll as it does to day al
the conditions as they exist and the
prospects as they are. (Renewed APP
plause) Speakly purely from a trans
! portation standpoint, and without any
intention of booming the corporation
with which | am connected. the state
ment as it comes to HE each week oil
the phenomenal increase over the cor
responding week of the last year, and OF
the week of the year before, tells the
story of that which is to come for every
business in the country. For transpor-
tat7on is the barometer of prosperity OF
of adversely.
There is to be within the next twelve
months famine in this land, but it is
to be a famine of the means to carry the
vast products of the SOIL There is to
be a famine of cars, a famine of locomo-
tives, a famine of the methods by which
this enormous product which the fields
of the country have produced may be
conveyed to the sea and so go abroad,
where it is needed. There are times
when great surplus of products is
thrown upon the market and not con-
sumed, and that is generally a time
when there is a general lack of prosperi-
tU fhrnIIOhnn fru hI1f
year we have phenomenal condition of
the harvest, unequaled for many a year;
OF prices greater for our products than
have been secured for them in the last
ten years; of the railways receiving
whole and remunerative rates for what
they carry and having more than they
can do and demand from the other
side of the water owing to the horrible
| conditions there, which will take the
whole of our surplus, and it will proba-
bly, be unequal to the demand.
These conditions are going to make
railways more than usually prosperous
in their net earnings; are going to give
an unusual business to every house, no
matter what the particular article in
which it deals; are going to put an
amount in the hands of the farmer such
as he has not had in a long time before
are going to lead to the construction of
new lines of railway; are going to make
a demand for iron, coal, and coke; are
going to pour back into this country in
the next fiscal year twice the surplus of
imports of money over the amount we
expend abroad.
/ This banquet is as it was the year of
the Presidential election. My friend
| Mr.. Mills says that the way to preserve
this prosperity is to have Free Trade
and an income tax to carry on the Gov
| eminent. Ny friend Mr.. Cleveland says
the way to preserve this prosperity is to
have revenue reform and honest money.
My friends of the South and of the
West say the way to preserve prosperity
is to have Free Trade and the unlimited
coinage of silver.
| My friends with whom | am associated
say the way to preserve this prosperity
is to have the Protective principle APP
piled in such way that it will protect
wherever another mill can be built and
another man can be given employment
who hasn't it now, and the reciprocity
project SO pushed that treaties by this
country shall be made with every
country that has surplus of
the things we can not profitably pro-
duce and needs the things of the facto
ry or the farm of which we have a sur
plus, and that parity of silver and gold
shall be maintained in such way that
both metals will be used to the utmost
extent that the products of our mines
shall afford, but that in the Treasury
there shall be always enough of both to
keep the silver equal to the gold and the
promise of the Government upon it's pa
| per equal to gold.
Virginia Debt Settlement.
The commission in charge of the Vir-
ginia Debt Settlement, have approved
the terms and conditions of the propo-
sition agreed upon at Richmond, recent
| ly, as noticed in the last VIRGINIAN. as
will be seen from the following paper, is
sued from Now York on the 25th of No
| vember:
In the matter of the settlement of the debt of
| the State of Virginia:
Whereas the undersigned. under and in purSu-
ance of a certain agreement, dated May IL, $780,
between Frederic P. Olcott and Others therein
styled the Bondholders' Cimmittee, and certain
creditors of the State of Virginia, cOnsti-
tuted an Advisory Board for said creditors to
examine such plans or propositions for the adj
Justment of the debt Of the State of Virginia as
might be formulated and to state their approx
al and recommendation or the contrary; and
whereas we have been fully advised Of the pro-
gresS and conclusion of the negotiations be-
tween the State Commission and the said Bond
holders Committee, and have carefully consid-
cred the history of the case, and the condition
to which it has been subjected, and the result
attained as presented by the report Of the said
BondhOlders Committee: now, therefore, we, as
such Advisory Board, do hereby approve and
recommend the plan of settlement of said debt
as the same is embodied in the report of said
BOndhOlderS' Committee. as follows:
The State of Virginia in settlement and can
collation. Of twenty Gig hit millions of such in
debtedness which shall be surrendered. Said
bonds shall be payable in one hundred years af
ter their date, and draw interest from the LIST
day of July, 1891, at the rate of 2 per cent, for
the first ten years, and after that date per
cent. for the remaining ninety years and until
the maturity of said bonds.
| In thus approving the plan presented to us we
deem it proper to say that we should consider
it unfortunate for the creditors and all concern
! ed if the subject of this Indebtedness and it's
! settlement should be allowed to again fall into
| the vortex of popular political discussion and
dispute.
In view of the differences which have been
compromised, the divergence of opinion which
has been overcome, and the sentiment favora-
! BILE to adjustment which has been aroused
among the people Of the State by patient nego-
] tiatiOn and cOncil1atOry argument, we are de-
cided in our Judgment that if the terms of set
| Element now proposed are rejected the prospect
| of an advantageous agreem emit in the future is
far from encouraging. The end sought is the
settlement of an Indebtedness the character Of
which has not in all respects been universally
conceded, and the just amount of which has
| been earnestly disputed. In this condition of
| affairs it seems to us that if a settlement is
| promised, which on the whole appears to be ex-
pedienG, no slight variance in terms should be
allowed to defeat the plan. We do not think
the adjustment now proposed should be at all
regarded in the same light as a scheme to float
the new securities of the State of Virginia for
the purpose of raising money to meet immedi-
ate exigencies, but rather as the compromise of
debt by the creation and delivery of valid
and intrinsicaily valuable public obligations.
which, though not perhaps of the character
most favorable for speculative purposes, must
be regarded in the hands of permanent owners
as securities deriving absolute safety and value
from the pledge Of the faith Of sovereign
State combined with e,willingness and ability
of the State to make prompt payment The ex-
tended period which the proposed bonds are tc