Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1897-01-21
Returning Prosperity"

FEe art OF lying has been a recogniz.
ed industry since the days of Annanias,
and the sudden death of that distin.
guished financier, while temporarily
checking it in the locality in which il
occurred, has had little influence on
the world at large. From the LIST oil
July to the third of November the &C
tivity of that industry in the United
States among the opponents of the
Democratic nominees was unparalleled
and the boom does not seem to have
ended yet, notwithstanding the expos.
ures that have overtaken the opera.
tors. The sudden death OF the "start.
ing up" of mills and foundries, that
tremendous fake which followed i'm
mediately after the election. does not
seem to have acted as deterrent, but
on the contrary has brought new ope-
rators into the field. The last of these
! is Gov. Black the new Republican gov
ernor of New York, who, having re-
ceived the largest majority of any Re
publican governor of that State, feels
it laid upon him to emulate Baron
Munchausen with more vigor than any
of his predecessors. In his first mes
sage to the legislature he says of the
year which closed last month, that the
poor had an exceptionally good year of
it, and in effect they had much bet
ter time than the rich. For, explains
this most remarkable person, while the
rich found their incomes cut down by
low rate of interest and failure of div
idends to q cruelty slender margin, the
poor were great gamers in getting food
and clothing at prices never equalled
heretofore in cheapness. If this as
founding economic argument had not
been practically put forth by the gold
element during the presidential cam
paign, it would be hard to believe that
any man occupying the elevated posi-
ton of a State governor would have
been found with the assinine hardihood
to make it.
In Gov. Blacks own State and par
ticularly in its greatest city, the stats
tics show that the poor had such a
good year of it that it must have been
a very strange sort of rich man who
did not envy them. While the rich in
New York city were laboring under all
the cares of housekeeping the poor
were entirely relieved of them. The
official figures show that in that city
between the list of Jan. 1896, and the
31st of December last, Fifty Two Thou
sand families were evicted from their
houses for being unable to pay the
rent. This means that 250,00 men,
women and children were made home
less. OF course these were the ''rich
people whose incomes were reduced by
low interest or failing dividends" Some
of these homeless ''rich" people starved
to death, some took the shorter way of
suicide, and some suffering the pangs
of starvation resorted to theft and
violence and were sent to prison. Only
last Tuesday in New York two remark
able professions appeared at two diff
erent points in the city. One was
well dressed procession of rich men in
line at the office of the Board of AS
sessment to pray for the reduction of
assessments on their property; the
other was a procession of half clad,
half starved poor people, unable to
find work, who were in line at the
office of the Civil Justice who was sit
ting ito hear the answers of the poor
whose landlords sought warrants for
eviction for non payment of rent"
The thermometer outside of the Civil
Justices office, though in the sun of
returning prosperity" stood at 800.
It is such men as Gov. Black who
are leading this country into trouble.
They speak from the stand point of
the rich. and of the sufferings of the |
poor they know nothing. They indiff- |
erently and ignorantly take it for
granted that if the rich are comforta-
BILE the poor cannot be suffering, but |
they are or not the rich must !
be kept comfortable. This theory it
is which lay at the bottom of the aban-
donment of bimetallism; this lies at
the bottom of the resistance to it's res
toration; this lies at the bottom of the
scheme to retire the greenbacks and
and put the whole money power of the
country in the hands of the banks;
ibis lies at the bottom of the covert
lid to trusts and monopolies that, by
ION interference, Harrison's. Cleye-
and's. and every administration for
he last thirty years have given, and
his lies below the bottom of the
discriminating and unreasoning po-
itical and economic revolution which