The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-07-01
VIRGINIA AN oBJECr LESSON.

why ia It," asks the Houston Post. that the
financial affairs of so many Of our Southern
States are permitted to get into tangles? It con-
tinues;
Over in Georgia, a great and wealthy State.
several thousand public school teachers have
not been paid their small salaries,
In Tennessee the curse of factional politics
is interfering with the refunding OF 81, 000,-
600 State bonds about to mature.
In Alabama a financial scandal in the peni-
tenuary management is disturbing the people.
In Mississippi there are hints of hundreds
of thousands OF dollars of public money being
taken by ~grafters.
In Texas, the wealthiest Of all the South
ern States, and one of the wealthiest in the
Union, the treasury lis empty and the State Is
paying its current obligations with warrants
which cannot be redeemed in cash for months.
THE fiscal affairs Of most, II not all the
Southern States" the Mobile Item adds. ARE in
a disgraceful condition, and what may be called
the institutional service they give is decidedly
inferior compared with that to which Northern
and Western States are accustomed"
The Dallas Ners. agreeing with the Houston
paper asks: VIII any one say that the South
ern States as a whole manage their penal and
eleemosynary affairs as well as do Northern and
Eastern States? These are huniliating facts.
and we can readily understand the resentment
which the statement of them occasions. But
nothing will be accomplished In the way of bet
terment by venting our resentmsnt- Humiliating
as the facts are, it were best fhat we recognized
them frankly; for the beginning of reform must
be a frank recognition of the existing evils.
What the Post charitably calls the tangled
condition OF the financial affairs OF these South
ern States would be deplorable enough even II
we could delude ourselves into the notion that
we are getting a superior quality OF government.
But the most purblinded by sectional strife cam
II he is quite honest with himself, acknowledge
that an inferior quality of public service costs
US what would be an extravagant price for a
superior quality
The Dallas Neus does not undertake a full
answer to the Posts query. but the Mobile Item
Is of the opinion that there is one answer that
comprehends all the possible reasons, and this
Is the Items somewha gloomy view of it:
One party has had too much of a monopoly
ties and inefficiency everywhere, and the abso-
lutte assurance of capturing the Offices in any
CONTINGENCY has made a sloven Of the Demo
cratic party Of the South. The political lethargy
OF the South is its incubus. Not until it is
freed of that can 1t begin to achieve it's splen-
did destiny.
The Vfrginton is. perfectly frank to admit
that political lethargy obtains In this State to
some extent, but fortunately 1t has begotten
neither "laxity or ineficiency," and so far as
finances are concerned. Virginia, thank you, is
doing nicely. and. therefore, we find 1t hard
to sympathize with those who are having these
troubles. We suggest that Georgia. Tennessee,
Alabama, Mississippi and Texas get together and
send a joint commission to the mother of States
and Of presidents to learn how to run a State
successfully.