Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-02-07
Wants of the Treasury---HOw Supplied.

The Secretary of the Treasury has replied
to the resolution of Congress calling for the
actual and PROBABLE receipts from all sources,
and expenses. for the fiscal year. He is com
PEELED TO admit that the receipts will not be ad-
equate to the necessity of the public exigen-
cies, and that should Congress adjourn without
doing something to relieve the Treasury, it will
be impossible to meet the current liabilities
until another Congress can be convened. He
is in favor of extending the issue of some
eighteen millions of dollars of Treasury notes
for two years, though they fall due and should
be redeemed at the close of June next The
Recommendation evidently looks to permanent
debt, though SO unpopular move is disclaimed
by the Secretary. The receipts during the first
quarter of the present year were only S23, ,23I,-
900, and for the remaining three quarters the
Secretary estimates them at S3s, ,500, 900, OF
which s37, 900, 900 has to come from Customs.
This will leave deficit of full half the proba.
BILE expenditures of the Administration, with.
out the thirty to one hundred millions to be
aquandered in bartering for Cuba, provided
Congress will vote the money.
Secretary Cobb is opposed to increasing the
public debt by additional loans. He has tried
the experiment of borrowing out of debt, and
finds it won't work. 1t is easier to issue shin
plaster promises to pay, and then extend the
time of redemption to suit circumstances. The
Secretary has two schemes of relief. The first
is to abolish the franking privilege and raise the
rates of letter postage to five cents, and next to
so modify the present tariff as to supply such
deficiency as may exist, and he recommends his
views on this question, as expressed in his an
nual report, to favorable consideration. Those
views, it will be recollected, differed in toto from
the tariff views expressed in the Presidents
message, and are those of the Southern ultra
lists
The Administration increase of postage from
1t comes home to the pocket of every man, wo-
man and child sending letter by mail. 1t is a
tax of the most unequal and oppressive charac-
ter-a tax on intelligence and business and
ther cheapened rather than increased. Such
a step backward as is advocated by the Southern
Postmaster General and Secretary of the Treas
ury, should never be couDtenanced by the
Northern Representatives of the People. In
stead of increasing the letter postage from three
to five cents, as proposed by the Democratic
Administration, try the experiment of reducing
the rate to two cents. 1t is believed by many
that such reduction would increase the aggre-
gate of postages. British example favors the
trial. That Government tried fourpenny uni
form rate OF first, and it failed. Nineteen years
ago the penny postage was established. Its
effect in increasing letter writing was at once
apparent, and the result is that under the uni
form penny system of postage upwards of four
hundred millions of letters pass through the
Post Office per annum, while, with population
nearly equal to Great Britain, under our three
r. tS-ss
ing through the o. S. Post Office is only lit
tie over hundred millions year An increase
to Eve cents would reduce that number one third
at least, without reducing the expenses of the
department at all, or swelling the revenue be-
yond an insignificant sum. To nearly double
the tariff on letters is revenue scheme worthy
only OF q spendthrift and bankrupt Admins
tration. To enact it, will sink every Northern
who votes for the tax beyond
political resurrection, and deservedlY SO.