Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-11-03
ESTIMATES OF The EXPENDITURES FOR THE
SIX. MONTHS ENDING DEC. 81, 1853.

Medical Department. Co., $500, ,OOt
ti Ordnance. ,600, ,O0C
Engineering. g.................!... 5000, ,00C
NaVy-Pay..,.... 1I40O,O6C
PfoVlslons .........,.....,.I.f,... I,343, OOt
Observation-Disclosures. ...... 1885, ,00C
Iron. ds.........."............. 2,0OO,O ,OOC
Observation-Disclosures. 1000, ,00C
d ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. 1'2So,oOC
3 Total, six months. 1850. Ss66. .se2 ,si6
! . The Comniasary estimate in the report OF the
Secretary e $3.50 600, but this eoterg Of the
first six months.
In regard to the excess over old prices
in the foregoing table, we have No means
of making any exact estimate. But IL is
probable that the excess would reach
$3.50, 900 900 for months, I, &, $780,
O0O, 900 for 12 months. Bat since the es
innate was made, the prices Of very many
things have doubled or quRdrubled. Un-
less some mode of relief be found these
expenses will soon reach sum literally
incapable of prediction. And that, too,
when our resources are snficient within
ourselves, and simply because We do not
understand how to avail ourselves Of them
Alright. ......... tt
Ina word the condition of our finances
is bad NOW, and getting worse daily, rap
idly approaching ruin, and yet we have
men, means and willing minds 70 improve
them II we know how. %,
Government must consume ID the course
of a year about $3.50, 900, 900 or S4O0, ,OOO,-
900 even upon a specie basis, upon actual
basis about $500. 00O, 900, by estimate made
a few months ago, at present rates 81 ,OeO,-
900, 900, and that Notwithstanding the fact
that the Government gets many things at
old prices. Many aud large items-sol-
diers' wages, railroad transportation, SC.
1--WE pretend not to accuracy In these
estimates. The truth, too, 10 increasing,
for all the old difficulties remain, and new
ones are added daily. In the nervous Ian.
guage of Mr., Toombs, we are exhausting
the national resources in the ratio of geo.
matical progression. He correctly attrib-
utes our difficulties to two causes l.
The delay in taxation. g. The use Of the
public credit in the form of currency. We
cOncur entirely in the diagnosis. To the
remedy he proposes we may refer hereat-
ter"
The cause and remedy of this state Of af-
fairs are discussed, and in the course of
his speculation the writer observes:
"Government iS our agent. We are COM
pelling our agents to issue promises to pay
upon Qs-at ruinous rates, in
stead of furnishing our agent ready means.
We are compelling our agent 10 shave our
paper Mt ruinous sacsifeas. ratheFs than to |
oanEevua 60 AetsAt Iacts.k s-=-
We all complain of speculation. Il Is
The natural result, the necessary result of |
The present redundancy of ofcurrency aRd the |
ltupendous inequality of prices to which
we have referred. To remove the cause
,an alone remedy the evil, We are now
shifting the property from hand to hand in
The country, not by the just and safe law
which transfers it from the hands of idle
ness and luxury to the hands Of industry
aud economy, but by law which conveys
It from the hand of industry to the specu-
lative hand. We thus make wealth the re-
ward of chance aud speculation, not of
This upon the moral and industrial char
acter of the people is even worse than up. |
On their physical condition. Let thinking |
men reflect on this as the sure consequence
oa,GcT If our present policy, or rather want of
Lei us consider what would have been
our true policy in the first place, then en-
leavor to restore ourselves as nearly as |
possible to StatW quo ante 6eIEum, and then |
pursue the true policy Should we not
then recall currency, and that by come |
means that will recall it, get it to its prop !
or height and keep it there2 Is not this |
polite and necessary2 We must use 9th
or means than currency. That was never |
intended to be the form in which large |
debt should stand. Currency has partic-
ular. province, and thatis not in its de-
partment Suppose the British debt in the !
form of currency, and that, too, with Brit.
ain under blockade'l could an IDIOT fail to
- IL fSf
debt must assume form different from
is so .EaeiEs, it is impossible
60 prevent excess. There is no break-no
ballast in this. II enables US to procrasti-
nate, and to spread ont the evil then for
little time. But its results are fatal II not
checked. Better TO face the tenn
porary difficulties, and to get over them as
they rise, the right way than the easy way.
better not allow them to aeeu-
muIate. 80
The effect on Government itself is but a
small part of the evils, yet it iwperils the
cause. The evils, however, are general
The Government, the cause.-the sufferers,
both Government and people. But the
people are at the bottom of all. The Gov
ernment cannot relieve the difficulty except
by their support. II is simply their agent.
They are the principal. They hold the
purse. 1t is their disbursiGg agsut-bOr-
rowing on their credit, and be the manner
in which they compel il TO use their credit,
playing the prodigal RetSeIy and bound to
end In bankruptcy and ruin"
COMMENTS OF TIE ENQUIREB.
The Faquirer introduces the above With
these comments; a
''The condition Of the curreucy has be-
come 80 alarming that its importance has
risen even above the excIIements Of mill.
taFy movements: from every quarter Of the
Confederacy esseys, schemes, expedieuts
and remedies atedaily scattered broadcast
over the country,. urging suggestions Of
every character aud description. In the
multiplicity Of these counsels bat one thing
is certain and undIsputed, and that is, that