Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-11-23
INDIANAPOLIS, IND, MONDAY,

The increased manufacture Of guns and gun
powder, and of iron-clads, have turned much
industry into those channels But they were
called from some othe-1 To the individual there
is no increase of wealth. The increased wages
OF labor have been reduced more than the incre
ment by the depreciation Of the currency. Hon
est contractors have made no more by the war
than they would have male in peace, nor as
much.
The Government came into possession Of the
products of the changed. call IL increased. in
custry of all these ciasses--so many iron-clads
SO many cannon, so many muskets and sabres,
so much gunpowder, etc, etc How il spent
these possessions determines the question of the
increase or the decrease Of national wealth. If
productively spent, then our wealth has in.
creased; if unproduetively spent, then il
has decreased OF course all these things
have been spent. used up, and DESTROYED,
uDproductvely. The money spent in putting
corn in the ground returns again with its natural
increase. 1t is productivity spent The money
spent in making plows returns with an increase,
and the plows furrow the fields: and the wearing
out of the iron of the pow, and the spending of
the labor of the man who hottis it, il productive.
The ground furrowed By cannon balls bears no
harvest but of blood. The burning Of gunpow-
der the wearing out Of guns and of all the i'm
pements and armaments of war, is. in the nature
of the case, unproductive expenditure. Their
cost is the national debt. Is that our increase
of wealth. Mr.. Seward9 We do not say that
the Union will not be worth all the expense-we
simply say that these are parts of the price we
pay for it, aud that there is "natural increase"
to unprOductive expenditure, such as in the case
of productive expenditure goes on multiplying
itself indefinitely and reduplicating wealth with
every transfer.
5 Finally, every soldier has been changed
from producer 20 a consumer These millions
of men and more were creating wealth. Besides
paying for their own food clothing aud luxuries,
they were accommodating capital and using it over
again in new industries-productye cumulative,
wealth creating. They ceased even to support
themselves when they became soldiers, and ceased
OF course to do more than that. They became
tax upon the industry and labor and capital of
those who are not engaged in the This
change. OF course, is monstrous detriment to
our national wealth. And now will this chsrlatan
of revolution who prophesed smooth things,
and would fain lull his dupes with deceitful ones
will Mr.. Seward tell US where and how our ma
tional wealth has been increasedf In what
bank OF nations is our credit unstretched and aug
mented? In what national ledger does this foan-
cier read our credit columns SO large IF we are
richer it is easy TO prove il, surely. Let him
show our new treasure; let him measure in
dollars and cents the increase of our national
wealth If he succeeds, he will have done what
even Mr.. Chase has hot attempted vet: he will
have demonstrated that the bigger our debt the
bigger our blessing, and that the apparent de-
struction of treasure and of life being the real
creation of wealth. 1t only nee Is to continue the
slaughter and the expenditure till the LAST dollar
is gone and the last arm bearing man dead. TO
make ourselves the richest and most populous of
the nations of the civilized world New York
World