The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-11-05
BURLINGTON WEEKLY HAWK-EYE


rs DO RAlNu1ON w -
Productive Taxation.
There is no loss without some gain. There
is no great public calamity that does not
bring along with it incidental advantages.
And it is certainly one of the incidental adj
vantages of our civil war, and OF the neces-
sary creation of a vast public debt, that our
statesmen have been put upon a study OF
the financial experience Of other nations.
Formerly we were too proud to learn any
thing from abroad. Our public men, in q
great degree mot only disregarded, but des
pissed. examples, precedents and even
established among US than that, in finance,
as in everything else, the universal Yam
kee nation could paddle its own canoe. We
ached with conscious strength. Statistics,
facts, experiments, careful induc;ions, fun
damental principles, were all well enough
for old Europe. but were too slow and an
tiquated for the exuberant vigor Of young
America. One consequence Of this was,
that for the last thirty years there has been
no civilized and commercial nation on the
face of the earth that has had SO loose, and
crazy, and hazardous a financial system as
have we. The paper money Of tie country,
taken as whole, has never been safe, has
never been redeemable, has never stood
the shock of commercial crises. II has, on
periodical crises which have swept over the
country like tornadoes. The paper has
largely been, what the unerring language
Of the people has characterized it, rags"
and wildcats" And when the storm has
come, as, under such system, the storm 10
sure to come, there has been a state of
things forcibly described by Daniel Web
overwhelmed with irredeemable paper,
representing, no: gold nor silver; no sir;
representing nothing but broken promises,
bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated
creditors and q ruined pe0plev' 1t is true
that we haye had strength to endure such
a system, and to prosper in spite Of it, but
it is also true thai We ought to have had
Of the financial history Of other countries,
and a fair willingness to be taught by 9TH
er's mistakes, and these enormous evils
might easily have been avoided.
Now, then, while our rulers ard our
selves will find light and guidance in this
foreign experience, We shall also ind
ground for graduation and self-respect.-
In some particulars our financial success
has been wonderful, and uneQuaied by that
or any nation in like circumstances. We
point with Just pride to the success with
which the present administration has met
the enormous expenditures preci plated
upon the country by our civil war, and We
claim that the financial records OF 10 other
nation can exhibit like success under
like circumstances. We showed in a late
article that in the matter Of raising loans
at q very moderate rate of interest, Mr..
Lincoln's administration has achieved a
signal success that in q little more than
three years nearly nineteen hundred mil.
lions Of dollars have been raised in this
way, at an average rate of four and one
dfth per cent interest. If now we look at
the other source of governmental revenue
namely, taxation-we shall find Just as
as favorably with the efforts OF other great
nations under war pressure. II reflects
great credit upon the financial committees
Of Congress, that in three years time
system Of direct taxation has been devised
and put in operation, which is expected to
yield in this, the fourth year o. the war,
the sum Of SsOO, Oo0, 600. This is additional
that is by duties on imports, which part Of
the revenue II payable in gold, and is
pledged for the payment OF interes, on the
public debt. q
Both in this matter Of loans, and espe-
cially in this matter Of taxation, we have
done better than England did ir Der coIos.
sal war against the French Revolution. In
raised by loans NJ follows:
1895, 100000 1877, 10000, GOO
In this latter year the attempt 20 raise by
borrowing only 3l6O, O00, 600 carried down
the government three per cents below Is.
In other words, the best paper the English
government had to offer in the market was
50 per cent below par. William Pitt, who
welded the whole resources Of the English
monarchy 1t will, then determined on
what he called raising the supplies within
the year." that is, On q resolute and vigor-
Gus system Of taxation. The results were