Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-11-17
oup NATIONAL DEBT.

The "anormous debt of the nation Is
so,rca If great solicitude with certain
,or.;or If the community. A great debt
w;tb limited resources is an unpleasant
spb;ect of contemplation; but when the
resources are commensurate with the
debt, the latter loses its terrors. The out
cry about the debt of the United States,
made use of so pertinaciously by our enc
mics, has induced not only the Govern
ment, but individuals, to examine care
fully into the figures of the assets and IL
abilities" of the nation, and to lay them
before the public for its information.
From the work of Mr.. Blodget, who has
been at work in compiling the statistics of
the Treasury Department, we have on
former occasions made liberal quotations.
We have also referred to and made en-
tracts from that of Mr.. Wells, entitled
"Our Burden and our Strength" From
the latter work we will quote, to-day, a
few remarks upon 1.-THE resources of the
country and its capacity to bear a'large
burden Of debt" Says Mr.. Wells:
In estimating these, it should not be over
looked, that the opportunity for civilized
nation TO increase its aggregate wealth, was
never before, in the history Of the world, so
great as at present, and therefore no former
precedents respecting the actual burden Of
raakl DAN haf, .rlt Kal
as applicable to the present. This is due
mainly to two circumstances. lst, The ac-
cumulation of national capital; and I'd, to
the introduction of labor-saying machinery.
In relation to the first, it is simply neces-
sary to direct the attention of the reader to
the fact, that wealth makes wealth or in
other words, that resources and capital accu-
INFLATED and properly used, invariably bring
large additional resources and capital. The
man that had ten talents could produce, more
easily ten additional talents, than he who had
one, could produce single additional one,
and so in regard to this country, or the loyal
part Of it. With capital in 1860 more than
double what it possessed in 1850, its capacity
and power TO increase its wealth in 1860, was
of necessity more than double what it could
have been in 1850.
I'd. The opportunity or power Of 4 country
to increase its national wealth or capital, IS
greatly augmented by the introduction Of
labor-saviug machinery. A single statistical
fact illustrates the proposition better than
volumes of assertion. 1t was shown BY off,
cial statistics in Great Britain some years
since, that if the Stage-coach system, which
was the main reliance Of that country in
| 1880, for the transportation Of travellers, had
continued in use up to 1854, and had then
been required to do the work of passenger
transportation alone, which the railway syS-
| tenn Of that year effected, the increased cost
of the business would have been (t40, 00O,-
| 00G) 800, 100000 per annum more than the
| whole cost of the railway passenger and
| freight conveyance for the same year; or IN
| other words, the introduction and use Of rail-
| ways in Great Britain, added to the produc-
tive capital Of the country for the year 1864,
the sum of 5000 600, 900, ian amount" as
Robert Stevenson expressed II, exceeding
| BY 80 per cent. the yearly interest OF the
| BRITISH national debt.
With such return from single depart
ment OF improved industry, who can estimate
the yearly addition TO the wealth and capital
Of country like ours, where the invention
and introduction of labor saving machinery
is universally regarded as a leading and pecu-
| liar feature OF its civilization and history.
The census of 1860 returned the population
of Massachusetts, as l,230, 900; yet how mad
eouately the mere enumeration OF the num-
Der of individuals composing State like this
expresses its power and resources is evident,
when we remember, that in 1860, the ma
chinery Of Massachusetts was returned as
capable of doing the work of more than a
hundred million OF men. Now, such an ad-
dition to the productive capacity of State,
hfty years ago, was not possible, inasmuch as
a great part of the machinery and appliances
by which it has been evoked were not then IN
existence; and if we are not warranted IN
predicating of the next fifty years an equal
progress in improvement, we think we are
justified in believing that a nearly equal gain
! IN resources will accrue to the whole country
from the more extensive introduction and use
of the labor saving inventions and processes
already in existence. We would also call the
attention of our readers, in this connection,
to the very interesting circumstance, that
war and the embarrassed condition OF our
finances, so far fIom restricting the inventive
genius Of the country, and retarding the IN
PRODUCTION OF Improvements, has acted rather
as stimulant. This is proved by the in
creased number OF patents issued during the
last three years Ii. e. 1861, 25Sl; 1852, 1922;
1868, 4l70; and also BY the fact that, not
outstanding the great draft of men from the
agricultural States to the ranks Of the army,
the harvests, through the more extensive use
of machinery, have rather increased than
diminished.
To the question whether the taxation
required by our debt will not cripple the
national energies, and defeat these estl-
mates, Mr.. Wells, says:
The history of Great Britain furnishes us
-, nd r..fnfafiNn
Thus in 1916, Great Britain, with popu-
lalion of l9, 265, 900, without one mile of rail-
way or a single ocean steamer, with compar-
atively few Iabor-saving machines, and with
onerous land now obsolete) restrictions upon
her industry, carried and sustained the max
imum debt Of her history, viz: 81, 205, 900, 900;
and not only has Great Britain carried and
sustained this enormous debt for the last
forty-eight years during which time she has
almost constantly been engaged in war in
some quarter Of the globe) but she has so
greatly thriyen and prospered under it, that
She now ranks first IN wealth and first in in
dustrial power Of all the nations that at pres
emit exist or ever have existed. Shall the
loyal States in 1854 Ito say nothing OF the
whole country, with present advantage OF
80 per cent. in population, 33 per cent. in
property, and more than 100 per cent. in the
value Of annual production with virgin
soil, enormous immigration, system of land
tenure which conduces to the highest pros
perity of the greatest number, and condi-
ton Of society in which individual enterprise
is encouraged and fostered-shall the loyal
States, we ask, with all these advantages
sink under burden of debt less than two
thirds that which Great Britain sustained in
1916?
The Disturbed State of Europe.
II there be dead calm in politics as well
as business amongst US, it is not the same in
all parts of the little planet We inhabit. Three
quarters Of humanity, in fact, are living in
the barbarous state OF war. There is war in