The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-11-13
RATE OF sURscRIPTToNs.
RATES OF ADVERTIsING
zee lo1UIRRkscF An THi5Ei EAXEs,

| THE CUAREACY AND THE TAXES,
Has the Limit OF Expansion been
Il FReachedF Contraction! or tie CIFeu.
lRtiOn and Reduction or the Taxes to
go hand In hand.s-Pract1ealV view of
the Financial SituRtlOn.n biaU
From Ete Cincinnati Gazette.
An expanding currency, initiating
prices, stimulates trade and creates an
appe9ranceot increasing wealth. Men
grow rich BY buying and selling with
each other the same Commodities at the
4 continually advancing prices. 1t will
hardly be said that this adds TO the
Wealth OF the community. The result
may be a more unequal distribution Of
the aggregate wealth. But inasmuch
as all this rise must at last be balanced
py corresponding fall, there may be a
redistribution, and 1t is impossible To
tell how that will change the posses-
sions. lIF'H9 9li}E
1t also stimulates production, but the
profit on this lays far behind that made
Dy the trading In the products upon
their constantly advancing prices, Thus
1t stimulates trade more thanI produc-
tionI and draws the producers from the
country TO the cities to become traders.
Under this operation the production 81
a country may be decreasing while it
pears the appearance of Increasing
wealth.. II Is not complimentary to any
ones, s,intelltgence to inform him OF the
1 TACT that If the production of a country
1s diminishing 1t is growing poorer, and
yetthere are ponderous writer's who can
not comprehend it, and who think that
minated paper prices for produce may
make the country richer on adecreased
When the increase of currency has
reached It's limit, there comes a time
when, prices having adjusted them
selves to the value of the currency, the
1 a FNNr Il -
e1traordtn1ryA stimulus to trade is
stopped. There may be Irregularities
In this adjustment of prices; all irreuu-
larities are mRgnified when the cur
rency Is IN this expanded stnta, but the
regular advance which follows addi-
lions to the volume OF money, can no
more be counted on, and that Kind OF
trade which is somewhat vaguely called
speculation loses its great field and Is,
crippled.
There are symptoms that this point
in our currency circuit is nearly reach-
ed. In many branches of trade there
are signs of the inaction which would
naturally follow the cessation OF such u
stimulus. Men cannot buy merchan-
diseor produce ortreNl estate, with any
probability that by holding while
they can sell out at m advance. Prices
are genera1lyso high as to make invest
ments perilouS except for current sale
or use. The business of speculative
boarding, which was so large a feature
in the war, is now done with. Traders
are becoming cautious and timid even
in laying in their regular stock, pre-
terring to buy from Shandt to mouth.
The withdrawal of money from general
speculation has thrown an increased
quantity into the speculation in railway
and other joint stock shares, so that
this branch of trade presents an excep-.
tion to the general falling off.
A 110faS Az
OF this lassltude in business. And it
seems to us that the cause of this is
such That it would be unreasonable to
expect that soon there will be renewal
of activity, and that the signs of gem
eral prosperity will burst forth, but
that the only way of safety is for every
man to shape his business to, fit the df-
minishing market and falling prices.
The currency has got to be reduced to
about its former volume, and areactfon
OF prices, corresponding to the direct
action of the currency Imitation, has got
to be gone through before the business
of the country will be established upon
reasona BILE basis and the proper pro-
portions of the producing and trading
numbers restored. Perhaps It is well
to have this forarunner in the stagna-
tion that follows the stoppage in the
the sharp reduction,itha must follow
any considerable red uction of the vol
ume of the currency.
We began to consider this matter in
its relation to taxation. Legislators
who do not take the Variations in the
volume of money or that which passes
for money, into the account in liking
rates of taxation, will make disastrous
blunders. The time of an expansion
of the volume of money is the time to
expand the rates Of taxation, when the
public necessities require it. Because
III so
be growing poorer by the depreciation
of the currency; and-second, the in
11ation of prices enables the people to-
pay greater taxes. With the declining
prices that must follow a contraction Of
the currency,i taxes viii bear more
heavily, and then will be the time to
make every reduction that may be
compaHb BILE with the public service.
RI The country has not done badly in
increasing taxes with the Imitation of
currency, since it has paid off about
twelve millions of the public debt per
month in the first year after the rebel
armies surrendered, and, when it had
yet large part of the war expenses
upon 1t. 1t is an extraordinary thing
to draw 800 millions of Internal feYe-
nue. from. the country in the first year
after such destructive war, as was
done in the fiscal year ending ON the
SOth of June; and $50 millions from all
sources. For the current fiscal year the
whole revenue is estimated at $50 mill
lions from all sources. 1t was the in
dation of prices from the currency in
dation, and the cheaper value Of this
revenue money, that enabled the peo-
pie to bear this assessment without OPP
preston. si5s '.l4+5d Sbl
But with falling prices and appreci-
ating money, this rate Taxation can
not be kept mp. With q contraction of
ne-half In theamount ofcurrency, the
dollar of it will be twice as hard tocome
at as now, and by this the. burden OF
taxation Will be doubled while the rates
remain the same. The Government
cannot take In the extraordinary vol
ume OF currency, and still collect $50 or
$50 millions from the. country. The
time Is coming when THE utmost reduc-
ton of taxes compatible with the most
economical public service Yill be a ne
cessity, and when we shall have to- re-
dnCe the pRYmanta on the principal of
the public debt toR small annual sum.
They are the widest yisionaries who
imagine that-We can contract the cur-
rency without contracting the public
revenue in proportion.
We have from the beginning argued
| that since the currency was being inda-
ted, during the initiation was the time
to draw heavily on it in taxes to pay
the inflated currency debt. When We
lisee that this system, though tardilyt be-
gun, has raised $50 millions in the first
year after the war, which, save the or
binary expenses of the Government,
has paid of so much d appreciated paper
lal1f that yy0n16 nfhaFVyiSa hava cTra-.