The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-06-18
From the Ohio Statesman
N.'ioa.i Debt 's.a Na'isn.' Ta1s-


When the Democratic party had con-
troll of the Government of the United
States, from the Administrative of Jack
son to that of Buchanan, not one cent
of tax was raised from our citizens ex-
cept for tariff duties, for the support of
the General Government. Now, under
the six years of abolition rule, every
man, woman, and child in the United
States, 1t 10 estimated, are forced to pay,
on an average, sixteen dollars toward
defraying the expenses of the United
States Government. Over sixteen thou
sand articles, including almost every
thing in common use, from the match
that the good housewife uses to kindle
her tire, and the tea she makes, to cheer
her sinking spirits, up to the coffin that
hides from view all of her that is mortal,
has to pay q tax; thereby enhancing its
cost to the consumer. So fearful is this
tax, and 80 careful was the author a
the law to draw withiD its net every
thing that would procure money to feed
the extravaganza of Congress, that the
London Times, the great organ of the
most fearfully taxed nation in Europe,
said with much truth, that when Mr..
Chases internal revenue bill went into
effect, it embraced "a complete inven-
tory of every thing upon the earth,
above the earth, and beneath the earth
In what we used to call taX-ridden
England, but about sixty articles of
common use are taxed against the six
teen thousand in the United States.
The difference in this respect between
the two countries, is thus properly al
luded to by the New York Times, which
says; q, - j. i ., -,
hThe relative influence of the two
systems upon enterprise and industry
may be readily understood. One sys-
tenn is economical in it's administration,
affords narrow scope for fraud, falls
lightly upon the working classes, and
is scarcely dscernable in the move
ments of capital or the operations of
industry. Our present system, on the
contrary, requires an army of office
holders TO manage it, provides endless
opportunities for evasion and fraud,
cuts down the comforts and even the
necessares of the million, and deranges
and damages every industry in the
| land"
In further criticism upon the miser-
able and short-sighted policy of its par
ty financiers, for the Times is Republi-
can, it adds:
"Instead of so distributing it that it
should be felt in the least possible de-
gree-that it sh MD leave enterprise
untrammeled and labor comparatively
at liberty-the system which is in OPP
e.atien makes itself visible everywhere,
and forms drag which no device OF
industry can escape. 1t permeatcs ev-
cry branch of production, crippling its
power, and fosters evils which make
themselves manifest in depressed trade
and the discomfort that pervades the
working classes"
Why the United States is thus tax
ridden, can be seen in the fact that.
when the present party came into pow.
er, the national debt of the United
States was but little over sixty-six
million of dollars-on the 1st day OF
April last, it was a fraction over two
billion, five hundred and twenty-three
million, four hundred and twentyeight
thousand dollars!
We give below the rise and progress
from the end of Buchanan's admins
tration to the first of April last, as fol-
lows: