The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-27

foreign trade and all Will be Welli' rs Jhough
people impoverished by high prices and re-
strioted intercourse could long be profitable
customers to the protected classes. Not in
imitation, not in prohibition, is the remedy to
he found Either would make matters worse
rather than better. Applied conformity, as
seems not improbable considering the com
plexion of Congress, only special Providence
could avert distress and ruin.
The anomalous condition of the Southern
States has unquestionably much to do with the
business depression. impoverished and dis
organized, their industry paraly2ed and their
trade nearly extinct, they contribute little to
the adjustment of our foreign trade, and con-
sumo still less Of the goods we have to sell.
The sources of our richest products and the
market for our largest sales before the war,
they are now unable to buy or SELL That this
circumstance contributes to the difficulties of
the commercial situation, does not admit of
doubt. Nor is there aught in the Congressional
policy of reconstruction that iustifes hopes of
early improvement. Until the harmony of the
States shall have been in some manner re-
stablished-until the new labor system shall
run smoothly, and renewed confidence shall
invite capital-unti law and order shall pre-
vail and the last vestige of military dominion
disappear-it were idle to look for business
activity in or with the South. And since
reconstruction, as now pursued, promises to
be slow and its results uncertain, we must look
elsewhere than to the South for the means of
securing relief to business
OF the causes of the depression that are
within our reach none is more potent than tax
alton. The speculation begotten of an inflated
currency has been a fruitful source of evil, and
it is one that only firm policy of contraction
will cure. But though speculation unsettles
and demoralizes, it does not crush after the
manner of taxation. 1t drags down trade to
the level of gambling; taxation puts an end to
many forms of industry and cripples all. Mr..
Wells exposition of the destructive effects of
the present system tallies with the knowledge
of every observant man. Mr.. Hatch, in his
report, has illustrated the same fact by refer
ence to the extinction of the ship-building
trade, and its transfer to the British Provinces
under the pressure of our taxes And with
more or less force the same argument applies
to other branches of industry. From no other
single cause does the country suffer so seriously
as from its fiscal system; and no single measure
which it is in the power of Congress to enact
would operate so benefcially as a measure
largely reducing the annual aggregate of taxes.
The scheme of the Ways and Means Com
mttee is good so far as it goes. It's lessening
of the income tax will bring joy to multitudes,
and its exemptions will aid industry to an ap-
preciable extent. But its scope is not equal to
the emergency. Instead of fifty millions the
country should be aided by a reduction of at
least hundred or a hundred and fifty mil
lions; and this vastly greater reduction might
be effected if Congress would be consistent
enough to associate the revision of taxes with
the diminution of Government expenditures.
The proper mode of procedure would be to
apply the pruning knife unsparingly to ex-
penditure, with the view of rendering the
largest possible amount available for the
tightening of taxation. The practice of Con-
| gress is the very opposite. BY some uneX-
planned process, it determines the amount of
taxation to be stricken off, and at the same
time so swells the expenditure that further
! taxation will be unavoidable. Upon this
! point the Financial Chronicle has some sensible
! remarks.
"With the exception of Hon. Justin S. Nor
| rill, we do not reme mber any member of either
! House TO have enforced upon Congress the OBJ
| Vious necessity for n liberal reduction of the
| expenditures OF the Government. The ease
with which revenue is raised begets an indiffer-
| ence about expenditures, and large sums are
| voted away apparently without any thought
! for the consequent drain upon the pockets of
the people; instance the Bounties bill, proposing
! an addition to the debt estimated at $75 600 900
| to S200,00 10000. 1t is true that curtailment of
some brancht of internal revenue is proposed;
| but it is sought 10 compensate for the conse-
! quent loss OF income by increasing the reve-
nue. from imports. What the country desires
and Vitally needs is not seeming reduction
! of revenue, but very material curta1lment
of expenditures, a thorough retrenchment in
every branch of the public service, to be fol-
lowed by simplihcation Of our revenue sys-
tenn, so as to supply the ee.chequer from the
fewest possible sources, and thereby relieve
industry and trade of much unnecessary an
noyance and embarrassment. True, measures
of that ,aracter have been talked OF by Mr..
Wells, and the Com mmittee on Ways and Means,
but almost nothing is proposed to be done i'm
medtately, and little can be done while new
expenses and debts are being incurred. The
most unsatisfactory aspect of the case is that
! our legislators do not appreciate the necessity
! for prompt action in this direction; and in the
meantime trade is left to struggle and languiSh
under wholly unnecessary burdens. Even State
and city Governments seem1to be launching g
cities and towns are bonded with a freedom
| which would never have been for q moment
allowed previous to the war, and all this in the
face of the fact that we are already suffering
should be stopped system Of rigid economy be
at once adopted, and a thorough reconstruction
of our tax system effected. Ii would seek 10
! reVivify the industries OF the country"
Between the wants of the people and the
action of Congress there is an astounding diff
ference The people crave relief so far as il
may be obtainable by a reduction of taxation
And Congress, while amending the Tax bill tC
the extent of perhaps fifty millions, adds more
than a thousand millions to the national debt
We are not exaggerating. General Schenck'
Bounty Equalization bill will take five hun
dred millions out of the Treasury, and at
moderate estimate a thousand millions NOR,
will be absorbed in the settlement of the claims
of States made on account of the war. And W,
seem to be but at the beginning of claims
arising out of the war. Damages for property
DESTROYED are sought with an urgency which
bodies no good for under the guise of compen
sating 'loyal sufferers, {" there is a prospect Q
schemes of the most dazzling proportions
Where these things will end none can TELL un
less public opinion shall bring Congress to it