The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-23


gress, the pretext assigned is so obviously
true that the project cannot be secuted as
improbable. The condition of the national
finances would justify much more anxiety than
it has occasioned. It cannot be said to be
unexpected, or as yet alarming, in any other
sense than that of an inchoate danger. But
the ascertained facts are a warning AGAINST
over-confdence and indifference, and the
prospect is gloomy enough to indicate the
perils that are in store if remedies be not
speedily applied widespread business
depression, and industrial struggles which
can be accounted for only on the hypothesis
of poverty and suffering, would of themselves
be causes of uneasness. But when to these
are added taxation which paralyzes enter
prise and deranges trade and after all proves
unequal to the Government expenditure, and
a debt which, enormous as it is, bids fair TO be
increased, the case becomes a really bad one.
1t shows that the country is on the high road
to embarrassment, and that nothing less than
wise and vigorous craftsmanship can save us
from disaster.
Unfortunately, however, the political COM
bination to whom the design of a summer ses-
sion is attributed, is of character that pre-
cludes the hope of remedial measures as a
consequence of its success. The avowed pur-
pose is to provide for expenditures already
authorized, which the Treasury is unable to
cover, and also to enact other money schemes
before the political complexion of Congress be
changed by the admission of Southern mem
bers. The Secretary has not in hand the
means of consummating all the plans of Con-
gress, and his discretionary power is too
limited to be available to the extent required.
Besides, soldier bounty schemes, and schemes
for all imaginable forms of compensation, are
features of the radical programme to which
delay will probably be fatal. These schemes
must be perfected before financial panic or
disaster actually occur or they will be utterly
destroyed No party would dare to champion
them when the financial difficulties now expe-
rienced by the Treasury shall have ripened
and burst upon the country.
Hence the reported desire of the radical
leaders for 4 full attendance at Washington
on the 9th Of July is perfectly yintelligible. But
their success would only make bad worse.
70 furnish the means required for apprOpria-
tions now ordered, and the vast schemes of
waste and plumber which seem to be con-
sidered essential to the preservation of parti-
san power, but three methods are available.
Taxation must be increased to degree COM
mcnsuTate with the augmented wants Of the
Government; or more loans must be author
lied, entailing taxation to pay the interest; or
the currency must be further inflated to an
amount proportionate to the contemplated eX-
must be pursued if the party leaders who
favor summer session carry their points
But either of these methods will preciptate
disaster, and render it more terrible. The
present rate of taxation is more than the
industry cf the country can permanently sus-
tain. It's weight is crushing; to add to it
would be to bring all things to the ground
Again, more loans are for the time impracti-
cable. The bonds in the market are with
difficulty kept at their present prices, and the
inevitable effect OF further issues would be to
force them below par. The strain upon the
Government credit is quite as severe as it can
bear, and all the resources at the command Of
the Treasury are needed to preserve public
confidence unimpaired. The third course
would be even more surely ruinous. Fresh
issues of currency, now that the eXigenci9s of
war are over, would renew all the evils of in
fation in their most intense form. More paper
money would be equivalent both to increased
taxation and the destruction of Government
credit. 1t would entail upon industry all the
burdens of one, and upon the country all the
ruin of the other.
In truth, the three plans which alone afford
the means of carrying out the radical policy
are an eXaggeration of the evils which now
at1lict the country. Debt, taxation, and an
inflated currency-these are the chief sources
OF the depression which crushes enterprise and
of the maladies which paralyze labor. What
these evils, and develop the remedies they
severally need. 1t may not be possible by
any specific to cure them completely and at
once, but it is possible so to treat them that
they shall show gradual and positive inn
provement. The existing imitation Of the cur
rency, for instance, may not admit of imme-
diate rectifcation, but a safe process Of con-
traction is nevertheless possible with ten
dency all the time in favor of industry and
trade. So with the taxation: it must continue
heavy through another generation, be our
statesmen wise as they may, but it may be
simpifed and reduced in a manner that will
afford great relief, and at the same time lessen
immensely the cost of collection. This at any
rate is certain--it is possible to prevent the
growth of taxation and the growth of debt, by
firmly resisting all new schemes of eXpendi-
ture, however plausible the pretenses on
which they rest. And it is possible to put
down all devices for fostering the imitation Of
the currency, whether the result be fatal to
radical supremacy or not.
A dangerous mistake will be committed,
however, if mere negative policy be per-
sisted in. 1t is not enough to say that there
shall be no increase of governmental eXpen-
diture; provision must be made for reducing
! the present rates of expenditure This may
be most easily done, perhaps, in connection
! with the estimates of the War Department
and the Freedmen's Bureau, which are main
tanned at standard strangely at variance
! with old-fashioned ideas of peace establish
! ments. The reconstruction of the South, in
| vOlving as it will the termination of the mill
tary governments and Bureau system of pro-
! tecting and helping the freedmen, will be a
most eticacious measure of retrenchment. In
! that light alone it is of vast importance, con-