The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-12
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
RprroRIAL oFIEIoFs OF THE LEADme yoohNAbs
1por CURREET ToPIos-CoMPmBD EVERY
pAT YoR THB EVENING TELEGRAPH.
u.. p,,tI,o Debt and the Burdens Of
An" Taxation,

.or,,od itself mainly with the political recon
struotion of the Southern States, and has gwen
I,,t little attention to other subjects. 10 TINS
oorse very likely the reverses it has sustained
ir the late elections may be partly due. For,
although the question is one of deep interest
10 the whole country, there are others quite
as important, and which come more closely
home TO the business and bosoms of the great
mass Of the people.
The taxation of the country is beginning to
be a subject of the gravest Importance, and of
the deepest interest to all classes OF the peoPle.
II comes home to overybody's hearthstone.
II affects more directly and more seriously
the daily comfort Of every man, woman, and
child in the land, than any and all political
questions put together. Taxation now falls
with heavier weight upon us than upon any
other people in the world Our debt may not
be larger, but the rate of interest which it
pays is greater, than in England, France,
Austria, or any of the nations Of Europe which
we have hitherto regarded as crushed to the
earth by the taxes imposed upon the masses
OF their people. With a smaller population
and less wealth than either of them, we have
10 sustain burdens and endure taxation quite
equal TO theirs.
Our people are beginning to feel this bur
den, and they will feel it more and more every
year. During the war and for the first year
or two after its close, while business in every
department still felt the stimulating effect o.
it-while commerce, manufactures, and agri-
culture were alike pushed to their utmost
activity to supply the losses and repair the
damages OF the contest-it was comparatively
easy to pay the taxes, no matter how heavy
they might fall. But that state of things has
passed away. Industry is on the whole very
greatly depressed. The demand for labor has
not increased. Taxation has raised the price
OF every article OF consumption. Rents, not
only in the great cities but everywhere Sc,
are so enormously high that to live in comfort
and with reasonable amount of space is, for
men in moderate circumstances and with fami-
lies, simply impossible.
The reaction, inevitable in all such cases,
against the abounding wealth and lavish
luxury of year ago, has set in with great
severity, and not one man in ten now makes
half the money he did two or three years
since. And while few have been growing
rich faster than ever, and the number of those
who are very poor has increased in a still
greater ratio, the condition of the great body
of those in the middle class-neither very
rich nor very poor-has been, and still is,
growing worse and worse day by day. The
great mass of our people not only are poorer,
but, what is still more important, they feel
great deal poorer this year than they did last.
And the burdens of taxation thus grow
heavier, and the people bear them less easily
and less willingly with every successive year.
It will not do for any party to neglect or
tamper with such an interest as this too long
1t will force itself upon public attention in
spite of parties; and it demands careful and
prudent as well as prompt and effective treat
ment. The quacks and demagogues OF the
day. who are naturally the first to seize upon
it, need not hope to satisfy the public with
their nostrums, or to delude the people into
adopting their dishonest and degrading
schemes. Neither Butler on the one hand,
nor Pendleton on the other, will succeed in
winning public favor for their ingenious pro-
jects of population. The people do not want
to escape the payment Of the debt, nor the
taxation required to carry il along; they only
ask that its payment shall be made as easy as
possible, and that the taxation demanded to
meet it's interest shall be S o adjusted as not to
crush the industry and exhaust the resources
out of which alone it can be raised.
1t seems to be assumed by some that the
whole of the national debt must be paid by
the generation which incurred it, and that we
must not only pay the interest nov, year by
year, as it falls due, but pay also tenth or
twentieth of the principal, so that the next
generation may feel nothing of its burden.
Nothing could be more absurd in theory or
more disastrous in practice. Why should the
coming generations be wholly relieved from
payment of the debt incurred in defense of the
integrity of the Union-the existence OF the
nation Are they to share none of the advan-
tages IL mas secured-none OF the blessings il
has bought Unless the Legitimate results of
the war are thrown away by party ambition
or political quackery, coming generations
will share in these blessings far more richly Y
than we can do. The present generation
gave generously of its blood. and took II nan
Itself all the dreadful sufierings TO families
nelghborhoods, and States, which such a war
involves; Is 1t too much to ask that those wbo
are to come after them should pay at least part
OF the debts incurred largely on their b.-
halfF In strict justice, those who fought the
war should be released entirely from paving
the debt which it cost. Exhausted as the
country is by the tremendous struggle.
checked anddepressed for the moment as are
all Its industries and sources of wealth, they
Should have time TO recover and regain their
strength, before they are called uYon to bear
TINS additional and tremendous strain. 1t is
@ll winch the present generation should be re-
quiIeo 10 90, to sustain the Government. and
neeI as IL falls due the interest ON the
natiUhsl debt Nothing more sboul1 he
ehacVeo, unless IL can be done Uitbont mo In,
tne weight OF taxation seriously felt b,, ON, e
IhS interests ON which it fails. ~ -
ana another necessity quite no in,,o,.,;,.,
upon the party in Possession os aIa llIoL "!.' .
more equitable distribution of to- Po"'il 10
the industries that are foroed t,' 49, "uMlDlB M
experience OF the world as yVen o w. ms
sense, shows that the number of ost9 common
should be as small as possible. AMI TIE tt 'Ned
tion should affect as lightly as nossjtl v" a -
earnings and the living OF the great i'a3 .1s =
the people. Tax laws, moreover. wbe' ~ VI
DerlV framed must be- fairly anfor.od -. ~