The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-12

thah bWelVe mlllOns during the year. That
so enormous a contradiction should put M
Wells in an agony of ohagriD, is not surpris-
ing. But in seeking relief, he has jumped out
OF the frying-pan into the fire. as we will
abundantly show. We will give him tho NOR
tifcation of seeing himself in aagrant CONTRA
dlo'ion net only to Mr.. McCulloch, but to Mr.
Wells himself We appeal from David A.
Wells the baked party tool Of to-day, to David
a. Wells, the impartial Statstcian of eight
months aud two years ago.
One OF the extraordinary discoveries which
Mr.. Wells now announces through his puppet
Mr.. Atkinson is, that we have paid off one.
fourth of the national debt since the close of
the war. The feat is not more wonderful than
that it should have been kept so profound a
secret. 1t was reserved for Mr.. Wells to dis
cover it all of a sudden wheu his character
for accuracy had been fatally damaged by
mortifying exposures, and ne was put under
necessity of doing something 10 retrieve the
mischief he had unwittingly done TO his radi-
cal employers.
The revenues of the Government since the
close Of the war have been equal to three-ffths
of the present public debt. Out of so pro-
digious an income there can be no question
that the debt ought to have been greatly re-
duced. Mr.. Wells makes his puppet say that
it has been reduced more than eight hundred
millions To make out so surprising propo-
sition he contends that the amount OF the debt
naS hoFeI peeu CORRECTLY SJaJeu, Anu LnaJ WnaJ
Secretary McCullOch gave out as the highest
figures it ever reached were some five or six
hundred millions short of the truth, 1t is odd
enough that neither Mr.. Wells, with all his in
dustry and opportunities, nor auy other deliver
in the public accounts, found out till now,
that Mr.. McCul,Och has been imposing upon
the country and upon the world, by stating the
public debt five or six hundred millions below
its actual amount. 1t is not merely odd, it is
ridiculous, that stupendous hoax like this
should be put forth under the sanction of
David a. Wells, the same David A Wells
who, two years ago. wrote long, indignant
letter to the London Times confuting a then
recent article in BLactwoOd'S Maq1sine which
exaggerated the amount OF our public debt
Nobody who keeps the thread of our financial
history can fail TO recollect hat indignant let
ter, and the virtuous amazement of the writer
that any body could have had the effr1ntery to
say that our national debt was greater than
the official statements of Mr. McCullOch made
it. In that letter, Mr., Wells thus endorsed
the statements which he now ms kas labo-
riOus effort 10 impugn: As reg ards the state
nent that the aggregate amount of the debt at
the close of the war and the relat nns of the
greepbaclls to the debt has never been clearly
explained, we will simply say that it is
untrue. Congress by law REQUIRES the
American Secretary of the Treasury to pub
lish, as soon as pra5JicaJle after the close of
II,
debt in all its departments, together with tie
exact amount OF the cash on hand; and this
law has been most faithfully complied with
since the close of the war" In another part
of his letter Mr.. Wells spoke sneeringly,
almost coarsely, of those who were not ully
satisfied with the information given by Score
tary McCullOch: 1T may be-, SAID he, ''as
the writer in Btdck1UOod asserts, that Ameri-
can finance is not a clear balance sheet to
which even the French people are accustomed.
III Judging of this we should remember that the
eye can never beyond the capacity which
it brings for seeing" As much as to say,
that if anybody failed to fiud the whole truth
in Mr.. McCulloch's official statements, it was
owing to stupidity. Aud now this same Mr.
Wells proclaims through his Massachusetts
puppet, that the whole country and the whole
world have been deceived respecting the
amount of the public debt to an extent equal
to one fourth of its present amount. Mr..
Wells seems to have brought to his latest
investigations 'eyes'' with most wonderful
capacity for SEEING what does not exist
For if il existed, why was it so long invisible
Another extraordinary disclosure in this
Wells Atkinson speech is the statement that
the administration of the Government is per-
fectly economical, and costs great deal less
at present than it did in Mr.. Buchanau's
time We copy the following passage from
the speech:- .H... ... 0..r.
THE GOVERNMENT CHEAPER THAN BUCHANAN'S
at therefore appears that the expenses of the
Govern nment unL or the direction OF Republic
can Congress, ham pered by y hostile Executive,
have been at q rate OF Sl5 10000 less per auuum
than the expenses upder the last year of De-
mocratic rule. T.. ... I.H
I'VE claim that they might fairly have ex-
ceeded any honest expenditure in 1860, for we
have five or six millions more popui alton, and
vast extent of new territory to guard and
control.
"If it shall he allowed that we have included
all the expenses OF the War ana Navy Depart
meDts for fifteen months after April. 1865 as
war expenses and tnat there would haVe been
q moderate expenditure under any cIrcu N
STANCES, we will admit IL; but the expenses of
the Indian war, eStimated az So 1000 600 to
Si0OOOSOO. and the amount expended on river
and harDUr mprOVeunentS Is (sl0 coo OO0) for which
We nave made 10 allowance, but have included
as ordinary expenses, would fully offset this
claim. -.I E.. .... ....
III would therefore eppear that when parti.
sans charge the tIepublicin COusress with ex-
i1avsgance, they chaige the last Democratic
administration with tar greater.
We again appeal from Wells the political
tool of the radical politicians to Wells the
statistician of the Treasury Department. In
January last Mr.. Wells made long and care
tul report covering the whole subject of the
public revenues and expenditures. In that
report, he presented himself as the Jealous
advocate of economy, and pointed out in detail
where large reductions could be made in the
expenses Of administration. But according to
the Worcester speech, retrenchrnent was inn
possible since the Government has all along
under Republican management, been marvel
and paragon of rigorous economy 1t costs
less TO govern the country nov, we are told,
than 1t did under a Democratic administration
previous to the war. How long has Mr. Wells
been OF this opiniOnH In his January report he
dilated at length ON the prodigiOus increase of