The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-10-15
Cause OF Taxation and IL. Remedy

The erfrdrdgance, corruption and profit.
gate expenditure of the Radical Congress
A sum sufficient to pay off more than
one-half OF the whole of the public debt,
amounting to one thousand five hundred
millions of dollars, has been collected,
in the shape of customs and internal
revenue taxes, since the close of the
war, and who can tell what has become
expended under the authority of Con-
gress; but for whatf As straws scat
tered along the ground show the course
of the wind, so minor items of expendi-
ture may give us an idea of the charac-
ter of the general current. Congress
nearly doubled the salaries of its men,
bers. The expenses of the House OF
Congress, that in 1864 amounted to
1858 $50, in 1868 reached the enormous
sum of S725,555. The stationery
account of the House of Con-
gress, in 1864, was s3S,600, whilo
in 1868 it was 99,650. The number OF
members had not increased to require
more stationery, nor had the prices
thereof advanced, but, on the contrary,
had diminished considerably. The e1-
penses of the Senate since 1864 increase
in like ratio with the House. We ad.
duce these examples, because the OBJ
jects of the expenditures are under the
immediate supervision and control of
the respective branches, and because
they show so clearly and prominently
the extravagant and profigate disposi-
tion of Congress. That same disposi-
ton was extended to all classes of ap-
preparations, and made the annual ex-
penses of the Government, in time of
peace, reach the enormous amount of
over four hundred millions of dollars,
being more, by over hundred millions,
than it costs to run the kingly govern
ment of Great Britain, with it's vast de-
pendeHcies, armies, navy, royal family,
pensioners and public debt.
The result of this extravaganza and
profigacy is, that the receipts are not
equal to tho expenditures-that the
public debt is rapidly increasing, and
that bankruptcy is.staring the Govern
ment in the face. 1t is absolutely neces-
sary that there be change-that there
be return to the most rigid economy
to cheap government, ia character
with republican simplicity. That is
the only way to reduce taxation. And
in the success of which party have the
people the surest guarantee of reform,
so imperatively needed in this particu-
larf Surely not in the success of the
men and the party that have created,
and tostered, and grown this dispo
sition for this extravagant and pretli-
gate expenditure. That disposi-
tion has become part of
their very nature, got into
the marrow of the bones, aud cannot
easily be thrown off. They will not
take readily or kindly to the reforma-
tion of abuses to which they are accus-
toned, and in which they have pleas.
antly INDUCED. Reform must come
from another quarter. 1t must come
from the party that is pledged to apply
the knife without mercy to those cor
rupt excrescences of official action-to
the party whose only hope of the con-
tnuance of popular favor would mainly
be, in reforming abuses, economizing
expenditures, and bringing back the
Government to what it was intended to
and should he, a cheap one. The peo-
pie have everything to hope through
change, while they can lose nsthing, as
could hardly be made worse
than they are.