The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-31

statement was wrong and that of the World
during the last yepr9 P Do TS not ou you VirtT ,S
confess that you were wrong and the World
right In thus letting It's statements 90 uncon-
troverted7 Will you please answer these
questions? am accustomed TO regard the
Tribune as trustworthy authority, and want to
A10" : ''- % - Si ~ ':H III. EDWARDS.
"Binghamtou, Aug. %, 1868"
The T'ribwe'S AnSDer
The last official statement of the amount
Of the national debt was made public on the
7th, and appeared in the Tribune on the Sth
instant. Any person who can read can see
what it is, and we do rot see why there should
be any dispute about it. Let us see what
there is to differ about.
Two or three great companies are engaged
under the patronage and control of the Gov
ernment, in opening communication b. rail
road across our country from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. Probably not less than one hun
dred thousand men are now employed aud
paid by those companies to cut timber, dig
ore and coal, made iron and roll it into rails,
etc., grade track, build bridges, lay track etc.
etc. The Government backs this enterprise
to limited extent, with its credit, besides
giving the corporators certain lands along their
respective tracks. Every cent of the cost of
these railroads is to be paid by the companies
which will own their respective roads; but the
Government lends them its bonds to pre-
scribed amount per mile to facilitate the work.
The companies undertake to pay, and thus far
hare pdid, the interest on those bonds as it
accrues, and they further agree to pay the
principal of the bonds as they fall due. The
total amount of these bonds issued to them up
to the 1st inst. was $32, 2l0, 900.
Now, then, wa do not reckon these bonds a
part Of the debt of the United States, though
there is contingent, remote possibility that
one or more of the railroad companies may
fail, and that their roads may not prove
sufficient security for the payment of their
bonds. The R..ilroad Companies owe the
bonds; they assume to secure the Govern
ment against loss by second mortgage of
their respective roads; and they cannot fail
1--WE think) to pay, without iagrant rascalty.
And we understand MIR. McCulloch to have
held the same view of them We do. II he is
now trying to elect Seymour and Blair, that
circumstance may account for his putting this
contingent liability of the Government into
his last official statement of the debt. Ii you
concur in that purpose, you will probably
pronounce it right to do so.
Now, Mr.. Edwards, do you, or do you not,
consider the bonds loaned to the Pacific Rail
roads and payable, principal and interest, by
them, part of the current expenses and debt
OF the Government We do not.
Apart from this, the national debt, as set
folth by Secretary McCulloch in his last official
statement, is az follows:
DeDr tearlng coin interest 80 0SS 81 800
De bit bearing currency interest......, SI6lIS9O
Debt past due, and therefore no long
tr bearing lnI nIereSt.................. 1S,099 l75
Greenbacks. gold certificates, and
postal currency, bearing no in -
81 COL 37S 1856
Less cash on hand. ll0.05i 279
Actual debt August 1st...........S2 49l 1924 Az
We repeat that this is all the debt owed by
the United States, and really much more than
| Ill, . =, L.
centage of the greenbacks and postal currency
have been destroyed in fires, by the sinking of
vessels, and in many other ways. Or the
eighteen millions of ''matured debt not pre-
sented for payment" including over eight
millions of Seven-t thirties, which long served
as sort of currency, it is inevitable that a
considerable share has likewise been lost. But,
even reckoning all this as nothing, and count
ing the liability of the Government on its
bonds loaned on mortgage to the railroad
companies at half their face-Shat is supposng
| the Government should ultimately be COM
| PEELED to pay half of those bonds through the
| failure of the companes-the entire debt is
| fraction less than he hastily stated it in the
article referred to by our correspondent. We
were mistaken in saying that correct state
ment of the debt would reduce it to 81, ,478,-
| 000, 600; we were not mistaken in our funda-
mental position that (apart from the contin-
gent aid rendered to the Pacific Roads) we
| have been steadily reducing both expenditure
and debt ever since the surrender of the Rebel
| armies.
Have we now made this matter clear9 Or
must we 60 over the figures again?
The Internal Revenue mbregliO.
From The ". Y. Times
The quarrel about appointments which en-
! barrasses the administration of the Internal
Revenue act is the best possible illustration of
the badness of our civil service system, and of
the folly which rejected the Tax bill, as origi-
nally presented by Mr.. Schenck. That bill
proposed the only proper course-the organi-
zation of the Internal Revenue branch as an
| independent bureau, with its Commissioner as
the responsible head. Under that plan unity
of purpose would have been secured guar
antee would have been furnished for the selec-
| tion of competent subordinates, and the reve-
nue. would have profted accordingly.
The effect of rejecting the plan is seen in the
present disgracetul condition of affairs, brought
about by the evident anxiety of the President
and his Secretary of the Treasury to use the
internal revenue machinery in the interest of
| Seymour and Blair. The curse of the system
which Congress endeavored to amend was
| found in the facilities it afforded for prostitu-
tion to the basest personal and partisan pur-
poses. The revenue became the prey of the
men who should have been its guardians, and
a service in which integrity and capacity
ought to be the only standard became the
| refn GA of knavas and incanablas. The cou ntr %