Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-09-10
The True Financial Question

The True Financial Question.
The responsibility for the debt we con
sidered last week. 1t rests with the
Democratic party. Has the Republican
party shown q disposition to increase o.
! to diminish the national expenses? Thi:
is the real financial question of the cam
paign. The Republicans We're compelled
10 make q debt TO save the Government
The country of course means to pay it,
1 1t can not pay it, however, without tax.
alton and without spirit OF economy in
the party that controls the Government
! Yet even If that party evinced a reck.
lessness that can not be proved against
! the Republicans it by no means follows
that the country would find relief by
throwing itself into the hands of the
Democrats, for reasons that we have
suggested. What, then, are the facts?
| The receipts for the. last fiscal year
were S406, 300 600. What becomes of this
great sum? The mass of il goes to pay
| the necessary debt. For interest Sal,
! 535, ,551. For principal paid, S34, 749, III.
! For bounties, pensions, and other war
claims. SS3, ,6S3, ,291. Here are about
$3.50, ,0OO, 600, including the cost of the
Freedmen's Bureau and Reconstruction
expenses. How could Democratic ad-
ministration reduce this amount? For
the Bureau is now to end, and the Re-
construction expenses have mainly eeas-
ed. Besides this sum, however, there
are the ordinary expenses of the Gov
eminent, the Civil list, the Interior, the
War and Navy Departments, and the
Engineer Bureau, all amounting to a
little more than STAG, 900, 900. This alb
serbs the revenue, and Senator Sherman,
who is especially conversant with fl
/ aso1
can not recall a single item OF appropri-
alton, except for the Freedmen's Bureau
and Reconstruction, that was not sup
ported by all parties, both in the Senate
and House,
But Congress has materially lightened
the expenses. 1t opposed the enormous
pressure for extra civil and military pay,
involving millions of dollars. 1t has
abolished that temporary but most in
dispensable institution, the Freedmen's
Bureau. Nothing has been more malig-
nantly opposed by The rebels and Cop
perheads than the Bureau, because moth
ing tended more to secure finally and
absolutely the victory of the war. The
Democratic orators have made the loos-
est statements of the enormous expenses
of the Bureau, devoted, they declare, to
the support of lazy able negroes. Mr.. D.
w. Voorhees, lately asserted that it spent
for that purpose ten or fifteen millions
a year. The truth is, according TO Cen
eral Howard, the unimpeachable chief
of the Bureau, that, deducting the pay
and allowances of army officers and the
ccmmisary stores from army depots. the
total actual cost of the Freedmen's Bu
reau has been less than six millions of
dollars. 1t has been no less the friend
nf ha hi han of hn ll la. .l-s,
and its service to the country has been
of the noblest and most invaluable char
acter. In the other departments of the
Government there has been a similar
reduction, so that The aggregate appro
priations for ordinary expenditures have
fallen from SAG, ,000,0 600 TO S91 900, ,000.-I
With all the drawbacks OF the Govern
ment this year will not exceed Sl00, ,000,-
900, exclusive of the public debt and
bounties and pensions.
Now, how is the money raised for
these expenses? In other words, what
is our system of taxation? The subject
was comparatively new to us, and we
began with cumbrous complication,
levying taxes upon multitude of arti-
cles with the aim of equalization. Grad
ually, however, the system becomes
simple. The taxes on food, clothing,
and the necesSaries of life have been re-
pealed, and upon manufactures except
spirits and tobgcco. But the customs
duties are laid upon imported goods, and
yield about S165, 100000. The taxes on
spirits and tobacco have yielded as
much as $50, ,000, 600 in year. But the
frauds were so enormous that the rate
was reduced, and return of 500, 200, 600
from those two sources is now estimated. |
There are besides these the income tax
on all incomes over $1,000; the. license
tax; the stamp tax; the tax on railroads |
and other corporations, and miscellane- |
GUS taxes upon such articles as billiard |
tables, carriages, and plate. The eX- |
penses of collecting the internal revenue
last year We're less than three per cent,
which is smaller rate than that of Gus |
toms collection, or of any local State or
city tax in the country.
This may not be a perfect system Of
taxation. But it is constantly tested by
and is vigorously modified TO
meet the necessities of the country
Have the Democrats, who so vehement I
ly denounce the taX-gatherer, proposed
any method more effectual? Looking
at the facts and figures, is the Democratic |
party likely to stop the visits OF the col
lector except by refusing to pay him?-
If the party of which the Southern chiefs
have again taken the command should |
come into power, will it probably insist
upon paying the cost OF suppressipg the
rebellion and decline to consider the
pensions of rebel soldiers and compensa-
ton for rebel losses? Certainly not. 1t
will either say, pay the whole, or it will
stand by its platform and repudiate the
whole.