The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-04-11

elO W oNoiu Siodb hdIlOudl ueUclt
which would go far to PROSTATE on
credit, that We curtail expenditure il
all possible directions. No vague assn
rance Of the vastness of our nationa
wealth and resources will avail to keel
up the price of our bonds, when once i
Is seen that We are dropping behind
and forced again to borrow. 1t woul,
be national disgrace TO have to issu
| proposals for new loan III time o
peace. Yet nothing can prevent such
deplorable expedient, except a new ant
rigid application of the principle of re
trenchment in all departments of public
service. The signs at Washington a
the present time are, we regret to say
the reverse of reassuring. The spiri
that prevails in Congress is loose ant
reckless of expenditure to a degre,
hardly surpassed in the flushest o
flush times" The House of Repre-
sentatives has rejected, by an immens
majority, a joint resolution declarin,
against further aid to railroad compan
les from the national credit. 1t ha
also defeated, by burying it in a refer
ence to the committee on the Paclii,
ASNAaANeNI lud
Immensely rich corporation t. reduce it,
fares and freights in the interests of tn,
public. New railway schemes, baskine
in the sunshine of Congressional favor
and rendered greedy by the success o
former great monOpolies, are getting
ready to put through fresh subsidies o
public lands, and fresh loans of public
credit. The House has passed the bill
to continue the Freedmeu's Bureau
which has cost the Treasury already
over four millions of dollars, to keeI
up the costly tutelage of negroes, who
should take care of themselves, with
the protection of the ordinary military
power. The appropriation bills which
have already passed the House resuire
over one hundred millions for various
departments of the public service, and
this is but the entering wedge TO mil
lIORs more.
To crown all, and to supply an addi
tional and wholly unnecessary leak in
the almost empty Treasury, the House
has passed bill granting pensions tc
all surviving soldiers of the war of 1872
The pensions are to be of the usua,
rate of eight dollars month, and are
to be given to all loyal claimants who
served as lohg as three months during
the war with Great Britain. Such a
gratuitous piece eff folly, even wero the
Treasury Overfiowing with money
would be hard to defend. 1t was never
proposed when the country had just re,
covered from the commercial prostra
tiOn of that war, and was well able tC
recompense its defenders. 1t was moi
done even when, in Jackson's admins
tratiOn, the land speculation had made
everybody rich, and filed the Golfers
of the Government with a sur.
plus revenue so large, that
it was actually distributed among the
States. At q time when the country
had not u dollar of debt, and thirty
years nearer to the period of military
service now proposed to be rewarded
wih no war intervening TO break the
fore of the claim, this pensioning Of
thevoiunicers of 1912 was voted down
as ,ncalled fuI aud inexpedient. Now
whu we are gIoaning under load OF
deb greater than that of any nation in
theTorld, save one, when the Treasury
is ilmost empty, and when business
andthe labor of the country are begin
min to feel the pressure most severely
Congress- proposes 80 give away, unask'
ed, everal millions more per aunum OF
the money it hasn't got, and which il
mus lay taxes still more severe to raise
Tb preposterous scheme has not even
the ierit of having been asked for by
any espectable number of the men who
arc be benefited by it. Indeed, il
was .learly brought out, in the brief
hour debate which was allowed before
it VS. put through the House, that
every one of these soldiers OF 1912 has
alreay received 100 acres of land
Congss voted them, in 1850 and 1855
with somewhat tardy recognition OF
theirlaiAs, this land bounty aud no less
than I2 900 land warrants were issued
to th,survivors of that war, all within
aboutifteen years past. Yet the cham
pionst this new hundred-dollar-a year
. bount in cash argued that no more than
5000 othe soldiers that were alive then
now lrvive. The Chairman of the
Pensit committee, however, was will
ing t(estimate the number of three
: mODthmen of lSl2-l5, who might claim
b, the be.ft of the act, at about 10000
{ This, $500 per annum each, would
take oly two millions per aRHWnl out OF
l the TrSury. This is mot rs deep as a
well, n as wide as O church door; but
0 it is emgh, twill serve" to add another
q leak + the numerous chronic ones
:, which 70 already depicting the Treas
!; ury.
, Is it It about time that this intense
4 foolishIss should stopf Do the mem
: bers ofthe House of Representatives
who tn ed this bill through under the
previouquestion, carefully emitting Il
call the as and nays, really expect t.
III make pitical capital by putting OIL
the shoders of labor an additional
w tax of SOC, 900 year, to crafty, hot
I'M few bSen-down old gentlemen o
nc the armof 1912, many of them rich al
er ready, l. an army Of claim agents
:, For we Il the people that this is wha
' it mean, this entire scheme sprang
hd not fronhe patriotic bosoms of any
h definite imber of Congressman, still
rrI less fronsny general petitioning of the
soldiers tmselves, but from the heads
pc Of interesd claim agents who hav,
tsI joined foes to lobby it through.
in We caiupon the Senate to arres
this busits. If the House is SO un'
~ wise as ttct as if there were no bot
er tom to q national treasury, and t
ttepass bill ,er bill like this we are con
ba isidering. the fast and loose principle
. of o givin,smething-t -to-every body as
sociation, belongs to the more sober
ghaAd consecutive branch of Congress to
ortstop it. 4 was we'll said by Sen
4 ;ator Shean, in the brief con
sideration his bill received wher
con first report tn the Senate, ~ think
luaE Esu nights we'll end this matter
lessby simply alishing all taxes, and re
andl luiring thteeretary of the Treasur.
20 pay the ssnses of the Government.
om'For ourselS we should much sooner
think Of apopriating pensions of SlOC
year to alhe three-months men o
,he rebellio and to all the "sqsirrel
hunters" whhouldered their fre-lock