Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-01-28

OF dollars year. How much OF that Is net |
profit Every writer on political economy
will convince you, that the net profits Of
the business of a country never can differ |
much from the average rateat which money |
is loaned, for the reason that If business
was more profitable than the rate of inter- |
est at which money is loaned. the money
lenders would cease lending money, and
employ their capital in business; AMI hence
that the net profit on the business of coun-
try generally approximates very closely to
the average rate at which money is loaned
and borrowed in that country. Now, it
would be high estimate to say that the
average rate at which money Is loaned in the
ly would be high enough. Our rate of in
terest Is six per cent; in New York it is
seven per cent; but If yon take 1t at
ten per cent, then the net profits of the in
dustry of the United States-Of agriculture,
manufactures and mechanical productions
would be two hundred million dollars.
That is higher than any statistician has
yet estimated it to be. am not speaking
now of the profit merchant makes in buy
ing commodities and selling them again
because that don't increase the wealth of
the country one particle. You can not iu-
crease the wealth of a country unless you
can make something. 1 am speaking now
riculture aud manufactures of all kinds.
But your Government draws from you
seven hundred millions year, which is five
hundred millions year more than the net
profits of all the producing business of the
United States; in other words, they are
eontiscating your property, they are en-
croaching every day upon your capital.
Every sun that rises finds, when it sets,
the people of the United States, as
people,, poorer than they were when it
rose. So it must be as long as this condi-'
tion of things exists. 1t you don't go back.
to the simple and frugal days of your
fathers; if you undertake to keep up this
great and magnificent establishment we
have; if you will have q navy that costs
you now more than the whole Government
used to cost you, and that in a time of pro-
found peace; if you will have an army
large enough almost for European
Power; if you will have the country filled
with office-holders to eat out your sub
stance and harrass your people; if yOu will
have this, you must pay for the whistle,
and you will find It the costliest whistle
that ever you paid for. 90 = q - $
If you will have Freedmen's Bureaus, if
yOu will have the country taxed and inn
pOverished TO give negroes the right to vote
and set them over white men, if you will
submit to this thing for the purpose of SUBJ
jecting one-third of the Republic to anar-
chy, to confusion. and ultimately to a war of
races; if you will do all this for the pleas
ure of being ruled over by the Radical pol
iticians, why, my friends, you must agree
to grow poorer day by day, hour by hour,
and minute by minute, just so long as that
state of things shall exist. But, in my
humble judgment, you are determined that
the expenses of this Government shall be
brought down within reasonable limits ;
that at least one-half of these office-hold-
ers who are living upon your substance
shall be turned out and put to honest work.
To them say, in the language of the New
York Tribune, ''ROOt hog or die" Loud
laughter and applause. 81 $500
Five hundred and twenty millions were
the expenditures of this Government for
the last fiscal year-twenty-one times as
much as the expenses under General jack
sons administration and yet it is said to
you: Good, honest people, won't you bear
these burdens? Won't you see your wife
and your children stinted every day :?
Won't you find it harder, day by day, and
hour by hour, to pay your taxes, to clothe
and feed your family Won't you consent
to do all that for the great boon, the great
reward. the sun,nauns bonuns of human ex-
istence, the elevation of the Ethiopian, a
man and a brother? [Applause.]
BONDS AND GREENBAcKs. M
/ say to you now, my friends, as I had
the honor of saying to you back of this
court house last September, you must re-
fuse to pay the =. nded debt of this Gov
ernment in any other way than as you
agreed to pay it. Where you agreed to pay
it in gold, pay it in gold. That is very
small matter. There is gold enough in the
Treasury now to pay almost every single
bond payable in gold. But as to these five
twenty bonds amounting to about two
thousand millions, it is simple impudence
in any man to pretend that this Govern
| fo tboir ntv
In gold. The interest we did promise to
pay in gold. but the principal never in
any thing but what is the legal tender of the
country. There is NOT a man who has
pointed out statute that promises the
five-twenty bondholder that he shall be
paid his principal in gold. He bought his
bonds with greenbacks when greenbacks
were worth not more than thirty three or
forty cents on the dollar in gold; and it is
simple impudence on his part to say, II
gave forty cents for these bonds, but the
Government shall give me hundred"
We will be just, and nation is just
when it fulfills its promises. 1t is not
bound to do any thing more than fulfill its
promises. Isay, then, that we must cut
off nearly one hundred and seventy mil
lions of this burden that annually rests up
on us in the shape of interest, by paying
these bonds in the legal tender of the coun-
try. Upon that subject see that General
Beatty is obliged to partially agree with
US, and he concludes that 1t is not safe to
say that these bonds are to be paid in gold,
and, therefore, in his speech at Caledonia
he comes out on the greenback side. But
what does he say? If 1 recollect right he
says that the Democrats want to issue two
thousand millions of greenbacks forthwith.
Now, Inever had the pleasure of seeing
General Beatty. I dare say he is very
truthful man; but if he is truthful man,
1 must say he is a very ignorant man to
make such an accusation as that against
the Democratic party. The Democratic
party has never proposed to pay these
lions of greenbacks. instanter. They could
not do that, according to the face of the
bonds. The bonds were issued in series,
and they can only be paid as they mature.
No, the Democratic party is wise party,
and will act with wisdom in this matter,
and will take the bonds up in the currency
with which they were bought, and the only
currency in which we promised to pay
them, and will rake them up in such wise
that there shall be no such disastrous in
flation of the currency as to unsettle values
or disturb the business OF the country.
We are perfectly competent to that task;
and our friend General Beatty will find it
totally impossible to impose on the intel
ligent people of this district any sucn story
as that we are going to make shinplasters
plentier than the leaves of forest when the
autumn frost causes the leaves to fall. That
is all rhetorical figure of the Generals
That won't do. We understand what we
are about. The American people certainly
have an interest in seeing that labor is not
robbed of its reward by any ruinous
change in the amount of the currency of
the country.
LABOR AND TAXES. -.
Now a few words and have done. There
this question of taxation only concerns
what are called the property -holders of
the country. So far from that being true,
it would be much nearer the truth to say