The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-09-28

r In addition to this we have n table
showing that in 1865 we had eighty
: four dollars and seven cents in circula-
tion for each $1,000 worth of property,
! while We have in 1863 only forty-two
dollars to each $1,000 worth of property.
/ And that we have not money enough in
, circulation to pay our taxes is further
! illustrated by recurring to the fact that
! we had in circulation on the first of
August, six hundred and fifty million
dollars, and that we paid last year in
revenue to the Government four hun
dred and seventy million dollars. And
if we add to that sum the State, county
!; and municipal taxes, which wsuld
make nearly as much more, we see that
every dollar in circulation would have
to be paid for taxes, at least one and a
half times a year. | say then, my
friends, that the necessities of the peo-
pie require, while our debt remains un-
diminished, that the circulation should
be restored to something nearer what it
was in 1865. Then suppose We pay off
five hundred millions of the five.twenty
bonds now due and payable at the OPP
tion of the Government. By retiring
the national bank currency, amounting
to two hundred and seventy millions,
and issuing additional greeubacks to
the amount OF two hundred and thirty
millions, you will have saved thirty
millions year in gold, aud have in
creased the circulation by only two
hundred and thirty millions, leaving il
still less by nearly five hundred mil
lions than it was in 1865. l believe
that our rapidly growing country will
soon require further increase, but
that can be regulated by experience,
wisdom aud sound craftsmanship.
THE FUNDING BILL.
You have then, my friends, not merely
to choose between party names, but be-
tween the relief proposed by the Demo-
cratic party and the policy pursued by
the Radical party-for the Radical
party propose no change. They say in
the fifth resolution of their platform
that the national debt should be ex-
tended over fair period for resumption
which has been acted upon and inter
preted by the funding bill proposed by
Congress just before its adjournment,
and which only failed in becoming q
law for want of time to get the Presi-
dents signature. This funding bill
provides for the issue of bonds running
thirty and forty years, and bearing four
and four and a half per cent. interest,
payable, principal and interest, in gold,
and to be exempt from all taxation.
State aud National.
Suppose then that instead Of paying
off these bonds in greenbacks, and re-
ducing interest and taxation, that the
debt is converted into forty year bonds,
and made a permanent fixture, what
will be it's effects upon the country
In the first place we will have sad
died upon us gold interest of one hun
dred millions year; in forty years this
will amount to four thousand millions
of dollars, and the principal of two
thousand six hundred millions, which
viii still remain unpaid, added To the
interest, will make Il total of six thOn-
sand six hundred mllions-or a sum
equal to nearly one half of all the proper.
ty, real and personal, in the United
States.
In the second place you exempt from
taxation oHe-siXth of the valnc of all
the property, and make the remainder
nav not only all the taxes but the iater-
est on the debt. Under such system
the business man and the laboring man
nav all the taxes, and the rich, who own
the bonds, are exempt. Such a system
might answer well enough in a country
where there is an aristocracy to be sup
pnrted at tho eypnnse of tho lnlorinS y
interest; but such system Is not only
destructive to the principles Of repub-
lcan government, by building up a
moneyed aristocracy, but it is also de-
structive to the energies aud enterprise
of onr people.
TIE NATIONAL DEBT A TEMPTATION TO
IDLENEsS.
Our National debt presents to the cap.
italist the greatest inducements ever
offered by any country to withdraw
money from manufacturing and busi-
ness pursuits of all kinds and invest it
in bonds, to live at ease upon the inter
est If you will reflect that good in
tercst of six per cent. is equivalent to
nine per cent. in currency when gold is
fifty per cent. premium, and that to ex-
empt this from taxation, when other
property pays from two and half to
To three per cent. taxes, you will see
that q iive-twenty bond is equivalent to
any other investment paying twelve
per cent. This being the case, the mer-
chant, or farmer, or manufacturer who
desires money, can not expect his neigh
Dor TO lend him money at six or even
ten per cent, because he can do better
by investing in bonds aud drawing his
gold interest every six months. The
| .Ar Of il tn iI1 a,t-
capital from business, but also To with
draw the energies, brains and enterprise
of the men who would otherwise be
actively engaged in pushing trade,
building railroads and factories, and
developing the country; because they
can get better retarss by investing in
bonds and remaining idle, than by add.
ing their labor TO their capital in busi-
ness.
This effect, my friends, is felt all over
the West, and particularly in our own
| State, and it explains why it is so iffi-
cult to get capital to build factories
and engage in manufacturing pursuits;
why our valuable minerals remain un-
developed, and why it is so difficult for
our young men to obtain the capital to
start in businessi The capital is alb
sorbed by these bonds, which are chief
ly owned iu the East and the West is
drained of its resources twice q year to
pay the interest in Eastern cities to
Eastern capitalists; and until this is
changed VIC of the West must grow
poorer with time, while in the East
factories are stopped, and labor thrown
out of employment, because capital
prefers investing in these bonds.
You have been told, my friends, that
| am bondholder. regret to say that
| am not as badly hurt with bonds as
they would make you believe. But /
am engaged in business, and depend
ing in great measure for the advance.
ment of my own interests on
the general prosperity of the
country. | believe that the inter
ests of every class of persons, except
the retired capitalists, who 10 Of ad-
, vantage to no one but t-himself, would
be promoted by the payment Of these