The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-25
THE WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY.
Remarks of Judge Kelley I'm the House
of fRepreRentRLtHee.

OF
On Tuesday last, in the debate on a question
involving the consideration of Special Commis-
sioner Wells report on the revenue Of the
country, Judge Kelley said:-
do not care what the Special Commissioners
views are; 1t is his processes that oOject 10.
| agree that during the three years ne has been
an officer of the Government he may have done
or written some good things. Heaven, Knows he
ought 10 have done some good TO mitigate the
great harm he has done and Is doing the country.
What object to, sir, is his ialsidcation of
facts ard figures. In 1864, throwing OFT 2645,
the ratio OF increase of wealth in the decade
preceding 1860, he told the country that our
wealth in 1870 would be S32, 900, 600, 600, thus
putting his estimate $4,000, 600 600 within the
limits which experience would have justded
but when in his late official report he comes to
tell Congress what our wealth amounts to- how
much we have as q basis for currency, he
reduces it to 500, 600, 600, and he thereby
demonstrates that relatively with France and
England we nave a great excess OF currency
which we ought to reduce by contraction. Not
content with inserting this estimate which he
knew to be so false, in the body of his report,he
appends 10 the rsport a long letter, with a large
edition of which he had heralded the coming of
his report. Now, was Mr.. Wells right when he
told us it was S32 OO0, 0O0,000 or is he right
when he insists on Congress legislaung on the
delicate question OF currency on the basis OF
$40 000, 600, COO? 1t is a falslication of figures
q falsidca,ion of facts, in one case or the other.
Writing in 1864, and having shown that our
wealth, which uHu DbGu Sl, 100, tOO,UUU III lOOU,
had become SIG l59 6l6,O0O III 1860, an increase
in the decade of 12645 per cent, he said:-
"SupDosing now the war to close al or before
the end of 1865 with the restoration OF the
dominion of the old Union; suppOsing also the
wealth of the loyal States TO have increased
since 1860 at the deCennia ratio of one hundred
per cent, (an under rather than an oVerestl-
mate) and the valuation of the disloyal States
at that period to be Sl,U0O,0 100000 less than in
1860, then the reunited nation Will start anew on
its era of peace with capital OF $50 600 0OO, 600,
and an annual increase OF wealth which Cer-
tainly cannot be estimated at less than
So C00, 000 600, adopting the ratio Of increase at
one hundred per cent for every ten years instead
of one hundred and twenty.sIX and forty.hve
hundredths per cent, the rdilo OF increase
from 1850 to 1860, This sum, 1t should be borne
IL mind, is not the income of the nation out of
which the population are to pay for their sub
sstence and their luXuries, but the profit over
and above our expenses as nation; or, in other
words, 1t is an actual increase OF capitalize
produce of labor, machinery, aud commerce.
| which is to be annually applied to the perma-
| nent improvement of the country, and TO be
| made the Instrument OF earning more wealth.
| So much then for the resources OF the country
| at the close of the war, or at the close OF the
| year 1865. Let us now cautiously prospect the
resources of the future, basing our estimates on
the teachings of the present and the past"
Proceeding thus cautiously and assuming the
decenpial increase of we alth to be but one
hundred per cent, or more than one fifth less
than it had been in the previous decade, he
| showed that our wealth must in 1870 amount to
| S32, ,3lS 000, ,000 Had he based his calculation
on the deCennial Iatio OF the last decade 1t
would have brought US TO over forty thousand
| millions, but, making due allowance for tue
waste OF the war it amounted to S32, 900, 000 600
| All his financial arguments are therefore de
| duced from what he knew to be falss
| assumption.
The increase OF the anthracite coal trade, Mr.
| Wells shows you with figures literally given
has been about eight per cent. IN three years
| while from the bituminous regions of the Wes
| fhn Haua lnTNn1 1a11t nf oil nt thnrP
| has been from five to seven hundred, and in
| some districts thousand per cent. IN those
| three years. Yet in q single parenthesis he
| bures that magnificent fact bearing upon the
| pig.iron and every other iron question, and
| upon our lumber forests which were being
hewn down for fuel, but are now guarded by
the consumption of coal. Listen to his artfu
| statcment:-
''The recent increase in the production Of
| anthracite coal, which may be taken as men
sure of the product OF coal, is reported a;
| follows"
And then proceeds to give the figures show
| Ing an increase of per cent, in 1866, 1867
| and 1868.
Gentlemen from Iowa, has not the coal trade
| in those three years become one of the mos
important matters oftrafic over your railroads
| and have not the smoke and cinders ofth wooo
| consumed in your locomotives disappeared
| because your own coal is the fuel used on youl
| roadsi Gentlemen from Southern Indiana, has
the development of your coal-delds been bu
| eight per cent. in three years? Gentlemen iron
| nlinois-and / see before me one in whose dis
trict am sure coal vein had not been struck
| In 1866, and in which / know there are some
thing like dozen shafts delivering coal to sur
rounding districts, and making freight for every
railroad trayersing the section-has the increas'
there been only eight per cent. in three years
and is the production of anthracite the measure
of the production of all American coal? Thl
Commissioner ofRevenue knew when he penneC
that paragraph that the anthracite coal iel(
is found within the limits of a few counties o
Pennsylvania, and that the railroads and canal
for its amplest development had been con
structed before 1866, and that the other Goa
fields are almost co extensive with the country
and that their development is in its vigorous bu
early infancy. But 10 have fairly brought II
view the marvellous increase in the production
of this cheap fuel which uncerlies our prairie
and with which our hills are gorged, would hav
blasted his theories of trade aud finance. Hence
1t was that he saw fit to urge in a parenthesi
this, perhaps most important. fact In the Cur
rent history of our national progress.
PenngVIVantan i'm tha CahInat