Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-03-31
Tia WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY
Remarks or Judge Kelly in the House of
Representatives.


On Tuesday last, III the debate on
q question involving the considera-
ton of Special Commissioner Wells
report on the revenue ofthe country
Judge Kelly said
1 DO not care what the Special
Commissioner views are il is his
process that | object TO. | agree that
during the three years he has been
an officer OF the Government he may
have done or written some good to
mitigate the great harm he mas done
and is doing the country.
What | object to, sir, is his falsifi-
cation of facts and figures. In 1864
throwing of 26.45 the ratio OF in
crease of wealth in the decade pre-
ceGing 1860, he told the country that
our wealth in 1870 would be So, 900. :
Coo, 600, thus putting his estimate s.
000, 600, 600, within the limits which
experience would have Justified but
when in his late official report he
comes to tell Congress what our
wealth as9lounts to, how much we
have as basis for currency, he re-
duces it to 20, ,000, 900, 900, and he
thereby demonstrates that relatively
with France and England who have
Il 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 a long
letter, with 4 large edition of which
he had heralded the coming of the
report. Now, was Mr.. Wells right
when he told us it wasS32, 900 ,000, 900
or is he right when he insists on Con-
gresS legislating on the delicateques-
ton of currency on the basis of 500
Oo0, ,0O0, 900? 1t is n Justification of
figures, Il Justification of facts, III one
case or the other. Writing in 1864,
and having shown that our wealth,
which had been 81, ,135, $50, 900 in 1850
had become SIG, l59, GIG, 600 in 1860, AN
increase i'll the decade of 12G. - per
cent. he said:
''Supposing now the war to close
at or before the end of 1860, with the
restoration of the dominion of the
old Union Supposiug also the
wealth Of the loyal States to have in
creased since 1860 ut the decennial
ratio of one hundred per cent (an
under rather than an over eStimate)
and the valuation of the disloyaI
States ut that period To be 81 1000,
00O,0 less than in 1860, than the re-
united nation Will start anew on its
era of peace with Il capital ofS2O, ,0O0, :
600, 900 and an annual increase of
wealth which certainly cannot be
estimated at less tham 81, ,009, ,OUO, 600,
adopting the ratio of increase at hun
dred per cent. for every ten years in
stead of one hundred and twenty six
and forty-tives hundredths per cent,
the ratio of increase from lS5Oto 1860.
This sum, it should be borne III mind
# I,D = l,..
of which the population are 10 pay
for their subsistence and their iuXur-
les, bat the profit over and above our
expenses rs Il nation or, III other
words it is an actual increase of cap
ital-the produce of labor, machin-
cry and commercc-which is to be
annually applied To the permanent
Improvement of the country, and To
bc made the instrument of earning
more wealth. So much then for the
resources of the country ut the close
of the war, or at the close of the year
1865. Let us now cautiously pros
pect the resources of the future,
baSlng our es Inmates on the teach
ings of the present and Of the past"
Proceeding thus cautiously and as
Stunning the decennial increase of
wealth 10 be but one hundred per
cent, or more than one-fifth less
than 1t had been in the previous de-
cadc, he showed that our wealth
must in 1870 amount to So, ,31S, 900
600. Had he based his calculation
on the decennial ratio of the last de-
cade it would have brought us to
over forty thousand millions, but,
making due allowance for the waste
of the war, it amounted to %, ,000,-
900, 900. All his financial arguments
are therefore deduced from what he
knew to be Il false 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 West and South the develop
ment of all other coal has been from
five to seven hundred, and III some
districts n thousand per cent. i'll
these three years. Yet III Il single
parenthesis he buries that magnifi-
cent 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 artful state
ment:
1.-The recent increase in the pro-
duction of anthracite coal, which
may be taken as a measure of the
product of coal, is reported as fol-
lows:
And then proceeds to give the fig
ures, showing an increase of eight
per cent. in 1866, 1867 and 1868.
Gentlemen from Iowa, has not the
coal trade in those three years be-
come one ofthe Hlost important mat
ters Of traffic over your railroads
and have not the smoke and cinders
of the wood consumed in your loco
motives disappeared because yaur
own coal is the fuel used ON your
railroads? Gentlemen from South
ern Indiana, has the development of
your coal-felds been hut eight per
cent. III three years , Gentlemen
from IlliuoiS-and | see before me
one i'll whose district | am sure u coal
vein had not been struck in 1866, and
IN which / know there are something
like a dozen shafts delivering coal to
surrounding districts, aud making
freight for every railroad traverSing
the seciion-has the increase there
been only eight per cent. ill .hree
years, and is the production of the
anthracite the measure of the pro-
duction OF all American coal? The
Com mnissioner OF Revenue knew
when he penned that paragraph that
the anthracite coal field is found
within the limits of few co
unties of Pennsylvania, and
that the railroads and canals for
lis amplcst Development had been
constructed before 1866, and that the