The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1870-04-14
THE NATIONAL FINANCES
THE GREAT SPEECH OF
HON. D. W. VOORHEES,,
pELIyEKED IN CONGRESS. JAN. asth
or INDIANA.

I OE INDIANA sas
3DELIyEKED IN CONGRESS, JAN. estl
lCoNcLUDED FROM LAST WEEK.
In this terrible, minute and univel
sal manner of visitation there was e1
tracted from the labor of the country
during the year ending the Both {
June, 1869, according to the report {
the Secretary of the treasury, the sur
of 1886, ,923, ,402 for the support of th
federal government and the futur
enrichment of frightful monopoly
The heavy load of State, county an
municipal taxation rests upon tn
same industrial classes. To uphol
the thirty seven local government
iHto which the Union is divided, an
the stil smaller corporations of cite
and counties and townships unde
them is costing the American peopl
an additional amount of $685. 90
per annum. Thus for each seed tim
and harvest of the revolving year tn
toiling men and women of the repub
lie pour into the Golfers of taxation
the vast aggregate of $616, 6,923, ,402.
Annual Federal taxation .. 1856 go, 40
Annual State and local taxation ----- $50 10000
Total per. annurn -. 616, ,s28, 40
There is no language within tn
scope of human tongue that can ex
aggerate the overwhelming signifi
canee of these reliable figures. Th
great fact stands out with the awfu
distinctness of a mountain upon
plain that no people beneath the cir
Gle of the sun, between the two pole
of this fertile globe are taxed so deep
ly upon the earnings of their hand
as are this people whose representa-
tives we are. The official statistic
of the five great powers of Europ,
and all the Withered and ancien
realms of Asia and Egypt bear con
slant witness to this dreadful truth
The submissive subjects of the oldes
and Wealthiest kingdoms and empires
of the earth are not so heavily lader
as the citizens of this young, free
nation, and they walk more erect in
the presence of their task-masters.
Sir, in the face of all this, standing
in the presence of these mighty facts
from which there is no escape, how
shall characterize that policy which
makes free from all tax or tribute
more than one-tenth of the property
of ther United States, property thai
cost less by one half than any other to
obtain it, yields double the interest
elsewhere. derived, and is owned by
those who dwell in the palaces of the
land? With what patience shall ]
speak of those who stand idly by and
behold the long professions of indus.
try fling out to their daily task who
look on with folded arms of Incidence
while school-houses are erected and
built; who, out of their
easily and ill-gotted millions, con-
tribute not farthing to their state or
their local burdens; reclining upon
couches of down, and banqueting
upon smiles and wine during the last
fiscal year, while from the sweat oi
the laborer's brow, alone and unaided
flowed the following streams of fed
eral expenditure
Civil service miscellaneous -. $58 474. .O61 IS
t4l rSnsi2ns ana inalans 5d95 54S y
" ar department SO sol $50 81
Navy Department. 20 600 T5T 81
Interest on public debt .130 634242 sc
States treasury notes ............. 100000 90
Total exclusive of loans. 321 400, ,597 q
Z am told that the bondholder pays
a tax on his income? If every dollar
is collected which is due by law, it
win not amount to the trifiing sum of
100000 a year. The entire tax on
all the incomes and salaries in the
United States together, according to
the report of the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue, is only $34, ,791, 1856.
Of this sum the bondholder has not
paid over the. .pitiful sum of $3,OOO,OOO
as his miserable contribution toward
a revenue of oyer $500, 100000. raised
by the universal exertions of the peo-
pie, Every other income is assessed
as well, and everything else in the
land besides. 1t is now said in many
quarters that even this contemplate
levy upon the bonds should be abol-
ished. Not SO. Let it stand. Not
for its value, but to illustrate human
not that it constitutes sin
gle drop in the great ocean of revenue
drawn from the busy hands of labor,
but for the purpose of showing how
despicable the rich man Is mite appears
in the contrast; not that it amounts to
more than miserly and unpercepti-
BILE atom in the gigantic general ae-
count but for the purpose of proving
by this beggarly exception the dis
graceful truth that the rich owner of
The bonds is substantially free from
taxation, as the law declares him to
Fortunately it is not difficult to
demonstrate how much the public
treasury has lost, and. corresponding
", how much the burdens of the peo-
pie have been increased by this ex-
emption of the bondholder from the
common duty of assisting to dDfray
the expenses of his government. In.
order to raise the $500, ,0O0, 900 neees-
sary for county, state and national
purposes, no one will dispute that the
are over two per cent,
two dollars on the hundred, in the fa-
miliar language of the farmer. Taking
the entire taxable property of the
country as basis of calculation, and
two per cent, upon it all will not
y16lu blIo ICfGAuG HAtPt4 II dlluual1Y
collected. But assuming safely that
low rate, we find that our bonded
debt, which the secretary of the treas
ury a few evenings since in a1public
address stated at $2,100,000OOO,r es-
capes annually q just tax, according
to the load imposed upon other prop
erty,, of. SO, 600, ,QW.. If, we seek the
average time that this privilege has
been running it will be determined at
about five years. The loss thus sus-
tanned in these five years by the treas
ury in taxes withheld by the bond
holding class, and necessarily made
up by The laboring class, sWells, by
the simplest rules Of ARITHMETIC, iHtb
the immense sum Of $2l0, 100000.
This amount therefore, may also be
added to that long and heavy column
Of clear gain and profit on the .pur-
chase of the of the bonds which I
have already portrayed. when prop.
erty is Withdrawn from the support
"A