The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-02

sudden and continuous gain to the Treasury
has been due to the greater efficiency of the
revenue service under President Grant-the
great energy impaired to it, and the fidelity
with which its working has been watched.
More than forty millions of increase in the
fiscal year 1S67-70, as compared with the re-
ceipts of the previous year, is fact that
attests the honesty with which a great duty
has been performed
And there has been honesty in the appli-
cation of the large surplus which taxation
and thrift placed at the disposal of the adj
ministration. The expenditures have been
kept below the appropriations. Forty mil
lions tell the tale of the first year of Grants
economy in comparison with the outlay which
prevailed in the last year of johnson; and
for the current year the saving has been
nearly doubled. That is the rate at which
the work of retrenchment proceeds. What
the full measure of the countrys gain has
been, reduction of the debt to an amount
exceeding one hundred and sixty millions,
since the commencement of the administra-
ton, sufficiently proves. large surplus has
been realized, and this has been the manner
of its application.
The taxes, too, are all the time being cut
down. The reduction effected during the
recent session amounts to eighty millions or
more, three -fourths of which takes effect in
the present fiscal year. The Democrats
assail the reform as exceptional, as something
not known before, and not likely to be heard
of again after the elections. The truth is,
however, that the Republican majority in
Congress have year after year hghtened the
peoples burdens They began soon after the
restoration of peace, and have steadily con-
tinued the work. Contrasting the taxation
as it will be when the recent changes come
into force, with the taxation as it was when
the war ended, we have as the product of Re-
publican effort q total reduction of not less
than two hundred and fifty millions. The
reduction of eighty millions or more, which
has Just been effected, is, then, only we'll
established feature of the Republican policy.
And so the party should proclaim it.
All the signs point to another large sur
plus in the current year. Several of the
taxes which are soon to cease are yet in force,
and will swell the amount in the Treasury.
The general productiveness of the revenue
will leave handsome margin. The monthly
operations of the Secretary in the bond
market indicate the possession of large means
in excess of the wants of the Government.
The party is, therefore, brought to this
issue-shall even the reduced rate of taxa
tion be imposed if it yield a surplus of ninety
or hundred millions, or shall a further re-
duction take place to the extent of sixty or
seventy millions? We know Mr.. Boutwells
views and the views of the taxpayers, and we
know that there is a gulf between them. The
party must side with one or the other. To
be consistent, to Justify its professions, and
10 satisfy the people, it must decide against
the Secretary and in favor of the continued
diminution of taxes.
The attempt of the Democrats to show that
the relief already afforded benefits some
States and some classes more than others, is
simply puerile. To make any just compari-
son of class interests as affected by reform,
the five years work of the Republicans in
Congress should be taken into consideration.
Two hundred and fifty millions cannot be
lifted off the peoples shoulders without bene-
filing the whole country. We may not ap-
prove of every detail of the changes made
this year, but in regard even to them it is
evident that eighty millions reduction is q
reform whose benefits will not be confined to
any section or any class. The West and
South will share with the East the profits of
the policy with which the Republican party
has been for five years identified
SYMPATHY IN THE PAST AND PRESENT.
From the NJ Y. World.
One minor good results from the deplorable
conflict by which Western Europe is agonized.
! 1t has stimulated our radical friends to O
minute study of history, especially our own.
! The record of the Revolution" once so
sacred and so familiar, had become blurred
and mouldy, or sort of palimpsest on which
| recent rubbish has been stamped, and no
one cared about it unless when Bancroft tried
to disturb and pollute the calm and once
translucent spring. When, however, France
and Germany grappled each other in deadly
strife, and politicians sought to stir up
unreal sympathy, SO as to make out of it
party capital, some old-fashioned students
of the past bethought them of an.
cient memories, and ventured to refer
to days when France and Frenchmen
were our friends, and Germany, its rulers
and its people, very much the reverse. II
was, perhaps, an obsolete thought, piece oi
antique sentimentalism, to think or talk oi
historical sympathies or antipathies. ''Tht
times that tried mems souls" were no great
things after all. The brave days of old were
as nothing to ours-such as, in the Distric
of Columbia, when Stonewall jackson wa
supposed to be coming down the valley,
Pope was galloping back to Centreville
What were Washington's anxieties at VALLEY
Forge, or West Point, when told of Arnold
treason, to Lincoln's after Fredericksburg
when our forid friend General Cochran,
rushed into his council chamber and tolC
him Burnside could not be trusted? 1t wa
petty, poor business, this Of the old Revo
luton!
Still, stale as it was, it would never do TO
our radical friends to give up the past withou
a struggle, or to admit our infant coun
try owed gratitude to none but Frenchmen
1t has been pretty hard work-so hard tina
we feel disposed to give our assistance to 81
desperate a search. The French partisan ha
relatively little trouble. From the day whel
Beaumarchais began to write till Gimat LEI
the assaulting columnrat Yorktown, the kim
words and brave deeds of French sympa
thizers glisten in every line of our story; an
q baarf xuhn a6