Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1870-01-25
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1resIsurg III HIS lltIlc speeCu Oh Inc
finances delivered before the Grand
Of the Republic In Washington, |
last week, said: "If we shrink from
the task and duty Of mastering these
difficulties at once, We increase the
burdens Of taxation, and
leave to another generation the COM
pletion Of a work which should have
been exclusively u own" Exactly
how the country Is going to "~increase
the aggregate burdens Of Taxation y by
extending the time for paying off the
debt twenty or fifty years Is precisely
one Of those ~generalities that will bear
a better appearance II supported by
facts. 1t Is not altogether a sound
proposition to urge that if instead of.
paying the debt at the rate Of three or
four dollars per minute, We pay 1t at
the rate Of n dollar per hour, we
will "inerease the aggregate burdens
of taxation" Yet that is the Honor
able Secretary's assertion. Ever since
the Inauguration Of the present Admin
istration the receipts Of the Treasury
have been largely in excess Of ex-
penses, and during the same time,
while onerous taxation strangled busi-
ness enterprise at home, no thought
has apparently been given to the tax
payers, all consideration being ex-
tended to the bondholders. 1t is not
charity alone that should begin at
home, but justice also. Why, there
fore, the "present generation" that
gave to the country the blood Of
its fathers, children and brothers, freely
and without stint, that the nation
with all its blessings might be pre-
served-not for a generation, but for
all time-should likewise be borne
down by the weight of taxation, is not
so clear to us as it seems to be to Mr..
Boutwell,. If the ''present genera
ton" had been solely responsible for
the late war, the Secretary's words
would have u clearer meaning; but
the present generation "had nothing
to do with 1t, except to reap the awful
whirlwind that former generations had
been sowing to their own profit ever
since the introduction of slavery. The
present generation fought the fight
that redeemed forever the Republic
from the apparently unextinguishable
doom of serfdom. Must 1t also give
It's last dollar to make entirely easy
the life Of the coming man? Must the
soldier who fought through the entire
day have no rest from the struggle
while he lives? The next generation
will find q country broader, purer,
richer than any previous II ever
knew. Why should not it help to pay
the price of the blessings then? Must
the toll and tithes alone be for this
generation, and only the golden har-
vest for the next? If so, upon what
principle of fair dealing is the propo-
sition to be established? Theories are
proper enough in the absence of facts /;
but just now facts showing that the
nation is oppressed beyond the measure
of endurance by taxation, explode the
shallow theories which attempt to con-
vince the people Of to-day that upon
them alone must fall all the burdens
of the late war. "War taxes should
not be peace taxes" said Mr.. Sumner
last week, in the Senate, and strangling
the material prosperity of our W
people to pay foreign bondholders in
ten years sis beautiful, but it is not
business" Take any single article on
which the Government has laid its
greedy hands, book, for Instance
thing which in a free country no tax
should be laid upon; and yet from the
moment the assessor touches 1t until
he lays 1t down again, he plasters it
over with fifteen separate and distinct
taxes, until a book is no longer a book,
but simply wen for a b%ondholder
of there In Germany. That which is
true of a book Is true of almost every
other article manufactured in the great
American Republic. We suppose it is
a good thing to be an American, to
have a spread eagle for an emblem,
and a star spangled banner to make
Fourth of July speeches about, yet 1t
is a privilege that is paid for just now
at such a high figure that it would be
a satisfaction to be able to live over
into the next generation.