The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-07-21


the capitol of their Public Debt.
They did this without increasing tax
or public burden Of any kind, and after
having very considerably reduced tho
war taxesimposed during our great strug-
gle. ses a.,u ia
They did this at the same time that
nearly every State, county, and NUM-
cipality, of the loyal section of the Union
we're likewise engaged in paying off and
canceling debts incurred during that con-
tlict. -
They did it without impairing their
prosperity or checking their growth.
In no former year were more houses
erected, more virgin acres broken up and
put into cultivation, more miles of rail
road built, or more new furnaces and
factories constructed and set to work.
They did it without regulating one
honest claim on their justice, or evading
one valid obligation.
They did it at the same time that they
paid more than $50. 100000 as interest
on their vast Debt, and as pensions to
the disabled soldiers of the late war and
the widows and children of those who fell
in that contest.
Now, all the taxation whereby this
magnificent result was accomplished has
not doomed one unfortunate to the poor
house, nor sent child hungry to bed.
IfCongress had simply allowed the
laws governing taxation to stand as they
were, we should have paid off the last
fraction of our immense Debt within the
next fifteen years and we firmly believe
that this would have been the wise and
statesmanlike course.
We have not yet mastered any of the
recent discoveries in Finance, nor have
we allowed any of them to- master u.s.
We cling to the old notion that debt Is
not blessing but burden, and that this
is as true of National debt as of any
other. It may present some incidental
advantages. or rather alterations; but,
on the other hand, National debt is
National fetter, if not a National peril.
Curl Government has been unable to
act with regard to Cuba as frankly and
firmly as it would inevitably have done
had our Debt been no larger than it was
ten years ago. - ~ .s 5a,l1e.-,. CO..
"a Nor do we cherish even the .feeblest
faith in any scheme of financial legerde-
main, Of the projectors who have
bored us with plans for paying off the
National Debt without cost or ineonven-
fence to anybody, we cannot remember
one who could have paid % per cent.
Of his own debts with or without incon-
venience, nor one who would not have
been glad to borrow the means Of paying
bis next weeks board. In our concep-
ton, debt is only to be paid by work
ing, earning, and saying-a National
the same as any other. ST m
As our National Debt is too large to
be paid off directly, the first point to be
achieved is the reduction of its annual
burden of interest, by funding the bulk
of it at lower rates than we, are now
paying; and to the success of such fund
ing an ample Revenue and a full Treas
ury are important if net Indispensable.
So long as the Secretary of the Treasury
is buying up Five to Zen Millions OF
bonds monthly, and cancehng or holding
them firmly out of market, with the
means on hand to buy more, he is mas
ter of the situation. and may fairly hope
to sell new bonds drawing FIVE per cent.
or less, in order that he may redeem
with the proceeds bonds now drawing
six per cent. aa GO a1l
But it is urged that we cannot sell
even new Five per cents at par so long
as our present Five per cents range be-
low par.
Whoever unites in this cavil fails ut
terly to take into account the element OF
time. Our Six per cents, which have
- or / 5 years to run before the Govern
ment will be at liberty to pay them off,
are to-day worth considerably more than
the Five-Twenties, which are Six per
cents, payable whenever the Govern
ment shall see fit within the next 1O or
Is years. So, new five per cent. hav-
ing a considerable term to run before the
right to pay it off would accrue, might,
and probably would, bear considerably
higher price than one liable to be paid
off within the next few years.
1t seems clear to us that Congress has
pursued a short-sighted policy in wip
ing out our surplus Revenue, while the
difficult task of funding our
Debt at lower rate of interest remains
not merely unaccomplished, but not yet
well begun. The slight relief afforded to
the taxpayers in the present will cost
them several dollars for one in the not
distant future.
The engineers of this national mischief
style themselves Revenue Reformers,"
being afraid or ashamed to appear in
their true character of Free Traders.
What they meant by their clamor for
the reduction of taxes was to effect the
overthrow of the Protective policy; and
this aim has been utterly defeated.
The Revenue is cut down to the lowest
dimensions compatible with the main
tenance OF our public faith, but the no.
bic fabric of Protection to Home Indus
try stands mistaken. Their next assault |