The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-06
SPIRIT OF THD PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Lending Journals
Upon Current Topics-COnpilcd Every
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THE TREASURY AND THETAXPAYERS.
From the NJ Y. Times.
We have no disposition to take from the
Secretary of the Treasury any Of the credit
he is entitled to for what he has already a.
complished in reducing the debt. We have
steadily sustained his efforts in this direction,
and have applauded the vigor and honesty
which have enabled him to pay of so largo
an amount during his brief term of Office.
This praise however, has been predcated in
part upon the requirements of the Sinking
Fund law, and in part upon the fact that
fiscal system for which he is not responsible
has placed him in possession of q large sur
plus revenue. It was his duty to dispose of
this surplus IN some way, and its application
to the redemption of bonds has enabled him
to confer upon the country certain substantial
benefits.
The question now is-not whether Mr..
Boutwells course has been right or wrong,
but whether it is just or expedient to con-
rinue the taxation which made that course
possible. We have nothing but praise for his
use of the means which the revenue placed
at his disposal; but when he proposes to
maintain this revenue at its present rate
solely that he may continue the reduction of
an indebtedness not yet matured, we think
it proper to remind him that the time is not
propitious for the cultivation of theories, or
people expect-and have right to expect
that the surplus shall hereafter inure to their
benefit as taxpayers. Between the iudicious
application of a realized surplus, and the con-
tinuance of oppressive taxation solely with a
view to the acquisition of a, large surplus,
there is an essential difference. 1t is the lat
ter purpose which now challenges public
attention.
The plea is, that by keeping up the present
surplus and applying it to the payment of
unmatured debt the Government will be
enabled to fund the bulk of the remaining
debt at lower rate of interest. Of those
who persstently urge this excuse, not one
has condescended to explain on what ground
the holder of six per cent. bond may be
expected voluntarily to exchange it for a
four per cent. There must be compulsion of
some sort or the conversion will not be made.
Senator Sherman saw this when he suggested
that the bondholders should be made to un-
derstand that q refusal to exchange might be
followed by the redemption of the bonds in
deprecated greenbacks instead of coin.
Others more cautious, have contended that
there can be no funding at a lower rate
of interest until the Government is enabled,
by resumption, to offer gold for the
six per cents as the alternative of four
per cent security. We are convinced that
resumption must precede funding; and as re-
sumrtion is 2 work Of time-we srnreheud of
yeare-wo have protested against the con-
tinuance of taxation for the promotion of an
object which is distant and indefinite in its
distance. There would be some reason in
proposal to prolong the present burdens an
other year, if there were any guarantee that
at the end of that period funding might be
effected. But there is no such guarantee
and there can be none. On the contrary,
since resumption is necessary preliminary
to funding and since resumption itself is a
comparatively remote contingency, the propo-
sal to perpetuate exhaustive taxation lacks the
only plausible pretense that has been invented
in it's behalf.
There is necessity which the advocates of
immediate resumption and the believers in
the possibility of funding both overlook. The
necessity in question is relief to the taxpay-
ers. sect back quickly to specie payments,
sounds well enough. ''Fund the debt
sounds not amiss, But these suggestions be-
come as nothing before the demand for re-
duced taxation. "Reduce the taxes!" That
is the peoples cry; cry not raised by dema-
gogues or echoed by charlatans, but one that
originates in the actual wants of the commu-
nity-in the condition of its trade and indus
try, in the struggle of both for existence, and
in the hardships entailed upon both by the
present rate of taxation. The Tribune may
point daily. if it so choose, to the ''glory" in
cident to the payment of Indebtedness not
due The taxpayers do not value that kind
of glory-they want relief. They don't Gaze
about great benefits in the uncertain future.
They heed most their sufferings from taxa
ton as it is, and they insist that that shall be
diminished before aught be done towards the
solution of other problems.
The demand is rendered the more en-
phatic and the more equitable by the gradual
approach to specie payments and the noces-
sity of adjusting things before that result be
reached The Tribune characterizes the re-
marks that while ''values are falling taxes re-
main the same" as ''sheer effrontery.' 1t is
in the main fact, nevertheless. And if re-
sumption be brought about without revision
and reduction of taxes as a preliminary, the
people will not be able to pay them. This,
too, may be ''sheer effrontery," but it also is
as near akin to fact as anything in the future
can be. For taxes undiminished in amount,
with the values of labor and of all products
diminished by resumption, would be practi-
cally increased taxation-and that at time
when every interest would be sorely tried.
PARTY ORGANS HERE AND IN ENG