The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-08

II Because, II we waU tlu ~ Is al que, |
il would be Impossible TO pay IL all at
once.
ter of the debt.
~. Because we stipulated with the public
creditor to pay one per cent. per annum OF
the principal of the debt.
V. Because our taxes have been larger than
they now are.
vi. Because reducing the debt monthly
pleases the shingle-shsvers in Michigan, who
are Just beginning to read the Weeky 1r-
bune.
These are the several arguments adduced
by the philosopher in behalf of grinding
and oppressive taxation to pay eight or ten
millions monthly on the principal of the pub
lie debt.
We believe we have faithfully given every
reason offered. And what an assemblage of
reasons they are There is Just one among
them that has something in it, This is that
paying improves the character of the debt,
and enables us to fund it at lower rates. This
consideration has at least plausible sound,
but of real weight very little. The credit of
a nation depends upon the integrity of its
dealings, the fulflment OF it's promises, and
its apparent resources. When nation is
seen to do Just what it agrees to do, whether
it be much or little, it establishes its credit.
1t is by no means necessary, because nation
has incurred debt, that it should fall to pay
ing it right away in order to improve its
credit 1t is not paying to-day or tomorrow
or next year that does this it is paying ex-
actly according to agreement. Who will say
that the credit of the British Government
has ever depended in the slightest degree
upon any reductions of its public debt?
That debt has gone on increasing year by
year, and generation after generation, till it
has attained tremendous aggregates; and
vet England could never borrow money so
cheaply, and her credit was never so good, as
to-day.
During the existence of the late bastard
empire of France, the national debt was con-
stantly and rapidly increasing; but the credit
of the French Government was never better,
and its ability to borrow money was never
greater, and its loans we're never higher in
the market, than was the case one short
month before il exploded. What is true of
the English and French Governments is true
of every other Government in Europe in good
credit. 1t is true of all our first-class State
Governments 1t is true of our leading
municipal governments. 1t is plain then
that the fact of premature payment is not an
element on which credit rests. 1t rests on
other things entirely. These are a high
sense of financial honor and integrity in the
first place, and evident resources in the
second. With these abundantly manifest, re-
| duction in the volume of the debt is q matter
| of not the slightest consequence.
But Mr.. Greeley asks with an air of tri-
umph, Would the San fulfil the pledge of
| paying off one per cent of the principal of
the public debt annually? We have no diff
Guilty in answering that question. We would
| fulfil with the most scrupulous exactness
every pledge given in borrowing. And where
would the fulflment of this promise land us?
| Why, eight or ten years ahead of the present
time. # we should not pay dollar on the
| rNrInN JrQI n nrr 6ant for fha 1axt tan
we might still claim to have discharged every
| obligation to the public creditor on this
score.
The reasons why we should not go on in
the present high pressure process of reduc-
tion are simple and conclusive. In the first
place, the country has already paid within the
last nine years, we may perhaps say within
the last seven years, more than one-half of
the prodigious cost of the great war. This is
as much as this generation ought to be called
| on to pay. 1t is full contribution for
this purpose, in money point of view; and
who shall compensate us for the greater
| untold and undesirable sacrifices, of which
ne future generations can bear part?
Moreover, the taxes necessary to continue
the reduction of the debt are drawn from an
oppressed and struggling industry, which
every impulse of patriotism and every sug-
gestion of craftsmanship require us to relieve
entirely and without delay.
But the one supreme and all-controlling
reason is that the astonishingly rapid deve-
lopment of the country in its numbers and its
resources is day by day diminishing the weight
of the debt in the most 1triking manner. A
debt which would have bankrupted the Gov
ernment forty years ago is comparatively
light debt to-day, and will not impose one-half
the burden on the country twenty years hence
that it imposes now, even if in the mean
time its principal should not be reduced a
single dollar.
Let the debt stand, applying to it the scale
of reduction established when it was con-
tracted. Let us pay the one per cent. annual
assessment on the principal from the start,
and let what has been overpaid in past years
apply in the years to come. This is an ar.
rangement which would amply fulfil all oul
engagements, and with its practical effect the
people, now suffering and perishing under
our exaggerated taxes, would be content.
FALSE SYMPATHY WITH FRENCH
REBELS.
From the NJ Y. Tribune.
''Social Democrat" complains that we
have never conceded the right of the Pari
slams to elect their own municipal officers
and of the National Guards to choose theil
commanders. We have not felt that we were
specially called upon to admit self-evident
proposition which nobody Denies The ri gh
was wrested from the Parisians by the EN-
pire, and was not promptly restored by the
new provisional government of M. Thiers-l
very grave error, as we admit; but it was no
irreparable, and in all probability would have