The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-03-21
THURSDAY, MARCH 81. 1872.


THE Philadelphia Record thinks the
boosted reduction OF the government debt
BY hundreds Of millions Of dollars Is no
correct representation Of the true fnan-
cial condition or financial prosperity Of
the country, when, 10 accomplish this re-
suit, the country has had to run in debt TO
Europe upward Of two thousand millions
Of dollars, the interest on which lcom.
pounded would, before this debt natures
and is paid, amount to thirty thousand
millions OF dollars, Thus, says the
Record, in order to get a few millions now,
we arc leaving to poSterity an eAormous
debt due TO foreigners, tho interest on
which now, and Tor degeneration to come,
will be a constant drain on productive In
dustry aud labor. II we could show in.
creased production and export, augment.
ed commerce and shipping, and steady
remunerative employment to willing la
Dor, we might well boast, but all that the
government is now doing is to cxtort the
largest possible amount Of revenue upon
the most unequal and ruinous basis.
There is really much food for thought
in this view Of our financial relations with
Europe. Our imports this year are greater
than in any previous year. and as a coun-
try VIC are going deeper aud more reck-
lessly in debt than ever before to the
capitalists Of the old world. So long as
our bonds Of various kinds are taken there
for any amount Of goods or money we
want, We have money and luxuries in
abundance, although halt the people in
the country are non.producers, and only
deal in and consume the wealth produced
by others but the time must come wher
the millions that are annually raised II
Europe by borrowing on our securities
will be consumed E1t the debt must b.
paid. Unless the natural wealth Of the coun
try develops with amazing rapidity, oul
resources cannot keep pace with our M
tional extravaganza. They are not doinl
itnow. We are buying and borrowing @
Europe every year from two to three hun
dred millions more than we can pay. an
that is q process that cannot go on foreve
without bankruptcy.
1t seems TO US a fundamental an
grievous mistake for government to de
pend on import duties for the bulk of ii
revenues. The duties are Of necessit
added to the cost Of the goods to the cor
sumer and thus paid by him, and there
fore just as much tax on the country a
if laid directly. If this were the onl
feature of the system, there could be n
objection. We might as well pay tn
necessary taxes in this shape as in an
other, and as they are generally paid VI
consciously, it Is less Objectionable sim
ply as a method Of taxation than any d
rect system that can be devised. TIL
misfortune Is, though, that in relying o
this system for revenues there is cor
slant temptation, necessity indeed,
stimulate importation; and in buying FOL
eign goods we are giving to Europea
artisans instead Of our own the work
supplying our wants. Wear employin
English factories and English mechanic
while American factories are idle an
American mechanics unemployed, an
while many hundreds of thousand
of Americans are loalng idly In til
great cities and towns, or crowding III
professions, or iostling one another i
poorly paid clcrkships, or. starving o
SHINING for lack of honest work, VIII
might have work in abundance, thos
who choose in Thousands of factories We
unbuilt, il the luxurious wants of the pee
pie Of the United States were supplied b,
labor on their own soil instead oil b,
hands on the other side Of the ocean
For that is what resultsfrom the presen,
system. Every million sent to England
to buy fabrics IS q million that ought Il
be earned on our own soil by people nov
idle. ns,. go
, Toget more revenue, Congress stimu
lates imports; and the more the country
imports the less demand ,lora ( ia fo
American industries; the more idle hand
are multiplied and the sources Of wcaltl
strangled; the more honest industry Ian
guishes, and the greater the scramble o
people tolive on their. wits OF the mis-
fortunes ofothers; the more the countr,
asa whole gets in debt to Europe and tn
more it neglects the real sources of it
own prosperity. A system Of revenu,
whichleads to these results-which whel
most successful wounds tho country deep
est IN its most vital parts radically, fun
damentally unwise and wrong.
TnE English government, it is said, ha.
acurious problem before it, owing to al
understandable oversight in making til,