Wilmington daily commercial., 1872-03-26
THE NEW YORK PRESS.
Edlrorlal Extracts From the ersus Dai
THE usuRY LAW AND how IT OPERATES.
From the N. Y. Tiuesl

THE usuRY LAW AND HOW IT OPERATES
tFrom the N. Y. Tiues.l
The Usury law is dead letter so far.ns ite
osensible effect goes, while its operation in ard
Of extortionists ia very powerful. Instead OF
preventing, II promotes usury, and allows note
shayers to get from twelve to forty-seVen per
cent for money for which, il there were no legal
obstacles To competition in lending, they could
not get more than eight to ten per cent More
oyIT. every law that cannot be enforced detraets
from the authority of laws that ought to be en-
forced
FATALITY on RAILROADS
From tho N. Y. Tribune.l
The general belief that there are more aeci-
dents to passengers en- railroads in America than
in other countries, is found TO be fallaclous Al
ter clearing away tha.differenees in presenting
statistics which have hitherto rendered this sub
ieot obscure, the most surprising resulta are OBJ
tanned Bringing the figures OF the several
countries into direct comparison, the returns in
dicate that among passengers carried by railroad
there are killed and injured on
British railroads, one in. .............. 430,OO0
Massachusetts, railroads, one in. ..... 1,4l6.O0O
Belgian railroads, one in. n....,........ ,6O0,OOO
Prussian railroads, one n......,...... 3,OO0,0
French railroads, one in............. 4,OOO,OOO
REFORM THROUGH LARGE REVENUES FROM FEW
ARTICLES.
From the N. Y. Herald.l
We could not do better, certainly, than to
COPY England in the principle she acts upon OF
raising large revenue from few articles. Her
revenue, for example, il in round numbers,
about three hundred and sixty millions of dol
| lars. Out Of this hundred and sixteen millions
| is drawn from exoise-thAt is, from taxes on
spirits beer and other like Injuries, and from
/ licenses to sell these. This is exclusive OF the
custom duties on importation Of such articles
| II We raised as much from the same source it
/ would be nearly half what the whole revenue
| demand OF the government ought be under an
i economical administration And why not2 Our
| population is eight or nine times greater than
that OF Great Britain, and consumes more prob
i ably of these excisabe luxuries. What 30 fit to
be taxed They are not necessaries OF life, and
are almost always injurious.
THE DUTY OF THE UNITED STATES IN CUBA.
| [Fron the N. Y. Trbunel
But when an outrage upon an American cit
i izon is committed in the face Of day, it il not
wise for our Government to allow it to go uneX.
planned. II Spain chooses to butcher dozen
innocent children in the Plaza ii may be all
open question whether we, more than any other
civilized nation, are bound to resent it. But a
case like that OF DIR. Howard at Cienfuegos can
not be passed over in silence, without an entire
Abnegation Of national dignity
WHAT THEY ARE WILLING TO DO AND WHAT NOT.
[From the N. Y. Tlmes.l
In other words. they are doing beforehand,
and on a small scale, precisely what they will try
to do in the national election--that il, to gain
power without caring how they gain it, and re-
serving the means of using it as they choose il
they do get it. They are willing to repudiate
their former professions--thu stripping them
Of their sincerity, which was all that made them
tolerable; they are willing to nominally Join IN
movements for aims which are utterly foreign
to their practice and principles like the professed
civil service reform they are willing to give in
their verbal adhesion to the ideas OF liberty and
the perpetuity of the Union but they are no
Al.afw
| the power that organization gives them to carr.
out their real designs.