The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1873-10-25
Plain Facts for the People.

practical questions ofthe day. Although
the distinguished orator addressed him
self to the agricultural interests of the
country, the facts stated, and the con-
clusions reached, are equally applicable
to all scctous and to every branch of
industry. In reference to the financial
condition of the country, the General
said
The tendency of our people, whether
IN their national, municipal, and social
organizations, or in their personal ca
paclty, to SO ito debt, cannot have cs.
capped the attention Of every discerning
mind. Indeed, drawing drafts on the
future, payable by postcrity, and bur
deninG the present generation to pny
the interest, is the resort for carrying
on all enterprises, and has assumed
such proportions, and is fraught with
such consequences, that the mi nd of the
statesman and the philosopher Of politi
cal economies may well be turned to it
with the greatest attention, il not alarm.
because of its possible results upon our
future prosperity. Our National Gov
crnmeut is owing $4,000 00J,0 900. on
which we are paying, "a interest, an
average of rising six per cent, reckon.
ing that interest in the currency with
which all our products are measured.
| AZ least three fourths Of that amount is
due to foreign bankers and capitalists.
II this were all, aud no other consr1u.
cnccs arose from it, there need be little
anxiety, and it would hardly be worth
the atteAtion of the statesman or ccono
INST Ill calculating the future of the
nation Divided anon. forty millions
of people, i'll a country Of the cxpamsc
and resources of ours, it would be easily
managed But every State in this Tn
ion, with hardly an exception, has debts
amounting in the aggregate to quite
$500, 900. But our indebtedness
does not stop there. Quite every country,
every city and town in every Site in
the Union owes debts, more or les, to
an amount in the aggregate tn perhaps
one half as much as the debts of the
States, including the advances IN idc for
municipal, railroads, and other like
enterprises.
Nor do we stop there Our railroads
have borrowed, aud are owing bonded
debt of 5000, 900, 600. Nor docs the
turor Of Indebtedness yet stop. A limo
every college aud institution OF learning,
from the modest academy up to the
university, each and all owe sums of
which an approximation can hardly be
mado, and which no statistics show
Nay, we go still further. We draw up
on postcrity to get the means of hearing
tic Gospel. All know that very large
ajority of the thous ,nds of churches
which the census shows have buildings
dotting our lands, lave been built Oh
credit given, in fact, by the coming
generation.
General Butler then showed how the
proceeds of the war debt of the nation
and of the bulk of the State debts were
destroyed in the war; that costly public
or educational buildings do not add to
productive capacity, and that Of the
Sl20, 100000, which we must annually
pay abroad. only $5O,000,00O are the
product of our gold and silver mines
the rest must be paid from the products
of the soil, exported abroad He con
tinucd:
Now, as our statistics show that, as
rule, for the last eight years, not to 20
back further than the conclusion of the
war, our imports Of foreign merchandise
annually exceeded our entire exports.
including gold from our mines, which
all goes abroad you will naturally ask
me, how has the interest in the mean
time been paid, and how the balance
yearly found against us Of the difference
between the amounts Of our Imports and
exports? ] have just stated to you that
We owed substantially none of these ma.
tional and State debts contracted during
the war to the foreign bankers at its
close, but VIC have been paying the bal
ances OF trade, which have been against
us year by year, 10y expanding our inter
est-bearing bonds running for twenty
and forty years, and selling them some