Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1873-07-16
A Hard Year.

Taxcs and expenses keep up, while
business niid confidcnce IN tho future
diminish. A determined Republican
who has supported the new policy
before, through and since the civil
war, tells his friends shat business
men are running into bankruptcy,
taken policy OF his party In keeping
up taxes, compelling h6present gem
Grafton to pay off the debt of the civil
war, and III abstracting for this pur-
pose large per centage Of tho !capi-
tai ncscessary for the transaction Of
the business ofthe country sand whi!e
this Is said here at home, Republicans
in the west arc asking for more cur
rcncy, because they believe more cur
rency is necessary for healthy tone
Of business.
When the minority OF Republicans
unitedly see both the cause and effect
of the mistaken fiuaucial policy of
their leaders, it will come to un end,
and hardly before. Not only is the
debt-pnying policy failure, LIT the
revenue of tho country has been tam
percd with, and tariff made In tho
interests of the few Mt the expense o,
the many. Twenty millions of rcvc-
nuc arc kept from the treasury in n
reasonable tax upon tea aud coffee,
to help wooden screws, nickel, steel,
iron, wool, aud few other jobs aud
very often, as it tncns out, the thing
Is much overdonc. On tho score of
business, therefore, what las been
done has not been well done.
But we trust aud believe no gener-
al bankruptcy is looming up in the
distance. The times are very hard
with many, and especially with manu-.
factursrs, merchants and men of the
trades, and tho terrible ravages by
Dire have added, and are daily addin"
10 these calamitics; and the year 1873
promises 10 be rs bad as 1912, when,
| according to circular issued by one
| of the prominent mercantile agencies
| of the country for 1872, there were
LOCO mercantile failures, with liabili-
ties of :Sl2l ,O56 eco, aad showing a
| large increase over 1871, when there
| were 2.9l5 failures. with liabilities
aggregaiing SS5, 252, 900. The increase
it is Is said was caused mainly by
the Chicago and Boston fires. Thus,
in liabilities Illinois rose $3.50, 900 to
S11 500. 900, while Massachusetts wcni
from So, ,0O0, 900 to s;25 ,O00, 900, and i'll
these two States there is nearly two
thirds of the increase; and probably
lif we could trace the effect beyond
| Illinois and Massachusetts, We woulC
be able to account for the remainder
of the increase. New York in eacI
year exhibited about twenty milliOn'
aud three-quarters of losses, hel
figures thus remaining fixed, whilst
PennSylvauia rose from seven to'niI(
millions.
But. apart from these fires, we nj
know that in mercantile affairs 1877
was not n money making year, and
the s;,l;.- is SO far most true of 1873
Bat there is room for improvcme At
and we trust we shall see it. Fore
warned and forcarmcd. The Admin
isiraiion has great powers for the de-
preston as well as imitation, amu
Congress could, if it would, do Won
ders for the people by steady and
fixed financial policy, looking to rcvc
nue. and economy alone.
1t is not good sign when III time:
like these, appropriations largely i'll
crease and economy is lost sight of
aud this is true both in all our Fet,er
al aud State legislation III 1873. Con
tideucc and integrity, capacity ant
capital, are the four requisites o
successful business, and if Govern
ment cannot keep all these directly
it can indirectly, and ve-v effcciuall,
do SO, without intcrfe ing will
what does not belong to it.-[N. Y
Express.