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

| iroii Tue apie speech delivered by Cen
eral Butler at the New Hampshire State
Fair to all who take an interest in the
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 sections 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
Pacity, to so Ito debt, canuot have cs
capped the attention Of every discerning
mind. Indeed, drawing drafts on the
future, payable by posterity, and bur
dening the present generation to pay
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 poiti
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
ernmeut is owing $4,000, ,OOJ 900, on
"hich we are paying, as interest, an
average of rising six per cent, reckon
ing that interest in the currency with
which all our products are measured
AT least three fourths of that mount is
due to foreign bankers and capitalists.
If this were all, and nc other consc1u.
cnccs arose from it, there need be little
anxiety, and it would hardly be worth
the atteAtion of the Statesman or ccono.
mist iii calculating the future of the
nation. Divided among forty millions
of people, in country of the expansc
and resources of ours, it would be easily
nlanaged, But every State,in this Tn
ion, with hardly an exception, has debts
amounting in the aggregate to quito
100000, 900 But our Indebtedness
does not stop there Quito every country,
every city and town in every State in
the Union owes debts, more or lc,s, to
an amount in the aggregate tn perhaps
one half as much us the debts of the
States, including the advances made 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
furor of Indebtedness yet stop A limo t
every college add 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 posterity to get the means of hearing
the Gospel. All know that very large
majority of the thousands Of churches
| which the census shows have buildings
dotting our lands, have been built on
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
S120,000,000, which we must annually
pay abroad. only $4,000, 900 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 90
bnck further than the conclusion Of the
war, our imports Of ioreig On 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, by expanding our inter