Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-10-02


and forbidding in any event the creation OF a
debt beyond specified per centage of the official
valuation of the city or town; providing at the
same time judicious safeguard against the over
tapping of county debts so that while the town
was guarding its credit with care 1t should not be
involved in the embarrassment caused by an eX-
travagant extension of the credit OF the county.
And finally a governing principle, ii would
be well TO apply TO all State, county and municipal
debts, the wise precaution contained in that
famous and aforementioned rule laid down by
Mr.. jefferson the basis of all sound national
credit. quote the words of the great philosophlc
statesman equally applicable to all possible
forms OF Public obligation, and as aiiordlng
basis at once secure for the creditor and ad'ah-
tageous for the debtor:
"Ncyer borrow dollar without laying tax
% at the same instant, for paying the interest an
"nuallv, aud the principal within gwen term )
and consider that tax pledged TO the creditors
"on the public faith. On such pledge as this,
sacredlv observed, a government may always
command on a reasonable interest, all the
"lendabc money of its citizens; whilst the neces-
"sitv of an equivalent tax Is a salutary warning
alto them and their constituents against oppres-
as sion, bankruptcy, ana It's lneNlabic consequence,
"revolutlon
But gentlemen, looking at the serious side of
this question with the gravity which is becoming,
let US not be led into gloom de ponder cy or
encouragement of any Kind whatever Though
our burden he great we are abundanty able to
bear II and TO prosper and grow strong under 1t.
Our progress in population aud IN wealth /, so
rapid that The debt which weighs upon us TO day
is light as feather tomorrow and If we can but
exercise the ordinary prudence of seli-preserva-
ton our future as a peope Will far surpas5 IN
power and in riches the most eXtiavagant ca'cu-
lations based on our progress IN tue past-woEscr
full as that progress has been
Ii is but eighty five years since our government
was organized-wth a population of less than
four millions, and valuation of property for tie
entire thirteen Staies not exceeding six hundred
millions of dollars $500 900 000)-scarccly one
half of the actual wealth of your own great State
to-day Facilities foi nter-communlcaton we've
then greatly restricted, manufactures AID the arts
we're ia fceblest infancy, agriculture was rude aud
not highly remuneralive because Its hand maid,
commerce, had not be- qnickcned into life and
vgor. Property at that tune was ill-adapted to
bear taxation, profits small, wages were low,
and to the political economist measuring the con-
dton and capacity of the country 1t seemed utter
" unable to carry a debt of any considerable
magnitude. And vet our ancestors did not hest
tate to assume the Revolutionary debt of ninety
millions $3.50, 000,000) more than one-seventh of
all the property they owned Mr.. Jefferson, who
was the most dstrustful of all the leading states
men of that day in regard to the ability of the
nation to sustain the load, was yet willing to adj
nit that it could he easily borne if the rates OF
increase in population and wealth then calculated
upon should be realized. 1t may teach us a les
son of trust and hopefulness to remember that the
population of less than seventeen millions o.
900 000) in 1870, and an aggregate wealth at the
same period of less than four thousand millions of
dollars $4,000 100000. Our population, vastly as
it has outran the prophecies referred to, exhibits a
ratio far below the increase of wealth which in
1870 had reached the enormous aggregate OF thirty
thousand millions $3.50, 000, 900 900, nearly eight
fold greater than the anticipated increase which
Mr.. Jefferson had regarded as too sanguine.
Taking our total National State, county and mu-
thrtv-two hundred millions (S3, 200 00O,0 00), or
little more than one tenth of the entire property
of the country, estimated in the census of 1870,
and probably not over one-fiftecnth of the actual
wealth of the country to-day. i his you will
observe is far less ratio of debt to property than
the government assumed in 1890, while our rate
of increase and our power OF creating wealth
transcend the same capacities OF that day IN so
large degree that do not know Of any compar-
ison or unit of measure that could give any
adequate conception of its vastness.
1t may, however, serve to give us some idea of
our enormous productive power to reflect that III
point of annual income and earnings we stand TO-
day at the head of all the rations-far exceeding
Great Britain, France, Russia or the German
Empire. Next to us indeed comes Great Britain,
but all the earnings and income of that Kingdom
will not exceed five thousand millions of dollars
$1,000 000,00O), whereas we are in excess of six
thousand millions ($6 900 900 ,000) both reckoned
on gold basis and both tables Of statistics quoted
from British authority. Moreover our present
annual rate of increase IN income resulting from
increase of population and of laborcrs, and from
improvements in machinery, is about one hundred
and twenty millions of dollars (Sl20 900, 000)-and
this, regardless of occasional reverses and financial
panics, is absolutely progressing in sort of geom
etric ratio. Many who now hear me will live to
the population of this country reach one hun
bred millions 900 DOC, 000), and by calculations
which will err in being too small if they at all,
our annual income will then exceed fifteen thou
sand millions ($l5, 900, 900 000)-or five times a.
much earned and realized every year our entire
public debt Of all forms is to-day.
The inquiry is pressed home to us, why, in view
of our enormous income and earnings are we
such a borrowing nationf If we earn and receive
more each year Than Great Britain or France, OF
the German Empire why are we borrowers from
III I'm Why do they and not we hold the bulk OF
our national securities, besides vast n proper
lion of State Loans and Railway indcbte dness
The question is serious but the answer Is easy.
IL Is simply because spend more lavishy than
any other nation the world. Our people live
better and live faster, have more abundant food
and better clothing, more extensive Houses and
furniture and outfit, and equipage than those OF
any other nation in the world. SO that with all
our enormous income we save far less than some
European nations whose gross annual receipts are
| far below ours. But If for single decade we
should by any conccr of action live on a. econom-
ical scale in this country they do in The most
favored Europe Kingdoms, or as we did our
selves only twenty five years ago. we should
enough to call every American Stock aud Bond
from the colt Is of 70 cign Bank crs, and should
pay OIL wi h case our entire national debt or at
| least have it held among our own people, which
in itself would constitute snail decrease of its
burden. II such return TO our old habits of
| economy were practicable and practced, and the
| drain of gold coin to Europe TO pay interest on
our bonded Indebtedness thereby stopped !
venture to affirm that many problems of finance,
now dis urbns the people and pcrplexing the
Legislator, would find an easy soluton-nay,
would not even remain to be solved at all.
There is one feature III our progress to which |
have already made incidental reference which
despite all drawbacks of personal extravaganza or
national crises gives us solid assurance for the
future. 1t is, that rapid as may be our increase
in population, increase in property is in a
vastly greater ratio From 100 to 1870 our
population increased about one thousand per cent.
but our property increased about five thousand
per cent. In other words our population in 1870
was ten times as large as in 1870, while our prop
erty in 1870 was fifty times great as it was in
1890. We can hardly assume for the future that
our wealth will grow five times as rapidly as our
population, but think with all the labor-saying
appliances that modern invention is producing,
and with the high vantage ground we already
possess in that regard, we may safely count on
such a rapid increase Of material wealth as will in
a very brief period render our indebtedne ss-if it
be not unwisely increased-an inconsiderable