New-York tribune., 1875-02-13
ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION.

iUUiIION AND lIOf.
Let SECRETARY Bristow, Mr.. Dawes, Mr.. Gar
field, and the rest Of them befOg the condition
and prospects of the Treasury as much as they
please nothing more abStruse is involved in
the question than simple addition and subtrac-
;ion All that we need to know is: O) How
much the Government is going to expend, and,
(2) How much the present taxes are likely to
produce The difference is the sum required,
and the question to be decided is whether this
sum shall be obtained (D by cutting down ex-
penscs (2) by more efficient collection OF
the revenue; or (3) by an increase OF taxes.
We know that the present proposition Is to
raise forty million dollars a year by an in"
crease of taxes, but the other elements OF the
problem are not given, and consequently the
necessity for increased taxation is not shown.
On the 23d of June last Mr.. Dawes solved
the problem as follows:
IT, therefore, receipts met the expenditures for
last year and S50OOo0o. with the expenditures
next year less and the receipts equal To what
they last year, gentlemen will sec zoe wW certainly
be in a condition meet expenditures aud the sink
ing fund.- and too. SO, without taking any credit
to the Committee Ways and Means for their policy,
for their policy has been negative policy, holding back
In obedience vote of the House instructing them not
to impose until it was found absolutely neces
sary aud with such reduction OF expenditures as we
have seen failure to from the past deficiency
in thereceipts meet every demand upon need
not be looked for. The receipts pW be equal 10 all The
demands upon them 10 carry On ne serece or ne Gorern
n,ent for he nert fiscal year.
1t remains for Mn Dawes to explain why
the above solution is not as good on the 18th
of February, 1875, as it was on the 23d of
June, 1874.
/. The surplus was rs great for the fiscal
year 1874 as Mr.. Dawes estimated it. The
Public Debt was on
June 30 1873. $50, ,47,8l8,7l3 81
juno go 1874. 2.l43,OSS,2i1 IL
Decrease S473O,472 fl
.. AS to the expenses we are left in the
dark. They clearly are not twenty-six mil
lion dollars less this year than they were last
but why are they mott If they were twenty
six million dollars less they would barely fall
below the total expenditure of 1872. This
question of the expenditures MIR. Dawes, unless
the telegraphic summary of his remarks does
him great injustice, carefully avoids But it
is the expenditures that the public above all
things are entitled to know about. Are they
twenty six million dollars less, or are they
lust as great, or are they greater than they
were last year7
3. In regard to the receipts, we are informed
that they are S3,379,0O0 less for seven months
than they were for the corresponding seven
months of last year-S3,379,00O only. and
FORTY MILLIONS more taxes are to be
levied, if the bill reported by Mr. Dawes be-
comes Il law! The so-caled "lttle tariff bill
is to raise four millions, and the bill now
pending the other thirty-six.
1t is not even clear that the receipts this
year will be dollar less than they were last.
They certainly would not be were the reve-
nues collected with fidelity. Supposing them
to turn out equal TO last years the entire
forty millions stand to the debit of Mr.
Dawes's ante-electIOn estimate. He boldly
told the country in June last that with re-
ceipts no greater than last years, and ex-
penses twenty-six millions less, the Sinking
Fund would certainly" be provided for.
And twenty-six added to five plainly
make thirty-on the sum required. But
now he steps forward and demands forty
millions more in taxes to make his promised
contribution to the Sinking Fund Give him
five, nay, be liberal, and give him ten mil
lions, on the score of diminished receipts,
and he still stands on record as having un-
derstated the expenditures thirty million dol
lars. The times are hard. Debts and taxes
are pressing. but Congress aud the Admins