Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-09-29
Platform Lying.

The platform of the St. Louis
Convention which nominated Til
den, says:
we denounce the lmprovidence which.
IN eleven years of peace, has taken from
the people in Federal taxes thirteen times
the whole amount of the legal.tender
notes, and squandered four times their
sum in useless expense without accumu
latlng any reserve for their redemption.
Here is an inexcusable and very
foolish falsehood, embodied in the
platform of the party that proposes
to be working for reform and purity.
1t is foolish lie, because the records
OF the government furnish an easy
refutation of it. In a letter address
ed to Senator Cragin, Chas. F. Co.
nant, Asst. Secretary of the Treasury,
produces the facts and figures, to
brand the above utterance of the
Democratic platform, as deliberate
and shameless attempt to deceive the
people. Mr.. Commits statement. to
which his name and official designa-
ton is attached, shows that the
amount of legal-tendernotes ontstand-
ing, is s369,619,22s; thirteen times
that amount will give us the alleged
amount of Federal taxation in eleven
years, S4,s05, O49, 1854, and four times
the amount, will give Us the amount
alleged in the Democratic platform,
to have been squandered in useless
expense, $1,47s,476,al2. Now what
are the facts. The official tables
show that during the eleven years al
luded to, the government has receiv-
ed for taxation only rs follows:
From duties on imported goods. 81 ,973 $50 6s1 26
from internal revenue taxes. $50 1S5.S13 81
From direct tax. 9,947. $50 "a
In all. .............. ...... 3,sOo, 7aa, 766 II
Or less than the amount alleged
by..............-..... 1896, 327. 1893 go
Butthere are other sources of reve-
nue., i'll no sense derived from taxation,
which might therefore be left out of
the account, as the Democratic argu-
ment above only refers to ''Fcderal
taxes" Let us include them how
ever. The government received dur
ing the ''eleven years of peace"
amounts as follows:
From sales of public lands .. SCI, 100 359 Is
From premiums ON loans and sales
From miscellaneous sources, such
as profits on coinage, sales Of con-
demned property, patent fees, in
come FROM seal islands, &c. ...... 1919, $50 293 Ga
Combining these amounts with
that received from taxation, the total
receipts of the government during
the period in question, will be but
s4,l92, 633,sOl.34, which is less than
the amount alleged in the St.
Louis platform to have been received
for taxation alone, by s6l2,416,l6 1922
&C.
Now let us turn to the other count
in the St. Louis indictment of the
Republican party, namely. that
it has squandered in useless ex-
pense, four times the sum of the le-
gal-tender notes. OF the moneys col
lected by the government during the
past eleven years, there have been
paid
For interest on the public debt 81, 1876 81, Sl5 81
For redemption of the public debt Csc ,992, 246 a
For pensions. Observation-Disclosures. 296 229 S65 sc
For payment of claims arising
from the war, bountes. premi-
ums received as far as ascertain
ed by careful examination Of
the books of tie Department. Coz, 25s, 4O7 50
Total. Observation-Disclosures &, s93, S25, 1865 SO
This leaves for the payment of all
the expenses of the government for
eleven years, army, navy, Congress,
the civil list, Indians, foreign inter-
course, including the purchase Of
Alaska, and the largely multiplied