Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1877-05-11
Artificial Agencies for Business Revival

There is q class Of men in this country
which embraces congressman, state and other
officials, few journalists and the great body
Of those who desire to realize fortunes by
using or appropriating public money, that
it is the legitimate sphere Of government to
build railroads and its duty to give employ.
ment to those who have none. A number Of
journalists have advocated the building Of the
Texas Pacific railroad by the aid of the ma.
tional government, the building Of levees
along the Mississippi and the commencement
Of an extensive system Of national works,
chiefly for the purpose OF giving the unem-
ployed employment and fresh impetus to
business. For this same purpose they have
advised congress to appropriate money for
the building Of new navy and to make pro-
visions for the increase Of the army. They
labor under the impression that "good times"
can be secured by an act of Congress, the
resolve Of state legislature or the order of
city council, provided the several official
acts appropriate large sums Of money, to be
expended in giving employment to the idle
and to start into activity the machinery OF
business. 1t matters not whether or not the
railroad which this money builds ever pays
its running expenses, or the sum expended
in making creek Davigable river ever
bears a sail upon its tide. so long as the
money is put where the people can get it by
LABOR. The bonds voted by state for a
great Improvement may only prove burden
to the tax. payer, which in time he will re-
pudiate, aud the millions expended in the
ornamentation of cities may simply open q
sluice-way for millions more, yet as the pres
ent building will give employment to the idle,
Gil empty houses with tenants and retail
stores with customers, and thereby stimulate
a temporary revival of business. such policy
is advocated by very intelligent gentlemen.
To make these improvements, or rather to
give employment to people and start business,
Congress can issue, some of these political
economists hold, paper evidences of indebted
ness which they call money; aud the state
legislature and the city council can issue
bonds for the next generation to pay provid-
ed the present one pays the interest. In eli
Their case, in plain words it is a method Of
becoming prosperous by spending all one can
get. 1t is device for arti6cially infusing
life into the exhausted business system of the
country which can only be compared with
that activity which draught of brandy in
spires in the system of the worn-out debau-
chez. IL is a newly-discovered method of
estimating ones wealth by the amount Of
notes Of hand he hes in circulation.
1t seems that no argument is necessary to
convince sensible people that all such pro.
jects for the revival of business are shallow
devices, which will only make the present
difficulties greater by seeking momentary re-
lief through the same agencies which have
produced them in the first instance. IL con-
gress, the state legislature or the city coun-
Gil could 60 on perpetually calling evidences
Of indebtedness money and net debts, and by
so doing not add to existing burdens, it would
be we'll to afford relief to enforced idleness
aud to infuse activity by such artificial means
into the channels of trade and industry. But
this is impossible. There must be day Of
reckoning. That day may come in the form
OF business revulsion like the panic Of Sep
TENDER, 1873. 1t may come in the form oil
T taxes, which crush all enterprise.
If our lawmakers, national, state or mu.
nicipal, belong to the school Of politicl econ
omists who believe that it is q function OIL
government to remedy the results OF reck.
lessness or improvldence of the millions by
providing labor where over stimulated pro
duction and extravagant methods cause the
wheels Of legitimate industry to run slowly
or to give fresh impulse to business which
has become exhausted through excited spec
ulation, let them do it by immediate taxa
ton, and thereby place the burden from
which they would realize their benefits upon
those who are to receive them. 10 other
words, let the gentleman who would have the
city Of Boston vote million dollars largely
. because it would afford employment to hun
dreds, Gil vacant houses with tenants and
shops with cash customers, provide also that
the men who receive this money as wages
rents aud profits in trade shall be promptly
assessed for that sum, and thereby be made
to pay the price of theie own prosperity
rather than burden the next generation with
it.