The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-08-07
General Ewing's Spccch,

~ ie eimPio Vi utteraDcC and
ciear as MONDAY, and if Ohio is not car
fied on that showing it will be because
the money power of the country has be-
come the peoples master.
General Ewing reviews Secretary
Shcrman's claims rs a financial bcne.
factor of the country and people. and If
ever daw WIS mercilessly plucked of it's
plumes one by one, the political and
financial Jeremy-diddler is most merci
icssly stripped to the buff.
MIR. Sherman claims that since he took
charge OF the treasury, first deducting
,ho cash III the treasury, the public debt
has been reduced sci ,573.SS6. Mr.
:oheTman now has $249, ,0S0, 900 locked up
ih inc treasury, and tho government is
paying interest on that much debt. which
could be liquidated with this amount: or
at per cent, by keeping unused that
huch money in the treasury, the country
!S Is sinking annually some Sl7 900 900.
nc ltibiic Debt stands.... So 245. .495 .O72
LESS Cash III the trcasury.... q 400, ,OS0 900
Oept 3eyond treasury fund.-. .$I 900, ,415, ,772
AS to the boast of Republican econ-
omy, Mr.. Ewing makes bad showing
lor The great party of moral ideas and
golden charms. General Ewing says:
1he Republican party enters the can
Vass claiming to have administered the
government economically, reduced the
interest on the public debt, and estab-
lished specie payments, and confidently
demands new lease of power rs a pub
lie bcnefactor.
Let US see which of the two great par
llcs IS most entitled to credit for economy
III public expenditures. The Democracy
Tor tour years past has heid the House of
Representatives, and in that time the ap-
preparations for the exnenscs of The gov
crnlncnt, exclusive OF interest on the
public debt, have been $6O4,6I0 900.
For the four years preceding, during
Which the Republican party controlled
appropriations, the same exbenses
amounted to s699,339,0O0; so that the
control of one branch of Congress by the
Democracy for these four years has
saved the people S84,720O00, being an
average of over 21,O00,O00 q year
Since June 80, 1866, the people have
paid S4,3l1 ,000, 900 in Federal taxes, and
out OF that vast sum but S52S,000, coo
nave been applied to the principal of the
public debt. If the Republicans had
been as economical during the nine years
preceding 1873 as the Democrats have
forced them to be since then, the public
debt would have been reduced 1915 ,OOO,-
600 more, without imposing one dollar
of additional taxes on the people. Tho
AL 100000 n year saved siuce 1875 by
the Democratic House have been saved
III spite of the most vehement and de-
termncd resistance of the administers
i tion and the Senate.
The annual expenses of the Federal
government in 1877, for all purposes ex-
cept public debt and pensions, were
1000, ,OOO-nearly twice Us great as
'1r the year 1860, when they were but
s59,O0O,000. 1t is true the population of
The country increased in that seventeen
years nearly so per cent. but admitting
(Which is not the fact) that the expenses
OF the government must increase in the
ratio of increase of population, those ex-
pcnses for 1877 were $27, 100000 greater
than they should have been in the ratio
OF the expenses in 1860, and this, too,
after the Democratic Congress had mado
every reduction which the heads of de-
partments coulc be driven to.
Mr.. Sherman claims great credit for
having successfully funded $S47. 900 900
of the public debt into five, four and q
half and four per cent. bonds since
March 4th, 1877, reducing the interest
paid by the government about $1O,O0O,-
600 year. 1t appears, however, by the
iinrlce report, that the interest on the
public debt paid in 1877 was $97 ,124, 900,
and last year $500, 900, and this year
$105,000,000. In other words, in 1878
and 1879 over thirteen millions more of
interest on the debt has been paid than
when Ar. Sherman took charge of the
funding operation. That large sum is
what the operation ccst. 1t is made up
of bonuses in the shape of double in
tcrest, and Of commissions paid to the
syndycate. Meantime, Mr.. Sherman has
increased the principal of the bonded
debt $50 100000. 1t will take the saw
ings of interest by refunding for eight or
ten years TO pay off this increased bond
cd debt and the bonuses and double in
terest, and get even on the entire opera
ton.
General living then goes on to show
why it IS that American capitalists have
been willing to invest i'll four per cents.
as follows:
"It is because they are practically six
and half per cent. bonds, being exempt
from about two and half per cent. of
taxes which other property pays, and be-
cause the industries of the country have
been SO broken down that capital had
better get six and half per cent, as
surcd by the government, than risk an
investment in almost any industrial pur-
snit Is it great achievement to have
industries perish for want of money, in
order that it may go into untaxed gov
ernment bonds? l admit the desirable
ity of having our debt held at home, so
far as prosperous business leaves a sur
plus for Investment, but the readiness
with which hundreds of millions of
money, heretofore employed in indus
trial pursuits, has been turned into these
bonds, IS only n symptom OF the indus
trial congestion which has drawn The
life blood of business from the cxtremi-
ties TO tho heart, and refuses to send it
back to give life aud strength TO the
body. i
This is just what has been done all
over the United States. Silent mills,
lireless furnaces, scanty wages, want of
work, swarms of tramps, all attest the
success of Mr.. Sherman in 30 shrinking
and diminishing the business of the
country. the wages of working men and
the profits of capitalists engaged in pro-
ductive industry, that money, accumu-
lating in hordes and fearful of all other
investments, was eager to take the six
and half per cent. of interest and ex-
cmption offered by the government,
rather than embark on the dead sen of
industry. venture to say that the peo-
pie of the United States have lost in
Ggcregte wealth in the past five wears