Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-12-08
THE NEW YORK TARIFF CON.
VENTI0N.
Shall Internal Taxes be Abolished? !?
Extracts From the Speech Of
Hon. W. ID. Kelley.
PAYING THE DEBT TOO FAST.

PAYING THE DEBT TOO FAST.
The time has come when we must de-
termine whether our system of internal
taxes shall be abolished or perpetuated.
If these taxes are to be perpetuated, the
present Congress or its immediate sue
cessor must revise our entire revenue
system. If the reduction of revenue
which is inevitable be long delayed, our
excessive income will require changes
so sudden and momentous as TO convulse
our financial, industrial, and commercial
systems.
During the last fiscal year We raid
more than S101. 100000 of debt. To dc
this required the abstraction from the
current income of the people of Sc o.
0O0, 600 in excess of the ordinary expen-
ditures of the government aud require.
ments of the sinking fund. This year
judging by the receipts for the first four
months, we shall pay Sl50,O00O00 OF
debt. and shall exact from the people
more than eI00,0O0,0O0 in excess OF cur
rent expenditures and the requirements
of the sinking fund. Could these unpre-
cedented amounts of surplus revenue be
applied to the absorption of our bonds
at par till the whole debt should be paid
| off, there would be reason for maintain
ing these enormous annual exactiOns.
have never believed that national debt
| is a national blessing, but have regarded
our policy of the prompt payment of
debt imposed by war or other Overpow-
ering exigency as among the wisest and
most conservative of our t411tiOns.
consequently esteem il misfortune that
bonds have been issued for such long
periods that the debt may not be aid at
par within twelve years. as it. would
have been by such annual payments as
we are now making had the government
retained the control of its debt secured
by the $40 clause in our early bonds.
That we have refunded much of our
debt at Az and per cent is, in my
judgment, no compensation for the sur
render of its control which was reserved
by this clause.
1t will, therefore, he well to ask. what
are the annual requirements of so much
Of our debt as we may redeem at par in
the coming twentysiX years. The win
doms" or extended or 8 per cents. will
be reduced to less than S500,0OO, 900 be
fore the legislation which l propose can
go into effect. These are the bonds that
we are now paying with such unwhole-
some rapidity. There are, as | have said.
PAYABLE at the convenience of the gov
eminent, and are the only bonds which
we can pay at par within the next ten
years. The next series, S250,000,000 of
AZ per cents, mature ten years hence, or
on the 1st of September, 1891, and these
again are the only bonds which we can
redeem at par during the sixteen years
following that date, or before the 1st of
July, 1907, when the S72s,7lO.S5O of
per cents. will mature. To pay the win
doms" by equal annual payments in ten
years, or before the maturity Of the 4 Il
per cents, would require the application
of less than s50,O00,0OO per annum. To
proceed to pay them at the rate at which
we reduced our debt last year and are
now reducing it, would require little
more than three years. This done, the
choice would be between a reduction of
our revenue the extent and violence of
which would disturb our entire trade, or
the application of an immense annual
surplus to the purchase of bonds at such
premium as they might command in
Wall street. The question Congress
must soon decide is, whether it will not
be as we'll to avoid this dangerous alter
native by relieving the people of inter-
nal taxes, as to maintain them with all
their vexations for the purpose Of buy
ing unmatnred bonds at premium.
Let us extend our inquiry from the
conditions rendered by a decade to those
which characterize a quarter of a centu-
ry. During the coming twenty-six years
we can redeem at par the Windows"
and the AZ per cents, which will togeth-
er amount to about $750,000,000. To
meet this amount by constant annual
payments would require less than $780,
100000 per annum. a system of revenue
which will provide for the current sx-
penses of the government and enable it
to apply S29,000,000 per annum to the
payment of its interest bearing debt will
therefore enable it to meet its bonded
engagements with fidelity and prompti-
tude for the next quarter of a century.
To collect larger revenue will impose
upon the people exactions in restraint
of trade uncalled for by the necessities
of the government.
The acceptance of Congress of these
views will leave the disposition of $685.
100000 of our debt to those who shall
administer the government more than a
quarter of century hence. 1t is not
payable now 1t will then be redeema-
bic at par, and its management may be
safely intrusted to generation upon
whom its payment was devolved by men
who supposed that the country would
find in a reduced rate Of interest COM
pensation for the surrender of the con-
troll of its debt by the acceptance of
thirty year bonds.
EVILS OF INTERNAL TAXES.
have hastily invited your attention
to the destructive effect of the match
tax upon manufacturers whose capital
was small; to the fact that the tax on
cigars is heavy direct burden on man.
ual labor, and to the many harsh and in
trieate regulations by which manufac-
turers of cigars on small scale are har-
assed, These have given rise to many
just protests. But the taxes on spirits
and tobacco have been even more harsh
and aggravating in their effect on the
holders of small tracts of land in many
parts of the South. AS many Pennsyl-
vania farmers, prior to 1861, distilled
each year few barrels of pure whisky
to sell after it should have attained
given age; so Southern owners of small
orchards, or of few fruit trees around
the dwelling house, were in the habit of
distilling their fruit. 1t was to the sale
of their peach brandy or apple whisky
that many Of them looked for the cash |
with which to pay taxes and doctors
bills, and to procure an occasional arti- |