Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-08-27

Dineu area OF l1eSe SCateS - oioVfioi'
square miles, or 5OS,O67 square miles
less than the area of the United States.
Yet the number of men kept constantly
under arms, and consuming the wealth
oftheir brethren without ever themselves
producing one farthing's worth, on this
territory, is equal to one twenty-second
part of the entire population of this
country. This number is considerably
greater than the total population of
Missouri, and is equal to about three
fourths of the population of Illinois.
To put it another way, the number of
men in this territory smaller than the
United States whose only business
Is to threaten to cut each others
Threats is more than three times the en-
tire population of West Virginia, or
twenty times the voting population of
this State. AS will be seen from the
above table, the expense of maintaining
this huge standing menace against the
peace Of society is over $500, 100000
year, or more than one-third of our
whole interest-bearing national debt at
present, or nearly two times the total
appropriations for all departmental our
government, even in this year Of un-
heard-of extravaganza. Is it any Won
der, when productive interests are thus
burdened, when labor and industry are
required to pay yearly sum which, in
three years, would discharge our public
debt, for the maintenance Of an utterly
unproductive, wasteful, and consuming
elass-and this is but one item Of taxa
tion-is it any wonder that national
debts are piling up on the shoulders Of
these belligerent nations, that taxation
is becoming grievous, complaints loud,
socialism prevalent, and emigration in
creasing?
In no one of the nations above enum-
Grated do the ordinary revenues equal
the yearly expenditures, even in this
time of profound peace. In each of
them the public debt is steadily on the
increase.
The question naturally arises, how
long can this state of affairs continue?
Can these nations go on borrowing and
piling debt upon debt indefinitely, with
out reaching any point at which it will
be impossible for them to longer obtain
credit? Undoubtedly not. No nation,
any more than all individual, can live
by borrowing. Moneys lent only with
the expectation that it will be returned.
The more money a nation borrows, the
more it needs to borrow, to pay the
| increased interest on its borrowings.
If these six European nations, with
debts which aggregate the grand sum
Of S14, SIS, 5l6, 235, can not pay the in-
terest upon this sum in time OF
peace without continually borrowing
more to be added to the already swollen
principal, what would be the result of
any general disturbance, such a.
European war? Manifestly, each ma
ton would have to borrow yet unheard-
of millions IN case of war, and, after the
war was over, still further millions tO
pay the interest on the millions borrow
ed during the war. That such q policy
cannot be indefinitely persisted in is al
together beyond a question. In one
way or another, the vast military estab-
lishments of Europe will have to he
abolished or greatly lessened.. They
are certainly working their own des-
truction in more expensive, though
not less certain, way than if they met
on the battle field and fought till they
were mutually eXterminated.