The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-08-10
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent ]

| rom our lNcsuiaI correspondent
WASHINGTON. ID. c., Aug s, 1888.
One of the agreeable features in the
matter of our national finances is the
great reduction in the cost of collecting
the revenues. During the year ending
June 80, the receipts from the internal
revenue were $l44, 553, S66.96, for the
collection of which there was paid out
1920 600, or less than three and one
hdf per cent, 1t used to be said under
the Johnston administration. and to some
extent reiterated under the administration
Of General Grant, that the actual cost &c
The Government to get dollar into the
treasury was more th&n the dollar itself
but this financial retrogression was never
satisfactorily demonstrated, in the face OF
the fact that the national debt was being
reduced to the extent of three million
per month under both of these admins
trations, and up to this time at the rate
| o. uNt LiIlluho pei hiOhtA uuuNl tHN
Hayes and Arthur dynasty.
OF this large amount received in q
single wear, Illinois contributes more thar
one sixth, or twentysix millions in round
numbers, as her Quota OF tax, principally
on spirits. And what is particularly no
table, the same State is levied upon fol
nearly one half of all the tax collected
| ,,,,,v, .,,;r;ts IN tho rpbola cOuntrv thu
Empire State coming in as second, with
Ohio and Kentucky practically making
up'the remainder of the receipts from this
source, which last year footed up close
/ upon seventy millions The announce
ment that there will be but a slight, il
any, reduction in the principal of the
national debt for the month OF July
comes of the sweeping reductions in the
receipts for stamps upon matches anC
bank checks and the rebate upon cigar:
and Tobacco in bond, which alone calls fol
thirty millions of dollars. With the pro
spect that there will be Vet more sweep
ing.reductions by the Democratic Con-
gress next year, the country will gradually
work down to the limit of paying the
interest or the public debt and let the
principal take care of Itself and the gen
erations to whom it shall be heritage,
Twenty years ago no American living
could have entertained the thought thai
the United States with all her unlimited
resources, and with all the unstinted
patriotism and loyalty of her people, could
have borne up under debt of two thous
and Of dollars, when We were worrying
ourselves almost TO death over an indebt.
edness that did not cover one tenth OF
that now owed by single city
Nor do the people of the present day
seem to realize that our public debt
Flarge as it is, is not so large by one
fourth as another public debt which
must be paid from the pockets of the
people. and that is the debt con trect.
ed BIZ the railroad corporations of the
country and amounting to the round
sum of sixty five hundred millions OF
dollars! Every mile of the more than
100, 900 miles of railroad, with every
bridge and tunnel and station, and every
part and parcel of structure and super
structure, with every particle of rolling
stock pertaining thereto, are under mort
gage to that class of foreign bondholder'
who viii exact the last drop of BLOOD
| nominated in the bond. 1t is a debt o.
that popularity of construction thai
enables it to perpetuate itself, and NJ
possible forecast can be taken as to the
particular generation that will eXtinguish
| it. While every dollar of our natiOna
debt that is paid is the cessation of sc
much of draft upon the resources Of
the people, every payment upon a rail
| road debt is attended with additional bur
dens upon the travel and commerce Of
the nation The public as it pays one
bond. finds itself confronted with two tC
take the place of the one eXtinguished
and the fifteen hundred millions of dol
lars that have been the of foreclosure il
the last eight years, or since 1874, have
been augmented by hearty triple thai
sum in the stock watering trash calleC
securities
To form some idea of the extreme faci
! lily with which railroad Indebtedness il
created take the statistics of the bes
authority upon such matters From
these it will be seen that IN 1872 tn
Indebtedness by railroads in the United
States amounted to 500, 116 per mile, ant
| this was more than double the actual cos
of construction. Nine years later tn
! Indebtedness was increased to S64, A
per mile, or sixteen per cent greater thai
! in 1872, when the fictitious values of on
currency affected stocks of every charac
| ter, helping to precipitate the crash o
1878, and swelling the railroad indebted
ness out of all proportion by the forcet
issuance of watered stock. Yet railroad
building goes on and continue to 60 OIL
until the country is absolutely gridironet
with them, and every rod of subsidized
railroad land in the hands OF Wall street
And there follows to the far west il
track of him who would go and 'groy
up with the country the blessed privileg
of meeting a tax to pay off q railroa
mortgage laid upon railroad presumption
years before the shrek of any locomOtiv
had loaned its echoes to the forest an
prairies; and upon these lands are lai
already a burden of twenty seven hun
bred millions of dollars, of which th
public win pay the railroads never cent
Then in its good time will come the epoc
of reorganization of railroad indebted
ness by which the frightful increase Q
interest and watering may be dc
creased if not altogether checked by
repetition of the disaster of 10.
Dom PEDRO.
THE FIRST PUBLIC PRAYER IN DENVEF