Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1883-08-17
WASHINGTON LETTER.
trrOm Our Regular Correspondent. ]

One OF the agreeable features IN the mat
ter OF our national finances is the great re.
dnclion in the cost Of collecting the reve-
nucs. During the year ending June 30,
the receipts from internal revenue were
Sl1i, ,553, ,36e 90, for the collection OF which
there was paid out So, 10000, or less than
three and one hall per cent. II nsed to be
said under the johnson administration,
and TO some extent reiterated under the
administration OF General Grant, that the
actual cost to tic Government 10 get
dollar into the treasury was more than the
dollar itself but this financial retrogres--
sion was never satisfactorily demonstrated,
in the face OF the fact that tile nationa,
debt was beng reduced to the extent cf
three millions per month under both of
ticse administrations, aud up to this time
at the rate Of five millions per month un'
der the Hayes and Arthur dynasty.
OF this large amount received in single
year, Illinois contributes more than one
sixth, or twenty six millions in round mum.
bers, M her quota Of tax, principally on
spirits. And what Ia particularly notable,
the same State is levied upon for nearly
one half Of all the tax collected upon spir-
its in the whole country, the Empire State
coming in Ms second, with Ohio and Ken
lucky practically making up the remain
der OF the receipts from this source which
last year footed up close upon seventy mil
lions. The announcement that there will
he but n slight, If nnv, reduction in the
principal ui the national debt for the month
of July, comes Of the sweeping reductions
in the receipts for stamps upon matches
and bank checks and the rebate upon TO-.
bacco and cigars in bond, which alone
calls for more than thirty millions of dol
lars. With the prospect that there will be
yet more sweepir G reductions by the Dem
ocratic Congress next year, the country
will gradually work down to the limit OF
paying the interest on the public debt, and
let the principal take care of itself and the
generations to whom it shall be heritage.
| Twenty years ago no American living
could have entertained the thought that
the United States with all her unlimited
resources, and with all the unstinted pat
riotism and loyalty of her people, could
have borne up under debt of two thous
and millions of dollars, when we were
worrying ourselves almost to death over an
Indebtedness that did not cover one.tentl
of that now owed by single city. Nor dc
the people of the present day seem to real
ize that our public debt large as it il, i,
not SO large by one fourth as another pub
lie debt which must be paid from til,
pockets OF the people, and that is the deb
contracted by the railroad corporations o
the country, and amounting to the roun,
sum OF sixty-fve hundred millions of dol
lars Every mile Of the more than 100
OO0 niles of railroad, with every bridg
and tunnel and station, and every part an
parcel of structure and superstructur,
3 with every particle OF rolling stock pei
tanning thereto, are under mortgage
: that class of foreign bondhollers who wi
exact the last drop of blood nominated i
e the bond. 1t is debt of that peculiarit
= OF construction that enables it to perpetr
ate itself, and no possible forecast can b
+: taken as TO the particular generatio
I that will extinguish it. While ever
dollar of our national debt that is paid
the cessation OF 30 much of draft upo
: the resources OF the people, every paymel
{. upon railroad debt is attended with az
ditional burdens upon the travel and com
merce OF the nation. The publcas it pa,
2 one bond, finds itself confronted with tw
to take the place OF the one extingushed
:, and the fifteen huhdred millions of dollaI
that have been the subject of foreclosul
d in the last eight years, or since 1874, ha,
!. been augmented by nearly triple that SUI
in the stock watering trash called securtie
d To form some idea of the extreme facil
~ with Which railroad Indebtedness
" created take the statistics of the best a,
r thority upon such matters. From these
e will be seen that in 1872 the indebtednc,
= by railroads in the United States amounte
T. W Scc,llO per Hliity HHu Jhfs was MOI
i than double the actual cost of construction
:, Nine years later the Indebtedness was j,
creased TO S64 AL per mile, or sixteen p
g cent. greater than in 1872, when the fct
IS tious values OF our paper currency afIecle
stoc ks Of every character, helping to pre-
n cipitate the crash of 1873, and swelling Il
e railroad Indebtedness out of all proporlic
a. by the forced issuance of watered stoc
II Yet railroad building goes on ard will col
e inue to 60 on until the country Is abs,
= luIely gridironed with them, and every re
II { t subsidized railroad land in the hands
r Wall street. And then follows to the Il
n west in the track of him who would 9
and grow up with the country" the bles,
c ell privilege OF meeting tax TO pay OIL
railrnd mortgage laid upon railroad pr,
If empti"ns years brlorc the shrek of AZ
" locomotive had loaned its echoes to Il
'e forest and prairies; and upon these Ian,
90 are laid already burden of twenty-sevs
x hundred millions Of dollars, of which Il
% public will pay all and the railroads new
d cent. Then in its good time will con
i the epoch of - reorganization uf rnilroa
Y, Indebtedness by which the irightiul i
ID crease OF interest and stock watering mi
n. he decreased II not altogether checked by
y repetition Of The disaster Of '73.
N DON PEDRO.
ID