The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1883-08-18
Our Washington Letter
[ouR REGULAR LETTER /

| Gun REGULAR LETTER
WASHINGTON, D. c., August l3. 1883
One of the agreeable features in the
matter Of our national finances is the
or sat reduction in the cost of collecting
th1 revenues. Daring the year ending
Jane 80, the receipts from internal re We
n lie were Sl44 553 366,96, for the collec-
tiol of which there was paid out SIS, 100 :
900, or less than three aud one-half per
cent 1t used to be said under the John.
son administration, and to some extent
reiterated under the administration OF
General Grant, that the actual cost TO the
Government TO get dollar into the
Treasury was more than the dollar itself;
but this financial rctrogression was never
satisfactorily demonstrated, iu The face OF
the fact that the national debt was being
reduced to the extent of three millions
per month under both Of these admins
traitor s, and up to this time at the rate
of five millions per month under the
Hayes and Arthur dynasty.
OF this large amount received in sin
gle year, illinois contributes more than
one.siXtb, or twenty.six millions i'll round
numbers, as her quota OF tax, principal
~ on spirits. And what is particularly
notable, the same State is levied vi on
for near Y one-half of Gll the tax coll, CT
ed upon spirits III the whols country, the
Elm ,Jire state coming iu as second, with
Oaio and Kentucky practically making
up the remainder of the receipts from thir
source, which last year footed up clos,
upon seveuy mliliuus. The announce.
meut thnt there will be but slight. il
any. reduction in the principal Of tLt
national debt for the month of July
comes of the sweeping reductions IN the
receipts for stamps upon matches ano
bank checks and the rebate upon tobsc c.
co and cigars in bond which alone calls
for more than thirty millions of dolld; s.
With the prospect that there will be yet
more sweeping reductions by the Demo-
fsliq Ga8SpRhaftsssr aS RhatsrrSt stz On tie pa6ic debt
aud let the principal take care of itself
an the gene ratious to whom it shall be
a heritage.
Twenty years ago no American living
could have entertained the thou ht hat
the United States with all her unlimited
resources, aud with all the unstinted pa
triotiam aud loyalty Of her people, could
have borne up under debt of two thous.
and millions of illarS, when we were
worrying ourselves almost to death ovel
an Indebtedness that did not cover one
tenth of that now owed by single city.
Nor do the people Of the present da
seem to realize that our public debt ,larg,
as it is, is not so large by one.fuuIth as
another publ dett which must be pal
from the pockets of the people, and tina,
is the debt contracted by the railroac
corporations Of the county y, and amount.
Ing to the round sum Of sixty.five hum
dred millions of dollars! Every mile OF
the more than 100 600 miles of .ilrCad,
with every bridge and tunnel and station
and every part and parcel Of structure
an superstrnclure, with every particle
ot rolling stock pertaining thereto, are
un Ter mortgage to that class Of foreign
bondholders who will exact the last droI
Of blood nominated in the bond. 1t is n
debt OF that peculiarily of instruction
that enables 1t to perpetuate itself, and
no possible forecast can be taken as to
the particular geutration that will ex-
tingulsh it. While every dollar of our
national debt that is paid is the cessation
OF 50 much ofa draft upon the Iesourc,
OF the people, every payment upon
railroad debt is attended with additional
burdens upon the travel and commerc,
nf the nation. The public as it pays on,
bond, finds itself confronted with two ol
more which take the place of the on,
extinguished; aud the fifteen hundred
millions of dollars that Lave been th,
subject of forecl sure iu the last eigh,
years, or since 1874, have been aug
meuted by nearly triFle that sum in the
stoek-watering trash call d securlties
To form some idea Of the extreme fo-
cility with which railroad indebtedness,
Is created take the statistics of the bes,
authority upon such matters. From
these it will be seen that in 1872 the in.
debtedness by railroads in the United
States amounted to $50, Jig per mile, and
Ills WAS more than double the actual
cost Of construction. Nine Years later
the Indebtedness was increased TO s64
AL per mile, OF sixteen per cent ereat,r r
than IN 1872, when the fictitious ynlues
ol our paper currency affected stocks OF
every Character. helping TO precipitate
the crash Of 1873, aud swelling the rail
road Indebtedness out Of all propor,io,
by the forced issuance of watered stock
i't railroad lu liirg goes on and will
continue to 60 on until the country * ab.
s"lattly griulroned with them. and .v,rv
rod OF subsidized railroad hand in tbs
bands OF Wall AS.reet Aud there follows
TO tae i"r West in the track OF him wi o
"onld 20 aud grow up with the c,un-
try" the blessed privilege Of meeting n
tax TO pay "a Railroad mortgage laid
upon railroad pre-emptious years before I
lhe shrek OF any locomotive had Io.ned
us echoes to the forest aud pr,irie,; q, a .
upon 'ht"e lands are Land already bur
aen 0i l~en1y-Aevep hundred millions Of