The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1884-01-17
Tha Dancer of a surrlus.

Boston Press: The projections
press is fertile Of schemes for dis
posing of the surplus revenue. Mr.
Wharton Barker proposes to dis
tribute it among the states-a plan
which Thomas Benton described il
1886 as ''the folly of collecting with
one hand to pay back with the
other, and both hands to be creased
at the expense of the citizen, who
pays one man to collect the money
from him, and another to bring ii
back to him, minus the interest
and the cost of a double operation
OF fetching and carrying"-and mi
nus the stealings, he might have
added. Another Pennsylvania ge-
MUS recommends that the surplus
be disposed of in the building OF
macadamized military roads by
the general government through
every state in the Union. Other
plans look to the immediate con
struction of a powerful navy, to
the improvement of rivers and
harbors, and to a general subsidiz-
ing of the state common schools.
When congress meets, some of these
schemes, or others having the same
end in view, are certain TO be
pressed upon that body. The
question before congress will be
how to prevent, or how to expend,
the surplus. In one form or an
other, it must be met. A plethoric
treasury cannot be ignored or con
cealed Where the carcass is, there
the vultures gather.
1t does not seem to have Oc-
Cured to the inventors of these IN
genious schemes for disposing of
the treasury surplus that the na
tlonal government has no more
right to collect by taxation 500,
100000 in excess of its estimated
needs, than it has to license free
hooters or to legalize pocket-pick-
ing. The question of statesman
ship the world Overland it is a
question of ethics as WELLS how
to raise the funds necessary for an
economical administration of the
government in the least expensive
and most equitable manner in times
of need and how to prevent an ex-
cessive revenue in times Of greater
prosperity. An English minister
of finance who should propose a tax
levy that would exceed his esti-
mates of expenditure by $4,000,
900, would be hooted out of Office.
And yet we have been and are still
paving from $1OO,000,000 to $780,
100000 more than the actual needs
of our government. Such sur
plus is not only an outrage upon
taxpayers, who are burdened with
war taxes after almost twenty years
of peace, but it is a source of con
slant danger in the temptation
Ehich it offers for extravagant and
unauthorized expenditure. The
arrears of pensions and the river
and harbor jobs would never have
been passed except for the facts of
an 'overfowing treasury" It is an
obstacle to economy in all direc-
tions. What is the need of refus
ing a public building to any ambi-
tious town that asks for it, so long
as there is IAN overfowing treas
uryY' What use is there in reduc-
ing the number of offlce-holders
while there is ''plenty Of money to
pay them? Every scheme Of expen-
diture "makes money circulate free
ly among the people" as a senator
remarked last winter in defending
his own particular job.
The surplus is the capital of the
lobby, the lubricator of political
machinery, the fructifier of con
tracts, the hopes of thieves and
plunderers. And yet it is all paid
by the people in the form Of taxes
"a large proportion of which are
laid upon their necessities and
comforts in q manner greatly to in
crease their price. How much
longer will the people endure this
robbery for the sake of ''protec-
tionY Can they not give their
representative in congress tc un-
derstand that it is their FIRST and
most important duty to prevent the
surplus by reducing taxes, not to
devise schemes for spending it?
There is always room in the up
per story" is o reply accredited TO
Daniel Webster, when asked by a
young man as to the advisability of
bis studying law. There is always
room in the upper story for farm
ers. The country needs them, and
offers them peace and plenty. 1t is
gratifying to notice that many are
preparing for the place of compe-
tent, energetic, wide-awake tillers
of the soil. They are realizing that
husbandry in not dependent alone
upon brawny hands and sinewv
arms, but that the more subtle ele-
ments Of their being must assist in
their operations. Without the pow
erful aid afforded by the brain. the
labor of the hands availeth nothing.
The farmers are becoming a read
ing and thinking people. They are
informing themselves upon subject
matter pertaining especially to
their occupation. They are seek
ing Tor causes which produce ef
fects. They ere pushing their in
quiries into the hidden mysteries of
vegetable organization, and search
ing for the beautiful laws govern
ing plant life, thus becoming famil-
lar with one of the most important
aids to increased production. They
have but to continue to improve in
intelligence, and they will improve
in thrift and refinement. Farming
then viii not be considered as mere
drudgery, but take rank with all
other industrial pursuits, as it
should long since have done, and
be regarded as the "noblest
pursuit of man. American Farm.
--<s~.--
Several years ago Mr.. Qdinly
bought farm on which there was
a fifteen acre field Of wheat. The
land was poor, sandy and yielded
but seven bushels to the acre. His
neighbors laughed at him for buy
ing such poor land; declared that
he had been taken in. The next
| year he plowed the land again aud
sowed broadcast from three 10 faUr
bushels OF corn to the acre The
corn did not grow very rank. but
b I whom IL vvse ohouf five feet biuh in