Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-02-28
SUNDAY........FEBRUARY %, 1856.
The Burden of Debt.

Some persons argue that Virginia is
able to pay all the debt Of thirty-odd
millions which she assumed in 1871
because her revenues seem TO be large
enough to enable her to pay the ex-
pepses Of the State government and
have left nearly million Of dollars.
Friend SNowDEN, Of the Alexandra
Gozeffe, who has never surrendered to
the RIDDLEBERGER bill, is constantly
preaching that doctrine, and seems to
be sstonisbed that any good Virginian
should doubt the soundness Of his debt
sermons. In the last issue Of his pa.
per, he says:
"Those who say the State cannot
afford 70 pay the interest on her debt,
and have enough money left to carry on
the State government and schools, base
oil their estimates upon the revenue OF
last year. But new assessment has
been made since then, and the revenue
of the current year will be raised upon
that. The revenue last year was
e2,645,9 1888. Under the new assessment
the revenue will be 1924, l03. Nine
hundred thousand dollars are appro-
priatcd to the schools, and the expenses
Of the government are about $500, 900
Those amounts deducted from this
years revenue will leave 81, 22i, 1913
sum amply sufficient to pay the 81, l00,-
600 interest receivable in coupons
Where money is collected from, and
paid out to, the same community high
taxes are not oppressive. The people
of Richmond pay tax Of sl.40 on
every one-hundred-d dollars worth of
their property. Almost every dollar
of this money, amounting annually, as
the city taxes do, to well-nigh a million
Of dollars, is paid out here. The city
would soon become bankrupt if that
sum Of money were annually collected
here and paid out to persons residing
in Europe. The amount which would
thus be annually taken away from
Richmond would be equal to the capt.
tai Of the largest bank here. In few
years, an amount equal to the entire
banking capital of this city would be
transferred To the othet side of the
ocean, and the people of Richmond !
would become destitute of capital.
Ireland's woes and troubles and trials !
of all sorts grow largely out OF what
is called absenteeism ~; and absentee
ism is nothing but the collecting of |
money in one country and the spending
Of it in another. But for the absentee
ism Of centuries Ireland would be rich
to-day. Heaven save Virginia from the
fate Of down-trodden Ireland.
The debt Of Virginia as ascertained
IN 1871 was over thirty millions of dol
lars. The interest was fixed at 6 per
cent. How much Of that debt do we
still owe, according to the Gazette 2
Does our contemporary really believe
hat q State is able to send out of the
country to be expended abroad more
han q third of its annual revenues
Would she not find her revenues con-
SANITY diminishing, and her ability to
pay constantly growing less?
Our Alexandria contemporary is
wrong. 1t does not follow that Vir-
yinia is able to pay her whole debt be-
,ause her revenues would not ali be
absorbed by the coupons if she should
'sree to take them.
Again What are we to do with the
men who have accepted our proffered
erms and funded under the RIDDLE
BERGER bill? OF all our creditors
hese are the ones to whom we ought
% be most liberal. Surely it would
lot do to pay in full the men who have
or years been suing the State and put
ing her to trouble and expense, and
cave the men who have funded under
he RIpDLEBERGER bill to suffer for
he spirit Of forbearance and liberality
manifested by them towards the Old