The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1888-08-20
TnE suRpLus IN TaE TREASURY.
How It Can be Kept DOwn-A Broader aud
More Liberal Policy Needed.
To he Editor ofkks IRisllideneeT.


How IL Can be Kept Down-A Broader aud
MoreLiberal Policy Needed.
To he Editor Ofhs latelllceAee.
Sm;-A surplus in national treasury
may arise from two causes: First when
it cannot be proGtably used, and then it
is an unjust, disastrous burden-a rob
berry of the people. Second, when the
revenues are kept in the treasury from
parsimony and penuriousness and then
there should be a change OF rulers that
We may have representatives TO appro-
pirate the revenues to uses dictated by
a liberal and enlightened enterprise. II
is greatly to be doubted whether the
revenue now is too great to meet the de-
mands OF an enlightened policy. Ameri'
ca is to-day new country in the hands
Of an old civilization. What is America
but Europe beyond the sea? Europe
with her three thousand years Of civil
ization, with the arts, the philosophy,
the poetry, the genius OF Greece, with
the laws OF Rome, with the constitution
OF England has crossed the Atlantic, is
crossing it every day and establishing
that civilization under modified forms
in new country, and rapidlyoccupying
q continent capable Of sustaining half
the population OF the world and yield
ing to the labor OF man everything he
needs. And this influx OF population
added TO our natural increase, makes
nearly one and half million a year
without decreasing the population OF
Europe. In another half century this
population may increase three million n
year, and there are many now living
who will see one hundred and fifty mil
lion people within our present limits,
with Cuba and Perhaps Mexico added.
They who undertake to foresee the
wants and guide the progress OF such u
people, doubling their population every
twenty or thirty years, should look on
them from high plane and be them
selves guided by exalted conceptions.
A PARsMoNIoUs POLICY.
Pasimony, prejudice or passion Is un.
worthy such people, and none but
those who rise above base passions
should be entrusted with their destiny.
We have vast rivers, draining vast and
fertile regions, that would come under
cultivation by their improvement. II is
impossible to conceive OF anything wiser
than the expenditure OF thirty to fifty
millions year to improve these rivers;
and large, vast sums are needed for
canals, navy, harbOrs, &c. One hundred
millions Il year for these purposes would
be no more TO these people, than ten
millions to France or Germany, and |
say that with q policy in this regard
worthy OF this people, there would very
soou be no surplus in the Treasury.
Our President last year vetoed the
river and harbor bill that appropriated
SIS, 600 600 and thus piled up SlS,000,000
in the Treasury that would have gone
into the pockets OF the people, to the
great benefit OF the country. Our Con-
gress should have appropriated Sj0,0O0,-
coo this year for these purposes, navy,
&C., but the appropriation hampered by
the President and his New York allies
and the pennywise ut Washington, does
not exceed S25,000,000 and thus more
money will remain buried in the Treas
ury. OF course, under such penurious-
ness and parsimony, the surplus will
continue to increase and the mser's box
will fill up higher.
The policy now adopted to reduce this
surplus is in part to buy Government 1
per cent bonds at a premium ofS27 90 on
the 500 and to reduce the tariff and
make sure OF our raw material fee, ut the
very great hazard OF our manufacturing
and mining energy and the ruin OF wool
products. Now, man who would buy
up his own bonds at Il premium OF S27 90
on the 500 would be fit subject for an
asylum. And yet under liberal and
wise policy OF improving our rivers and
| harbors, making canals, building de-
fenSive navy, etc, commensurate with
the wants OF the people and the magni-
tude, the vastness OF the country, the
surplus would be greatly decreased, il it
did not vanish, and in its place we would
have navy for defense; rivers, now
clogged up with sand and logs, full OF
steamboats, and commerce; bottom lands,
now swamps and canc-breaks, white
with cotton and rustling with corn, and
running in wheat fields, and steamers
running from the lakes to the CULTS
the commerce OF the country shifting
from the frozen regions OF the North to
the Sunny South; the valley OF the
| Mississippi tremendous in grain, cotton,
manufactures and the seat OF empire.
And assert with confidence that the
abolition OF the tax on tobacco and
fruit brandy and moderate reduction
OF the tariff on sugar would leave the
revenue no greater than the wants OF the
country.
To illustrate: The Hennepin canal
would connect the gulf with the lakes.
1t would be difficult to estimate the
value of such an improvement to the
valley OF the Mississippi; add to this the
proper improvement OF the Mississippi
and its grand tributaries, and the saving
in freights would be immense. This
would do more to reduce the cost OF
transportation than all the interstate
commerce bills that ever entered the
minds of the "XerXes that whip the
sea-" The completion OF the improve
ment of the Great Kanawha river would
save to the people OF the Ohio valley
one cent per mile on 100000, 600 bushels
OF coal a year, or 81, 100000, and render
II coal famine impossible. The cost OF
the work would be the sum of s., 600, 900.
Can'tthlS Government eXpend s., 100000
TO save Si,o00,o00 a year? And Ike re-
suits would come from the improvement
Of many other rivers. venture to say
that S50,00O,00O invested yearly for
twenty years in the improvement OF our
rivers, would yield to the people % per
cent and make great and prosperous
communities, where the forests and the
iungles now reign silent and supreme.
But there is class OF provinCials in