The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1891-07-22
The Governments Honest Debts.

The United States government, at the
close of the rebellion in 1865, found it.
self under tremendous financial oOliga-
tons in two different directions - first,
towards the capitalist whose money it
had borrowed in its necessity; second,
towards the men who by such personal
sacrifices as men are rarely called upon
TO make had crushed out an armed re-
bellion of a magnitude heretofore un-
known in the worlds history. The first
mentioned debt was easily computed
and aggregated something over two
billions of dollars $50, 900, 000, 00O). The
other debt was not so easily computed
and its ultimate liquidation depended
on whether subsequent congresses con-
sidered the promises of the government
TO its defenders sacred and binding. In
any event it was not the first to be paid.
At the time of the great military review
in Washington at the close of the war,
a huge streamer was stretched across
the front of the capitol bearing this
legend: "The only national debt which
we can never pay is the debt of graft
tude to our soldiers" But the soldiers
were not anxious about the ability or
the disposition of the government in
this particular. They were willing that
the financial obligations to the patriotic
capitalists who had laid their wealth at
he nf troa Oh "a Hpcf
discharged, and they (the soldiers would
return TO their farms, shops, counters
or offices and contribute to the liquida-
ton Of this debt from their earnings in
peaceful pursuits, and hence the gov
eminent set about this herculean task.
Down, down went the debt, each sue
ceeding year showing handsome re.
duction, until its complete liquidation
was seen to be only matter of COM
paratively few years. During the past
decade alone it has been reduced more
than a thousand millions of dollars, SO
that now the annual interest on the re.
manning debt is scarcely more than the
total amount paid to pension disabled
soldiers in 1866 Meantime the pension
roll has been increasing, but not as rap
idly as the interest on the public debt
mas been decreasing. The subjoned
table, compiled by the Michigan Chris
tidn AdUOcate, shows the nations eX
penditures on account of these two
debts during two periods, twenty years
apart:
FIRST PERIOD
i00| Interest public debt ......... I43,7SI, 900
Total ................ ........ .sI64,7I7,ooo
1858 Pension roll a3,75a,ooo
Total ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I64,Is6,ooo
i0o' Interest public debt ......... 10000
Total............ ........... &C.. sIs7I7o,ooo
SECOND PERIOD.
1850 hs3iiaR 6 6G'I public debt 100
Total. ........... ............... s1zS Oh, 900
so Pension roll SIo6 936, 600
logo Interest on public debt 49,. 49,. 36ooo,ooo
Total ............. ............ sr42936, 900
90 Pension roll .....................sI2 6, 600 600
0' Interest on public debt .......... $4,000, 900
Total. ............. .sIsS 600, 600
90. Pension roll estimated ... 800. s1zs DOC, 600
10y Interest on public debt .......... 100000
Total. .................... =, .s152 600, 600
1t will be seen that the amount of
money paid on the two debts combined
is less in 1891 by So, 600 than it was
in 1867, and yet the nation during the
twenty-four years embraced in that pc
riod grew in wealth more than fifty per
cent.
More than this the expenditures on
account of pension payments has now