Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-06-27
WHAT 4 BILLION DOLLARS Is.

In the campaigns of this and next
year the Republican party must stand
by the doings of the last Congress. They
are the latest official acts of that party,
and must be taken in preference to plat
form promises The two principal acts
of that diScredited Congress were It's at
tempt to pass force and fraud election
bill and the reckless appropriation of a
Billion Dollars of the peoples money,
practically bankrupting the Treasury.
Says an exchange:
A billion dollars is vast sum, and mere
recital of what could De accomplished with
il shows the wrong done the people, from
whose pockets every cent was taken.
Counting al the rate OF 200 minute, Tor
twelve hours every day, hot work in the
heated season, it would take 6,94i days, or
about nineteen years, TO count billion.
\ billion dollars in silver dollar pieces
falling on the ground with twilight's dews,
would cover about $50 acres, or consider
ably more than half square mile.
A billion silver dollars stacked up in a
column would make pile l, 1913 miles high.
A billion dollars would pay the salaries
OF Zoo Presidents of the United States ;
and if in dollar bills laid in line, they would
form belt about ia, 800 miles long, going
around the earth nearly FIVE times, or
reaching half way 10 the moon.
4 billion dollars in paper would make, as
we are told, if spun together in one large
sheet and then cut up into pieces OF the
proper size, dresses for nearly l,OOO,OoO
women, or more than . ,O00, 600 children.
A billion dollars would pay for the edu-
cation Of $4,000 children from the kinder
den through college.
The weight OF the average man is 10
pounds: hence il would take an army OF
more than $50, 900 average men TO turn the
scales against a billion silver dollars.
The entire immigration 10 America, from
the day that COLUMBUS first set foot in the
New World until the present, IS supposed
10 amount TO 25,00O,0O0. Counting every
newcomer. therefore, since 1892, the last
United States Congress appropriated OF
the peoples money forty dollars for each
one of them.
The total number of votes for President
cast bv all American electors since the es-
adjustment of the Republic amounts TO
about -, 900, 600. The late Congress appro'
priated the equivalent of thirteen dollars
for each such vote, or ninety dollars Tor
eacn NOJcr now.
Such is the record of the last Congress
regarded from that point Of view which
permits of comparison by way of illustra-
ton: and it will not require any maps,
charts, tariff schedules, or economic trea-
tises to make the subject clear. Neither
can there be any difference Of opinion con
corning this misuse of public money by the
Republican majority IN the last Congress,
since all men can appreciate the use TO
which these fruits of the peoples industry
and enterprise have been put.
The Democracy has stood for years upon
the broad patriotic and never-narrowlng
platform of frugality in the public expendl-
ture, appropriations for needful public pur-
poses only, and an economical use OF the
peoples money at ali times. On that clear
and winning ISSUE wherever, whenever
and by whOmsOever made, the forces OF the
party have never been overthrown. They
cannot be overthrown in 1892 II was Sam
uel j. Tilden, VINO, in his second annual
message to the New York Legislature, on
January "A, 1876, declared:
Such taxation is in itself mOnstrous
evil and its incidents aggravate its direct
injury. When governments take from the
people for official expenditure nearly all
The surplus earnings OF individuals, science
and skill in the art of taxation become
necessary to preserve and enlarge the rev.
enue, TO gild the infection OF the tax
pay err