Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-08-20
itR,aAetne accord.


Toe New York Sun is making special
ty CT the billion dollar congress. l. is
nov engaged in an attempt to make tie
people realize how much money there is
in billion dollars, the sum appropriated
by the LAST congress- The following from
that paper may go a long way toward
creating an adequate impression of the
wrong tina: was done;
The democracy will invoke this year.
and again next year, the judgment OF the
American people respecting the mon
strous record of the billion dollar, forces
and fraud congress, and concerning the
doings of those who we're responsible for
the wasteful misuse of public moneys
chargesble to that now discredlted body
A billion dollars is vast sum, ana q
mere recital of what could be accom-.
plished with it shows the wrong done
the people, ffOm whose pockets every
cent was taken.
Counting at the rate of 200 a minute,
for g hours every day, hot work IN the
heated season, it would take 6.944 days,
or about 10 years, to count billion.
A billion dollars in silver dollar pieces
falling on the ground with twilight's
dews, would cover about $50 acres, or
considerably more than half square
mile.
A billion silver dollars stacked up in a
column would make pile 1883 miles
high.
A billion dollars would pay the salar-
les of 20 900 presidents of the United
states. and if ia dollar bills laid in line.
they wonld form belt about IA, 500
miles long, going around the earth nearly
five times, or reaching half way to the
moon.
A 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 1000
QUO women, or more than 1000, 900 chill
dren
A billion dollars would pay for the
educ alton of $50, 900 children, from the
kindergarten course through college.
The weight of the average man is 1875
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 To America,
from the day that Columbus drst set foot
in the new world until the present, is
supposed to amount to $4,000, 900.
Counting every new conner, therefore,
since 1892, the last United States congress
appropriated of the peoples money $40
to each one of them.
The total number of votes tor president
cast by all American electors slaoe thu es>
tahois ont n no in n
75,O0O.0OO. The late congress approprI-
ated The equivalent of $13 for each suca
vote. or 500 for each voter now.
Such is the record of the last congr, SIS
regarded from that point of view which
permits of comparison by way of illustra-
ton; aud it will not require any maps.
charts. tariff schedules or economic treat
les to make the subject clear Neither
Can there be any difference of opinien
concerning tnis 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 people s
industry and enterprise have been put.
The democracy has stood for years upon
the broad, patriotic, and never narrowing
platform of frugslity in the public ex-
penditure, appropriations for needful
public purposes only. and sn economical
use OF the public's money at all times.
On th at clesr and winning issue, wherever,
whenever and by whomsoever made, the
forces of the party have never been over
thrown They cannot be overthrown in
1892 1t WAS Samuel J. Tilden who.
in his second annual message to the New
York legislature. on Jan. "a, 1876, de-
clared:
such taxation is in itself a monstrous
evil; and Its incidents aggravats its direct
injury. When governments take from
the people for official expenditure nearly
all surplus earnings of indiYidua's. science
and skill in the art of taxation tecomes
neces airy TO preserve and enlarge tie
revenue, to gid the infliction o: the tax
payer.