New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-05-12
EXPENSES AND TAXES.

|. Tho growth of Nationa! expenditures. espe-
cia,ly in Great Britain, France and the United
States furnishes the text for a somewhat pessl-
mlstIc. or at least forebodlng. article in 'The
Spectator" OF London. Within the memory or
men now living. we are reminded, every item
of expendltures was carefully scanned and
Americans. rejoicing i'm freedom from direct
Federal taxation regarded a National debt as
unfavorably as n huge standing army. Inc
case now seems to this writer radically
changed. National expenditures are swelled 10
figures that half a century ago would have been
deemed intOerable, and they are steadily IN
creasng Concurrently new forms and higher
rates of taxation are imposed, and the end Is not
vet i'm sight What the end will be Is prob
lematic: perhaps financial revolution
TO onc-half Of the complaint, the answer Is
suggested in this same article. The growth or
wealth has been greater than that OF expendi-
lures 4 remark attributed to Speaker Reed Gov
crs the case In response to a charge Of Congress
sional extravaganza, he said: yes, 1t was Dill
"ion-doller Congress; but then this Is billion
dollar country" The increase OF expenditures
now over those Of generation ago may seem
startling. But compare 1t with the increase In
wealth, and II seems small. You may reckon
the increase in any way and by any standard
you please-by the total or by the average
wealth OF the Nation. by the number and size or
great individual and corporate fortunes. by the
wages Of workingmen. by the sums in savings
banks-the result is the same in all cases. III
the rich mans fortune has been trcbled and the
poor mans wages trebed, neither will object If
the legitimate expenditures OF the Nation have
been doubled The question is not how much or
how little the Nation shall spend but whether or
pot it is properly expended and whether or not
an adequate revenue can be raised without DUR
dcning the people.
The writer in "The Spectator" thinks the chief
cause of increased expenditures in this coun-
try is to be found in the pension roll, and won
ders how long Americans will submit to having
all things they use taxed by protective tarin
90 for he thinks they are about to realize sydney
Smiths vtronc portrayal or taxation undcr
Numerically opposite system. Well. there are
rot few in the United States who would rather
pay pensions 10 deserving veterans or past
war than to hire huge standing armies to men
ace their neighbors with future wars. And
there arc not few in England who admit that
under the American System the protective tarin
Is tax not upon the domestic consumer, OUT
upon the foreign producer and competitor
Americans have not yet accepted the quondam
British doctrine that q National debt is n Ma
tional blessing Their policy is 10 pay off their
debt steadily and rapidly. and the only time in
the last score of years when they have departed
from that policy has been while they have been
suffering under an imposition Of wOuld-be Brit
ish vagaries of finance
What Americans do object to In taxation Is
the adoption of the burdensome and lnquisitOral
methods rcsorted TO by the war-rdden nations
of Europe They want no pryng. perjury-inspir-
ing income tax. They want no stamped paper
now any more than their ancestors did n century
and Guartcrago. They do not want the vehicles
in which they ride taxed according to the number
Of their wheels. or the houses In which they live
according 10 the number Of their doors and win
dows They would submit to these things as ex
traordinary measures in time OF war. In peace
they prefer the good old constitutional system
Uut into practical execution by almost the first
act of the first Congress- of raising revenue by
leyying a customs tariff upon imported goods
Which come into competition with domestic
products Under that system they paid off their
debt at an unparalleled rate and enjoyed n pros
perity that was the admiration and envy OF the
world. and they quite willing to worry along
/ under 1t for some time mora. There Is really