The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-02-06

nothing!
Il 4 will ask Also to append IA table in
which this writer endeavors to demon
, strate what he has thus asserted:
AT the close of 1895 Figures for No
vpmlber 100 the prices current for the
same staples were as follows:
!, v-bo,t Nor h1rsbcl ......., S0.5S
lour. per barrel .........,.,. 300
II 1Yottan nor nound .... .OS5
Mess pork, per barrel ........ So
Sugar per pound, Az cents to
) 80 cents; average ......... I'D
Wool, per pound, 20 to 70
!, cents: average ............. 10
: Beef, per hundrcdWeiSht, SS.0O
to SO. 30; average .......... 3.OO
i'c cents: average yer ............ .O267
Superior farming lands. same
as above. i'll Ohio and Misssip-
| pi valleys approximately, per
acre $500
THE national debt ON the LIST of
! March. 1866, would therefore purchase
Of the above staples as follows: Wheat.
.4S6. $40, 100 bushels -four 262, 100, 697
barrels: cotton. 1885,, ,666 pounds;
mess pork, 99,567,313 barrels; sugar,
25.393 ,34S,314 pounds; wool, $3.50, 1888,
| go pounds: beef, 1S1 967.213 hundred
weigh; bar iron. II ,S51 ,S51 pounds; SUI
pcrior farming lands, as above (appr0Xi-
matcly) 81 ,G66, 66G acres.
The national debt at the close of the
year 1895, will purchase of the above
staple as follows: Wheat, 2,133, 62O, $50
bushels flour, 353,571 ,42S barrels; cot
| ton, HOS S23. 529 pounds mess pork,
| 1J0,91J, S53 barrels; sugar, 24,750,000,-
| 600 pounds; wool, ). J5,S13, 9J3 pounds;
| beef, 100, 263,1 1876 hundred weight; bar
iron, 46.34S, 314,606 pounds; superior
farming lands, as above approximately
3l,35T i f. acres.
The purchasing power of the national
debt ut the close of 1895, is therefore
greater than was that of the national
debt on March /, 1866, as follows: In
| the case of wheat by GAG, 77S,jS4 bush
| els; in the case of -four by 90,TS0. 731
| barrels; in the case Of cotton by S,613,-
! 406,S pounds; in the case of mess pork
| by u .339. $40 barrels; in the case of
wool by 425625, PA pounds; in the Cause
of bar iron by 4,496, 462, 755 pounds.
| The purchasing power of the national
debt at the close of 1895 IS, by like de-
duction, less than was that of the ma
| tional debt on March l, 1866, as fol-
| lows: In the ease of sugar by GA, 34S,-
| 314 pounds; in the case of beef by 81
| 704,O76 hundred weight; in the case of
| farming lands, as above, by (approXi-
mately) 2.309, J23 acres.
From this calculation it is seen that
| the purchasing power of the debt at
the close of 1895 is far greater than it
was OH March l. 1866 on six of the nine
great staples enumerated, and that it is
| less 10y a comparatively small per
cent. on only three of the articles enum-
Grated. There is an overwhelming
prepOnderance on the average of the
whole list i'll favor of the debt as it
stands at the close of the current year.
That debt. in a word, is worth more
to the holders than it was at its nominal
maximum nearly thirty years ago. There
is no kind of Sophstical argument or
doctored statistics in the world that can
overcome or seriously modify the CON
illusions here drawn from the premises
that are incontrovertible.
Mr.. Ridpath says in a note to this
pamphlet that / am quoting:
The American people have never
realized the incalculable sums which
have been paid out of their Treasury in
the cstensible work of discharging the
interest and principal of the war debt
of the nation. Sometime perhaps the
final aggregate may be made up and
historically recorded. Within the first
ten years after the conclusion of the
war-that is, at the close of the fiscal
year 1874 75--the government had al
ready paid in interest only ON the public
debt $1,442, 057, 577. And this was but
the beginning"
Mr. President, ! would not under any
circumstances impugn, deprccatc, or re-
pudiate one dollar of the public debt Of
my country. ] am as proud Of it's hon
orable character as any Senator upon
thus floor. / would defend it as quickly
as any Senator upon this floor. No man
can say anything against its honor that
| would not undertake to defend it.
But, Mr.. President. j stand here to
support the Constitution of my country
and to execute its laws. can not set
up for myself any higher standard for
the nation than the law gives of the
nation have set up when they have pass
ed legal statutes which have had the
concurrence and the appreciation of the
most eminent and able and distinguished
men whom both the Republican party
Indeed, Mr.. President, / think that
some gentlemen upon this floor who man
ifest SO much tenderness about the pub
lie debt when Democracy undertakes to
repeat to them the creeds that they have
heretofore uttered or the principle which
the men whom they have put in the fore
most positions have defended are not al
ways more sensitive about the public
debt, than we are.
/ nave before me the speech made by
the senior Senator from Massachusetts
(Mr. Hoar) january 81, 1894. l will say
that do not cite the speech to upbraid
him for It, / think he was right in
every syllable that he uttered. | approve
him for it. But if | were disposed to be
as captious rs he is, | might make the
same remark TO him about tampering
with the public credit that he does to us
when we stand up for the Constitution
and the laws.
He was discussing then Democratic
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TAE1EHS @MB