The age-herald., 1898-07-02
RAISING OUR
 WAR REVENUE

I
 new war revenue law is as yet largely
 matter of conjecture, but it will have to be
 in excess of s1 ,OeOOOO a day if it fully meets ! the purpose for which it was created. Be
 fore the war began the expenses of the government were about $1 ,0e0,ogo day. Now. according to the figures of govern-
 ment officials who handle the money, they
 are twice as much. It is easy to see where
 the extra s1 000.000 goes and the wonder is
 that with an invading army in Cuba, an- | other-on the way to Dewey's support in the
 Philippines, three or four fleets of war vessels to maintain and army of 1oOOe0
 reserve fighters in various camps about the
 country, the expense is not much greater
 than it is. Anyone who has to put 9 cent stamps his bank checks after the I first of July or contribute to the expense of | the war in the various other ways provided 1 by the new revenue law, need have no fear | that the government will not need the money.
 | Judging from the statistics furnished in 1 the records of previous wars, Uncle Sam | will have trouble raising all the money | that will be necessary to prosecute this one. l In 1865 the lest year of the war of the re-
 belion. the reyenune from internal taxes YDv't@-'foio. | was collected, of course, only in the loyal | states, which had at that time only 23,- | 900 population. To defray the expenses | of the present war there are D, 100000 peo- pie who. at the same ratio of taxation about $14 per capita-would raise more than 1 billion dollars a year. No such amount | will be raised, of course and will not be l needed, but the fact that the United States hal of at while Spain finds it hard work to borrow cent either at home or abroad, even on the most valuable of her few remaining pos sessions, seems significant of the result.
 
 Expenditures of former wars seem insig-
 nificant as compared with the financial bur dens that may grow out of the present one. In the war of 1872, ending with Jackson s victory at New Orleans, the United States spent $102 154. In less than week now adays money enough passes through the Chicago clearing house alone to pay for the whole war. The government then relied upon loans to carry on hostile operations. It borrowed during the four years of the war $97 .620 532 The internal taxes for the period amounted to only s2O 101, ,55S. Much of the money was raised on per. cent. treas ury notes. In 1913 per cent. government bonds sold at SS and in 1874 at 80. How diff ferent it is now. People all over the coun- try are falling over one another to sub- scribe for the new per cent. bonds at par and the brokers already offer to buy them at a premium Before the subscription blanks were sent out three banks in New York offered to take the entire issue, and but for the provision that the securities are to be sold to the people the banks would quickly bid them up to 1O2 more. The difference between per cent. bond at So and per cent. bond at par expresses part of the difference between then and now in the governments financial ability to wage foreign war.
 All the money to carry on the Mexican war was raised by loans. The cash bal ance in the treasury July 1, 1S46, was $36,- 194,2H. Six per cent. treasury notes pro- duced S7S,S09,900. The expenditures during the war were s125,447 ,4S3, but a smaller amount was borrowed. The result, of course, was deficit and a financial bur den for the future, which seems one of the inevitable results of war.
 The war of the rebellion was a more se- rious matter than either of the other two and it cost more money. The total amount spent during the four years of that conflict was $3,179,3 ,372 ,350, which is an average of $794 ,S43,0s7 year. The largest amount ex- pended in any one year was $1, ,704, ,199 in 1865. and the smallest amount $456 ,379 S96 in 1862.
 The treasury was not as well prepared for war then as it is now. The cash bal ance at the start of the conflict was $2 ,257,- 065 It is 100 times greater now, being about $226 000 ,000, and large part of it in gold. SIX per cent gold bonds of the United States offered to the highest bidder in 1861
 brought an average of S9.03. The govern ment's "new per centS' now sell at 125 and over.
 It took a deal of very adroit financiering
 to keep the war kettle boiling during the rebellion and numerous expedents that will
 not have to be resorted to now were tried. In an article in the Bankers Magazine,
 Ellis H. Roberts, treasurer of the United States, shows the amount of loans and cur-
 rency issued during the rebellion to have been $5143, ,526. Of this amount more
 than two billions were in bonds, and an-
 other billion and more about equally divided
 between coin certificates and government
 certificates of indebtedness. The public
 debt reached it's height in August, 1865, at
 S2, ,T56 5n. The previous July gold had
 gone up to 2S5
 To pay the expenses of the present war
 the bond sale will doubtless prove sufficient.
 Afterward the war taxes will help pay off
 the bonds The schedule that was in force during the rebellion shows what the people
 of the country will do to carry on a just
 war $14 per capita tax, which was col
 lected then, could be collected now with greater ease. The beauty of the situation so far the United States is concerned is that Uncle Sam can raise all the money he needs without going away from home. The resources available on demand are practically unlimited, and the world is our debtor by hundreds of millions. General Joe Wheeler