The true northerner., 1900-03-21

A part of the surplus-not exceeding
sSs,O0O,O ,O00-will be disposed of by it's
payment as a bonus to the holders of
the greater portion of the governments
bonded indebtedness to induce them to
take per cent thirty-year bonds, which
are commanding premium. This mode
of reducing the surplus may not turn
out to be so popular in the country at
large as it's trainers imagine it will.
There are already sinister intimations
that this refunding measure, which seems
to have great attractions for a few Of
the banks, may be made party question.
The payment of bonuses to bond
holders may not favorably strike the
fancy of the people.
The taxes being SO high as to produce
revenue in excess of expenditures, the
treasury surplus expands while the
amount of money in circulation con-
tracts This withdrawal of money from
circulation alarms the treasury officials,
who can devise no better way OF getting
it back into circulation than depositing
it i'm some of the banks. The moment
that is done there is "a cry of "favoritism." I"
Whether it is just or unjust it is not
necessary to say But it is certainly an
anomalous condition of affairs when the
revenues are SO great that the govern
lnent feels obliged to hand over millions
of dollars, without charging interest, to
certain banks, TO be loaned out by them
for interest to some of the same people
from whom the money was originally
taken in the form of unnecessary taxes.
Thus the money needlessly paid by
the people under taxing law which was
enacted to meet a temporary emergency,
now long past, is put at the disposal of
certain other people for them to make
all they can out of it. They do so by
loaning the money, not so much to com
mercial or industrial interests as to
speculative enterprises, mostly in Wall
street.
So long as the surplus holds out,
whether the money be in treasury
vaults or bank vaults, sturdy beggars
will beset congress and sometimes will
capture it. They will demand canal
subsidies, shipping subsidies, Pacific
cable, and pneumatic tube subsidies.
Not content with the gift of lump sum,
no matter how large, they will insist on
being quartered on the treasury for years
to come. They demand subsidies run
ming for twenty years and rental contracts
running indefinitely. If they succeed,
the government will be sadded with, OBJ
legations which will have to be met in
lean years as well as in fat years. When
ever another panic comes and the rev.
enues shrink, these continuing contracts
in which it is sought to inmesh the gov
ernment, will plague it sorely.
A surplus engenders governmental ex-
travagance in every direction. Every
department doubles its demands on the
treasury. River and harbor appropria-
tions increase. Unnecessary public build
Ings are erected. There is greater
liberality as regards pensions. Men be
gin to talk of S6i,0O0,0O0 appropriation
for new ships All the men in office at
Washington assert that the government
must be run on a"broad, generous scale. "
Correspondents will soon begin sending
dispatches about "cheese parings," and
telling the people that "false economy"
is being practiced and that billion and
a half congress is not spending enough
of the peoples money.
1t was promised when the war taxes
were imposed that all of them should be
temporary. Yet all are being collected
now. Some of them, especially those
which are the most onerous and vexa
tious, should be repealed now. When.
ever man puts stamp on telegram
he is irritated, for that stamp reminds
him that the war which occasioned it
ended over year and half ago. The
stamp taxes on bank checks, kilograms,
bills of lading of railroads and express
companies, insurance policies, leases,
etc, are annoying and unnecessary and
should be repealed. They remain in
force solely to create surplus to be de-
voured by subsidy sharks. The trainers
of the "war revenue" law cannot have
imagined that demand would be made
two years later that 100000 of its pro-
ceeds should go annually to subsidize
the shipping marine, and s2,522OO0 90
annually to a pneumatic tube concern
which is job on its face.
The time has come to relieve the peo-
pie of part of the burden of taxation
they are carrying. The administration
which extends that relief will be popular
The one which fails to do so will hear
from the people sooner or later The
present fiscal system of the government
violates all the recognized principles OF
political economy and business common
sense. Nowhere else does government
impose taxes in excess of it's needs and
create a demoralizing surplus. The
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