Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-04-30
COST OF BOER WAR.
EXPENDITURES REACH ENOR-
NOUS SUM OF SITS, 100000.
Power to Borrow $500, 100000 Sought
-Increased Tax Put on Incomes and
Duty Imposed on Sugar and Coal
Other Sources of Revenue.

Great Britain, as the result of the Boer
war, is face t0 face with financial dis
aster. In the budget presented IL the
House of Commons Thursday Sir Mi
chael Hicks-Beach announced that the
war already has cost England S775, O00,-
600, or twice the cost Of the Crimean
war. He. also proposed heavy tax on
sugar, molasses, glucose and kindred
commodities, stating that this was for
the purpose of requiring the working
working classes to bear their share Of
the burden for the cost of the war. In
the same report the Chancellor Of the
Exchequer asked authority to make a
loan of S3O0,O00.0 GOO to meet a present
deficit of over $3.50, 100000. The Chan
cellors report practically admitted to the
people of England that the Boer war
has driven the country to the verge OF
financial ruin.
Sir William Vernon Harcourt, after
complimenting the Chancellor on the hon
esty displayed in the long budget state
ment, which consumed two and half
hours, said that the budget statement
was but a chapter in the disastrous in
cidents of the Boer war. He pointed out
that it was proposed to borrow four times
as much as was borrowed for the Cri-
mean war. He argued that England to-
day was not as strong as she was at the
close of the French war.
Sir Michael went on to explain that
an increase in expenditures necessitated
a broader basis of taxation. He said he
was not disposed to accept the sugges-
ton of the protectionist party to impose
a duty on manufactured goods imported
into the Kingdom. What he proposed was
not a protective duty, but one adequate
to the public necessity which had arisen
for some duty of which the laboring
classes would bear a fair share.
After announcing that the sinking fund
is to be suspended, he said that the final
balance sheet shows a revenue from all
sources of f143, 235, 900, which leaves a
deficit of $50, 707 900, plus t1,250,OOO for
interest on the new debt. The govern
ment must, besides, have sufficient money
to meet expenses until the new taxation
|. began to make itself felt, and, therefore,
| asked authority to borrow f60,000,000.
The budget adds I'd to the income tax,
making it Is I'd. A duty Of is I'd per
hundred weight will be imposed on rein
ed sugar. West Indian sugar is not ex-
| cepted A duty of 2s per hundred weight
is imposed on molasses. A duty of Is Sd
| per hundred weight is imposed on glu-
cose. A shilling per ton duty is imposed
on exported coal. Raw sugar polarizing
below 90 is to pay a duty gradually di-
minishing, according to each degree Of
polarization, to a minimum of two shil7
lings at a polarization of 76.
The total expected yield Of the new tax
alton is Eli, 100000, of which f2,000,000
| will be from coal. lao
Look to Uncle Sam. ~ ,.'.
| A London correspondent says that all
eyes are now looking to the United States
for relief. The cabled dispatches of the
plethoric condition of the United States
treasury, which holds $500000,000 gold,
and the known resources of the American
| banks, coupled with the presence in Eng
land of J. Pierpont Morgan, have revived
the report that the great American inan-
cier will be asked to place large part
of this new loan in America.
The Chancellor of the ExcheQuer said
in the Commons that it was thought in
| financial circles that a great deal of the
loan would be taken by Americans. In
this statement the confession is made
that the money power Of the world, so
long centered in London, has passed from
Lombard street to Wall street.
The immensely of the proposed loan is
hardly yet realized With the exception
of the great loan raised by France, it is
| the largest proposed in modern times. 1t
is about $100,0O0000 in excess of the
amount which was at first thought neces-
| sary.