The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-08-26
THE STATES DEBT
Concise History of Its Creation aEd
Its Reduction.
MONUMENT TO MlsMAnAGEMENT

MONUMENT TO MlsMANAGEMENT |
Of the States Fiscal ~>ifair3-Pow the
State Expended a Fortune in Inter
est and interest on interest During
the Two Decades Preceding the
Present Era Of Republican Control
Some Facts Which Every Taxpayer
Ought to Know.
When the Republican party nrst
came into power in Indiana In 1861 IL
inherited from a Democratic admins
tration a state funded debt OF $1O,1Is-
267-a debt which, the financial re-
sources of the state considered, would
be equivalent to an obligation OF forty
million dollars at this time. For ten
years thereafter the Republicans had
control OF the governorship. and most
of the time of the legislature. During
this period the state debt was reduced
e6.O11,76O, and left at 50, 167 SOY, a
wonderful result when 1t is remem-
bered that this era. covered the war
period. when the states expenditures
were necessarily unusual in amount.
For the next ten years the state was
under the practically uninterrupted
control of Democratic leadership. The
debt paying policy was abandoned,
and during that decade the state debt
was increased $83o,671. With con-
tinuance of the policy maintained by
Republican state officials during the
preceding decade, it would have been
entirely wiped out. Instead, 1t rose
to 81, e98, 1884.
In 1881 and 1882 two years OF Re-
publican management ensued. During
this period the state debt was reduced
1921, $50.
Then followed, under Democratic
management, what is by all ODDS the
most discreditable period in the fiscal
history of the state. During the de-
cade ending with 1890 only five states
in the entire Union increased their
bonded indebtedness. In these nVe
states the total increase was $l,3l6.-
425. In Indiana alone the increase az
qreqated more than four million DOL
lars, three times as much as the tota'
, increase Of bonded indebtedness in all
other states combined. During the
same period thirty-two states decreas'
ed their bonded Indebtedness sixty mil
lion dollars. In 1895 when the pres
ent era of Republican management be-
q gan, the debt was $7,52o,615.12.
<>fp nr
q cal management which have ensued
q the state debt has been decreased
a until it stands today at the lowest fig
ure in a half century of the state
y history.
How It Was Done.
A remarkable fact, Is it not, some
n thing more than coincidence, In al
human probability, that during each
three periods of Democratic contro
the state debt has been increased
while during each of three periods
Republican control, the state debt ha
been largely decreased? Every dolla
of Indebtedness contracted for hal
century is Democratic, nearly ever
:, dollar of Indebtedness discharged dul
m ing the same period Republican!
M It is not possible to shift from tn
m shoulders of Indiana Democratic LEAD
ership the direct responsibility for thi
piling up of the states indebtedness:
particularly that accumulated frol
1888 to 1891, when the state debt gre
with swiftness unprecedented. Du
ing all that period the states expe1
-, ditures were largely exceeding It's re-
m enues, yet, despite the recommend
m lions of successive governors, DEM
,ss cratic legislatures refused to make pr
To posterity an obligation created Il
- meeting current expenses, and result
Ing not only in an enormous intere
\ charge. but one extending to intere
on interest. The excess of receip
ae over expenditures from 1884 to 18'
amounted to more than three milliC
dollars, which was provided for by II
simple process of adding it to tt
state debt. In 1880 the ordinary e
-, penses of the state amounted to $s4
&c 2S5. By 1889 they had increased
My s1.32O5O2, and yet the tax levy ra
LIS fixed in the seventies was maintain
Log by legislatures too cowardly to me
M the situation face to face, preferril
5 to throw the responsibility upon the
~ successors in office, and compel t
oo state to meet the enormous cost
s.ss their expensive demagogy. On Ju
''' 81, 1890, the Indianapolis Sentir
r said: THE state debt itself is 4
}. 8 Of alarming dimensions. 1t is or