Year: 1864

THE FUTURE OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT.
| Many careful and prudent men lock upon the
increase of our national debt with some forebo-
ding. Let us examine the whole subject fairly
and see If we are not only able to pay our pres
ent, but any reasonable further debt that the ex-
egeneies of war may compel us to incur, and
that the payment will neither be difficult or ex-
cessively onOrous. Let us see what are the facts.
Unlike an Individual who is unable to count
with certainty upon increased ability to pay in
the future the debt he contracts in the present
this country is sure to increase in wealth and
population. 1tappears from the census returns,


that the increase in the value of real and per-
sOnal property in the United States from 1910
to 1850, was from three thousand dseven hundred
and sixty -four millions (S3, 764 000 000) in 1910
to six thousand one hundred and seyenty-four
millions CSC, la, 600, ,000) iii 1850, or 64 per
cent. The next decade shows still greater
advance i'll general prosperity and riches For
in that period, the yield of our gold mines, the
extension of our railroad system and consequent
opening of new fields for agriculture, our large
! Immigration and the stimulus given to every
| branch of manufactures and the mechanic arts
raised the national wealth from six thousand one
hundred and seventy -four milliOns( So Ia OOO :
000) in 1850 to the enormous aggregate OF four
teen thousand one hundred and eighty three
millions ($14, $4,000, ,000) in 1860, or 127 per
cent, of which ten thousand seven hundred and
sixteen millions $50, 7l6, 600, 000) ooas o,oned
| inthe lOgdl StateS. Is there any good reason to
believe that we shall not continue to prosper as


we have done-{ except from the chances Of war,


which can only modify and not change the char
acter of the answer to the question, THAT the
nation will not continue to nearly, if not quite,
double its wealth every ten years for several de-
cades to come? We have but Just begun to work
our gold mines, and the vast body of our other
mineral wealth is still undeveloped. We have
fertile lands enough for an empire, that the
pillow has never touched, and it is only in this
generation that science and art have fairly be-
gun to open the doors and shcw the way to-
wards our future material greatness.


| But experience of what others have done will
best tell US what we may rightfully expect to
do. Let us compare our position with that oi
Great Britain during one of the gloomiest peri
DDS of her financial history. Atthe end of her
great wars in 1916, her wealth was estimated at
ten thousand four hundred millions (S10, 400,
000 000) and her national debt of that time was
four thousand three hundred millions "a, 300,
600, 000) or more than Al per cent. of her entire
property. In 1861 her property was stated at
thirty thousand five hundred millions
| ($31, 500, 000,0 ,00O) while her debt was three
thousand eight hundred and ninety millions
So 800 600, 900 or was a charge on the property
OF Une country OF Only ABOUT IZ13 per cent. III
needs no argument to show that the oceiqht of
the burden Of this debt is now, but one third
what it was when contracted


| We do not wish to deceive ourselves on Ell
ther side of this question Debt is always bad
enough but we should look the facts squarely in
the face. and accept whatever deductions we
have right to draw from them as truth. In
spite of the war, we believe the Northern States
are as rich to-day as they were three years ago


Such ademand for labor wasnever before known
and never before was it so well paid. War de-
stroys but our hand of industry has never for
a moment ceased to create, and the creation will
more than balance the destruction Large as
our losses of brave and gallant men have been,
the population of the country has steadily in
creased; and unless some scourge such as never
visited nation should come upon us,-unless
we should be utterly destroyed, or dismember-
ed and broken to pieces by yielding TO this de-
mon of secession, there is no human power
that can arrest our continued progress and de-
velopment. All wars hare ended, aswill ours.
Let MS hope that it may be soon; but when it is
ended, and triumphantly as it must be, this
country is bound to take position in pOpula-
tion, wealth, and vigor that will make its debt
so small in proportion TO its wealth that the most
timid man will laugh at the fear that may have
once over-clOudeds his vision