Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1868 — Payment of the Debt. [ARTICLE]

Payment of the Debt.

From the Atlantic Menthlj'. There is no ocfTtsion at present to pay the debt bearing interest. For twenty years to < uYrftn we have the option to jery most of it at ottr pleasure, at rates averaging five and threefburths j>er cent: while Austria end Italy, mi whose level our IVndleton politicians would jHaee us, pay seven and tla-ee-lbufths per cent,- not levied on a >ich population like ours, but on a people itnpoVerisheif]by ages of oppression. The silent operation of our imposts on liquors and tobacco will, without efl’ort-on our part, soon meet our interest, and provide, a sinking hind for -tlirprincrjiai. — Sta mpspliecns'es, and.; bank eircuiatidn will pay for pen*, sibnsaml the instruction of the negro; i and customs under a reduced tariff will meet, as lie fore the war, the current expenses of the natiau. —\\ c require our growing capital, not for tbe extinction of our debt, but for tlie devejopment of our industry and lor diversitj of empjoyineiit. , Tlie war lias injured certain brandies of industry which require renovation. It Ims swept a way horses amlTnules for eavanyd imiilery, and wagons; it has dmi'nislied our animal force, w hihr if tmi ed our mechanism. It has taken tor rations many of our Western cat,tie, replacing them by twelve millions of sheep, and converting grass lands into wheat fields. Consequently, horses 1 are dear, and beef and dairy products command unwonted prices, w hile our wheat product is exuberant. It has checked the construction ol ships, steamers, factories, houses, piers, and public improvements.— Agriculture and commerce demand more facilities, and Y oung America requires new homes and workshops. While the war has given an impulse to mining, anti lowered the price of coal-—if we reduce paper to gold—to tlie prices current before the wnr‘; while it has nearly doubled the manufacture of wool, and given us machinery sufficient to spin and weave as much wool as England converts into cloth, it lias given a cheek to cotton. While ithas opened the orebeds ol Lake Superior, that now .yield seven hundred thousand tons of rich magnetic ore, and has carried the yearly .manufacture of pig-iron from one to two millions of tons, and extended our railways to lorty-foiu* thousand miles, and convinced us that we may pursue successfully the nrauufacture of linen, worsteds, silks, alpacas, and fabrics of jute and mo* hair, it has shown us the necessity of many more public improvements to carry food and- raw material to our factories or to points of shipment. The great object of jtlie statesman now should be, not to trifle vritli the debt, but to remove the burdens, to extend our agriculture, cherish and diversify our manufactures, revive commerce and ship-building by a return to specie, and the extinction of those war duties which were imposed to counterbalance the taxes wc have removed from manufactures. This is the province of tbe true statesman, —this is what the true interest at the nation imperatively First, let us national taxes that can be dispensed with, no taxes on looomotiou or on insufapee, and na invasiopa of our privaoy to tax the incomes dt trade* and professions, with which our industry creates taxable .capital. Bee-"

ohd, let us, instead of increasing our war tariff, at oriOe remove all prohibitory and excessive duties. Before the war; our tariff averaged less than fifteen per cent on all our iraportatious. It has been raised to an average of more than forty-five per cent. How has -this been effected ? First, by Hew taxes on tea and coffee, and by increased imposts on other groceries, which novf yield nearly sixty millions, —nearly as much as our whole'return from customs before the insurrection. These, doubtless carried the average of out duties to nearly thirty per cent) and most of those which have been judiciously fixed by our Revenue Commissioner, Mr. Wells, it will doubtless be politic to retain, although .it might be well to reduce the duties on tea and spices to specific rates, not exceeding sixty per cent, for both tea and spioes are coming in free from Canada. Duties on fruits and raw materials, ana counteracting duties on manufactures to aid the home prodne#*, have carried the average of our tariff from thirty to more than forty-five per cent, and most of this excess should be repealed. Dct us refer for illustration to the duties on fruit, salt; wool, woollens, coal, andiron. We have many ships, and should have more, in the trade with the Mediterranean. Liverpool alone, ip the last twenty years, abandoning a fleet of schooners, has put eighty thousand tons of screw steamers into the Mediterranean trade, and her imports and exports iu this commerce now exceed a million of tons yearly. We send from 1 Boston and New York many barks and brigs through the Straits, laden with fish, flour, alcohol, oil, lard, provisions, cotton goods, dyewoods, sugar, and coftce, and returning with fruit, salt, wubl, dye-stuffs, saltpetre, auti materials for our manufactures. The fruit and the salt arc sent westward as far ae’tlie Missouri, and are of great value both to health and agriculture. ~~

Is it politic to tax either of these articles, on which we how place duties ranging from twenty-five to two hundred per cent ? The return freight on fault and salt lightens the -charges on exports of our own products, and our imports enable us to export. If salt in Sicily or Spain is made by solar heat at ten cents per hundred pounds, is it our true policy to tax it two hundred per cent, to eiinhle a lew owners of salt springs to convert a weak lime into an inferior salt, for preserving beef and pork, by the wart ) of our forests and coal-beds ? Do not our railways thus also lose, un important item of return freight ? and is it not the policy of our nation, instead of forcing these spritigs into an unnatural productiou, t) keep them as reserves for time of war, and to stimulate our farms, railways, ships, exports and imports, by a natural and enriching commerce ? As respects coai, iron, wool, and woollens, ive have tried the experiment of excessive duties, and what is the rggult.? We have over-stimu-lated coal by a duty of a hundred per cent on the foreign article, and thus made our coal-mines anprofitabfe. We are doing the same thing uilli iruu. The ore of Michigan is a*©ttdtttgihattrf Frowsy lvanra-The wages of her iron-workers have been carried above those of judges and governors, and the manufacturers and shipwrights of the East, who reSuife iron at the lowest pricp for ieir boilers and engines to compete with those of Europe, and can best supply thqjr wante’ from tlie-iron which returmfin th<3‘vessels Carrying out our wheat, flour, and provisions, are deterred, by the high price of iron, from building ships and factories. 1/ftSt year, wo unwisely placed a duty ojn wool and a compensating duty on woollens. What is the result ? We have lost aiu\ are losing our export trade in flout, fish, lumber, and provisions to Afrifea, Australia, and the valley of the La Plata, while the tailors of Canada, Now Brunswick, and Nova Scotia' supply the wardrobes of a large .part of New Tork and NowlSuglaMd; thc high prices of cheese and buttcr are thinning the flocks of Vermont and Ohio, while neither Texas nor California, where the'sheep roam through the year in rich pastures, demand protection. Indeed, the idea of protecting agricultures by duties, in a country which gives its land to settlers, contrasts strangely with the policy of England, France, an<f Belgium, which have repealed all duties on wool, although they maintain twioo as many sheep as we do, and this, too, on land worth four hundred do]lars per acre. Let us Irepeal all du-i ties on salt, fruit, and raw material, and impose no duties on manufactures‘exceeding thirty-five per cent, and make those spocifio. , Third, let us return to specie and wclc&uie again a gold, currency, assimilated to that of France as recommended by that distinguished statesman,’the Hon. 8. B. Haggles,—to whom we owe the enlargement of the Erifi Canal,—and let Us hive the French system of wdights and measures. The war is over, and It is time to disoard an irredeemable currency debased and degraded by ouT over* issues. Why should we wear longer the badge of insolvency, And be at the mei ey of the Jcfys pf the «ldr board so-day and of the salos of the We p»y.for

the risk of a decline in gold in all our purchases. The accountant,. the Clerk, tire clergyman, and often the laborer, suffer from the depreciation. Why are rents and goods so dear ? aud why do wo abandon our mission on tlie ocean? It is because wc dare not build the houses, Stores, factories, and ship* that are required, for fear of a fall iu value when the currency rises to par. Our traditions are all in favor of an early return to specie; for when in former days the banks suspended, Boston and New York, by an early resumption recovered their prosperity, while Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati were seriously injured by a continued suspension. The return to specie within a reasonable period can be effected by contraction, and that contraction would be almost imperceptible were Congress to impose a tax of tw a per cent on bank circulation, and for a year to come, as the internal taxes are paid, convert each greenback into a compound-interest note at three per cent, payable in -three years, in cash or five per cent securities, and convertible into four per cent bonds at thirty years, free from all taxation. Suoh compound notes like those issued during the war, for which we may thank the Hot). Amasa Walker, would be. selffunding, and almost imperceptibly carry us back to a specie* Standard, while the tax on bank circulation and deposits would meet the three per cent interest. JSgT'Dou’t forget to vote next Tuesday.