National Debt

Krom the Bepublic Magazine. Nearly every nation in the world is either a borrower or a lender, and the startling declaration is made by a writer in the London Daily Telegraph that the world, " regarded in the maas, is living beyond its means." During the 10 years ending with 1872, whileEngland reduced her debt $175,000,000, Holland about $30,000,000, and the United States $4,000,000, in five years there was an increase, in some cases exceedingly large.in tne aeDts ot trance, itaJy, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Austro-Hungary, Egypt, Brazil, Portugal, and Peru, to say nothing of other nations which are comparatively small debtors. France has gone deepest, increasing her liabilities by about 2,500,000,000 in the decade. The editor of "Fenn on the Funds," a well-knwon book of reference in England, estimates the total increase in the aggregate of national debts for the years from 1862 to 1871' at nearly $10,000,000,000, whilo an additional suni of $0,000,000,000 is estimated to have been raised for joint stock coinpanies. The figures necessary to express the total volume of the world's indebtedness, public and private, would represent a euiu nluiost incomprehensible. The United States has aped this European foliy long enongb. Municipal, State, and National indebtedness should be wiped out with the least possible delay. This systom of augtnenting public debts and piling up the taxes on the products of individual industries leads inevitably to dissatisfaction and ultímate distress. One of the niain objects of Federal and State legislation hencoforward should be to arrest this growing evil, and provide for the reducuon and ultímate discharge of all public indebtedness within the Nation. Thousands in Eu rrope and in our owu country who have invested in our National and State bonds are living in idleness on the interest, supported out of the earnings of our working classes.