OCR Text |
Show THE NATIO.VAL DEBT. One of the principal issues of the next Presidential campaign will doubtless doubt-less be the disposition to be made of the national debt. Because of this public burden being in the hands of an administration which will manage it according to a set programme fur a year or two, the question is but little agitated at present. But when the next Presidential canvass begins in earnest, and the parties have their platforms arranged, the vast importance of the question of national linance will undoubtedly vo the debt question more prominence than any other. The breach cii-ting between monopolist.! monop-olist.! 2nd capitalists on 'tiic hand, and tax-paying industry on the ottk.r, if growing wider every day ; and the advantage ad-vantage I ho finuor hnvc taki'ti over the latter, in the importation of cheap labor from China, has had a tendency the reverse of conciliatory. The work-iugmen, work-iugmen, therefore, naturally look to the ballot-box as a relief from the evils they complain of, and it is quite probable that in 1872 a national "Labor Reform" party may appear, ap-pear, with a platform demanding either the repudiation of the entire bonded debt, or such a modification in the manner of its payment as will afford af-ford them a relief from the heavy L.:;a tion they now endure. Then, again, there is a growing error and enmi' on the part of the ''bone and sinew'' toward to-ward the "bond-holding a-istoc: acy" jf the country, whose bonds and securities secur-ities protect them from taxation, and who are consequently growing ricli3r while the laboring classes grow poorer. So while the national reputation and credit require the debt to be paid in full, according ac-cording to the letter and spirit of the agreement, the great bulk of the people peo-ple who comprise the nation, demand that they be protected in their earnings and possessions, and that their right to acquire should have the protection of the Government as much as the right nf the capitalist to increase. It is certainly a very vexed question, and one that the politicians of all parties par-ties must devote themselves to with assiduity. |