Show Y herald Ueral il will the he cit cuta ba lie sion stion get through this session fallacy of the debt argument against its purchase we learn from washington that the committee on foreign affairs intend to bring the subject of cuba before the house early next week w eek this may be the honest desire of the committee and we have no doubt it is is but from the turn things are taking in m congress we suspect that the question iv whether hether this country desires to acquire cuba will not be decided during the present session session the democrats are no doubt willing milling to let the subject slip by and go into the next presidential canvass and the opposition with that blind fatuity which has always led them to defeat and al almaa will ill seem perfectly resigned to no do av all 11 they can to assist their antagonists in in this purpose if this were not the case they would not waste their time in in building up futile arguments to be overturned by themselves as did seward and then putting the question off to discuss other subjects nil all the while announcing that they are ready beady to meet it until the represents tive in e voice voice of the nation has spoken spoke on this subject the president will wil I 1 not be in in a position to take any steps in a peaceable negotiation datian with w ith spain and a dozen junctures might and may occur during the coming g year when if mr buchanan had the means at hand he could carry the question to a successful i issue s s u e among the arguments brou brought gh t forward we rd against again t the opposed measure none is is so futile as the one that has been most frequently resorted to which is is that the purchase of cuba will create an immense national debt in the first place this argument cannot be logically directed against the thirty millions b 11 for that bill merely proposes the purchase of the island and does not consummate it and thus incur incur the debt it is is therefore nothing but a masked argument gum ent against the acquisition and as such we have no doubt seward meant it notwithstanding his self asserted belief that cuba gravitates to the continent in the second place if the spanish government will not sell cuba as is is so loudly asserted by spanish hi dalgos and american black republicans the passage of the thirty millions bill will mil not bring us into any debt at all then the mighty scheme of public debt which seward so artfully built up in in his speech on the slidell report and so cunningly knocked down dow n by quoting and pretending to credit the speech of calderon Lal deron collantes vanishes into thin air air we have a shrewd suspicion that when seward quoted doted against his own fabric of debt le the words of the hidalgo he had a pretty vivid recollection re ol lection of the heroics that were got off by some of his bis democratic compeers com peers during the famous fifty four forty or fight era he had a twitch twitching fear that the coon in in the spanish chestnut tree might come down if the thirty millions were brought to bear upon him having some such an idea ourselves the debt question becomes worth examining let us see what it amounts to we will take lake argument for that piles on the agony highest he tells us that the bill proposes to appropriate now at this time thi thirty t millions out of the treasury it does no such thing whatever sum the bill may place at the disposition of the president when it is is passed it takes not one dime out of the treasury until the acquisition of the island is is consummated ile he then assumes that we w e buy the island at a cost perhaps of five hundred millions which with an exorbitant stretch of generosity he be is is willing to cut cat down one cae half and let us have the island for two hundred and fifty millions and on this basis he builds up his calculation of an overwhelming wh national debt we are not disposed to quarrel with mr seward about the price of cuba provided we get it but we vv e may mention here that the highest equivalent the american government has ever contemplated giving for cuba is is one hundred and thirty millions the havana prensa a journal once high in in the confidence of gen concha recently spoke of the island as being worth two hundred millions and in in the way of trade taking spanish debt in in barter at its face perhaps it is is but then we could buy the spanish bonds for the transaction considerably sider ably under their nominal value so we will even look at the debt argument at figure say two hundred and fifty millions it is is a curious curious fact in in the study of the human mind that we often find men reputed to have knowledge talents skill in in their use a and nd all that who when blinded by passion or w ashing to blind others will vv ill assert as truths statements which practice and experience have hav e repeatedly peat edly proven to be fallacies this is is precisely the case with the argument argame nt against the purchase of territory because it it will run us in in debt it was used by the federalists against ill thu purchase of louisiana and florida yet it was the acquisition of those territories which gave to the industry and trade of this union union the great impulse that no not t on only enabled it to pay off the cost of khz then il purchase but the entire debt of the country besides the very same thing occurred with california the whigs who had opposed the war with mexico because i it t created a debt tried hard bard to strike california and the fifteen millions paid for it it out of the treaty of peace yet it was the stimulus that california gave to every productive and speculative interest in in the country that paid off the whole debt of the mexican war long bi be fore its payment fell due seward segvard knows these facts as well as any other man and yet he be can get up in in his place in in the senate and ignoring them completely ely bring forward against the acquisition of cuba the old worn wom out and refuted argument that it will plunge us irretrievably into debt we will look only atone at one other aspect of the argument let us suppose that we do not purchase the island the first thing we have hare to do is is t to 0 fo follow 11 0 1 v out the plan that we are no now av pursuing an and I 1 spend many millions in in magirl making key west and the Tortu tortugas Tor as first class naval stations and ports of refuge as a counterpoise ter poise against cuba the next step is is to bring forward and keep up a navy sufficient to maintain in in our hands tile the control of the gulf of mexico and the straits of florida against powers holding ino better strategic positions in those waters than we do for a ninety days blockade of the gulf of florida would break evera every bank merchant and trader from the Alleg hanys to the rocky mountains this would cost us many more millions and yet the amount would go on annually increasing with the increase increase of the danger on the other hand suppose we buy cuba for two tv 0 hundred and fifty millions of five per cent cen debt the interest on that amount would be twelve and half millions of dollars which does not exceed what will very soon be our annual outlay in in building up key west and the tortugas Tor and maintaining maintaining our naval supremacy antho in the gulf of mexico but bat if we incur incur this expenditure for the purchase of cuba we not only receive ceide for our money the perpetu acy of those highways of our commerce in in the strategic positions that command them but we receive a ta tangible nible and productive value that will of of itself soon pay off the debt incurred in its acquisition just jast as louisiana florida and california paid off theirs more than this we shall acquire a territory whose accession to the union will revolutionize every branch of industry and trade in this country A new and vast market will be opened for the meats and of our farmers which does not now exist A new impetus will be given to every branch of manufacturing natural commerce a commerce of exchanges between di different Terent climates soils and labor a commerce that calls for no protective tariffs or barriers to guard the revenue will spring up and give a new value to mans labor and a supply to his wants in every section of the union the stimulus this will give to trade and production everywhere will soon pay kofl the original cost of purchase and leave us in a far more prosperous and stronger condition than we have ever before been |