HOW AMERICA IS PAYING OFF HER NATIONAL DEBT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6063, 23 April 1881, Page 7

HOW AMERICA IS PAYING OFF HER NA TIONAL DEBT.

Says the London Spectator : "The American people, half mined by their civil war, insistedIn pavin" off instead of bearing their debt, and P a y mki the most terrible temptations adhered to that resolve with an ™»werving po - sistence which throws a new-light upon the utre bf demoeraeyi ' Mhey were.utterly iuiused alike to debt and to.sharp taxation. Ihey were, for doubtful if they had sue--3d in-their war. .- They were compelled to wass through a cycle of depression uiipaMS in their annals, depression amid which Socialism; but fought .fer..i<£ond lie.g« feeder of the resources of the nation, the marvellous immigration from Europe, ;catne practically to an end. The people however had made up their minds, and they taxed themselves wholesale, as if self-flagcllr.tion titillated them, and with one notable exception, that of the income tax, they bore their heavy imposts without flinching. Iso doubt they were helped by the national fueling entertained even by those who indulge, that alcohol is in se an evil thing, by the rooted prejudice in favour of high tariffs and by the national carelessness about the cost of certain luxuries -no other people in the world would bear the Western price for good boots ana gloves—lnit their resolution •to pay rather than that their descendants should pay had in it a superb pride. They held on, devoted a surplus 80 percent, higher than their.whole taxation before the war to the redemption of debt, voted down all repudiators by crushing majorities—for the craze about the 'dollar of our fathers'was honest enough—and finally •reached their present financial, position. More tluto »third of their debt is paid the interest next year will be under ±18,000 000 a year (£17,800,000) or say. two-thirds, of the debt of Great Britain ; and the Secretary, of the Treasury; whilc:proposing to sweep away all inland dutie3 except those on alpohbl and tobacco, expects to place a vast refunding loan atfrom3to3i per cent. • The' halfeuined people of 1805, m'th their consols'; at MS and andrredeemable papcrcurrency flu<?tviating at