Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1863-12-25
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DUntIS W. 6fTTHUaCKS.

The indianapolis Journal, in COM
menting upon the argument that the
Government is doing foolish thing in
putting its Indebtedness into bonds in
stead of greenbacks, because on the
former it must pay six per cent. interest,
and on the latter no interest at all" uses
the following language, which we com
mend to the thoughtful consideration of
our readers.
If the s500,00O,O00 of "five-twenty
bonds " we're all in treasury notes, our
currency would be doubled without a
corresponding increase in the business
of the country, and prices would go up,
up, up till they reached figure at which
every purchase made by the Government
of stores, arms, or munitions of war
would entail a loss fully equal to the
whole amount of the purchase. In eff
feet, Government money would become
more and more nearly worthless as its
volume increased, and the upshot would
be that nobody would have it, nothing
could be bought with it, and the coun-
try would have to suecumb," that is re-
pudiate it, as the rebels propose to do
with theirs. The rebels are suffering as
much to-day from their enormously in
hated currency as from the direct effects
of the war, and, though our means are
greater, our strength greater and our
situation every way better, an approach
to their financial policy will carry us an
unpleasant length toward their condition.
What the Government loses in inter
est on her bonds, as our friend express
ed it, is saved three times over in the
healthy condition of our currency pro-
duced by putting our Indebtedness in
such shape that it becomes a profit in
stead of loss to those who hold it. The
great fact that to make our debt an addi--
ton to the currency would be to make
the currency worthless was the point our
speculative friend lost sight of, and which
no doubt good many others lose sight
of in the same way. 1t is so easy to see
that if we pay millions of interest on
bonds, when Treasury notes without any
interest could be paid out in the place of
them, we are apparently throwing money
away, that the mind stops there and rests,
when by looking little further it would
see that currency unduly inflated would
lose ten times the interest of twice as
as many bonds to the country and the
Government too. There is nothing so
costly In this world as very cheap money,
and the rebels are wringing their hands
and crying despairingly over. their late
discovery of the fact
Mr.. Chases policy of converting green
backs into six per cent bonds, has been
severely criticized in many quarters
Generally, the criticisms come from par.
tissn papers, among the most prominent
of which has been the Louisville Demo
erdt We are gratifed, however, to OBJ
serve that, since the rebel Secretary of
the Treasury, Mr.. Memminger, has pub
lished his testimony in regard to the ru-
inous workings of redundant currency
system, that paper has maintained a dis
erect silence on its fayorite hobby. 1t
has, doubtless, discovered that no politi-
cal capital worth laboring for is to be
made by further discussion of the sub
ject-
Mr.. Memminger is not the first inan-
eier who has attempted to put the in
debtedness Of Governments or Corpora
tions into form that would save the
payment of interest Many of our cities
have undertaken the same thing, by issu.
ing orders with the expectation that they