New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-09-17
THE PUBLIC DEBT.

/ E"ASAAS
appears to be going on at rate which seems
really to give promise of the extinguishment
of the government obligations at no very dis
tant period. The last monthly statement shows
1 a reduction Of indebtedness, since August LIST
of $37 416, 104; since June LIST, of STA, Cos, 1879
and since August 1st 1865, the period d
which the debt was at its maximum, of $751;
So los. The total amount of the debt Oh
the LIST inst. was 50, 500, 683, 1853. The rate o
liquidation which has characterized the las
three months would, if continued, cancel thu
whole within nine years.
If it is true, as some authorities seem tx
think that this rate can be kept up, a very
extraordinary problem would be presented fol
determination-notw whether or not the deb
could be paid, or should be paid but whether
or not it would be desirable to pay it within
so short a period as nine years. That it is
desirable to get rid of the debt is undoubtedly
true as an abstract proposition. It would be
difficult to convince anybody except a govern.
ment agent in this nineteenth century, that
"a national debt is national blessings" nor
can all Of Mr.. Jay Cooks modest pamphlets
persuade people that the more they are taxed
the richer they get. The economist who
should argue that a community can work its
way to wealth by issuing paper obligations
and paying annual interest on its promises,
would justly excite as much derision as the
man who tried to propel his ship by means of
a big bellows. But when. these paper pro
misses, whether they take the form of treasury
notes, or Of bonds, represent an amount of
capital actually destroyed, it becomes doubly
absurd to regard them as the evidence Of
wealth.
1t It's, therefore, in the mind of everybody
but gold Spectator, OF bond agent, OF
manufacturer who makes the necessity for
revenue a pretext for protection, desirable
to get rid of the debt and the annual
burdens which the debt imposes on the in
dustry Of the country and the only prac-
ticable way to get rid Of it is by paying it.
But the question then arises whether, in fact
it may not be paid too fast whether rate of
liquidation exceeding given ratio would not
be more onerous in the end than a iudicious
combination of processes by which in the
of the debt the object would
not be gained at the expense of burdens too
heavy to be borne. 1t can readily be per-
ceived that the payment of twenty-five hun
dred million dollars in one year would, even |
# it were practicable, operate disastrously on |
industry. The sudden transfer of SO i'm |
nense sum from the productive classes to
he unproductive class, would produce inev-
table bankruptcy, and arrangement Of all
and commercial pursuits The
anne consequences, but in q less degree,
you'd result from any extravagant rate Of
axat1on, Indeed there is great danger that
he rapidity of the contemplated liquidation
INVOLVING, of necessity, unparalleled imposts
1ould absolutely destroy many branches of
Industry, sand thus materially diminish the
-ealth of the country. The burthens fastened
n the public for the mere payment Of inte-
est are not easy to be borne how, then,
ouid the country stand a rate of taxation
nee or four times as great? Before under
king so serious an experiment as that Of 7
aging off the public debt within nine years !
ON date, it would be well to reflect on the
'obable consequences to our commercial and
dustrlal system which would flow from such a
undertaking. 1t would be fine thing for
ture historians to relate, that nearly three c
ousand million dollars had been paid within
If score of years but the price Of that I
1T OF glory might be far more than the
untry could afford to pay. n
To return to the debt in its present asnects n,
lind from the summary of then. \ Times "
at Of the interest bearing portion (about
,22l, 800 000) of the present debt five g
entities (of all issues form $776, 422, 500, in "
ding of the earlier ISSUE ssh, 78O, 500; is =,
J Of 1864, 100000, O00; and issue of 1865, as
81, 642, 300. The six per cents of 1881 now ~
cunt to 1888, 734, 800, the ten-forties to NJ
u, 069, $50, and the seven thirties (all three
ies) to $3.50, SIS, 800, or nearly sixty-one pi
lions less than the original total issue.
'eyenty-three millions of the temporary sol
n were paid off in August
Yearly thirty millions of the first series of Pa
en-thirties, maturing in August of next T.
j, have been converted, within the last
nth, into tive-twenties of the latest issue. NJ
currency interest-bearing debt has been {
acedneaTly ninety-one million, and the coin fTE2
erest-bearing debt has been increased about cr'
rty-tour millions during the month. Both rt {
compound interest and the legal tender CO.
Iency have beenTeduced slightly in volume. : :.
here is now, says the Times, a strong cash "h
erye in the Treasury. The coin reserve
been steadily increasing, chiefly from 1
toms revenues, since June 1. Then it Gus
ID, $50 go 957; on August 1, SCI, 1922. 1928; sto'
Sept. l, s76 1873, 918; of which nearly con
y-one millions belong absolutely to the
sury, the balance being represented bygold
ificates of deposit. The currency reserve
been reduced from SIS, OH, 1926 on June /. \
SIS, 995, 206 on August1 to $50, 297 10 on ,toc
lst Of September. This currency reduc-
has resulted mainly from the payment of Dire
temporary loan, Of which about fifteen and
ions yetremain unealled for in the vaults
he department, although these temporary
9slts cease to bear interest on the 26th
he legal-tender circulation is now s555-
1872, against s556. 1913 1858 on the LIST nit, S
SOD, l4o,45 on the LIST of June The
ctlon since June has been mainly in the
pound interest notes, which, three months
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