The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-03-27
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When in the old countries a finance
minister finds himself troubled about
his budget, the difficulty is always one
and the same. 1t is invariably that the
incomings do not equal the outgoings.
He finds he has to borrow for a time to
exc out his years revenue, and to seek
how3and where he can stick in new
tax with the least pain to the, people.
We, on the other hand, are worrying
about our financeswith our purse full
of money! The two highest officers of
the department. dispute as. to whether
we have one hundred and twenty mil
lions or one hundred and fifty millions
of dollars on hand in cash inlthe Treas
ury. The income of the government
for the coming year, it is admitted, will
be many millions beyond all calls
upon it. @
Such conditionof his affairs would
be far from giving private man any
anxiety. Yet we are worrying In Con-
gress about how we are to meet our
debts as they come due. One member
who comes down to figures, tells us
that between now and the assembling of
the next Congress, which is period OF
NEARLY two years, we have twelve nun
i.dred millions of dollars of our debt TO
meet. But this amount of money is
not required to be borrowed as new
operation. The money is already bor-
rowed-it has already been lent to The
government by the people. 1t Is only
a question of whether the loans, when
they shall become due, can be renewed:
The money was originally borrowed
during season of great ditficulty, In
| the midst of the war, while disasters
were from time to time occurring, and
were always possible. How can there
be any question of our ability to renew
these, loans now, in a time of peace?
Moreover, two-thirds of this sum OF
twelve hundred millions is already pro-
vided for. This two-thirds consists OF
seyen-thirty notes, for which, as fast as
they mature, the holders are entitled TO
receive five-twenty bonds. The i've
twenty bonds are selling now at a
higher price than the heseven-thirty notes.
OF course, if that continues to be the
case, when the notes shall become due
their holders will gladly exchange them
for a hish-priced, security. The simple
question isrwhether the government
will maintain its credit at a point at
least as high as it is at present: If 1t do
so, there is no difficulty in meeting all
its existing loans as they mature by
new loans. Avery little wisdom and
an abundance of straigbtforwardness
will put the credit of the government
very much higher than 1T IS now, With
in the next two years; so that its new
loans can be negotiated on better terms
than those of the existing ones.
Besides these seven-t -thirties, there are
of the debt coming due within two years
one hundred millions of temporary de-
posits, (which we have cash on hand to
pay at once. Then there are two hun
dred millions ofcompound interest and
five per cent. notes; of the latter very
few. These have the, bad feature :of
being legal tender. But they Will
soon die natural death by coming
due, when, n ten dollar note being
Il ffN
be presented for payment. They do
not all come due at once; and, II the
credit of the government be kept up,
the means of paying them can easily be
got, through the issue in their place of
bonds, or of those most convenient and
popular securities, seVen-thlrty notes:
There remain a hundred millions of
odds and ends. which may be provided
for also by new loans, if the estimates
by the Treasury ofitS revenue for next
year should prove to have been too
high. If these estimates prove to be
accurate, these odds and ends, and
more too, can be paid out of the sur
plus revenue. If, however, it be thought
wiser to put all these things at once in
a more permanent shape, that can be
ACCOMPLISHED in sixty days. Let the
government simply offer to give in ex-
change for them some form of long Sc
curity which shall be a little more val.
vi dlo
holders of them Will be eager to make
the exchange. H j;
The position is not a difficult one.-
The Secretary of the Treasury has to
make no fresh loans. Not an addition
al dollar needs to be borrowed.
But there is a part of the debt utterly
unprovided for, to wit, the legal tender
notes. These are due, past due, and are
subject to violent fluctuations in value.
With their fluctuation the price and
and credit of all our securities,
both here and in the foreign market, rise
and fall. On the management of these,
therefore, hangs chiefly the credit of the
Government; as their value moves up
or down, so does the gold value of all
our bonds rise and fall, and d-so do the
loans become better or worse, and con-
seqpently the facility of negotiation is
Increased or diminished. Weshall sell
our bonds more freely in Europe when
they have risen to be worth par in gold,
than we can now when they are MT a
discount. The profit to be got out of
them by buying them at a large dis
count tempts only the few-the bolder
of those who have money to lend
When theirryalue has been established
at par with gold, everybody will be
snatching at them.
Let Congress provide that these notes
shall no longer huctuate in value, by
making their redemption at some day
or other, not too distant, certain, and
every thing else will take care of itself.
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