Clayton herald. (Clayton, Del.) 1867-1870, 1868-04-25
Who Own the Bonds.

OF the five richest men in the metro
polls, only two hold, individually. any
United States stocks at all, and those to
u very incopsiderable amount.
These bonds besides the three or four
hundred millions held abroad by our
friends, principally in Germany, consti-
tute the investments of savings banks,
marine, fire and life insurance compa-
MES. and of trust estates. In the State
of New York the savings banks alone
hold no less than forty-nine millions of
dollars; in Massachusetts, twenty-five
millions; in Rhode Island, thirteen n il
lions, and so on of many of the other
States. In this city the surplus funds of
the life insurance companies, to the
the amount of twenty millions, are in
vested in the same way. The marine
and fire insurance companies hold no
less, or in the aggregate, about forty-six
millions of dollars. In other words,
again, the savings banks and insurance
companies doing business in the State
alone hold one hundred millions of the
United States stock. In this, trust es
tates, which we have no means ofgetting
at, are not included.
In the State of New York alone the de-
positors in the savings banks who own
this sis, 900, 900 of United States stock are
no less than 4SS,50l in numbsr. In the
otulS vi MdSSdCluStlIS lIty are ITO less
than 3l6, 600 in nun Der, making in al,
in the two States alone, nearly one mil
lion ofpersOns who are vitality CONCERNED
IN the permanence and appreciation of
our national securities. Now, let us ask,
are these all capitalists, are they all aris-
tOcratic bOndholders, are they even of
the easy classes? Let us take list of
one of the banks now before us, and
transcribe some of the principal occupa-
tions to which the depositors belong:-
Artists, bakers, butchers, hartenders,
blacksiniths, boarding house keepers,
boatmen, boiler makers, bookbinders,
cartmen, coachmen, carpenters, clerks,
domestics, engineers, farmers, fisher
men, gardeners, matters, hucksters,
junk dealers, laborers, masons, milk
men, milliners, nurses, ostlers, peddlers,
porters, plumbers, seamstresses, shoe
makers, soldiers, tailors, tanners, wash
ers, walters, weavers. OF these several
classes the largest in its number are, list,
domestics; End, laborers; Sd, seams
tresses; 4th, clerks; 5th, tailors; 9th,
walters, and 9TH, cartmen, These are
the "aristOcfaitc bondholders," whom
the politicians, in an ignorant and Vul-
gar notion of playing upon supposed
feeling of jealousy against wealth, would
drag to the ground. Rich men who hold
bonds have other means, also; but these
have nothing to trust to but their little
economies invested in the faith of the
nation.
They are the poorer classes, then, who
avail themselves of the benefits of these
institutions, and whose little means ac-
cumulated make up their capitals. The
savings banks alone in this State have a
constituency of no less than four hun
dred thousand persons, poor men, wild
ows, orphans. sailors, sewing girls, teach
ers, and others who af,i thrifty. enough
TO put by all tney have earned against
the day of ill-luck, or disease, or old age.
These are the "aristocratic bondholders,"
we repeat, whose property the politicians
are aiming at, whose securities they
would render worthless, whose very
means OF subsistence in their darker
hours they would turn into worthless
rags.-Net0 York EUening Post.