New-York tribune., 1868-06-24
THE FINANCES.

Congress seems at length to be giving earnest
heed to the National Finances. 1t Is high time
And, although Mr.. Sherman's successive de-
monstratiOns in the Senate have resulted, as
vet, in successive failures. we chori"h hopes Oh
success in the near future from the kindred ana
more recent demonstrations in the House.
Mr.. Loughridge's resolve of Monday has
spice of Buncombe in its composition, yet Its
exceptionally favorable treatment by the House
was deserved. The Debt should be rapidly con
solidated into q single loan at lower rate OF
interest-five per cent, perhaps, for the present
but ultimately four per cent. We can fund it
at four per cent. but, in order to do so, we
must previously
/. Convince the lending public that every
farthing of principal and interest will be surely
and punctually paid.
ii. Provide a revenue unquestlonably ade-
Quate to this end;
III. Resume in earnest the payment or re-
duction of principal.
This last point seems to us too generally
overlooked. I'VE have a solemn pledge on our
statute-bOOh that at least one per cent. of the
principal shall be paid off in each fiscal year.
We ought usually to pay much more than that /;
we ought never to pay less. Yet we are not
reducing the Debt at ALL and have not been
since the taxes on raw Cotton and on Manu-
features were repealed, months ago. Were we
paving off smartly, the reduction of interest
by funding our non-Tedeemable Skies into
Fives, would be easy and certain; but merely
resolving that the interest should be reduced
will not avail Make.U. s. bonds scarcer, week
after week, and it will be easy to borrow at
five per cent the wherewithal to redeem our
Skies as the option to pay accrues at the expi-
ration of five years from their issue respect
lively; but the borrower already heavily in
debt, yet content to remain So can rarely make
much progress in reducing the rate of inter
| est on his obligations. The mad haste to reduce
! taxes iu excess of the reduction of our current
| expenditures is a chief obstacle TO the rapid
reduction of the rate of interest on our Debt
Hence, the resolve proffered by Mr.. Price of
Iowa seems to us more practical than that OF
| Mr.. Loughridge. There certainly must be some
form of "matured or maturing indebtedness
drawing interest which the Treasury Is, or
soon will be, at liberty to pay of, to the extent
of Fifty Millions of Dollars; and, if so, we
should gladly see that amount paid off at once
and S3,O00.0O0 per annum thus saved. Having
a larger amount lying idle in the Treasury,
the redemption of $50 1000 of interest bearing
Debt is as feasible as it plainly is frugal. And
! the extinction of that amount would not merely
save S3000,000 per annum of interest: it would
render U. S. bonds so much scarcer, and thus
tend to appreciate their market value, thus
tending TO facilitate the desired exchange of
existing bonds as they fall due for new ones
bearing a lower rate of interest. Why Mr.
McCullOch has needed and waited for an i'm
pulse from Congress to this obvious step, we
do not pretend to know or comprehend
Mr.. Price, we see, proposes to continue the
payment of principal until the amount of coin
in the Treasury shall have been reduced to
$25,OOO,OOO We submit that this is not all nor
precisely what is desired. To draw down the
gold in the Treasury to precisely $25,0OO0OO
would not be prudent or wise the day before
$50, 100000 of coin-interest fell due The true
limit would be less rigid than this-say
S1OOOO,OOO over and above the amount of ac-
crued interest. Thus, if we should have
$50 10000 of coin interest to pay every quar-
ter the true rule would be substantially as
follows:
If quarters interest fell due July 1st, let
the amount of coin in the Treasury after the
payment of that interest be $10,000,000; Aug.
1st, S2O,OOO0OO; Sept. 1st, $3O,O0O0OO; and Oct.
1st, $4O,OOO,OOO, in readiness for the next pay
ment of interest, then due. But it would be
far better to have the interest fall due on q
twelfth part of the Debt, so nearly as may be,
each month and so keep the coin balance rang
ing between $1o000,OO0 and $20GOO,OOO. What
ever rule may be adopted on the subject should
be precise and of persistent obligation, 80 that
coin sales shall henceforth be made, not at the
mere caprice of any functionary, but whenever
there is money in the Treasury beyond a speci-
fed amount, fixed with reference to the actual
needs Of the Treasury. a.l.
And let it never be forgotten that ability
and fired reSolre to PAY are the corner stones
of all sound Finance. 1t is sheer folly to talk
of reducing rates of interest while there is any
question of our National integrity and solvency.
If Congress- or the approaching Democratic
National Convention, should give any counte-
nance to the suggested swindle of paying off
funded Debt bearing coin interest in Green
backs which pay no interest and are practi-
cally irredeemable, then we can fund no part
OF our Debt at lower rates of interest, but
must abide the consequences Of National ras-