Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-07-24
How e Impr0ve the NationaI CFedit.

How TO Improve the National Credit.
The national Republicans platform
contains the following bit of sound f.
nancial philosophy:
'sThe best policy to diminish our bur
den Of debt is to so llT9prOUe O1a' credit
that capitalists will seek to loan rs
money at lower rates of interest than
we now pay, and must continue to pay,
so long as Reputation, partial or total,
open or covert. Is threatened or suspee-
ted.1
This we call financial com mon sense.
The best policy to diminish our burden
of debt is to improve our credit, and be-
side this all other policies are mere
tricks to evade the main issue or to es-
cape an obligation. With good credit
we are masters of the situation; with
damaged credit we are evermore the
slaves Of debt and the creatures of mon
ey. lenders. With good credit we shall
sail smoothly and securely; with dam
aged credit we shall always be buffet
ing with the waves and drifting on to
the shoalsand breakers. Damaged credit
is the cause of our paper imitation and
financial embarrassments improved
credit is the means Of escape from these
evils.
To improve -esar-eretlft, chen; rs the
best policy and the great end in view.
How shall we accomplish it2 We ans
wer by, 1. Economy of administration /;
2. BY honestly paying our debts.
Economy is one of the first principles
of successful fnaneiering. II builds up
credit. Extravaganza breeds dIstrust,
economy wins confidence. The man
who shows most ability to save his rev
enue is in the fairest way to pay his
debts. So of a nation. EconO my is it.
self capital. It needs no argument in
its favor as one of the most essential
and most efficient means of restoring
credit whether individual or national.
We believe with Say, the Political
Economist, that the best of financial
schemes is economy.
But even this viii avail but little to re-
store credit without honesty, and especi-
allythat kind of honesty which makes
itself practical in the payment of debts.
The Individual who is able to pay yet
never pays viii find borrowing nearly
as disadvantageou as he who is known
to have the viii to pay but not the
available means. This is especially
true Of government, in the eircum-
stances first supposed, which also has
the power to take the law into its own
hands and repudiate its debts. An in-
dividual who has the means but won't
pay can be made to pay, but a govern
ment cannot, except by force Of arms.
To withhold payment is therefore to
damage credit, while to pay, though
ever 50 50 small a proportion, is to i'm
prove it. He who, though his means
may be ever so small and his debts
ever 50 large, yet devotes a portion,
however insignificant it may be, of his
weekly income to paying his obliga-
tions, is improving his credit. a, z
These principles are equally true as
applied to cur national finances and
we believe it to be a misfortune shat
our government is not paying each
month some portion of the .41iRcipGL of
its indebtednesss. Ten mIIiOnsR month
applied in this way would be worth
double as much in practically re-
storing che credit of the country The
people though tax-burdened would be
a sense. of relief in the constant
of the debt while at the same
time the credit Of the country must inn
prove in the rapidly increasing ratio of
the amount Of Indebtedness cancelled.
For these reasons we believe Con-
gress has made misstep in it's whole
sale reductions of taxation. During
the first two years after the close of the
war we paid off $50 millions of our
national debt. But the clamor about
taxes was raised, Congress yielded and
slaughtered revenues by millions upon
millions. The result is that the good
work of paying the debt has been who'll
Iy arrested while the clamor raised
merely for political effect, has not SUBJ
sided in any perceptible degree. Our
credit has consequently suffered, or at
least remains unimproved. The econ
omy which has striken off taxes with
out a prOporti0nate reduction of ex-
penditures is a false economy and will
return to plague those who have invent
ed It. If expenses cannot be reduced
let the taxes be maintained at least so
as to pay monthly a small portion of
Che debt, and in the end we will econo-
mize far more by improved credit and
the lowered rates of interest at which
capitalists will be glad to lend us.
The best policy TO diminish our bur-
den of debt is TO improve our credit and
the best means Of improving credit are
and pract ical honesty.