The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-03-26
CONVERTING CITY MONEY.

nor an individual can, with impunity, defy
logic, economy. arithmetic; to say nothing of
the justice which, even in the secular sphere,
includes all Of these. OF all follies the folly
of a bad beginning is the most inexcusable
and the most pernicious Its generative power
is fearful The greatest difficulties Of finance
are found in combating the consequences of
initial errors, IN trying to work out good
ending from bad beginning. The genealogy
of the present trouble with the city currency,
so far as this trouble is a financial question.
can be plainly traced to the original issue of
treasury notes, in the form of paper money,
in anticipation of the taxes of the city. These
notes would, necessarily, under the most IA
vorable conditions, have suffered depre-
citation, in some way, equivalent to the inter
est of the sum which they represented In
effect, from the moment when they were put
in circulation the people, by receiving this
sort Of money, and the city government by
paying 1t out have alike been paying interest
on the uncollected taxes of the city. Even
when city money was nominally at par, or
nearly so, this interest made itself to be felt
| IA.
| not have been otherwise. What, indeed, gave
to the notes in question value distinct from
all other classes Of city obligations, was the
fact that they were issued in the nature of
| drafts against the incoming taxes. These
drafts were discounted in the act of tneir
acceptance on the part of the public. Sup
posing the volume of the currency to have
averaged four millions of dollars, the average
of this discount can not have been less tLan
four hundred thousand dollars a wear.
Such is the price, apart from the additional
discount expressed in depreciation from other
than strictly financial causes, which the
people of this city have paid for
the honor of cashing their own
liabilities as taxpayers in the form of dis
counted paper. Add to this the further loss
resulting from political changes and uncer-
tainties, and from official mismanagement and
prohigacy, and it would not be too much TO
say that this process of discounting the tax
alton of the city has cost the people at the
annual rate of hardly less than a million of
dollars. No one in his senses can desire to
see it resumed after the interruption of it
caused by the late panic on the subject of city
money. Every one in his senses must dis |
t1ust, deprecate. and oppose any scheme
which should propose, instead of Graduating |
the evil in this case, only to change its form.
and to leave it to operate with progressive ac-
gravation in the future. And it does appear |
to us that the ordinance now before the CITY
Council, and to be acted on by them next |
Saturday, strikes, not at the root of the evil.
but merely at one OF its dead branches. The
city currency having been blasted by the late
panic, it is proposed to lop that of. Very
well, if this be done without injustice, on
the one hand, to those who hold such currency
in good faith as money circulated on the credit
of the city, and without exscting too much
from the financial resources of the city on the
other hand. But, at time when the mass of
the population becames daily more and more
pinched for money of any sort, it is the ex-
press object of the ordinance referred to to ex-
tinguish city money, and to substitute for it
certificates of Indebtedness which, for what
ever they may be worth. will be certain to
pass into the hands of a few capitalists as
stock. Nor would this operation reduce in
the least the debt of the city; nor would it
stop the discount of the city taxation 1t
would add to the debt of the city the interest
on whatever amount of currency may remain
after the sale of the stalls in the thirteen
markets, say two and half millions, sup
posing this amount to be invested in certiti-
Gates of indebtedness at eight per cent. inter-
est per annum. And this interest," formally
stipulated, would be only another form for
the unexpressed discount which attended the
of city money. The people at
large would no longer have the benefit of the
money, but they would have to pay at the rate
Of two hundred thousand dollars per annum
towards making it good to a few capitalists in
its new shape of certificates of indebtedness.
OF course, this formal and specific addition to
the aggregate liabilities of the city could not
but lower its credit in the stock market in a |
degree, unless the increase
were accompanied by ,proportionate aug
nentation of its financial ability But no
such augmentation is contemplated On.the
contrary, this ability would be largely reduced
by closing up for ten years one of the prin-
,ipal sources of city revenue
We would like to see some promise of real
OF the city finances in any pro
ect hitherto preached either by the mayor or
he council. But We cannot Between the I
downward course OF city money and the up
ward tendency of city expenditures, between
he corrupt leakages, know and unknown, in {
he street commissioners, and possibly in
other departments, and the new drains upon
he peoples pockets which the legislation of {
he council threatens to open, there seems to
'e wofully small room for the hope that the s
present city authorities viii ever be able TO
each a good ending out of the difficulties .
consequent upon the bad beginning which !
vas made in the matter of the city currency. \
The financial candle has been for some time I
burning with fearful rapidity at both ends;
nd it is greatly to be feared that measures a
ret to be adopted by these authorities will