The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-09-02

and find that seventy per cent. of all
the bonds are of the denomination of
8, 600 or less, and that thirty per cent.
are bonds over 3, GOO, and these large
But OF those held by the larger portion
of our people, more than seventy per
cent, probably eighty per cent, are in
small denominations.
But, all these considerations aside,
what will be gained by an exceptional
taxation of the bonds Suppose the
Cobb resolution had become a law, and
we had levied a tax equal to one per
cent. on the interest of the bonds. In
the first place this law would be plain
act of population where we promised
to pay six per cent. IT would reduce
six per cent. bonds to five per cent.
bonds. A five percent. bond Is worth
but S2H per cent. as much as six per
cent. bonds. Therefore, bystaxtng the
interest one cent on each dollar OF the
principal, we reduce the value of the
property In the hands of the holder
1881 per cent. By taxing one cent on
the dollar, 1t is said we save TO the
Treasury thirteen millions OF dollars
annually. But ifthis taxation shonld
depreciate the market value OF the
bonds only one cent on the dollar, NJ
would take away from the holders
ltwenty-one millions of dollars-that IS,
in putting thirteen millions into the
Treasury, it would take twenty-one
millions out of the pockets OF the Peo'
pie.
all this wretched trickery in finance
turn with pride and satisfaction to the
noble declarations of the Chicago Con-
Yentfon that the best method OF light
eninp the burdens of taxation is to i'm.
prove our credit, SO that capitalists Will
seek to loan us money at lower rate
rot nf nj
est throughout Europe is not more than
three per cent. We are paying six per
cent in gold for all the money that for
eigners have loaned US. They buy our
bonds at seventy cents on the dollar,
and we pay them six cents for each
seventy cents they loan us. We pay
them four and half per cent more than
they obtain from their European Gus
toners. This additional sum is not in:
terest, it is insurance. 1t is the guar
antee which we pay them against their
being cheated by Reputation. Every
time we pay million dollars interest
we pay another million as security to
those people that we VIII not cheat
them. Suppose our credit was perfect
ly good, all this additional price for Sc
curity would be saved to the Treasury.
Suppose our credit, too, was as good as
a nation as Massachusetts is as State.
That little State, through all the dark:
est days of the war, Kept her financial
matters in such a condition that
when other States were paying their
Interest in paper, she not only paid her
creditors according to the letter, but
the spirit of her contract-and now
witness the result-she negotiated
sterling in England u few months ago, at
so great a premium that her interest
amounted to but little over three per
cent, Her i've per cent bonds are TO-
day worth twenty-one cents on the
ollar more than the five per cent gold
bearing bonds of the United States.
These things in her favor can ouly be
explained on the ground that in the
State of Massachusetts there are not
enough Democrats to get up respec-
table effort at population. Gould we
to-day fund our whole debt on The
credit of Massachusetts, we could save
four hundred millions of dollars more
than by funding 1t on our own credit.
It has been the policy ofthe Republican
party to fund the debt at lower rate
OF interest. The Fundipg Bill passed
by Congress, about the close of its last
session, proposes to obtain loans at
four and u half per cent. President
Johnson refused his signature to the
bill, but similar one will been passed
at the next session of Congress. Unless
the credit of the country Is destroyed
by the success of the Democratic party,
or the folly of our own, we may expect
to reduce at least one-third of the whole
amount of interest on our public debt.