The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-02-19

| Orleans direct.
In addition to these existing and working
lines Others are projected and have far
prospect OF success. Tho National Telegraph
Company is a comprehensive scheme TO con-
struct general opposition lines all ovsr the
Union 1t is organized under the National
Telegraph law of 1866, the stock is subscribed
ny business men all over the country, from
Maine to California, and lis design is to have
It's entire capital Of ten million dollars SUBJ
scribed by responsible parties before any work
is commenced. This capital will enable the
company to construct better and more lines
than are now owned by the Western Union,
whose inflated bubble capital is forty -one mil
lions. The Northwestern Telegraph Company
is to extend from Milwaukee to StsPaul, Min
nesota, and will connect with the Atlantic and
Pacific, and the Mississippi Valley Telegraph
Company will build o line from ST. Paul to
New Orleans.
All these projects, if properly carried out,
Will be assured successes as are all the COM
petlng routes now in operation. The latter
are doing a profitable business, and doing
It well, and they have reduced the exorbitant
charges OF the Wessern Union m monopoly to all
the points they reach over sixty per cent
They are entitled to tho public confidence and
support from their own intrinsic merits and
their efficient manner of doing business, but
especially because they are helping to break
down an overbearing monopoly that has too
long been suffered to impose upon the public.
A New System OF Finance and Currency
for the United States.
We give elsewhere On excellent letter on our
national finances from Mr.. Slas M. Stilwell
Jonathan Oldbuck), setting forth fully the OK
pediency and advantage of funding the
national debt in currency bonds In this pro-
position Mr.. Stilwell grspples with that which
Is now the really formidable point in our
national affairs the point whose satisfactory
adjustment will secure the country against all
political troubles, whose danger is more i'm
m.nent to the cOuntry's welfare than any other,
and which, if not wisely guarded against, must
financial distress that carries governments
down. 1t is the oppression OF the tax gatherer,
felt at every mans Preside, and the bad financial
systems which palsy private enterprise, that
wear away the patriotic spirit Of people and
thereby destroy nations. And this is our present
tendency. Government pays an excessive in
terest and so demoralizes capital. Mr.. Silwell
does not state the government interest erro-
neously when he puts it at ten per cent This,
which we might almost call financial bounty,
of course witbdraws money from all those In
vestments In which, by State laws, interest is
fixed at a lower figure, and also draws it from
manufacturing or other enterprises more or
less precarious, but which give employment to
the people, Thus the sream Of the country's
capital stagnates in a lazy lagoon Of three
thousand million dollars of debt Exorbitant
interest dra WIS 1t .ither, cripples the business
of the country to that extent, and then from
this crippled industry that exorbitant interest
must be paid. Such industry as goes on in
the nation must not only pay earnings on the
money invested in it, but must also pay to the
bondholder as much as it pays to its own CAPT
tai. The government bondholder has lien
on every trade, and he receives as much money
from every article sold on Broadway, without
rsking o cent, rs the merchant makes who
sells the article. He is lord of the ascendant
IN our financial system, and if we were to 90
on in our present course the bondholding in
terest would, within the experience OF m,n
now alive, own every dollar In the country,
every house and every acre of land and the
people would be tho bondholders' slaves, just
as the people of Englani are to-day the slaves
of the moneyed aristocracy there. From this
situation the danger to the country is that 1t
seems to commend reputation to the people,
and points the way for demagogues to carry
the nation to dishonor.
How shall we escape that danger on the one
hand and remedy the Q evils on the other?
Mr. StilwelPs proposition is to fund the whole
debt in bonds bearing interest at 1865 per
cent On one hundred dollars the interest
would be three dollars and sixty-6ve Gems,
or one cent per day, which would make its
computation easy to the people. He would
exempt these bonds from taxation and make
them u legal tender, retiring thus the present
currency. In favor OF such loan there Is all
to be said that was ever said in favor of our
present loans, and infinitely more. Its striking
Poius 70 eha' ~ PlcSShLs q PraShCai ooAuhVh ioi
all our currency dlfli ,ulties at the same time
that il provides TOR the debt 1t reduces the
interest on the debt, but does not put it too
low. 1t leaves it at such point that an invest
ment in United States bonds of this character
will be better than in the bonds Of any Euro
pean government, supposing the credit to be
equally good; and we must not put ours down
by assuming that il Is lower In thus pro-
viding for the debt the bonds are themselves
also selt-regulatng currency, with just
sufficient elasticity to accommodate itself to
the requirements it is to meet There
can be no inflated currency, no SUPER
huous money, since all not passing from
hand to hand in the needs Of trade
is not lying idle but is actually invested at