The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-08-11

The Airline Route Financial Ruin.
A correspondent recently writing to the
| Tribune, says:
ave favor the payment of Five-Twenties in
| greenbacks. You ask us how, then we will
| pay the greenbacks? In gold, to the uttermost
| farthing, ochen zoe can; but meantime we will
avoid the ruinous interest we pay at present"
Let us analyze the effects which wonld re-
suit from this blunder, il it could be consuln-
mated. The above statement is step in adj
vance of the Pendeton theory. The writer
has discovered by dint of hard pounding. that
when the bonds have been all Withdrawn and
greenbacks issued, the principal of the debt
is as large as ever. Not dollar OF it has been
paid The United States still owes the hold
ers of the greenbacks S2,500,O00,OQ0 which
our correspondent says should be paid in cold
But he says we have stopped the payment OF
the interest. Waving the point that it would
be as just to rcpudiate the principal as the in
terest of any debt on which we have agreed 10
pay interest, and hence the plan, if a good one,
stops short OF its full trution by $2.5O0, ,OOO,-
600, we will suppose the job done. 1 he bonds
are recalled. The greeubacks are issued The
blow is sGruck-whom has it felled?
First:-We have agreed to pay 50 500 OOO.-
| 600 in gold on demand tor a debt which we
would buy to-day for ~ cents per dollaror for
| S1,700O00,000 in gold altogether, thus losing
at the outset iii the greenbacks are ever to be
! paid SS00,O0O, ,OOO in gold, or 1-2 years in
terest on the National debt.
Secondlu:-The National debt could not be
| paid out of the surplus earnings OF the people.
| after paving for the wear and tear OF working
! capital and the support of the people. in less
than twenty years. A note without interest,
| payable in twenty years, is worth that sum
| which, il plsced at compound interest tor
| will A.. =
| the note is gwen. The note otthe Goverrme {
| Tor Sloo, due in twenty years, without interest
| and sure TO be paid in coin, would be worth
| only so. Even were there absolute certainty
| therefore, that every greenback not would be
| paid in full in gold at the end Of twenty years
| it would be worth only twenty cents ON the
| dollar Ii used as a currency in which prices
were to be stated and debts paid, all prices
| would go up 45O per cent above what they
now are, or, 400 above the gold price, and al.
| debts would be payable with less than one
| third the actual value which would now paw
them. Ii all values would rise at the same
time, the extent OF the evils could be arrived
at by computation. But they would not. I'm
ports and exports, dry goods, wheat, pork
beet, and other exportable merchandise,
would rise in price long before wages and
rem S, and these still long before real estate,
and real estate in commercial cities would
rise long before, and more than country
| property. This would set on foot a general
| gambling and specializing era such as the
country has never seen. Gold would go up
from 140 to 500. The poor man who to-day
sells his shop or cottage, that has hitherto
been worth $1,000, to 81 500 thinking he has
made great advance, finds before long that
he ought to have sold it tor 5000 in order
to make himself who e, and that he has lost
three-fourths OF all he was worth, unless he
can swindle somebody as badly as he has
been swindled. In such chaos and wreck of
prices and OF business, the honest working
man is ruined; the hard-earned property he
has accumulated melts like the dew-he
hardly knows why. Such a condition
of things is favorable only to the gambler
and land-shark, and fatal to honest and legi-
innate industry. Talk OF saving S120,000000
of interest per annum! 1t would unsettle
the entire property OF the country, so that no
man could be certain of saving anything
The twenty thousand millions of dollars
which the entire real and personal property
OF the country is worth, would rise to one
hundred thousand millions, and in the riss
eighty thousand millions OF it, at its advances
values, whould pass from the hands of those
who have honestly earned 1T into the hands
oil spectators. This proposition launches u
on sholeless sea. 1t has no element in Il
but certain destruction, wide spread ana ter
riOle disaster. The very existence OF busl
ness and industry depends on preventing the
tools from running our finances upon TIM
rock of reputation. 1t is not question o
mere honor but of overwhelming interest
nav, of self-preservation. The so-called pay
ment of the debt in greenbacks, even il the,
were certain to be paid in gold in twent,
years, and therefore depreciate only t
twenty cents on the dollar, Tor this is th,
basis on which we have thus tar calculated
would speedily ruin every nom. pecuiator in
the country. The most reckless gambling
would be the only salvation of any man o
business. But it is not true that the green
backs would be paid in coin in twenty years
and consequently it is not true that the de
probation would stop at twenty cents pc
dollar. When they had fallen to twent
cents, they would be three times more depre
l ciated, and consequently further from bein
paid in coin, than the national bonds no,
are. The Pendletons and Vallandigham
> who cry out against paying bonds in coin tina
: are deprecated to seventy cents, will find
: to be just three and half times as unius
Y and oppressive to redeem the greenbacks i