The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-05
ANOTHER POSITION.

position on the financial question; or rather
it takes up another and quite a different posi-
ton from that which it originally assumed.
At first that paper proposed to let the whole
question sweat 1t commended that it
would be an outrage on propriety to redeem
the city money, because its present holders
would, probably, profit largely from this su-
perauous honesty. They had purchased a
deprecated currency, and this fact was pa
raded with an ostentstion which, would have
been absurd if it had not been intended to
| its obligations toward them. Now, however,
the Picayune declares that it desires to see
this currency debt paid off 50 to the uttermost
fartbing" but it cannot avoid making fling
at those whom it supposes to be the holders
of the larger portion of the outstanding cur
rency-the dealers in money-whom it calls
spectators ON the poverty of city officials
and employees This is simply the expression
of a prejudice which is entirely out of
place in an age in which there is
some pretension to an understanding of the
laws of trade and political economy. The
idea that money dealers are the cause of the
depreciation of currency is worthy only of
a generation which burnt witches and in
vented usury laws, or of the people who
destroyed million dollars worth of Indian
spices, in order to raise the price of the re-
mainder. The depreciation of the city cur
rency was caused simply by the lack of conf
lence of the community in the ability or
capacity of our municipal government to pro-
vide for its redemption. 1t was unfortunate
for the city employees to be compelled to re-
ceive it but it was fortunate for them that,
when they could no longer use it in traffic,
there was class of persons who were will
ling to buy it of them. The Picayune may
consider the brokers and money changers fair
subjects for its contumely, but we are not
aware of any statute, or moral law, that for
bids them from doing as all other ira
ders do making the best bargain for
themselves that the circumstances per-
NIT. Our contemporary is willing to pay
even that horrid Spectator, the money buyer,
but would only give him "that upon which
he depended when he bought their earnings,
H. e., the earnings of the city officials and
employes,l the city's ultimate payment of
them 1.-THE earnings aforesaid, we suppose,
in the ordinary course of its collections"
This is not as clear as crystal, or as pellucid
as water, but we presume it to mean that the
note-holder must wait to be paid until the
city presents him with bill for taxes as an
offset. The polite presentation of stone, in
response to hungry mans request for bread,
would be a charitable proceeding in COMPARE
son with this plan of getting out of debt by
robbing the creditor of his money when he
proffers a demand for payment The idea
that the currency debt can be cancelled by the
ordinary process of taxation is as fallacious as
the supposition that man gets rid Of mis- liza
bilities by substituting one obligation for an
other. If the city insist on collecting its
taxes in greenbacks, it repudiates even the
small guarantee which the Picayune
admits to exist in favor of the
cntv money. That money is receivable
for taxes, If it is good for nothing else. But
how can it pay the expenses of the govern
ment unless it is again paid out? And how
can the city help paying it out If it collect
nothing else? The only answer is that taxa
ton must be increased beyond the amount
necessary for expenses, and in this way the
currency may finally, be absorbed. But this
is nothing more or less than robbery. 1t is
worse than reputation; for whilst repudia-
ton would still leave some legal recourse,
taxation would deprive the creditor of the
evidence of the obligation. Even now the
city is putting out certificates of indebted
ness in place of re-issuing the city money;
thus mourning the additional liability of in
terest, without making any provision to pay
either interest or principal2 How much
better off should we be if, in the course of
four years we should take up the 81 900, 600 of
city money by taxation, and find ourselves
settled with debt of $4,000, 900, bearing
eight per cent. interest per annum? And of
what use will be even these certificates, un-
less the nefarious money-dealers buy them as
they have bought city money?
After showing the fallacy of the Picayune's
argument respecting this portion of the fnan-
cial question, it is useless to answer its OBJ
jections to the plan proposed by Mr.. Avegno,
especially as it seems to have so confused an
idea of that plan, that it actually supposes
that the holders of city money are to be
called on to exchange their notes for $40
lottery tickets. The fact is that the project
simply proposes an issue of warrants, bearing
7-3O per cent interest per annum, and ex-
changeable for city notes at par, these war
rants being redeemable, from month to month,
III certain specified numbers, and in such
way, that in ten years the whole debt will be
extinguished Whenever the Picayune ex-
hibits some indications OF comprehending
this plan, we shall be ready to answer its
arguments.
ORD RRnrGHAMls ErNEhAI-Tha funeral ser.