The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-03-12
The PROPOSED FUNDING OF SURPLUS
CURRENCY.

We are not sure that the City Council
would not have done well in point Of finf u
cial expediency, and that it would not have
done more towards relieving the public mind
in regard to the trouble with the city cur
reney, if they had gone to the root of this
trouble in accordance with the spirit if not
with the specific recommendations of the re-
port Of Treasurer Howell. If it Is useless, as
Mr.. Howell observes, to discuss the causes OF
the decline in the obligations of the city that
are afioat in the shape Of currency, it would
also be vain to deny that one of the most
active and formidable of these causes is the
popular suspicion which attaches to the man
agement of this branch of the city's indebted
ness by the present municipal authorities.
1t is an unanswerable argument against the
policy of issuing such currency, that it is
always liable, even when most prudently and
honestly administered, to feel the whitening
touch of popular suspicion. If this liability
exists in a normal condition Of things when
municipal affairs are confded to men who are
responsible to the people, and vino have no
charter but the strict requirements of law,
we need not say how greatly it must De in-
creased under an organization so precarioUs
and undefnable as that of the present city
government
Mr.. Howell, whose views of finance do not
seem to be contracted by party narrowness OF
vision, is no doubt we'll aware Of this inevita-
bic peril to the city currency and it is this
knowledge, We presume, which inspires his
desire to lay the remedial exc at once to the
root of the difficulty by adopting funding
system capable of taking up the entire circu-
lation. 1t is the only way now left for assured
escape from the suspicion which has fastened
itself on this money The council would be
wise to initiate the policy of julius Cesar
when he divorced his wife. The city cannot
afford to circulate money which is suspected
No cleaning and securing, no erasiye appli-
anees and processes, to which the existing au-
thorities may resort can wholly remove the
stain which the breath of suspicion has fixed
have been issuing. Their only sure remedy
is to apply to the case the saying of the Ro-
man, that Caesars wife must not only be
pure, bnt above suspicion; and to take mea-
sures, accordingly, for relieving the city of
the tainted currency
But the finance committee, and the two
boards which adopted its funding ordinance,
would seem TO have overlooked every element
Of depreciation, except the single fact of ex-
cess of issue beyond the wants of local trade
And from their standpoint, the measure ought,
unquestionably, to accomplish the purpose for
which it is intended. To absorb one million
eight hundred thousand of outstanding issues
into certificates Of Indebtedness would reduce
the currency TO little more than one half its
present amount, supposing that to be, as re-
presented by Mayor Heath, only four millions
of dollars. There can be no doubt that the
local trade, in ordinary circumstances, would
have plenty of use for the unfunded remainder
Of the notes, especially as this would consist
Of small bills such as are constantly needed
for change. The only questionable aspect of
the measure is that it carries with it no dis
tinct and positive guarantee against the manu-
facture and issue of more city money, to re-
place partly or wholly the notes which shall
have been received in exchange for certificates
ofindebtedness, and destroyed To be sure, the
theory Of the project, regarded as an expedient
for femedying an excess, clearly contemplates
the restriction of the currency to the amount
which the funding process should leave. But
it is still possible that this indispensable con-
dition of the remedy may be evaded by a
furtive issue of notes; and as long as this
possibility shall exist, there will be some room
for the Same suspicion whose blighting shadow
has SO long rested on this currency. But let
us hope that the project in question viii ope-
rate so as TO sensibly relieve the local trade
from the pressure of q surplus of currency,
and that this sense of relief will itself afford
a ground for healthful confidence in the notes
that are still in circulation. That capitalists
holding large sums of city money will readily
accede to the proposition to exchange them
for certificates, payable, in United States cur
rency. in six years, in annual installments,
and bearing eight per cent. interest," it would
ook almost preposterous to doubt But should
hey manifest reluctance to do so, the fact
would be striking testimony to the value of
,ity money, in comparison with the best Of |
other paper currency, and would go far to re-
assure the popular mind with regard to the |
general position of the city finances
ACTION AND REACTION.