The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-11
THE REPORTED OFFER OF THE RoTHs.
CHILDS.
From the N Y. Herald.

CHILDS
From the ~ y. Herald
report comes through Washington tele-
gram that the Rothschilds are about to offer
loan TO our Government to any amount it may
desire at four per cent. interest, and that M.
Friguet, an agent of these great capitalists,
will shortly arrive to make the proposition.
1t is further said that this proposed action on
the part of the Rothschilds has been prompted
by the discovery that certain German capital
lists were contemplating similar proposition.
Now, we do not know what truth there may be
IN this report 1t may only be n bull operation
on the part of those holding largely United
States securities for the purpose of sending up
the prices in the markets; and If we consider
that the Rothschilds would not be likely
to make known in advance any great financial
operation of this sort. such would be a reason
able view of the character and object of the
telegram. Still it is not improbable that
either the Rothschilds or the German capital
lists alluded to, or both, may contemplate
such grand financial movement.
In Germany United States securities are, to
use homely simile, seized as hot cakes are
by the hungry. Every one who has a little
money is investing in them. The securities
of no nation are looked upon with as much
favor. The people generally as well as the
capitalists, are buying them. 1t would not be
surprising, then, if the heavy financial men of
Germany are contemplating the offer OF
large loan at four per cent. interest Nor
would it be strange if the Rothschilds have
the same object in view; for there is such a
plethora of capital at the great moneyed CEN
tres of Europe, and consequently in the hands
of that rich house, that two or three per cent.
is all that can be obtained on good security
there. In the greatest centre OF capital, Lon
don, money is only worth from one and half
to two per cent. Such capitalists as the
Rothschilds know very we'll that loan at four
per cent. in a consolidated stock of this great
and wealthy country would meet with ready
sale. Though Europeans, and the English
particularly, are cautious in making invest
ments in the securities of foreign countries,
and prefer those at home, they do not lose
the opportunity of getting one or two per
cent. more for their money when the credit is
undoubted and the Investment permanent.
Heretofore there has been Il great want of
knowledge in Europe about this country and
its resources, and feeling of uncertainty as
to how our national debt would be managed
or paid. But within the last year or two
great deal of light has been diifuse ed through
the press, the magnetic telegraph, and the
myriads of letters that are sent from people
in this country to their friends abroad. They
begin to understand in Europe the boundless
wealth of the United States aud the mighty
future before us. They have seen the strength
of the Government and patriotism of the
people under the ordeal of terrible civil
war that would have shattered to pieces any
other nation. They have Witnessed the extra
ordinary spectacle of millions of armed men
promptly laying down their arms and return
ing TO their peaceful occupations as soon as
the object of the war was accomplished.
They have seen country, after having
been torn to pieces and the fairest portions
of it made desolate by a conflict Of which
modern history gives no parallel, quickly re-
stored to order, the people returning to their
industrial pursuits, as If nothing had hap
pened, with renewed energy, and our re-
sources multiplying as if there had been no
war or its consequences were forgotten. The
recuperatiVe power, good sense, and patriot
ism of the republic have astonished them.
To sum up the whole, the people of Europe
have learned that in America we have with
| republican freedom both the strongest gov
eminent and the greatest wealth of any nation
on the globe. Then, again, the enormous
income of the Treasury, at the rate of hun
| dred millions OF so a year over and above the
expenditures, shows that the debt is a mere
! bagatelle, and will be surely paid. Such a
| temporary disturbance in the gold and stock
market as we had lately amounts to nothing,
when we look at the wealth, prosperity, and
future of the country. We perceive, then,
the causes that are operating to inspire conf
! dence abroad in American securities.
| Looking at the matter in every point of
view, therefore, it is evident we are paying
much too high an interest on the debt, and
much higher than we need pay if our finances
be properly managed. Such high interest is
disastrous every way. 1t not only imposes a
very heavy and an unnecessary burden upon
the taxpayers, but it absorbs the active capi-
tai Of the country to great extent paralyzes
enterprise, and checks progress; for people
will not trouble themselves about other in
vestments while they can set ON United
States bonds six per cent. in gold or eight
per cent. in currency and that without their
investments being taxed. The value of the
bondholders' property is out of all proportion
to that Of other property. A loan in long
consols or consols without date of redemption
could be made, we have no doubt, at four pei
cent, and perhaps at less-say at three sixty
five, or at a cent day on the hundred dollars
The whole debt could be simplifed and put il
this form. The consolidation would not pre-
vent the redemption of the debt and its
final extinction. The Government could have
a sinking fund and go into the market with
its surplus income to buy up the consols al
any time. Forty millions a year or more
could be saved in interest and to the tax
payers, for we do not think much premium ol
any need be paid in the transformation of the
debt if proper laws be passed for that pur
pose and our finances be properly managed
1t would be better for the country, undoubt
edly, if we had aggregated capital enough tC
take up such a loan here and to hold the
debt at home, for then the interest would be
diffused among our own people and would mo-
leave the United States. But this IS no