The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-09-23


foreign trade were furnished us without cost
we could not employ them.
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY PAYS PREM
IUMS ON BONDS.
! said the expenditures were unnecessary
and wastcful, and that they were all in the
interest of dead inactive capital The last
ing SlOl ,214 1886 in coin, and $12, IL, 900 in
currency. Whys To what good purpose ?
The customs OF half year are there The
people are paying six per cent in gold as in
terest on the public debt and the Secretary is
boarding this immense amount. Each month";
with great parade, he sells six or nine millions,
and with the proceeds he buys bonds, giving
in the market for them twenty-five per cent
above par. They are now redeemable. On
their face-by the lawn equity, they are
payable in legal tender notes The holders
gave legal tender for them when legal tender
notes were worth not more than half what
they now arc, and yet the Secretary of the
Treasury insists on paying a premium of
twenty-five per cent. will not argue again
this question. l prefer to rely on the au-
thority of Sherman, and Morton, and Stevens
and Ewing They say the bonds are payable
in greenbacks. Then they ought to be so paid :;
and the people are robbed when premium
ID pau. IL tIicN dDIC III Solt ocC-
retary ought to pay them in gold, and not buy
up the paper of the government at discount
1t is difficult to speak of this conduct of the
Secretary with the respect which is due to his
high Office 1t costs the people, as Mr.
Ewing has we'll said more than all the frauds
of the whiskey ring, and is scarcely more
honest then they. Under this process of pay
ing premium the market value of the bonds
has gone up from ten to twelve per cent. and
10 the Secretary eXcaims, ''What a marvel
of financial ability! My magic touch has, in
three months, raised so high the credit of
the government My friend. pay off few
OF your notes in the same way then stint your
family, cramp your business, seize upon the
earnings of your children, and insist ON Civ
ing to your creditors twenty-five per cent
more than your note calls for, and your
credit will improve; always provided the
public does not consider YOU 4 fool or the
Probate Court does not conSign YOU to a
lunatic asylum.
THE DEET NOT DIMINISHED.
And in the midst of transactions like these
we hear OF large payments ON account OF the
public debt, and Governor Hayes congratu-
Iates himself that in four months the debt has
been diminished Si3 10000 He says the
debt, on the lst of March was 81 525 ,0OO, 900,
and ON the lst of August was 81, ,4Sl 100000
Why, gentleman, every other Secretary
thought the Pacific Railroad bonds We're
part of the public debt Chase and McCul-
loon always included them. They amount to
s64, 600, 900 And these to the 3, 4sl 900, 900
and the total appears to be 81, ,545, 600, 900, or
twenty millions more than in March. Figures
won't lic' may be Il very true saying, but
they can be SO turned and twisted that they
TO ,oo,,1n rbI, ~
Secretaries, but only taxpayers 4 very false
impression If the public debt statement
were made on August |, it would show, ac-
cording to Mr., Chasc's rule Of statement,
s., ,GG2 900 OO0--accordng to Mr. McCulloch's
plan, 81, ,535 600 900, instead Of 81 ,4Sl ,O00
600 according to Mr.. Boutwclls plan. But,
even according to his plan, the statement
shows an increase of more than eleven mil
lions of dollars Of bonds which bear interest
in coin And rs if these causes combined
were not enough to palsy trade and produce
that stagnation which we call "hard times"
the Secretary hats continued the contraction of
the currency. On the lst of September, 1860,
the currency, consisting ot bank notes and
legal tender notes, amounted to $50 900.
On the lst of September. 1858, il amounted
to S67 40, 900, contraction Oi $500. .0O0, 600
in three wears. If the reports published in
the 1st of September, 1869, consisting
of the same two items, amounted to 5000,
92O 900, Il still further reduction of Sl6,0 600,
600 But the Secretary boasts that he has
reduced the three per cent certificates near
ly Sl2 900 600, and the compound interest
notes more than Sl9 ,OO0, 900. These were used
as the reserves of the banks. II they have been
thus reduced their places are supplied with
legal tender notes, and these amounts must
be added to the SIG, 900, 900, and thus we
have contraction this year of S3S 900, 900,
Why, gentlemen, after the close OF the war
in 1915 the county banks of Great Britain
contracted their issues seven million pounds,
and the Joy produced by the peace was turned
into agony by the prospect Of universal bank
ruptcy.
EEFECTs OF CONTRACTION.
Have you considered what contraction
brings with it? 1t brings universal fall of
prices of goods and labor, while debts. taxes
and moneyed obligations remain fixed The
man who had money becomes much richer, be-
because his money will pay for more land,
more wheat, more labor. But the man who
owes money becomes much poorer, because
he must sell more land, more wheat, and per
form more labor to pay his debts. 1t breaks
down all business, because, if prices decline,
the more business Il man does the greaetr his
LOSSES 1t produces unSteadmess and panic
and gives rise only to ilegitimate gambling
transactions. And yet in the presence of these
truths-in the presence of this immense taxa
ton and of this crushing public debt-the ;,d
ministration continues to contract the curren-
CIV. This system enhances the value Of the
bonds-it enhances the value of the gold in
terest-it enhances the value of money, but it
requires more wheat from the farmer, more
machinery from the manufacturer, more toll
from the laborcr to raise the money to pay
his taxes, and it sweeps away the profits of
years to pay ordinary Indebtedness. We are
trying to do what no nation ever did on ever
will do. We are trying to pay Il war debt
and war taxes with a peace currency. Great
Britain made the attempt for ten years after
the wars of Napoleon. but three times in ten
years the distress became SO great that she
expanded the currency, and at last she fund
ed the debt abandoned all idea of ever pay
ing the principal and repealed the most oner-
GUS taxes. The system is radically unjust.
The debt contracted on our expanded curren-
cy should be paid in the same currency The
dollar which is paid should be of the same
value rs the dollar which was loaned. No de-
vice of the public creditor. no scheme of the
Treasury Department, should be permitted
which will make the dollarwhichis paid worth
twice as much and therefore be twice as diff
ficult for the taxpayer to earn as the dollar
which was loaned. This cry for a speedy ''re-