New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-11
AIR. BOUTWELL, ON FINANCIAL HONESTY.

lican.
AIR. BOUTWELL, ON FINANCIAL HONESTY
Mr.. Boutwels speech in Philadelphia incul-
Gates two principal lessons: 1. That honesty
in dealing with our national finances is the
best policy; 2. That 1t is perfectly easy.
There is no way of lodging our obligation 10
pay the debt, principal and interest, IN coin or
its equivalent, according to promise, unless we
are prepared for straightforward reputation.
PAYMENT in greenbacks is not payment at all;
it is giving promise to pay in exchange Tor
another promise, and imagining that by that
easy process the whole score is wiped out.
Our bonds call for payment at certain dates;
suppose when the fixed times arrive instead
of paving them we hand our creditors
greenbacks which are mere promises
to pay, at some future day not specified, bear
ing no interest and having no intrinsic value
OF course, the moment this scheme is adopted
the bonds depreciate in value. But the bonds
are the foundation of the entire banking busi-
ness of the country they are the securities OF
the national banks and savings institutions.
Whatever lessons their value shakes the credit
of the currency which is based upon them,
and the greatest sufferers will be the savings
banks in which the working classes have de-
posted their surplus earnings. Moreover,
when we como to exchange those bonds
for ereenbacks, we must create an inn
mense oyer-issue of currency. and so depreciate
our paper still more. Who will be the principal
victims of these dsasters7 Not the rich. for they
will make haste to exchange their bonds aud
currency for real estate and other species of
property; but the poor, whose savings will be
lost by the failure of the banks, and upon
whom the distress of high prices will fall with
unusual severity. Nor is this all. We are
now paying to European holders OF our securi-
ties a much higher interest than they can get at
home If we continue paying OH our debt
honestly and quickly as we are doing now,
there is little doubt that we shall DO able to
fund a large part of it at per cent instead
of @, and foreign capitalists as well as
our own people will gladly take 1t at
that rate, in view of the certainty OF prompt
payment of principal and interest. by this
means Mr. Boutwell, estimates that we can save
annually from S1sOO0,000 to 900 of in
terest. OF course if the Packer and Pendleton
policy Is to prevail we cannot hope to carry
out any such plan as this; our bonds will be
thrown upon our hands as fast as the European
holders can get rid of them, and instead OF
finding at 4 per cent, we shall hardly be
able 10 sell them at all. Pennsylvania will
consider carefully, we hope, before voting to-.
morrow, whether it is worth while to have Mr.
Packer for Governor at an expense to the coun-
try of So, 900 year.
Not only is a strict performance of our obi
cations the cheapest thing we can do, but 1t
is so easy that the wonder is how any honest
man should try to escape it. In 1901 our debt
amounted to Ss3,0O0,OOo Our population at
that time was about 100000, and the value of
property in the country psobably did not ex-
coed Sl,5OO,O0O,000. Yet by 1886 that debt, and
the heavy cost Of the war of 1912, also, were
practically extinguished, only 100000 remain
ing due, so that we actually distributor our
surplus revenue among the States. Now we have
q population of 100000, and s5OOOO,OOO,OOo,
worth of property. With debt of S3,5OO,OOoOOO
at the close of the late war We were therefore
far less heavily burdened than we had been
at the beginning of the century. To express it
in figures, in 1901 we owed 81 on every S1S of
property; in 1865 we owed 81 on every S14;
and considering how enormously the production
of wealth has been facilitated within the last
fifty years by labor-saving inventions, this Is
actually q difference in favor OF our present
situation. In four years we have already re-
duced the debt to 81, 400, 100000 and during the
seven months of Gen. Grants faithful and
economical administration the reduction has
been no less than S57,0O0.0O0. Under the
present system of taxation we can pay OIL
800, 900 900 a year; that would extinguish the
debt in IA years. If we reduce taxes and pay
off S50OOO,OO0 year we shall wipe out the
whole Understanding debt in % years. How,
then, can there be any hesitation as to our
proper courses
We do not suppose THE elections tomorrow
will actually direct the financial policy OF
the United States. Even the triumph of Packer
and Pendleton would not insure the adoption
of the greenback heresy to which they have
given their influence. But the immediate sue
cess or long postponement of the plan for
saving S25,OOO,OOO year by funding part OF
the debt at per cent, does depend upon the
prompt rejection by the American people of
every candidate who is not resolute that the
good faith of the nation shall DO kept invio-
late. Mr. PendletOn is very accomplished
gentleman; Mr. Packer is n substantial citizen;
but we can't afford to have them for Cover
nors of Ohio and Pennsylvania at cost OF
sos, 0OO,0 900 year.
Whether the Coole system of labor is a good
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