New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-29
OLE REEENOE POLICY.

Message that the bulk Of the National Debt
should be funded at a lower and uniform rate
of interest before any material reduction OF
the Revenue is consented to. The United
States owe Cncluding the Pacific Railroad
bonds which they must pay if the Railroads DO
not fully Twenty-Five Hundred Millions OF
Dollars, whereof over Two Thousand Millions
are drawing interest mainly at sixper cent Ii
we can fund the bulk of this Debt in an Amcr-
can Consol, drawing but four and half per
cent interest. the saving cannot be less than
Twenty Millions per annum, which will be
reduction of the burden of the Debt by nearly
One-fourth. Suppose that we should apply the
sum thus saved, and nothing more, to the an
nual reduction of the principal, the Debt would
be eXtinguished within the next half-century.
1t would be chimerical to expect the holders
of bonds drawing six per cent. interest volun-
tarily to exchange them for bonds drawing n
lower rate of interest. What we must do Is
to find or make market for the new COnS0l
at or above par, and then say to the holders
of our Five-Twentics, Surrender them and
"take instead a like sum in our new Conso.S,
"Or take the face of your bonds in cash;' ana
this option we have perfect right to enforce.
Whenever we shall be ready to pay cash at
par for any Five-Twenty which has already
run five years, we have a right to call 1t in,
and TO stop the payment of interest thereon If
the holder does not promptly present 1t Tor
redemption. And, though he has right to
demand coin for it, we know that he Will not
if we offer him as an alternative n new bond
that is selling in open market at the smallest
fraction above par. He will take the Consol,
although he should have fully resolved not to
hold it for a single hour.
Funding so large a Debt at considerably
lower rate of interest is not IN easy task,
while half dozen Governments are putting
loans on the market at six per cent. or over.
If we were seeking to increase our Debt, 1t
would be impossible. The MalakOif OF our
position is the persistent and considerable
dimiRution of our Debt by weekly purchases
OF principal in addition to the punctual pay
ment of our interest. United States bonds do
and must appreciate, mainly because they con-
stantly grow scarcer and scarccr. Were we
buying up and canceliHg Twenty Millions of
bonds per month instead of Eight or Ten Mil
lions, we might soon fund the balance of our
Debt at four per cent; and that IS what we
think should be done. The People are ready
and willing to pay their Debt rather than pass
it over to future generations: it is only the
politicians who are timd and faithless.
Finance Ministers often evince ingenuity,
talent, even elOquence, in expatating Oh the
lmtless resources whence payment is ulu-
mately to be made of the sums they seek
presently to borrow: but no manipulation OF
figures, however dexterous can rival the cogcncy
of the naked fact that we are paying off our
Debt at the rate Of One Hundred Millions per
annum. The dullest brain can comprehend
that. And no other single circumstance has
put so much heart into the friends of our
present National Administration as the fact,
which malignity can no longer deny nor
sophistry obscure, that it is weekly buying up
and paying for the evidences of our National
Debt. Let the news reach q party of loggcrs,
buried deep in the pine forests of the North
West, "The Administration has reduced the
National Debt by Ten Millions of Dollars
during the last month and
cheer rises spontaneously TO the lips of every
Republican who hears the glad tidiDgs, while
the COpperheads skulk silently into the brush,
hoping that next months bulletin may be bet
ter for them, because worse for the country.
Hence we tell those in Congress and elsewhere
who profess to be Republicans, yet are intent
on getting rid of what they call the surplus,
that their success would prove most baleful, if
not fatal, to Gen. Grants Administration. Get
rid of this miscalled surplus, and the Debt
could not be funded, because it would no lon
ger be in process of diminutiOn. And when
ever we shall have ceased to pay off, settling
down under load of Twenty-Odd Hundred
Millions as a permanent burden, its weight
will he more severely felt than it now is.
Nothing mtigates an inhctiOn like the con-
sciOusness that it is wearing Out-that every
day brings it nearer its end.
Whenever the time shall have come for the
reduction of our National income we trust
Congress will proceed in the way very gener-
ally recOmmended-that of removing certain
taxes altogether Whenever we can spare
Forty Millions per aDnum of our present Rev
enue we presume that not less than twO-thrds
of all the articles now subject to taxation
whether Internal or by Tariff may be added
to the Free List at once. This would greatly
reduce the cost and trouble of assessing and
collecting taxes, and render inevitable q reduc-
ton of the force now employed in the service
The petty taxes are as troublesome and vexa-
tious as the great ones; some of them costing
the Treasury more than they produce. Let us
not make two bites Of these, but, at the proper
moment, sweep them away altogether.
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