New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-02-28
LINnLNG TIE DEBT


We mint herewith n Washington letter from
our correspondent J. 5. T., from the general
scope and drift of which we entirely dissent.
Here are our reasons in brief:
|. He objects to an appropriation OF sl2'OOo'-
900 TO cover the cost OF funding the Debt
We heartily approve it, There is no shadow
of reason to fear that Secretary Boutwell, VIII
spend one dime more of it than is necessary
And the appropriation is made to cover tIe
heavy expense of printing and registering the
new bonds and many incidentals. We hope IL
may be ample
H. S. p. objects to "lOans payable III
"Florins, Francs, and Pounds Sterling" ana
to agencies in Europe. SO should we, IL u
were question of mourning or not incurrlng
debt abroad. But it is no such thing Inc
Debt is there-wc honestly owe it; we are not
ready to nav it and we want to fund 1t at
lower rate of interest than we are now paying
It is but reasonable to presume that many who
are slow to buy bond that they cannot reau,
would readily purchase one that was pflhteu
in their mother tongue, and OF which the III
tcrest was payable right at their own doors'
instead of four thousand miles away. we be-
lieve Al per cent. thus printed and thus pay
able would be acceptable to many IN prefer
ence to per cent. which they could not
read, andlof which the coupons must be sent
across the ocean for collection II so, Is 1t not
childish to refuse to print and pay so as TO
reduce the annual burden of our Debt to
minimum?
III. J. s. p. thinks nothing more need DC
done in the premises than to issue a " SIMPLE
advertisement That would answer, IL we
did not care how high rate OF interest we are
to paw. But we do care we must care; and
if we are to place our new COns0ls at the
lowest rate, we must take pains and use means.
There are four houses in Europe that could
place Five Hundred Millions of forty-year
bonds for us at per cent if they were really
to try and they might be induced to try.
But they work for pay, az Is right. We
would much rather pay them two per
cent TO place this amount for lis nj
that rate, printing the bonds III French,
German and Low Dutch, and paying them
principal and interest, at Frankfort Amster-
dam, and London, than to have them placed
for nothing at five per cent, all printed in Yam
kee, and all payable at our own Treasury
Who wouldn't? Bear in mind that the differ
cnce between four and five per cent. on our
Debt is Twenty Millions per annum, ana That
this sum, with interest compounded. would pay
off our whole Debt within fifty years.
We deeply regret that there has ever been
any talk of paying more than four per cent.
on our untaXable COnsOls. We would have
but one rate of interest, and that four per
cent, with solemn pledge that we would buy
I'D or pay oft not less than Fifty Millions per
annum till our Debt should be reduced to Five
Hundred Millions. If it cost us Twenty Mill
lions to fund One Thousand Millions of our
Five-Twenties in this Consol, the saving there
by would be just Twenty Millions per annum.
We firmly believe that saving might have been
made. if reduction of taxes and all other
schemes had been temporarily subordinated to
this. Such q funding of our Debt would
have saved us at least Billion i'll
the long run. But we are sacrificing our
golden opportunity, and, by talking of higher
rates, rendering any such funding slow and
difficult, if not impossible. If we begin to fund
at five per cent, we do not see bow we are to
get down to Al, and then to 4. Our National
Banks are our best chance we have only to
give them the choice of basing their notes on
a four per cent. ConsOl or withdrawing them
from circulation, and they will all hearken to
reason. Then give us Free Banking on moth
ing but Consols with "A of these behind
every SO of issues, and we have Five Hundred
Millions of our COnsOl bcspoken at the start at
a very trifiing cost. Our next point of attack
should be the foreign market, and we ought to
place Five Hundred Millions there at cost of
not more than Ten Millions. After that the
COnsOl would go of itself. But Congress does
not seem to care about this saving of interest,
which seems to us the great work of the ses-
sion: SO we must do as we can.