New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-09-02
NATIONAL FINANCE.

NATIONAL FINANCE.
The Treasury Department gives notice that
it will pay of (not buy) certain specified rive
Twenty bonds to the amount OF One Hundred
Millions of Dollars on the list day OF Decem-
Der next. The holders have only to present
them, and they will be redeemed in gold at
par; if any should not be promptly presented
they will bear no interest after the day speci-
fed. In other words: Mr.. Boutwell,, having
borrowed S1OO,oOO0OO in Europe at five per
cent, will use the proceeds to pay off 300 oOO,ooo
of Skies, and thus save to the People $l,OOo,ooo
Der annum Such is his quiet answer to those
who have assailed his alleged success in ne
gotiating five per cents as fraud. tie lays
down 100000, 900 on his counter, and asks MS
creditors to surrender their bonds and receive
the coin dollar for dollar.
That we hail this notice with profound
satisfaction, no one will doubt. We are SICK
of the purchase of our bonds at discount
when nothing is realized thereby. We have
perfect right to buy up our debts not yet
due at discount and, 80 long as we could
make five to ten per cent. by dong 3d. we
relished the operation but when the y" shave"
has dwindled to half or quarter per cent. 1t
in portion after portion of tho Five-Twenties,
and paying them off peremptorily and IN full'
Of course the heather rage: why should MT
theyf They gnash their teeth at "syndl-
"cates;n they growl at the loss OF a quarters
interest on the old bonds prior to their con-
version into the new. Mr.. Boutwell, is obliged
to give three months notice of his intention
to pay off any portion of the Fve-Twenties
he must be sure Of his means before he can
safely give such notice; so he agrees with
certain bankers and capitalists that, if they
will take his new Elves, the interest thereon
shall run from the day of their respective
subscriptions, and, since he cannot use the
money till the 1st of December, it shall re-
main in their hands till then. This was the
best he could do and he did it, saving
thereby Ten Millions Of interest in the course
of the next ten years by paying Cat mosD
$1,5OO,0O0 interest at the expiration OF the
next three months They are welcome to all
they can make by their fault-fnding.
And now we beg Mr.. Boutwell, to give
notice that he will pay off more of the Five
Twenties on the list of January next. He
can calculate very closely the sum of his re-
ceipts from this day to that, add this to his
present balance on hand, deduct his Outgoes
meantime, and the balance, whatever it may
be, is the amount of Five-Twenties on which
he ought to stop the payment OF interest on
and after the 1st of January, 1872. Let him
resolve to draw down every sub-treasury and
bank deposit on the 1st of January till he can
see the bottom of it. If there be anywhere
q concealed defalcation among his sub
treasurers or their suberdinates, that will bring
it to light. And, if he shows the world prac-
tically that he considers six per cent. too high
a rate of interest to be paid on his Five
Twenties while he has cash in his stronghold
to redeem and cancel them, his example will
prove contagious ; his faith will vanquish 9TH
ers' skeptcism. We wish he would pay out
his last dollar of coin for bonds on or before
the 1st of December, and be able to report to
Congress 80 much debt paid and ever so little
cash on hand on that day, as broad hint to-
ward frugality on their part; but, at all events,
let the Treasury be paid dry on the list of
January next.
And then we beg Gov. Boutwell, to ponder
well the policy of Withdrawing all his pros
pective loans but the four per cent, making
this the American Consol, having forty
years to run, and contracting with the best
that Consol at the best attainable rate. Stip-
ulate that the two per cent. we save in in
terest $3.50 100000 per annum) shall be sacredly
appropriated and pledged to the purchase and
redemption of those Consols whenever they
can be had at or below par. Make the Con-
sol untaxabe and pay the interest quarterly,
issuing the bonds 80 that the interest will
be payable In equal portions on the first
day of each succeeding month. We are conf
dent that this loan would be taken at 95 or
over (no matter whether by "syndicate" or
a single house, would thenceforth advance
slowly but surely to par, and that the two per
cent. interest thus saved would Of itself buy
up all the bonds and pay off the entire debt
within the stipulated forty years. In other
words-the interest saved on such Consol
would pay every cent the country owes by
January 1st, 1912
Will Mr. Boutwell, consideri There are as
yet but few great names on the roll of our
National inanciers. Will he not allow CRATE
full people to add his to the number