The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1871-04-20

} COUNTY, IOWA tn
The Debt-Paying Policy. !.
Mr.. Gteoley, In o recent latdatioh
Of the "policy Of payingp the nation
nj debt at the rate Of slO, ,OOO, 900 per
month, says:
stNothing 30 stiffens nations credit q
an obvious resolve % get speedily out oi
debt. Bonds monthly growing moro and
more SCARCE aresurs to appreciate.''
This is untrue. The nation whose
credit is the .sti6est'' in the world
(great Brittany, and to which capi.
talists Will lend st the lowest fates oi
interest, not only has made "no oh.
vious resolve to get speedily out Of
debt," but, through all her statesmen
and economists, as we'll as by her
actual legislation, announces her in.
tention, 80 far as the present genera.
tion is concerned, never TO pay hsl
debt. Indeed, TOT nearly . tentury
she has not had statesman who
thought such . course desirable. Un.
der this policy, .though not wholly
for this reason, she has become the
banker and money-lender of oil
nations. A sum considerably great.
or than tho interest ON her debt il
annually paid to her ID interest on
tho debts Of othsr nations Held by
hor. Owning the whole Of hcf own
debt, and . large share of the debts
Of foreign nations and corporations,
she stands forth - the creditor
nation of the world. While Mr..
Greeley would estimate her debt 10
be larger than that Of any other
people, . political economist would
perceive that, Of all nations, she is
the least in debt.
To say that "nothing so stiffens a
nations credit as an obvious resolve
to get speedily out of debt" is to as
sert that nothing 30 invites q credi-
tor to lond money at low rates of in.
terest ~ the assurance that he will
soon have TO change his investment.
1t is to assert that nothing go en-
courages the people to make saw
ings bank Of The nation as to satisfy
them that, if they deposit their
money in it to-day, they must with.
draw it to morrow. tbs to assert
that nothing 20 invites capitalists to
buy bonds for going into National
Banking a the assurance that, after
q year or two, they must reconstruct
their banks on some new basis, or
have the privilege of banking taken
away. Itis to assert that nothing
30 induces men Of wealth to buy ma
tional bonds as . means of providing
fixed income for their children, or
Of endowing great Institutions of
learning for Ill time to come, or OF
giving credit and stability to life,
ire and marine insurance corpora
tions, as the knowledge that these
bonds win be paid off in = year or
two, and are therefore utterly una
vailable for the purpose. II is to as-
sert that nothing 80 strengthens
nation as to putran end TO ali fnan.
cial interesta which its own people
or those OF other nations, may have
depending on its duration and pros
perity. 1t is to assert that, when
the people are denied the privilege
Of lending their surplus means to
the nation, and so, as the next best
means Of investing them, they lend
them to the various States, this does
not give the lenders q stronger inter.
est in State sovereignty than in ma
tlonal sovereignty-in secession than
In Union. 1t is to assert that the At
tempt to pay . debt by Expressing
the debtor does not tend to make
him repudiate it altogether.
The statesmen of England, Russia,
France, and even Prussia have found
o per contra account on this question
to which Mr.. Greeley resolutely shuts
his eyes. This consists; partly, of
the destruction of certain utilities
which capital acquires when invost-
cd in the form Of q national debt, and
which it loses when the debt is paid !;
partly in the fact that the property
in tho hands Of tho taxpayers is earn
ing, in connection with their labor,
from IL to 40 por cent, the average
being about 81 per cent, while the
rate Of interest on tho debt is be-
tween 5 and per cent. Docs it pay
to stop . rate Of production of27 per
cent in order to get rid ofa burden
Of interest of only 6 per cent?
Mr.. Gladstone and every ono of his
predecessors, back to and including
Mr.. Pitt, have agreed that it is wiser
to leave the property to "increase and
multiply and replcnish the earth" in
the hands of the farmer and the
manufacturer, at the rate of 27 per
cent per annum, than to pay it over
to tho bondholder TO stop 6 per cent?
But, il may be said, the bondholder
must lend 1t again, and so, in some
other form, it must return 70 our
taxpayers. Not so. Many bond
holders would lend to the nation
who would not lend. directly or in
directly, to any Of It's Taxpayers.
Had the principal of tho debt been
collected thus tar nc faster than we
could pay it out of our annual earn
ings, the sums paid to tho bondhol-
ders would have sought reinvestment
in other forms among our own peo-
pie. But, by undertaking to wrcnch
from the people, for Eve years past,
an excessive rate Ut taxation, the
whole producing and tax-paying
Glasses have been kept "short" OF
money, rates OF interest have been
kept high, and, instead Of being
ready lenders to the government,
the people have become borrowers
from foreign nations by the export
of our bonds, to the amount of about
81, ,2OO, 100000. Instead Of being in
q condition to lend to the govern
ment, many of tho farmers in tho
Northwest arc borrowing, where
they can, to pay their taxes. Now
the country has been made too poor
to own its own debt. Tho bulk oi
it is held abroad, and, when it il
paid off. the capital represented BY
it goes to Europe-in most cases to
DO reinvosted there, not here. The
unstatesmanliko attcmpt to squeeze
tho bulk OF tho dobt out of our pe0
plo in ton or twenty years ha,