The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-01-05
THE PUBLIC DEBT.

There is something unaccOuntablc about
the manner in which the national finances
are managed 1t must be, too that there
IL something wrong in reference thereto
Congress has authorized, during the pas!
year-or two years, for that-new loans
not for the purpose of increasing the in
dcbtedness-knOwn as the funded debt
but to take the place of that heretofore is
sued and negotiated other words to re-
tire the old bonds. These too, have been
authorized only at Il lower rate of interest
than that paid on those negotiated during
the war. \ saving of one or two per cent.
in the interest, on millions of dollars of in
debtedness, would, necessarily, result in a
vast saving to the treasury and correspond
ingly decrease the burthens of the people
We have been officially informed, from
time to time, that the new loan was taken
and that with the proceeds thereof the old
bonds had been paid There has been
enough talk about "syndicates' for every
one to fully understand this. Whether the
negotiation and sale OF the new loan by
means Of Il Syndicate" was legal or proper
rs, just now, OF no consequence. The fact
remains that they were so negotiated and
that the interest thereon was considerably
less than the interest upon the bonds they
were intended to replace. We say that this
is a fact we should rather say that ii is a
fact, UnleSS the people of the United States
have been most outrageously deceived.
what would necessarily result from this
change Of securities for Il change it NAV
he called. The actual funded indebted
ness of the country might not be lesscnel
by even dollar, but the amount of inter
est which the United States would be com
PEELED to pay on her bonds would be less
by an appreciablc and considerable sum.
This can be seen at a glance, and is too
plain for argument. But what is the qctu-
al result ; We shall see presently. We.
however, desire, first, to call attention to
another branch of the subject bearing not
only upon the reduction of interest. but
upon an actual decrease of the public debt
or, at least, that which to ordinary COM
prehcnsion would so result.
The secretary Of the treasury, since the
first day of January 1873 as well as be.
fore that timc--has sold, nearly every
month, a certain amount Of gold and pur-
chased with the proceeds certain number
of bonds. These purchases amounted to
millions of dollars Moreover during the
panic weeks, in New York city, millions
of dollars more of bonds were purchased
with greenbacks. In one sense these last
purchases did not tend to decrease the in.
dcbtedness of the United States being
the substitution Of an evidence of debt bear.
ing no interest for other evidences of debt
which did draw interest, payable in gold.
These monthly sales OF gold and purchases
OF bonds must have decreased the public
Indebtedness, while these purchases, as,
Also those made during the panic must, to
any one but II peculiar kind of financier
seem to have reduced the funded debt and
lessened the annual amount of interest the
government was obligated to pay. Such,
at least, should have been the result, should
it not? How could it have been otherwise |
But taking the million upon million of dol
lars negotiated through the Syndicate" at,
at least, one per cent interest less than the
bonds which the proceeds were intended tc
retre-and which we have been repeatedly
told were 50 uscd-and the further fact OF
the redemption--or purchase, which, in
this case, means the same thing-of SC
many millions of dollars of bonds during
the year, what has been the result d? The