The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1875-07-04
Bread VS.. Bonds.

OF suspension of payments. Although it
has been practically so for several years, q
great outcry is now made by our daily
Press,-at least a portion of it,-because
the fact is candidiy admitted by the Mayor
and Administrator Pllsbury. To be exact,
we must say that our old and generally
faithful neighbor, the Picayune, distin-
guishes itself by the desperation of it's
onslaught upon the proposition and it's
supporters.
We notice, by way of depression, little
historical error it makes regarding the pa
teFnity OF the suspension doctrine. 1t
speaks of Mayor Leeds message as being a
congenial outgrowth of the Councils ad
ministration." The truth is, that the
Mayor took correct and sensible view of
the situation from the beginning, and the
original action of the administrators in not
concurring with him was very harshly COM
mented on. If, then, there is any con
geniality now, it is because the Council has
come over to his views, after disastrous
experience of dissent from them.
In fact, what can be more sensible3 Our
city is ruined for the present. The people
are ruined. They cannot pay their taxes,
and therefore the city cannot pay both it's
current expenses and it's debt. This is a
fixed fact. The question then arises {:
Which shall it pay3 The bondholders and
their organs shrek: Pay the debts. The peo-
pie say Give us bread. Shall the city pay
its debts, or pay it's current expenses 7 Its
en- i'm tha l,;},-
OF an army of it's citizens. The employees
of the city and those dependent on it for
their pay count by thousands, including
school teachers, police, street laborers,
lamplighters and others. The employment
of all these people creates certain amount
of activity the lack of which would be most
sensibly felt in sach stagnant times as
these; their regular payment would set
quite perceptible stream of money in cir
culation.
But, no! say the bondholders pay our
coupons. If your employees cannot work
without pay, stop them. Stop the woke.
Let the wharyes rot, the streets become
impossible, the avenues of commerce choke
up, the public buildings and fences go to
decay, the schools close, the police disband; /;
let filth accumulate in the cutters until a
magnificent epidemic shall cover your his
tory of woe and ruin with it's mantle of
death. Pay our coUroNs
This is just what they mean, if they do
not say it, not Perceiving that their avarice
would be as pernicious in irs effects upon
their own interests as inhuman 10 wards our
suffering multitudes. 1t las always been
recognized as bad policy to kill tue goose
that lays the golden egg. If our creditors
want their bonds paid, they ought tn en-.
courage the return of pros Speri>y, lot cripple
and retard it: they ought not to drive away
commerce and population, for it is upou
these that they hold their only available
mortgage. The real estate is nothing with
ont them. Every sensible creditor knows
that it is better to leave an active canital
in the hands of his debtor, if an honest one.
than to strip him of every cent for the
present payment of interest. Encourage
him, give him the means of business, rely
upon bis energy, his ability, his honor ;
but don't send him to jail, or condemn him
to the impotence of hopeless poverty.
But if bond-holders will not, in their
blind greed, listen to the plainest dictates of
common prudence, our people must epeak
to them in the unmistahable language of
indignant humanity. They will say "Our
children want bread and they must have t."
What man will take his last dollar to pay
a rich creditor and let his children starve 2
The people here are the children of the
city. II the city treasury cannot get enough
money to provide for it's absolute necessi-
ties and pay its debts too, the necessities
come first. They cannot wait, the debts
can.
Let the city support all the works that
are requisite to the active pursuits of bust
ness, and she will be but taking the neces-
sary precautions to restore that prosperity
which will easily enable her to pay off all
honest liabilities. Let her remit all taxa
tiou not necessary to those purposes. This
is no time to be straining every iifeiess
nerve to do the impossible. F0r the mo.