Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-09-01
THERE'S MILLIONS IN 1T.
Mr.. Tilden's Plan for Paying the Nation.
al Debt Analysed and Made Plain.

MI. Tilden's Plan for Paying the Nation
al Debt Analysed and Made Plain.
SPARTA, Wis, Aug. 20, 1876.
| To tie Editor of the Inter- Ocean::
Meeting half a dozen gentlemen
in the First National Bank yester-
day, I'asked, "What do you think of
Mr.. Tilden's plan for paying off the
national debt?" Mr.. Moneybags,
who owns four or five banks, railroad
stocks, etc, answered.: "The propo-
sition is good one; it can be done
if you can only find somebody who
will lend the money at 44 per cent.
That is the only difficulty. A saving
of l per cent on the entire $l,7OO,-
100000 will amount to s17,OOO,OOO,
and this invested,as Mr.. Tilden says,
would no doubt cancel the debt in
thirty-eight years." I was glad to
hear Mr.. Moneybags say this, because
Pm Tilden man, and l don't like to
hear anybody go back on him.
But Mr.. Johnson, a speculator in
wheat, said he didn't think Mr.. Til
den proposed to pay off the debt, but
only proposed to show how there
might be so much saved by reducing
the rate Of interest. l felt good
deal hurt at Johnson's remarks, and
said to him:
"Mr. Johnson, do you think Mr..
Tilden is muggins?"
Did it need man Of his genius to
tell the people that? Aren't you
Tilden man? Didn't everybody
know that saving of SIT, 100000,
in interest would be $l7.OOO,OOO
saved?
Didn't everybody know that?
Mr.. Johnson said he doubted if the
debt could be paid off without cost
to the people, and thought we misun-
derstood Mr.. Tilden's meaning
Fearing that Mr.. Johnson, who has
great influence over the Irish vote,
was getting shaky, found Mr.. Til
den's letter of acceptance, and read
it to him, as follows:
"a saving of one per cent. on the
average would be seventeen millions
a year in gold. That saving, regu-
larly invested at 44 per cent. would
in less than thirty years extinguish
the principal. The whole $780,
100000 funded debt might be paid
by this saving alone without cost to
the people"
There are three things to be OBJ
served, Mr.. johnson, said I: First,
''To extinguish the principal''-"the
funded debt shall be paid" which is
about the same thing as the extin-
guishment of the principal, and all
"without cost to the people," 81 am
a Tllden man, Mr.. Johnson" said /,
with some warmth, "and If there is
any one part Of the Tilden platform
which is dearer to me than another
it is this plan to pay off the national
debt. Mr.. Tilden says the thing can
be done, and l know it can be done,
for l have worked it out. For hun
dfeds of years philosophers have
racked their brains to invent some
machine which would be self-operat-
ing. They have combined springs,
weights, wheels, levers, pulleys, pen
dulums, inclined planes, cams, mag
nets, etc, in a thousand mysterious
ways, in endless confusion; but, ow-
ing to some latent defect in every
thing of a material nature, their ma
chimes wouldn't go. In theory they
are correct; they fail only on account
of the defects in the things Iney have
TO work with. In theory a.man can
lift himself over the fence by his boot
straps. If he can lift one ounce
more than his own weight, over he
goes, and is on the other side of the
fence in jlffy. But on account of
some defect in the boots or the boot
straps, the problem has SO far failed
in practice. But Mr.. Tilden works
in higher sphere. Leaving the
grosser field of matter beneath him,
he scars aloft, as it were, in the
realms of science among logarithms,
tangents, cosmos, parallelograms,
contingent remainders, equilateral
triangles, ETC., and making all these
things subservient to his giant intel
lect, has discovered the eureka in po-
litical science which philosophers
have sought for in vain in the field of
mechanics. In the field of science
in which Mr.. Tilden works, there are
no defects, everything"
was waxing eloquent on this sub
iect-tor my whole soul is wrapped
up in it-when Republican friend
asked me:
"What is it that Mr.. Tilden pro-
poses to do?"
"To pay off the national debt"
said I, cor rather to make the nation
al debt pay itself"
"Can you do that?" said the Re-
publican.
"Of course you can, said !; "and
what is more, l can give you rule
by which any person or corporation
can pay off their debts without cost
ing them one cent"
Adam Smith, Daniel Ricardo, John
Baptist Say, John Stuart Mill, Sir
Morton Peto, Alexander Hamilton,
Henry Carey, Salmon P. Chase and
all them fellows are o set of old TO-
gies. Stephen Colwell spent q year
| and a half to write his "Ways and