Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-05-06

sion (1f the dreams OF ITS protector
could be realized) all the floating
funds Of the people. and. most danger
GUS of all, itwould have vast sums of
money to lend at the discretion of its
officers and in virtue Of this enormous
money power it would rule the State,
it would override the government, Il
aCOusd be the goUerRnlcnt. Relatively
to the State. it would have greater
power than the United States Bank,
which died ia Jackson's time, had in
relation to the United States; the COR
poration would grow enormously rich,
but the profits would never liqaidate
the liabilities of the State, which in
the hands of vast and oYergrown
corporation. which it could neither
control nor profit by, would become
poorer and poorer till State bankruptcy
and its inevitable rusult. Reputation,
would precipitate us into an abyss of
ruin compared with which our present
state is one of prosperity; for repudi-
alton then would ruin not few bond
holders and capitalists, it would bring
to perjury the artisans and other small
depositors throughout the State. whose
funds would be the stock in trade Of
the projected State Saving bank.
But the scheme is impracticable, as
we have shown, and as the Courier
Journal admits, and practically all we
have to insist upon is that an expert
ment shall not be tried, at an enor-
nous expense to the State, achich IS
sure to be failure.
We have given more space and time
to the refutation of this visionary
scheme than any wisdom in its proposals
seems to justify, and we promise that
wewill not treat future schemes which
may succeed it with equal consider
alton; for as we have said there will be
such schemes proposed without num-
Der, and the very attempt to reduce
them to practical form will demon
strate their impracticability.
The practical evil of propOunding
schemes like this is that it withdraws
peoples minds from the true issue be-
fore them. This is plain enough the
debts of the State are the peoples debts
and the people must pay them. All
these complicated arrangements pro-
posed for the settlement Of them are
alike in this, they try to persuade the
people that they can get out of debt
without paying them. butwhenanalyzed
they turn out to depend upon their
getting more deeply into debt to some
one else, and so relieving the present
by increased burdens on the future,
and in this instance the creditor whom
it is proposed to substitute for the
bondholders is the people of the whole
State, but especially the poorer por-
ton of il, and as it would inevitably
lead to bankruptcy and then repudia-
ton, this is the class who would be the
sufferers.
Our would be politicians must cease
to give the people such demoralising
advice as this. tits just like the siren
strain sung to embarrassed prodigals
by designing sycophants who are prey
ing upon them: "Stave off your present
embarrassments in any wayyou can, and
never mind the future" Alas they
will not cease. It is the vice of re.
publican governments that so few pol
iticians have the courage to give the
people unpalatable advice; but we take
courage; we believe the people to be
wiser and more practical than then
would-be-counsellors, and think they
will appreciate the truer counsel Of
wiser statesmen who bid them seekre-
demption from their embarrassment
in the only true sources of hope, In
tegrity, Economy and Industry.