The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1876-04-06
State ffnanres.
THE STATE DEBT.
1t is Cheaper to Pay than to
Repudiate.

We sec no honest way out of debt
except to pay out. It is cheaper
than to repudiate, as our people
would soon find out to their cost.
We venture the assertion that the
additional cost of merchandise to
the consumers of Tennessee, conse-
qnent upon repudiation, would be
many fold greater, annually, than
the payment of the interest upon
our bonded debt. a leading mer-
chant of Nashville stated to us re.
Gently that goods were sold in
northern cities to Ohio merchants
at an advance of about 20 per cent. !;
to Kentucky merchants at about %
per cent. to those for Tennessee at
a figure above that; to Mississippi
merchants at 40 per cent, and to
Texas merchants at go per cent.
The reason of the difference con
sisted in the relative promptness
and business habits of the people of
the several States. Those OF Ohio
might not be essentially a more
honest people, but they have a
higher sense of the sacredness Of
contracts, paid their debts with
more promptness, and thus made it
to the interest of the seller to sell
them cheaper. Place Tennessee on
the list of repudiating States like
Mississippi, and it viii not require
a moments calculation to see that
every single article of consumption
imported into the State will be
charged accordingly. Put us on
the forty per cent. list, and let us see
how it will work. We have no sta
tistics of the actual importation of
goods into Tennessee, but we do
know that the census of 1870 gives
us a population of about one mil
lion and a quarter of inhabitants.
These people all wear boots and
shoes, and at least an average of
two pair annually. Two dollars a
pair, a good merchant assures US, is
about an average cost, or four dol
lars per year for each person. This
would make the boot and
shoe bin of our people at five mil
lions Of dollars. Now an advance
of fifteen per cent. would be $780,
600, or three quarters Of a million
of dollars. The same merchant es-
Inmates the dry goods sold at five
times as much more. This item
would foot up $25,OOO,OOO, and an
advance of Is per cent. would give
us $3,75O,O0O. The agricultural i'm
plement trade is over one million
dollars. The grocery trade il arti
cles imported from the North enters
into its millions. 1t is safe to put
the importation at $4,000, 900, and
very reasonable to conclude that
the advance that we have spoken
would appreciate the selling price
of goods from fVe to seven millions of
dollars annually. In other words,
the material and direct conse-
quences of our reputation would
be that the farmers and others of
Tennessee would have to plank up
four or five times more of their hard
earnings to pay for dishonesty than
they would for honesty.
In these remarks we are looking
at the question merely from a selfish
point of view. We are not consid-
ering now anything in reference to
the question chow to pay" That
will be the subject of another arti-
Gle. We believe that it is best for
a State to be honest as well as an
individual. And no more certian
is it that "the wages of sin is
DEATH" than that the Common
wealth that repudiates its private
debts is bound to bring disaster as
well as dishoDor upon its people.
SUMMARY.
Cost of honest policy by paying
the interest upon the public debt
per annum, $1,25O,OOO.
Cost of dishonesty, being ad-
vaneed cost upon purchases for the
farmers and propertY-holders Of
Tennessee, $5,OOO,OO9 to $7,OOO,O0O
per annum.
By the policy of honesty, the in
terest upon the public debt can be
met, and, as "a penny saved, is a
penny gained, enough can be saved
in few years to create a sinking
fund to discharge the principal
GQllotin Examiner