The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-01-03
The independent.
County Finance.


of that city or of Vancouver, known
to be a wise and honest man, should
issue his notes of hand payable in
two years for sum equal to about
one tenth of what he owns, the notes
to draw interest at ten per cent. per
annum, capitalists would esteem them
very good debts to buy, and if they
could be bought at five or six per
cent. discount, would eagerly seek
them as an investment. If the maker
of these notes was Of undoubted fnan-
cial standing, the people would have
such confidence in his intention and
ability to pay, that they would en-
dorse his paper with alacrity. They
would reason that ten per cent. is
fair rate of interest, two years not
very long to wait, and this mans pa
per bought at discount sufficient to
make the interest for the two years
amount to twelve per cent. per an
mum, compounded at the end of the
first wear, would be thrifty invest
ment for capital. Now, why may not
the whole people as a corporate body,
as a county, manage their credit IN
like manner? How much better is
the county security than the security
of one man? How much more safe
and certain may the county be, as
paymaster, than any individual Cit
izen, no matter what his wealth?
And why, therefore, ought not coun-
ty orders to be as good and even bet
ter than the notes of one man alone:
Misfortunes which overtake one in
dividual do not effect the county;
one man may run away and carry his
money with him, but the county will
not run away, and to carry away the
farms, houses, barns, and fields of its
citizens is impossible. Individual
citizens often leave and carry their
possessions with them, but others
come to take their places, and the
units of population remain as before.
Famine, pestilence, war, and the con-
vulsions of nature may destroy the
body corporate but it is not subject
to the same death, miscarriage and
fault, as is the common lot of individ-
ual citizens. But if the county is, in
its very nature, more certain, stead
fast and financially sound than the
individual citizen, Why viii not its
paper be worth as much. or more than
the paper Of an individual? The an
swer is plain; attach the same condi-
tons to both classes of paper, and
that of the county, a county order.
for instance, would be worth as much
and even more than the order or note
of any individual. What, then, is the
real difference between the note of
the banker and the order the county
has cited above. Time is the essen
tial difference. The banker will paw
in two years, the county, under the
present regimen in this county, will
pay, not at any particular time, but
just when it happens to get ready, OBJ
serve that happens is the word used,
for in this county tax is imposed
not for the purpose, apparently, of
paying the county debts honestly and
fairly and in their proper order, but
seemingly for the purpose Of giving
somebody chance to buy county
orders and sell them again, and at
the same time the taxpayer chance
to help discount and depreeiate the
county credit, thereby putting county
debts twenty and thirty per cent. be-
low their par value. The banker, on
the other hand, will pay his debts
when due, and maintain his credit at