The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-02-07
The Financial Question.

This subject is Just now absorb
ing the attention of the country.
and Is rapidly looming up as 4
paramount Issue before the coun-
try. Its a fight between the bond
holders on the one side and the
people on the other side, and it IS
truly amusing to watch the con-
test.
We are not muc an admIrer of
Ihurlow Weed or of anything he
says or does, but we are much i'm
pressed with his recent advice to
the New York bankers /" that they
are treading upon dangerous
grounds He gives this warning
through the New York 7ri6uae,
and shows the absurdity of their
demands. lie makes the point that
had England or Germany possessed
our silver mines, they would never
have voluntarily deprived them
selves of an inexhaustible source
of national wealth and prosperity
by demonetizing silver and thus
restricting its use and diminishing
It's value. He then takes up the
assertion of the New York World
that the bondholders paid gold for
their bonds, and that to pay them
in silver would be a reputation of
ten per cent. Of the bonds. "This
is exactly the reverse of TRUTH"
says Mr.. Weed, and then he makes
the following telling statements
"They did not pay gold for their
bonds. They were slow to take
them at any price. | speak under
standingly, for | was in London
when some English capitalists pur-
chased Confederate IN preference
to Union bonds, and when Ameri-
can bankers hesitated about recon
mending Union bombs to custom
ers. English and German capital
lists waited until the war tide began
to turn in favor, and then,
with gold at a premium of from $50
to 200 per cent. purchased our
bonds at a discount Of from 40 to
30 per cent. Instead, therefore,
of paying gold for their bonds
the English and German capital
lists RENTED their gold to New
York, where it was converted by
their agents into currency, with
which their bonds were purchased.
The average cost of several hum
dred millions of 6 per cent. bonds
purchased on foreign account did
not exceed 80 per cent. in gold.
Upon these bonds the holders have
for twelve years been receiving IN
terest in gold with the further ad-
vantages of exemption from taxes.
OF all this, however, do not COM
plain. Capitalists wait and watch
for their opportunity u dlsas-
trous civil war afforded the oppor-
tunity, and they availed themselves
of it. What | do object to is that
an English letter-writer seeks to
mislead and exasperate by asserting
that our English creditors paid
$1,000 in gold for a $1,000 6 per
cent. bond, while the exact truth IS
he got his 81, 900 bond for less than
80 per cent. in gold"
There could not be a stronger ~
hibliion of the falsity of such state
ments as those Of the World, than
the above. And it is true. These
bonds, bought for fifty and sixty
cents on the dollar, are the identl-
cal bonds which the syndicate has
been exchanging for the new issues
of four per cent. bonds, payable IN
coin, as the others were payable IN
currency. Yet these %wreckers, who
have been getting for twelve years
six per cent. interest in gold on the
face value of bonds that cost them
but fifty cents on the dollar, talk
about reputation because 1t Is
claimed their bonds IAN be paid III
silver just as the law and the face
of the bonds declare they may be
paid. Such is Mr.. Weeds argu-
ment, and it seems TO rs unanswer-
able.
Mr.. Weed also discussed the
compromise" suggested by the
bondholders, that the legal tender
quality of silver shall be limited to
twenty dollars, and shows that 1t
would make gold the standard for
labor. elm other words says Mr..
Weed, "while demanding a gold
standard for the payment Of the
bondholders, they offer to make
silver a legal tender for the pay