New-York tribune., 1878-01-22
TIE SHAM DOLLAR no ECONOMY.

IllE StiAM DOIBAA NJ lsNo-NVSii'
IT HAs ALREADY IMPOSED a DREADFUL TAX UPON
TIE PEOPLE-S17, 100000 A YEAR WASTED
now THE RATE or INTEREST IS AFFECTED.
lBY TELEGRAPH TO THR TRnt NIL
WASHINGTON Jan. 21.-The agitation OF the sil-
yer question has stopped the funding operations Of
the Government. he Secretary of the Treasury
attributes the suspension of the sale Of the per
cent bonds to this cause and the Syndicate excuses
its failure to place them on the market by the alarm
and distrust caused by the action OF Congress.
American securities of all kinds rise and fall in
LonbarI-st. and other European money centres
with tie varying phases Of the silver discussion.
The London Economist in ITS quotations OF United
States bonds and other American securities from
week to week since the 10Th of October, has hardly
mentioned any other cause having operated to
affect their price. During the whole period the
only ray Of light that was seen was during the
week ending December S. 1877, when the Editor OF
The Economist said that:
Tie declarations OF honest policy by the President
and Secretary OF the Treasury had serVed 10 raise the
maik,t for Government bonds
But even this slight improvement Of our credit,
which led some sanguine people TO hope that fund
ing might be resumed was short lived. Senator
Stanley Matthews, by the ntrod Icion of his silver
resolution did more to inure the credit of the Gov
eminent than all the brave words Of President
HAYES and Secretary Sherman did to strengthen IT.
His resolution was telegraphcd to London and on
the 15thof December Tie LcORomi,i sId, after quot
ing the dispatch:
Tie effect OF has been TO dcprcss the price OF
the United States bonds per cent.
Then there were grave doubts as to the efficacy of
the Presidents Veto even TO prevent ie silver Bill
from becoming a law, and the effect OF this upon
onr National credit may be seen from the following
extract from The Economist of December %, 1877:
Tuicd States bonds have suffered renewed fail, new
doubts being raised TO the power q" tc PRESIDENT
under the pressure OF party defeat TO rist The lcgis-
lave maOiites III favor oi paying coupons III sNer dS
we'll as gold.
Nothing is better established Therefore than that
the present want Of market for per cent United
States bonds is due exclusively to the fear that
Congress may pass silver bill. No prudent man
is willing to pay gold for bonds, the interest and
principal of which he may have to receive III de-
preciated silver of unstable value.
The amount Of 6 and per cent bonds outstanding
ON the 1st of January 1873, which the Government
has right to call in and pay at its pleasure was
so a. 23 500 and the annual amount Of interest that
might be saved on this sum if it was funded III a
4 per cent bond would he $1G,0l9,OO7, or SlO,-
2J3 II a day. This sum would be su'hccnt to
make up the deficiency III the revenues
of the Government for the next hscaI year,
which the Secretary of the Treasury anticipated
in his last annual report, and leave S7,O0O,OOO to
apply to other purposes. 1t would more than pay the
salaries of all civil officers in the employment of
the United States Ii would more than support our
Navy, or half support the Army. 1t would pay TWO
thirds of the pensions or more than three times the
annual expenditures for Indians 1t amounts to 13
ner cent OF the entire revenues of the Government
from customs and nearly 14l2 per cent Of the whole
amount of internal taxes
In other words, if the silver agitation should now
cease and the world could persuaded that woud
not begin again, funding could proceed and the ex-
penses of the Government would In consequence be
gradually reduced 80 that instead OF mqnIrng now
TO increase taxes in order to make the revenues oi
the Government equal to its necessary expenditures
Congress might now be selecting some taxes
to be removed or reduced, TO the great
relief of depressed business. This is truth that the
people of the United States ought to understand.
They must continue TO bear the present heavy bur
dens of taxation III order that tie Government may
nav so per cent higher rates of interest on large
portion of its public debt than would bc necessary
except for this idea about the reInonetzation
of silver. ,.
Will the Western farmers and Southern planters
the constituents OF the members OF Cong ess VINO
are keeping up this silver agitation ever get Dack
fla money which they are now paying IVr tnls cA-