Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-01-30
Nassonal Debts = X ssnoue tizing
silver.


silver.
1t Is very much the fashion Of
late years to expatiate on the sane
tlty of national debts. All the
newspapers published in the con-
tsrs OF capital devote a consldsra-
BILE space TO this we'll worn mono
tone, and the reason is q very sim
Pile ono. Most of their patronage
Is derived from the class who own
bonds and other evidences of pub
lilo debt, and they write what will
be most agreeable to their patrons.
A man may very much question
either the sanctity or the desira-
bility OF national, State and other
forms of public indebtedness with
out ranging himself among the
revolutionists of the Anacharsis
Clootz school. Such men as Thorn
~ Jefferson regarded such debts,
and the accumulation Of capital in
few hands which always follow
upon their heels, a. subtle agencies
for the enslaving Of the masses. A
well-wishsr Of his kind may well
question whether the destruction
of national credit-the establish
ment of a state of things which
would make 1t impossible for a
State or nation to get into debt
would not, after ali, be a blessing.
1t wsuld involve temporary hard
ship and inconvenience, but then,
when peoples as we'll as individu'
ais have to pinch themselves, they
are moderate in their expenditures.
They count the cost very carefully,
knowing that they themselves will
have to pay the scot. The best
and clearest thinkers that have
ever lived In the United States
have doubted the ability Of one
generation to bind another.
Owing to the fact that aggrsgat.
cd money, In the last fifty years,
has become even a greater power
than the old Holy Alliance, ma
tional debts have become sort Of
modern fetish. And yet nothing
can be more thoroughly
proven than that nations have
disposed of their national
debts as the humor happened
to seize them. The most striking
thing about it all is, however, that
their credit has not suffered in the
slightest degree, in consequence.
Who cares to inquire now what
France did with her Revolution
airy debt? But it may be said that
that debt was to her own people,
and that she could do with it what
she pleased. This argument may
be met by one from our own his
tory. When the American Con-
gress dscreed that the Continental
debt should be settled on the basis
of one silver dollar to every forty of
the Continental issue-that is,
when we compounded on the foot
ing of paying our creditors a debt
of peculiarly sacred nature at the
rate of two and a half cents on the
dollar, the French creditors pro-
tested. They pointed to the fact
that they had aided our people in
what would be o most momentous
and critical period of the history of
any nation, and they suggested
tnat, however we might elect to
treat our own citizens, We should at
least pay French creditors dollar
for dollar. The American Congress
replied that it could not consent to
recognize any distinction amongst
its creditors, and it declined to pre-
fer the French over the American
money-lender.
When one looks back over the
whole field, that seems harsh and
unjust discrimination. Yet the
credit of the United States is to-day
not any the worse for it-perhaps
more's the pity.
The House of Representatives.
day before yesterday, by a more
than two-thirds vote, passed the
Matthews resolution de-
that the interest en- the
National debt was rightfully
payable in silver, at the
option of the Government. We do
not pretend to say that this
action will have the effect of in
creasing the value of silver. We
disclaim any knowledge of the ul-
innate results. There may be a
resentful conspiracy amongst cap
italists, in consequence. to depress
the value Of silver, but it will prob
ably fail in the end, If it is at
tempted. 1.-THE balance of trade
were against US 1t might result in
denuding the country Of gold. But
United States bonds still remain a
good Investment, and we can sus-
tain the shock If a few hundred
millions of government bonds are
returned upon our hands. We can
pay them in silver and that ought
to create demand for silver coin,
o,d aboalr anU tnnuannanf Of the