Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1879-09-27
WHAT is COMING.
The Ncxt Financial Danger.
ITO the Editor of the sedalia Democrat

ITO the Editor Of the sedalia Democrat
On the 31st Gay of December, 1880,
$~lS,415,OO0 OF government bouds
known as ''sixes of 1880" will be due,
S264,321 $3.50, known as "sixes of
1884," will be redeemable at the
pleasure of the government after June
80, 1881. The 'sives of 1881" amount
ing to $S0s, 440, $50, will be redeema-
BILE at the pleasure of the government
after May 1, 1881.
Our total outstanding bonds, ac-
cording to the statement of August
1, 1875, see Bankers Magazine, Sept.
1, Fages 245) is 81 ,846, 591 1872. The
bonds called Gives of 49," and "sixes
of 80 and 49," are thus seen to be
nearly half of our bonded indebted
ness.
What shall we do with them when
they become due2 They will either
be paid or extended into a long loan.
The first installment, of eighteen
millions and a fraction, due a year
from next December, can no doubt
be paid without any inconvenience,
and it should be done. This would
put the government on the offensive
and the money lenders on the defeh-
slve, SO to speak. 1t will give the
government prestige and put faint
hearts in the breasts of members of
syndicates now licking their lips at
the prospects of the fat commissions
on the funding Of nearly a billion in
bonds.
One of the main points in the
struggle going OH for the perpetua-
ton Of the national banking system,
is here involved. The comptroller
Of the currency, MI. Knox, says in
his report for December, 1873, that
the intention in passing the national
bank act was to inaugurate a perma-
nent system of banking. All of the
defenders Of that system say SUBJ
stantially the same thing. They
thereby confess that they favor the
p%erpetuation of the national debt. 1t
would play great havoc with their
hopes if b government we're to pay
off nearly half the debt at this early
day. We find them already prepar-
ing to perpetuate this portion of the
debt. The modest ~ suggestion al
ready comes from Wall street that
the government car doubtless refund
these bonds at 8 per cent. by issuing
fifty gear bonds. At simple interest
this would be one and a bali times
the principal or taking the latter as
eight hundred millions, they propose
that in the next fifty years we pay
one billion two hundred millions as
interest and at the end of fifty years
have the principal as large as ever
If this country has enemies dnyaohere
who need closer watching and hard
er combating than these, l am not,
at this time, informed of it.
There is little in the acts of the
government in regard to the creation
of this debt that would stand the test
of an honest Interpretation of the
constitution, but we are in the scrape
and must get out of it as best we
may. Jefferson's principle that the
generation that creates q debt ought
te pay it, or in other words, that 10
bonds ought to run longer than thirty
years, is a good one. Furthermore
the government has claimed the right
when the necessity arises to drive
bank paper out Of the field and circu-
late its own ~paper-not for the wants
of trade but for its own wants,
though it indirectly satisfies the
| "dIlLs VI ITaue dL Lne same time.
These propositions show US what
ought to be done, and give us at least
an idea of how 1t ought to be done,
A good deal of thought may vet be
expended on the how, and l confess
that [ have only crude thoughts as
yet on that part, having spent my
time chiefly greaning in spirit at the
prospect of paying one hundred and
fifty per cent. interest on eight hun.
dred millions and leaving the priuci
pal still to pay. However, l will ven.
ture some of them. First, we must
have men in the national legislature
in the executive chair and IN the
treasury department, whose aim will
not be show not TO dc it," When WI
have those places so filled we will
have gained half the battle. Having
this immense debt 10 pay 80 soon W.
need not be alarmed at the accumula.
ton of silver dollars in government,
f vaults. Next, the government acting
on it's right to occupy the currenc1
field and drive banks out of it, de
cided in its favor by the supreme
court of the United States in Veazi,
Bank vs.. Fenno, should give the ma