The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-01
WHO ARE THE REPUDIATIONISTs 2

lntimateS tnaI bnere Is any portion OF the
present State debt tainted by fraud; or that
the payment Of the debt as q whole would be
oppressive and ruinous to the people; or that
seven per cent is an excessive rate OF interest
on State debt approximating twelve mil
lions Of dollars; tr that eleven mills State
taxation, with parochal and municipal taxes
added, Is simply confiscation and unbearable.
Indeed 30 fierce and loud are the curses OF
the spectators In bonds, whenever any sug-
gestion Is made to readjust the debt, that
men become appalled, and shrink from the
responsibility OF expressing their honest
views on this question. No sooner is a
proposition made to relieve the taxpayers
and fix the debt upon an honest and solid
though reduced basis, than the yell OF "repu-
diation," "repudiationist," "thief" public
swindler," goes up from the throat of every
stock gambler In New Orleans and New York.
Now then, this debt question Is one that
concerns very deeply every honest man In
Louisiana; 1t touches the commerce and in
dustry of the State. Every good citizen,
therefore, should speak out boldly on 1t, and
defy the bulldozers of Carondelet and Wall
streets Indeed the plain issue Is before us
Are the candidates for the convention, and is
the convention when assembled, to frame q
constitution for the purpose OF emanci-
pating the property and industry of Louis
lana from the thraldom OF excessive debt
and taxation, to be overawed, dragooned
and controlled by monopolies and bond
holders; or are the people going to send men
to the convention who will not tremble in
their boots every time some hireling news
paper or bull in bonds bellows.
It is about time that this opprobrious cpl
tibet should be well defined and fixed upon
those who deserve 1t. 1t has been long enough
flung around loosely by stock iobbers at
plain honest and disinterested citizens, who
are trying to do the best they can for the
State. Hence, we ought to know who are the
real regulators. However much the gamblers
In bonds may clamor against regulators, they
are themselves the only regulators among
us, and we shall prove 1t In a very few lines.
It is not the people who hold consols as a
permanent investment who oppose the read
justment of the debt and the reduction OF the
interest to the capacity Of the State to pay.
The frantic opponents of these measures are
the spectators In bonds. 1t is notorious
lbCb bhdt IL dISs ppi vi bbC uCDb was CIt-
ated by fraud; that the five and a half mill
tax required for the interest is fully as much
as the total State tax rate should be- and that
q seven per cent interest bond is an advertise
ment that the debtor Is bankrupt. 1t Is
because of these facts that the twelve millions
debt of Louisiana has no fixed value no euui-
librium, no worth as o permanent and solid
investment.
The spectators understand this, and they
do not want the situation changed. Now, the
greater portion OF the debt floats on the street
and constitutes a vast gambling capital
which the brokers play on. running the
bonds up or down as 1t may be to the inter-
est Of the rings to do and crushing those who
play with or against them. The State never
has paid the interest on this debt, and 1t never
will, and the defalcation must inevitably be-
COME larger year after year. while the prop
erty of the State and the value Of the bonds
decline, and in a few years the debt il main
tanned will absolutely repudiate itself by It's
own rottenness and weight, dragging down
with It the credit and reputation of the State
There Is not an intelligent man gambling
In bonds who does not fully understand this
fact But this very fact, which deprives
bonds Of any fixed value. gives them all their
worth to those who are specializing in them.
These men are the repudiationists; these
men are the enemies Of the reputation OF the
State; these are the men who are yelling
"repudiationist" against the DEMOCRAT but
who are themselves the real repudlationsts
whom the people should condemn. and whose
reckless gambling they should break up by
readjusting the debt upon solid, Just and
legitimate basis
The readjusters on the other hand are the
best friends OF the holders OF honest bonds
In 1860 the debt OF the State amounted to
something over nine millions of dollars. while
the assessed value of our property was
six hundred millions. In 1874 the value of
the property Of the State had declined to
one hundred and seventy-five millions and
to-day, If fairly assessed, 1t would amount
to little If anything over one hundred and
thirty millions of dollars Thus, year by
year, through the ravages of war, then
by illegal and gross misgovernment, and
then under the irresistible pressure OF a
weight Of taxation amounting almost to con-
fiscation, the property Of the taxpayers of
Louisiana has sunk from six hundred millions
OF collars to one hundred and thirty millions,
and the debt they are called upon to pay has
risen, through the same causes, from nine
millions to twelve millions, to say nothing of
the vast increase OF parish and municipal
debts.
Is this Just; is 1t legal; it Is not merciless
crueltyf We have not entered into details
Our object here Is simply to present the great
leading features of the situation, and with
them before the public, we ask who are the
repudiators? Are not those Of us who pro-
pose TO eliminate the fraudulent from the legal
Indebtedness. to scale the residue and adjust
the interest at righteous rate, the friends of
the people2 And are not the men who would
this vast mass of debt, legal and IL
legal, with an enormous rate OF interest upon
the State to burden Its property, ruin its
and paralyze its industry until
the whole fabric Of debt and taxation tumbles
into absolute ruin and becomes mingled with