Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-03-23
FINANCE AND TRADE.
Condition of the Markets Here and
Elsewhere.
Money Per Cent. Governments Unchanged
Stocks Moderately ActiVe-fIOur
Firmer-Wheat Higher-PfO-
visions Steady.
CALLING BONDS & DOUBLE INTEREST.

On the 18th instant the Treasury De-
partment issued three separate calls for
continued per cent. bonds. Each call
is for bonds to the amount of $1,000, 900.
One of them natures on the Sd, another
on the 10th, and the third on the 18th
of May. These calls are indicative of
Secretary Folger's view as to reasonable
notice of stOppage of interest on bonds
called in for redemption. The acts
under which the continued 6's We're
issued do not contain any definite pro-
vision in this respect. The same is true
ofmany earlier loan acts. But the just
ice of giving notice of the stoppage of
interest has always been recognized,
and in timeit came to be the established
practice of the Treasury Department
to give three months notice, and,
this being the practice, it was not deem
ed necessary to prescribe the length OF
the notice, or make mention of any no.
tice in loan acts. In this particular the
act of July II, 1870, under which the
continued SIS were issued, differs from
most Others. 1t provides that the bonds
last dated and numbered shall be re-
deemed first; that the Secretary of the
Treasury shall give public notice of the
intended redemption, and that interest
shall cease at the expiration of three
months from the date of such notice.
Forty years ago or more, three
months was no more than reasonable
notice. Telegraphic and railroad
and steamship facilities were not
then what they are now and many
holders Of..bonds at q distance from
Washington might hardly have been
able to get the money into their posses
sion before the stoppage of interest. But
when the act of 1870 was passed two
months notice was fully equivalent to
three months thirty years earlier. The
insertion of the provision referred to
therefore, was not only unnecessary, but
likely to make it necessary to pay
double interest on a large amount Of
debt, when double interest for two
months, or even a shorter period, would
have been sufficient. Mr.. WINDOWS
plan of continuance happily Obviated
the necessity of paying double interest
even for day on the SIS issued under
the act of 1870; but no thanks to Con-
gress for that. And still. when the Sec
rotary comes to call these bonds, he will
find himself hampered by the express
terms of the act, under which he will
be compelled to give three months no.
tice, since the device for continuance
did not at all affect the provisions of
the act.
The fact that Secretary Folger gave
only fifty days notice in the case of the
first s., ZOO, 900 called and only siXty-four
in the case of the last S5,0O0,00O, shows
that he takes rational view OF such
matters, and does not propose to he
guided always by mere precedent. AS
has been stated, the acts under which
the continued 6's were issued say moth
ing about any notice, and where the
law is silent precedent prescribes the
three months rule. But Secretary Fol
ger does not shut his eyes to the
fact that the precedent was made
in the days of canals, stage-coaches,
and sailing vessels, and, therefore, Is not
one which should necessarily govern in
these days Ofsteam and lightning. He
is evidently of opinion that notice OF
fifty days is as good now as notice OF
ninety DAYS was when he was a baby.
And he does not even go out of his way
to infer from the act of 1870 that Con-
greSs has, in effect, directed him to fol-
low the precedent of antiquity. Mr..
Folger is evidently man who is capa-
bic upon occasion of rising above mere
precedent into the region Of common
sense, and whose habit it is to regard
the substance of things rather than
mere forms.