Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-03-04
THE DEBT wHooP.
For the SPECTATOR.

For the SPECTAToR.1
MEssRs. EDIToRs:-The effort to encour
age the passengers embarking TOR chilly
Salt River by an attempted whoop over
mistaken allegations against the last Ley
islature may receive further notice than
you gave it in q late issue of your excellent
paper. Your reference to the Governors
message as an answer to the fallacies pre-
scented, has led to another reading of thar
document, from which it is seen that Gov
Cameron, after referring to the ''Riddle-
berger Bill' and Coupon-Killsrs / and 2
as affording some relief to the treasury,
and make it possible to discharge the float
ing debt, &c., declares: but these meas
ures IN no sense constitute a settlement of
the debt"
He then shows that the measures had
been ready for operation more than twelve
months, and less than per cent. of the
entire debt had been funded wiz, 50. 400.
707.19.) while under the McCulloch Bill, in
much shorter period, more than eieh.
millions of bonds were surrendered He
adds that, SIT is true that the Suprem.
Court of the United States, in the case of
Antonl VS.. l4reenhow, sustained the act of
January IA, 1882, as furnishing an ade-
quate remedy to the holders Of the tax
receivable coupons But experience has
shown the act to be deficient in several i'm.
portant particulars. The enacting clause
fails to embrace the coupons detached from
the McCullOch bonds. and they were COM
ing in without hinderance, unless resort
was had to the act of January 90, 1889,
known as Coupon Killer, No. 2. The Gov
ernor says, "That act has not been subject
to construction by any court of appellate
jurisdiction, State OF Federal. Experience
has also proved that the requirements of
section of the act of January IA, 1882,
are not sufficient to procure care of the
States interest, &c. Thousands of dol
lars of coupons have been passed through
such courts Corporations and county,
without the scrutiny needful to establish
either their commences or their loyalty. >
'Within the official knowledge of the ex-
ecutive, coupons have passed through the
courts upon the sole evidence of persons
who could not, by any possibility, testify
with knowledge as to their genuineness
and loyalty. Judgments have been rem
DIR, red against the State treasurer on cou
pons which had no number, and, therefore,
were the legal product of no bond. Durinq
the last sir months, oaoing to such causes,
funding under the act Of February IA, 1882,
has practically ceased"
What force is in the declaration of the
Valley Virginian that, $50 long as the leg
islation of 1882 was uudisturbed everything
was going on smoothly?'
Gov. Cameron found everything else but
the SMOOTHLY" of the Firginian. In one
short paragraph, Gov. Cameron makes five
recommendations of changes to the legisla-
ton which is now asserted to be working
so successfully and smoothly" by the pas.
sengers for ''old salt" The Gov proceeds
to say: sit cannot as yet be called in any
true sense settlement. Remaining with
the General Assembly is the duty or the
privilege of making to live or letting to die
the scheme of funding known as the Rid
dleberger act. To be successful, it must
be forceful. The question now is, not
whether the General Assembly will give
negative support to an attempt aohich is no
settlement, but whether the majority of The
body will sustain and advance the present
legislation on the debt question:
The recent decision Of Judge Hughes is
a question growing out of an act of Assem-
bly, requiring, as a condition precedent,
that applicants for license shall pay in cur?
rency for the privilege of doing business,
on the theory, that there is no debt or de-
mand to be discharged when the money is
paid for the tax-receivable coupon to at
tach to. The application for license being
entirely vO)untary-a free tender of the
money to the State-then the law grants
the privilege. This is an old Readjuster
theory advanced years ago, and only re-
Gently enacted to save to the treasury the
license revenue Judge Hughes has sub
stantially decided, that tax-receiyable
coupons may be tt ndered on application for
license before any debt or due of the State
has attached to any one. The time when
the liability springs up is made the gist of
the act, and not the mere requiring the
funds rendered to be in gold, silver, or Uni
ted States bank notes, as the Valley Fir-
0inian supposes. This latter requirement
has been embodied in Coupon Killer No.
2, and considered by its author the crown
ing glory of that Readjuster act of 1882.
No, the late decision has not been let in by
any fatal and deplorable botch of it by the
last Assembly.
The State made two propositions of set
Element with her creditors in 1871 and
1879, which the creditors were proceeding
rapidly to accept, hut the State drew back,
and in 1882 made the "Riddleberger Bill,
proposition, to which the creditors reply,
that the Virginia Legislature cannot be
trusted; that they intend to enforce their
claims through the United States courts,
and are bringing their suits to test the
matter.
Gov. Cameron says the Riddleberger set
tlement to be effective, must be forceful
The champions of that n easure have taxed
their brains for four years to discover the
most effective means to ensure success to
their favorite scheme, but they have failed
to present them. The people of the State
can combine, as the foreign bondholders
have done, and unanimously refuse to use
the coupons in payment of any public dues.
That will stop Judge Hughes's 'scutworm
Of the treasury" effectually. OBSERVER.