St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-01-21
THE SILVER ASSAULT ON THE
NATIONAL CREDIT.


NATIONAL CREDIT.
1t is fortunate that the advocates of
unlimited coinage of silver in congress
are forcing the fighting and that their
| first position is to demand the pay
ment of bonds, principal and interest,
in silver. This is the practical atti-
tude of Senators Beck and Pugh and
of other silver men. We deem this
fortunate because it is too late in the
day for the acceptation of any prOpO-
sitiOn to deal with our national debt in
any manner not justified by the high
est moral obligation and the longest
sighted craftsmanship. Any such prop
osition is historically fOredOOmed to
total rejection. Our national expert
ence in the past 90 years has been rich
in these schemes to ''mOnkey" with the
debt, to use current and expressive
slang term. In 1868, there was the
dazzling scheme to pay the principal
and interest of the bond in greenbacks.
Even so able a man as John Sherman
was temporarily captured by it, and
Mr.. Beck even now thinks it was a
creditable portion of Sherman's record.
But the people overthrow that scheme
by electing Gen. Grant president upon
an express issue of keeping faith with
the national creditor. Then the taxa
tian of national bonds was warmly
urged by demagOgs until people saw
that in reality no other kind of proper
ty was taxed so certainly, so cheaply,
and so uniformly as government bonds,
since at every refunding the tax was
virtually deducted in advance from
the rate of interest by an memorable
commercial law of values far transcend
ing the authority of tax assessors and
tax collectors.
The American national debt was a
voluntary contract on the part of the
government to pay SO many dollars
within a certain period in coin with in
terest at certain rates. We lay no
stress upon the words Sin COIN" The
word dollar was enough. When the
refunding acts of 1870 and 1871 were
passed, the silver dollar was worth a
| premium of % per cent. over the gold
dollar, but no bOndhOlder ever asked
on that account to be paid his interest
| in silver, since it was we'll understood
that the American silver dollar was as
extinct as the Bible shekel. The whole
world knew what the American dollar
was and what it had been for genera
| tiOns-nOt a bank note, not treasury
note, nObOdy's note, but dollar of the
| United States mint,-in number and
amount gold vastly prepOnderating
over silver. On this position the treas
ury took it's stand, backed by congress.
What was the result Europe, which
had first said we could not fight, and
then said, "Well, but you will repudi-
ate" saw with amazement the debt
being paid and all temptations to ''take
advantage" of creditors cOntemptuOus-
ly rejected. Our national credit be-
gan to rise, and our rates of interest to
fall, as rapidly as we could refund the
debt, so that in IA years our interest
charge fell from $l50,00O. 900 year in
August, 1865, to $50, 773, 900 for 1879,
the year of the resumption of specie
payments. The average rate of inter
est paid on the debt at those dates fell
from 60 per cent. to 40, or exactly
one third. The country saw the wise
and honest policy magnihcently vindi-
Gated over anything which could have
been secured by merely shrewd and
grasping policy.
Then came the silver temptation,
arising from the great shock to the rel
alive value of silver by reason of
causes beyond the control of this coun-
try and perhaps all countries. Silver
declined. Our government IN the face
of grave danger from so doing re-es-
tablished the coinage of the silver dol
lar and now coins more of them every
eight months than it coined in 30 years
before 1873. The temptation again
arises to make something out of the
national creditor. In the meantime
by the adherence to the strictly honor
able policy, the rate of interest upon
the remainder of the national debt has
fallen to less than 4 per cent. The alb
sOlute interest charge has fallen in 20
years from $50, ZOO, 900 to $50, 00O, 900,
partly by refunding and partly by Ii
quotation.
The purpose to pay bonds in silver
has only one mOtive,-to secure some
advantage to the government which is
corresponding injury to the bond
holder. If the bondholder had as soon
take one metal as the other, there is no
necessity for legislation to compel him
to accept either. He must in any event
accept what the government may give
him, as the United States government
is practically above courts. What adj
vantage then is it to the country to
pay bonds, principal or interest in sill
yer? Mr.. Beck says the whole course
of the government has been in favor of
the bOndholders, and now he thinks it
would be well to even up by acting
hostile to them. AS if some venerable
and respected merchant or business
man who after a long life above re-
prOach in his dealings, should say ::
Now have succeeded so well by be-
ing entirely honorable in my career
that 1 think my policy has been one
sided, since have never cheated any
body. | don't need to cheat anybody
now, but 1 don't want to act all one
way or show any slayish subserviency
to the power of wealth, so for the rest
of my career / am going to take the
other tack, and cheat little anyway.
Would any sane or honorable man
follow such a course? Would he not
rather say that if he had been able to
withstand temptation to indulge i'm
tricky methods and questionable
"shaves" dnring the time of his need,
and had seen a more honorable course
crowned with success, he then had still
less reason to swerve from the highest
obligation, and still more pride and
certainty in holding strictly to the Sc
verest Interpretation of right =
springfield Republican.
THE SOCIALISTS AT CHICAGO.
Preparation for AN Outbreak.
Investigations made periodically by
the city police, private detectives and