Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-01-27

| tory terms the debt might DO ses.'eu. &c.
cordipgly the Legislature agreed, oy wnas
ia known as the Wickham amendment 10
fund this accumulation at % cents IN
! the dollar. And this compromise was
argued at the time by General Wickham
as done ia the interest OF the bondhold-
ers. But as the Legislature had made
that concession 10 was thought proper 10
/ impose a penalty for failure TO comply
with the obligation to fund, and that
penalty was that each bond snould forfeit
all its coupons maturing between Jann !,
ary, 1885, and the actual date at which u
might be funded This penalty, which
might have been avoided by prompt
funding. now amounts TO some $500
900 of unfunded coupons, and Will In
crease the debt by that amount II DOW
permitted TO be funded at par, or by ST.
100000 il funded at 30 cents IN the
dollar.
Another feature OF the amendment
was to require "that all bonds offered
for funding, belonging 10 any class, shall
have attached thereto all coupons or
other interest maturing after January
/, 1885, or coupons OF like character,
date. and amount, which shall be sur
rendered ciM such bonds. And this
provision also the brokers and their cor
respondents want repealed as to the ten
forties. The object OF that provision
was TO deter the holders of the bonds
from clipping the coupons of and ten
dering them for taxes, by refusing to
fund them il they should be clipped.
And it appears to have had that effect in
large measure certainlyas 70 ten-forties ;
for the records of The Second Auditor S
Office show that only $26, AS in coupons
of this class have been forced in for
taxes out of a total Of S637, 1872 and
that only 698 out of total of
| SOD bonds, or about 8 per
cent, have been clipped. But the
brokers protest that so many have been
forced in that they cannot obtain them
TO match the bonds they wish to fund.
The above statement shows that this is a
mistake-at least that they are not in the
Treasury, and ii they have been cut from
the bonds in large numbers, which IS not
proven and do not believe, they must
be in private hands and held by specu-
lators TO be sold to those who, having
once cut them off, now want to fund and
cannot do so without replacing them.
And this is exactly the lesson the State
sought to teach the bondholders. They
have learned it, aud have found ont now
that il they mutilate their bonds by clip
ping they will not be allowed to fund
them unless the detached coupons or
their precise equivalents in character,
| date, and amount are restored"
TO repeal this provision now would be
TO remove one strong restriction upon
| rendering coupons for taxes. And this
at a time when we learn that an agent of
the bondholders is coming over to renew
the fight with large lot OF bonds to be
deposited in Baltimore, where coupons
are to be cut off and sent here as tenders
for taxes, 10 be followed by the bonds
whenever they want to prove their genu-
| ineness IN court under the coupon
crusher, as they think they can do by
the production of the bond when the oc-
casion arrives. Let them know that ii
they DO this they can never fund, except
as provided by the Wickham amend
ment
Iappeal to the brokers to take these
matters into consideration and to act
upon them, and so expedite the funding.