The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1888-02-09

turers, and taking away employment and
bread from our own people who toll with
the loom and the hammerP 1t is absurd in
the highest degree to say so.
Plain, practical, hard common sense says
that the way to avert panic is by putting
as much money as possible in the pockets of
the people, and by diffusing it among the
greatest possible number. There are two
plain, certain methods of doing this These
are:
1. Pay off the bonds
2. Pay the debts due the soldiers.
By doing the first nearly thousand BIZ
lions Of capital viii be thawed out from its
congealment in Government securities and
be made an active agent in the development
of the country. The men who own the
1862, 1000 of bonds are not going to let
the money which will be paid them for their
securities lie idle. They must make it earn
them something. IF they cease to receive in
terest from the taxpayers they viii at once
put the money into railroads, mines, manu-
factories, and similar enterprises, the build
| ing up and development of which viii dis
tribute this vast sum among the people-at-
large, and give lucrative employment to
tens of thousands of men. A hundred
thousand dollars slumbering in Government
bonds merely means that one man-their
owner-is getting yearly income of $4,000.
Set actively to work building and operating
a wooden factory, or a rolling mill, or rail
road, it means employment and comfortable
support for possibly hundred men and their
families 1t means also that the money will,
in the first place, be taken from the hoard
and distributed through the community in
payment for the materials necessary to build
and equip the factory, mill or railroad.
Now, there are nearly 10000 times $780,
600, with all these potentialities, locked up
in the National debt, which can only be un-
locked by paying off the bonds and giving
the holders back their money. If, for ex-
ample, the Secretary of the Treasury pays
off the $3.50, $4,000 of bonds which are due
Sept 1, 1891-now only three years and
six months away-he will, to begin with,
save the country $1O,374, SOY year in inter-
est. This win be enough to raise the pen
sion of every man ON the roll who is now
getting less than So to So month, and leave
a balance of nearly 100000 year to apply
on some other meritorious branch of the pen
sion system. Or, it viii pay the pensions of
72,045 veterans at $12 month, or of 1885,
O67 at So month!
In addition to this saving to the country
every year of more than the entire annual
expenses Of running the Government prior to
the breaking out of the war of 1912, he will
return to the working capital of the country
| a vast sum, which will be at once expended
among our people, and be sufficient to
build hundreds of mills and factories,
and thousands of miles of railroads.
This is so plain that anybody can see ii, and
the man who suffers himself to be deceived
by any sophistication Of the facts is credu-
lous indeed.
The second plan viii be as generally
beneficial to the people-at-large. There
is actually owing to the veterans of the
country about $70,O00,0oO for arrears of
pensions, besides many millions for equali-
cation of bounties, increase of pensions spe-
cial pensions and pensions which should
have been allowed long ago, bat have not
been. Common justice and decency have
long cried aloud that these debts should be
paid. Now financial prudence adds its pow
erful voice. Infinitely the best way to dis
tribute the great sum laying idle in the
Treasury, and to dispose of any future ac-
cumulations, is to pay them directly back
to the people through the medium of the
veterans. In this way the money viii be
distributed at once and evenly over the
whole country, to the direct or in
direct benefit of every inhabitant.
Each pensioner will receive a compare
lively small sum, which he will at
once distribute among his neighbors in
payment of his debts to them, and in pur-
chase from them of the necessaries of life.
Within 80 days after the money leaves the
Treasury it will be in active circulation
among the grocers, the bakers and the butch
ers, the retailers generally, the house-own-
ers doctors and farmers.
Everybody viii get some of it and at
once, and it viii put new life into every
vein and artery of business. For the pur-
pose Of doing the most good to the general
business of the country, and for the purpose
= of averting any threatened commercial strin-
gency, every dollar distributed through the
hands of veterans is worth at least $40 dis.
tributed by other means which have been
suggested. There will be no panic if the
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