Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1890-06-14
The State Debt
a correspondent writes ::


Ii your editorial in wednesday, GAZETTE
respecting the new plan for settling the
State debt you soy 1.-THE creditors claim is
for one third more principal and two per
cant. more interest than the R6dlebaTger
bin provides for. The Riddebsrger bill
goes far beyond this. The following sta.e-
ment shows how the holder OF 81 600 coz
sol bond wcu}d be treated
Urdor the settlement of 1871 his prin- 90
1n.orest ts from 1850 to 1905 Ut per cent s., $50
$3.50
Under tho Riddeberger settlement his
neIes5 ?5esRsl or So ESua asms period st per
1896
i. e. the creditor would be deirsuded Of ST.
4S4 principal and iptefese 90 every $1,000
bond
What is The use of theee New York ger-
llemen taxing all the trouble about reopen.
ing negotiations If tho Stalls (as the Dis
patch intimstes) is only going to ctar them
the Riddleberger bill The creditors can
accept that whon they please but for the
last eight years they have steadily refused
to do so.
1t is lact, though the public generally
does not know it, that II .he bondholders
were to fund their bonds into Riddlehergeis
and the State faithfully carried out the
provisions of the Ridclsberger act,
she would have TO pay considerably
mere money out of ber :reaaury
than the bondholders have ofiered 10 take.
The Riddlebergeg &C. provides that in the
year 1890 and thereafter q per cent On the
outstanding bonds shall be set aside ior g
sinking fund. This amount, added to the
interest allowed by the same settlement,
would aggregate more than 81 100. 900. No
one, however. has heard that the State is
standing by" tee Rddleberger bill as far
as putting aside the sinking fund is con-
cerned.
Any one who will take the trouble to look
up the columns OF the Dispatch ten years
ego will find them instructive reading they
constitute foe expedition Of the doctrine
OF the Sth commandment. The Ridde6er-
ger bill is called 6 leremiade and denounced
as fraud it is prophesed that it will cer-
tanly fell to effect its purpose; the citizens
of the State are reminded that they have
had full value for the money borrowed from
the creditors and that it is great mistake
to advertise Virginia IS go poor, &c, &c. ln
fact the Dispatch satisfactorily proved ten
years ago that the State could easily pay the
full six per cent interest cn her entire debt.
After the passage ofthe Riddieberger act the
Dispatch became an ardent roadjuatsr. but
it stated that it only did this froui political
necessity. It was the fear of Malone and
negro domination that made it reluctantly
ecquesce on the spol;etiou Of tho creditors.
Lately, however, it hes changed ground again.
The negro rule bugaboo being played out 1t
has finally taken refuge behind the plee OF
poverty 1t saems obliSious OF the fact that
it wes wicked Of it to tell the people that
they should and could pay six per cent. IL
test on the entire debt more than ten yenrs
ago, whom now with largely increased
revenue and everything booming, with State
tsxation reduced twenty per cent. It urges
that they shsnt and can't pay half that
amount. Whatever the Dispatch'S opinion
may be of Mshone ss political leader it
must admit that !t is absolutely in accord
with him as a dnancier and it should at
least give him credit for having proved the
fsllacy oil its arguments, By which it showed
that the State could easily pay her debt in
full Indeed, the only difference between
the DiSpatchs and Mehone's views on the
debt seems to be that the former now holds
that the latter gave the creditors too much,
and shat the State is not even able to pay
what the Ri5dleberger Act provides. Iu
the face of these repeated changes of front
the consistent and honorable attitude Of the
GAZETTE on the debt question s refresh
ipg contrast NM