Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-02-08
pLAcE q LOAN AT LONE.

4uO dOVGT "a tu0 1iCuOoe
country in the world is so poor
that it must borrow anywhere from
fifty to hundred millions of dollars
to meet its expenses for the current
year. The situation ia not at all
critical, nor need it be even mo-
mentarily embarrassing. If Con
gress should empower the Secretary
Of the Treasury to issue bonds of q
low denomination for the amount
required, to be sold at par and to
bear interest at a moderate rate,
the whole sum would be raised as
fast a. the securities could be
printed and offered to the pub
lie.
What we emphatically do not
need 10 an issue of large bonds for
sale to "bloated Sondholders" al
home or abroad. The people
should be the creditors of their
own Government. We are all
stockholders in the Government
corporation, The administration
OF its affairs may and does help or
hurt every one of ue; but if every
citizen we're the individual creditor
Of the institution, to the extent of
holding it's bond for twenty, fifty,
OF . hundred dollars, bis interest in
the general management would be
wonderfully enhanced. 1t would
be case Of cooperation on the
largest scale, in a business absolute
y safe and solvent beyond any
other on earth.
There are two countries from
which We may learn a lesson in
this respect. When France, overs
run. by a couquering army and
desolated by the combined forces of
invasion and Communism, was
called upon to pay to it's conqueror
q ransom manifold greater than
any Attila or Alaric had ever
dreamed of exacting from Rome,
the whole amount of the indemnity
was instantly raised among the
French peaaantry witheu: placing
one dollar of debt abroad. The
people OF France were patriotic as
we'll as thrifty, and they emptied
their secret boards to relieve the
national need. France to-day, des
spite many faults and f%ollies, is the
most distinctively republican coun.
try in the old world, and it is be-
cause her Government rests rpon
the broad base Of popular confa
dence.
Canada, 90 far behind Us in many
respects, established several years
ago a system eof postal savings
banks, so simple in its methods
and &c satisfactory in its results as
TO deserve imitation everywhere.
Under that admirable system any
body, in any part Of the Dominion.
could 60 to q ~posttofice and on
depositing any sum, fron a dollar
upwards, could get q receipt attesta
ing the fact. This receipt was, in
effect, . Government bond, bearing
interest at the rate of 1865 per cent.
per annum; that is to say, one cent
. day for every hundred dollars.
Not only that, but the voucher was
good for ito tace, with accrued in
terest, everywhere within the Doe
minion. II o man deposited 800
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, his certif-
cate for the same was good for
800 in Vancouver, B. G., or at
any intermediate po~stsofice. tos
Qether with the interest earned be
tween the date Of deposit. and tina
Of withdrawal,
Under our postal money-order
system, instead o. collecting inter.
est from the Government for the
temporary use or our money, we
pay it for the trouble Of letting B
in Los Angeles know that A in
Bangor has deposited 90 many dol.
lars to the credit of B aforesaid.
We do not know whether the an.
sdian system OF postal savings
banks 10 still in successfnl operation
or not. Il certainly deserved to
succeed; for IL embodied the per-
lection Of simplicity and common.
sense. Its very poor business
public or private which cannot at
ford to borrow capital in unlimited
sums 1t the rate Of s.65. per Gent,