Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-03-14
WHAI IL HAS COST.
Some Plain Facts ConcerniE: the New
Gold Loan.

Gold Loan.
Some unprincipled journals find a
queer satisfaction in trying to per-
suade their readers that the more sue
cessfu1 the new gold loan is shown to
be the more the administration should
be scolded for making it. Their reason
ing is that the higher the prices OBJ
tanned for the new bonds, the more the
taxpayers have been robbed, and this
rests on the assumption that these
prices could have been obtained by the
treasury had the bonds been offered at
open competition in this country. We
do not know that they forget, but they
choose to ignore, that the conditions
which make these high prices posi- BILE
were brought about by the loan itself
and could not have been realized by
loan on other terms. The advance in
| the new bonds measures the increased
confidence of the world that the gold
| reserve will be ample and will be main
tanned, and that confidence is due to
| the fact that by the terms of the loan
gold will be put into the reserve and
kept there.
Suppose the administration had
| adopted the plan of asking for a do
nestle gold loan. The first thing req
uisite would have been to fix the price
| at which bonds should be offered to
the public. What price could safely
have been determined? Could the
critics of the recent plan have said? No
| doubt they would now undertake to
| say. with that ex post facto wisdom
which is at once so cheap and so worth
less. But could they have said then?
Not one of them. Any banker who
should have ventured three weeks ago
to answer such a question would have
been regarded, and justly regarded, as
an unsafe person. But assuming this
| impossible condition to have been met,
the next question would have been:
Where would the gold have been got?
| If it could have been got at all at home
| it would have come out of the treasury.
| If it had been got from abroad, one OF
two things would have happened.
| Either sure provision would have had
to be made by a powerful syndicate
| that the gold. once put in the treasury,
| would stay there, and that involves
the substance of the present plan. on
such terms as could have been made
with syndicate strong enough to dc
| the work. which would have been Ger
| tainly no better than the terms now
made. Or the gold would have gone
out of the treasury as rapidly as did
| the proceeds of the November loan. In
the former case there would have been
no real change from the plan now SC
bitterly denounced. In the latter case
our condition would have been worse
than it was in the early days of Febru'
| airy.
We are aware that there is no use il
explaining these perfectly plain facts
| to the writers or the Statesmen" who
are waging war of demagogic abuse
upon the administration. They care
nothing for the facts, and if they Were
| able to understand them, which il
| many cases is doubtful, they would
| pay no attention to them. Theil
motive is simply to create passion
ate resentment in the minds of the
| ignorant and to pose as defenders O
the people against those who would
| deceive them. But It is the enemies O.
the administration who are practicine
| deceit, and in most shameful fashion
Happily, as we believe, their effort
will be futile. The American people
have a keen scent for honesty, ane
they will know as time goes on ant
the great benefits bestowed on then
by the wise and brave action of Mr.
Cleveland become more and more plain
that they have been honestly as wei
as ably served. And they will turn :
deaf ear to the hoarse cries Of tn
demagogues and go about their dali.
business, reaping from it the advan
tages which Mr.. Cleveland has made
| possible for them-N. Y. Times.