Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1895-03-23
WHAT IT HAS COST.
Rome Plain Facts Concerning the New
Gold Loan,

GOiu LOuus
Some unprincipled journals find a
queer satisfaction in trying to per-
suade their readers that the more sue
cessful 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
10 not know that they forget, but they
choose to ignore, that the conditions
which make these high prices possible
were brought about by the loan itself
and could not have been realized by a
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 he 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 q do
nestle gold loan. The first thing req
uisite would have been fix the price
ut 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 mi of them. Any banker who
should have vcntured 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?
II 1t could have been got at all at home
1t would have come out of the treasury.
II ii had been got from abroad, n of
two things would have happened.
Either SURE provision would have had
10 be made by a powerful syndicate
that the gold, once put in the treasury,
would stay there, and hat involves
the substance of the present plan, on
such terms as could have been made
with a syndicate strong enough to do
the work, which would have been GER
tainly no better than the terms
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 so
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 in
explaining these perfectly plain facts
to the writers or the Statesmen" who
are waging a war Of demagogic abuse
upon the administration. They care
nothing for the facts, and if they were
able to understand them, which in
many cases is doubtful, they would
pay no attention to them. Their
motive is simply to create a passion
ate resentment In the minds of the
ignorant and to pose as defenders OF
the people against those who would
deceive them. But 1t is the enemies OF
the administration who are practicing
deceit, and In a most shameful fashion.
Happily, as We believe, their efforts
will be futile. The American people
have q keen scent for honesty, anG
they will know as time goes on anG
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 the
demagogues and 60 about their daily
business, reaping from 1t the advan
tages which Mr.. Cleveland has made
possible for them.-N. Y. Times.