Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-09-25
WEDNESDAY EVENING. SEPT. 25, 1895

debt. & debt by government means
a mortgage upon the industry and earn
Jugs of the present generation and, pei
haps, their successors. 1t is always
easier for a government to run into
d ,bt than to pay. The average earn
ings of all forms of business, after com
putting losses and hard times, is hardly
equal to interest, and if perchancs the
money in which principal and interest
are to be paid rises in value by scarcity,
it is extremely hard on those who have
to pay the taxes to pay the debt. For
this and other reasons the people of the
country look with dread and aversion
upon an increase of the bonded debt.
Il is justly regarded as a melancholy
fact that the bonded debt of the United
States, in time of profound peace and
without any special extraordinary ex-
renses, should have been increased over
one hundred and sixty millions of dol
lars in two short years. This may be
fine thing for the bondholders and the
capitalists, but it is not good thing
for the farmer aud laborer, whose prof.
erty and earnings are taxed to make
GOOD the debt. 1t was hoped that the
country had done with this business.
The last bond issue was justly un-
popular. There were many who
thought that the Treasury Department
had no legal authority to put out
these bonds. Congress had been
applied to and had absolutely
refused. Members did not dare to face
their constituents with votes for an III
crease of the bonde debt. The United
States are among the greatest nations
of the globe. They haveseventy millions
of people. The amount of their capital
and wealth is over seventy thousand
millions of dollars. They have every
variety of climate and production. To
say that they cannot pay as they go is
to belle history and all the facts OF
the case. But it is announced in quar-
tiers very near the Treasury Depart
ment, and very probably inspired, that
there is to be new issue of gold
bonds aud that Mr.. Curtis, the
assistant Secretary of tbs Tress
ury, has gone to New York to
n 'gotia,e with the old New York
md European syndicate, and try If the
foreign masters who have been carry
ing on their shoulders the credit of the
great American Republic will not give
it somewhat better terms than before.
With treasury balance in gold ofsome
ninety.ive millions of dollars and Of
notes, as we believe, of twenty to thirty
millions more, and with the principle
established by Comptroller Bouler, with
The sanction of Mr.. Carlisle, that the
government may repudiate its obliga-
tons, although appropria' ed for byan act
cfCongress and signed by the President,
the necessity of making new loan is
not apparent. IfiG were the frank homer
able and statesman like course would
be for the President to call Congress to-
gether and lay the whole subject before
that body. 1t was the undoubted inten-
ton OF the trainers of the Constitution
nat Congress should constitute an inn
portant feature in shaping the financial
institutions and policy of the govern
ment. Mr.. Cleveland may be wiser
than the two bodies, but the authors of
the Constitution could not have fore
seen his incumbency. II, however,
snap judgment is to be taken on Con-
gress and the American people by an
issue of gold bonds prior to December,
there are some principles of justice and
decency that ought to prevail in the
making of the loan. In the first place,
the laws do not provide for gold, but for
coin bonds, and the President is sworn
to obey these statues. They are bind
ing on him until repealed and on every
body else. Again, the last loan was
issued at 104 per cent. to the syndicate,
a i'd after some shuffling and lying
statements ross speedily to 119 per
cent, and later to 1921, a needless loss
TO the U. S. Government of ten or
twelve millions of dollars. The con-
tract was made and signed in secret.
The American public knew nothing of
it till they were bound hand and foot.
This proceeding was novel and unpre-
cedented in American history. In the
darkest and most trying hours of the
annals of the country the loans
were offered by the Secretary of
the Treasury 10 the whole people,
and every body had an oppor
tun:ty to subscribe. 1t was a most ex-
traordinary act to shut out the Amer
icaa public from the privilege of bid
ding for their own loans-loaps viii, h
they will have to pay, and giving the
whole thing to foreign bankers
by q secret compact. If the OBJ
iect were to impose recklessly