Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-01-02
ON CARLISLE'S PLAN
The Bond Bill Practically What He
Has Recommended.
SO SAYS A PROMINENT REPUBLICAN
What the Secretary Favored in His
Reports of 1893 and 1894.
HIS PRESENT OPPOSITION

Referring to Secretary Carlisles publish
ed interview opposing the passage of the
bond bill reported by Chairman Dingley
from the committee on ways and means
and the solid democratic opposition to 1t. a
prominent republican said today to a Star
reporter:
"The Secretary's efforts to defeat the bond
that the measure was drawn on substantial
ly the same lines as he himself had recon-
mended in his annual reports of 1898 and
1894. In his annual report of December -,
1893, after enumerating the different classes
of bonds authorized by the resumption act
the ten-year 3 per cents, the fifteen-yeaI
A 1-2 per cents and the th.rty-year i per
cents-Secretary Carlisle said:
In the present condition of the public
credit nothing less than the existence Of a
great and pressing financial emergency
would. in my opinion justify the issue and
sale of any of these bonds. On the first
class the interest would amount, at the ma
turity OF the bonds, to one-half the pr1n-
cipal; on the second class it would amount
to more than two-thirds of the principal,
and on the third class it would exceed the
principal by 20 per cent. If any one of these
methods of raising money were now pre-
ton in Congress, 1 am satisfied it would not
receive the approval of that body, or of the
people Whatever may have been their
merits nearly a quarter of century ago,
when the credit of the government was to
a certain extent impaired by the existence
of a large interest-bearing public debt, and
the general use of deprecated paper cur
Tency, not tEeH redeemable in any kind of
coin, our financial standing is now so high
that our public obligations, bearing any of
the rates of interest authorized by the law
referred to, would have to be sold at a
premium so great as to prevent large class
es of our people, who might otherwise invest
in them, from becoming purchasers. The
United States 4 per cent bonds, payable in
1907, are now selling at a rate which yields
investors less than per cent upon their
cost, and am confident that a bond bearing
interest at the rate Of per cent, payable
quarterly and redeemable at the option Of
the government after five years, could be
readily sold a par in our own country
Secretary Carlisle then went on to rec
ornmend that the authority now existing
should be so modified as to empower him to
issue the bonds in denominations Of $25 and
Its multiples. He thought that, in this way,
they could be placed as popular loan
through the subtreasuries and post offices.
He also suggested the issue of obligations
to an amount n OF exceeding $50 0,0OO, COO bear
Ing interest at rate not greater than per
cent, and payable after one year from date
as an expedient for meeting deficiencies in
the revenue
Almost Exnct Agreement.
IF you will take the Secretary's program
as given above and place it beside the new
bond bill, you will find that the two f1nan-
cial projects are in almost exact agree
ment. There are slight differences on
minor points; as, for example, in the inter-
est payments, which are quarterly in Mr.
Carlisles scheme and half yearly in the
bond bill But on some other details the
two plans are absolutely Identical and, TAX
ing them as whole, they run on the same
lines Both the Secretarys plan and the
new bond bill refer exclusively to coin
bonds There is not a word in Mr.. Car
isles recommendations to suggest that
the bonds asked for by him should be made
payable in gold. That suggestion is not
moOted.
In his report of December 3, 1884, he re-
newed his Recommendations of the year.
AS the authority he said, to issue and
sell bonds already exists, and the present
state of our financial legislation compels its
occasional exercise, 1 repeat the recon-
mendations made in my last annual report
people, power be conferred upon the Sec
retary of the Treasury to negotiate loans
at a lower rate of interest and at shorter
term than are now allowed Here, again,
there is no mention of gold bonds. 1t was
coin bonds that the Secretary called for
short-term, low-interest coin bonds, of the
very pattern which the republicans of the
House have now bestowed upon him, so far
as their power of bestowal goes.
"COin'' and Gold.
1.-THE government has always used the
word coin in it's bonds, and as the coin
received by the treasury on it's leans has
Invariably been gold the same kind of coin
has always been paid in return. The good
faith of the government has always been
preserved, and there was no serious doubt
of this until the administration began to
discredit it. The most serious objection to
substituting the word gold for coin in
the new bonds was that 1t would tend to
discredit the bonds now = outstanding, i'll
which the word coin is used. Bdt no one
need have any fear that when the govern
ment borroUs gold 1t will endeavor to dis
charge its Obligations in any money less
valuable in the financial centers of the
world
There are only two features in the bond
bill as reported by the ways and means
committee and passed by the House, which
are added to the measure, twice recon-
mended by Secretary Carlisle-one requir-
ing that the proceeds of the bonds shall be
devoted exclusively to redemption PURPOSES
and the other that all bonds shall be first
offered to the American people as a popu-
lar loan, an1 it seems clear that it is these
features, especially the. last that has
aroused the antagonism of the administra-
tion.
1T will be observed also that the limitation
of the amount of certificates of indebted
ness to fifty millions, which the Secretary
now criticises, Is exactly what the Secretary
himself recommended in 1893 and 1884,"