Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-01-03

of payment should arrive, to do rs they
had been done by-namely. to pay in
the metal which at the time of payment
should be the cheaper. If the creditor
had, as he did have, IA specific option and
exercised 1t In his W behalf and for his
own benefit and advantage. what reason
can be advanced why the debtors should
abandon an equally specific option re-
siding in them?
IF THE LAW DOES NOT COMPEL PAY
MENT IN GOLD, DOES EQUITY DE.
MANI UCH A Y
MENT?
What, then, is the position of the
bondholders from an equitable point of
view In legislating regarding the ma
tional debt have we trenched in any re-
spect upon the fair repute of our gov
eminent and upon those principles OF
probity and honorable dealing so dear
to our people? Let us look at the ac-
tual facts.
Between 1862 and 1868 the United
States government sold bonds to the
amount of S2,049,975 700. How much
did the purchasers pay to the govern.
ment for those bOnds-these men in
whose behalf the legislative contribution
box Is made to pass around at almost every
session of congress in order that some
new act or law more potent than those
which have preceded may now and again
be dropped into it for the better support
of the bondholders?
The amount received by the govern
ment for those bonds was less than
81. 400. OOO, 600. or. to be exact. Sl,37l,-
424 ,23S-belng, on an average for the
entire issue 81 per cent of their face
value.
These bonds would have been hon
estly paid, if paid in lawful money, no
other money having been prescribed in
the acts authorizing the issue, except
that coin was prescribed for the pay
ment of the interest,". The very fact that
it was deemed proper TO provide hat the
interest should be payable in coin was a
plain implication that the principal was
IOt to be so payable. The maxim of
law is that the inclusion of one is the
exclusion of the other.
However, on the clamorous |insistance
of the creditors the people yielded so far
as to declare in the tact to strengthen
the public credit and in the r%efundirg
act that the principal also should be paiu
in coin.
For this 81 400. 900 900 received by the
government of the United States there
have already been paid back to the bond
holders In principal alone Sl,756. 900 ,0OG
being $685., 600, 900 more than was al
together received. Besides, there have
been paid as interest on the debt 81
53S, 900, 900, or nearly twice the total
amount received. There has been paid
as "A premium on bonds bought IN sos
000. 900. SO that for the S l.4O0. 000. 900
received there have been paid in all to
the bondholders the sum of $4,352 ,000,-
600.
TIE BOND TRANSACTIONS FROM THE
POINT OF VIEW OF PURCHAs.
" POWER.
But the cupidity of those people is un-
bounded. Let us now look az the facts
from al other point of view, still bearing
in mind merely the equities, and not the
technical Interpretation of the law. As
| nave shown earlier, the only value that
money has is parchaSiRg potrer. Let us
see what amount of purchasing power
has been paid to the creditors in return
for the purchasing power which they
paid to the government when the bonds
were placed on the market?
Assuming that the people had paid the
dollars constituting the public debt at
the same ratio of purchasing power that
those dollars possessed when paid over
by the bondholders to the people-as
stated by a member of another bOdv-it
would have required but l,007 900, 900
bushels of wheat to pay the entire
amount. We have already, as principal
alone, paid to the bondholders the equiv
alent in money of 4.9SG, 600, 900 bushels
OF wheat; we have as interest the equiva-
lent in money OF 2.974, 900. 900 bushels 4;
md az ,rop,ipp, 80 nDn nAn btsIole nab
ing the total payment Of principal,
interest, and premium 5,022,0 00 900
bushels of wheat or five times the
purchasing power which the people re-
ceived from the bondhOlders.
Yet after paying this enormous sum
during the past quarter of a century we
have still the same number of bushels of
wheat to pay that would nave paid the
entire debt at the time it was contracted.
Again, had We paid the dollars OF the
debt at the same ratio OF purchasing
power that the dollars had when we
received them, we could have paid the
entire SIM with l1,lSl,0O0 bales of
cotton, whereas we have already paid, of
principal, interest and premium to the
holders of our bonds, the equivalent of
81 100000 bales of cotton, and there still
remains 10 be paid more cotton than
would have been sufficient at The time
the debt was contracted to pay it all
back.
1t will be said that the prices of com-
modities, when the money was borrow
ed, were "War' prices. But whatever
the prices were, they were the same for
the bond holder that they were for the
people, and dollars had at the time the
same value, the same purchasing power.
for the one as for the other.
Estimating the debt then as the
amount of sacrifice with which the bond
holders parted, and measuring that
sacrifice by bales of cotton. the holders
of bonds have been paid seven times
over, and still we owe them more cotton
than the original quantity. Nothing