The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-28

The Bond Issue and silver.
There are several questions connected
with the bond issue that are interesting;
one Of them is. what effect will the distri-
button of S20000o.0J0 IN bonds among 300
eco people have upon the silver question?
There are reasons for thinking that it viii
tend TO streuethen the feeling in favor Of
tle sold standard. Naturally the holders
of the bonds prefer to have the interest
on the bonds paid In gold, or In money
on parity with gold. no effort VIII be
spared by those who favor the gold
standard 20 strengthen the impression
that the effect of free coinage of silver
would he to drive gold out of circulation
by forcing IL TO a premium. In that case
silver would become the standard, and
the holders Of the bonds would have to
accept the interest on their bonds in de
precated silver They would also have
to accept that Kind OF money for their
bonds if they should sell them-bonds for
which tney paid gold or its equivalent.
1t is clear chat the holders of the bonds,
rather than run the risk Of having TO ac-
cept for their bonds money less valuable
than that which they paid for them, VIII
strongly favor the maintenance of the
gold standard. The bonds viii be widely
distributed and a very large part Of them
viii be held 10y people ia comparatively
poor circuml Jances. Among that class of
people the Holders of the new bonds VIII
be active workers for the gold standard,
The government therefore IN making The
ioau a popular one has greatly strength
enei Che god standard.
Another question is this: Was there
demagogy in making the loan popular
one? Ii is claimed that If the government
had offered The bonds to the highest bid
der it would have got at least $l000O,OJJ
more for them than it VIII realize under
tne plan that was adopted for disposms
of them and, besides, would have
saved the many thousands of dollars
which it will cost to distribute the bonds.
There is no doubt that syndicates would
nave paid a pretty big premium for the
bonds and that the government would
have avoided the expense Of dis
trbuung them, if it had sold
them to the highest bidder, but
it is question whether having the
bonds held by all classes Of the people is
not worth all it VIII cost 10 get them into
their possession. Every bond holder viii
feel an interest in the government and viii
try to have good men in Congress and in
the executive branch of the government.
To have the people feel that they are di-
rectly interested in having good govern
ment is a desirable thing, from several
points of view. The government in which
the people feel an interest is certainly
much better than the one concerning
which they are indifferent.
Some of MIR. Cleveiand's newspaper enc
mics are trying to make it appear that
the Cleveland administration was not as
careful of the interests of the people as
it ought to have been, because it sold A
per cent. bonds at private sale for only
little more than the present administra-
ton is getting for per cent. bonds. The
fact must not be overlooked, however,
that when Mr. Cleveland sold 4 per cent
bonds there was comparatively little gold
in the treasury, and there was feeling
that there was great danger that the coun-
try would go to a silver basis. Mr.. Cleve-
land sold bonds to get gold, so that he
could keep our silver money on a parity
with gold. 1t is doubtful if the public
would have taken at par the bonds which
Mr. Cleveland offered.
Now, however, there Is plenty of gold
IN the country ana there does not appear
to be any apprehension that the coinage
of silver win be made free. That is why
the bonds were subscribed for so freely,
and why they are commanding premium
of per cent. 1t is not improbable that
they viii command a premium of 8 per
cent. before the end of this year.