Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-10-14
OUR WEIRD FINAECIERING.


New York journal.
We are entering again upon that won
derful cycle of financlerlng with which We
astonished the world at the end Of the
first administration Of President Cleveland
and the beginning of the Administrations
of President Harrison. We used to have
enormous SURPRISES in those days and,
not knowing what else to do with them,
We made presents of them to the bond
eolders. partly in the shape of swollen
premiums on bonds purchased before ma
turity, and partly in the form of advance
payments of interest. Then the Republic
can party raked the Treasury from both
ends and for the next eight years we had
a chance to experience the truth of the
saying that it was easier TO handle sur
plus than q deficit.
When we were at loss to know what
TO do with our money III The latter eighties
and early nineties we complained that our
hands were tied by long bond terms. We
cursed the folly of Sherman in saddlng
obligations upon US that could not be re-
deemed bsfore 1907 without paying black
mail to the holders. Then when the de-
ficits came we had to raise new loans, we
repeated Sherman's bIunder without his
excuse for since his time Window had
shown that the government could float
bonds redeemab.e at its own pleasure. We
issued bonds redeemabie, some in ten and
come in thirty years, and some OF the lat
ter, which were issued at Attraction over
104, are now selling at 15l.
Again The coin is piliGg UP in the Treas
ury, and the banks are complaining of
stringency in the money market Again
we find ourselves loaded up with bonds
which we are forbidden to redeem. To
relieve The distress the Secretary OF the
Treasury has offered to pay in advance
all the interest that will be due on bonds
up to middle of next year, with re-
bate on the amounts aecruing after No
vember. If this offer should be accepted
by all the b0ndholders it would mean an
outlay Of about $33,Gc0000, but it is not
thought that mere than nalf of the Cow
ernments creditors will take it UP.
Meanwhile Secretary Gage, enamoured
of the idea of perpetual national debt, is
said to nave plan for refunding all the
Government 5 outstanding obligations in
single series of two per cent. gold bonus,
running for a hundred years.
That is where the public will draw the
line If we are beginning to have sur
pluses again it will demand that the ma
tional debt be paid on, not extended. And
in spite of the plumbers of successive ad-
ministrations this can be accomplished
within reasonable time.
We have outstanding bonds to the
amount of 1,046 04S, $50 OF these SIS, S6l 500
in TWO per cents are redeemable at the
pleasure of the Government
On February l, 1894, we shall have the
privilege of redeeming $IC0,0e0000 OF five
per cents. These are now selling al 1l12,
and within two or three years they Will
probably be down TO figures that will
make it worth while TO buy up some OF
them in advance.
On July l, 1897. $3.50 652,65o of four per
cents viii mature. We shall probably be
able by that time to pay off a least sou
600 of them at once and refund the rest
in two per cents. redeemable at the peas
ure of the Government
On August l, 1903, we shall be able to
call in and pay off or refund $19J.6lS 40 of
three per cents. By 1911 or 1872 We shall
probably have nothing left outstanding
except $162, 3l5 400 of four per cents of 1925.
These could be either bought up or al
lowed to run until due They would be
no perceptiDle burden, in any case.
If instead of issuing bonds last year for
the expenses OIL the spanish Wal we lldu
received deposits through d postal saw
ings bank, we should have had the tinan-
ciai situation, in the words of the immor-
tai Otis, well in hand BY simple reg
ulation of the rate of interest we could
have diverted the accumuations of the
Treasury into the money market, or could
have attracted new deposits as seemed de-
sirable
Or if we had put into operation the in
controvertible bond arrangement advoeat-
ed in the Journals Internal Policy, the
amount of money in circulation would
have automatically regulated itself When
Wall Street wanted more money it would
have taken bonds to the Treasury and
exchanged them for notes at par When
the notes had served their purpose they
would have been exchanged again for
bonds The Government would not have
had to offer chromos in the shape of adj
vance interest payments to induce the
holders of bonds 10 let It help them out of
a scrape.
1t is said that experience is a dear
school but fools will learn in no other
Our financiers seem unable TO learn even
in that one