The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-11
$500, 900 OF THREE PER CENT
STATE BONDS.

We publish elsewhere the advertise
ment of State Treasurer Lacy. offering
three hundred thousand dollars of three
per cent. ten year North Carolina State
bonds. Neither these bonds nor the in
tcrest paid on the same is subject to tax
alton of any kind. Practically North
Carolina does not owe a cent in the world
Its railroad stock is worth more than the
States public debt Therefore there can
be offered nowhere better bond than the
bonds authorized by the General Assem-
bly,. 1t is gilt cdge-the best and safest
investment now offered to investors. The
person who wishes to purchase regis
tered bond can do so with the assurance
that if it should be lost it will be re-
issued Interest on this new issue of
they are non-taxable they offer the safest
and best sort of investment for trust
funds. They are issued in small denom-
nations so that persons who have small
sayings they wish to hold for some spe-
cial purposes or for their children will
find investment in these bonds as good as
investment in United States bonds They
are in every respect just as good as a
United States bond and the credit of
North Carolina, (Which does not owe a
dollar it has not stocks with which it
can pay at once)-is just as good as the
credit Of the United States. If the Secro-
tary of the Treasury can float a three per
cent bond there is no reason why the
Treasurer of North Carolina cannot do
the same thing.
The House OF Representatives in pass
ing the $500, 900 bond bill, first put in the
act that they should bear interest at
three per cent. 1t was suggested that
it might not be possible to float ten year
bond issue at three per cent. and because
some bankers entertained that opinion, in
the determination to protect the credit of
the State against any possibility of sell
ing bonds at less than par, the bill that
passed provides that the bonds shall be
sold at rate mot exceeding four per
cent" This was a wise precaution, but
wise and able legislators as John S. Hen
derson and Augustus w. Graham gave it
as their opinion that the bonds could be
sold at three per cent. if there is no dis
turbance of the money market.
The Legislature expected the bonds to
be sold at three per cent, and the State
Treasurer has followed their suggestion by
offering the bonds at three per cent The
suggestion that it would be better to
rejected by legislators They distinctly
determined that this debt should be
temporary one. to be paid within ten
years, and that the interest should be
lowest possible rate to bring par
Practically. except this $500, 900, North
Carolina does not owe dollar unless Rus
sell, Butler & Co., can wrong the State
through the dishonest South Dakota suit
North Carolina could today sell it's stock
in the North Carolina railroad and the
Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad for
enough money to pay all its debts. With
in ten years, if the property of the State
is assessed at its true value in money"
there will be enough surplus to pay the
$500 600. The fact that the Legislature
has treated it as a temporary debt and
that there will be pressing need of funds
to meet the expense of government, par
ticularly during the next two years, will
stimulate the State Corporation Commits
sion. the State Auditor, the State Treas
urcr, and the local tax assessors and tax
collectors to do their duty with fidelity
and impartiality to the end that no deficit
will stare the General Assembly of 1906
in the face The Legislature of 1908 has
put in motion the machinery to prevent
deficit in 1905. and if the administrative Of
ficers do their duty there will be no deficit
two years hence and sufficient sinking
fund will be provided to pay off this
100000 bond issue at maturity.
--
In almost the expiring gasp of the Sen
ate that decayed old fraud, Senatorial
Courtesy, secured the ncorpor-
alton of saloon as town. The worst