Year: 1874

The APPEAL of this morning, In al
luding to the condition of Memphis,
says: 3 ~


She must have cash for taxes to carry on the
several departments Of the city goverpmeDf


and meet as she can her obligations in the
shape Of coupons or floating Indebtedness in
any shape, and there is no more wrong in her
paying atty cents for her paper than there Is
IN the merchant who com pounds with his
creditors Cor The sake OF saving himself from
ruin, Mayor League is right. rr-.


III Well, we are surprised that our CO.
temporary never thought of compound
ing the State debt when 1t was 40
anxions to preserve the credit and hon.
or CT Tennessee about year ago. sR


L. 1t is news about here II mer-
chants are IN the habit of compoundinp
with their creditors except through a


ban ankruptcy court, after they have fail
ed ana surrendered all their assets. This
the city has not done. She has levied and
collects one dollar on the hundred to
pay the interest tax, and is forbidden
by law to divert it to any other pur-
pose.


[3.l The city proposes to shave Its own
Indebtedness ss low as the necessities
of coupon holders will force the market
price.


I4.I Ii this is sound policy to engraft
upon our city government, il viii apply
eqqsiiy as Wen to any other species of
lndebtedness, and even the iremen and
police fGrce might be invited to name
the Io'Sest price they would take for their
unpaid back salaries.


The above is from the Ledger of last
evening, and is worthy OF rerly, If for
no other reason than for the sake of
setting our neighbor right as to our po-
SidOn. In the APPEAL of the twenty
hnst, we closed our first editorial with
these two sentences:


1t is not the policy the APPEAL could wish
70 see pursued. We would like TO see the
mayor pay cent for cent what we owe but
since that cannot be done, we are satisfied
wlth what Mayor Loague is doing as dictated
% s9uHo nnancisA sagactty and appreciation
OF What is best for the interests of the city.


We trust the Ledger win keep this
before it pending any discussion of the
question of Mayor Leagues policy of
purchasing coupons by bids.


Answering the first paragraph, we
have to say that it would have been i'm
possible to deal with the State debt after
this manner, and it was better to do Just
what hss been done, and fair. There is
no analogy between the two cases.


z. Merchants never compound with
their creditors thrsugh bankruptcy.
When man goes into bankruptcy, in
voluntary or otherwise, he has no say-so
about the disposition of his goods, wares
or money. On the contrary, and as was
the case in New York during the recent
panic, firms situated as the city Of
Memphis is just now, who could not
collect what was due them, and there
fore could not pay what they owed,
asked and received the indulgence
from their creditors which they were
forced to give to their customers, and
so were saved from bankruptcy.
Some Of these firms asked only for an
extension, but many of them paid what
they could and were released from the
balance. What is legitimate for mer-
chantshould beso for a corporation. May
or League does not propose to divert
the interest tax from its legitimate
channel He only proposes to make
what he collects Of it, 60 as far as he
can with view to reduce it as soon as
possible. In order to accomplish it the
taxpayer ought to pay currency and
past due coupons; floating indebted
nefs should not be taken in payment.


3. The city does not shave it, own in |
debtedness. 1t only buys its indebted
ness at market rate, fixed by the |
necessities of those who hold it,
and which is up or down accord /
ing to the skill of the brokers who |
make their bread by shaving it. !
This, we contend, it has as much right
to do as any one else. We do not see
why Memphis should pay one hundred
cents for that which ga" buys from "Bn
at fOrty-six cents. Heretofore the city
has paid not only according to the face
value, but also with double and even
trebleinterest, and dthatisprincipally why
Memphis is ] asst new over head and ears
In debt. More than a million and half /
of our Debt was made by just that sort of
thing. 1t is time for it to cease. No 1
time Like the present.


4. If this policy of cash collection and |
application Of taxes strictly to the pur-
poses for which they are levied had /
always been pursued by our city, the 1
fremen, policemen and street force
would never have had to sell their back 4
salaries to the highest bidder. 1t was the |
scrip issued to the firemen, policemen and
other employees that was put upon the
market, and that so long constituted a
large item Of profit with brokers. Some
times it sold as low as thirty cents, and
as much as eight hundred thousand dol
lars of it has been on the market at one
time. At one time the city paid scrip to
its employees, not at its face, but its mar.
ket value, and dealers did not make any
noise about that. We see no good rea-
son why it cannot now turn the tables,
and buy it not at its face but its
market value. We want to see
the firemen and policemen, as they were
yesterday, paid in cash. They earn their
money and deserve to be paid, as the
merchants and employing mechanics
pay their emplOyes-in cash. We hope
they will always be paid in cash, and
that another piece of scrip will never be
issued by the city of Memphis for any
purpose whatever.