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Show NOT A PROOF OF CREDIT BUT OF FEAR. The government haa issued a portion of the $400,000,000 3 per cent Panama canal bonds. Some 150,000,000 of them were put upon the market last week, and they were subscribed for three times over, the subscriptions averaging 2 per cent premium pre-mium over the face value' of the bonds. And now in chorous the gold press of the east explains that inasmuch aa these bonds, by law, cannot be used by national bunks as guarantees for currency, the fact of fheir wonderful sale ia an indisputable proof that the credit of the United States is the best in all the world. Which statement must be most comforting to the Rubens who do not know that they live under a financial system so stupid and so prepared to be a perpetual swindle upon the people, that as men with surplus money dare not invest it in any. business supposed to be legitimate, they are glad to get 3 per cent interest oft their money. ' That ia the real fact, and the eager purchase of those bonds at those figures, instead of being marvelous indorsement of the country's credit, is, in fact, a notice served upon the country and the world that doing business in the United States is so risky that men, with meana prefer to invest in 3 per cent securities rather than to risk losing it by an attempt to carry on a business. It seems to us that were business on a legitimate basis, it would be most difficult to dispose of 3 per cent bonds at par, much less at a premium. We do not think it will be difficult to prove the truth of that atatement, for it is a clear case that throughout thia country money has eeased to be a measure of values. One way to prova thia is easy. If a man haa for instance a house and lot that has et-st a certain sura and is in complete repair, and he flnda that it ia necessary to dispose of his property prop-erty and move away, and tries to sell that house for money, hsw much can he realise! Not 60 per cent on its cost and auftposed value. This ia not peculiar to Salt Lake ; it is general. The reason is thst men who may want to purchase may need to borrow a part of the money, and that they cannot do, no matter how ample may be their security. And the reason is not that the banks would not like to lend the money, but because they dare not draw upon their deposits lest some crash in New Tork may precipitate a panic from sea to sea. Many people have surplus funds, but they dare not invest them in business, and many of them are afraid of the banks, hence buy 3 per cent bonds. It is not a proof of the government 'a credit but merely shows it is tSfibest that mei. can do. |