A REPUDIATION

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 2995, 18 June 1926, Page 3

A REPUDIATION

FORGOTTEN PAGE OP HISTORY.

(Written for the Guardian by Cecil Thonnton).

Charles Dickens, in one of Ms works, "The Cricket on the Hearth,' 5 if I am not mistaken, makes a scathing reference to" the valuelessness of American credit, "as worthless as a United States bond." The allusion, however, brings back a forgotten page of history—a page that to-day, in the light cast on the debt repayments made by England to the United States, some may care to read. It is not uninteresting.

In 1844 several matters were in dispute between Britain and the United States. Land and vessels had been seized by the aggressive Yankees, the Columbian boundary question being only settled peaceably by a threat of war on the part of Britain, but a subject not made much of by the government of that day, owing to the greater questions at stake, was one between certain States (notably the old Quaker colony, Pennsylvania, with Delaware, Maryland and others) who had obtained from the small investors in England (traders, clergymen, widows), then even more than now the mainstay of financial proceediugs, twelve millions of pounds—in that day a huge sum-of money—for the development of their latent resources. These moneys had been spent on railways, roads, canals and the improvement of the States. But when repayment, or even payment of interest was required, the States (/notably Pennsylvania) repudiated the sums.

The indignation in England was extreme. On behalf of bondholders, robbed thus of cash and interest, a doughty champion arose in the Rev. Sydney Smith, the .noted wit. He sent a petition to Congress itself, couched in the following terms: He prayed them to "institute some measures for the restoration of American credit and for the repayment of debts incurred, repudiated! by the several States."

But the Yankee politicians found it to their advantage to twist the lio,n 's tail, and the petition fell through. Fanny Keihble, the actress, was in Pennsylvania at the time, and, asked what America thought, replied, "You ask me what of Sydney Smith's petition? Why, the honest men of tills country say ' 'Tis true, 'tis pity. Pity 'tis, 'tis true.' It is thought that Pennsylvania will ultimately pay and will not repudiate, but it will be some time." It was indeed some time, for she has

never paid

Mr Webster, the great American statesman, referred in scathing terms to the matter. "Were it.my State, I should work my fi.ngers to the bone rather than that it should repudiate an honest debt," was the gist of his argument.

But tliough thousands of honest i Americans supported the Dean of St. Paul's, and looked upon him as the champion of their honour, yet Pennsylvania retained the money and cancelled her obligations, and she and her sisters in crime went their way undeterred and iviabashed, building railways and generally developing their resources with English money, in order to compete with England.

Other events intervened. The Columbian dispute and the indignation at the Mexica.u annexations took hold of the public mind, and the thousands of r.uincd investors merged into the mists of the past. But the great public works of Pennsylvania had been built with British money, borrowed and callously repudiated, and as with that State, so with several others.

What a contrast this is to the British mi.ud to-day. '' We will pay every penny.'' Britain has offered to pay the sum in gold, but America does not "wjant Ithat; in goods, but that is not accept--able. America wants Britain to be her financial bond slave for ever. But through all the negotiations breathes ; the great British, motto: '' We will pay ! every peony.' '