Bondsmen

“ The bondholder is interested in the absolute regularity of his interest, and in the security that lies behind the principal, and it is to-day the custom of banking houses to consider a bond well secured when, in a territory of reasonably rapid growth, the principal is earning say twice the interest on its bonds, and when the cost of reproduction is in excess of the amount of the bonds, provided that the property is in good physical condition. ”

“ A very large quantity of 41⁄2, 5 and 6 per cent. bonds are held by banks, by insurance companies, trust companies, savings institutions and in trust for widows and orphans. Thus they form an important part of the securities upon which these institutions are based. They are among their most reliable and most available assets. Probably most of us do not own a United States bond in the world. ”

“ But there were the bonds. My experience of such articles is regrettedly small; but, such as it was, it went to show that they were genuine. Bonds for £20,000 are not a joke. They are among the most solemn facts of life. If, then, they were real, the presumption was that the will was not less so. In which case my duty was to have it proved, and to see that to terms were carried out. Anyhow, there were the bonds on which to draw for payment of my fees. Emphatically, my practice was not of sufficient extent to permit me to treat so fat a client with indifferent scorn. ”

“ No sane person would have bought a bond with such an obligation resting upon him whenever he called for payment of principal or interest. If such was the duty of the holder, it was always his duty. It could not be performed once for all. ”

“ The bondholder, proud in all the security of the untaxed receiver of other people’s taxes, would see in these fields merely the industry from which he gathers tribute; it would never dawn on his mind that without the opening of those furrows and the hurrying army of children dropping corn his bond wouldn’t be worth the paper it is written on.
Yet it is literally so.
Feed the world, and it can live, work, produce and march on. Starve it, and what becomes of railroads, banks, mills, mines, notes, mortgages and bonds? ”

“ Those questions were: 1. Whether the obligation of the receiver and his sureties, being without seal, was a bond within the act of Congress of May 10th, 1800, which provided that a receiver of public moneys for lands of the United States 'shall, before he enters upon the duties of his office, give bond, with approved security . . . for the faithful discharge of his trust.' 2 Stat. ”

“ You know, he that stands surety for another takes the whole debt upon himself. This is our case; for, the living, as it were, entering bond for the dead, become responsible for their debts, and offer up fasts for fasts, tears for tears, in the same measure and proportion as they were liable to them, and so defray the debt of their friends at their own charge, and make all clear. ”

“ You’re a saucy young devil, Honor. My word! What are you giving up, who are so free with suggestions? The bank-account that’s to turn you into a prima donna? Come—we’ll bargain. I’ll buy Liberty Bonds with my check from Alured Mannering, which is due next week, if you’ll draw that fifteen hundred of yours and use it for the same purpose. ”

“ If it was intended by congress to enlarge the scope of the section so as to include other bonds than those given for duties, (as seems to be the necessary inference from the language,) still, it is restricted to 'bonds:' the words are 'whenever the principal in any bond given to the United States is insolvent,' etc., and any 'surety on the bond' pays the money due upon 'such bond,' such surety shall have the like priority, etc., and may bring and maintain a suit upon 'the bond' in his own name, etc. ”

“ There is not a man among you who cannot without hardship purchase at least one fifty-dollar bond. Many of you can invest thousands. Yet we are approaching our time limit and, so far, less than two hundred thousand dollars' worth of these magnificent Liberty Bonds have been purchased in our community! But five days remain to us to subscribe the remaining eight hundred thousand dollars, and thereby preserve the honor of our fair city. That eight hundred thousand dollars will be subscribed! ”

“ In 10 years more, probably, the bond class will no longer exist, having been exhausted by death, or by the termination of penal sentences, and the distinction between bond and free be a remembrance of the past. ”

“ Buy your £100 bond, as a thousand placards will urge you to do, and you simply take part in a cold-blooded attempt to acquire money without working for it. You can take no personal interest whatever in the manner of acquiring it. ”

“ Well, the Liberty Loan now offers the chance to make the people and the bondholders interchangeable terms. The bonds are issued in such a way that the farmer and the wage-worker have exactly the same chance as the banker to purchase and hold as [13] many or as few as they wish. No matter how small a man’s means, he can get some part of a bond if he wishes. ”

“ It is incredible that a man should purchase this large amount of bonds for half their face value without looking at them, or even noticing whether they were signed or sealed, without making any inquiries with regard to the responsibility of the town, or the circumstances under which the bonds were issued, the nonpayment of the overdue coupons, or the title of the person-to him an entire stranger-through whom he purchased them. ”

“ Supposing that the lender is satisfied with all his securities, and that the borrower is of age and of a family whose property is ample, solid, secure, and free from all incumbrances, there shall be drawn up a good and correct bond before as honest a notary as it is possible to find, and who for this purpose shall be chosen by the lender, because he is the more concerned of the two that the bond should be rightly executed. ”

“ A widow, or a trustee, or other long-time investor, would prefer to buy bonds which guaranteed a regular yearly purchasing power over subsistence, rather than those which merely promised a given sum of money of uncertain value. ”

“ Every banking association whose bonds are deposited in the treasury of the Union; every individual who holds a dollar of the circulation secured by such deposit; every merchant, every manufacturer, every farmer, every mechanic, interested in transactions dependent for success on the credit of that circulation, will feel as an injury every attempt to rend the national unity, with the permanence and stability of which all their interests are so closely and vitally connected. ”

“ The king had ordered all persons who held bonds to bring them to the bonfire that was lit in the market-place. The bonds were cast into the flames, and the people shouted with gladness as they saw the papers crackle and smoke. But the money-lenders and bondholders walked away with sorrow in their faces and bitter feelings in their hearts. King Agis had given up for the people's use his ploughed land and his cattle pastures, as well as an immense sum of money. ”

“ Now, supposing our National bonds were still in the hands of those who originally bought them, can you fail to remember that when bonds were sold for forty cents on the dollar—and the quantity so sold was not large—the life of the Nation was threatened by a monstrous rebellion ”

“ Being thus deeply engaged, and a few only of us being bound to make payment of all, yea in a double bond; for besides our formal bonds, it was our credits and honesty, that made our friends rest and rely upon us, assuring themselves, that if we lived and it was possible, we would see them have their monies: Therefore we thought it our safest and best course to come to some agreement with the people, to have the whole trade consigned to us for some years ”

“ Why, there are among the nations national securities of various kinds issued, which are taken by the people; we have United States bonds, State bonds, county and city bonds in this country as well as in Europe, to which the people subscribe and in which they have an interest, all of which is voluntary, and the free act of the people ”

“ Every night I've dreamed of my mother and every day I've bamboozled the public and sold bonds that weren't worth the paper they were written on, and paid big dividends that were just some of their own money returned. ”

“ The operation is carried on between a nation and a banking corporation. The nation, through the channel of its members, exchanges a thing called credit, reduced to the form of bonds or notes for the payment of money, with the corporation, giving a boot, profit or difference, of about eight per centum per annum, which the bank bond, note or credit, is arbitrarily made by law to be worth, beyond the national bond, note or credit. ”

“ Bond houses and banks of established reputation cannot afford to deceive; they receive their compensation in the way of commissions on sales, and their characterization of the bonds may be accepted without question, for they invariably investigate the bonds, before they lend their names to them by offering them for sale. ”

“ Since 1863, our national banks have done an immense business in handling the debt of the United States: they were instrumental in diffusing the national bonds among all classes of the people: they collect for their customers the coupons at maturity: they have been and still are the factors of the government in exchanging, for those who desire it, one species of bond for another ”

“ Should I Buy Them? Because we are at war. Because we must have dollars as well as men in the fight for freedom. Because they are the safest investment in the world today. Each $100 bond has 60 coupons attached. ”

“ So much of United States bonds, as being strong, and so much in bonds of the better individual States, which can be got at a discount now, and will be about par by the time the heir is to receive them. ”

“ We must be prudent. If we could only get away with the whole sum it would make us comfortable for a year or two.”
“How much is there?”
“Well, there are eight thousand dollars in government bonds, and five Union Pacific bonds of a thousand dollars each. They’re safe as governments.”
“Thirteen thousand dollars!” said Temple, in a tone of gratification.
“Yes, and more, for the bonds are all at premium. However, we must lay back for a reward. It won’t do to negotiate them.” ”

“ Every business man knows better than that. Nearly $150,000,000 of 4 per cent. bonds have, within two years, been sold. They are scattered all over the country, especially the West; and who owns them? Mostly small people, who consider the Government funds a better depository for their savings than the savings banks, and who thus invested in small amounts, from $50 upward. You honest farmer or laboring man, who put your little surplus into a Government security, are you aware that you have sunk down to the level of the bloated bloodsuckers, who fatten upon the sweat of the people? ”

“ It is proposed that government shall issue this money, but that it shall be convertible into a three per cent. interest-bearing bond; so that when money shall be so plenty that it will be worth less than three per cent. in business, it can be invested in bonds drawing three per cent.; and the bonds to also be reconvertible into money, so that the moment business shall demand more money than there should be in circulation—which would increase the value of money to more than three per cent.—the bonds would be converted into money again ”

“ You could buy a million in these bonds for about three hundred and seventy-five dollars and fifty cents; but they were real bonds in real companies and legally issued against some form of property, even if it had no market value. Sometimes, I am told, these securities paid interest for a year or so, and the suckers got their friends in while there were a few left—bonds, I mean—there are always suckers.
Like other egoists, our client became careless as time went on and one day took it upon himself to issue a few hundred bonds in a company without holding a directors' meeting. ”

“ A great cry has been raised against the holders of bonds. They have been denounced by every epithet that malignity can coin. During the war our bonds were offered for sale and they brought all that they then appeared to be worth. ”

“ When the people got the bonds, they put them carefully away, for the sake of the interest that would accumulate upon them; but when they got the bluebacks, they were at first at a loss to know what to do with them. ”

“ The object and purpose of the law was to secure to persons of limited means an opportunity to purchase, at par, certificates of indebtedness bearing four per cent. interest. As they could be converted at pleasure into 10-40 bonds of small denominations, it was thought they would be promptly taken by the persons for whom they were designed. They were sold in limited amounts to individuals at post offices, but as they were, when converted into bonds, worth a premium, bankers and others hired men to stand in line and purchase certificates. ”

“ The American citizen was charged to buy a Liberty Bond for the baby, and he bought one. He was commanded to give until it hurt, and he gave. Never was there a more spontaneous outpouring of the natural spirit of a generous people. ”

“ Of course, it must be admitted that money raised by our people in this way has fallen into the hands of men who have made way with it. But this danger may be put out of the way by compelling the man who holds the money to give good security in the form of a bond, legally made and properly signed. ”