The Surplus And Public Debt.

Prof. Henry C. Adams of Ann Arbor has views on the general subject of public debts, and they are told in his great book recently published, in which will be found a wide departure from the old idea that public debts areuseful. There are those who look upon England's enormous public debt as one of her ehief glories and safegiiards. This is not strange in one who owns the bonds and draws interest in gold, but Prof. Adams' book ought to rid other people of that idea. He shows that public debts tend to perpetúate class distinctions. Having such a belief it is not surprising that he has an essay in the Forum for December in which he suggests " a plan for refunding the interest hearing obligations of the federal government so as to provide for their final payment by 1907." The question of reduction of the surplus revenue is important; but not so important as the question of wiping out our public debt. If the revenue of the government shou'd be reduced to its present necessities, the chances are that the debt, like England's, would become perpetual; because it might not be easy to increase the revenue to meet the principal of the bonds as it becomes payable, and the government might flud it easier to pay the interest right along than to try to pay the principal. The fact of our large surplus revenue may foree Congress to the adoption of a sensible plan like that proposed by Prof. Adams, for the speedy payment of the public debt. His proposition in briefis this: To take up the present interest-bearing bonds and issue noninterest-bearing bonds which shall include the principal and interest. As regards the interest it would in effect take up the government promises to pay interest and give in their stead a promise to pay a fixed snm at a stated time. The plan could be made tempting to bond-holders, and at the same time on the whole public debt it would save to the U. S. treasury $41,500,000. He would so refund the public debt as to have it divided into as many equal parts as there are years before 1907, and have one part paid each year. It would simplify our public debt and surplus revenue questions so that even a school boy could understand just how the government stood, and we could be reasonably certain that the debt would be paid by 1907. If we had the public debt without annual or semi-annual interest to pay, but principal and interest combined and all refunded so that certain fixed equal sums should come due each year for a number of years until the whole were paid, the question of how much to reduce the revenue and when to reduce it would be much simpler. A change in the revenue could be made with much more certainty of good results. No one will question that ehanging the tariff and internal revenue lawe has a disturbing influence on dustry, and henee common sense dictates that when any such change is made it should be reasonably permanent. If a radical reduction were to be made now, we would be met, when the bonds fall due, with the necessity of making an increase again in order to pay the bonds, and the industry of the country would thus be kept in constant alarm. Prof. Adams' plan of using the surplus revenue and of paying the public debt ia a new one, and it deserves the attention of Congress.