THE STATES: A Bond Does Not Die

A group of literal-minded men is the British Council of Foreign Bondholders.

Recently they heard that the U. S. has a thing called “The National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement.” Excited, they despatched to Chairman George Woodward Wickersham last week a request that his Commission work for ”enforcement of the laws which Mississippi and other Southern States broke” when they repudiated their debts to British holders of Confederate bonds.

“A bond does not die,” wrote the B. C. F. B. to Mr. Wickersham. “The repudiation was and is unconstitutional from the Federal and State viewpoints and the matter can never be finally closed while the bonds remain unredeemed. In the case of the State the stigma of repudiation is perpetuated during the existence of the dishonored issue which bears the seal of its sovereignty. If a State be part of the Federal Union a reflection is cast upon the protective sovereignty which encircles it.”