The  past  policies  of  rigidly  limiting  the  increase  of  funded
debt  and  the  payment  of  funded  debt  have  been  seriously  ques-
tioned. The  United  States  for  a  long  time  stood  quite  alone
among  national  governments  as  a  debt-paying  nation.  It  was
seriously  questioned  whether  the  payment  of  public  debts  was
not  a  doubtful  procedure.  Certain  European  statemen  for  a

*C.  F.  Childs.  United  States  Bonds,  Annals  of  the  American  Academy
of  Political  and  Social  Science,  vol.  Ixxxviii  (March,  1920),  p.  47.
640  INVESTMENT  ANALYSIS

long  time  advocated  that  national  obligations  should  all  be  made
long-time  loans  and  renewed  from  time  to  time,  or  made  per-
petual obligations.  This  attitude,  however,  has  changed.  The
United  States  as  a  young  nation  could  not  have  done  any  one
thing  that  would  have  enhanced  its  credit  as  much  of  the  pay-
ment of  its  debt  after  the  War  of  1812,  the  Mexican  War  of
1848  and  especially  after  the  Civil  War.
