Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1886 — Page 3

NATIONAL FINANCES.

The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury. Discontinuance of the Purchase of Silver Strongly Recommended. Tho Question of Reducing the Surplus—The Tax of Raw Materials to Be Reduced. The annual report of the Hon. Daniel Man-, ning, Secretary of tho Treasury, is a heavy document of nearly twenty-four thousand words. The main features of the report are as follows : Careful perusal of the instructive debates at the last session of Congress leads me to review the four policies which then received marked attention: 1 Dree coinage of silver. 2. Conferences. 3. Continued purchases of silver. 4. Stojv'ing purchases of silver. First- */he free-silver coinage prescription for the monetary dislocation satisfies but one of several indisi ensable conditions. While it is an indispensable condition of permanent restoration that the free monetization of silver shall be equally complete as of gold, yet were it now given to silver in this actual moment of dislocation the. practical result would be to withdraw the same from gold. That would be a change without advantage in any respect, and in every respect witn disadvantage. In the first place it would bring us to the Asiatic silver basis This has been commenced in some quarters. Thera is, however, no such public desire. Second —Mote conferences, further diplomatic corresponden e are jiroposed. I venture to think, with all due deference to those who are responsible foi a decision, that the time for another conlerence has not arrived, and that the moment for diplomatic interference is not perfectly felicitous. The Continental Powers await the action of Groat Britain, whose reluctance defeated the object of both conferences •called at the instance of the United States, and to whom again, almost within a twelvemonth, she has turned a deaf ear. If it suited the dignity of the United States again to besiege tho attention of European states, or again to make advances where they have been so lately repulsed, it would not suit our interests so to do when it is certain that the inquiry upon which Great Britain has suddenly entered at the instance and insistence of her great dependency, India, and of her own accord, is entered upon with an exclusive regard to her own interest. And of Great Britain’s interests the United States have no call to become advisers or guardians. Third—To go on as we are is the least creditable of all the courses open to our choice. The Treasury silver purchase is defended by nobody, approved by nobody; even every vote for the free coinage'of silver is a vote that the Treasury silver purchase shall cease, an assertion that it ought to cease. Fourth—To itop tho purchase of silver is our only choice, our dutv, and our interest. It will stop a wasteful and injurious expense, and the taxation which defrays it. It will commence and promote reform in the sum and tho methods of Federal taxation. It will recover to the United States an equality of position (noncoinage) with foreign powers which will give us due influence in negotiation. It will induce negotiation, and negotiation to the end of relief, not for the purpose of delay. If the law were repealed which makes compulsory Treasury purchases of Bilver, and if that repeal were accompanied by the declaration of Congress that the United States now holds itself in leadiness to unite with France, Germany, and Great Britain in opening their min's to the free coinage of silver and gold at a ratio fixod by international agreement, it is the deliberate judgment of tho undersigned that before the expiration of another fi-.cal year this international monetary dislocation might be corrected by such an international concurrence, the two monetary metals restored to their old a*d universal function as the one standard measure of prices for the world’s commodities, the depression of trade and industry relieved, and a general prosperity renewed. I respectfully recommend to the wisdom of Congress the unconditional repeal of the act of Feb. 28, 1878, accompanied by such a declaration. The financial situation, scanned at large and as a whole, plainly indicates our best policy. We should reduce taxation immediately to an annual revenue sufficient to pay our annual expenditure, including the sinking fund and excluding the silver purchase; pay our unfunded debt of $3 10,681,010 with the present surplus and the surplus which will accrue bofore the whole reduction of taxation can be made to take effect and while no more funded debt can be paid except at a premium during the five years from now until 1891. I therefore respectfully recommend : 1. Repeal of the clause in the act of Feb. 28, 1878, making compulsory Treasury purchases of silver, and lor the reasons heretofore given in ■ order to reduce surplus and unnecessary taxation $ ’4,000,000 a year. 2. Further reduction of surplus taxation, beginning in a manner which will be suggested below, close down to the necessities of the Government economically administered. 3 Repeal of tho act of May 31, 1878, making compulsory post-r. demption issues and reissues of United States legal-tender notes, thus facilitating— 4. Gradual purchase and payment of $346,681,- ■ 016 outstanding promissory notes of the United States with present and accruing Treasury surplus, issuing silver certificates in their room, and gold certificates if need be, without contraction of the present circulating volume of tho currency, these notes (called greenbacks) being now the only debt due and payable before 1891 except the 3 per cent, bonds, which are probably all to be called and paid early in the ensuing fiscal year. REDUCTION OF SURPLUS TAXATION. It remains to consider the reduction of taxation to the needs of the Government economically administered. What surplus we expend in paying off the greenback debt will diminish by so much the immediate reduction of our tariff taxation; for, while the funded debt stands, certainly it is not wise to discard the taxes on whis'iy, tobacco, and beer. Indeed, it is my own belief that whenever wo begin taking off the shackles of taxes on raw niaterials such increased prosperity will follow to the employers who dread it, and such larger and steadier employnn nt to the wage-earners who need it, by increasing the sales abroad of our own manufactures, and by whipping our foreign competitors in our own markets, that we shall see our income from imported manufactures dwindle so fast as not only to comp* 1 the retention of fit items of revenue—whisky, tobacco, and beer—but, perhaps, to drive us back to getting ten millions of revenue from two cents a pound tax on coffeo and half as much from tea. It is the reduction of war tariff taxation which we have to consider. Under our system of government by partv, and the rule of "the majoritv, Ixlo not think it unbecoming oven in a public officer at this time to recall certain responsible and specific pledgi s in respect to tho sum and methods of Fedeial taxation, subject to which tho people of tho United fctates, in the exercise of a lawful eiec'ion, took away the administration of this Government from the party entrusted therewith for a quarter of a century, and lodged it in other hands. Public life will cense to be the ambition of honorable and worthy men if the deliberate pledges and professed principles of political parties are not a law for their leaders. Discharging, if I might, whatever hostility of tone, now irrelevant, it contains, I desire to refer to the record of one public obligation thus assumed, and thus accepted, and made binding by the last general popular vote. These pledges i con nover be fulfilled without a reform in the sum and methods of Federal taxation. Nor can our country ever profit fully by its incomparable advantages among the nations of the e irth in population, peace, land, and liberty, so long as we so on pleading infancy, and swaddle, in mediaeval rags, its victorious energies. It is those which need release and liberty. All our requisits taxation maybe made an easy garment. We have mode a prison of it, plastered stiff with •beolete contentions about protection and free trade. It is actually the war rates of the war tariff cf the last generation under which we are mow living, for the undebated, unsifted law of MB3, made by a conference committee, did but keep alive the body of the tariff of 1864. The •verage percentage of the taxes to the val-

ues of imported commodities has been as follows : Per cent. Morrill tariff of 1859-61 (before the war) was 13.84 War tariff of 1862-64 (in 1866 was highest; was 48.35 Present prolonged war tariff (was in 1885)..46.07 EXPORTS AND THE TARIFF ON RAW MATERIALS. The total value of our domestic exports for the last fiscal year was almost exactly $667.000.000, of which 88 per cent were the products of our fields, forests, fislnries, and mines, and 16 per cent, only were the sum total of manufactured products in which American labor was inwrought. In the last quarter of a century progress in telegraphs, iransportatian, labor-saving inventions, and the mechanic arts has reduced the profits of cnpitul and the rate of interest by more than one-half; has increased the wages of labor throughout the world; his augmented by at least a third the surplus which our manufacturers can produce beyond domestic rfbeds for sale abroad. Prolonging without necessity our war-tariff taxes on raw materials, we "have been undersold and excluded from foreign markets by nations not taxing raw materials. Despite their low-priced, inferior labor and the high percentage of labor-cost therefore included in their product, our taxed raw materials and their lreo raw materials have protected the so-called “pauper labor” of Europe against American competition. Our increasing capacity to produce an industrial surplusage has been accompanied by war taxation exactly suited to prevent the sale of that surplusage in for. ign markets. Out of our actual abundance this war taxation has forged tho instrument of our industrial and commercial mutilation. Defeating our manufacturers in their endeavor to compete abroad w ith the manufacturers of untaxed raw materials, it has set them on a ferocious competition at cutthroat prices in our own home market, to which they are shut up, and for which their producing powers are increasing superabundantly. Long periods of glut and so-called overproduction have alternated with brief periods of renewed activity and transient prosperity like the present. These prolonged war-tariff taxes, incompetent and brutal as a scheme ot revenue, fatal to the existence of our foreign market, and disorderly to our domestic trade, have in the last resort actod and reacted with most ruinous injury upon our wage-earners. As the most numerous part of our population, our wage-earners are, of course, the first, the last, and the most to be affected by injurious laws. Every Government, by true statesmanship, will watchfully regard their condition and interests. If these are satisfactory, nothing else can be of very momentous importance; but our so-called protective statesmanship has disfavored them altogether. Encumbering with clumsy help a few thousand employers, it has trodden down the millions of wage-earners. It has for twentyone years denied them even the peaceable fruits of liberty. * TAXES TO RETAIN. Another proposal is to reduoo taxation by cutting down the tax on wisky, tobacco, and beers, and removing the duty on sugar. Nobody pays a tax on tobacco except the consumers of tobacco. They are williug to pay for the luxury, and they ask no relief. Any probable reduction ot the tax on whisky would be more likely to increase the revenue than to diminish it. Tho price of sugar has fallen to an exceedingly cheap rate. Our own sugar caop is so very small a part of tho total amount of sugar we consume that sugar ranks next to articles wholly produced abroad, like -tea and coffee, in suitability for taxation, on tho ground that its consumption is universal, that the tax is easily and cheaply collected, that the increased price p iid by the consumers is an unconsidered trifle, and that what is taken from the taxpayers goes into the taxpayers’ treasury, not into a few private bank accounts. Liko the casting away of the revenue from coffee and tea in 1872, the removal of the tax on sugar, which gives us our easiest and next to largest single item of revenue ($ <1,7/8.948), at an annual cost of less than ninety cents per head, is now pressi d forward to avert the repeal of other taxes which are desired to operate an incidental and prhate benefit by enhanced prices to the domestic consumers of a large domestic product. These incidental and private benefits in fact are subject to all the deductions I have already mentioned, and are subject to the chief deduction that the endeavor to make our tax laws exclude foreign competition in our hotne markets promotes the success of that competition, besides effectually preventing the "sale of our surplus product, our labor product, in foreign markets. But the incidental benefit of the sugar tax to our cane-sugar producers, who are under the harrow of beet-sugar competition and German bounties, which have driven them to improved processes and already lowered the price of sugar more than the removal of the whole tax, is not got by excludiug foreign sugar, for the great bulk of our sweetening conies from climates more tropical than ours. Nor does it prevent our Bales in foreign markets of imported sugars ri fined and increased in value by the process of American labor.

DUTIES 13 BE REMITTED. The taxes to be first remitted are those which prevent or hinder the sale of our surplus products in foreign markets. Their removal will set capital in motion by the promise of better returns, enlarge the steady employment and increase the annual income of many thousand wane-earners, whose prosperity will diffuse prosperity. These taxes are the duties on raw materials, and the most widely injurious of them is the tax upon raw wool. But the incomo of all the wage-earners in the United States can be at once enlarged effec ively, certainly, permanently, by reducing the cost to them of the great necessities of life. Our wartariff taxes increase needlessly the cost of clothing, shelter, food to every family. Every wage-earner’s expense, every taxpayer's expense, for the clothing of himself and his family is nearly doubled, at least in the Northern, Middle, and Western States, by taxation which can now be remitted, yet leave the Treasury a sufficient revenue. The duty on raw wool procured for the Treasury last year only $5,126,108. The cost of woolen clothing for our 59,000,030 people was thereby and otherwise enhanced many times more than 90 cents a head, the only cost of our 551,778,948 revenue from sugar. Moreover, any tax on raw wool imported will always make domestic woolraising a bad business ; for, in our dry climates, some varieties of wool required by the manufacturer are not produced. The tax prevents our manufacturers from competing in foreign markets with all manufacturers who cau buy untaxed wool. The tax prevents our manufacture and export of competing woolens that require the use or admixture of non-American wools, and so restricts the home demand, and the growth of the home demand, for domestic wool —thus making the export of our domestic woolens impossible, yet involving the enhanced price of foreign and domestic woolens. This pcttv tax of $ ,12 >,IOB on raw wool assists in nearly doubl ngthe actual cost of their clothing to the American people, with no real and no incidental benefit to anybody except the foreign manufacturer. WOOL SHOULD BE ON THE FREE I,IST. I respectfully recommend to Congress that they confer upon the wage-earners of the United States the boon of untaxed clothing, and in or er thereto, the immediate passage of an act simply and solely placing raw wool upon the free list. Of course, a repeal of the duty on raw wool should bo followed by, but need not wait for, a compensating adjustment of the duties on manufactured woolens, whilst our manufacturers are learning the lesson that, wita the highest paid and most efficient labor in the world, with the most skilled management and the best inventive appliance >, they need fear no couipetit on from any rivals in the world, in home or foreign markets, so long as they can buy their wools free, of every kind. But the common daily olothing of the American people need not be taxed ; therefore, it ought not to bo taxed ; to free their c otbing of taxes will finally reduce, by half, their expense for one of tho three great necessities of life, and thus enlargo houestly and justly the income of every wageearner in the United States. But this reduction of unnecessary aud injurious taxation is not enough, aud will op rate slowly in diminishing revenue. Last year’s import tax oil raw wo d is little more than the mere growth last year’of our taxes from whisky, tobacco and beer. To make wool free of tax may actually work a larger loss of revenue by enabling our woolen manufacturers to undersell nt a profit the foreign impo ters who brought in last year $40,530,509 worth of manufactures of wool, from which wo got a tax of 527,278,528. To say nothing of other taxes upcn raw materials, there are sox oral hundred articles among the 4,1 2 articles that wo tax which ought at once to bo swept off tho tax list into the free list—petty, vexatious, needless taxes, much enlarging the cost of collecting the revenues irom imports. I shall at an early dsy prepare and submit to Congress a supplementary report on the collect! n of duties. Daniel Manning, Secretary of the Treasury.

THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

Annual Report of the Hon. William C. Endicott, Secretary of War. The annual roport of the Secretary of War shows that the expenditures of the departmeut for tho fiscal year ended June 30, 1886, were (36,990,903, divided ns follows : Salaries and contingent expenses, $1,933,469; military establishment, including transportation, $24,279,500; public works, $6,294,305; miscellaneous, 84.406,627. A surplus of 31,208,016 remained unexpended. The appropriations .for the year ending June 30, 1887, are 848,027,559, and the estimates for the year ending June 30, 1888, are 848,208,8 55. The army at the date of the last consolidated return consisted of 2,103 officers and 23,940 eu--1 sted men. There are ten regiments of cavalry, five of artillery, and twenty-five of infantry Of Indian scouts there are 595, and 2,003 enlisted men are on detached service-with recruiting parties, etc. The report gives in detail the changes and operations of the different divisions. The Indians are generally quiet, although the presence of tru< ps is necessary to preserve peace and to prevent, especially in the Oklahoma country, the soizure of the land by settlers and ts invasion and occupancy by herders oi cattle. The Secretary says : “There seems but little hope of improving this condition of things, in view of the avidity with which this fertile country is coveted by the settlers and the cattlemen, and the duty resting upon the Government to koep its agreements with the Indians, for whose benefit it has been set apart. Congress alone can give the needed remedy, and in tho interest of good government it is earnestly hoped by all who have executive duties to perform in this Territory that speedy action will bo taken.” The Secretary recommends that the retired list be increased so as to include all officers permanently incapacitated for active service. He also concurs in the opinion of the Lieutenant General that the army bo increased 5,000 men. It is suggested that Congress enact a law providing for examinations for promotions similar to those held in the navy. At the West Point Military Academy there are 3 9 chdets nna fifty-eight officers The Superintendent favors tho competitive system in the selection of candidates for the academy. In discussing the report of the Engineer Bureau Secretary Endicott again calls attention to the utterly defenseless condition of our seacoast and lake frontier. He mges that appropriations should be made and work begun at once to fortify the principal seaboard cities against attacks by water. The report sayß: “We have a single problem to solve in defending our cities ; how best to resist and silence tho armored ships and the steel guns and mortars of modern construction. It can only be accomplished by guns of equal force to those which uny epemy can bring against us. and by torpedoes or submarine mines laid in tho navigable channels, both so guarded and protected that they can do efficient service when required. \Ve have no gun now which can atop the progress of or do any material injury to a well-armored ship. The manufacture of a g%n is a work of time, and of a long time, and cannot be extemporized when wanted. Torpedoes may be more quickly created, but still time and money are needed for their construction. It has been said by a well-informed writer on the subject that it is a matter of doubt it we have on hand enough cables and cases to control with torpedoes tho channels past Sandy Hook alono.” During the year the Springfield Armory manufactured 39,527 rifles, carbines, and shot-guns, besides repairing arms and manufacturing swords and miscellanaous articles. Tho Secretary expresses a hope that Congress, during its present session, will place the army on an equal footing with the navy in the matter of the manufacture of guns, and urges that the hill, which has already passed the Senate, to establish a gun foundry at the Frankfort Arsenal, be taken up and passed by the House. Ih conclusion, tho report recommends tho appointment of an Assistant Secretary of War, nnd that the salaries of the principal officers in the Secretary’s office be increased.

WM. T. PRICE.

The Late Congressman from the Eighth Wisconsin District. Congressman William Thompson Price who died recently at his home at Black River Falls, Wis., was born in Pennsylvania, June 17, 1824, and was bred a lumberman. In 1851 he emigrated to Wisconsin and engaged in the same business. He

Revenue. Since 1882 he has been the Representative of his district in Congress. Several interesting stories are told illustrative of the grit of the ex-Congressman. About thirty years ago Price shipped some pork from the North to La Crosse on the old War Eagle, which Captain Harris was running in a way to suit himself. The boat pulled up at La Crosse, and Price was anxious to unload his pork. In those days steamboat and dockmen were invariably ready for a fight. The Captain said he’d bo damned if he was going to hold his steamboat at La Crosse all day to unload a barrel of pork. Price declared that he would. Captain Harris signified his opposition by leading out with his right. Price pitched in and gave the Captain a sound drubbing. When this was brought to a close Captain Harris said Prici was a pretty good man anyway, and he would hold the steamer there as long as Price wanted it. The river men never tackled Price again. Mr. Price had sent his son to college, and the young chap had a fine education and soft white hands. Price said to him one winter: “Boy, I’m going to Washington, and I want you to take charge of a lumber camp this winter.” Mrs. Price remonstrated, and argued that Piice, Jr., had now a fine educat on, and was just fitted nicely to go into society, and it w ould be a pity to send him up into the woods. “By , he’ll go up into the woods,” Price, Sr., replied, determinedly, “and if he makes anyth ng I’ll give him a quarter of all he makes; if he don’t make anything I’li kick him out o’ doors.” So the young fellow started for the woods, and Price charged that camp up to profit and loss, depending upon his other foreman to make it up. When the season was over and Price returned, all his foremen rcpoited with a better than average successful logging. The son reported, and his figures showed that his camp had made fifte n per cent, more than any other. Mr. Price said: “Here, boy, you’ve done pretty well; 1 give you the whole thing. You can now take that camp for yourseli, and see what you can make of it,” turning over to his son the entire outfit, including about eighty teams. The o'd gentleman especial delight in telling the story. “The boy has money of bis own now,” he said, “and he can go into society anywhere.”

BEN BUTLER INTERVIEWED.

ile Denounces Pinkerton’s Armed Force as an “Organized Movable Mob.” [New York special.] Gen. B. F. Butler had a long talk about politics with a corro-pondeut who visited uim ut bis home in Lowell, Mass., during the course of which lie said: "I am inclined to believe thitthe George movement is ihe beginning of the organist, ion of labor as a political body. Of its extent I practically know nothing. It may e ephemeral, like the Know-Nothing party, but I hope not. Labor should organize itself for its otvn protection. Capital is already organized. It employs some 8,000 men, thoroughly armed, equipped, and drilled, called the Pinkerton force of detectives, which is thrown upon any point where labor is discontented or shows signs of trying by organization to better its condition, it is sent with tho greatest celerity, for it is passed over many ail roads without paying fare. Whenever it uses its weapons upon laboring man, it becomes a murderous mob Ibis incites the laboring man to turbulence and violence, md there is no more dangerous element iu this country than this same organized, movable mob. Its shooting from the cars upon a body of citizens—men, women, and children—as was done at Chicago recently, without substantial cause, shows its utter recklessness as to law and human life. “It is a disgrace to both the State and the United States governments that such a body of men is suffered to exist. The militia of the Slate and the regular army of the United States ought to be sufficient to enforce the law in any case, nnd have always been shown to be powerful lor that purpose when properly handled. At some time Pinkerton’s mob will bring on a riot m which it will be found powerless, and from which such horrible and terrible results from loss of life nnd destruction of property will ensue as to open the eyes of everybody to the enormous mischief of tho organization. “The labor question will bo the groat disturber of future politics. I mean the question of how firmly and completely labor is organized and takes part iu its ow n behalf in future elections. If it is organized and the laboring men vote together to any considerable extent they hold the-elec-tion in the hollow of their hands and I look to them to destroy this Southern monopoly of the Presidency by inking from it that without which it is impotent for evil—New York City and New York State.”

Ex-Gov. John L. Routt, of Colorado. Hon. John L. Routt, of Colorado, who presided over the National Convention of Cattle Men at St. Louis, in November, is one of the most prominent of the Western cattle barons. He has long been interested

was elected to the Legislature the same year. He was elected to the State Senate in 1857, 1870, 1878 and 1880, and was Judge of Jackson County in 1854 and 1855, and afterward Under Sheriff" and Collector of Internal

in cattle and cattle breeding, and has ever been prominent among the members of the union, outside of the political field in which he moves and may be said to have his being. His political record is that of one of the growing Western statesmen, nndhisabilit.es in fulfilling the positions thrust upon him in that staticu of life are said to be unsurpassed.

X Jfew Orleans Story About tlio Celebrated Returning Hoard. [New Orleans dispatch, i The City Item publishes an interview with a gentleman of this city, whose name it declines to give, but wffio is understood to be an official of the Jefferson Gas Company and a plan of wealth, relative to the story recently published of the attempt made to purchase the celebrated Iteturniug Board in 1876, and induce it not to count the vote of the State for Hayes and Wheeler. While she board was in session counting the vote three prominent politicians came down to N -w Orleans from New York City, and, after remaining at the St. Charles Hotel for several days, called on this gentleman and presented him letters from fr ends in the North. They said' that there was no doubt but Louisiana had been carried for Tilden and Hendricks, tyut would be counted otherwise unless the returning board could be influenced. Knowiug Anderson and Casanave personally, he had been chosen to make the negotiations. Gen. Anderson was visited by him and off' red $360,000 to return the State for Tiiden. He seemed highly offended, and said, most emphatically, that it was out of the question. Casanave was then visited and offered a smaller sum, but a large for.uue to him. Every inducement is held out, but he still remained firm. After the vote of the State was announced for Hayes and Wheeler this gentleman was again selected to approach the elect rs and find whether any one of them would change iis vote. Anderson, who was an elector, refus d, but another member of the Electoral College agreed to vote for Tilden and H ndneks, naming his price at $50,000, vtfhi.h was promised Lim. When, however, he to md out that had been approached on this subject, and had refused the offer, and that as he would be the only elector voting for Tilden, he became frightened and b teked down. If Gen. Anderson had yielded there would have been little trouble, this gentleman says, in arranging with the other members of the board, eve pt Wells, but they feared to act without Anderson.

A NOTED CATTLE KING.

A MEMORY OF 1870.

THE TREASURY.

Business of the United States Treasurer’s Office During the Last Fiscal Tear. From the annual report of tho Unitad States Treasurer it uppe&rs that the net receipts of the Government during the year ended June SO were $336,439,727, and the net expenditures $242,483,138. The excess of revenue over expenditure was $93,9.0,589. The net receipts for the last fiscal year over those of 1885 are $30,492,817. Tho receipts on account of the BostotHce Department, not inclai.ed in the above statement, amounted to $52,997,135, an increase of $5,087,399 over those of the preceding year; the expenditures increased from $50,320,314 in 1885 to s>o,082,565 m 1883, or $350,271. Bonds of the United States amounting to $44,531,350 were redeemed and applied to the sinking fund. Coupons from bonds of the United btutes amounting to $7,557,• 412 were paid by the assistant treasurers. Interest amounting to $42,498,687 was paid on registered bonds of the United States, including tho bonds issued to tho various Pacific railroad companies. Coupons from 3,05 per cent, bonds of tho District of Columbia amounting to $105,441 and registered interest amounting to $416,418 were paid. Of bonds held in trust for national banks $61,012,400 were withdrawn, of whii h amount $50,925,3 »0 was held to secure circulation, and $4,117,100 was hell is security for deposits of public moneys. The bonds dej ositod to replace those withdrawn on account of circulation amounted to $20,754,900, and on account of deposits to $0,170,000, a total decrease of 331,117,(>OO. The total movement of bonds held for national bunks was $57, '67,80(9, Worn and mutilated United States notes amounting to (61,009,000 were redeemed during the year. Tho issuo of silver certificates was $4,800,000, and $28,523,971 were redeemed Gold certificates amounting to 810,185,895 wore redeemed. Tlie unavailable funds of tho Treasury Juno 30,1880, were $29,521,397, a deer uso of $3,946 from last yoar. Tho balance in tho Treasury at the close of the year ended Sept. 30, 183, was $100,055,775, on increase over that of 1885 of $10,815,030, The available balauco wus $72,913,141, against $58,922 191 last year, an increase of $13,91,0,919. The Treasurer suggests that tho largo sums held by mints and assay offices bo placed in tho aotual custody of tho Troasury. and tho duties of the mint officers ho confined to tho assaying and coinage of the bullion placed in their charge. On the subject of altering the present SiubTrensury Bystom, as rendered uocesHury by tho financial changes in tho country, tho Treasnrei save : “With the extinction if 3 per cent, bonds w h eh must take place during the ensuing fiscal year, tho only bonds available for the purposos of the sinking fund will bo4'<j and 4 per oent. bonds. These are new selling at a prioo which averages very little more than 2 per cent, per annum to tho purchaser upon the oost, arid it may fairly bo assumed that tho rate of 2 per oent. is maximum rate to ho earned during tho lifo of these bonds. At the prosont cost of the collection of tho revenue of the oountry, Bay $3.70 per SIOO, tho leas on tho existing sinking fund, say $45,()U0,0i)0 per annum, will lie $765,000 annually, assuming 2 per cent, as the best rate which the bonds can earn. “Without diHoussing tho consequent possiblo derangement of our existing financial system. If the purchases for the sinking fund are to be maintained at their present figures, it will be found to bo impracticable to make those purchases at such times and iu such manner as to relieve tho money market in times of financial distress. As those derangumeuts liapiieu almost invariably at tho time of the moving of tho crops of tho country, this statement is equivalent to saying that every productive interest in the country must pay toll to foreign buyers, through tho lower rango of prices which obtain at such times, becauso of tho fact that our arrangements for collecting and disbursing our revenues aro so defective as to need an artificial und violent remedy iu order to placo in active cfrculst on tho moneys withdrawn from tlie business of the country. ’ The total amount of United States notes outstanding is $340,651,010. Tho amount of silver certificates nominally outstanding at the close of the fiscal year was $110,977,675, of which amount tho Treasury held $27,801,450, leaving $88,110,225 in actual circulation, a doereaso of $13,414,721 during tlie year. This amount has since beon added to by tho demands of business, so that the amount in circulation Nov. 30 was $lO >.519,817. There Ih now iu circulation $61,701,448 in silver dollars.

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.

Synopsis of the Annual Report of Secretary Lamar. The annual report of the Secretary of tho Interior coinuioncts with a resume of operations in tho Indian Bureau. Out of an estimated Indian population of 2150,009, less than 100 havo been in revolt during the yoar; the average school attendance is about sixteen hundred greater than ever before, and there bus been a general improvement in their moral and industrial condition. The Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservation, in the Indian Territory, furnishes a striking illustration of this improvement. Of these Indians Secretary Tamar says: “There has been an increase of over 1,500 acres in cultivation ; farms have been fenced by Indians, who have built for this purpose 100 miles of fencing. They have cut and put tip for winter use more than 400 tons of hay ; havo hauled over 1,e0J,000 pounds of freight from the railroad to the agency, and have over 150 more of their children in schools. Nearly all of tho ‘squaw men’ on this reservation have become legally married to their Indian wives, in conformity to the requirements of this department " The report says that, while the work of elevating the race is bearing fruit, there must be radical changes in our In. ian policy before they cau be incorporated into our political and social systems as citizens Iu this connection the Secretary recommends passage of tho bill fur the appointment of a commission to inspect and report on Indian affairs, which is now before Congress. During the year about eight hundred Indians have received title to .land allotments, and a number have taken up homesteads. Congress is asked to pass a general law regulating the allotment in severally of lands to Indians. The Secretary also recommends that the army appropriation act be modified so that army officers may purchase grain, hay, and other produce from Indians near the posts. Tho Secretary consid. rs it desira de that a law be enacted authorizing Indians to pasture cattle on their reservations at a reasonable compensation lor the benefit of the trib . Of the Indian Territory the Secretary says: “It is certainly of the greatest importance, and no less for the interest of the Indians themselves than for the people of the adjoining States, that the vast area of country should havo extended over it, as early as may be practicable, the universal laws ot the land, and its large population -and immense property interests be brougnt under tho influence and operation of those laws as administered by the judicial establishment of our country, so that lawlessness may be punished, aud peace and good order preserved turougn and by the courts of justice, and not by the agency of sne executive •.iOi urtmcntH, aided by the military force of the Government ” Secretary LamarTceommends that the salary of the ('ouimissiouer of Indian Affairs be increased from 54,AU to So.OOJ per year. The expenses of the Indian Bureau for tho fiscal year were 8(5,(9 i,751. . The total area of public lands disposed of during the year was 21,014,419 acres, for which 89,0,51,081 was received. The Secretary renews his recommendation that the minimum price lor sal. s of land at private cash entry be increased, in order to prevent the increase of largo tracts ip the hands of a few individuals. He also recommends the establishment of u date after which •.laims founded on alleged Mexicau land gran.B be barred from presentation. The recommendations contained in the last report, that the desert-land laws be modified, and that the timber-culture act be repealed, are renewed. Legislation for husbanding the timber resources of the country is urged. Considerable space is given to tue unlawful inc osure of public lands i>y cuttle-men. T.ie Si cretary says in this connection: “What- < ver appliances, however, the law has placed in the hands of the executive will hereafter bo invoked, if necessary, to put a final end to this enormous plundering of the public domain."