Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1894 — UNCLE SAM’S CASH BOX [ARTICLE]

UNCLE SAM’S CASH BOX

TREASURER MORGAN SUBMITS HIS ANNUAL REPORT. Total Fiscal Receipts on All Accounts Were $724,006,539 and the Total Expenditures s69B,9o9,ss2—lnsufficient Revenues Impair Gold Reserve. Bond Issue a Necessity. The Treasurer of the United States, Hon. H. D. Morgan, has submitted to Secretary Carlisle the annual report of the operations and condition of the treasury. The net ordinary revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, cents omitted, were, $297,722,019, a decrease of $88,097,609 as compared with the year before. The net‘ordinary expenditures were $367,525,279, a decrease of $15,952,674. The total receipts on all accounts were $724,006,538, and the expenditures $698,908,552. At the close of business on June 30, 1893, there stood on the books of the department charged to the treasurer a balance of $738,467,555. Adding to this receipts on all accounts gives $1,462,474,093 as total to be accounted for, and deducting the expenditures leaves a balance of $763,565,540 on June 30, 1894. In addition to these balances, however, there were other liabilities, arising from the postal revenues, from disbursing officers and from other sources, which brought the total to $776,041,808 at the former date, and to $804,854,753 at the latter. After setting aside the amounts treated as unavailable, the principal of which are the deposits made with the States under the law of 1866, there remained the sum of $746,538,655 in 1893 and the stun of $775,310,559 in 1894 represented by live assets in the several offices of the treasury and mint, together with deposits in national banks. Of these balances The sums of $584,593,920 and $616,155,820, respectively, were on deposit for the redemption of outstanding certificates and treasury notes, leaving $161,994,735 and $159,154,739 as the balances on account of the general fund. Impairment of the Gold Reserve. The treasurer remarks that the impairment of the gold reserve rendering necessary the issue of bonds in February, was caused chiefly by the depletion of the treasury resulting from insufficient revenues. Even when the supply of paper had become so reduced that the treasury was obliged to pay out large sums of gold In the ordinary disbursements the coin was freely returned in the revenues. The proceeds of this loan were $58,660,000 in gold coin and certificates, but during the month of February there were redeemed $19,200,000 of notes in gold,' presumably to meet subscriptions to the loan, so that the net gold proceeds were about $39,500,000. This, with a gain of $1,500,000 in gold from ordinary sources, brought up the reserve during the month from $65,000,000 to $106,500,000, while the net assets of the treasury, with an excess of $7,000,000 of expenditures over receipts for the month, increased from $125,000,000 to $177,000,000. During the succeeding months till the end of the first week in August the reserve was affected by deficient revenues and withdrawals of gold for export, the movement abroad having been stimulated by the necessity which the treasury was under of furnishing to exporters new full weight after the supply of old pieces had become exhausted. The lowest point touched by the reserve was $52,189,500 on Aug. 7, 1894. Prior to July, 1892, the gold reserve was but little affected by the withdrawals of coin, there never having been any considerable demand for the redemption of notes. Even when gold exports were heavy the metal was furnished by bankers from their vaults, or was obtained from the treasury for gold certificates, of course without impairment of the reserve. During the last two years, however, the treasury has been called upon to furnish nearly the whole of the requirements for exportation, and there have recently been considerable withdrawals for other uses. To the end of September last the total redemptions of United States notes in gold since the resumption of specie payments were $181,300,000, and the total redemptions of the treasury notes in gold from their first issue were $68,500,000. The two important events of the year affecting the condition of the public debt were the issue of $50,000,000 of 5 per cent, bonds to replenish the gold reserve and the stoppage of the purchase of silver bullion by the issue of treasury notes. Retirement of Treasury Notes. With reference to the retirement of treasury notes the Treasurer says that prior to August, 1893, the treasury had been able to provide for the redemption of treasury notes in silver dollars out of the holdings of free silver, so that there had not been, up to that time, any impairment of the total amount of the silver fund accumulated under the act. On the 3d of that month, however, the silver dollars and bullion in the treasury had become reduced to the amount required by law to be retained for the payment of outstanding treasury notes and certificates, and the demand for the redemption of notes continuing in consequence of the scarcity of the small denominations of currency, it became necessary to draw upon the dollars coined especially for that purpose. The silver fund being thus impaired, the notes so redeemed were canceled in order to preserve the required equality between the silver in the treasury and the notes outstanding. The total amount of the notes retired in this way, up to Oct. 31, was $4,790,434. The amount of the new issues of United States paper currency put into circulation during the year was $350,959,100, having been exceeded but once, in 1892. The amount of worn and mutilated notes redeemed was $319,002,290. This also has been exceeded but once, in 1893. The total paper circulation reached its highest point in May last, when it stood at $1,175,000,000. Since then there has been a slight contraction, caused chiefly by the gradual redemption dud retirement of gold certificates, the issue of which was suspended, as the law requires, when the gold reserve of the treasury fell below $100,000,000. The management of the Columbian Exposition having finally declined to defray the expenses of recoining the Columbian half-dollars, which have found their way into the treasury, they have been offered to the public at par in exchange for gold or gold certificates, and a considerable sum of them has been distributed in that manner. The Isabella quarters in the treasury are retained for the requisition of the board of lady managers of the Exposition. The amount of counterfeit silver coin and fractional currency detected at the offices of the treasury during the year was $10,500, an increase of S9OO over the year before. There was an increase during the year of $1,552,250 in the face value of the bonds held on account of the sinking funds of the Pacific railroads, which amounted, on June 30, tc> $18,960,000. Notwithstanding a change in the regulations, whereby senders of national bank notes for redemption were required to bear the charges for transportation, the redemptions were the heaviest since 1886, amounting to $105,000,000, or more than half of the average circulation. I Chili sends ont wheat, nitrates, wine and guano.