Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1874 — Official Integrity. [ARTICLE]

Official Integrity.

In looking over the new platforms of Democratic State Conventions the critic will be surprised to find in each of them the same old charge of official defalcations under Republican administrations. 4 After investigations were demanded and granted on the charges made against the War and the Navy Departments with the most satisfactory results, and after a thorough examination of the books, records, printing bureau, and money vaults of the United States Treasury and sub-treasuries without discovering the loss of a dollar that had not already been officially reported and published to the world, the “ancient” Democracy must be hard pushed to find charges against the party in power before they would renew the exploded theme of official defalcations and malfeasance. These committees of investigation were appointed by Congress and were composed of Democratic and Republican members, who were offered every possible facility in the prosecution of their investigations. On the committee investigating the Treasury Department were two prominent bankers, who were supposed to lean strongly toward the Democratic side of the House. Yet they found not even a minor “ irregularity” that had not already been reported, and the defaulters arrested, tried, convicted and punished. An official report of losses to the Government by defalcations of officials was made by Mr. Richardson, late Secretary of the Treasury, assisted by the Commissioners of Internal Revenue and Customs, the Comptroller of the Currency, and the United States Treasurer, each basing his report on the records and books of his bureau. The result is as follows:

From the statement of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, comparing total receipts of the office for the three years from March 3, 1869, to March 3, 1872, with the portion of the receipts that had not then been paid into the Treasury, as per schedule furnished, it appeared that the cash balances outstanding against late Collectors of Internal Revenue during that period amounted to somewhat less than one-tenth of 1 per per cent, of the amount paffl into the Treasury. The Commissioner added, and the books of the office sh ow that his statement has been very nearly verified, that “ of the latter amount it is estimated that not less than four-fifths will eventually be paid either by the parties themselves or by their sureties, reducing the ultimate loss to the Government, during the period mentioned, to less than onefiftieth of 1 per cent., or less than $2 in $10,000.” According to the statement from the books and records of the Commissioner of Customs, showing the amount of money collected from .customs for the period of two years and three-fourths of a year, from the Ist of April, 1869, to the 31st of December, 1871, compared with the balances outstanding against officers engaged in the collection of customs during the period mentioned, the latter is about one-fifty-fifth part of 1 per cent, of the former. The estimated ultimate loss to the Government was one-two-hundredth part of 1 per cent., or less than $5 in SIOO,OOO.

The Comptroller of the Currency fur nished a schedule of all the national banks that had failed during the three years from June 1, 1869, to June 1, 1872* with their capital, the amount of claims proved and the dividends paid on the claims; from which it appears that the estimated average annual losses of these years were from $21,700 to $40,100, of which the mean is $30,900. This, based on a constant average amount of deposits of $574,300,000, shows the ratio of annual loss to creditors to be the 1-IB6th part of 1 per cent, of such deposits, equivalent to $5.37$ in SIOO,OOO. The United States Treasurer, Gen. Spinner, furnishes a statement showing the total amount of money entries as they appear on the books in his office, covering a period of eleven and one-half years, from June 30, 1861 to Jan. 9, 1872, to be $55,104,232,282.84. The loss during these eleven years was $55,057.45, or less than one dollar to each million of dollars that passed through the hands of the Treasurer and his subordinates. These statements will be accepted, we think, by all reasonable minds as conclusive on the subject of defalcations. Since the dates included in each division of the report no defalcation has occurred, to the amount of a dollar, in the United States Treasury; and none in the bureaus of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue or of the Collector of Customs of any importance. Irregularities in the receipts and some few losses have grown out of the paralysis in business following the panic of September last; but these will, in nearly every case, be made good. The very met that the internal revenue receipts for the last fiscal year exceeded the estimates of the Commissioner by about ten million dollars goes far to establish the- integrity and fidelity of all connected with that department of the Government.

Compared with transactions in private business these results show fewer losses than are met with in the best regulated and most cautious corporate bodies engaged in railroad, manufacturing, or other enterprises, or among business firms who scrupulously superintend their own mercantile affairs. Altogether the six-and-a-half years of President Granfs Administration that have already passed into history have carried with them a record of official integrity which mav well command the admiration of the'forty- two millions of people who mainly furnish the annual revenues.— Republic Magazine.