Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1890 — INDIANA’S DEBT. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA’S DEBT.

Something the Matter With the Figures of the Census Report. The bulletin issued by the Census Bureau dated Aug. 6, and purporting to give the debts of the several States, is a very misleading document. For instance, in one table it gives figures showing the debt of the various States in gross, and the “cash or funds on hand," and then the net debt. In this table the total debt of Indiana is given as $8,540,615.12, the cash or funds on hand as $4,878,892.57, leaving the net debt $3,661,722.55. No explanation is given as to what goes to make up the 1 ‘cash or other funds” that are reported to amount to $4,878,892. Certain it is that the treasurer of Indiana has no such amount in his hands in cash or other securities. In truth, the State has ho securities of any kind, and nothing that can be denominated sis funds, ex-, cept the cash on hand, and not one dollar of that is available to pay off the debt. In other words, the net debt of Indiana is $8,540,000. The general government, in its monthly statement, announces what the debt is less cash in the treasury, but such a statement can not be made as to Indiana, for there is practically no cash in the treasury, the salaries of the State officers even not being paid for the want of funds. Under Republican rule there always was a cash balance in the treasury that could be counted as an offset to the debt, but such has never been the case with the Democrats. Nature is said to abhor a vacuum, but the Democratic party of Indiana dearly loves one—in the treasury. If the statistics of the Gensus Bureau are intended for use they ought to be approximately correct. Indiana, counting the State House and other buildings, has property enough to pay off her debt, but Bueh property can not be classed as “cash or funds," and in a table giving debt, nothing should be counted as an offset that is not available for the discharge of the debt. Indiana has a large school fund On hand, but that could not be used to give her credit on which to borrow money, and therefore ought not be counted in as an asset when debt is the subject.