The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-12-10

TRADE kEPoETs AND THE TREASURY DEPART
AENT.-We published In the money article yes
terday the general results Of the trade of the
United States for the fiscal year 1859. These
are, in one point of view, very satisfactory
The exports Of the year, including specie,
amounted to 1856 1894 1886, and the imports to
$685., 100000; showing balance of SIS, 100000
in favor of the country.
But the manner in which these statistics have
been compiled and produced, and CARRIED in
publication, calls for the severest comment. In
the first place, the time which the Treasury De-
partment requires to make them up is utterly
disproportionate to the labor performed. Yes
terday was the Sth of December; the tables
were closed on the 3Oth of June; SO that Mr..
Cobb's clerks have consumed five months and
quarter in footing up the trade Of the coun-
try for single year. We will undertake, in
the HERALD Office, to publish every year, if the
proper returns are made to us, the general re-
suits of the trade of the Atlantic States within
fifteen days after the closing of the fiscal year
say on the 18th Of July; and within month
afterward-say by the 18th Of Augustine will
Guiding the trade of California and Oregon
We will also guarantee to publish the tables
with an accuracy which is unknown in the
Treasury Department eH
In the second place, the publication in the
Washington Constitution of the garbled figures
from which we made up our table is utterly
unjustifable. We found the figures hidden
away in one corner of long, rambling ridicu-
lous political article in the government organ
at Washington. The writer of the article evil
IDENTIFY had no idea of their Importance, as is
shown, indeed, by the laundering manner in
which he uses them. In the behalf of the COM
merce of the United States, we protest against
the monopoly of these important statistics by
a petty party political paper, printed in an in
land town without trade enough to support a
merchant of eminence. These statistics are not
made up for party political purposes. They
are compiled at great expense, and with the aid
of vast machinery, for the use and benefit of
the trade of the country. A knowledge of them
is indispensable to merchants, and he who sees
and studies them first enjoys an advantage over
his rivals From the hour that the footings
were made it was fraud upon the merchants
Of the country to keep them secret. Mr.. Cobb
had no more right to lock up those vitality i'm
portant figures in his desk for single hour
than he has to stop the telegraph or arrest
the transmission of the mails. 1t was his duty
as Secretary of the Treasury, and as an honest
man, to transmit them at once, and by the swift
est channel, to the public, for whom they are
destined.
But we regret to say that the Treasury De-
partment, as at present administered, is one of
the most obstructive and old fogy institutions
in the country. We find it impossible to
obtain from the department information which
it has no interest in secreting, and which it is
the interest and the right of the public to know.
Mr.. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, and his subordi-
mates, seem to fancy that the commercial and
financial statistics which pass through their
hands are their private property, and when
asked to part with them they stand aghast, like
Tite Barnacle when accosted by the man who
wanted to know" For instance, they have
in their desks at this moment the details of the
imports of 1852 (They must have them, or
they could not have obtained the general re-
suit published in the Constitution on the
7th) What business have they to keep them
secret? Merchants have right to the
figures. They are not anxious about Mr.
Cobb's comments or estimates, as they have so
often proved wide of the mark, but the figures
Mr.. Cobb has no right to conceal in his circum-
locution Office.