The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-12-06

is q comprehensive review of the financial
situation, in which he freely expresses his views
and makes such suggestions to Congress as ne
considers best calculated to gradually eman-
cipate the country from the evils inseparable
from an enormous national debt and an in
aated and deprecated currency. He moralises
like one who, disliking his surroundings, signs
for some Utopia which he knows to be beyond
his reach. He regrets the plethora Of paper
money, and secs that it is undermining the
morals of the people by encouraging waste
and extravaganza, and the only remedy, in his
opinion, is reduction of the currency But
elsewhere he qualities his opinion by saying that
avery rapid reduction Of it would be disastrous,
though there is no reason to apprehend that
any policy which Congress may adopt will
cause such rapid reduction Of prices a. TO
produce very serious endorsements to trade,
and that the influences of funding upon the
money market will sufficiently prevent the too
rapid withdrawal of legal tenders.
He estimates that the public debt will
amount on the lat of July next to three thou
sard millions, but the unsettled and accruing
computed. Meanwhile he observes that IL the
expenditures for the remaining three-quarters
of the present fiscal year prove equal to the
estimates there will be deficiency to be
provided for by loans OF $ll2,l94,947, ex-
elusive of s32536,9Ol of five per cent notes,
a portion of which is now in process Of
redemption Hence he asks for power to
sell six per cent bonds to provide the
means Of meeting this deficiency, as well
as to retire compound interest notes, as they
mature, and plain legal tenders. He cannot
understand how the funding of currency can
fail to reduce prices; but the example Of 1t
which he has already furnished has shown that
at least it does not affect the price Of gold,
while, without lowering the price Of the neces-
saries of life. it exerts depressing influence
upon government securities. This is because
there is public distrust of the worth of the
remainder OF the currency as compared with
gold. He does not formally endorse the re-
commentator Of the Comptroller Of the
Currency for further issue of national
bank currency; but he admits that
the South is ins great want of bank
circulation, and regrets that the North re-
ceived the whole of the authorized three hun
dred millions He recognizes his own power
lessness, beyond very narrow limit, when he
r marks that there is more danger to be appre.
hcndel from the inability Of the government TO
reduce its circulation rapidly enough than from
too rapid reduction Of it; and 1t is in part 10
prevent financial crisis that is certain to come
without it that the Secretary recommends con-
traction. He places great reliance upon the
revenue, and suggests the propiicty of funding
the entire indebtedness of the nation into five
per cent perpetual annuities, the interest Of
which, supposing the debt to be three thousand
millions, would be one hundred and fifty mill
lions per annum BY the application Of one
hundred millions to the payment Of the prin-
cipal, he shows that the debt would DO extin-
guished in little over twenty-eight years.
Without entering into further details, how
ever, we may say that the report is, on the
whole, conservative, and calculated to soothe
rather than excite apprehensions Of the adop-
ton Of radical measures
Report or tho Commissioner or Internal
Revenue.
The report OF the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue is an interesting and important docu-
ment. The Commissioner speaks in favorable
terms Of the patience of the people under the
burdens of taxation, and shows from statistics
that the aggregate receipts have for the past
fiscal year been largely above those Of the pre-
vious year. The following statement exhibits
the amount of receipts from internal revenue
for the past three years:-Receipts for 1868
(ten months), s4l003, 1872; 1864, Sll6,S50672;
1865, S2ll,l29,52s. The Commissioner says
the actual cost Of assessing and collecting the
internal revenue will amount to two and three
quarters per cent Of the receipts The actual
annual cost for the collection Of the customs
amounts to three and one-half per cent of the
receipts which ID much below the cost of col
lecting the customs in Great Britain. Among
the articles from which the internal revenue of
the United States is derived IL may be interest
ing TO enumerate the following:-Bank div-
dends, $39s7 200; railroad dividends and
interest on bonds, s3,25s, 40l; insurance COM
panies, sl.726, l6O; salaries Of persons en-
ployed by the government $2,s36,33
revenue stamps, $1l,l62, sO2-bcing more
than double that of the previous year;
licenses, $l2,595,6ol; incomes, $2o,567 $40, or
about six millions more than in 1864. OF
the amount collected from incomes In 1853
S279,sss were returned at FIVE per cent upon
incomes above ten thousand dollars, $l72,770
at three per cent upon incomes Of lees than ten
thousand dollars, and $3,s37 upon incomes
from United States securities. OF that collected
in 1864 ss,sl3,s4 were returned at i've per
cent, 81 ,93o,o7o at three per cent, and $75,s73
at one and one-half per cent OF that col
lected in 1865 $80l,94l were returned at ten
per cent, s9,ss4,74s at FIVE per cent, $685., 246
at three per cent, and sl33,4o2 at one and one