The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-09-03
FINANCE AND TRADE.
Financial and CommercinI items.

Financial and Commercial Items.
The failure of Silas $. Drew y Co., of
Boston, for n quarter of a million, Gre
ates quite a sensation. One New York
firm held their paper for 800, 900, which
is about the amount Of their assets.
BY the last monthly statement of the
Secretary Of the Treasurer, the funded
debt of the nation, exclusive OF the
cash in the Treasury, was nearly two
Thousand seven hundred millions of
dollars. This, IT will be remembered,
includes only the adjusted debt of the
nation. There are other and heavier
I liabilities all the time before the sew
eral departments of the Government
! for adjudication and settlement. so that
writers on the public debt are in the
habit of setting it down ut about three
/ thnnSand millions of dollars!
The whole number of claims under
the additional bounty act will be about
GOO,OOO Already 565, 0GO, in round num-
bers, have been presented. Of this,
4O5, OCO were presented at the Paymas-
ter Generals. 100000 at the Second Au-
ditor's. 1t is estimated that 10000 more
will be received at the former, and 5000
to 10000 more ut the latter Bureau.
This will carry the whole number mp to
! 100000. Twenty per cent of these
claims. and perhaps One-third, VIII be
rejected. being inadmissible under the
provisions Of the law aud the rules gov
eTning settlements About 10000 have
been paid, say $4,000 by the Paymaster-
General, and 1000 by the Second Audi
tor, the former having commenced pay
ing in ,Jas uary, and the latter in June
last. Payments are now progressing at
the rate of 10000 to $4,000 a month,
each of the officers above mentioned
disposiug of from 10000 to $1,000. 1t is
/ all very well to see honest claimants on
. the Treasury have their claims prompt
/ ly acknowledged; but the amount of
money that they will, by-and by, draw
from the Treasury, WI astonish the
taxpayers.
/ The city of Davenport, Iowa, is in
( financial distress, and comtcsses itself
bankrupt. The principal of the city
debt is S25l 500, but interest has not
been paid for six years, and the total
/ liability is now fully half million dol
lars. OF the principal sum, $4,000 is
on account of the old Mississippi and
Missouri Railroad, declared valid debt
by the United States Supreme Court,
but the collection of any tax TO
pay interest or principal is forbid
den by the courts. The balance Of
the principal (Sl76,5OO) was created
| for local improvements. The city
charter only allows the collection of a
five milf tax, which produces about
S22 900 per annum, a sum less than the
interest annually due, to say nothing of
ordinary expenses in the government.
Strangely the only debt for which there
was statute authority is declared in
valid by the State Court, while the city
I is helpless rs To the other debt. 1t is
now proposed to compromise with the
city creditors at fifty cents on the dol
lar of principal and interest due, and to
ask the next Legislature for authority
to meet the same with six per cent an
nual interest. The city would much
better ask for Legislative authority to
pay the whole.
The Philadelphia Press remarks upon
the singular. quotations that come to us
10y the Atlantic cable of late. These re-
ports are the subjects of much discus
sion among the business men, and the
unanimous opinion seems to be that the
transatlantic wires are badly misman-
aged. The quotations which they
bring are, in many cases, glaringly in
correct, and hot few sagacious parties
have decided to conduct their operations
without the slightest regardto the tel
egraphic statements of the foreign mar
ketS. Some time ago an association
was formed in Boston, the members OF
which, on the payment of - per week,
We're entitled To receive the earliest
market reports, by telegraph, from the
other side. After a brief time, and
upon comparison of the cable and mail
reports; 1t was found that the former
We're quite unreliable. Duripp the
present week the cable has informed
us OF material changes in the London
and Liverpool markets-chanpes for
which no adequate cause is known on