New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-12-05
LIE REPORTS.

The President and Cabinet may read in our
columns this morning much unsatisfactory and
some tolerably important information about
the Government. 1t is to be found in the re-
ports of the Secretary of the Treasury, the
Secretary of the Navy, and the Controller of
| Currency, together with reports of several
minor officers.
! II would be unjust to the Secretary of the
Treasury to express all the dissatisfaction we
feel with some of his statements since the alb
! stract which we print may not do kim full JUS
! ticc He seems To be unusually optimistic.
! The national finances seem 10 him In an eN-
| cellent condition. Trade and industry seem
10 him to have been diverted under his
management into healthy channels. The
currency appears 10 him not too redundant
He is opposed TO forcing n resumption OF
specie payments, or to naming any fixed day
on which it shall take place. He regards,
however the conversion OF Seven Thirtics and
other obligations into FiyeTwenties rs a great
step in that direction.
We trust that on some at least OF these
points the abstract which we PRINT this
morning does the Secretary injustice. and in
that hope suspend some not wholly cOmpl-
mentary comment that we might otherwise be
temp ed to make. On the contraction of the
currency, the abstract gives a brief and vague
mention Of Nj. McCullochs remarks. We trust
it is not too much to hope that its reference
to his well known views means rather the
views expressed in a tolerably well-knOwn
speech once made at Fort Wayne, than IN
some later views that have produced un-
wonted agitation in Wall-st. and throughout
the country.
When we come 10 figures the Secretary be-
comes more agreeable, albeit figures have not
always proved the most agreeable things in "a
report from the Treasury Department. For
the next fiscal year lac estimates that the en-
tire expenses need not run above two hundred
and fifty millions, while-as if Whisky Rings
were things of the past-he cheerfully predicts
that the revenue will by many millions exceed
this sum. The War Department, he tells
u.s. can get on with twenty-five millions
less than last year, by reason Of
the suspension of bountics. The Navy De-
partment expenses are likewise brought down
by the handsome sum of fifteen millions, and
still further reduction is thought to be
possible. The Internal Revenue receipts
this year have been about hundred
and twenty millions, III spite of all the
stealing And finally Delmar and the Demo
cratic newspapers are brought to grief together
by the statement that the public debt has been
reduced between Nov. /, 1867, and Nov. /, 1868
by the sum of S35,021, lO2 So. This pleasing
exhibit, TO be sure. Is dashed little by the
fact that tins month brings down the increase
to twenty millions-Alaska having sent
us in debt again.
The full and satisfactory abstract of the
report of the Controller of the Currency will
be read with general interest The Controller
points out the way in which National Banks
have been going into liquidation and still
! enjoying their circulation, and recommends
remedy. He rcnews his recommendation
| for Clearing House III New-YOrk, to act as
a Redemption Agency. He would have the
| National Banks stockholders in it in propor-
| ton to their Surplus Fund and would hope
through Its operations to make the issues of
the National Banks not only redeemable but
convertible in all the great markets of the
Union. He reviews the recent course of events
| in the New-Iork money market at CON
siderable length, and presents an array of ugly
figures, as an indictment Of the system on
which our National Banks are managed Only
nine -sixteenths of their loans (of which he
gives a classified statemcnD are legitimate
business paper. He animadverts upon the
system Of certified checks, and of call loans.
To these, and to the habit of paying dcpositors
interest Oh their balances. which makes Loans