New-York tribune., 1872-08-07

the expIanation that the phrase "expenses
"incident to carrying into effect national
"loansn means issuing Treasury notes, frac-
"tonal currency, &c" and that the increased
expenditures for this purpose under Grant
were due to the reprnting of "an entire new
"series of notes and currency to take the
"place of the old issues then in circulation,
which had been called in for redemption IN
"consequence of their worn out and mutiated
condition and the numerous and well ex-
"ecuted counterfeits in circulation" SO the
expenses incident to carrying into effect
national loans which Mr.. Richardson conjures
up are not tho same, after all, as the ap-
parcntly similar charges in 1868 and 1859.
Does Mr.. Richardson wish us to believe that
the manufacture of some $390,0O0,000 of paper
tokens actually did cost $5,69O,0OOi If so, it
was an enormous price. Not much can we find
in the Finance reports about the cost OF doing
the Governments business. The Treasurer
treats US TO endless tables of figures, setting
forth the vast quantities of bonds and paper
money which he and his clerks religiously de-
stroy every year. He gives us several score
of destruction accounts, but nowhere does
it occur to him to tell us what it costs to manu-
facture paper dollars. The Controller OF tho
Currency, however, by some strange oversight,
does inform us that he expends certain sum
for plates, paper, printing, and other expenses
incident to the manufacture of paper money.
This item, which sometimes appears III the
Secretary's statement of expenditures and
sometimes does not, certainly covers the cost
of maintaining the currency issued by the
National Banks, and, for aught we can
discover to the contrary, that of the legal
tender and fractional currency also. Now, this
item of "pates, special dies, paper, &C., for
"printing circulating notes, &C.," for the five
years from juno so, 1856, to June 30, 1871,
amounts to a sum total of less than 100000.
Neither can we, after thorough overhauling
of the acts of Congress, find any appropriation
TO cover Mr.. Richardson's extraordinary make
| weight. The act of March g. 1869, for "sundry
"civil expenses" approprates $1,25O,OOO, for
the year ended June 80, 1870, "fOr necessary
"expenses in carrying into effect the several
" acts of Congress authorizing loans and the
tissue of Treasury notes." and the correspond
ing act for the year 1871, passed July 10, 1870,
gives $4,000 for the same purpose; making a
total for the two years of 81 1,325,OOO. The de-
Gciency bills contain no additional approprla-
tions for these purposes. For the year 1867
the appropriation was $2,0O0,0OO. BY the act
of June 80, 1864, which authorized the
issue of fve-twenty bonds, and also
fractional currency and United States
notes, the expenses of engraving, print
ing, preparing, and issuing said notes and
bonds was limited and restricted to one per
cent of the amounts issued. In the Finance
report for the year 1861 the cost of engraving
the various issues of Treasury and Demand
notes and certificates of stock for that year,
when the reign of paper was formally inaugu-
rated, is stated at $14,S40 70. The above are
such facts as we have been able to collect
which have bearing on the cost of paper
money. Without pretending to understand for
what purposes the S5,69O,312 cOnjured up by
Mr.. Richardson may have been expended, we
do most emphatically deny that the sum was
disbursed for either Of the purposes which he
indicates. 1t was neither laid out in manufac-
turing paper money nor in carrying into effect
national loans We call on Mr.. Richardson to
be more explicit. If his statement is to be
final, we have no hesitation i'll pronounclng 1t
A L. fo1c