New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-23
HH4T Is TIE FACTf

Tho Cold cuestion ia one which we discuss
as we have long been discussing It'll INC
interest of legitimate business and OF honest
busipess men. It is to the interest OF gold
gamblers. whether bulls or bears, to keep the
whole subject in a fog 1t is to the interest,"
of all fair dealing business men to knoc what
they can count on in the course Of gold, and
TO that end, first of ALL to know how
much gold there is in the country.
The matter in controversy between Mr..
Secretary Richardson and The TRIBUNE is an
issue of fact. He pronounces all statements,
to the effect that on the 30th of June last
there was less than $s7,5OOOOO in coin and bull
lion in the United States Treasury, to be false.
We have expressed the opinion, and have en-
deavOred to show from authentic figures,
that on that date the United States Treasury
did not contain more than S75,0000O0 in coin
and bullion. Now what is the meaning of the
word deficit? Webster defines it thus: ODE
ficiency in amount or quality; lack; as q
+" deficit in taxes, revenue, &C." 1t will be OBJ
served that the word does not imply burglary,
larceny, theft, or highway robbery. We have
charged no one with these crimes. The ques-
ton is simply whether, on the 30th of June,
there was a deficit of ten or twelve million
dollars in the coin in the United States Treas
ury; or, more precisely, whether, on the 3oth
June, the various Treasures, Sub Treasures,
and Public Repositories contained SS7,5ooOoo
in gold and silver coin and bullion.
II is not question as to what is or what Is not
allowable or possible in bookkeeping. The
Secretary has waived all that, and has pro-
nounced all statements to the effect that on
the 3Oth of June the United States Treasury
did not contain $S7,50O,0O0 in solid cash, Tor
that we take to be identical with CON-" 10
be vile falsehoods, scandalous expedieDts,
devised to assist exasperated gold specula-
"tors in their last desperate extremity"
"groundless fictions," "canards," "manufac-
cures out of whole CLOTH" warm mashes for
"sick bulls,"-in short, lies.
We have had occasion before to expose
dlscreditable Syndicate operation, to further
which the good faith of the Government was
betrayed, and statute law was violated. Five
weeks ago we began the discussion of this
last Syndicate juggle, and have stuck to 1t
pretty closely ever SINCE We promise to
make the exposure of this as clear
and convincing as that of the former per-
Torrance. We write for the informa-
ton of the people; not to break or to make
the gamblers of Wall Street We are not to be
deferred by cant, by SANDER, or by stupidity,
though the gods themselves are said to be
powerless against the latter On the 4th of June
the Bank of England contained $101, 100000 in
coin and bullion. On the 9th of August
it contained $1t57OOOOO. This is the
extreme range in seventeen weeks, from
the 9th of April to the 9th Of August If a
fluctuation of S1470O,000 almost exactly the
sum we are now dealing within reserve ex-
ceeding hundred millions, in a country with an
active gold and silver circulation of four times
that amount, within a days sail of countries
equally well stocked with gold and silver, was
thought by that great bank matter OF suf-
ficient Importance to Justify the managers in
making nine changes in their rate of discount,
from four per cent to seven per cent, and back
again to three and half per cent, then is it of
importance to US, with stock of coin not ex-
ceeding seventy-fve or eighty millions, in a
country drained dry of specie, and with Its
trade, internal and external, at the mercy of
gold gamblers, in which class we include
bears as well as bulls-it is, we say, of i'm
portance for us to have, if any information
Of the amount of coin in the United States
Treasury at the end of each month.
We now proceed briefly to repeat our
reasons for believing that on the Goth of
June the Treasury did not contain SS7,5OO,OOO
in coin, but q sum at least S130OO,OOO less
March 1, 1873 the Treasury Department called
in fifty millions of fye-twenty bonds for
redemption. May 81 the Sub-Treasurer in
New York paid out S3,9130OO in gold checks
in redemption of these bonds. During the
first two weeks of June others of these
bonds were presented for payment,
until the aggregate payments on
this account reached fourteen or ff-
teen million dollars in gold. These are facts
known to everybody who knows anything of
Treasury operations. When the Public Debt
statement of July was issued, 1t appeared
that not single bond of the fourteen or ff-
teen millions redeemed was entered on the
Treasurers books as paid The entire fifty
millions of "called" bonds were counted sim
ply as unpaid debt Now the issue be-
tween Mr.. Richardson and ourselves has
nothing to do with bookkeeping, but
we appeal to any man of common
sense to decide whether there was any
superhuman difficulty in sending the s3,9OOOOO
in bonds, paid for in New-York May 81, to
Washington and having them entered on the
Treasurers books during the month as paid.
Nav, even before the end of May, S6,5OoOOO
of these bonds had been sent to Washington,
had been examined there, and gold notes
issued in redemption of them. What pre-
MYSTERIOUS nonsense, then, to say that
it was physically impossible" to adjust"
the account of this fifteen million
dollars of called bonds which were paid for