The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1876-06-01
v From the New York Morld1
sEsNATORDA CHARGES.


i No Report ON the Treasury Dis
crepancios Yet--ReInarlkabIC
! Irregularities Ia, the Treasury
I Records;
NyAsHrNGToN, May 1S.TThe iRyes-
4 tigations by the House have been ga
'bprolilie in revealing the abuses. and
corrdptions Of Republican rule in
every branch Of the service that the
one ordered.by the Senate on charges
1 brought bySa Democratic, Senator
!. early in January has been quite lost
sight of. II, best illustrates the en-
,lergy and spirit between the two par
ties in exposing mal-administration.
THE Senate Finance Committee was
/ direeted-at the time named to inyes-
tigate books and accounts of the
Treasury Department, particularly
! with reference to discrepancies and
'halteratianss amounts and figures
D So nude il1Ethen, espe-
cially iYthe annual statements Of
the expenditures Of the Government,
revenue collected, and the public debt
contained in the report thereof
Nearly four months have elapsed and
no reply has been made, nor are there
any indications of one. Possibly Re-
publican Senators are content with
the partial and plausible explanation
/ of the millions upon millions of dol
lars of discrepancies made by eX-Sec-
retary and now Senator Boutwell,, in
reply to the charges as detailed and
sustained by Senator Davis, of West
Virginia. Their Importance and
magnitude, and the utter failure thus
far to refute them, should not be for
gotten, for they speak volumes. 1t
should be preliminarily stated that
Senator Davis in his investigation at
the Treasury Department found no
official who could explain the alarm
ing alterations in the official reports
made in Congress. Here are some of
the remarkable discrepancies, copied
solely from the official figures, as to
the annual expenditure. Prior to
1870 all the finance reports agree as
to the total annual receipts and eX-
penditures; but take the finance re-
port of 1870 and it differs as TO their
totals from all previous reports be-
tween 1901 and 1866. For in
stance, in the report of 1869, page
321, it appears, commencing with
1860, that the total annual eXpendi-
lures were S5,SSS,91719016, Now,
take the finance report of 1870, page
| 275, it will be found that there is an
| increase of 1921, 97O.43. The great
est discrepancies are in the years
| 1868, 1865, 1866. In the year 1869
alone there is an increase of nearly
a million of dollars. If this discrep-
ancy appeared in the expenditures of
years ysince1S70 it'might possibly be
fexpiafned i4Tstlte. Observation-Disclosures
| the. Secretary's table (Which Mr..
Boutwell, originated) and the Regis
ter's statement, but the totals here
given are from the Registers state
ment-thc Register being the chief
bookkeeper of the Treasury-which
cannot be altered by any new table
originated in subsequent years. And
lest it be claimed, as it is frequently,
that the discrepancies at the close of
the fiscal years arise from the amount
of warrants issued by the Secretary,
and the amount of warrants actually
paid by the Treasury, it should be
Stated that not only is the rule of
forty-fve days allowed beyond the
end of the fiscal year, but as long as
three or four months, in which to
make up the full amount of receipts
and expenditures as here given.
In the war, navy and Indian eX-
penditures, from 1860 to 1866, it ap-
pears that many of the figures are
changed in the finance report Of 1870
for those periods, after having been
officially used by Congress for years.
Take the pension expenditures that
cover only one specific purpose and
look at the figures;
In the report OF 1870 the eX-
penditures for pensions
are stated for the year OF
iS6l-5 ut....,......,...,.,,,. SlG,3lTG2l,S4
In nthereport OF 1869 the same
expenditures for the same
year are stated at..."..... ,2Ol,6lO.4S
Showing an increase in the
report OF 1870 over the fig
ures in the report OF 1860
| Oi..".".... ..........,......"...". SbUooiulu'on
In the report OF 1870 the
pension expenditures for
the year lSG3-G4 are stated
at........................... S4,0S5, 1880
In the report OF lS63-6l the
same expenditures for that
year lS63-G4) are stated ut 4,9I9,633.lI
Showing an increase in the
report of 1870 over the fig
ures stated in the report OF
1869 oi.,,..... "."""" SD,SlU.f3
In the report OF 1870 the cx-
pcnditures for pensions in
the year 1870 are stated at S2S,3lO,2O2l
In the report OF 1874 the
same expenditures for the
same year (lS7O) are stated -.
ut,.,.,....,,,. ,..,.,.,.."."..., gSiiU-i iZ1l'-u
---
| Showing nm increase OF the