The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-09-12

prepared to accept whatever may ap-
pear to be the degree of moral obliqmty
in high places, even though it reach the
Treasury Department, which is supposed
TO be, and ought to be, the Sanctlm sane
| toratna of official accuracy and in
| tegrity. 1t will not do for
the Treasury Department to stand
on us dignity IN the face of these charges
1t has NO dignity in the absence of an OK.
planation OF the facts adduced by Mr..
DAVIS. What he has shown is n prina
tacie Case-evidence of Geylish design
discrepancies IN official reports, sltera-
tions and manipulatlons Of figures to
force balances, and a mysterious syst IN
of bookkeeping that defeats all speculs-
tiOn MS to the methods employed. 1t is
no. mere sensational dlatribe or disgust.
ton for partisan purposes; nor has MIR
DAVIS drawn upon his imagination or
vague suspicious for the facts. lie does not
travel outside the official figures for his
facts. He convicLs the treasury depart
ment out OF its own mouth. He takes, for
example, the official report of the Register
of the Treasury for 1869, and finds that
he reports the total expenditures of the
government for the years l864-65 to be
ST. S9I674, 224 %. Now in the year 1870
the Register makes another report, in
which he states the expenditures tor said
years, lS64-65, to be 81, 800, ,433, ,33l.37, or
u difference of nearly nine millions Of
! Again the two statements of the Register
rs to the expenditures for laGZ-G3
| show discrepancy OF over four
DttLlions. But these sums are trifing as
compared with the discrepancies IN the
reports AS to the public debt, Within
nine years-from 1862 to lS70-the fig
ures in the several reports OF the Regis
ter have been altered and changed Sc
that IN 1870 he has increased his former
statements to the modest sum OF S24S,
9GO,35294. In order To accomplish this
he was obliged to increase the amount
reported for one year ninety four millions
| doLLars and for another year, nieety-miHe
millions and for another year, more than
seUentv-fivc millions. This is right bold
bookkeeping, but the resources of the
Register are not yet exhausted.
For thirty-fve years the reports of the
| public debt statement for each OF the
wears 1886 to 1860 inclusive, were uni
! lorm, exact and unaltered. But IN 1871
it became necessary, apparently, to force
n balance for this year somewhat extra
ordinary IN its demands, and in order to
accomplish it, the Register actually goes
back and alters figures that have had
official sanction through thirty-hNe
wears. and thus balances his report for the
public. He alters the figures tor the
wear 1887 to the amount of Sl,5OO,OOO;
for the year lS4l, TO the amount OF
Sc, 100000; and tor the year lS43, to the
amount of S5,OO0,000-sll of which had
before passed through thirty-fve years o :
official scrutiny and endorsement.
Don't talk about fraud! We dismiss
this feature of the subject. True, there
is Just suspicion OF the grsndest swindle
on record. But fraud is almost a minor
consideration in the presence OF such
book-keeDinq. We have heard of adroit
book. keeping by bank cashiers; we have
heard, lately, of profitable method of
book. keeping IN u Chicago savings bank.
Indeed, there is nothing more familiar
in these times than to hear of certain
methods of book keeping that mystify
boards of directors but all this Is tame
and uninteresting now. This book
keeping for the nation, adopted
by the Treasury Department, Is the most
elastic, by many mi lions, of which we
have any history. We repeat it-let the
quest ion of fraud be dropped; let us DIS
miss the grave suspicious which justly
attach TO this subject; let US concede, for
the time that all the receipts and expen-
dituIes of public money can be honestly
accounted for. Yet, rs business lustl-
| tuition, dealing directly with the finances
of the Government, the Treasury De-
partment has, by its own showing, in the
matter of book keeping, disclosed such
pslpable evidence OF bunglng and mac
curacv IS render it ridiculous in the
ewes of the werld. 1t has by its own
public, official reports fairly subjected its
management to the charges OF forgery
and embeZzlement of millions of money.
'iWe speak from the face of ITS own re-
y ports. Senator DAVIS is not responsible
.tfor these strange and discrepsnt state
toments They are official. They confuse
ennd confound the whole country, and
.nthey demand explanation demand Il
stHll and searching Investigation from the
In -ext Congress, and no consideration OF