New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-14

and kindred NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. should be re-
moved by attentive consideration Oh tne
operations of the Treasury.
Secretary Sherman cannot lawfully tissue
currency of any kind except in four ways.
He can issue gold in payment for called bonds
and in payment of interest on the pubic deOt'
but he has no right 10 issue and no one sup
poses that he intends to issue United states
notes for either purpose. He has legal power
to purchase gold or silver, and for that pur-
pose to pay out legal-tenders, but no one
imagines that he intends to do so, ana ne
cannot be compelled to do so until legal
tenders enough have first been paid into the
Treasury to exhaust its store OF gold. only
one way remains In which legal-tenders once
IN the Treasury can again be ISSUED"
namely, in payment of expenses OF the Gov
eminent, other than interest on the gold
bearing debt. But every such expenditure Is
strictly limited by appropriation. Inc Secre-
tafy has in law no more power than any phi
vate citizen to take out of the Treasury
single dollar which he is not by appropriation
laws authorized to pay, excepting as above
stated. Now the entire appropriations permit
an expenditure, exclusive of interest on the
in wear. But part of this sum must be
paid in gold. Salaries of Ministers, Secre-
taries, and COnsuls, and all other diplomatic
agents abroad, must be paid in gold, ana pay
ments to officers and men of the navy on Tor
eign stations must also be so paid because
notes of the United States are not there cur
rent There remains, after these and some
minor deductions of like nature, certainly not
more than S125,000,000 which the Sec
rotary has any power to pay out In
n wear in legal-tender notes He cannot lend
the public money, or give 1t away, and would
be liable to impeachment if he did either lie
has no right to pay out anything except COIN
for called bonds, interest on the cOin-bearing
debt, or salaries of diplomatic and absent
naval servants of the public. The approprla-
ton bills permit him to tissue" legal-tenders
amounting to about $125,0OOOOO IN year,
and not n dollar more.
The Treasury received last year in legal
tenders Sl1O,5S1, 625 from internal revenue,
81, O79, 743 from sales of public lands, and
S15, 614,72S from miscellaneous sources. In
short it receives every year, and until It's
revenue laws are changed must be expected
to receive, fully as large sum in currency
rs it can possibly pay out or ISSUE" ut the
present scale of annual expenditure. Congress
can, indeed. provide for "issuing" more cur
rency by appropriatingmore-by granting money
to railway, canal or levee jobs, or for South
ern claims, or expeuding more for buildings or
river and harbOr improvements. But the APP
preparations for the current fiscal year have
been made, and no material change can be
effected in the revenue or the scale of annual
expenditure until there is "A sufficient majority
in Congress, hostile to resumption and the
public credit, TO overcome a veto. At present,
then. the Secretary of the Treasury cannot
possibly pay out more currency than he must
take in, under revenue laws now in force.
OF necessity, then, if legal-tcnders are also
taken into the Treasury in exchange for gold
or silver, that sum cannot be paid out or
issued again, but must accumulate in the
Treasury. Unhl 100000, 900 in legal-ten-
ders have thus been paid in, besides the amount
paid for taxes, the coin in the Treasury
cannot be exhausted. Long before any
such sum in legal-tcndcrs can be paid
into and accumulated by the Treasury. the
desire to surrender legal-tendeTs in order TO
get coin must cease. The notes must become
scarce, and the coin superfluOusly plenty the
notes will rise and the coin ihll In market
value. Hence there is absolutely no posslbll-
10y that notes can be used over and over
"again to drain the Treasury of gold" For
the Treasury cannot be compelled to pay out
legal-tenders in the purchase of coin until
its present reserve is exhausted, and the cOun-
try will stop surrenderlnG notes for coin
long before 1t has surrendered and piled up
in Treasury vaults as much $200O0O,00O.
The fear expressed by one sincere friend of
resumption, however, has had great weight
with many persons, who fail to observe that
every dollar in legal-tenders which may be
paid into the Treasury in exchange for coin
must stay there until Congress so increases
its appropriations or decreases the public
revenue as to compel the Treasury to pay that
dollar out again.
A MIRROR FOR THE TINES.
:. II