Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1878-12-18
SEN AToR DAVIS AND THE TREAS
URY INVESTIGATION.

SEN ApoR DAVIS AND THE TREAS
URY INVESTIGATION.
There has been studied and persist
ent effort by Congress and by certain
Republican journals, to laugh out OF
countenance" the demand made by
Senator DAVIS for an investigation into
the discrepancies of the Treasury book
keeping
Ridcule is not argument. 1t has not
answered in this case. 1t is very lame
and unsatisfactory way of disposing OF
discrepancies in the national accounts OF
more than two hundred millions OF dol
lars. None OF those who have laughed
have attempted to preface their merrl-
ment with the arithmetic OF that serious
little difficulty in balancing accounts.
Nor has the solution yet been offered.
The committee appointed to investigate
the matter have, ii is claimed, discovered
important facts in this connection which
NAV cause not little surprise at the
manner in which this branch OF the
Governments business has been con-
Quoted in the past, and will doubtless
have the effect of throwing greater safe
guards around it in the future.
The New York SIN OF Yesterday, has
this to say, cditorially, about ii:
cater long and hard struggle,
Senator Davis, of West Virginia sue
ceeded in raising special committee II
year ago to investigate charges which he
had repeatedly made, that the various
statements of the public debt, by the
Secretary of the Treasury, the Register,
and the Treasurer, from and after
1870, showed discrepancies amounting
to an increase of more than two hundred
millions Ofdollars rs compared 1869.
The Register oi the Treasury is the
book-keeper of the Government. All
the vouchers for expenditures are filed
in his Office, and the receipts for loans,
customs, and other sources are charged
up, SD that the exact state OF the public
accounts can only he obtained from that
source. From the organization of the
Treasury Department by ALEXANDER
HAMILTON down to the advent oi MIR.
boutwell,, the Register exclusively, Us
the only authentic agent, published the
statements OF the national debt, and they
were universally accepted.
After Mr.. boutwell, became Secretary
he changed the practice oil the Treasury
| by publishing monthly statements, and
assumed in his annual reports to give
| the only official figures OF the public
debt, the evidences OF which could only
he found in the Registers Office. upt
1869 the Secretary, the Register, and
| the Treasurer had all agreed, because
they all relied on tho books al the Reg
| lister. In 1870 MIR. Boutwell, undertook
| to 20 back thirty years, and to recon
struct accounts which had been adjusted
and filed away for u generation.
| When the various reports at 1870 and
1871 came to be compared with 1869, it
was found that the Secretary differed
with the Register over two hundred
millions Us to the total debt, and there
was no mode of reconciling the discre-
pancy consistent with honest reckoning
| That large difference attracted attention
in and out of Congress, and III order To-
silence comment. Mr.. Boutwell, required
MIR. Allison, then Register, to mako his
| figures conform to those ri the Sccrc-
tary, in direct conflict with the books
| in his possession. The official letter for
that high-handed act still exists, and
will appear in the testimony, 10 be here
after reported to the Senate.
During the discussion on this subject,
when Mr.. Boutwell, and Mr.. Sherman
were both members of the Senate, they
denied with pehemence any suggestion
that balances were forced, that figures
were altered, that the books had been
tempered with in any way, or that there
had been the least irregnlarity. Suspi-
cions had been excited by many illegal
acts, when Mr.. Richardson was Assist
ant Secretary and subsequently, Secre-
tary, aud charges were publicly made in
RESPONSIBLE quarters that there had been
foul play with the books.
The Republicans resisted any real in
vestigation of this subject at first, and
John Sherman made a whitewsshiag
report upon the original resolution, nj
ter getting ii referred to his own Finance
Committee. But Mr.. Davis was per-
sistent, and finally cxtorted special
committee, cramped with only two
clerks to examine the vast operations
and books vi the Treasury, hack To the
point of Mr.. Boutwcll's new departure.
Imperfect rs this assistance was for the
work to be done, il is now known that
most important discoveries have been
made. More than Thousand palpable
erasures, all modern, too, are plainly
visible in the books, involving many
millions of dollars Items OF one, two,
or three millions are not uncommon,
while hundreds of thousands are fire.
quent.
Now, these changes could not have
been accidental, and il they were
they should have been reported
long ago There was some deliberate
object in altering the figures and mutt
lating the accounts on which the public
has been accustomed In rely. And
herein, perhaps, is 10 he found the real
secret OF the extraordinary discrepan-
cies in the public debt and the arbitrary
manner in which they were reconciled.
This is the first revelation. Others
must follow.
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