American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-11-30

The first annual report of Theophilus
French, Auditor Of Railroad Accounts, con-
talns a mass OF information Of great value ia
the general public, and Of importance not
only to the 46 railroad companies interested,
put to the entire railroad interest OF the
country. Although the Bureau has been in
operation but few months, and many roads
have objected to furnishing information up
on its call, still that collected will furnish
| tie pcbli" with many new facts in regard to
! the real condition ut prominent corpora
tions. The forms adopted for reports are
such as to make clear all facts relating 70 the
ownership and control, to the financial con-
aitian, Questions OF revenue, and statistics of
reyenas, and those relating to the expendi-
required to furnish ON call a statement. from
! their books at the close of business hdtirs
upon any day specified, in which the liabili-
tbs and assets are fully set forth.
1t appears that the Union Pacific Railroad
has responded to the ,dehlahss OF the Bu-
reau only in part, but has submitted its
books for inspection. The Central Pacific
C0fipany has not complied with the law in
any respect. THE refusal seems to have
arisen upon the discovery G: . great dis
crepancy between the sworn statement of
the President of the Company and the one
made up from figures given in the printed
rebort to the stockholders, and, upon an ex-
PLANTATION being asked, cqrresponaence arose
which is not fet completed. The Kansas
Pacific Company is rendering all reports
called for under the law, and an interesting
somp p4sss1e s it By s from snsss fspfT hs
Auditor recommends that Con.
gress authorize the Central branch Of
the Union Pacific in Kansas to continue its
read to a junction with the Union Pacific at
or near the one hundred meridian, and
that, in place of a loan of credit and a grant
of lands, it should he entitled to grant of
such sum per mile as Congress may deter
mine, not to be repaid by the Company, tut
that, in place of repayment, the mails OF the
%
said road frea of charge. He also recon-
mends that the Government Directors of the
Union Pacific Railroad be appointed Gov
ernment Directors for the Central Pacific
and several branch railroads of tbs general
Pacific Railroad system.
The Mint.
The annual report Of the Director Of the
purchases and coinage, and statements re-
garding the production of gold and silver, it
closes with the following statement in re-
gard to the course.of silver bullion:
cat the date of the passage of the act au-
thorizing the coinage of dollars of 412 12
grains, the price of bar silver was about DO
pence per ounce, British standard. From
that date, Feb; IS last, The price gradually
18th of October. The price at the date OF
this report is so 12 pence. From the fore
goi..g, it will be seen that the expectation
entertained by man. that the remonetiza-
tion VI Tic sHftE uOlIftI WOulu pc lOiloMcu
by the appreciation in value OF silver has
not, as yet, been realized. The causes of
the decline in value during the present
calendar year have been very large de-
crease in the demand for export to India and
China, the cotinued closure of the mints of
the States of the Latin Monetary Union and
of the Netherlands against the coin
age of 1egal-tender silver coins, the
use of irredeemable paper cur
rency by Austria and Russia, and the
readiness of the German Government to
meet any fair market with free supplies,
making sale recently in London of f100,-
900 as low as 81 3-4 pence per ounce. 1t will,
of course, be readily understood that, as
long as the supply of silver is in excess of
the demand, there can be no permanent rise
in value. An increased demand of any
magnitude can only arise for India and
China, or in the event of the resumption of
the coinage of legal-tender silver coins by
France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
While this complicated, uncertain, and I'M
satisfactory condition of affairs with the rela
tive value of gold and silver continues, it
will require that the course to be pursued
by the United States should be very cautious
in respect to the issue of legal-tender silver
coins in which silver is rated so much above
its market value, if gold is to be retained as
the principal money Of payment and of COM
merce. 1t shoIild be added, in this eonnec-
ton, that, while silver is the monetary STAN
dard of the Austro- Hungarian and Russian
Empires, their more recent public loans have
been made upon a gold basis, which will re-
quire their tariff duties to be collected in
that metal. Foreign exchanges are likewise
settled on a gold basis"