Daily globe., 1879-03-19
A TREASURY DEFICIT.
An Astontshtn0 Discovery by the Mystsri-
ONs Wr. DGVts.

OMs Mr.. DGVis.
New York Tribune.
Senator Davis committee to investigate
treasury accounts held its meetings with
closed doors, and has preserved the greatest
secrecy with regard to the developments it
was supposed to be making. Only twenty
five copies of the testimony taken by the
committee we're printed, and these were kept
under look and key by the committee, and
access to them refused to all. No good rea-
son for SO much mystery can be found, as
the testimony contains nothing of sensa-
tional character and nothing which i'm
plicates treasury officials, present or past,
in irregular transactions.
The principal facts brought out by the
testimony taken by the committee are as
follows: Separate statements of the public
debt at the close of each fiscal year are made
by the registers Office and by the secretary
of the treasury. Those made by the regis
ter's Office up to and including the year 1870
were taken from the books showing "issues
and redemptions;'' that is, bonds actually
signed and send out of the treasury on the
one hand, and bonds redeemed and Cancelled
on the other. The statement made by the
secretary was taken from books showing the
"receipts and expenditures of the depart
ment, and inclued all subscriptions received
up to the end of the goth day8of June in
each year. As subscriptions for bonds we're
not usually filled for several days after their
receipt, these two sets of books never could
agree at any given moment during the
negotiations of the government loan, and at
the end of the year the transactions of few
days previous would appear in the secre-
tary's books, while they would not appear in
the registers books until the next fiscal
year.
These two reports, showing an apparent
discrepancy between the two Offices, were
bound together each year, and cause con-
siderable inquiry. In 1870 it was repre-
sented to the secretary of the treasury that
holders of American securities were COM
menting upon this apparent discrepancy,
considering it an evidence of looseness in
the accounts. In consequence of these rep
resentations Chief Clerk Saville, on behalf
of Secretary Boutwell,, wrote note to the
register requesting that his statements be
omitted, or that they be made to conform
with those of the secretary. In complain ,e
with this request, the debt statement issued
by the register contained list of the totals
for preceding years which was entirely diff
ferent from that given in his former annual
reports. One statement prepared by the
committee to bring out the discrepancies in
treasury accounts is novelty in its way.
The totals of the reports for each year, be-
ginning with 1883 and ending with 1870, are
placed in two columns side by side, and the
excess IN the one over the other is carried
out into third column. Sometimes it was
few hundreds and at others many millions.
At the bottom these excesses are footed up,
showing total of nearly $24s,O0O,OOo. At
the time this table was prepared, the COM
mittee had evidently not discovered that
each years excess ia the secretary's report
was carried into the total of the registers re-
port for the year following, and that the diff
ference between the two reports for the year
1870 comprised the entire excess for the
whole period. This was illustrated by one
of the Witnesses as follows: eff you have a
discrepancy of one dollar, and carry it from
year to year for forty years, and then foot it
up, you will make discrepancy of forty dol
lars.'