Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-12-22
CAPITAL NOTES.
Resignation OF Gen. y Ames-- arrity
OF Fractional Currency-.-A bill to
Cut on @OO.OOO Pension Applicants
---14ist OF POstm asters- - Nation al In
debtedNeaS-- General News

| Cut on 2OO.OO Pension Applicants
| ---List OF POstm as ters- n atIonal In
| debtedress-- .General News.
| GENERAL JAMES RESIGNS.
Postmaster General James has sent
his resignation to the president not.
withstanding denials. He asks that the
resignation take effect about the LIST OF
January, and assigns important and
pressing private business as the reason
for resigning. Mr.. James was expected
to stay in the cabinet through the fiscal
year, but recently he received informa.
ton from the directors of the Lincoln
National Bank, of New York, that he
was elected president, and that the
bank would open for business on the
18th Of January, and required his SER
vices. MIR. James went to New York
to see the directors and endeavored tc
arrange for them to dispense with his
services until next July. The directors
refused to listen to the proposal and in.
sisted upon having his services at the
opening of the bank, or that he should
resign the presidency. He then sent
his resignation to the president. and il
will be accepted. Whether his success.
sor will be nominated before the holi
day recess OF congress, is not yet known
Mr.. James friends say the president
wanted him to remain in the cabinet
until the end of the term.
| FRACTIONAL CURRENCY.
Complaints have reached here from
the west that there is no fractional cur.
rency in circulation, and that the banks
and bus mess houses which have gener.
ally been in reeeiptof considerable sum
no longer receive any, and the inquiry
is made why $S,000,000 or $4,000. OOC
of legal tender should be locked up as
a reserve for the redemption of the out.
standing fractional currency. 1t is a
fact that the redemptlons of fractional
currency have declined to very low
point, the amount redeemed during
the last year being but $50, 434 out OF
the SIS ,557 1878 nominally Outstanding
a year ago, or little more than one
half OF l per cent, as compared with
the SlS9,62S redeemed for the proceed
ing year. The decline in the redemp-
ton of fractional currency has been
very rapid since 1877 In that year
over 81 100000 were redeemed. The
percentage outstanding of the aggre.
gate amount issued is nearly 1-5 pei
cent, and it is not expected that this
percentage will ever be reduced below
4 per cent. That is the treasury esti-
mate. In other words, the treasury
never expects to redeem more than
one-fifth of per cent of the amount
now nomina!ly outstanding, but the
complaint that any sum is now held
as a reserve against this nominal
amount of outstanding fractional cur
rency arises from overlooking some
legislation of a comparatively recen,
date. AS matter of fact, the treasury
holds no funds against the currency
The eight or ten millions which were
held recently have, by specific act oil
congress, been covered into the general
fund of the treasury, and provision has
been made for the redemption out OF
the cash balance of the treasury OF
any fractional currency that may here
after be presented. By joint resolution
of July =, 1876, the secretary OF the
treasury was authorized to issue silver
coin to an amount not exceeding $10,-
100000, in exchange for legal-tender
notfs, and to keep the notes received
as !. special fund for the retirement of
a like sum of fractional currency. By
the act of June 81, 1879, the secretary
of the treasury was authorized to issue
the legal-tender currency held as a
special fund for the redemption Of frac-
tional currency in payment of arrear-
ages of pensions, and after that date
it was provided that fractional cur
rency presented for redemption should
be retired out of any moneys in the
treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Accordingly after that law, about S.
600, 900, which had been he'd as spec
ial fund for the redemption of out
standing fractional currency, were then
turned into the general cash balance
of the treasury. The redemptions
made since 1879, amounting altogether
to about 100000, have been paid out
of the general unappropriated moneys
of the treasury.
THE PENSION BILL.
A strong effort will be made to re-
peal the Arrears-of- Pensions act. The
bill introduced by George w. Hewitt,
Va EhluphIiih, 10 VIC VI q
large number of measures which will
seek, in various ways, to limit the
claims under this act Mr.. Hewitt
says, in relation to his bill, that it is but
one Of numerous ways in which this
can be accomplished. The Arrears-of-
Pensions act, he says, has gone entirely
| beyond what was contemplated by
Congress or TIE Trainers of the act when
it was passed, and has become n serious
drag upon The treasury. The bill has
excited spirit of avarice that is demon
strated in the thousands of pension
claims, many of them fraudulent, and
Others utterly without justification.
| Hundreds of claims are put in every
month by men whose names were
never on a mustef-roll, and thousands
by men who came out of the army
stronger in constitution and in sounder
health and limb than when they went
in. Men who would not risk their
honesty and good names and run the
risk of the penitentiary for a mere
monthly pension, will do both to OBJ
tain the $500 or $1,000 arrearage money,