Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-12-07

kNOS DGNGNxD
provision for coinage Of fixed amount each
month be repealed, and that hereafter only
40 much be coined as shall be necessary to
supply the demand.
NATIONAL BANKS.
| The Secretary advises that the issues
| of gold certificates should not for the
present be resumed and suggests that
| the National Banks may properly be forbid
den by law to retire their currency except
upon reasonable notice of their intention so
10 do. Such legislation would seem to be
justiced by the recent action of certain banks
on the occasion referred to in the Secretary's
report.
OF the fifteen millions of fractional cur
rency still outstanding. only about eighty
thousand has been redeemed the past year.
The suggestion that this amount may prop
erly be dropped from future statements ofthe
public debts, seems worthy of approval.
CusroN RECEIPTS.
The revenue from customs for the past
fiscal year was Sl9s. l59, SIC. .02-an increase
of Sll, ,637 GIL ~ over that Of the year pre-
ceding. SlSs, ,09s, ,562 SO of this amount was
collected at the port of New York,
lected at all of the other ports of
the country. OF this sum $47 ,937, ,l37.63
was collected on sugar and molasses;
S27 .2s5 624.7S on wool and its manufacture;
s2l .46e, ,534 "a on iron and steel and manu-
factures of silk; $l0.s25. ll5.2l on manu-
factures of cotton, and $50, ,469. .643.04 on
wines and spirits, making total revenue
from these sources of Sl33, 3,05S, 720.8l. The
expenses of collection for the past year were
Sc, 4l9. .345. 20, an increase over the preceding
year of $685., ,4l004. Notw outstanding the
increase in the revenue from customs over
the proceeding year, the gross value of the
imports including free goods decreased over
twenty-five millions of dollars.
An increase Of s7,457 .474 was as follows:
OF steel rails, 81 .345, ,52l of barley, 81 l54,-
204 and of steel in bars of ingots, ETC., ST.
670.0 .046. Contrasted with the imports during
the last fiscal year, the exports were as fol-
lows:
Domestic merchandise, sss3, 1926, ,947
Foreign merchandise, lS,45l 1899
Total, S9O2. .377 .346
Imports of merchandise, 642, ,664 ,62S
Excess of exports over imports
of merchandise, $259.7l2,7lS
Compared with the previous year there was
an increase of $66, 73s, ,6SS in the value Of ex-
ports of merchandise, and decrease of $685.
29O. lis in the value of imports. There were
S435, $685. ,40s in circulation in 1870, and
s642, ,664, 4,62s in lssl-an increase
Of sch ,o0 or 1860 per ncm cent
i've. the exports of specie exceeded the i'm
ports. The largest excess of such exports
over imports, was reached during the year
1864, when it amounted to S92, ,2S0 .929. But
during the year ended June 30, 1880, the
imports of coin and bullion exceeded the i'm
ports S75.S9l ,39l; and during the last fiscal
year the excess of imports over exports was
SOL, l6s, $50.
REDUCTION OF INTEREST ON DEBT.
In the last annual report of the Secretary of
the Treasury the attention of Congress was
called to the fact that S469, ,65l .O50 in five
per centum bonds and S203 ,573, $50 in six per
centum bonds would become redeemable dur
ing the year. The message then reviews the
funding process by which these maturing
bonds were met, and says: The reduction of
annual interest on the public debt through
these transactions is as follows:
BY reduction of interest to 81
per cent, S1O,473, 1922
BY redemption of bonds, 6,352, ,24O 90
Total, 1886, ,292 %
Unless the 81 per centum bonds can be fund
ed at a much lower rate of interest than they
now bear, I agree with the Secretary of the
Treasury that no legislation respecting them
is desirable.
A YEAR OF GENERAL PROSPERITY.
The business of the country has been SO
prosperous during the past year as
to yield by taxation a large surplus of income
~ Al.
main unchanged, this surplus must year by
year increase. on account of the reduction of
of ithe public debt and its burden
of interest. and because of the
rapid increase Of our population.
1t is estimated that even if the annual re-
ceipts and expenditures should continue at
present the entire debt could be paid in ten
years. In view, however, of the heavy load
of taxation which our people have already
borne. we NAV well consider whether it is not
the part of wisdom to reduce the revenues
even if we delay a little the payment
of the debt. 1t seems to me that the
time has arrived when the people may justly
demand some relief from their present oner
Gus burdens. l, therefore. concur with the
Secretary in recommending the abolition of
all internal revenue taxes, except those upon
tobacco in its various forms, and upon dis
titled spirit. and fermented liquors. and except
also the special tax upon manufacturers Of
and dealers in such articles. l agree with
the Secretary of the Treasury that the law
imposing a stamp tax upon matches. propri-
etary articles. playing cards, checks and
drafts may with proprety be repealed, and
the law also by which banks and bankers
are assessed upon their capital and deposits.
ABOLITION OF CERTAIN TAxEs.
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