The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-04-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.
fFrom Our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, D. G.,
Anrilr16 1881 u

Inc WOEh VI COuAJknS 9hO Saoh III
the Treasury vaults is still going on
and up to this time the only discrep
ency found is an excess of four cents
in Uncle Sans favor. But the re-
serve fund has not yet been touched.
When that is overhauled some peo-
pie think there will be music, not
that anything is believed to be wrong
in the accounts of eX-Treasurer Gill
fillan, who is q man of undoubted in
tegrity and has unquestionahly left
things as we'll as he found them, but
way back to war times and in many
cases since there have been depreda-
lions upon Treasury funds which SO
far rs is known have not been replac-
ed. The money in the Treasury is
supposed to be counted twenty-five
times by so many different persons
in every process of paying out or
taking in, thereby making fraud i'm
possible, it is alleged-and SO it
would be but for collision. Duling
the war the exigencies of the public
service were such that people could
dip their hands in the Treasury and
get out what they wanted; it never
recovered from the decentralization of
that period. The Treasury books
are a mass of erasions and insertions,
and are totally incomprehensible, ex-
cept to an expert at accounts. The
simple fact is that the books will not
balance, and the only thing to be
done is to cover up the shortage by
the cuttle-fsh tactics of d%arkening
everything in the vicinity. The de
termination to count the Treasury
funds is the surest indication that
the republicans feel the end is IA
Judge Folger is rigidly honest; his
position then may be imagined when
he found himself at the head of the
department, which is the fountain of
corruption. The Treasury is pack
ed with John Sherman's followers
men whom Judge Foleer d%istrusts
and dislikes.
AS is well known, nothing like the
dissensions which are now prevailing
between the Treasury officials was
ever known before. Hitherto they
have had q Secretary who winked at
fraud and peculation; now they have
one who not only requires that his
principal subordinates shall not
steal, but that they shall not allow
their underlings to steal. When
Judge Folger came to know the char
acter of the people by whom he was
surrounded he would unquestionably
have dismissed them if he could, but
his hands were tied. The Assistant
Secretary, Henry F. French, is an
example. Not six months passes
that some attempt to beat the gov
eminent on the part of this man does
not come tn light. Some time ago
it was the paying his son $40 a day
for doing some sculpture for the gov
erument when it vas known the son
hired an Italian for a pittance to do
the work. Then it was Tor establish
ing his relations in the Treasury,
not giving them places, but shame
lessly making places for them &C
cording to the revelations of the
chiefs in whose divisions they were
Then it was for sending a bill of his
expenses to the government for at
tending Ralph Waldo Emerson's fu-
neral-a bill which Judge Folger
promptly disallowed. Now is it to
be supposed that IN officer of Judge
Folger's rectitude would permit a man
Of that character to remain in the
Assistant Secretaryship of the Treas
ury if he could help it. But, unfortu-
nately, he cannot help it. He is sur
rounded on. all sides by them. There
is a general complaint that Judge
Folger attends too much to detail,
and both the capable and the inca
pable, the honest and the dishonest
among his immediate subordinates
are nettled at it, but from vely diff
ferent motives. The truth is, the
Secretary has had to distrust
so many persons that he can no long
er trust anybody. This counting Of
the money in the Treas ury is q source
of much anxiety to him and he will
not leave Washington until it is com.
plete.. If there is a deficit it will be
exposed by the stern honesty of
Judge Folger if he has the power;
but very likely the same collision
that caused it has had time to cover
it up, for the present at least. When
the democrats come in, then will
strange things be discovered-but
the Treasury vampires don't care
for that. "After US the deluge," say
they.
tits evident that when the nation
al debt is finally paid off the United
States will be found to be a large
gamer through the destruction and
loss of its paper promises to pay
Every month the debt on which in
terest has ceased, and for which no
one claims payment, increases, until
there is now lying in the Treasury
nearly eleven millions of unclaimed
principal and interest, which has ac-
cTued at various dates from 1887 and
earlier down to December %, 1882.
Of the $4,000, 900 of fractional pa
per currency issued during and since
the war 15,3s6,512 are still OUT
standing, and redemptions have al
most ceased. By act of Congress
passed in 1879, $S,375,934, which it
was estimated had been destroyed,
were declared Cancelled and entered
as paid on the Treasury books. A
more correct estimate of the govern
ment gain from this source would
have been SIS, 900, 600, or more than
thirty per cent. of the issued.
The government gain on the 1916,
600, 900 legal tender notes will doubt
less be very large, though a much
smaller percentage than in the case
of fractional currency, where the
wear and tear were very great
Whether the government or the