The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-29
THE PUBLIC FUNDS.
Extracts from the Annual Report of the
Treasurer of the United States

EXTRACTS tfOm The Annual Report Of The
Treasurer of the United States.
WASHINGTON, Nov 28.-The annual report
of the Treasurer of the United States shows that
the net revenues of the government were less than
in 1883 by $40, 767, 712. Thedecrease in receipts
from customs was $40. 689, ee7; in receipts from
miscellaneous sources $SyS40, 2fG From the ag
gregate of these items should be deducted an in
crease of 81, S54, $40 IN receipts from sales of
public lands, leaving the net reduction as stated
above. The net expenditures aggregate $2a4,
126, pa, a decrease from the amount IN 1888 of
$2l, 9Sl, 1873 The surplus applicable to reduction
of the public debt amounted to $1O4 1893, CPS a
decrease of sos, 4S5, SIS from that of the pre-
vious year. The items of expenditures showing
a decrease are as follows:
On account of War Depaastment 50 4S1. 779;
Interior Department, 81, 46J, $50; interest on
the public debt, a ,591, 1872. There was an in
crease of s. 242 All in expenditures on account
of civil and miscellaneous, and of So, 009 l64 IN
expenditures on account Of the Navy Depart
ment The disbursing officers of the United
States had to their credit the books of the
treasury, at the close of the year, $32 463 $50.
The statement of assets and liabilities for Sept
3D. 1884, shows that the general balance was re-
duced from $l63 22 463. in 1882 to $149, 525 062.
in 1884, reduction of $13, 707, 400. The aggre-
gate amount of gold and silver coin and bullion
sheld by the treasury increased from 1892 410S 500,
in 1888, to 1896. 1852 in 1884, an increase
of $42 705 49, The gross assets increased from
$4J6, 1887, in 1883 to $519.690, 30, an in
crease of 500. $40, ADJ from Nov. l. 1881, to Nov.
l, 1884 The reserve decreased So, 1920, or
from $780, $40 545 to $14s, 070, 800
There were nominalfy outstanding. at the
close of the fiscal year. silver certificates amount
ing TO $40, S9ls 69l, an increase of $32 ia 500
during this year; the amount held by the treas
ury increased from SIS 1886, las to So, 384 $50.
thus leaving actually outstanding 1885,, Oil
an actual increase of g.. $50. 325 The amount
of standard silver dollars coined to Sept 30 1854
was $l62, 3s0, 500, of which the treasury held
$42 349, 4o9; of this amount, $97 o94 6S1 was for
redemption of silver certificates outstanding; the
amount in circulation was $3.50 sol 953, or about
81. per cent of the total coinage. AS usual
the amount outstanding reached the highest
point in December, when it exceeded $41 600, 900
an aggregate never before reached. The de
crease in June was not as great as in previous
years, probably owing to the scarcity of 81 and
81 notes, and on September 80 the amount
$3.50, III greater than at the same date in 1852
Counteriets of various kinds, amounting to
$ll0o0, were detected during the year.
Asaconsequence of the inability of the treasury
under the existing practice, to use either silver
dollars or silver certificates in its settlements
with the New York Clearing house, whereby,
for ethe greater part its disbursements
are made, the available gold ran
down from $155, 429, 600 on Jan l, 1884, to $ll6
4T9979 on Aug II, 1884, while the silver dollars
and bullion on hand represented by silver certif
eates outstanding, increased during the same
period from S27, 266, 037 TO SIS, 500, $685. AS a
temporary eXpedient to stop this drain of gold
from the treasury, the assistant treasurer at
New York was directed to use IN payments to
the clearing house, United States notes to the
extent of one-half the payments, bat the pay
ments of these notes into the treasury, which.
at the time this mode of payment COM
menced, had accumulated beyond its needs,
has now become so much reduced that
they are no longed available for
such payments to any considerable extent If
return to the former practice of making pay
ments entirely in gold or gold certificates shall
result in continuous loss of gold to the
treasury, which is not made up to sufficient ex-
tent by receipts of gold from other sources, the
question must soon arise for decision by the de-
partment as to whether it will continue to make
in gold, or its representative, payments now
made through the clearing house, or use in its
payments silver oilars or their representative
certificates ia the same proportion to the relation
which the silver dollars in the treasury not held
for redemption Of certificates outstanding bear
to the available assets, and to extent similar
to that in which they are used at other offices OF
the treasury.
During the fiscal year, $126, 152, SIP in national
bank notes were presented for redemption. being
%. So per cent more than the preceding year; of
the amount presented, $50 922, 600 or $3.50 per
cent. came from four cities-New York, Boston,
Philadelphia and Chicago. This increase of
s2yS3 per cent. in fhe amount of bank notes pre-
scented for redemption reflects the condition of
the mercantile and monetary affairs of the conn
try as shown by the reports of increasing bust
ness failures and decreasing clearing house
transactions. and it Is q continuation of the
course that bank-note redemptions has been pur
suing, year by year since 1881 The fiscal year
last ended closes ten years of national bank-note
redegnptions under the act of June 20, 1874, and
the aggregate amount OF bank notes presented
for redemption during the ten years, ex-
pressed in round numbers, was 81, 404
100000 a yearly average Of $40, 900, 900
The actual redemptions varied widely from this
average, running up to 1912 600, 600 in 1877 and
falling off to $59, COO 600 in 1881 The aggregate
amount of bank notes presented for redemption
during the first five years (lS7579) was 1913 000
600. while the aggregate amouns of the last five
years tlSS0-S4) was but 1926, 600, 900. In year
Of the last five did the redemption equal those
of any of the first five years The large redernp
tiers Of the years 1879 were, to some extent
due to the depression in business succeeding the
financial and commercial panic of 1873 and the
comparatively small redelnptions in the last five
years, lSS0-64 may be attributed to the recoy-
cry. during those years from the effects of that
panic, the increased activity of business and the
benefits attending resumption of specie pay
ments. The statistics of the ten years show
that redemptions are invariably affected by bust
ness seasons decreasing in the spring and
. autumn, when trade is active, and increasing in
midwinter and midsummer when trade is dull.