The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1885-12-19
TREASURY REPORT,
FTRET ANNUAL sTATEEEET OF
REuRETARH MANNEFG,
R.estwtn and Expenditure s-ssiiVeF @"S
Tariff Questions,

B.,sawsu and Expenditure s-siiVeF aHs
ThFAH Questions
Tho annual report Of the secretary OF the
tra.S,rv embraces fifty-efght pages Of printed
matter, and is accompanied by sleCll .
mort of fifty-six pages on the colieeVloH u
customs duties
Tho ordinary revenues of the government
for the fiscal wear 1885 were SE25, 6SV,'oo, anu
tine ordinary expenditures tincluding SINKING
fI1r,tl AZ, Gl4 0S5l were $50, SSO, y'U leaving
surplus Of f. As .s eoniP derrease q
/ S5l4 B2g. 1853 in revenue and an increase vi
! SIG. 100. $50 in expenditures ,sse -.
The estimated revenues of the year 1855 are
1916 600. 600, and the estimated expendlUuIes,
including sinking fund s2VO IoQoOo AL III
wear 1871, however the secretary est Sun W.
that there VIII be deficit of 81 5sS, o'$, the
revenue remaining at 1918, 000,0O and ths
expenditures reaching S3S9, 5S5,9OS' VI Ct az
! estimated increase of S49, 000, coo in expennl-
lures, g.O0C, 90 Is for pensions, si3,o2C,OOo
! for. the navy and 81 900 coo for tortlncaIlohS;;
The interest bearing debt has been reduced
| during the fiscal wear SO, 369 100 ana nov
! stands at 81 800, ms 162 including the racine
Railroad bonds 1854, 623 512l. The balance I'D
the treasury of assets over IiabllIties haS DeeI
| increased SIS. U58 703 since March !, 1se0, OF
! which Scp5 600 600 is silver coin, Slb,OOO,ON
gold coin. and 81. OO0. 600 legal tender notes
Eighteen pages of the secretary,s report art
aivep to a theoretical and historical discus
sion of the silver question Inc secretary
arg1les that the continued coinage OF silver
dollars nv arbitrary purchases of bullion
without reference to the public demand LoI
such dollars must eventually make the
United States silver mono-meGalllc natioh'
and put lis out of harmony with the CONNER
cial world. and tend TO defeat mternatlonai
bi=metalis1n. He opposes the project IoI
making a heavier dollar, since that would also
oDeI,ate AGAINST international bi-metallsm by
carrying us further away from the European
ratio and because the adoption OF a new
ratio would involve the coming OF more dol
lars whereas we have more than enough al
ready Stoppage of the coinage, In the sec
retar-yis opinion is the effectual and only
remedy for the evils existing and threatened
On the subject of reform In taxation the
secretary says:
E'Beside the reforms which are desirable for
the effective administration of any system Of
taxation levied through imported mercha!-
disc and are indispensable for the admins
tration of custom laws, which, like our own
are chaos rather than system venture
to hope that in due season 1t Will be the pleas
ure OF Congress to consider some other re
forms upon which, as is requisite, all parties
may agree and that are OF different scope
Like our currency laws, cur tariff laws are a
legacy of war If exigencies excuse their
origin their defects are unnecessary after
tanned without sitting and discrimination, al
though enacted without Legislative debate, crit
icism or examination. A horizontal reduction
of ten per cent was made in 1S2, but was
repealed in 1875 and rejected in 1884. They
require at our custom houses the employment
of a force sufficient to examine, appralSe, and
levy duties upon more than 4, lS2 different ar
ticles. Many rates of duty begun IN war
have been increased since, although the late
tariff commission declared them injurious to
the interests supposed to be benet1tedl and
said that reduction would be conducive To
the general prosperity. They have been re
tanned, although the long era Of falling prices
III the case of specific duties, has operated a
large increase of rates. They have been re
tanned at an average ad valOrem rate for the
last year Of over forty-six per cent, which Il
but two and half per cent less than the
highest rate Of the war period, and Is nearly
four per cent, more than the rate before the
latest revision. The highest endurable rates
of duty which were adopted 1864 to offset |
internal taxes upon almost every taxable arti- |
Gle, have in most cases been retained now
from fourteen to twenty years after such in
ternal tax has been removed. They have
been retained while purely revenue duties
upon articles not competing with anything
produced in the thirty-eight States have been
discarded. They have been retained upon
articles used as materials for our own manu-
features lin 1884 adding So, 900 to their
cost which, if exported, compete in other
countries against similar manufactures from
untaxed materials. Some rates have been re
tanned after running the industries they were
meant TO advantage Other rates have been
retained after affecting higher price for
domestic product at home than it was sold
abroad for. The general high level of rates
has been retained on the theory of counter
vailing lower wages abroad, when, in fact,
the higher wages Of American labor are at
once the secret and the security of our ca
pacty to distance all competition from pau
per labor in any market All changes have
left unchanged, or changed for the worse, by
new schemes of classification and otherwise,
q complicated, CumbTous, intricate group of
laws which are not capable of being admins
tered with imparhality to all our merchants,
As nothing in the ordinary course of bust
ness is imported unless the price here Of the
domestic, as well as the imported, ARTICLES
higher by the amount Of the duty and the
cost Of sea-transit than the price abroad, the
preference OF the taxpayer for duties upon
articles not produced in the United States is
justified by the fact that such duties cost him
no more than the treasury OF his country
gets As for duties affecting articles that are
also produced in the United States the first
to be safely discarded are those upon mate
flaIs used by our own manufactures, which /
now subject them to hopeless competition at
home and abroad with the manufacturing
nations, none of which taxes raw materials
1t Is not to be doubted that in any reform
which shall finally receive the approval of the
two houses OF Congress- they will fnatIrely
consider and favorably regard the interests
which can only gradually and carefully be
adjusted, without loss, to changes in the leg
islative conditions for their advancing pros
perity. With this view, | have invited in
some :, 900 circular letters to our manufac-
burers and merchants, their enlightened CO. |
operation in the Improvement OF our fiscal
policy, and the replies received will hereaf-
ter be submitted to the consideration Of Con
gress.
LIFE-sAvIHG SERVICE.
The usual benefieent results have attended
the operations of this service during the wear.
The number of stations in commission at the |
close of the year was POS. The number Of
disasters 10 doeumented vessels reported by
the district officers to have occurred within
their field of action is 256. The number of
persons On board these vessels was 2,206
of whom 2, i96 were saved and ten lost
The value of the property involved Is
estimated at -, 6t4 Ass, of which So, 352 76O
was saved and 81 %, sos lost The number
of vessels totally lost was fifty-six. There
were beside us disasters to smaller craft
such as sailboats r1'vhoats etc on which
were sst8 persons, 232 of whom were saved
ami one lost The value of property involved
in these minor disasters was SO 925 of which !
81, s@3 was saved and IS, l02 lost.
PUBLIC BuILDlN
During the last year work has baen In
Progress upon forty-nine buildings, under che
direction Of the supervising architect Con
gress at Its last session authorised the erection
OF, and made appropriation for, thirty-one
new buildings IN various parts of the eoup-
ny, maklng, practically eighty new build
lngs, ranging in cost Of Construction
from 81, 900 to 81 10000 upon which pre-
paEatory or active work OF construction has
keen prosecuted The total expenditures
during the year upon new buildings, ineIud- 1
ing sites, aggregate 81 ,4Ss ,7O9 % gor repairs
and preservation Of public buildings. &l75.-
OtA5S; for heating apparatus and repairs to
same, elevators, vaults, safes, locks storage
Of silver dollars, ETC., Sl99, S6o.74
Japan and Its Resources.
Japan is made mp of chain of vol
canic mountains, and the arabic land Of
the empire is officially put at Il, Ala, 900
anFaR-iazs thar ona half All. -. - 4