Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-08-01

Grand total cash IN treasury. ID bS9 do
From which deduct the following liabilities:
Gold certificates o1t-
standing. ..... s116, 79e, $50 90
Silver certificates
outstanding. ....... 251, 1O2, AIS 10
Legal tender ce, l.
dcates outstanding 167s5, 900 60 $50, $50 aO4 90
Balance in the treasury after all
liabilities are deducted. ......... S3i65i34 ASS ID
Or over three hundred and twenty-six million
dollars.
IL this is not riches-what isS And
this is all idle, drawing no interest. while
the United States is paying interest on a
shade less than eight hundred and thirty
million dollars-SS29, 500, 900.
OF the balance in the treasury the
treasurer is required by law to set apart
100000, 900 as a reserve for redemption
of United States notes. and under present
laws he is also required to keep idle the
$50, 671, 1853. 10 deposited with him by
national banks to redeem their circula-
ton as it is presented.
e This leaves q clear surplus of S142,-
S62. 206. 30. but of this amount there is
again set aside the sum OF SAG, 023, 1865 OF
to cover accrued interest on the debt and
to meet discussing officers drafts when
presented; just as if the receipts of the
government were going to stop. and never
again another dollar be paid into the
treasury.
We, as a country, are rich enough to
stand all this, but we cannot see clearly
why. after all has been provided for,
nearly one hundred millions, not wanted
and not set aside for any purpose, should
lie idle when so much money could be
saved for the people by decreasing the
interest bearing debt, as the law directs.
And this vast amount of money for
which the government has no legitimate
use-an amount so vast that the mind of
man can hardly grasp it. is wrung from
the people by indirect taxation-by q
tariff on foreign imports. And this, it
should be borne in mind, Is but fraction
of the amount that is tilched from the
consumers of the United States. Where
one dollar is paid into the national treas
ury, five dollars. and perhaps ten dollars,
is exacted as tribute for the greedy man
ufacturing barons, for whose benefit the
excessive tax rate is maintained The
figures are appalling-the exactions are
more burdensome than those that drove
the colonists into rebellion against the
parent government. Aud what remedy
do Fisk X Sons propose for this condi-
tOnT The purchase of bonds. of course,
in which they are heavy dealers, at a high
rate of premium-say 1856, of 81 1850 for
each 1000 unma:ured bond taken up.
They declare, as their 'opIniOn as large
dealers in government bonds. that fifty to
one hundred million fours' could be
bought without advancing the market
price over 3 or per cent"
What do the toilers of this country
think Of the financial policy of the gOv>
ernment-the men who toll at the fur
mace, the loom, in the mines or beneath
the boiling sun in the harvest tield2 Dc
they think the exactions from which they
suffer should continue, in order that the
holders Of bonds may realize immensely
on their investments; that trusts and
combines to restrict production and force
up prices may be rendered more easy and
certain in their results2 Or do they think
that there should be let-up in the
scheme of taxation-that the money
should be left in their pockets. for use in
the channels of trade, instead of being
forced from them to lie idle IN the treas
ury or be distributed among the greedy
bond holders, manufacturing nabObs and
mine owners of the east?"