The advocate., 1890-10-01

consider IT,
suppose there is no department Of tho
government in which there are 30 many Of
those dust-covered rules prevailing as in the
treasury department One of them came TO
light very conspicuously tho other day. The
secretary Of the treasury, for tho purpose of
relieving the stock-brok0rs OF New York,
determined TO exercise the power conferred
upon him by law Of preparing inter
est on government bonds but 10
was found TO be practically without avail,
because Of a rule in the treasury department
that no man could be paid interest on any
Of the bonds standing in his name unless
they were all presented, but il would turn
out, as IL did in almost all cases where there
was a large amount Of bonds in the hands Of
one man, that some one, two, or more OF the
bonds had been sold, and the evidence Of
sale and transfer Of the proprietorship Of
the bonds had not been registered and made
known TO the department.
The consequence was that the interest on
the larger lots of bonds could not be antiCi-
pated, and thus tho whole purpose Of the
secretary was baked by reason OF a rule
made sometime In the missionary period Of
che government; and 80 what was intended
to be wise and beneficial was Intellectual,
and ii was only under pressure OF threat
ened panic in New York, that the secretary
concluded to change this ruling in such a
way that whoever presented a bond, being
the owner OF course, might have interest
paid on the bonds he presented without re-
quiring him to show chat those we're all the
bonds he owned. So in this case IL may be,
and very likely is, that some clerk has made
this rule, that ii grows out OF some convent
ence OF bookkeeping or something OF that
sort, or it may be that there is some animus
back Of it, but not that Of the secretary, as /
am bound TO believe.
It seems to me that the sooner the treas
ury department. is Conformed in It's opera
tions to ordinary business principles the bet
tor il is going to be. There never has been
in all the history Of this government 20 con-
spicuOus an illustration of the impoliCy Of
allowing the treasury department to have
anything to do which obstructs or accele-
ates business, as has occurred in the last
few weeks. For months--for years-the
treasury department boarded money which
was needed for the transaction Of the bust
ness Of the country, and during all that pc
riod Of time the volume of money was con-
stantly shrinking by reason Of the retire
ment of national-bank notes, and the seCre-
tary hugged TO his bosom the old idea that
a certain amount was necessary TO be kept
on hand as a reserve, without any reference
to the business Of the country outside.
The increasing business of the country
was constantly hampered for the lack of
money while he held onto it, which was
taken from the people by the operations Of
the government and was needed TO be re-
turned at the earliest possible moment, in
order that the business of the country might
be properly conducted without stress; and
80 IL happened that instead Of putting out
the money last summer, last spring, last
winter, a year ago, or year and half ago,
during all this time when the retirement Of
national bank notes was going on, the SEC
retary waited until panic was impending,
not merely speculators' panic, but strin-
gency in the money market which affected
the banks of all the cities and seriously in-
terfered with all the business operations Of
the country; and then he did whOt2 He gave
out the money to the holders Of government
bonds, under such circumstances as 10 ena-
bic them, and not him, to control the mon