The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1891-09-23
The Depleted treasury.


the truthfulncss of its party leaders
to accept without question the re-
ports of the Secretary of the Treas
ury, may believe fully the explana-
lions that are being sent out to-
day to supplement the scanty debt
statement of yesterday.
That debt statement was intend
ed to show that the government has,
as available assets, the large sum of
more than sixty millions of dollars
with which to meet all demands
upon it. AS n matter of fact, wher-
ever that impression has been made
there has been a deceived person.
If the Treasury had at its commsnd
sixty millions of dollars, or even
half that amount, Secretary Foster
would at once and with a great
deal of satisfaction call in and re-
deem the A per cents, amounting
to about s27 100000, that became
due and payable to day.
1t has been seen for months that
there would be difficulty in satisfy
ing the appropriations of the Billion
Dollar Congress and the bondhold-
ers at the same time. In order to
meet demands that could not be
evaded the Treasury has been de-
Ginning to pay many of the appro-
priations, some of which were of
large amount, the Secretary finding
it convenient to say that, as the APP
preparations were made out of
"money in the Treasury not other
wise appropriated" and as there
was no money "not otherwise APP
propriated, he could net pay the
money called for. Several Indian
appropriations, aggregating proba-
bly, s3,O0O,O0O, were included in this
category. The chance of their be-
ing paid soon is very slim indeed.
Instead.of calling upon the cred
itors of the government who hold 4!
per cents to come forward and re-
ccive the face value of their bonds,
as the Secretary would do if he had
the money, he announces, as if he
were comforting great favor upon
them, that the time for continuing
the u per cents at per cent. will
be extended indefinitely. That
means plainly enough that he has
not the money with which to pay
them; that he desires to be allowed
to pay unauthorized interest, and
that he mnst have time in which to
save up the millions necessary to
discharge the Indebtedness.
This situation makes the parade
of figures to lead people to believe
that there are s6O,OOO,OOO of availa-
BILE assets in the Treasury seem like
very cheap and demagogic trick.
So near the end of his tether has
the Secretary gone that he is con-
sidering whether he shall not draw
from the repositories the sum OF
100000 with which to meet the
immediate demands for redemption
for the q per cents. Should he get
the 100000 he wants, he will still
have several millions less than the
amount of the bonds outstanding.
If the whole amount outstanding
should be presented at once, he
would be embarrassed. Some re-
lance is undoubtedly placed upon
the forebearance of the bondholders,
10 come in until Mr.. Foster is in
better financial condition.
The unofficial statements of the
available cash make it to be s1S,OOO,-
900, but to those who do not hold
on to odds and ends of doubtful
characters, as do the statement
makers of the Treasury, it appears
to be little more than s13, 900, 900.
THIS would not be so bad, perhaps,
if the income of the government
were as good as it was year ago,
when Reeds "business" Congress
was passing the bills that are bring
ing the Treasury into awkard straits.
AS it is, the income for the two
months of the present year, with its
inflated expenses, is far behind that
of like period in the last year.
Already it is intimated that Mr..
Foster does not intend to attempt
to pay all the appropriations made
by the "Billion" Congress, but to
let them go over to be taken out of
the revenues of the next year. The
Democrats of the Fifty second Con-
gress would be obliged to be eco
nomical for tie sake of contrast and
good example, but with the rem
nants of the Republican debt facing
them, it begins to look as if they