Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-12-11

i
a surplus of S37, 230. 1921. The receipt,
of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1902
actual and estimated, are S433, 0OO. 900 and
the expenditures S400, 100000.
In discussing the silver question tn,
! President gives statistics as to the amount
of silver already bought and coined by the
government, the present prices of metal,
and the amount in circulation. and he then
says The government is now buying and
putting aside annually $4,000, 600 ounces.
which, allowing for 7,140,O0O ounces OF
new bullion used in the arts. is Il. $40, OOO
more than our domestic product available
for coinage. | hope the depression i'm the
price of silver is temporary and that a fur
ther trial of this legislation will more favor
ably affect it. That the increased volume
of currency thus supplied for the use of the
people was needed and that beneficial re-
suits upon trade and prices have followed
thi, legislation | think must be very clear
to every one: nor should it be forgotten
that for every dollar of these notes issued a
full dollars worth of silver bullion is de
posted in the treasury as a security for its
redemption Upon this subject as upon
the tariff, my recommendation is that the
existing laws be given a full trial, and that
our business interests be spared the dis
tressing influence which threats of radical
changes always impart. Under existing
legislation it is in the power of the treasury
department to maintain that essential
condition OF national finance as well as
OF commercial proSperity--the parity in
use OF the coin dollars and their paper rep
reSentatives. The assurance that these
powers would be freely and unhcsitatingly
used has done much To produce and retain
the present favorable business conditions.
! am still of the opinion that the free
coinage of silver under existing conditions
would diSastrOuSly affect our business in
tcrrStS at home and abroad. We could not
hope To maintain an equality i'm the pur-
chasing power of the gold and silver dollar
in our own markets, and i'm foreign trade
the stamp gives no added value To the bul-
lion contained in coins. The producers of
the country, its farmers and labOrerS. have
the highest interest that every dollar, paper
or coin, issued 10y the government shall be
as good rs any other II there is one less
valuable than another its sure and constant
errand will be to pay them for their toll
and for their crops. The money lender
will protect himself by STIMULATING for pay
ment in gold but the hborer has never
been able to do that. To place business
upon a silver basis would mean a sudden
and severe contraction of the currency
by the withdrawal of gold and gold notes,
and such an unsettling of all values as
would produce a commercial panic. ! can
not believe that a people so strong and
prosperous as ours will promote such
policy.
Reduction Of the surplus.
The presence OF large cash surplus in
the treasury has for many years been the
subject of much unfavorable criticism and
has furnished an argument to those who
have desired to place the tariff upon
purely revenue basis. 1t was agreed by all
that the withdrawal from circulation of so
large an amount of money was an embar-
rassment to the business of the country
and made necessary the Intervention of
the department at frequent intervals to re-
lieVc threatened monetary panicS. The
surplus on March /, 1889, was SlS3, S27.-
1929. The policy of applying this sur
plus to the redemption of the interest bear
ing securities of the United States was
thought to be preferable to that of deposit
ing it without interest in selected national
banks. There have been redeemed since
the date last mentioned of Understanding
securities $3.50, O79,3jO, resulting i'm a re-
duction of the annual interest charge of
Sll.6S4 ,G75. The money which had been
deposited in banks without interest has
been gradually withdrawn and used i'm the
redemption of bonds. The result of this
polity, of the silver legislation and of the
refunding of the - per cent bonds has
been a large increase of the money in cir
cuation. At the date last named the cir
culation was II, 4O4, 201, 500, or S23.03 per
capita; while on the first day of De
cember, 1891, it had increased to S1,577,-
2d2,O7O, or S24.3S per capita. The offer
of the secretary of the treasury to the hold
ers of the - per cent bonds To extend
the time of redemption at the option of
the government, at an interest of two per
cent, was accepted by the holders of about
half the amount, and the uneXtended
bonds are being redeemed ON presentation.
The Postal system.
In the postmaster generals report some
very gratifying results are exhibited and
many bettermentS of the service suggested.
4 perusal of the report gives abundant ev-
idence that the supervision and direction
of the postal system have been character
lied by an intelligent and conscientious de-
sire to improve the service. The revenues
of the department show an increase of
over five millions of dollars, with defcien-
cy for the year 1892 of less than four mil
lions of dollars, while the estimate for the
year 1898 shows a surplus of receipts over
expenditures. Ocean mail pOSt-Ottices have
been established upon the steamers of the
North German Lloyd and Hamburg lines,
saving, by the distribution ON shipboard,
from two To "a hOurS' time i'm the delivery
OF mail at the port of entry, and often
much more than this in the delivery at in
terror places. SO thoroughly has this sys-
tenn, initiated by Germany and the United
States, evidenced its usefulness that it can
not be long before ii is installed upon all
the great ocean mail carrying steamships.
Eight thousand miles of new postal service
has been established upon railroads, the
car distribution to sub-stations i'm the great
cities has been increased about II per cent
while the percentage of errors in distri-
button has, during the past year, been re-
duced over one-half.
An appropriation was given by the last
Congress for the purpose of making some
experiments in free delivery in the smaller
cities and towns. The results in these eX-
perimcnts have been so satisfactory that
the postmaster general recommends and |
concur in the recommendation, that the
free delivery system be at once extended to
towns of 5000 population. His discussion
of the inadequate facilities extended under
our present system to rural communities
and his suggestions with view to give
these communities fuller participation in
the benefits of the postal service are worthy
of your careful consideration. 1t is not