The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1891-09-09
WASHINGTON LETTER.


If business man was known to have out
standing paper. payable on demand amounting
to Sa70OO.eOO. and only $1s.579.5s5 of available
cash hand to meet that paper would the
commercial world consider him solvent9 Not
much Well. that is precisely the present con-
dition of the United States Treasury, There are
more than $27 600 600 of the four-and a-half per
cent bonds which were not presented tor CX-
tension, and which now simply stand ior notes
pay able on demand, and there is. leaving out
the fractional silver coin and other funds that
cannot legally be paid out only SIS S579. .565 on
hand to pay them with. Secretary Foster is
said to have scheme by which he expects to
bulldoze certain of the larger national banks
into buying all of these bonds and presenting
them for extension, and it is for that purpose
that he has announced an indefinite extension
of the time within which they may be exte nded
at per cent. But it is by no means certain
that he can succeed. and already. since We'd
nesday, on which day the interest ceased. near
ly $4,000. 900 worth of these bonds have been
presented for redemption, and the most of them
came from national banks. That made big
hole in the available funds. and besides these
bonds there are big pension payments to be
made this month. On paper Secretary Foster
figures out a cash balance of more than S60 OO0.-
ness man familiar with the affairs of the Treas
ury. that the amount mentioned above repre-
sents every dollar which he can legally pay out.
Candidates for the vacancy on the board of
Interstate Commerce Commissioners. made by
the death of Hon w. L Bragg. ofAlabama. are
becoming extremely plentiful around town. and
Secretary Noble under whose province 1t is is
much sought man.
Col. L. L. Polk, the president of the National
Farmers Alliance, who is now here, is being
somewhat harshly criticised by both friends and
foes among Southerners for the light and airy
manner in which he disposes of the many per-
sonal charges made against him by the Raleigh
News and Observer, and of the report that he
contemplated challenging the author of the
charges to fight a duel. This is the way he
speaks of it: IF any one wants to fight duel
with me have not been informed OF it. The
thing is a lot of nonsense" Col. Polk may
think 1t lot ofnonsense to be called a "poltroon
and a coward.'i but that isn't the way ofhers
regard it, and according TO the Southern idea it
is he that should want to fight duel with the
man who is SO openly abusing him, instead of
waiting to ascertain whether anyone wants to
fight duel with him. Men opposed to the code
under any circumstances. say that Col. Polk
should have his assailant arrested for criminal
libel, but his enemies say he dare not.take that
course because the charges would then be
proven in court. Thus the matter stands. but
there can be but little doubt that it is injuring
Col. Polk's standing, and many are predicting
that it will result in his being deposed from the
Farmers Alliance presidency.
1t is considered certain that Congress will Or
der an investigation of the last census and it is
equally certain that some very queer things
will be brought out by the investigation. IL is
said by those who have familiarized themselves
with the subject that all the recent census bull
letins purporting to give the assessed valuation
OF property by States are wrong, and that most
of them can readily be shown to be erroneous
whether Intentional or through incompetence
or carelessness does not after ;they are wrong
For instonce, the assessed valuation of all prop
erty in South Carolina is given as nearly
million and half less than in 1880,
while the report of the Comptroller General of
that State shows an increase of seventeen mil
lions and conservative estimates are that the
new State assessment to be made this year will
add at least thirty millions to the total assessed
value of property in the State That is a speci-
men of Porter's work; there are other States
almost as bad.
A gentleman just from Cape May Point is au-
thority for the statement that Civil Service Com
missioner Roosevelt has not yet resigned, al