Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-01
THE GOLD RESERVE
Of One Hundred Millions, and the
Governments Right to Use It
FOR CURRENT EXPENDITURES.
Congressman Dockery Starts Move to
Have 1t Inquired Into.
HB GIVES HIS VIEWS ON TEE SUBJECT

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29-At the instance
of Representative Dockery, Of Missouri, the
House to-day adopted resolution directing
the Committee on Judiciary to inquire and
rep}ft to the House as to the right of the
Secretary of the Treasury to use the hundred
millions Of gold reserve for current expend-
itures. In regard to the resolution Mr..
Dockery says:
II asked the House to adopt the resolu-
tion for the reason that there seems to be
some doubt upon the question, especially
emphasized by an interview of the Secretary
himself, published in this city, in which he
is quoted as saying: AS to the $100, ,000, 900
of gold reserve, it is held against the $780,
100000 OF national bank notes to make the
credit of the Government impregnable, for
no one would be able to get together enough
greenbacks to take all the gold out of the
Treasury, and therefore they do not take
any. But these notes outstanding are legal
tender and the Government can and will
use this gold reserve if it needs to in a
pinch. 1t should therefore appear in the
debt statement as available cash.
Another Omciaps Opinion.
'In addition to this alleged opinion of the
Secretary, as quoted, Acting Secretary of
the Treasury Hon. o. L. Spaulding, in his
testimony before the Ways and Means Com
mittee on the 23d of January last, insisted
that the hundreds of millions of gold re-
serve were available for the expenses of the
Government, and in reply to specific ques-
tions of the members of that committee, he
stated that the Secretary of the Treasury
al ha II L.
that $lOO, 600, 900 of gold reserve is available
much as there is no statute against it,
I understand the hundred millions
continued Mr.. Spaulding, in reply to a
question of Mr.. Turner, was first separated
In 1885 from statements in the Treasury;
and you asked the question if the hundred
millions could be used for any other pur-
pose. I understand that the Secretary so
holds, that he has the discretion
'eThe acting Secretary further asserted in
emphatic terms that he concurred in that
view.
''Now at this time, pending the examina-
tion by the Judiciary Committee" con-
press any opinion on the subject further
than to say that some Of the most eminent
fnanciers of the Government wholly disa-
gree with the view that this fund can be
used for current expenses"
What Dockery Wants Decision On.
The question upon which Mr. Dockery
demands formal decision from the judi
ciary Committee is held by the Democrats
to be Of the utmost Importance, not only to
the Appropriations Committee, of which
Mr.. Dockery is member, but also to the
House as whole in the coming discussion
Of the revenue reform bills reported by the
Ways and Means Committee. If the gold
reserve should be held not to be available for
currency expenditures, it simply means,
they say, that the Fifty-second Congress
has $100, 0,00O, 900 less to draw upon in this
matter Of appropriations than has generally
been understood to be available. The Dem
ocrats say that their declaration will then
be justified that the country is confronted
by deficit in the public treasury, as the
result of lavish appropriations of the Fiji
ty-frst Congress, and that Mr.. Holman
and his colleagues of the Appro-
priations Committee must demand
economy all along the line. The tariff re-
formers, too, argue that all the protection Of
the Mckinley bill has been unable to save
the public treasury from the verge of bank
ruptcy, and point in contrast to the gener-
Gus surplus that existed in the treasury at
the close of the Cleveland administration, as
compared with the depleted condition that
they insist must be presented at the close Of
the Harrison administration.