Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-05-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.

WASHINGTON LETTER.
Written and compiled for the HERALD
WASHINGTON, May l, 1893 Money |
s at all times an interesting subject to
every body, and. owing to circumstances
with which the reading world is already
familiar, some Rgures which have been in
possession of the Treasury department for
several weeks but which have just been
made public are doubly interesting. Those
figures appear to show that fiaaRcial
as we'll as empire, is moving
westward, notwithstanding the general
belief that New York City is the center OF
finance of the American continent. Ac-
cording to those figures, which give the
holdings of gold by all the National banks
it is Chicago and not New York, which
ia the real financial center. These figures
are in official reports made TO the Comp
troller of Currency by every National
bank in the United States, showing how
much gold each OF them has, and, oil
course, does not include the gold held by
individuals and private banks, which, II
ascertainable might change the face oil
the matter materially. The figures show
that the National banks Of New YORK
have only $l2, ABS, $50 in gold, while those
of Chicago have $14, S24 ,6GC and that
those of the entire eastern states have
sulv a total, in round numbers, OF S39,-
900 900, against a total in the western
states of 54,OOO,OOO. There can be no
doubt that the possession of these figures
had great influence in causing the adj
ministratlon to ignore the suggestions OF
New York blnkers as to what should De
done to increase the gold in the Treasury;
it did not regard the New Workers as
being in a position to help largely even
if SO disposed, and therefore did not con-
slider their suggestions valuable.
There Is. however, another side OF this
question visible to those who are careful
" studying the situation. According to
these figures all of the National banks
together have only S93,OOO,OOO of gold,
while the Treasury now has about $lO2,'
900 coo. Now where is the remainder OF
the $4,000, 900 of gold that financial ex'
merits estimate to be in the United States
That is a question easier asked thar
answered, and so long as it remains IN
answered neither New York nor Chicago
the East nor the West, can lay undls
puted claim to financial supremacy. Inc
vbere-abouts of this enormous and al
present unaccounted for sum OF golc
may play very important part IN the
future financial policy of the adminlstra
ton. At present the situation is com
paratively easy, the Treasury having
about 50, OOO, 900 in free gold," that is
over and above the reserve fund, which ii
recently temporarily impaired to the ex'
tent of about 81 600 900, and which it will
again use whenever the necessity arises
with offers of gold still freely coming III
from National banks; but suppOsing II
gets all of the $4,000, 900 held by the
National banks and that the demand for
gold still continues, and that the un-
accounted for gold remains horded up
somewh here, what then
1t is the openly ayowed intention OF
the administration to make use of the
present financial condition to convince
Congress that the Sherman Silver Law
must be repealed /; but if Senator Stewart,
of Nevada, be correct in his estimate 1t
will not succeed. He says he has made
careful canva of the present Senate and
that not more than twenty Senators will
under any circumstances vote for the M
conditional repeal of the Sherman Silver
Law. 1t is known, however, that Presi-
dent Cleveland entertains very different
opinion. Time will tell, as it does most
things, which of them is right.
The absence of the President and most
of the members of his cabinet during the
last few days left Eve of the government
departments IN charge of hOld-over re-
publican officials, and that fact aroused a
great deal of bad blood among the demo
cratic Office seekers here, and for the first
time they INDUCED in open and public
criticism Of the administration for Its
hardness in replacing the prominent re-
publican officials-assistant secretaries,
etc.-with democrats.
The new Commissioner of Pensions
goes on duty this week, and there is no
end of speculation as to how be will run
the Office. Those who are best acquains-
ed with Judge Lochren say that he is
very conservative man and that he will
probably 60 slow in making any radical
changes, although he will correct any
abuses that he may find existing, and
moreover that be will hunt for abuses.
The investigation of the Weather
Bureau is still going on, among the promi-
nent witnesses heard Saturday being ex-
Secretary Rusk and one OF the Civil Ser
vice Commissioners. 1t begins to lock as
though the Investigations were being
used by rival officials of the bureau to
pay off old personal scores against each
ether, and that the results would not be
important.