Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-09-20
National Finance.

Treasury has been most unsatis-
factory for two years past When
President Cleveland was inaugu-
rated on the 4th of March, 1898,
the Treasury was literally bank
rUpt. The claims due from the
government at the time, and
which should have been paid
promptly, aggregated over $50,
100000 more than the resources
of the Treasury, and Secretary
Foster, on the day that he re-
tired from office, declined to-
issue a draft for some 100000
that was long overdue, simply
because he had not the means to
pay it. Such was the official
legacy left to the Cleveland ad
ministration by President Harri-
son.
The contrast between the con-
dition of the Treasury whom Har-
rison was inaugurated on the 4th
Of March, 1889, and the condition
of the Treasury when Cleveland
entered his second term four
years later, is not forgotten by
the people. When Cleveland re-
tired to be succeeded by Harrison
he left a clean surplus in the
Treasury of over $50, 900, 600 and
in estimating that surplus his
Secretary of the Treasury did
not embrace government deposits
to the credit of disbursing Off
Gers, which always amount to
some millions, or subsidiary
coins, which usually aggregate
from ten to fifteen millions and
which cannot be used in the pay
ment of government obligations.
Thus more than $50, ,O00,O0 of
surplus was entirely dissipated
by the Harrison administration
and a trust fund of S55, 900, 600
held by the government for the
redemption of bank notes was
covered into the Treasury by act
of Congress, thus increasing the
debt of the government to that
extent. as the sum was transfer
red to the general Treasury fund
to save the Treasury from bank
ruptcy. Thus was not only the
clean surplus of over $50, 600, 600
expended but the S55, ,O0O,O OF
trust fund violently seized and
expended also. Since that time
bank notes have been redeemed
out of the Treasury, and thus
S55, 100000 were added to the
debt of the government during
the Harrison administration
without the public realizing the
fact. 1t was in plain English
forced loan by the government
and yet with all these combined
resources from surplus and
forced loan Harrison retired from
the Presidency leaving the Trea
sury literally bankrupt.
If the evil of the Harrison ad
ministration has stopped with
simply bankrupting the Treasury
by eXpending its surplus and {
| forced loan of some S55, 900, 900
the country could have speedily
recovered from the disaster. The
Fifty-f first Congress, that wa
Republican in both branches ant
in harmony with President Har
rison, not only scattered the sur
plus by pro1igacy, but it createt
fixed and permanent expenses o
the government for future Con
crosses to meet amounting t
from fifty to seventy millions o
f dollars annually. Thus the Har
; riso1l administration exhauste
the surplus of over $50, 900, O0C
: exhausted forced loan efsom
) $55, 900, 900 and then loaded tn
, government with from $50, 900,
600 to $50, ,0OO,0 of permanen
, annual expenditures by the cres
, ton of offices, the increase c
= pensions and general wastefu
ness. Such is the record of tn
administration that precede
ICleveland's return to power i
March, 1898.
Soon after the Inauguration {
the present administration OF
financial trouble eliminated, r.
6 sulting from the purchase of 81
: yer and the general degradatio
of our financial system inaug1
rated by strictly partisan mea
lure known as the Sherman silv,