The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-01
HOW UNCLE sAM PROFITS.

 Losses of vaIuables that are the Govern
 ment's Gain-Runs Into the Millions =
 Many Postal Notes Never Turn Up-How
 the Manhattan Bank Was Reimbursed
 For the @1 ,6OO,OO in Bonds Stolen in
 1878.
 [From the Washington Star.l
 The government of the United States makes many thousands of dollars ev- cry year through the carelessness or misfortune of people with whom 1t has business to transact. Merchants some times make money in the same way, but the amount is inconsiderable. If a merchant gives a check in satisfaction of an obligation and the check Is lost, the loss can be proved and the amount recovered by the man to whom the check was given. Sometimes it hap pens that man gives a check which is destroyed and which never comes to light, and possibly the man to whom the check was issued never makes a claim for the money.
 But, as was said, this happens so seldom that the profit from this source is one to which no business man would give any consideration in figuring out the possibilities of season.
 Uncle Sam, on the contrary, can flg- ure out pretty well before the beginning of a fiscal year that so many thousand dollars will be put to his credit on "proft and loss accounts before the year Is over.
 The profit will come from the bonds and bank notes destroyed and never presented for redemption, from money orders which are lost and never duplicated, and from stamps which are not put to the use for which they were intended. These profits are never cast up, because debts of the government are seldom outlawed. But they are as real as though they were credited to Uncle Sam on the books of the treasury. Of course 1t Is no fault of the gov ernment that this profit accumulates. Every effort is made to find the man to whom the government is indebted, and every reasonable opportunity Is given to him to claim the amount of the in- debtedness. In the case of a lost or stolen bond he has simply to prove ownership and give an indemnity bond to protect the government against loss. In the case of treasury note injured iby fire. send in the charred remains and the treasury experts will decipher as far as possible the value of the pile Qts original value) and the money will be restored to him. In the case of money order, both the remitter and the remittee are advised again and again that the money remains unpaid.
 Still, many claims against the gov ernment aggregating many thousands are left unpaid every year and the total of the last thirty years will run up far into the millions. Even in the matter of unpaid money orders the government has just made an accounting of $1, ,30O,- 900 earned in the last thirty years and now turned into the postofice depart ment fund, probably never to be repaid to it's owners.
 The greater source of unearned in- come, of course, is the destruction of treasury notes. Nearly $15,0OO,00O has been made up by the government up to the present day, as nearly as can be estimated, by the destruction of treas ury notes.
 Two years ago in August a lively controversy arose between MT. Foster then the secretary of the treasury, and some of the members of the house and senate concerning the amount of money in circulation at various times, as stated officially by the treasury department A letter was addressed by Representative John Davis to the secretary of the treasury charging that i'm the treasury statements, among other things, no al- lowance was made for the wasting and loss of coin and the destruction of greenbacks and coin certificates. There fore, he contended, that the statement of money in curculation was incorrect