The National tribune., 1896-02-27
THE NATIONAL DEBT.

| TOTAL amount OF the National 0eDt-tnat Is,
all debts owed 10y the Government? 1t is
claimed that the debt of the United States
is $4,000, ,000.-GRoRGE w. WILLIAMS,
| Transport, o.
The exact size of the debt depends al
together on what is considered actual
debt. To begin with, there is the inter
est-bearing debt. There can be no dis
pute about that. The official statement
for Feb. gives it as follows:
| Loan of 1891. S25. 1854 500
Loan of 1907. 559,62S, 500
Refunding certificates. -. 1890
| Loan of 1904. 100000. 600
| Loan of 1925. -. 62,3l5, 400
Total Understanding debt STAT ,362, $40
To this should be added
Debt on which interest has
ceased since maturity 81 ,613,1'O
Total S149,035,9l0
Then there is the "Debt bearing no
interest" This consists of the following
items:
Greenbacks. 80. s346, 661 ,016 90
Old demand notes 54,s47 so
National bank notes, redemp-
ton account. @, SIS, 53S 80
Fractional currency. 6,S94,117 90
Total. -. SS77 ,44S,519 40
The amount held for the redemption
of National bank notes is strictly debt
which The Treasury may expect to pay
some day OF another. Not so the other
items. The fractional currency is prob
ably all lost or destroyed, or treasured
up as curiosities. Very little of it will
ever be presented for redemption. Very
many of the greenbacks have also been
lost or destroyed. Were it not that
those which are in circulation can be
used, and are used, to draw gold ont of
the Treasury, they need not be counted
as debt, for they are all needed for cir
culation. Under the Resumption Act
of 1878 the date for payment of this
debt was fixed as Jan. /, 1879, SO this
debt would have been wiped out then
if it had been presented and if the Coy
eminent had had the gold to pay with.
The fact was that this debt was not paid
then because the holders of the green
backs needed them for business pur-
poses, and such as were redeemed from
time to time were reissued in course of
various Treasury payments, because
Congress, while it provided for resump-
ton, did not provide for the destruction
and withdrawal of the greenbacks when
redeemed. Under our law as it now
stands, therefore, this greenback item is
practically perpetual debt, although it
must be paid on demand whenever pre-
sented, and, in fact, is paid over and
over again only to be reissued and come
back again whenever it may fall into
the hands of anyone who wants gold for
it.
This obvious embarrassment caused
by the greenback was not noticed when
we had full Treasury. 1t was only
when we began to experience a scarcity
of gold through the lowering of the
tariffs that holders of this form of our
debt began to want it redeemed and to
worry the Secretary of the Treasury to
keep our paper from going to protest
by the exhaustion of the stock of gold
in the vaults.
1t will be remembered in this connec-
ton that our chief source of gold supply
was from duties collected at the custom
houses, and the free list of the Anglo
Wilson Tariff bill cut down this supply
to point below our needs-or to a
point that would be below our needs
should INSCRIPTIONS fnanciers gather
the greenbacks into enormous blocks
and demand their redemption all at once.
As long as we had lots of gold and our
receipts exceeded our expenditures no
one thought of this danger, but as soor
as such thing became possible, our
bankers and business men became timid
and the troubles of the Treasury, we'll
known to the public, have been and are
still the result.
IL, therefore, our correspondent means
TO include all forms of debt he must add
the greenbacks, and if he only refers to
various kinds of bonds still upno;d bo