Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-09
Report Of Secretary Of
Treasury Macveagh.
Currency Reform and General
Change in Monetary System
With Business.Iike Methods in Pub.
lie Affairs Should Come.

Washington. Dec. S.--Currency re-
form; extension of the scope of the ma
tiOntL banking laws. in the event of
no immediate general change of the
monetary system; civil service retire
ments: customs service free from
practical" politics; business like
methods in the daily transactions of
the government and general .aboli-
ton Ct red tape wherever it clogs the
wheels of the governments business,
are among the recommendations con-
tanned in the annual report OF Frank
lin MaCVeagh, secretary of the treas
ury, presented to Congress today
The expenses of government in the
fiscal year 1872, for which this session
of Congress is asked to appropriate,
are estimated at $500, 494,01312. The
estimated expenditures on the Panama
Canal are given as s5S.920.S47 SO, MAX
ing total of $685., Ala ,S6CS1. The esti-
mates if carried out. represent net saw
ngs of about $1S,O00,000 in the eX-
ecntive departments as compared with
the appropriations for the current
fiscal year.
While the secretary's report estimated
the total expense of government at $6S1,
4l4,S6O, the estimates which have been
transmitted to Congress ask for $748414
S61, a difference of $61 ,OOO.0O0 Congress
is asked to appropriate this extra SCI.
100000 to make the sinking fund law eff
fectve. 1t would be an appropriation to
| permit the treasury to begin applying
one per cent. year to the discharge of
| the national debt. The law authorizing
such a procedure has been a dead letter
! for some time, as Congress has never
appropriated any money.
Receipts for 1912. Secretary Mac
Neagh estimates. will be $3.50, 900 600
which would leave an ordinary surplus
% around $4,000 900. If the treasury
should continue to nay for the Pan
| anna Canal out of the cash drawer as
at present. such a surplus would be
| turned to deficit of $7,4l4S60.S1
Secretary MacNeagh. expresses the
| hope that the monetary question Will
| come into Congress detached from sec
| tional or political cOnsiderati ms.
our system can fairly he called n
| panic breeding system" he says
| whereas every other great national
| Danking and currency system is panic
under our present system we are liza
| bic to panics and the devastations OF
panics reacn Republicans and Demo-
| Gratis and all parts of the country
| alike. Panics are no longer necessary
| and no longer respectable. 1t is for
| the government to say whether we
shall have panics in the future or not.
1t is mere matter Of choice.
/ No System of Reserves.
| 1--WE lave no system of reserves,
| or banking system destroys item. IT
concentrates in New York what are
| pretended to be reserves and then
forces the New York banks to
! lend and abolish them. Our system
| instead of building up reserve, de-
| stroNs it as fast as it inclineS to ac-
| emulate
| In connection With his criticism OF
| tive money system. one of secretary
| MacVeagh's most important RECON-
ncndations concerns future issues of
! Panama bonds Of which $500. O00
! were authorized by the tariff act.
! The Secretary renews the recommended
! tons he made last year for legislation
| to tax the new bonds at one and one
half per cent. if used by National
| banks for circulation and intimateS,
! as was announced in news dispatches,
| a few days ago. that it might be more
| preferable to issue the new securities
| for investment purposes only at "a
| rate of three per cent.
AS a check against the use of the
bonds as the basis for further in
! flation of the national bank currency.
| he suggests that a circulation tax OF
ever two per cent. would have the
effect of making them Improbable for
! banks to use for such purpose and al
| the same time would make them at
tractive to investors without injuring
the. two per cent. bonds of which more
than 500 100000 are outstanding. An
| Of means of accomplishing the same
| enG the Secretary suggests. would be