The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-02-21
TREASURY ORDER
NUMBER FIVE
Thirty.sk Million Dollars In Interest
Has Been Lost by Government
In as Many
Years
REPORT OF COMMITTEE
Uncle Sam Could Turn 4 Pretty Penny
by Not hoard.ns Up HIS
Great surp,us
Weai&h.

UNITED Press Leased Wire Servfce.1
WASHINGTON. Feb. 21.-'1nter-
est amounting to $s6.6Oo92s has been
lost by the treasury in the last TWEEN
ty-six years.
Handling by the treasury Of the
general surplus fund is crude, un-
business-like, Improbable and dis
criminatory.'
"A working balance of 5000. 900
| in the treasury is sufficient. The gov
ernment can increase it's revenues ST.
100000 a year by charging interest on
funds in government repositories"
These are the findings today Of the
house committee on expenditures In
the treasury department, the results
of several months of investigation In
to the governments fiscal operations
Failure of the treasury department
to exact interest on the funds given
national banks as special or general
federal repositories" is the principal
criticism of the committee. This crit
icism was made by Rudolph Spreck-
els, the San Francisco banker, in his
4 broadside against treasury order
number five" which directs deposit OF
government receipts in national banks
without interest payments.
4 In its report the house COMMITTEES
I says:
THE question as to the proper
4 method of dealing with the surplus
money in the treasury, commonly re.
/ ferred to as the working balance,
has been before the committee. From
careful consideration the committee
finds:
Large sums of money have been
unnecessarily retained in the treasury
aggregating ut times s100,000,000.
That $25,000,O00 is an ample
amount to retain in the vaults as a
working balance.
The government has lost In the
! past twenty-six years in not collecting
interests on its deposits, figured at
i two per cent, the sum of $4,000, 1923.
"The government has lost on the
excess retained in the treasury fgur.
!, ed at two per cent, the sum of SAT-.
/ 6I0,S60.
The right accorded to banks to
act as government repositories is a
discrimination against all, by all
banks not SO designated and is a
species of special privilege or gov
ernment favoritism.' The system is
crude, unbusinesslike, Improbable
and discriminatory, resulting in un-
earned and large profits, and advant
] ages to certain favored banks and
ought to be speedily reformed
The committee urges that the ways
and means committee or the banking
and currency commission consider
legislation to abolish the alleged de
pository system, by forcing banks tc
bid for federal deposits. There are
1,436 regular repositories, the com
mittee finds, who secure government
money without interest and are select
ed solely at the discretion of the
secretary of the treasury.
There exists between such banks
and the department a complete under
standing that the department is mo-
to deplete or withdraw its deposits,
the committee declares.
Interest is demanded, the committe.
declares, only from special temper
ary repositories. and then only since
1908 at one per cent and since 1871
, at two per cent. The total amour
of such interest collected is onl.
$6SS.0O0.
Authority of banks to advertis
their appointment as government de
positories is discrimination agains