Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-08-01
STATE AND NATIONAL DEBT.

The full report on national and state
Indebtedness and funds and invest
ments from 1870 to 1913 has just been
issued by Director William Harris
Of the bureau of the census. depart
ment OF commerce. The bulletin gives
information for the United States as
whole and for each state separately,
and it is now ready for distribution.
According to this bulletin, the total
debt OF the As state governments on
June so. 1918. amounted to S422.796'-
500. or this total, $4O3. 366.569 repre-
sented funded debt, and s19,429,956
represented floating debt. OF the
funded debt sS64,s36.427 are repre-
scented in bonds and SSs.53O,142 are
special debt obligations to public trust
funds.
As an offsetting item against this
total debt, the IS states reported &c.,
96O.571 in sinking fund assets, leaving
their debt Qess sinking fund assets),
S345. 1912 ,3O5. The per capita debt for
the as states amounted to 1857 June
80, 1913.
In contrast with the debt OF the 4S
state governments, the national gov
eminent had a total debt on June 80,
1913. of s2,9162O4.914. OF this total,
the funded debt amounted TO $3.50
523. 1923, while the floating debt amount
ed to S375,6s1 ,5s5. or the funded debt,
the bonded Indebtedness amounted to
1867 1856, 100. while the special debt OBJ
legations amounted to S1,573. ISL, 169.
- in he
United States treasury available for the
Payment of debt, consisting OF accum
uIated trust funds, gold and silver and
general treasury cash, not only were
sufficient to eliminate entirely the spe-
cial debt obligations, but also to re-
duce the bonded debt. The national
debt. less cash in the treasury availa-
BILE for the payment of debt, amounted
to only S1.O2S, 564,055, or a per capita
debt OF s1O.59.
The net debt OF the national govern
ment represents three times the total
net debt of the state governments. OF
the total per capita debt of s1415 ina
tional and state), the debt of the ma
tiOnal government is s1O.5S. or 75 per
cent, while the debt OF the state gov
ernments amounts to 1857, or 25 per
cent of the total.
The debt OF the national government
was higher in 1870 than at any time
since that date; the per capita debt
that year being s60.46. This amount,
though large, was a material decrease
over the debt as it stood Aug. 81, 1865. |
On that date the Indebtedness of the !
national government Oess funds avail !
able for the payment of debit amount /
ed to S2,766. 431,571, an average of /
SIS.44 for every inhabitant OF the coun- /
try. The rate of decrease between |
1865 and 1870 was continued until in |
1880 the Indebtedness of the national
government had decreased so that, 10. |
gether with the rapid increase in the |
population, the per capita debt had |
been reduced to only S3S.27. Ten
years later QS90) It had been reduced
to $3.50, at which point 1t remained |
with only comparatively slight fuctu- |
atoms, increasing somewhat during |
the Spanish-American war and de- |
creasing somewhat since that date. |
until. at the latest date reported |
1913), the Indebtedness Of the nation |
al government amounts to only s1O.59 |
per capita, an amount slightly higher |
than in 1907. when the per capita in |
deDtedness was S1O.O5, the largest re-
corded.