The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1914-03-07

W. FAsH-AAAnt N"Ats slh 0ohAh
Second.
department OF commerce. The buile-
tin carries information Tor tho United
States and for each state In the Unit
ed States. The data were complied
under the supervision OF Mir. John
Lee Coulter, expert special agent in
charge OF wealth, debt and taxntion.
The bulletin which soon will be is
sued will contain statistics for each
year from 1890 To 1913. Inclusive, and
Will also contain details Tor the year
most nearly corresponding to 1850.
thus making Il possible To- show the
general movement during a period OF
over thirty years. The bulletin will
show the total deb of each state as
well as many details, such as the vari-
Gus classes Of outstanding bonds and
special debt obligations Ia public trust
funds. II will also show the floating
debt n its component parts. Under
funds and investments will be shown
separately all the different funds. and
In each cas- cash aud securities will
be shown. The population of each
state for each year under considera-
ton win be used. and the per capita
debt Uess sinking fund assets) will
be given.
An inspection OF the tables in the
bulletin soon to be issued shows that
on June 80, 1919 Cor tho close of the
fiscal yea falling within the Twelve
months preceding that date). the total
debt Of the as state. in the United
States amounted 10 S~aIs,:S7,OOO. OF
this total about 10000. 600 repre-
scented floating debt. and nearly
s4o0, OOO. 900 represented funded debt
OF the funded debt about 1853. 900. 900
are represented by bonds. and S41,-
900, 900 are special debt obligations to
public trust funds.
AS an onsetting item against the
total debt, the IS states reported s77,-
$4,000 in sinking fund assets. leav-
ing the debt Qess sinking fund assets)
for the 4s states Ss42.25l,0 eco.
Various practices are found in dlf-
ferent states with reference to the as
sumption OF debt By the states, and
some difficulty arises when attempt
Is made to compare the debt OF the
different states. The only two states
which call for 81 -ial mention in his
connection are Arizona and Massa-
chusetts. In Arizona the state has
assumed responsibility for a very
large amount OF county and munich
pal debt. and has issued state obliga-
tions to owe the same, holding the
counties and municipalities RESPONSE
BILE in turn. II might be noted, how
ever, that the Arizona debt, even UNI
der these circumstance, amounts to
only eight-tenths of l per cent OF the
NA4nN NAW H.. NHH-N 49,
chusetts, on the other hand, has as
sumed the liability for debts Of met.o-
politan districts which In most states
would probably be classed as local.
county or municipal debt. The total
debt Qess sinking fund assets) for
Massachusetts represents g2.2 per
cent OF the debt for all states In the
United states, Iowa, Wyoming ana
oregon each has less Than one-tenth
of ! per cent OF the debt Of all states.
While In the case of Pennsylvania the
sinking fund assets exceed the total
debt. Vermont. Nebraska and Kan
sas each has only one-tenth Of / per
cent OF the debt of the as states. In
contrast. New York has Is per cent
OF the total for the Is states.
Per Capita Indebtedness.
A study of the pcrcapita debt shows
that In Iowa the debt Oess sinking
FUND aasets} moutn 20 only three
cents per capita. and in Oregon. four
cents per capita. In Arkansas. Flor
ida. Illinois. Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Minnesota. Nebraska, New Jersey,
oregon, Pennsylvania. South Dakota.
Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and
wyoming. the per capita debt Cess
sinking fund assets is less than 81.
Ihc Fast and Present of state Debt.
According 10 the report OF ten years
ago, d Indebtedness (less sinking
fund a~ssets) for tho as states moun
ed 10 S2sf,s Os, goo, as compared with
S'42, ~ l,O00 shown In the report now
being prepared. This is AN increase
In ten years OF si07. sac. 600. or nearly
90 per cent In contrast with an in
crease Of slightly more than 20 per
cent In h population ~ the coun-
try. Ten years before that, in 1880.
the indebtedness (less sinking fund
assets for the states and territories
OF the United states amounted 90
s~zli'sio.o0o; while In 1850 Il
amounted to SEA-, 10000. Thus be-
tween isS0 ana 1908 the per capita
Indebtedness (less sinking fund as
Hets) for the As suites combined grad
ually decreased, while during the last
ten years there has been a very mo-
ticeahle Increase. In 1850 the per
capita indebtedness tless sinking
fund assetsl amounted to 46.4S; la
1880 Il haze been reduced TO t3.37.
due 10 the incrense in population and
decrease IN debt, in 1893 Il amounted
90 tz.sa, due 60 the rapid Increase In
population and very slight Increase in
debts In 1913 the per capita debt had
again increased Ca s3.52. the Increase
being due 10 a very uapid Inference I'm