Show WAYS AND MEANS The Committee Investigating the Government Revenues Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Spaniel lug Tells What Ho Knows Expenditures Expendi-tures Will Exceed the Revenues WASHINGTON Jan 23By request of the ways and means committee Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Spaulding appeared ap-peared before that committee today The object was to secure official information as I to the revenues and expenditures of tho government as preliminary to any POSSIBLE TARIFF LEGISLATION Spaulding made a comparison between the present fiscal year and the fiscal year ended Juno 30 1800 the year before the present tariff act went into eftect He said the total revenue receipts estimated for tho I current fiscal year were 302000000 against 403079000 for the fiscal r year 1S90 Actual receipts wero I 17151000 for the first six months of tho current fis al year about 7000 000 more than the expenditures for the corresponding cor-responding six months The expenditures I estimated for the current heal year sere S33SOOOOOO or about 524000000 less than the estimated receipts Spaulding stated postal receipts and expenditures ex-penditures were not included in his statement state-ment but that toe DEFICIT IN THE POSTAL DEPARTMENT was included in the expenditures so that the surplus shown would not be affected The secretary said it would be necessary to laKH 5 00ou000 out of the apparent surplus sur-plus of 24000000 to nrovde for the sinking fund requirements He added in addition to the 24000000 apparent appar-ent surplus there was cash in the treasury i amounting to 139728000 making a total of lJ3b93000 He included in the cash in 1 the treasury the gold reserve of 100000000 I held for tho redemption of greenbacks amounting to 52400000UO I Bryan of Neuraiko asked i this gold reserve was available for government expenses ex-penses Spaulding replied ho understood Secretary Secre-tary Foster so considered it and in reply to further inquiries from the Democratic members who desired to know if Congress Con-gress had not recognized the gold reserve as SET ASIDE FOB A SPECIAL PURPOSE ho said thero was no statute setting it aside There might be a resolution setting it aside inferentially Discussion of the gold reserves soon resulted in a cross fire between the Democratic and Republican members mem-bers of the committee the former nnntnnlincr the reserve fund was for n special purpose and not available for ordinary ordi-nary purposes while the latter asserted I the contrary McKenna declaring they were always regarded as purt of the ordinary J ordi-nary resources until Secretary Manning set them aside by a system of treasury bookkeeping Turner of Georgia asked Spaulding Suppose the treasury wero to GET INTO A PINCH could the gold reserve be used i Spauldinp Yes sir I think so TurnerNow some t20000000 bonds aro to be extemied Dont you consider them j current liabilities SpauldingNo sir They are extended at the option of the government but not of I the holders MacClennan chief of the warrant division I di-vision of the treasury department in reply to Turner said thisextension was not under the authority of law but was a treasury arrangement j ar-rangement between the government and I creditors i Turner said aside from the gold reserves he understood the figures of the treasury department showed a surplus in cash left in tho treasury of 39000000 that included fractional silver and extended i the bonded debt over S23000000 Taking I I out this fractional silver and extended debt there would not be any surplus would there hesuggested to MacClennan Ho replied THERE WOULD BE A LITTLE LEFT but not very much and to Bryan he said the J100000 0 on account of tho sinking fund was still left out of consideration i In reply to Springer MacClennan said at I I the close of last month the treasury department paid out upwards of partment upwarrs 57000000 on account of sugar bounties The depart I meat however did not have a direct I I propriation and othor things to meet ap I the French spoliation claims l for instance I I After some talk the committee adjourned I |