OCR Text |
Show THE NATIONAL FINANCES- Id political warfare a common source of ammunition to all parties ia found in tho financial administration of public alfiirs. An old adage says that figure won't Iio, but judging from the facility and seeming fuirness with which each of the great political parties can from I tho figures of tho public receipts and oipondituros, fasten upon each other the burden of tho greater extravagance, it is evident that figures in 6onie manner man-ner do lie in the accounts of tho treasury treasu-ry department of the government. Just now tho Republicans are proving prov-ing by figures taken from tho treasury ledgers and from Mr. Boutwcll's reports, re-ports, that the administration of Grant is much less extravagant than was that of Johnson ; whilo by these same evidences evi-dences tho Democrats and Liberal Republicansdemonstrate with palpably that Grant's administration is more extravagant, ex-travagant, not counting the extraordinary extraordi-nary expenditures incident to astato of war, than any in the history of the coun try. Theso discrepancies are duo to what might be termed extraordinary expenses, ex-penses, and to a system of book-keeping that seems to have been adopted oxpresslyto conceal, for political reasons, items of expenditure that aro scandalously scan-dalously extravagant. Expenditures are classed under a number of different headings, and when under one head tho amount expended during a portion of one fiscal yoar has reached a sum unreasonably un-reasonably large and liable to be politically politi-cally damaging, tho excess is transferred trans-ferred by the scratch of a pen, to another hoad that the secretary thinks can stand the strain of an increase. Thus it has occurred, that where by tho showing under tho same head, Grant spent more monoy in the same time than Johnson, more than tho ex cess has been transferred to another fund in ordor to put the burden of superior su-perior extravaganco on the shoulders of the latter. The wide divergence botween men of ability in discussing tho financial condition con-dition of the country, basing their different dif-ferent conclusions upon the samo figures, fig-ures, illustrates the confused system of book-keeping in vogue at the National treasury. There is much uncertainty in the public mind as to the actual amount of the national debt upon accounts ac-counts allowed. We recollect that in one of Mr, Boutwell'g reports, in summarising sum-marising the debt he excepted from its amount tho railroad bonds and the accrued ac-crued interest upon them, amounting to over $30,000,000, yet these are certainly cer-tainly a part of the debt. If theso bonds are to be estimated as assets and subtracted from the sum of tho debt, a further subtraction may be made by discounting the debt with other assets. The confusion of figures in tho financial finan-cial reports of tho secretary, and the arbitrary transfer of money from one fund to another, renders it extremely difficult to comprehend tho financial condition of the oountry. |