OCR Text |
Show rxt'LK SAM'S MONEY. Difference of Opinion in Regard to Ihe (Willi Kescrvc. Washington, Jan. 83. By rcijiicst of the w ays and means committee Assistant Secretary Secre-tary of t he Treasury Spaulding appeared he-fore he-fore the committee today. The object was to secure official information as to the revenues reve-nues and expenditures of Ihe government ;e a preliminary to any possible tariff legislation. legisla-tion. SpauldinR made a comparison between the currant fiscal year and the liscal year ended June 30, IS',10, the year before the present tariff act went into effect. He said tho total revenue receipts (estimated I for the current fiscal year were 1852,000,000 against IMS,. 079,009 for the tiscul year ".10. The actual receipts w ere $17,151,000 for lirst six months of the current liscal year, about 17,000,000 more than the expenditures for the corresponding corres-ponding six months. The expenditures (estimated! (es-timated! for the current liscal year w ere $:i.ilHX,lKHI or al t ?2 1, two, odd iess than the estimated receipts. Spaulding stated that the postal receipts and expenditures were not included in his statement, but that the dclieit of the postal department was included in the expenditures, expendi-tures, so the surplus shown. is not affected. The secretary said it would be necessary to take lU.IKHI.iKK) out of the apparent surplus of $24,IHl.mni lo provide for the siukini: fund requirements. He added Unit, in ad dition to the .24,iKH),00fl apparent surplus, there are cases in the treasury iiinounliug to $13',l,T2i,Utl, making it total of .7: 1 SUM, . (KJO. He included in the cash in the treasury gold reserves of $100,01)0,000 held for the redemption of the greenbacks, amounting to Jib,lHKJ LOW). Bryan of Nebraska asked If this gold reserve re-serve was available for the government expenses. ex-penses. Spaulding replied that he understood under-stood Secretary Foster to so consider it, and in reply to further inquiries from democratic members who desired to know if congress: had not recognized Hie gold reserves as set aside for a" special purpose. He said there is no statute selling it aside. There might be a resolution selling it aside inl'creulially The discussion on the gold reserves soon resulted in a cross lire between the democrats demo-crats and republican members of ihe committee, com-mittee, Ihe former contending it was, a fund special purpose and not available for ordinary ordi-nary purposes while, the latter asserted contrary McKeuna declaring they always regarded as part of the ordinary resources until Secretary Manning set them aside by a system of treasury bookkeeping. Turner of (ieorgia, asked Spaulding to appose the treasurer were to get into a pinch, could the gold reserve be used? Spaulding Yes, sir; I think so. Turner Now some 2O,0OO,000 of the bonds will be extended don't you consider them current liabilit es '1 Spaulding "So, sir. They extended at ihe option of the government but not of the holders." MaeClennan, chief of the warrant division of the treasury department, in reply to Tomer, said this extension was not under authority of law but w as a treasury arrangement arrange-ment between the government and the creditors. cred-itors. Turner said aside from the gold reserves he understood the ligiires of the treasury department de-partment showed Ihe surplus of cash left ill Ihe treasury 130,000,000, that Included the fraction silver uud extended bonded debt over f.'.i,000,0W. I nking out this fractional silver sil-ver and extended debt, there would not be any surplus wonld I here?" he suggested to MaeClennan. He replied that there would bo a little left, bill not very much. And to Bryan he said Jin.nnO.IKH) on account of the sinking fund was still left out of consideration. |