784 



UNITED STATES, FINANCES OF THE. 



debt, $3,026,569.78; military establishment, 

 $38,589.74. There was an increase in the fol- 

 lowing: Pensions, $5,259,406.98 ; naval estab- 

 lishment, $1,785,310.85 ; Indian service, $54,- 

 785.18 ; making a net decrease in expenditures 

 of $8,278,221.30. 



The revenue derived from the various ob- 

 jects of internal taxation during the past two 

 fiscal years is shown in the following table : 



In 1888 the receipts from customs were 

 $219,091,173.63; from internal revenue, $124,- 

 296,871.98. 



State of the Treasury. The following is a 

 statement of the condition of the public Treas- 

 ury on Dec. 31, 1887, and Dec. 31, 1888: 



Total $642,640,200 28, $711,650,637 24 



In the judicious management of the silver 

 coinage and the careful fostering of gold re- 

 sources, the administration of the Treasury 

 Department has achieved greatest credit and 

 accomplished the most important results. In 

 March, 1885, the Treasury silver holdings, un- 

 represented by silver certificates in circulation, 

 amounted to $48,000,000, and in July, 1886, 

 they had risen to $97,000,000 ($185,000,000 of 

 standard dollars and bullion in the vaults being 



offset by only $87,500,000 of certificates out- 

 standing). At the close of December, 1888, 

 the net silver holdings were only $12,900,000 

 ($260,000,000 of dollars and bullion being off- 

 set by more than $246,000,000 of outstanding 

 silver certificates). 



While thus successful in putting out silver, 

 the Treasury has achieved equally good results 

 in accumlating gold. The net gold fund when 

 the administration began was $125,700,000, 

 and it soon fell to about $110,000,000, a dan- 

 gerously narrow margin, if gold payments were 

 to continue. In little more than two years 

 from that date it was nearly doubled. Three 

 years from the beginning of the administration 

 it reached $218,800,000, and at the close of 

 1888 it was $203,800,000, having doubled dur- 

 ing the past decade. In 1878 the Government 

 gold fund was $100,000,000, and in October, 



1887, it reached $200,000,000. Since the lat- 

 ter date its highest amount has been $218,- 

 000,000, and its lowest $186,900,000; both ex- 

 tremes having been touched within the past 

 year the highest in March and the lowest in 

 October. On Jan. 1, 1888, the gold fund was 

 $208,000,000. Since the amount of $100,000,000 

 was reached in 1878, the Government gold 

 holdings have never declined nearly to that 

 limit, except in May, 1885, when the Treasurer 

 resorted to the expedient of borrowing gold 

 from the banks. 



The Public Debt. Two of the most striking 

 features of our recent history have been the 

 increase of population and the decrease of 

 public debt, and these have operated together 

 to cause a reduction of the debt per capita at 

 a rate more rapid than is generally known. 

 When our public debt was at its highest ag- 

 gregate of nearly $3,000,000,000, in 1835, and 

 the population fewer than 35,000,000, the debt 

 amounted to more than $80 for each individual. 

 At the close of the fiscal year 1888 the public 

 debt unpaid and unprovided for, less cash in 

 the Treasury, was about $1,165,000,000, while 

 the population was 61,394,000. The amount 

 of debt per capita has thus been reduced from 

 over $80 to less than $19. The period of less 

 than a quarter of a century has witnessed a re- 

 duction of the debt by nearly $2,000,000,000, 

 and an increase of population by more than 

 26,000,000. In 1865, when the public debt per 

 capita was over" $80, the Goverment revenues 

 collected amounted to $9.60 per capita. In 



1888, with the debt at less than $19 per capita, 

 the revenues amounted to $6.18 from each 

 individual. 



The operation of the present revenue laws, 

 if all the collections could be applied to the 

 payment of the public debt at par value, would 

 cancel the entire amount in less than three 

 years. 



The following is a statement of the principal 

 and interest of the national debt at the close 

 of the calendar years 1887 and 1888. But this 

 statement is exclusive of cash applicable to 

 payment of the debt and of cash held by the 



