FINANCES OF THF UNITED STATES. 



291 



The average capital and deposits of the State 

 and savings banks and private bankers, for 

 the six months ending May 31, were capital, 

 $217,706,226.35 ; deposits, $1,232,595,233.46. 



The legislation of Congress relative to the 

 currency, at the session of 1874-'75, consisted 

 in releasing the banks from the restriction on 

 the amount of their circulation, aud fixing 

 January, 1879, as the period when the resump- 

 tion of specie payments should commence (see 

 CONGRESS, UNITED STATES). 



The subject of the expansion or contraction 

 of the currency extensively occupied the pub- 

 lic. The question of expansion was presented 

 under the form of the substitution of the le- 

 gal-tender notes of the Government as the 

 paper currency of the country, and the with- 

 drawal of all bank-notes. The following let- 

 ter from Mr. B. F. Butler, member of Con- 

 gress from Massachusetts, indicates the views 

 of the advocates of a legal-tender currency : 



BOSTON, August 13, 1875. 



MY DEAR SIR: Engagements long since made 

 would make it impossible for me to be present on 

 September 1st at the meeting at Cooper Institute. I 

 need not tell you, or my friend Mr. Schell, how much 

 I sympathize with your movement. All my utter- 

 ances, public and private, have been in that direction. 

 I am unable to comprehend, appreciate, and much 

 less admire, that system of government finances 

 which has so wrought upon the business and pro- 

 duction of the. country that over 2,000,000 working 

 men and women who desire productive employment 

 have not had it for the last two years, and by which 

 the production which they would have added to the 

 wealth of the country during that time is lost. How 

 the country is to grow rich enough to pay its debts 

 by the non-production of its able-bodied workers, 

 is something that I cannot comprehend. Assuming 

 that each one of that number, skilled and unskilled, 

 could have averaged $2 per day for the working days 

 of the past year and I suppose you will agree with 

 me that that is little enough there we have lost 

 $1,200,000,000, or about equal to half of the national 

 debt, for this enforced idleness, to say nothing of the 

 loss of the morals of the working men and women. 

 How long men in active business, and property-hold- 

 ers, and holders of those kinds of property which 

 are open to the tax-gatherer, will permit a system 

 of financial administration to go on by which their 



property shall depreciate 33 per cent, in its value, 

 while the owners of property such as notes, mort- 

 gages, and bonds, which are untaxed, because not 

 open to the tax-gatherer, have their property appre- 

 ciate and escape taxation, is a problem whicn the 

 good sense of the people of this country will solve 

 at the coming presidential election. 



I regret that I cannot be with you and elaborate 

 these views, as I should be glad to do in New York 

 City, whose docks are deserted by shipping, whose 

 stores are unrented, and whose dwellings have been 

 so depreciated as hardly to meet the mortgages on 

 them, and where, I think, sound financial doctrines 

 are as much needed as anywhere. My necessities 

 compel me to forego this, which would be a pleasure 

 to me and, I trust, a profit to others. I am informed 

 that Mr. )uncan, of Duncan, Sherman & Co., went 

 to Washington when the currency bill was before 

 the President to advise him to veto it because it was 

 necessary to depreciate values. The President did 

 veto the bill ; values have been depreciated, I trust 

 to an amount entirely satisfactory to Messrs. Dun- 

 can, Sherman & Co., however little their creditors 

 may relish the process. 



I have the honor to be, very truly yours, 



BENJAMIN F. BUTLEK. 

 To EUGENE BEEBE, Secretary of the Legal-Tender 



Club, New York. 



The question, among others, was made an is- 

 sue in the State election in Ohio. But the re- 

 sult of the election could not be considered as 

 seriously altered by it, as the majority was 

 small on the side of the opposition, and might 

 have been partly produced by other issues. 



The aggregate yield of gold for the year 

 ending December 31, 1875, is reported by Mr* 

 Valentine, of Wells, Fargo & Co., San Fran- 

 cisco. The amount was $26,349,476, against 

 $26,358,776 in 1874. The production of silver 

 shows a notable increase. It is reported at 

 $54,539,561, against $48,042,279 in 1874. Al- 

 together the whole yield of the mines of this 

 country amounts to more than $80,000,000 of 

 gold and silver, which is a greater sum than 

 that of any previous year. In 1853 the aggre- 

 gate supply of the precious metals was $65,- 

 000,000, and this total was not exceeded till 

 1873, when the aggregate was $72,258,693, or 

 $8,500,000 less than in 1875. Subjoined are 

 the statistics of 1875 and those of 1874: 



If we add these figures to the tables of Mr. 

 Kossiter Raymond, Commissioner of Mining, 

 we shall find that the total production of the 

 precious metals in this country from 1848 to 

 1875 will amount to $1,582,090,092. Of this 



sum the gold product has been $1,293,458,252, 

 and that of silver $288,631,830. 



The following estimate of the taxes in the 

 United States is from the message of Governor 

 Tilden, of New York. It is a comparison of 



