UNITED STATES FINANCE 72S 



Value of Imports and Exports by States and Districts, for the Year ending June 1912 continued. 



STATE DISTRICT PORTS OF ENTRY IMPORTS EXPORTS 



Virginia Richmond. . . Richmond. . . 926,516 7,800 



Washington (See Oregon and Washington) 



Wisconsin ,:!;" .-Milwaukee . . Milwaukee .. : -. = . 4,646,399 120,174 



Porto Rico .... .,..-, ,-. Porto Rico . . San Juan . ..,.,--. 4,501,928 6,832,012 



FINANCE. The balance in the general fund on June 30, 1911, was $140, 176, 926 and 

 on June 30, 1912, $167,152,479 (and on Nov. n, 1912, $147,982,307). For the fiscal 

 year the receipts were: ordinary, $691,778,465 (preceding year, $701,372,375), Panama 

 Canal bonds sold, $33,189,104 (in 1911, $18,102,170) and public debt, $20,537,645 

 (in 1911, $40,232,555). The disbursements were: ordinary, $654,553,963 (1911, 

 $654,137,998), Panama Canal, $35,327,371 (1911, $37,063,515) and public debt, $28,- 

 648,327 (1911, $35,223,336). The principal items in "ordinary" receipts were: 

 customs, $311,321,672; ordinary internal revenue, $293,028,896; corporation tax, 

 $28,583,303; and of "ordinary" disbursement"- : pensions, $153,590,456; war, $148,- 

 795,422; navy, $135,591,956; interest on public debt, $22,616,300; Indians, $20,134,- 

 840; civil and miscellaneous, $173,824,989. 



The appropriations by annual acts (exclusive of postal, payable from postal revenues) 

 were $634,549,561 for 1912 and $617,382,178 for 1913 (permanent appropriations: for 1912, 

 $68,575,924, and for 1913, $72,556,424). The Democratic Congress cut down the appropria- 

 tions for public defence: army, from $93,374,756 for 1912 to $90,958,713; navy, from $126,- 

 45 >59 for 1912 to $123,151,539 for 1913; fortifications, from $5,473,707 to $4,036,235; and 

 Military Academy, from $1,163,424 to $1,064,668. It is true that the total of annual appro- 

 priations for 1913 compared with that for 1912 showed retrenchment and an apparent effort 

 for economy, but the decrease in the items just named and the "cut" of 25 % in the "Sundry 

 Civil" act (from $135,241,935 to $102,538,934), even if they were entirely laudable economies, 

 do not hide, although they overbalance, the enormous increases in the Rivers and Harbors 

 acts (almost one-third: from $30,883,419 to $40,559,620) and in the Pension Act (nearly one- 

 twelfth; from $153,682,000 to $165,146,146), both items notoriously for political purposes. 



On June 30, 1912 the outstanding debt was $2,849,373,874 (June 30, 1911: $2,765,600,- 

 607), but more than half of this ($1,524,535,369) was in certificates and treasury notes, off- 

 set by an equal amount of cash in the Treasury, so that the difference, $1,343,838,505 is a 

 less misleading figure. This sum is made up of the following items: interest bearing debt, 

 963,776,770 (including $646,250,150 in 2% consols of 1930; $134,631,980 in Panama Canal 

 loans of 1906 and 1908 both 2 % and of 1911, $50,000,000 at 3%; $118,489,900 of the 4% 

 loan of 1925; $63,945,460 of the 3% loan of 1908-18; and two issues of postal savings bonds 

 at 2 K%, the first, 1911-31 for $41,900, and the second 1912-32, for $417,380); debt on which 

 interest has ceased since maturity, $1,760,450; and debt bearing no interest, $378,301,285 

 not including the certificates and treasury notes, mentioned above. 



A system of postal savings banks was put in operation January 3, 1911 and at the begin- 

 ning of November 1912 there were banks in 12,773 post-offices (out of a total of 58,133 in the 

 country), including 644 branch offices and sub-stations, in every state of the Union; the num- 

 ber of depositors was 290,000, and the total deposits were $28,000,000. 



On June 27, 1912 President Taft sent to Congress a report of the president's commission 

 on economy and efficiency 1 entitled The Need for a National Budget (submitted June 19; 

 printed as 62nd Congress, 2nd Session, House Document No. 854) with a message approving 

 the commission 's recommendation that a budget be submitted to Congress by the President 

 and that appropriations not based on this budget be acted upon in a separate bill. On July 

 10 heads of departments and establishments were instructed by the President to prepare for 

 the year 1914 estimates and summaries not only in the form previously used, but in the uni- 

 form manner suggested by his commission. A letter from the President to the Secretary of 

 the Treasury (Sept. 19) supplemented this order. Congress seemed prone to consider that 

 the President was encroaching on its powers and in this letter the President said that he ques- 

 tioned not "the constitutional right to Congress to prescribe the manner in which reports 

 . . . be submitted" but "the practical wisdom of continuing to operate the Government 

 under 90 different statutes, passed at 90 different times, which prescribe 200 different forms." 



1 This commission was organised March 8, 1911 and took over work begun under Charles 

 D. Norton, secretary to the President. Its chairman was Frederick A. Cleveland, formerly 

 director of the New York City bureau 'of municipal research. See his paper in Vol. 3, No. 2 

 (1912) of Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science; and, for other activities of the 

 commission, Hearings before the House Sub-committee in charge of the Sundry Civil Appropria- 

 tion Bill for 1913 (Washington, 19.12). The distribution of. 'all departmental documents by 

 the Superintendent of Documents instead of by the separate departments is an accomplished 

 reform proposed by the Committee, and improved and uniform filing is another. 



