United States Department of the Treasury

“ This deficiency has been caused by the reduction of the rates of postage, which was made by the act of the 3d of March last. No principle has been more generally acquiesced in by the people than that this Department should sustain itself by limiting its expenditures to its income. Congress has never sought to make it a source of revenue for general purposes except for a short period during the last war with Great Britain, nor should it ever become a charge on the general Treasury. ”

“ The presence of a large cash surplus in the Treasury has for many years been the subject of much unfavorable criticism, and has furnished an argument to those who have desired to place the tariff upon a purely revenue basis. It was agreed by all that the withdrawal from circulation of so large an amount of money was an embarrassment to the business of the country and made necessary the intervention of the Department at frequent intervals to relieve threatened monetary panics. ”

“ This great concentration of effort by the administration and Congress has brought the expenditures, exclusive of the self-supporting Post. Office Department, down to three billion dollars. It is possible, in consequence, to make a large reduction in the taxes of the people, which is the sole object of all curtailment. This is treated at greater length in the Budget message, and a proposed plan has been presented in detail in a statement by the Secretary of the Treasury which has my unqualified approval. ”

“ Stat. 1913, § 368) , it was provided that 'all claims and demands whatever, by the United States or against them, and all accounts whatever, in which the United States are concerned, either as debtors or as creditors, shall be settled and adjusted in the Treasury Department.' This provision was carried into § 236 of the Revised Statutes (Comp. Stat. 1913, § 368) . The words 'settled and adjusted' were taken to mean the determination in the Treasury Department for administrative purposes of the state of the account and the amount due. See 2 Ops. Atty. Gen. ”

“ Provided, further, That nothing in this section contained shall extend to balances arising solely from the depreciation of treasury notes, received by such person, to be expended in the public service; but in all cases where the pay or salary of any person is withheld, in pursuance of this act, it shall be the duty of the accounting officer, if demanded by the party, his agent, or attorney, to report forthwith to the agent of the Treasury Department the balance due ”

“ Money can be expended by the government only after it has been appropriated by Congress in its annual appropriation bills. The appropriation of supplies by Congress is the most important business that it transacts. Every year the heads of all the different departments frame estimates of the amounts of money needed to support their departments during the following year, which estimates they send to the Secretary of the Treasury, who, after considering and revising them, transmits them to Congress in his "Annual Letter." ”

“ With rigid economy, vigorous salvage operations, and adequate revenues from taxation, a surplus of current receipts over current expenditures can be realized and should be applied to the floating debt. All branches of the Government should cooperate to see that this program is realized. I cannot overemphasize the necessity of economy in Government appropriations and expenditures and the avoidance by the Congress of practices which take money from the Treasury by indefinite or revolving fund appropriations. ”

“ The national system will create a reliable and permanent influence in support of the national credit and protect the people against losses in the use of paper money. Whether or not any further legislation is advisable for the suppression of State-bank issues it will be for Congress to determine. It seems quite clear that the Treasury can not be satisfactorily conducted unless the Government can exercise a restraining power over the bank-note circulation of the country. ”

“ And while the functions of our National Treasury should be few and simple, and while its best condition would be reached, I believe, by its entire disconnection with private business interests, yet when, by a perversion of its purposes, it idly holds money uselessly subtracted from the channels of trade, there seems to be reason for the claim that some legitimate means should be devised by the Government to restore in an emergency, without waste or extravagance, such money to its place among the people. ”