merchant and the manufacturer and general employment to our working
people.
The report of the Secretary of the Treasury for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1889, has been prepared and will be presented to Congress.
It presents with clearness the fiscal operations of the Government, and
I avail myself of it to obtain some facts for use here.
The aggregate receipts from all sources for the year were
$387,050,058.84, derived as follows:
From customs $223,832,741.69
From internal revenue 130,881,513.92
From miscellaneous sources 32,335,803.23
The ordinary expenditures for the same period were $281,996,615.60,
and the total expenditures, including the sinking fund, were
$329,579,929.25. The excess of receipts over expenditures was, after
providing for the sinking fund, $57,470,129.59.
For the current fiscal year the total revenues, actual and estimated,
are $385,000,000, and the ordinary expenditures, actual and estimated,
are $293,000,000, making with the sinking fund a total expenditure of
$341,321,116.99, leaving an estimated surplus of $43,678,883.01.
During the fiscal year there was applied to the purchase of bonds, in
addition to those for the sinking fund, $90,456,172.35, and during the
first quarter of the current year the sum of $37,838,937.77, all of
which were credited to the sinking fund. The revenues for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1891, are estimated by the Treasury Department at
$385,000,000, and the expenditures for the same period, including the
sinking fund, at $341,430,477.70. This shows an estimated surplus for
that year of $43,569,522.30, which is more likely to be increased than
reduced when the actual transactions are written up.
The existence of so large an actual and anticipated surplus should
have the immediate attention of Congress, with a view to reducing the
receipts of the Treasury to the needs of the Government as closely as
may be. The collection of moneys not needed for public uses imposes an
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