Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/866

828 lay wholly in obtaining the facts relating to revenues collected by counties and by taxing agencies below the county. The aggregate results, as ascertained for 1879, were as follows (Table XXXIV.):

The aggregate receipts into the United States treasury, beginning in 1791, have been (in millions of dollars) as follows:—from customs, 5642; from internal revenue, 3449; from direct taxes, 28; from public lands, 241; from bank dividends, 10; miscellaneous, 568; total, 9938. The net ordinary expenditures of the United States Government from 1791 to 1886 have been as follows (in millions of dollars):—war, 4563; navy, 1106; Indians, 230; pensions, 900; miscellaneous, 1938; total, 8737. The foregoing is exclusive of payments on account of the principal or interest of the public debt. The net ordinary receipts into the treasury for 1886 (the fiscal year ends June 30) were as follows: from customs, $192,905,023; from internal revenue, $116,805,937; from direct taxes, $108,240; from public lands, $5,630,999; miscellaneous, $20,989,528; total, $336,439,727. Of the receipts from internal revenue in 1886 $69,000,000 in round numbers were from spirits, $20,000,000 from fermented liquors, 28,000,000 from tobacco. The net ordinary expenditures for 1886 were as follows:—war, $34,324,153; navy, $13,907,888; Indians, $6,099,158; pensions, $63,404,864; miscellaneous, 74,166,929; total, $191,902,992. The foregoing statement is exclusive of payments on account of principal or interest of the public debt.

The Government set out, in 1790, with a revolutionary debt of about 75 millions of dollars. This debt continued without important change until 1806, when a reduction began, continuing until 1812, when the debt was about 45 millions. The then ensuing war with England carried the debt up to 127 millions in 1816. This was reduced to 96 millions in 1819, to 84 millions in 1825, and to 24 millions in 1832, and in the three years following was extinguished. The crisis of 1837, and the financial difficulties ensuing, created indebtedness, fluctuating in amount, which at the beginning of the war with Mexico was about 16 millions. At the conclusion of peace the debt had risen to 63 millions, near which point it remained until about 1852, from which time successive reductions brought it down to 28 millions in 1857. The financial crisis of that year caused an increase, which continued until the imminence of the civil war, when it rose from 65 millions in 1860 to 91 millions in 1861, to 514 in 1862, to 1120 in 1863, to 1816 in 1864, to 2681 in June and its maximum (2845 millions) in August 1865.

Of the outstanding principal of the debt in 1886, 158 millions bore interest at 3 per cent., 738 millions at 4 per cent., 250 millions at 4½ per cent., making the interest-bearing debt 1146 millions. The debt bearing no interest amounted to 629 millions, making the aggregate 1775 millions. The cash in the treasury on the 1st of July of that year reached 493 millions, leaving the total debt, less cash in the treasury, 1282 millions. The annual interest-charge was at this date 45½ millions.

At the tenth census (1880) an effort was made to ascertain the indebtedness of all States, Territories, counties, cities, towns, townships, &c., with the following result (in millions of dollars): total funded debt, 1118; floating debt, 84; gross debt, 1202; sinking fund, 145; net debt, 1057. The total net debt was made up as follows (in millions of dollars):—debts of States and Territories, 234; debts of counties, 124; debts of townships, 32; debts of school districts, 17; debts of cities and towns, 649.

The number of pensioners on the rolls, June 30, 1887, with the amounts dne the several classes, at existing rates per year, will be found in the following table (XXXV.):—

It is impossible to make even an approximation to the number of persons in the civil service within the United States, including the officers of States, counties, cities, towns, &c. There is no complete and exact statement available even as to those who are in the civil service of the national Government. An attempt has been made, for the present purpose, to reach an approximation to that number. This has been done by counting the names on 1200 pages of the blue-book of 1885, under the several heads there mentioned. Such a process involves a liability to minor errors, in addition to whatever duplications or omissions may occur in the printed lists. The results are offered merely as an approximation to facts. Legislative branch, 427; executive branch, 114,852; judicial branch, 2876; total, 118,155. The executive branch includes executive, 22; state department, 467; war department, 9050; navy department, 1637; interior department, 6115; treasury department, 14,505; post-office department, 79,110; department of agriculture, 203; national museum, 154; Fish Commission, 118; Government printing office, 2238; government of the District of Columbia, 1200; miscellaneous, 33.

The following table (XXXVI.) exhibits the personnel of the army on January 1, 1887:—

The following table (XXXVII.) exhibits the personnel of the navy on January 1, 1887:—

The following table (XXXVIII.) exhibits the number of vessels constituting the navy of the United States, according to class and condition, on January 1, 1887:—

Ten are unserviceable; 3 of these are used as receiving ships, the others condemned and authorized to be sold.

The institution, control, and maintenance of public schools are in the hands of the several States, although the United States Government has made liberal grants of lands, in aid of primary instruction, to the States formed out of the public domain, and also for the endowment of colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, to all the States.

The following table (XXXIX.) presents the leading features of the public school statistics at four dates between 1876 and 1886:—