Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/496

470 years been withdrawn by the banks themselves. As people are not apt to lose a good chance to make money, there must be some trouble about those immense profits, which our Democratic friends fail to state. It is always wholesome to look at official figures. I have here a statement made by the Comptroller of the Currency before a Congressional committee in February last. It is some what dry reading, but we must exercise patience to get at the truth.

On February 15th the par value of the United States bonds deposited in the Treasury as security for national bank notes was $346,243,550; gold being then at 2¼ per cent. premium, their currency value was $363,372,854.

The amount of circulation issuable thereon was $311,619,195; the gold interest on the bonds, $17,290,071; the currency value of that interest at the time, $18,147,279. “But,” says the Comptroller, “as the banks are required to pay annually into the Treasury a tax of 1 per cent. on their circulation, or $3,116,192, there is left $15,031,087 in currency as the net amount of interest received by them on the bonds.” “Upon receiving circulation,” says the Comptroller, further, “the banks are required, by the act of June 20, 1874, to place an amount equal to 5 per cent. thereof, or $15,580,960, with the Treasurer of the United States as a redemption fund, leaving out of the $311,619,195 of circulation issuable upon their bonds, $296,038,235 available for use, which amount, if loaned at 8 per cent., will produce an income of $23,683,059, and this income added to the net interest on their bonds gives $38,714,146 as the whole income from bonds and circulation.” “But,” he says further, “if the capital itself, which was necessary to purchase the bonds ($363,372,854) were loaned out by them at 8 per cent., the annual income therefrom would be $29,069,828, and the difference between this sum and the whole income from their bonds and circulation, which is