THE CURRENCY TRUST FUNDS, THE GENERAL FUND, AND THE GOLD RESERVE FUND. The large excess of bank balances is due to heavy collections of income and corporation taxes deposited late in the afternoon, and will be transferred on the succeeding day. The act of July 14, 1890, provides that deposits made by national banks to redeem circulating notes shall be covered into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts and that the Treasury shall redeem from the general cash the circulating notes which come into its possession subject to redemption. (OLD FORM) Statement of the United States Treasury AT CLOSE OF BUSINESS JUNE 30, 1913. RESERVE FUND. Gold held for re- S $346,681,016 of United States notes....Coin...$100,000,000 demption of $2,660,000 of Treasury notes of 1890. J Bullion 50,000,000 $150,000,000 TRUST FUNDS. Held for the redemption of the notes and certificates for which they are respectively The large excess of bank balances is due to very heavy deposits on account of corporation taxes and other exceptional revenue on the last day of the fiscal year. Under the act of July 14, 1890, the deposits made by national banks to retire circulation are paid into the General Fund of the Treasury as a "miscellaneous receipt." Therefore, the bank notes subject to retirement, when presented, are redeemed from the General Fund. The net amount of such deposits included in the General Fund on this day is $22,092,806.00. for Published monthly There has been much talk of the wave of prosperity which will sweep over the new world when the storms of the old have subsided. It will be a kind of tidal wave following the earthquake. Nearly everyone admits that when the purchasing power of Europe begins to be restored the demand for American products, both raw materials and manufactured articles, will be greater than it has ever been in the past. The commercial output of Germany will be inconsiderable for several years to come. France will be severely crippled. England, although not so greatly influenced by the war as her continental neighbors, will nevertheless be compelled to look abroad for many of those things which heretofore she has produced within her own boundaries. Whatever be the outcome of the war one thing is certain, namely, that it is to the western hemisphere that Europe must look for its supplies. Demand for food products will be at its most acute stage immediately after the war when the embargo on contraband is removed; and it will decrease slowly until the fields of Europe are brought again under the plow and harrow. The demand for manufactured articles will begin with the termination of the war and increase steadily for some years until the depletion caused by military operations has been made good. How much further the market for our products will extend no one can say. It is to be hoped that America will hold the trade which she will acquire when the war is ended, but in any event the one certainty remains, that for some years at least America is sure to be taxed to her utmost to provide those things for which a war-worn world will call. All this is practically self-evident; but there is another and a deeper significance in the outlook which does not seem to have attracted sufficient attention. This is the responsibility which will rest upon the country to see that it is not ruined by the prosperity which is coming. When the resumption of activity begins there will be an era when every manufacturer, every producer and everyone concerned with exportation will find it a comparatively simple matter to make more money than he has ever made before. As a consequence there will be a strong temptation to indulge in overconfidence and to embark upon undertakings which will have no legitimate foundation. It threatens to become a time of wild-cat propositions, a time closely resembling the period of the "South Sea Bubble" when everything was profitable and investment and speculation ran riot. In view of these things it seems to us that an enormous burden-one hardly to be borne-will rest upon the members of the accounting profession. It will be to the public accountants that the public will look for frank, unprejudiced statements of affairsnot to the grandiloquent prospectuses with which the investing public will be assailed. It may be thought that as people nowadays are better acquainted with business conditions, and as they remember the frequent losses which have been made in speculation, they will become more cautious and exercise greater discernment, but experience in speculation is never much of a teacher and there will always be an abundance of investors for every investment in a time of national prosperity. Here lies the opportunity for accountants to demonstrate conclusively their importance to the body commercial and financial. If the profession strictly adheres to its high standards of integrity, refuses to certify to any statement which may mislead the most gullible investor, lets it clearly be known that nothing |