Many Republicans held the earnest conviction that the issue of bonds would not have been necessary if the revenue had been sufficient. Not only had industry and commerce been unsettled by the tariff act of 1894, but the operations of the endless chain must certainly continue, it was held, until there was a generous income in excess of expenditures, whereby a considerable part of the credit currency might be covered into the Treasury and thus lessen the possible claims for redemption. The administration emphatically replied that at no time when bonds were issued was there intention of paying the expenses of the Government with their proceeds, and that the Treasury Department had no authority whatever to issue bonds for such purposes. President Cleveland was insistent that on each occasion of a bond issue there were sufficient funds in the Treasury to meet the ordinary expenditures of the Government. The proceeds of the bonds sold for the maintenance of the national credit were, however, turned into the general fund of the Treasury, and consequently, though not originally designed for that purpose, employed to meet indiscriminately all demands made upon the Government, whether for redemption of notes or the payment of debts.... There was a series of deficits beginning with 1894, but the deficit by no means equalled the amounts of bonds sold. FOOTNOTES: [16] Adapted from A. D. Noyes, _Forty Years of American Finance_, pp. 2-6 G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London. 1909. [17] _Ibid._, pp. 35-44. [18] F. W. Taussig, _The Silver Situation in the United States_, pp. 8, 9. G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 1893. [19] I have stated the price here, for simplicity, in terms of so much per ounce of standard silver, _i. e._, silver containing 10 per cent. of alloy. The usual quotation in the United States is per ounce of fine silver. [Thus, the New York price, March 10, 1916, was 56-3/4 cents per ounce of fine silver.] [20] _Ibid._, pp. 9, 10. [21] _Ibid._, pp. 10, 11. [22] _Ibid._, pp. 11-13. [23] _Ibid._, pp. 19, 20. [24] _Ibid._, pp. 50, 51. [25] [Present tense because written while the act was still in force.] [26] _Ibid._, pp. 51, 52. [27] _Ibid._, pp. 52, 59. [28] _Ibid._, pp. 84-106. [29] Davis R. Dewey, _Financial History of the United States_, pp. 442-455. Longmans, Green and Company, New York, 1915. CHAPTER VIII INDEX NUMBERS