The New International Encyclopædia/Treasury, Department of the

TREASURY, Department of the. The executive department of the Government of the United States controlling the national finances. It was established by act of Congress in September, 1789, and was the successor of the Treasury Department created by the Congress of the Confederation in 1781, of which Robert Morris was for a time superintendent. It is the most extensive and complex of the executive departments and in rank stands next to the Department of State. It is presided over by a Secretary appointed by the President, who is a member of the Cabinet (salary, $8000), and second among the Cabinet officers in the line of succession to the Presidency. The department as originally established consisted of a Secretary, a Comptroller, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Register, and an Assistant Secretary, together with a few clerks. From this small beginning the department has grown to be a vast establishment employing some 5000 persons at Washington with numerous bureaus, branches, and offices throughout the country. The only qualification for the office of Secretary of the Treasury is the negative one that he shall not he interested in foreign commerce. He is required to digest and prepare plans for the revenue and public credit; to prescribe the forms for keeping the public accounts; to superintend the collection of the revenues; to grant all warrants under certain limitations for moneys issued from the Treasury in pursuance of appropriations made by law; and, in general, to perform all such duties relative to the finances of the United States as shall be required by law. Simultaneously with the development of the country the duties of the department have been extended to the management of the national debt, the supervision of the national banks, the internal revenue system, the legal-tender currency, the merchant marine, the lighthouse system, the life-saving and marine hospital services, the Coast Survey, etc. The Secretary is aided by three Assistant Secretaries. The business of the department is distributed among the following offices and bureaus: the Comptroller of the Treasury, six Auditors, the Treasurer, the Register, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the Mint, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the Marine Hospital Service.

The Comptroller of the Treasury, since 1894, has been aided by an Assistant Comptroller. He exercises a kind of supervisory power over the auditors, countersigns warrants drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury, etc. The original act creating the Treasury Department provided for a single Auditor; four additional Auditors were provided in 1817, and a sixth was added in 1836. The six Auditors are assigned to the Treasury, War, Interior, Navy, Post-office, and State and other departments respectively, with the duty of examining accounts. The Treasurer is charged with the duty of signing the paper currency and of receiving and keeping the moneys of the United States and with disbursing the same on warrants properly drawn and countersigned. There are Assistant Treasurers at New York, Boston, Saint Louis, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Chicago, and San Francisco. The Register signs all stocks and bonds and all Treasury notes and coin certificates issued under the authority of the United States. The Comptroller of the Currency enforces the provisions of the national banking laws and superintends the issue of banknote currency. At the head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue is a commissioner who is charged with the enforcement of the internal revenue laws and the collection of the internal revenues. He is aided by a collector in each revenue district. For the collection of the customs there is a collector in each district, a surveyor in the larger parts, and a general board of appraisers to hear appeals against decisions of the collectors with regard to the dutiability of imported goods. The Director of the Mint has the supervision of all mints and assay offices throughout the country and makes annual reports to Congress on the coinage of the country, the yield of precious metals, etc. The Bureau of Engraving, established in 1874, has charge of the preparation of designs, stamps, bank notes, bonds. Treasury drafts, and other securities of the United States. The Solicitor of the Treasury has charge of all legal measures to prevent the evasion of the revenue laws and the counterfeiting of the coin and other securities of the United States.