y them was shown to be $552,929,100, and the amount of commissions
paid was $1,363,070.34. In exhibiting these tables I said:

"Here is a table showing the sales and commissions of certain banks.
I have taken all banks who sold over $1,000,000. There were twenty-
six of them. The First National Bank, having been always connected
with the national securities and having been the agent of the
syndicate, continued to be the agent of the foreign syndicate, and
continued to have altogether the largest business. They sold of
the four per cent. bonds $262,625,000. The sales of the other
banks are kept here in the same way. The Bank of New York (National
Banking Association), I think, was the next. It sold $57,259,500.
The National Bank of Commerce sold $51,684,000; the National Bank
of the State of New York sold $46,915,000, and so on down."

I called attention to the fact that in the last sale of about
$200,000,000 four per cent. bonds, we received one-half of one per
cent. premium, or a million dollars, which nearly covered the entire
commissions paid to the twenty-six banks named. Full details were
given of the various loans, and it was shown that the cost of
selling the last loan was less expensive to the government, in
proportion to the amount sold, than any previous loan.

In reference to the sinking fund, about which I was asked my opinion,
I said it was the same old question that had been so often debated.
I explained that a sinking fund is nothing but an obligation or
promise, on the part of the government or an individual, to pay a
certain amount annually of the principal of the debt in addition
to the interest. In this way the debt is gradually liquidated and
the annual interest lessened. A sinking fund promised by a government
is nothing more or less than a name for the surplus revenue of the
government. A government without a surplus revenue cannot possibly
have a sinking fund. There is no way to pay a debt except by having
an income above your expenditures, and you can call your surplus
revenue a sinking fund if you choose. I said that under existing
law the department was required to purchase one per cent. of the
entire debt of the United States each fiscal year, and to set the
amount apart as a sinking fund, and to compute interest thereon to
be added with the amount to be subsequently purchased each year.
This act can only be construed as an authority to purchase the debt
in case of surplus reve