STRIKES IN 1892, BY INDUSTRIES-Concluded. [It will be observed that the addition of the items in this table will not in all cases produce the totals given The figures, however, are all as given in the report before referred to, the original not being accessible. ] The following table shows the distribution of strikes in Austria in 1891 and 1892 by districts, giving the number of strikes, establishments involved, employees, and strikers: STRIKES IN 1891 AND 1892, BY DISTRICTS. [It will be observed that the addition of the items in this table will not in all cases produce the totals given. The figures, however, are all as given in the report before referred to, the original not being accessible.] PRIVATE AND PUBLIC DEBT IN THE UNITED STATES. BY GEORGE K. HOLMES. There is an elaborate network of debts and credits associated with production and trade, and growing out of the numerous wants and necessities of men, to satisfy which they in many cases use borrowed or hired wealth. The maufacturer may have a mortgage on his factory and be in debt for materials, the jobber and wholesale merchant are indebted to him, while the retail merchants owe them. The retail merchants have customers who are indebted to them, and these customers are more or less creditors. It is therefore practically impossible to ascertain the true amount of the private debts of the people. The dif ficulty can be illustrated by the following familiar example: A owes B $10, B owes C $10, and C owes A the same amount; a ten-dollar bill handed by the first to the second, by the second to the third, and by the third to the first will satisfy the three debts, yet in any statistics of private debt under this illustration the total would be $30. In undertaking to arrive at the amount of private debt it is impossible to offset credits against debts in cases similar to the foregoing. The best that can be done is to ascertain the amounts of the various classes of debts which are offset iittle, if any, by credits and regard their sum as the minimum amount of debt, somewhere above which is the true amount. The results of an effort to do this are presented in the accompanying statement of the minimum debt of the United States in 1890. The amounts of the funded and unfunded debt of railroad and street railway companies, and the amount of the funded debt of telephone companies are obtained from the reports of the Eleventh Census of the United States. To the reported debt of railroad companies has been added an estimate of the debt not reported. The totals for the other items in the statement have been taken from similar official or authentic reports (a), or are carefully prepared estimates. a Bulletins and final reports of the Eleventh Census, Poor's Manual of Railroads, the Manual of American Waterworks, reports of the Massachusetts gas and electric light commissioners, and reports of the Comptroller of the Currency. Telegraph companies ($2,556,808 estimated). Public water companies, not owned by municipalities ($26,488,939 estimated). Electric lighting and power companies (estimated), Transportation companies, not otherwise specified, and canal, turnpike, bridge, and other quasi public corporations (estimated to make round total). Total REAL ESTATE MORTGAGES. 2 3 2 1 6 3 5, 669, 431, 114 91.44 182, 240, 754 2.94 4,992, 565 .08 Real estate mortgages.. Crop liens in the South (estimated).. Crop liens outside of the South, and chattel mortgages (estimated). National banks, loans and overdrafts.. Other banks, loans and overdrafts, not including real estate mortgages. Other net private debt (estimated to make round total). Total 89-No. 1-4 MINIMUM DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1890-Concluded. Some of the classes of corporations enumerated in the foregoing statement, such as transportation companies not otherwise specified, canal, turnpike, and bridge companies, do a cash business, and others a business that is so nearly for cash that there is comparatively little in amount of credits to offset against their debt. The amount of credits of such corporations is undoubtedly much more than balanced by the wages that they owe just before pay day. Debtors who place mortgages on their real or personal estates are creditors to some extent, how far it is impossible to estimate; but these persons are not regarded as appreciably a creditor class, as they would need to be if their combined debt of $6,669,679,985 was to be reduced much on this account. On the other hand, the borrowers from banks, not including borrowers on real estate security, may be supposed to be creditors to a considerable degree. National banks can not lend on real estate mortgages, and therefore these securities are excluded from the loans of other banks. The public revenue, too, is derived from persons who are creditors as well as debtors, and a large portion of it, as in the case of crop liens, is not a debt that continues throughout the whole year. Notwithstanding this, it is included in the statement of debt, partly because it is a conspicuous and disagreeable debt burden and partly to account for some of the debt which can not be ascertained in its entirety. It is believed that the total of the preceding statement expresses the minimum debt of the people of the United States in 1890. Only 12.14 per cent of it is estimated, no part of it is duplicated, and the supposition is that the accepted debt offset by credit is more than equaled by the omitted debt. In addition to showing the amounts, the statement gives the percentages that the different amounts are of the totals of the respective groups of debts. For instance, of the grand total, 89.98 per cent is classed as private and 10.02 per cent as public debt; the realestate mortgage debt forms 50.16 per cent of the total debt of individ、 nals and private corporations, and the debt of railroad companies 91.44 per cent of the debt of quasi public corporations. The relative importance of the different classes of debts is shown by the following statement, in which the various items of debt are converted into percentages of the total debt of $20,227,170,546: PER CENT OF EACH CLASS OF DEBT OF THE AGGREGATE DEBT, 1890. Description of debt. Per cent. QUASI PUBLIC CORPORATIONS. Railroad companies (partly estimated). Street railway companies....... Telephone companies, funded debt. Telegraph companies (partly estimated).. Gas companies (estimated).... Electric lighting and power companies (estimated). Public water companies, not owned by municipalities (partly estimated). Transportation companies, not otherwise specified, and canal, turnpike, bridge, and other quasi public corporations (estimated). Other banks, loans and overdrafts, not including real estate mortgages. Other net private debt (estimated). Total.. PUBLIC DEBT, LESS SINKING FUND. 28.03 .90 .03 .10 .44 .37 .22 .56 30.65 29.76 1.48 1.73 9.41 5.80 5.15 6.00 59.33 Of the different groups of debts that of individuals and private corporations stands first, forming 59.33 per cent of the total, while quasi public corporations form 30.65 per cent. The real-estate mortgage debt alone is 29.76 per cent of the grand total, and is followed by that of railroad companies, 28.03 per cent. Among the items of public debt that of the United States is first, and forms 4.41 per cent, while the debt of municipalities is 3.58 per cent of the total. There is a great difference between the significance of a debt incurred to acquire the ownership of capital or the more durable property to be used productively and to be retained and used by the debtor and to be kept available for the payment on his debt, and that of a debt incurred for the purchase of property soon to be consumed unproductively or for the purchase of evanescent property. The debt of the quasi public corporations originally stood for substantially an equal amount of capital, and it stands for the same at the present time, except in the |