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our vast resources in wealth, just as the patriotic rush to arms exhibited our strength in men.

On the day the loan closed Santiago fell, thus presaging the end of the war. Short as was the struggle, it had not been without much loss of precious lives and great cost in money. It will be for others to recount the deeds of those who fell; it remains for me to tell the less thrilling story of the cost to the public treasury. By December 31, when most of the war appropriations expired by limitation, war expenditures had reached a total of $195,000,000. The tendency of such expenditures, during the last three months of the year, showed slight decreases; but they were still such as to indicate that the cost, as given above, will be much enlarged.

By the end of the calendar year, also, the Government had received into the Treasury almost the entire $200,000,000 on account of the war loan. In receiving and disbursing large sums drawn from and returned to the markets, it was the intention to prevent, if possible, any derangement of commerce or the industries of the country. This, it is believed, was successfully accomplished. Large expenditures, in part, offset the equally large receipts; but these could not be made to coincide to such an extent as to maintain equilibrium. The Secretary of the Treasury, therefore, provided that in paying for the bonds of the loan subscribers might do so in instalments, which would have the effect of obviating the sudden withdrawals of money from centers where it might otherwise be productively employed. Deposits in national banks were also largely increased by equitable distribution throughout the country. These accounts, on the day the books of the loan were opened, stood at $27,948,000 and had been increased to $95,900,000 at the end of the year.

During all the course of the war it was the constant effort of the Department to do nothing which would interrupt the returning tide of prosperity. Never was there, at any time during the struggle, any appreciable stringency in the money market; in fact, for the whole of the year 1898, no alarming upward tendency of rates was noticeable, except immediately succeeding the destruction of the Maine and during the period of uncertainty which preceded the declaration of war. Even the certainty of war itself, with all its disturbing influences, furnished only a basis for improving conditions; thus, while the nation emerged from the conflict victorious upon sea and land, its credit also had been preserved, nay strengthened, and the business of the country had expanded rather than diminished. It will not often fall to the lot of any nation to be so singularly fortunate in any of these respects.

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