The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-07-15
The Republican Financial Record

The going out and coming in of a
fiscal year of the United States Gov
ernment is always noteworthy. The
fiscal year ought really to begin on
March 4, for an obvious reason. As
it is, June 30is the nearest approach
the country can ever have to an Of
iicial and exact statement of how
an outgoing administration has left
the country financially.
After its stewardship of twenty
four years the Republican party
gave place to the Democracy, and at
the present time the Democrats have
had less than four months in
which to make changes of any kind,
and the greater part of the govern
ment business has been done by Re
publicans so far. 1t is of special
interest to see the final entries made
in the ledger, the last chapter in the
first volume.
The receipts Of the government
from custom dues was S1Sl 100000;
from internal revenue, S112,o0O,0OO;
from miscellaneous sources, SIS, ,000,-
600; total of 1921, 100000. The
total expenditures of the govern
ment for the year can not be definite
| ly stated at this time, but will be
about s310,000000. a difference in
favor of the Treasury of about Sill,
100000. The public debt was re-
duced s6S 100000. These are the
monetary facts in general way, on
which the Republican party closes
the first volums of its history. Ev-
cry member of the party has just
cause for pride in this splendid rec
ord of fidelity and efficiency, and
no Democrat who has regard for the
reputation of his party can ask any
thing better than that it may prove
worthy of such a predecessor.
1t is hardly conceivable that Pres
ident Cleveland should duplicate
the experience, as the chief executor
of National finance, of President
Buchanan, his immediate political
predecessor, but it is to be remem-
bered that James Buchanan was
only the eliminating point of a series
of Presidents, the same as was the
case with President Arthur. One
series began with Lincoln, the other
with Jackson, the latter. having a
few brief breaks, but being substan-
TALLY unbroken.
Personally every President that
the United States has ever had was
honest in all matters of business,
and we assume that Grover Cleve-
land will prove no exception. Even
the worst of the Cabinet officers,
Floyd. Cobb. Thompson and Tou-
cey, are not believed to Lave enrich
ed themselves. Their depletion of
the public treasury and waste of
government funds, carried on to
such an extent that the National
Treasury was bankrupt, was not the
result of personal cupidity. We re-
call no charge against any of them
which rested on any motive of that
sort. Our neighboring republic of
Mexico is to-day suffering seriously
and undergoing a readjustmeht of
national finance because the admin
istration prior to this one stole the
public money. That is the short OF
it, and is state of afiairs wholly
foreign to the experience of the
United States. What then was the
trouble with the last Democratic ad-
ministration There can be only
one answer.
The Cabinet of Buchanan carried
into effect the Democratic theory of
Federal government, as those Cabi-
net officers understood it, and at
least one member of the present
Cabinet gave his formal and practi-
cal assent to that theory of Democ-
racy at the time by resigning his
seat in Congress and taking part in
the rebellion. His recent action in
causing the flag to be lowered as
mark Of respect to one ofthose Cabi-
net officers, Jacob Thompson, might
perhaps be interpreted as a mere form
but what he lid twerty-four years
ago was deliberately and in the
highest degree practical.
The Inter Ocean has no disposi-
ton to PREJUDICE this administration,
or hold it responsible for the sequel
of the former Democratic regime,
but before closing the first volume
of Republican finances and laying it
aside to be covered with the dust of
time. or as Oscar Wilde would say,
the bloom of time, it is pertinent to
call attention to the contrast between
that record and the first financial
volume of the other grea. party of
the day. Side by side they rest in
the library of American politics,
each an index finger to and a Just
commentary upon the other.-Inter
Oce0I