The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-12-17
MIR. MANNING's POLICY.
The Financial Aims of the Admin
istration Outlined.
Some Novel Propositions Advanced in the
Report of the Secretary of the Treasury
Silver, Debt-Paying and Reduc.
ton of Taxation Discussed.

Report of the Secretary of the Treasury
Silver, Debt-Paying and Reduc.
ton of Taxation Discussed.
THE FINANCES.
WASHINGTON, Dec. S.-The annual report of
Hon. Daniel Manning, Secretary of the Treas
ury, is heavy document Of nearly twenty four
thousand words The main features of the re-
port are as follows:
THE SILVER QUESTION.
The report In opening calls attention to the
change Of front Of Great Britain on the silver
question. For years the British Government
had insisted on keeping to her own preferences
regarding the choice Of monetary metal and the
minting.
'sIn January Of the present year, however, a
correspondence was opened between two de-
partments of the British Executive Thy the In
dian Office with the treasury, which marked
the point of a new departure, which resulted in
September IN the creation of the Royal Gold
and Silver Commission. It's chairman, vice
president OF the Rimetalic League, and ore
OF It's expert members, the Financial Secretary
Of the Government of India, are known to share
ia the belief that an international agreement
TO open the minis of leading governments
TO the free coln2ge at O fixed ratio OF
both gold and silver into unlimited legal
tender money would suffice to restore the rela-
tive value of the two metals to their old stabil-
ty. Whatever may be the conclusions of this
commission, whatever the prosperity of those
conclusions with cabinets or parliamentS, its
appointment and character mark change in
the attitude of the British Government toward
that belief, at least from indifference to consid.
ate attention. The change is important.
The report then takes on the form of an ex-
hauSt1ve review Of the monetary history of the
United States. The act of 1873 did not demon
etlze silver. 1t retired no silver coin from cir
culatIon, but took a sure way to keep all our
fractional silver coin at home. The act of 1878
did not remonetiZe silver, but it did limit mon
citation to treasury purchases for non-frac-
tional coin. It took sure way to keep ell cur
non-fractlonal silver coin at home.
THE method of the two acts is Identical,
Expectation would only be possible at loss on
the silver coined under either act, In both acts
monetization is denied except to treasury piir-
chases. The door OF the mint is shut to the
public by both acts. Both acts are innocent OF
share in causing the monetary dislocation al
though the act OF 1878 helps to prolong it. In
1873 we had not escaped the paper-money
plague, and our resumption of the use of the
two metals and current redemption of paper
gid not begin till the monetary dislocation was
far advanced.
1.-THE action of the United States in 1884,
changing the ratio from fifteen to sixteen,
mad foTestalled the act Of 1873. To open our
minis for the coinage of silver at sixteen to one
one OF gold was, SO to say. equivalent to closing
our minis to the coinage Of silver at ALL Two
ratios can not live together face to face.
In the money world from that year the United
such they have ever since remained, both VIII en-
they did intend to and when they did not.
offered by the open mint to both metals,
free coinage OF silver for silver-owners into
legal-tender dollars would stop the use of the
mint for free coinage of gold by gold-owners.
1t would stop the simultaneous circulation Of
gold and silver dollars The gold dollar would
be at premium and be exported. 1t would
VIDE use OF the two metals in rated eQuval-
ence, which is the cure for the monetary dislo-
cation, as their diSjoined use has been its cause
= will add but one suggestion, which should
be fatal to the free-silver-coi proposal. AS
our limited silver coinage paralyzes, SO our free
silver coinage at this moment would destroy the
power OF the United States to promote the res
toration of silver to its old and equal place in
the monetary order"
A negative reply is also given to the PROPOSE
ton that the United States continue to buy
more than 25oOO0,OOO of silver: ITO stop the
purchase OF silver is our only choice, our duty
and our interest" The report continues:
Stopping the purchase and coinage of sill
yer is the first step and the best which the
United States can take in doing their gseA
part to repair the monetary dislocation Of the
world. Its origin was foreign, it's remedy is in
ternatlonal. The time is ripe for this powerful
commonwealth to enter decisively upon that
international transaction. The ripe moment
must not be let slip.
IF the law were repealed which makes COM
pulsory treasury purchases of silver, and if that
repeal were accompanied by the declaration of
Congress that the United States now hold
themselves in readiness to unite with France,
Germany and Great Britain in opening
thelr mints to free coinage of silver
agreement, 1t is the deliberate iudg-
ment of the undersigned that before
the expiration Of another fiscal year this inter
national monetary dislocation might b. correct
ed by such an international concurrence, the
TWO monetary metals restored to their old and
universal functions as the one standard measure
OF prices for the worlds commodities, the de-
preston OF trade and industry relieved, and
general prosperity renewed.
. 10 stop the purchase OF silver will arrest
the growth of that standing shame of our
nnance, the treasury surplus. 1t will put us in
IA, Inc way OF aDohshlng the same altogether, not
by cheating our creditors, shaving our pension
ers, or Gripping our wage-earners, but by en-
aiding the treasury to hold the silver dollar
1rmly in local parity with the gold
ing Powers in restoring and establish
ing their permanent equivalence AnothQ1
year delay i'll stopping the silver purchase is
the loss OF remunerative prices upon another
wheat crop OF the United States, is another
years stimulus to Indias competition for the
foreign markets of our agricultural product
ana reduction OF our ability TO hold that mar
Ket against any competition in the world (meas-
urea oy a common money!.
respectfully recommend to the wisdom Of
Congress the unconditional repeal of the act of
February 28, 1878"
THE PUBLIC DEBT
The public debt IS stated as consisting Of four
principal items-S346.0 100000 of legal-tender
notes, S64 600 900 Of three per cents of 1882
OOO0U0 OF Al per cents Of 1891, and S3S 0G0 900 Of
four per cents of 1907. This has been paid off
al an average of S100,000G0O year, the $685. 000-
600 OF surplus revenue being partly used for
this and the purchase of silver, "a needless de-
pletion of the peoples earnings which the pres
ent Congress can completely cure"
The last of the public debt subject to CALL
S64,011 of per cents, Secretary Manning
promises to have called for payment on or be-
fore October /, 1887.
Employment for the proceeds of our surplus
taxation, reasons for delay in reducing our sur
plus taxation, can no longer be found in rapid
payment Of the funded debt. Setting aside the
vanishing three per cents and the unfunded
debt of S346, 900 900, the residue of the public
debt has been in such wise funded by our pre-
decessors that $3.50, 100000 can not be paid,
except by purchase at high premium
70 the bondholder. before September /,
1891, and that S737, TIE, 400 can not be paid
except by purchase at a high premium
to the bondholder, before July l, 1907. On and
after those dates, respectively, but not until
then, those loans are payable, at the option of
the United States at their face and without
premium. To continue our present surplus
taxation, and to employ its proceeds now or
Tor some years to come in giving to the bond
holder any such, or still higher, premiums
by anticipatory purchase of those bonds
before they are due and payable at par, is ifs
cal policy so unnecessary, extravagant and mer-
CHESS to the industrious toilers of our land
Quoted and taken all the revenues of the treas
ury, that can not presume their representa-
tlves in Congress would let stand any law de-
volVing upon the head of this department such
a thriftlesS task
The sinking fund. according TO Treasurer
Jordan, will affect the payment of the whole
public debt, greenbaclzs and bonds, by the year
l9OS, within year after the last funded debt
becomes due and payable. The Secretary COM
ments on this and says that it will be without
cent OF surplus taxation if his recommendations
are needed. Besides the repeal of the Silver
Purchase act he urges the repeal of the act for
the compulsory postredemption issues and re-
issues OF legal-tender notes. Coin, Rot prom
ises, is fit for legal tender"
REDUCTION OF SURPLUS TAXATION.
The tariff on raw materials is attacked vigor-
onsly. Indeed the report says. ..it is my
own belief that whenever begin taking off
the shackles of war-tarif taxes on raw ma
terials such increased prosperity will fol-
low to the employers who dread it, and
such larger and steadier employment to
the wage-earners who need it, by increas-
ing the sales abroad of our own manufactures,
aud by whipping out foreign competitors in our
own markets, that we shall see our income
from imported manufactures dwindle so fast as
not only to compel the retention of these most
hit items of revenue-whisky, tdeacco and
beer-but perhaps to drive us back to getting
ten millions Of revenue from two cents pound
tax on coffee and half as much from tea.
Under our system of government by party,
and the rule of the majority, do not think it
unbecoming even in public officer at this time
to recall certain responsible and specific pledges
In respect to the sum and methods of federal tax
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