St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-08-14
The Surplus.
States.


OF all the foolish notions of currency and fl
nanco that ever ran riot i'll the wild West that
which now favOrs the reduction of the treasu-
fy balance by forced payments upon the pnb
lie debt, ON the ground that it will "make
money plenty" is the most absurd. Money is
already plenty enough for those who hold Sc
curities or have credit, and is too plenty for
those who wieh to loan it at profitable rates
To shift the idle surplus from the treasury to
the banks will not materially change the stua-
top. DO the Western people imagine the
1Goney is to be distributed per capita!
There is much sound sense embodied
in this brief graph, Men who
plentyn by this and that trick of legis-
jation, are the veriest mounte- banks in
finance. There is but one way for
honest men to get money whether 1T be
plenty or scarce, and that is to earn it;
What is called cheap money is debased
money; and all the hocus.,, pocuIs
schemes to make money cheap" lead,
sooner or later, to disaster and disor-
sanized business and industry. We
agree, therefore, that it is unhridled
nonsense to advocate the payment OF
the debt on the ground that 1t Will
make money plenty" But there IS
better reason than that for the calling
in of the bonds, as proposed by the
original Morrison resolution, and that
reason is, tfldt tHCtC 10 Gil Shoih hiooo
surplus in the Treasury that ought hot
to be there, and that it would be wise
to pay out and return to the channels
of business in any legitimate way.
Every Democratic statesman from
Jefferson to Tilden has looked with the
-ravest apprehension upon tue accn-
mutation of large surplus III the
Treasury. Indeed, so great a danger
have they regarded "a surplus that
many of them, including Mr.. Jefferson
and Mr.. Calhoun, have advocated a
constitutional amendment providing
for the distribution of any such sur
plus amongst the States. They held
such distribution to be III itself a
great evil and danger, but lesser evil
than surplus to invite extrhvagaDce
corruption and debauchery in Federal
legislation.
That their apprehensions. were not
croundless is shown by the wild schemes
of demagogues in the present and
<,ther recent congresses to scatter the
present enormous surplus for the ad
vancement of individual popularity.
During the present session, we have
seen the inianitous Blair bill to squan-
s!er eighty millions command a large
Democratic support, and we find that,
wherever a true Democrat voted against
that D rnicious bill, demagogue op-
posing him and appealing to the people
for their support ON the ground that he
will vote for this grab. We have also
seen bald, naked, corrupt attempt to
donate to steamship ring SS00,OO0 per
annum for five or ten years, advocated
and urged by Democratic members,
and we might enumerate a dozen other
bills, great and small, but all, more or
less in the nature of schemes to rob
the Treasury of it's surplus-tO de-
bauch the unthinking people with
their own money.
All these "raids" are inspired by the
surplus While it is there the nose
Of every demagogne and jobber, in and
out of Congress, scents it with the in
srinct and pursues it with the vOracity
Of a bloodhound. 1t is gradually bnt
surely poisoning the whole body OF
legislat ation and tainting all the currents
of American politics in every Congress
eonal District in the land.
There is a method OF disposing OF
this surplus legally-without resorting,
as Jefferson and Calhoun proposed to
do, to the lesser evil of distribution
and Mr.. Morrison marked out that plan.
1t is simply to call in the bonds that
are payable at the option of the Govern
ment, and thus at once reduce the sur
plus, the debt and the interest. This
is honest; it is legal; it is sound
governmental economy. 1t is in short,
in line with the suggestion of Andrew
jackson, who proposed to reduce the
surplus by reducing the debt, and pre-
vent it's reaccumulation by the reduc-
ton of tariff taxation to meet only the
absolute needs of the Government
economically administered. Mr.. Cleve-
land, in arraying his administration
against this resolution, arrayed it
against Democratic measure; the
Boston Herald, in opposing it is oppos-
ing scheme in line with tariff reform