Wichita eagle., 1888-09-09
GOING. GOING, GONE.
The Prophesied Democratic Condition ~
Present Fails To Confront.

Present Fails to Confront.
The condition that confronts Is" Is
rapidly disappearing. President Cleve-
lands pretext for startling the country
with his free trade message was the
growth Of en- unusnageable surplus. In
stead OF being content 10 pay of tho
national debt, as Republican presidents
had been. he questioned the legality and
expediency Of purchasing OF outstanding
bonds. and converted the accommodations
in the treasury into a stAding menace TO
prosperity that could only be averted BY
recourse TO free wool and free trade. Es
declared that there would be q surplus Of
S14o, 0Oo. eco July Of this year. and that
the annual excess OF revenues over ex-
penditures would not run short OF $6o.-
000. 900. This was 1.-The condition. and IN
order to rescue the country from the fatal
embarrassner:s Of its own prosperity he
proposed a revision OF the tariff as tho
vicious. ine9uitable and Illogical source
of unnecessary taxation. That revision
on the lines presented BY him waS in
stantly recognized in England as q move
ment in the interest OF tree t-ade- Sew
eral London journals FASTENED to assure
the Democracy that under free trade
there never would Be any probability of a
surplus, large or small The condition
under that theory, il was grandly prom
ised. would no longer confront tho coun-
try. But even without free trade the
Democracy is fndingout that the surplus
Is. entirely manageable. \ long session
of congress alone is required IN order TO
get rid OF II.
more cornical situation was never
known in American politics than the
IL e 10, M - 80
respecting the surplus. Last December
the president portrayed the country as on
the verge of indescribable disaster in
consequence Of that appalling surplus.
Every free trader who addressed the
house banked upon the surplus. iigur-
atively speaking. IN order TO have Lis
drafts upon the credulity Of the country
hquidated. The surplus has been the
pretext for this entire campaign against
American industry. Meanwhile. the
Democracy has been piling up appropria-
tons until there is said TO be an increase
of $64 600, 600 over those of last year. and
the annual surplus of SEQ 100000 has
dwindled 10 So. goo. Speaker Car
Isle and the Democratic leaders are nc
their wits end TO explain how the Mills
bill, ii allowed 10 become a law. can have
any other effect than that of creating Il
large annual deficiency in place Of = sur
plus. II is their own theory that now
confrouts them.
The condition which ecnfronts Us"
having somehow mysteriously disap-
pe2red, jealous Democrats have various
explanations 10 offer The largest and
noisieSt faction says. ''extravagant ex-
penditures have exhausted the surplus.
and the existence OF surplus makes ox-
travagant expenditures inevitable; there
fore. reduce the surplus" This Il con.
fession OF incapacity. = Democratic
president and congress cannot help being
extravagaut and wasteful. according 10
this view Of the case. unless restrained by
sheer impecuniosity. Starvc Demo
cratic administration. and II may ID
economical: otherwise. il viii waste all
the money in sight-that is the argument.
There seems 10 be some foundation for
this reasoning York Tribune.