The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1888-09-07
GOING, GOING, GONE.
The Prophcsied Democratic Condition ~
Present Fails to Confront.

The Prophcsied Democratic Condition ~
Present Fails to Confront.
The condition that confronts us" IL
rapidly disappearing. President Cleve-
lands pretext for startling the country
with his free trade message was the
growth of an unmanageable surplus. In
stead of being content to pay of the
national debt, as Republican presidents
had been. he questioned the legality and
expcdiercy of purchasing OF outstanding
bonds. and converted the accommodations
in the treasury into standing menace to
prosperity that could only be averted by
recourse to FREQ wool and free trade. he
declared that there would be surplus OF
SAC, 000, 900 July of this year. and that
the annual excess of revenues over ex-
penditures would not run short of $780,
DOC. 900. This was 1.-The condition" and in
order to rescue the country from tho fatal
embarrassments of its own prosperity he
proposed a revision of the tariff as 1.-The
vicious, inequitable and illogical source
of unnecessary taxation" That revision
on the lines presented by him was in
stantly recognized in England as move
ment in. the interest of free trade. Sew
eral London journals fastened to assure
the Democracy that under free trade
there never would be any probability of
surplus, large or small. The condition
under that theory, it was grandly prom
ised, would no longer confront tho coun-
try. But even without free trade the
Democracy is finding out that the surplus
is entirely manageable. A long session
of congress alone is required In order to
get rid of it.
A more comical situation was never
known in American politics than the
present plight Of the Democratic party
respe ing 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, fgur-
atively speaking, in order to have his
drafts upon the credulity of the country
liauidated. The surplus has been the
pretcxt for this entire campaign against
American industry. Meanwhile, the
Democracy has been piling up appropria-
lions until there is said to be an increase
of 1854, 600, 900 over those of last year, and
the annual surplus of $60, 1000 has
dwindled to $4,000, 600. Speaker Car
Isle and the Democratic leaders are at
their wits end to explain how the Mills
bill, If allowed to become law, can have
any other effect than that of creating q
large annual deficiency in place of a sur
plus 1t is their own theory that now
confronts them. :.
THE condition which confronts u.s.
having somehow mysteriously disap-
pearcd, jealous Democrats have various
explanations to offer. The largest and
noisiest faction says, ''extravagant ex-
penditures have exhausted the surplus,
and the existence of surplus makes ex-
travagant expenditures inevitable; there
fore. reduce the surplus" This con-
fession of incapacity. A Democratic
president and congress cannot help being
extravaganza and wasteful. according TO
this view of the case, unless restrained by
sheer impecuniosity. Starve Demo
cratic administration, and it may be
economical; otherwise, 1t viii waste all
the money in sight--that is the argument.
There seems to be some foundation FOL
this reasoning. New York Tribune.