Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-22
THE RESULT OF ExTRAvAGANcE.

It is one of the indications of the unsatis-
factory balance of receipts and expenditures
to which we are tending that the
Philadelphia Press after laboring under
the title of 1.-THE Surplus Safe Enough" to
disprove the statements of an excess of
outgo over income reaches the conclusion
that. ''when dependent pensions are met,
and with the Mckinley tariff bill passed,
the revenue for next year, even paying
nothing to the sinking fund, will fall short
of the outgo for next year by from $50 OOO,-
900 to SAC, ,0Oo, ,OOo.'' As this is a remark
able contrast to the past condition of an
excess of from $50, 600, 600 to $50, 900, 900 of
receipts, the Republican Congress might be
pardoned for paraphrasing the complaint of
the man who was tried for theft, and pro-
testing that if they had another advocate
like the Press they would be hung for
murder.
But now this unfortunate termination of
the reply to the charge that appropriations
are running far in excess of revenue
by q practical confession of its truth,
is not more remarkable than the PROPOSE
tions for meeting the deficiency. No sensi-
bic man has doubted that the Governments
resources and credit are sufficient to enable
it to meet its obligations. 1t is not an i'm
mediate insolvency that is foreshadowed;
but it is the beginning of course of ex-
travagance that, If continued, must lead to
insolvency. That goal is brought more dis
tinctly into view by propositions to use
funds set aside by the most specific enact
ments to make up the deficiency caused by
Congressional extravaganza. We referred
the other day to the proposal of one Repub-
licsn organ to disregard the sinking fund
obligation in order to make up the gap be-
tween the receipts and expenditures. An
even more remarkable resort is that of lay
ing hands on the national bank redemption
fund, concerning which the Philadelphia
Press says:
If the annual redemption Of the bonded debt
of the United States is continued by using the
national bank note redemption fund, which is
deposited in the shape of the demand debt of
the Government, that is, in greenbacks to re-
duce its bonded debt. fair economy in the clos
ing days of the session is all that is needed to
keep expenditures within receipts for the CON-
ing year.
The remarkable nature of this PROPOSE
tiOn may be perceived when it is stated
that the national bank note redemption is
not in any view of accounting an asset of
the Treasury. 1t does not belong to the
Government, but consists of money depos-
ited by national banks for the redemption
of their circulating notes, and in every
proper sense is the property of the holders
of the national bank notes. At some re-
mote period, that small portion of it that is
not called for, on account of the bank notes
having been lost or destroyed, may become
the property of the Treasury; but, on the
great bulk, the proposition now made is
very much as if business man should pro-
pose to use trust funds placed in his hands
to pay the expenses of his e1travagant house
keeping.
Could there be any more stunning evil
dence of the departure from economical and
honest administration of the public finances
than propositions that the Treasury shall
lay hands on sinking funds and trust funds
70 meet the cost of the prevailing extrava-
panoe?