Huntsville gazette., 1891-05-02
SURPLUS AND DEFICIENCY.
The Miscalculations of the Democratic
Calamity Sbriekers.


The sIiscalculations of the Democratic
Calamity Shriekers.
/ The treasury surplus was first-class
political bugaboo in 1887, when Grover
Cleveland wrote his famous screed
against the American tariff system of
protection. At that tim~ a surplus was
an original and mysterious affair, al
| most unique in the history of govern
| ments; and when President Cleveland
told of its terrors and piled on the
agony until he had large portion of
| the circulating medium within the
vaults of the treasury, the business and
industry of the country prostrate and
the people bankrupt his dire predic-
| tions, like those Of Virgins or Venner.
attracted passing attention.
OF course, Mr.. Cleveland was false
prophet The condition which con-
fronted him and whose horrid front he
exposed to public view was intended to
| scare the people into his free-trade
| method of reducing the revenue and re-
forming the tariff. But they did not
scare. On the contrary, they tumbled
Mr. Cleveland out of the white house
at the first opportunity and engaged
| Harrison, Blaine, Reed, Mckinley &
| Co. to perform the work of reduction
and reform. Mr.. Cleveland's ''con-
dition' was not even ''a good enough
| Morgan"
Having exploited the political posi-
| bilities of a surplus, to their disaster,
| IN Loo r.
able versatility, turned to the consider
alton of deficiency. Early last year
they figured that republican extrava-
gance in congress had bankrupted the
treasury and that in the face of de-
| ficiency the republicans did not dara
pass the Mckinley bill with its provis-
ions for reducing the revenue. In
reaching this conclusion they calculat-
ed on an expenditure for pensions OF
sos. 600, 900 more than the amount ap-
propriated for the year. They includ-
ed some So, 900, 900 as the years proper
ton of the $76, 600, 900 to be expended
| under the Blair educational bill-a
measure to which the republicans OF
the senate gave a quietus early in the
first session. They figured on big
river and harbor bill, at least 15,000,'
900, for the second session of the Fifty
first congress, although no measure
appropriating dollar for such pur-
pose has been proposed.
| The shockingly bad methods of dem.
ocratic calculation have been shown in
the failure of their prophecies to ma
terialize; and the deficiency in the
revenue on which they have staked sc
many false charges against the republic
ans is still as far off as ever. But, while
the democratic calamity shriekers have
not retracted their falsehoods, they
have lapsed into silence regarding ere
| publican extravaganza" and 'bank-
rupt treasury" which is both signif
cant and suggestive.
The logic of events has been toe
much for the democratic arithmeticians
The republicans, not in the slightest
degree alarmed by their predictions,
proceeded to pass the Mckinley bill re
| ducing the revenue S50,000,000 year
More than that, Secretary Window
| kept right on buying bonds and paying
| for them with money out of the treas
urv: and, from the time he assumed
office till tragic fate overlook him, ht
expended $3.50, ,0OG, 600 in buying bond:
| in order to relieve the money markets
of the country.
Of course, if the republican congress:
| had been extravagant and had bank
rupted the treasury Mr.. Window woult
not have been able to pour out 500, 000,
900 of cash from the treasury vaults be
| tween midsummer of 1890 and the frs
of the year, when democratic success
and Argentine troubles led to the lock
ing up of money.
Senator John Griffin Carlisle has dis
turbed the democratic silence by coming
forward in the North American Review
| with a renewed prediction of a treasurl
deficiency. He puts it at $4,000, 900 TO
July 1, 1891. and SS4, ,O00,0 900 for July |
1892. He probably argues that II HI
and his friends were in the slightes
degree justified, last summer, In pre-
dieting a deficiency, before Mr.. Win
dom expended that S100,000,0 900 TO
| bonds, the prospect of deficiency mus
now be excellent. The senator ough
to be ashamed of his course. Unwar
ranted predictions of a deficiency in tn
national revenue might be tolerated II
the stupidity partisan Albany Argus
but hardly become the leader of tn
| democratic minority in the Unite'
States senate. uf
| Mr. Carlisle has no warrant for hi
prediction, either in the present condl
ton of the treasury or in the estimates
receipts and expenditures during tn
coming year and half. We shall es
pose his ignorance or his willful misreE
resentation on July 1, 1891, and agar
on July 1. 1892 Albany Journal.
| CLEVELAND AND JEFFERSON.