Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-11-02
As TO MR. CLETELANUS "SUR-
PINSD

rus"
At frequent and constantly recurring
intervals. democratic politicians and
newspapers, commenting on the condi-
ton of the treasury. assert that Mr..
Cleveland left "a surplus there at the
end of the first term and that 1t was
deliberately squandered by the succeed
ing admins tration of General Harri-
son. This is, indeed, one of the COM
moncst of the numerous political false
hoods by means of which the demo-
cratic party succeeded in imprcssing
upon the minds of the voters preju-
dice against the conduct of the govern
mcnt during the last four years II is
about as complete and unfoundcd
falsehood as the human Imagination
could invent In the first place there
never was legitimate surplus during
the Cleveland administration except as
there had been q surplus very many
times before. IT was increased by
Mr.. Cleveland by improper devices for
the purpose of creating public sentl-
ment in favor of free trade tariff.
But at the end of his administra ton,
owing To the extravaganza of demo-
cratic congro sScS. it amounted to no
more than the SUN of SIS, Oo6, 1850,
and this sum six times over was eX-
pended by General Harrison. as it
should have been by Mr.. Cleveland, in
the redemption of bonds. At the end
of the fiscal wear of 1892 bonds had been
redeemed by the Harrison government
to the amount of 1896, 3l6,93l and the
government had saved through these
purchases precisely So, 3d., 393-n lrly
seven and half millions more
than the so-called surplus which was
left in the treasury by Mr. ClevC and.
! The annual interest charge when Mr.
! Cleveland left Office was S3i, 500. 900
/ When he came back to Office it had
/ been decreased to the sum of So jO0,-
| 600.
! The talk about Cleveland surplus
: in the light of these facts is the silliest
! kind of nonsense. So far as such n sur
/ plus ever existed it was artiiicially ere
ated by Nr. Cleveland's refusal to re-
deem outstanding bonds. SOL 900, 0O0,-
| 900 of which We're out-tanding and re-
decmable at the will the government
on The day of his Inauguration. 1t had
always been the policy of previous adj
miniStrationS to devote whatever
money there was in the treasury over
and above its current necessities to the
reduction of the public debt. Mr..
Cleveland suspended that policy at
cost to the American people of many
millions and for the simple and obvious
purpose of creating an idle chatter
about surplus on which he could
build M an excuse for the passage of a
free trade tariff bill. Instead of pay
ing the bonds, he scattered the peo'
pies money around among democratic
banks, permitting favored individuals
of his own party To use it to their own
peculiar advantage, while the public
debt and the interest thereon, which
might have been reduced by it, was al
| lowed to accumulate, Then he
talked to the people about condition
which he said was confronting them,
/ and about the necessity of lowering the
tariff so as To reduce the revenues.
To show the insincerlty of this cutlery
it is only necessary to point ont the
fact that the demand for this kind of
tariff goes on despite the fact that the
condition which he said confronted the
people 10 longer exists but has given
away to condition in which the rev.
cnues are not too large, but, in view of
the expenditures of the last democra tic
congress, actually too little for the
governments necessities. But still
Mr.. Cleveland and his party want a
frec-tradc tariff. Six years ago they
wanted it to reduce the tariff. Now
they want it anyhow. The republican
party was satisfied to reduce the rev
enues 1t agreed that even with the
proper allowance for the reduction of
the public debt they were somewhat
too considerable, and it passed a law
placing sugar on the free list, to the
direct benefit of the entire population,
with the result the revenues were
greatly curtailed. They would have
been quite ample. however. if the last
, democratic congress had not spent
money with a willful and reckless dis
regard of how il was coming in, The
total appropriation of that congress
amounted to 81 .O26. So .Oi9.72. or pre-.
cisely S3s. 4O3. sos. Is more than the APP
, preparations of the republican last con-
; gress. OF course if the democratic
party goes on throwing away money al
, this rate revenue bill will have to be
, devised making immensely heavier eX
! actions on the people. But il the
, function of a free trade tariff is to re
, duce taxation, how is it going TO bt
used TO increase taxation? If tine dem
ocratic party could be induced to pay
, attention to facts once in while, il
, would be greatly to the welfare of the
country: but as it would be fatal to the
democratic pa; it will probably never
: occur.-Ncw ySrk Tribune.