The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-12-08

seeds purchased and the cost of put
ting them up and distributing them
was $135,000. This money, instead of
being used for the purchase of rare or
improved varieties of seeds, was eX-
pended in procuring bulbs, cuttings
and ordinary seeds, everywhere easily
attainable at low prices, affording
members of Congress means of graft
flying their constituents at the public
expense. Besides it is an unjustifiable
interference with the legitimate bust
ness of the seedsmen of the country.
1t would be yet more injurious to the
latter if it were not for the fact that
very few people who plant seeds large
ly are willing to trust their hopes of a
crop to these Patent Office Seeds"
as they are generally called.
The President says that more than
100000 has been stricken from the
estimate made by the Agricultural
Department for the distribution of
seeds and the $50, 900 asked for will be
confined strictly to the purchase of
seeds calculated to benefit farmers.
These will be distributed through ex-
pertinent stations, which the Presi-
dent believes to be the proper agencies
to experiment with and test new vari-
cites of seeds.
ECONOMY IN PUBLIC EXPENDITURES.
President Cleveland strikes popu-
lar chord when he urges economy in
public expenditures. On this point he
says:
Economy in public expenditure is duty
that cannot innocently be neglected by
those intIusted with the control of money
drawn from the people for public uses 1t
must be confessed that our apparently end
less resources, the familiarity of our people
with the immense accumuatlons OF wealth,
the growing sentiment among them that the
expenditure of public money should in some
manner be to their immediate and personal
advantage, the indirect and almost steathy
manner in which large part of our taxes
are eXacted, and degenerated sense OF DILL
cial accountability have led to the growing ex-
travagance in governmental appropriations.
At this time when a depleted public Treasury
confronts us, when many of our people are
engaged in hard struggle for the necessaries
OF lie, anu When eHlOTC6u tCOuOui1 10 plCSo-
ing upon the great mass of our countrymen,
| desire to urge with all the earnestness at
my command that Congressional legislation
be so limited by strict economy as to exhibit
an appreciation of the condition Of the Treas
ury and sympathy with the straitened cir
cumstances of our fellow-citizens.
The duty of public economy is also of i'm
mense Importance in its intimate and neces-
sary relation to the task now in hand OF pro-
viding revenue to meet Government expendi-
lures, and yet reducing the peoples burden
Of Federal taxation.
TARIFF REFORM STILL THE ISSUE.
No part of the Presidents message
has been awaited with more anxious
expectation than that relating to tariff
reform. His views on the subject, evil
IDENTIFY, have undergone no change
since he wrote his famous tariff mes
sage of 1887. He refers to tariff reform
as the business directly before Con-
gress. The people have spoken in
favor of it, and have confided the
work of its accomplishment to the
hands of those who are solemnly
pledged to it.
President Cleveland says that if the
members of Congress are really the
servants of the people and if political
promises and professions have any
binding force our failure to give relief
so long awaited will be sheer recre-
ancy. Nothing, he adds, should in
tervene to distract our attention or
disturb our effort until this reform is
accomplished by wise and careful
| legislation. He adds:
While We should staunchly adhere to the
principle that only the necessity of revenue
| justifies the imposition of tariff duties and
| other Federal taxation, and that they should
be limited by strict economy, we cannot close
our eyes to the fact that conditions have
grown up among us which in justice and fair
ness call for discriminating care in the distri-
button of such duties and taxation as the EN-
| ergancies of our government actually demand.
Manifestly if we are to aid the people direct
| " through tariff reform, one of its most obyi-
| Gus features should be reduction in the pre-
| sent tariff charges upon the necessaries of
| life. The benefits of such a reduction would
be palpabe and substantial, seen and felt
| by thousands who would be better fed and
better clothed and better sheltered. These
gifts should be the willing benefactions of a
government whose highest function is the pro-
| motion of the welfare of the people.