River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-07-26
RULE or DEMOCRACY.
How the Country Has Suffered Under
CIeveIand's Administration.

Pile. II asks change of administers
ton and change of party ia order
that there may be a change Of system
and a change of methods, thus assuring
the maintenance unimpaired of insti-
t1tions under which the republic has
grown great and powerful"
These are the closing sentences in
the platform adopted by the democrat
ic national convention of two years
ago, and on which the Grover Cleve-
land administration assumed the reins
of power. That was the promise. At
the close of its first fiscal year of office.
/ included in the sixteen months that
have elapsed since Cleveland took the
oath, let us ask what has been the per-
/ Torrance?
| For the first time since the close of
! the war the expenditures have ex-
ceeded the receipts, and the deficit is
startling one. The revenues for the
/ year exhibit a shrinkag of about
\ hinety-three million dUlI. IS, and the
4 gold reserve is reduced o sixty mill
\ lions. or over forty Millions below
waat under repub lean administra-
\ tions was deemed to be the limit of
1 safety, and this q ugh some fifty
/ eight millions have been obtained by
| the sale of bonds And the course of
| events directly due to administration
misrule is even more disastrous TO the
/ people. The clearing house payments
\ of the country have decreased two bill
lions of dollars, or about as much as
| the total deposits of the workers in the
savings banks of the country, while it
| is estimated that the total of daily
wages and incomes is fire million dol
\ lars less than two years ago, this de-
crease being twice as much as the
daily cost of carrying ON the ire
/ mendous war for the preservation of
/ the union. Truly the people have suf-
fered. They have paid dearly for
| listening two years ago to the dema-
! gogues VINO exhorted them to vote for
! Cleveland and change.
The business trouble began very
! soon after Mr.. Cleveland took his seat
/ in the white house. Certain hints let
drop by his secretary OF the treasury
were construed as reasons for fear that
the parity between gold and silver
| would not be preserved. On this hint
]
and sold them for gold, and it was ex-
| ported in large amounts, and what re-
manned in the country was locked up
from the channels of circulation. The
result was a scarcity of money. which
/ induced fears of the banks, and run
ensued which made money still more
scarce for lending purposes, and in
dustrial operations were paralyzed.
Confidence in the soundness of the
currency was re stored by the call for
a special session and the subsequent
action of congress in repeating the pur-
chasing clause of the Sherman act of
July IA, 1890
But the president declared In his
message that congress must soon enter
on the work of tariff revision and re-
duction to carry out the pledges of the
party, and the fear of tariff reduction
made the industrial situation still
worse. Merchants were afraid to buy
stocks of goods that would have 10 be
sold in competition with those pro-
duced under lower tariff and our
manufacturers curtailed operations for
the same reason. in addition TO having
a diminished current demand for their
goods. Many of them were forced TO
stop because they could not get orders
for the product of their Establishments,
and others managed to keep open by
dint of offering their wares at severe
cut in prices which made it necessary
to reduce the wages of their employees.
The increasing competition of sellers
On smaller market led to further de-
clines in prices. and this to more cuts
in wages, till the compensation OF
labor had been reduced by fully TWEEN.
ty-five per cent. on the average, and
st II hundreds of thousands could not
find work at any price.
The deceived toilers whose votes had
placed in power that party that caused
all this mischief grew dissatisfied.
MANY Of them struck for the wages
which employers had paid cheerfully
during years of republican prosperity,
but could not afford to pay Under the
democratic order of things. The
Strikes on the Pacific railroads,
Strikes of the miners for bituminous
coal. strikes in the Colorado gold fields,
the strike at Pullman, with Debs' order
extending ii to nearly all railroads,
the scenes of violence involving muir
der in some cases. the calling out OF
sheriffs posses and the military to re-
store order; great privation to the
Strikers and their families, and no
small amount of unjust Interruption
and loss to many who were not parties
TO the struggle-all this was directly
consequent upon democratic interior
/ ..zo,. I'LL, ,,-ay;o,,c industrial eOnd i
tions and national prosperity.
Then there was an immense falling
off in receipts of duties on imported
goods during this last fiscal year, be-
cause importers did not deem it safe
to be caught with stocks on hand with
the market prices falling when tariff
reductions went into effect; and so
the income of the government suffered
directly, in addition to the falling off
that resulted from internal depression
of trade, with greatly reduced con-
sumption, making total loss of nearly
one hundred millions of revenue. And
while the revenues have been thus
running behind at the rate of nearly
two million dollars per week for the
whole first year of Cleveland, and the
Z people SuUerlnB from puSiNcS> par
4 sis. the tariff thinkers at Washington
have worse than wasted many months
of valuable time in hobnobbing with
sugar and whisky trust officials. and
trying to help them TO rob the people
without benefitinF the treasury bal
ance by single dollar.
This truthful picture is lamentable
one. 1t especially is so by contrast
with the flattering promises made to
the voters two years ago by the demo
era tic politicians who, next November,
will ask the citizens of the United
States to give them another vote OF
confidence and elect their candidates
to further carry ont their anti-protec-
ton programme which has plunged
the American people from the heights
of prosperity into slough of despond.
The facts in the case are plain, so
plain that he who runs may read their
meaning, which is that the democratic
politicians are responsible for all the
industrial and commercial depression
which has afflicted the American
people since Cleveland's Inauguration.
as well as for the great deficit in the
national revenues of the fiscal year
now closed. Surely the average
American voter will feel as did the
Scotchman who remarked: If man
! oLoa.e mo onea he deserves 70 he