Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1894-12-08
THE MESSAGE.
A Disappointment to Most People

cnruance Will us reputation LOT
bulldog courage, the President
would say something startling, which
would sort OF lift his party out of
the depressing situation in which it
now finds itself.
After thirty-four pages OF dry and
uninteresting recital of department
statistics, the President closed Lis
message with the three pages devot-
ed to the currency question. The
fact that lie relegated this subject
to the very close Of the message, and
the fact that the Secretary Of the
Navy in his report put the only i'm
p9rtant feature of it, that of recon-
meuding new ships, at the tail end,
gives the general impression hero
that the Administration expects no
legislation to carry out its recon-
mendations.
The President left the proposed
plan of currency reform to be elabor-
ated in the report of the Secretary
of the Treasury, read a day later
but he stated all the essential points
of it to day, as did the Comptroller
of the Currency yesterday in his re-
port. This plan is virtually the So
called Baltimore plan, with some
notifications. The silver men in
Congress, on the Democratic side,
including Speaker Crisp, are opposed
to it, and the same is true OF the sill
yer men in the Senate, both Demo
Gratis and Republicans. They think
that it will, if carried into effect.
satisfy the greater number of those
persons now demanding the free
coipoge of silver and weaken the So
cent dollar agitation. On the other
hand, the Republicans. and the
sound money men on the Democratic
side, seem TO view the scheme with
misgiving, and do not show any in
.tention OF trying to carry it through.
The silver men assert that if moth
ing is done at the session nothing
will be done by the Republicans
at the first session of the next Con-
gress for fear of offending the free
coinage of silver men and thus COM
plicating the Presidential election.
Hence. the defeat of any legislation
on this subject now means the carry
ing of the silver question into the
Presidential election.
Some features of the message came
in for very general condemnation.
The President recommends the pas
sage of the bills to put coal and iron
ore on the free list, and yet he calm
" estimates that the deficit on June
80 next, or for the present fiscal
year will be $20.OO0,0O0. 1t is not
forgotten that just year ago Mr..
Cleveland predicted in his message
that the deficit for the last fiscal
year would be $2S,OOO,OOO, whereas
it proved TO be $69,S03,260. If the
President is as near right now as he
was last year the deficit this year
will be at least $50,00O,0O0. And if
the results so far under the new tar
if act are a fair basis of making an
estimate, the deficit will be more
than $50,0O0,O00. For the month of
November the deficit was SO ,066, 900,
and that result was reached after
three months OF. the new tariff law.
Hence, the estimate of deficiency
of only 100000 is regarded as
altogether too low. But asserting
that there will be a deficiency and at
the same time recommending further
tariff legislation to reduce the reve-
nues is IN keeping with the extraor-
binary lack Of craftsmanship or
even common business prudence
which has characterized this Admin
istration from the start.
To meet the deficiency, the Pres
ident cody announces his determiD-
alton to keep BON selling bonds. The
Republicans say that the whole trou-
BILE with the finances of the Cover
ment now is simply the result of de-
ficient revenues there would be no
danger to the gold reserve. There
never was any trouble with it until
the Democratic Administration and
Congress came into power and re-
duced the revenues by their treat oil
tariff legislation which treat was act
ually carried out.
The recommendation in favor OF
free ships is further illustration of
the Presidents wonderful states
manship. There could scarcely be
everything imported which would be
a more highly finished piece of work.
manship than steamship. The
President does not propose to put on
the free list the raw materials for pro
ducing steamships but he proposes to
admit the finished article free. He
at the same time says that the law
refusing American registry to for
eign ships has caused the loss of our
carrying trade wholly forgetful of
the fact that this law has been on
the statue book since the time when
Washington was first elected Presi-
dent and that under 1t the country
at one time carried ninety five per
cent, of both its imports and export.
Nothing could prove more clearly
the fact that it is not that law that
stands in the way of our doing our
carrying trade, or fair share OF
it.
A great deal of disappointment
was caused by the failure of the Pres.
ident to say anything about the con-
struction of the Nicaraguan Ca
nal. He talked a good deal about
Nicaragua and Bluefields, in
which the interest of the Unit
ed States grows out of the fact
that a canal is to be constructed, but
as to the canal itself says nothing,
although last year he did include in
his message a recommendation in its
avor. Senator Morgan, and other
Democrats, have been busily at work
sounding members in regard to the
canal, and they have reached the con
clusion that there was fair pros
| pect of some legislation on the SUBJ
ject. But the refusal of the Presl-