The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-07-13
DEMOCRATIC RULE.
How the Country Has suffered UnA<
C1eveland's Administration.

The democratic party asks the intel.
ligent Judgment of the American peo-
pie. 1t asks change of administra-
ton and a change of party in order
that there may be change of system
and a change of methods, thus assuring
the maintenance unimpaired of insti-
tutions 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 it's first fiscal year of Office,
included in the sixteen months that
have elapsed since Cleveland took the
oath, let as ask what has been the per-
formance?
For the first time since the close of
the war the expenditures have ex-
ceeded the receipts, and the deficit Is a
startling one. The revenues for the
year exhibit shrinkage of about
ninety-three million dollars, and the
gold reserve is reduced to sixty mill
lions, or over forty millions below
what under republican administra-
tons was deemed to be the limit of
safety, and this though 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 flee 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-
Cleveland and a 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
foreigners sent home American stocks
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 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 restored by the call Tor
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 to be
sold in competition with those pro-
duced under a 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 a severe
cut in prices which made it necessary
to reduce the wages of their employees.
The increasing competition of sellers
on a 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 twen-
ty-five per cent. on the average, and
still 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 |
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 it to nearly all railroads,
the scenes of violence involving muir
der in some cases, the calling out of
sheriff's posses and the military to re-
70 he
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
upon democratic interior
ence with previous industrial condi-
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-
making total loss of nearly
one hundred millions of revenue. And
while the revenues have been thus
behind at the rate of nearly
.wo million dollars per week for the
whole first year of Cleveland. and the
people suffering from business paraly-
lis, the tariff thinkers at Washington
nave worse than wasted many months
IF valuable time in hobnobbing with
sugar and whisky trust officials, and
.rying to help them to rob the people
without benefiting the treasury bal
lnce by a single dollar.