The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1894-09-22
National Finances.

claims due from the government at
/ the time, and which should have
been paid promptly, aggregated over
4 $30,000,00u more than the resources
Of the Treasury, and Secretary Fos-
ter, on the day that he retired from
Office, declined to issue a draft for
some 100000 thai was long over
due, simply because be had not the
means to pay it. Such was the of
fetal legacy left to the Cleveland adj
ministration by President Harrison.
The contrast between the condi-
ton of the Treasury when Harrison
was inaugurated on the 4th Of March
1889, and the condition Of the Treas
ury when Cleveland entered his sec
ond term four years later, is not for
gotten by the people When Cleye-
land retired to be succeeded by
/ Harrison he left clean surplus in
the Treasury of over $50, 100000 and
in estimating that surplus his Secre-
tary Of the Treasury did not embrace
government teposits to the credit of
disbursing officers, which always
amounts to some millions, or snbsid-
larry coins, which usually aggregate
from ten to fifteen millions and
which cannot be used in the payment
of government obligations Thus
more than $60,000000 of surplus
was entirely dissipated by the Har,
rison administration, and a trust
fund of $55, 100000 held by the gov.
eminent for the redemption of bank
notes vas covered into the Treasury
by act of congress, thus increasing
the debt of the government to that
extent, as the sum was transferred
to the general Treasury fund to save
the Treasury from bankruptcy.
Thus was not only the clean surplus
of over $50, 100000 expended but the
500 100000 of trust fund violently
seized and expended also. Since
that time bank notes have been re-
deemed out Of the Treasury, and
thus $55,000,000 were added to the
debt of the government during the
Harrison administration without the
public realizing the fact 1t was
in plain English a forced loan by
the government, and yet with all
these combined resources from sur
plus and forced loan Harrison re-
tired from the Presidency leaving
the Treasury literally bankrupt.
If the evil of the Harrison admin.
istration had stopped with simply
bankrupting the Treasury by ex-
pending it's surplus and forced
loan of some $55,0O0,O00, the eoun-
try could have speedily recovered
from the disaster. The Fifty first
Congress, that was Republican in
both branches and in harmony with
President Harrison, not only scat
tered the surplus by pro1igacy, but
it created fixed and permanent ex-
penses of the government for future
Congresses to meet amounting to
from fifty to seventy millions of dol
lars annually. Thus the Harrison
administration exhausted the sur
plus Of over $60,000,000, exhausted
a forced loan of some $55,000,0O0
and then loaded the government
with from $50,000,000 TO $40, 100000
of permanent annual expenditures
by the creation Of offices, the increase
of pensions and general wastefulness.
Such is the record of the admins
tration that preceded Cleveland's
return to power in March 1898.
Soon after the Inauguration of the
present administration our financial
trouble eliminated, resulting from
the purchase Of silver and the
general degradation Of our financial
system inaugurated by a strictly
partisan measure known as the
Sherman silver purchase bill, which
was opposed solidly by the Demo
Gratis and passed by the Republican
party vote. The financial revulsion
was the beginning of business paral-
ysis and industrial distress through
out the land, and good men of all
parties rose up in every State and in
both houses of Congress to rescue
the national credit by the repeal of
the Sherman law, which was strict
ly Republican partisan measure
when it was passed. The general
paralysis of business and trade that
resulted from financial disturbance,
and the natural distrust and hesita-
ton which always attend tariff re-
vision, greatly reduced the national
revenues, while the increased expen-
penditures fixed by the Republican
Congress remained, and the Treas
ury has been severely strained dur
ing the present administration With
all its strain, however, the govern
ment has issued single loan of
$50,000,000, and that is over $1O,-
100000 less than the surplus left
the Harrison administration when
Mr.. Cleveland retired, while the re-
duction of the gold reserve does not
amount to the forced loan paid un-
der Harrison's administration by
the appropriation Of the bank trust
! fund.
From these facts it would seem
that those who criticise the present
administration for the condition of
the Treasury must falsify history,
and those who are wise will frankly
confess that the condition of the
Treasury to-day is vastly better,
considering the existing conditions
than it was under the preceding adj
ministratiOns. The neonle who nay