The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-02-28

AAcAh OAAOAAoNAOn OF SO large oil dHfDuilL
or money was an embarrassment to the
business OF the country and made neces-
sary the intervention of the department
at frequent intervals TO relieve threat
ened monetary panics. The surplus on
March j. 1889, was S1S3.S27. 1929. The
policy OF applying this surplus to the
redemption Of the interest-bearing Sc
curities of the United States was thought
to be preferable to that of depositing 1t
without interest i'm selected national
banks. There have been redeemed since
the date last mentioned of interest-bear-
ing securities $259079, $50, resulting in a
reduction of the annual interest charge
of s11,6S4,675.
This shows what a liar Mr.. Harrison
is, according to the Journals statement,
and also shows his policy of getting all
the money out of the treasury so that
it would not be an argument for tariff
reform nor breeder of panics. The re-
publican platform had declared in favor
of getting rid of the surplus, and every
republican official went in on Mr.. Tan
ner's principle of God help the surplus
il / get a chance at it." And Mr.. Har-
rison and his able assistants did get the
surplus out Of the treasury. But note
this fact after Mr.. Harrison had used
up the surplus which Mr.. Cleveland left
he never redeemed another bond. In his
message of Dec. 6, 1882, Mr.. Harrison
said: THE public debt has been re-
duced since March I. 1889, $3.50 .O74 200.
and the annual interest charge S11,6S4.-
469-the same figures that he gave the
year before. with reduction of a few
hundred dollars, probably due to some
clerical error. \ whole year passed and
not a bond redeemed. Why? Because
Mr.. Cleveland's surplus was all gone
And in this message of Dec. 8, 1892, Mr.
Harrison further says: The cash bal
ance in the treasury at the end of the
fiscal year June 30, 1898 it is estimated
will be $685., 37ZO3" At that time Mr.
Harrison made no bones of the looting
of the treasury. He admitted it and
said he was proud Of it, In this same
message of Dec. 6, 1892, he says:
If there are any who still think that
the surplus should have been kept out
of circulation by boarding it in the treas
uTNs OF utDOSllCu III DdlihS NlNAlOuN lilNNA-
est while the government continued to
pay the very banks interest upon the
bonds deposited as security for the de-
pOsits, or who think that the extended
pension legislation was n public robbery.
or that the duties upon sugar should
have been maintained. / am content to
leave the argument where it now rests,
while we wait to see whether these crit
icisms will take the form Of legislation.
In view of these statements, and of
the known fact that Mr.. Foster changed
the system of treasury bookkeeping in
order to avoid showing a deficit and
that bonds were ordered To be printed
by Mr.. Foster in preparation for replen-
ishing the exhausted treasury, it is
rather late now for the Journal TO at
tempt to claim that there was not about
S1S5, 100000 Of surplus cash i'm the treas
ury when Mr.. Harrison went in, or that
there was a deficit under the ante-Foster
system of bookkeeping when he went
out. II was this exhaustion of the treas
ury that produced the panic Of 1898,
which was bank panic purely at the
beginning, due TO belief that the gov
eminent would be unable to maintain
specie payments under the pressure of
the Wall-st. bankers who were trying to
force an issue of bonds.