Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-01-18


The announcement that Secretary Car
Isle has decided not to wait for Congress,
but to issue bonds and pay the running eX-
penses to the amount of the gold surplus i'll
the treasury, sounds strange in the light of
the criticisms of a republican administra
ton less than year ago by our democratic
friends. Particularly significant is the as
sertion attributed to the present head of the
department that there is nothing in the
statutes which says whether there shall he n
reserve of 81 .0OO. 600 or 800. OOO, 600 in
view of the attitude of the great body of the
democratic party on this subject no later
than last January
When President Harrison retired from
office last March there were only few mil
lion dollars i'll the treasury over the 500,
0Oo, 600 mark which had been set as the
limit above which the surplus ought to be
maintained in order to maintain the credit
of the nation and insure the financial >tabil-
| ity of the country. The approach of the
| surplus to that limit last winter was the sig
nal for a unanimous howl from the organs
of the democratic party, and they persisted
i'll their cries of vanishing surplus and
impaired national credit to a degree that
indicated their apparent desire TO injure the
credit of the country impair the confluence
of the people and start financial panic.
The credit of a nation is subj cct to condi-
tons and influences quite similar to those
which affect the credit of an individual. on
n bank or any corporation, although ON a
much more elaborate scale. of course and it
is not surprising that great clamor on
the part of the democratic press should
scare foreign investors, with the effect to in
ducc them to Withdraw their gold from in
vestments in this country, and thus cause q
gold famine to threaten the country. The
influence of this TRADE against the nation s
credit was felt AT once but its most direful
consequences did not make themselves mani
fest until the democratic party took con
troll of the ship of State. The leader,
of that political organization found
that in assaiing the credit of the natona
treasury their organs had launched boom
erang which came back upon them with even
increasing impetus and the disastrous pro
gress of which has not even yet been ar
rested.
NOW luhJ lAe 5plu SUI p!uN III Inc luile-
States treasury has fallen from over 800,
600, 600 to S14, 600, 600 in little over ten
mouths, our democratic friends have sud
denly discovered that there is nothing III tn
acts of Congress that says how much gOl,
, shall he held in reserve in the treasury, o
, that any reserve shall be inaintained am
they have forgotten all that they said las
January about the vanishing surplus, ant
the impaired credit Of the nation
r Moreover, the secretary of the treasur
gravey announces that he win issue bond-
or in other words borrow money on the IN
, ton credit 10 lucet the running expenses q
the nation whereas les, than twelve month
y ago the suggestion ot tine possibility tina
. bond, might he ISSUED to keep the surplus i
, the treasury above the ylO0, 900 900 mari
was greeted with ii perfect storm Of crit
e cion from the democrats, among whom tn
o present secretary of the treasury was u cor
1 spicuous figure, 1t is even stated that i
. anticipation of the secretaly's action, bond
r have been printed aud are now in II
e treasury vault but it is CAREFUL
d explained that these are not the bonds whc
# Secretary Foster had printed during. tt
e closing days Of the last administration. Tn
statement alone convicts the democrat
9 secretary Of the very act, for proposiu