The Louisiana populist., 1895-05-10
SURPLUS AND DEFICIT
TOM WATSON SCORES CLkvE-
I.ANDISM.
Wall Street Is Feasting on the ID eficit
as 1t Did on the surplus-Gro ver's
Nefarious Schemes Brought to
Light.


The Surplus became a nightmare,
scare-crow, an old Man Of the Sea;
and We got to the point where we
could hardly go to bed in confidence
and comfort unless we first looked
under the bed to see that the surplus
was not laying in wait to murder us in
, our slumbera
Cleveland had kept talking about
Surplus. Surplus. Surplus, until lots
OF us began to have the same feeling
toward 1t that a negro used to have
toward the Ku Klux Klan.
So seriously disturbed were we in
our minds about the dangers and the
deadfalls. the snares and the man
traps, the deceits and the betrayals,
which Mr.. Cleveland assured us
Iurked In the inner caverns of the
Surplus. that we implored him to save
us-to save us by any methods what
ever from the armed enemies of our
national welfare which crouched con-
cealed within the insides of this mod
ern Trojan Horse of Surplus.
After our scare was over, and the
Surplus had been met and conquered
by the hero of Buzzard's Roost, we
grew calm enough to listen to a cold
recital of the facts, and to realize the
exact nature of the perils we had es-
capped.
The Surplus, It seemed, was a pile
OF money which had been collected
from the taxpayers. over and above
the needs of the Government, and
which the office-holders absolutely
could not spend.
This was awful indeed.
II Is difficult to exaggerate the
mental agonies of two or three hun
dred thousand ofice-holders who
have to stand in sight of a big pile
Of public money day after day, week
after week, month after month, and
not have the power to lay their fever
ish fingers upon it.
1t is the unwritten law of this bless
ed Republic that the Government must
spend at least as much as the tax
payers can be made to pay.
BY an oversight, Congress had failed
to increase the expenses in proportion
to the increase of the Tariff and Inter-
nal Revenue Taxes, and hence, to the
disgust and dismay Of Cleveland and
his tribe, the taxes far exceeded the
expenses Congress had authorized.
No wonder the disturbance in ON
cial circles was so great. No wonder
Mr.. Cleveland made the continent
tremble as he heavily held forth on
the dangers of Surplus.
What vas to be done with the
money?
Andrew Jackson had, under similar
circumstances. divided the Surplus
among the states-thus sending the
money the Government didn't need
back to the people to whom 1t be-
longed.
Jackson. however, and his kind of
Democracy being deader than Pha-
roah, Mr.. Cleveland never once thought
of getting that Surplus money back
into the pockets Of the people to whom
1t belonged.
AS Is well known, he made gift of
about sixty million dollars Of 1t to the
Wall Street bondholders, by way
of premiums, for the privilege of
paying Government debts which were
not due.
Another sixty million dollars Of 1t
was given to the national bankers, free
Of interest, to lend out at usury to the
poor devils to whom it belonged.
These little palliatives eased the
pains Of the Surplus very considerably.
and held its fever under control until
Congress met again. AS soon as that
able body of Sunday-smashers and
law-despisers met, they promptly ran
the expenditures up to the full limit
of the taxes, and thus we have never
suffered since from. the painful collie
of having too much money for our di-
gestion to cope with.
Mr.. Cleveland's brilliant statesman
ship never showed to better advant-
age than when he struggled with the
dangers Of tht Surplus and came forth
from the contest covered with victory.
He got rid Of the Surplus by giving
1t away.
The Government had squeezed It out
of the taxpayers. and the President
made gift Of II to the Privileged Glass
which pays no tax at all.
To rob Peter to pay Paul Is common
place rascality: but to rob Peter. the
Taxpayer. to make a gift to Paul, the
bondholder. is an average sample Of
latter-day statesmanship.
In pushing expenditures upwards to
head on another possible Surplus. Con-
gress rather ovsr-did the thing.
The taxpayers began to be exhaust
ed. and the stream Of national revenue
did not run 70 bounteously - Of
gore.
The Sulisa-sellas osaE~s e ~