Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-02-21
REPUBLICAN HYPOCRISY.
Puerile Arguments against the Presidents
Financial Policy.

Pueri1e Arguments Against the Presidents
Financial Policy.
The repu blican leaders pretend to be-
| 1ieve that the cause of the present
treasury trouble lies in the deficiency
of the revenues. Said Tom Reed in his
speech on the finance bill the other
day; IF the revenues equa1ed the ex-
penditures, whenever greenback was
redeemed it would remain in the treas
ury. 1t was the fact of the necessity
of its reinsurance to meet current obi
cations that caused the trouble"
If Mr.. Reed doesn't know better than
that he is not clear headed enough to
| be president of the United States, or
even president of a crossroads grocery.
Whenever a greenback dollar is re-
deemed in gold a gold dollar is gone
out of the treasury. The greenback
comes in, the gold goes out. The
treasury has neither more nor less than
it had before, except that in place of
+ solid gold dollar it now has only its OVID
promise to pay dollar. Since by Mr..
Reeds supposition the receipts and ex-
penditures are exactly equal the treas
ury must now pay out the greenback
dollar to meet current obligations be-
cause it has already paid out the gold
dollar.
If the greenback remains in the
treasury the current obligations must
be paid out of reserve held in the
treasury, and it must be paid in some
thing besides a greenback. There is
no other way But in case of a run the
reserve may be exhausted. and then the
greenbacks redeemed in gold coin
must be paid out to meet current obi
cations, as above stated, precisely as
though there had been no reserve. In
the language of the street. the govern
ment must ''shin it," it can only pay
an old debt by making a new one of
the same amount.
And if no gold comes into the treas
ury, which is very likely to be the case
when there is a run on the treasury for
gold, that metal will soon disappear
from the treasury entirely, and the
government must either go into the
market and borrow gold or suspend
payments.
President Cleveland doesn't propose
to suspend if he can help it, nor does
| he propose to wait till the last dollar
of gold is gone before borrowing. He
has asked congress for authority to
borrow on the most advantageous
terms, and such partisans as Reed re-
fuse to grant it. He asks such author
ity as will enable him to borrow at
three per cent. or less. Their answer
is: mo; you shall not have it. You
must borrow on coin bonds and pay
three and a half per cent" And they
offer as an excuse their assumption
that the senate would not authorize
gold bond if the house should. They
propose that the house shall offer a bad
measure because they think the senate
| will not concur in good one.
The case is plain one. Mr.. Reed
and other republican leaders want to
embarrass the administration to the
utmost, and yet they would like to
make it appear that they are willing to
| relieve the treasury. Their inadequate
proposals and puerile arguments make
their hypocrisy apparent to every man
of fair intelligence. Now that they
have exposed themselves the president
will go on and protect the public credit
to the best of his ability in spite OF
| their attempts to increase the Difficult
| ties with which he is beset.- Chicago
Herald.