The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-07-19
INCREASE OF INDEBTEDNESS.
Democratic Misrnanagement Sapping tho
National Resources

i Democratic Mismanngement Sapping the
National Resources
| For several years the actual expenses
II carrying on the government, exclu-
i've of post Office receipts, have aver
Iged over S31, zoo, 600 per month. They
should have been little smaller dur
.ng the year just ended on some ac-
counts, but little larger because in
terest amounting to So, 1000, 900 yearly
was added prior to December, and
about s2,5sO,OOO yearly after February
|. But in order to make a fictitious
showing of improvement at the end of
the fiscal year. The treasury has re-
fused TO pay part of it's actual obliga-
lions under appropriation laws enact
I'd, although these laws were so far
below the real expenses of the govern
ment thSt some branches of the public
service have been seriously crippled.
The Indignation of United States
judges because they have been obliged
TO close their courts and discharge wit
nesses and delay justice on account of
deficient appropriations will not be
forgotten. It is disgraceful that there
should be added to unjustifable delays
Of this kind other acts of virtual repu-
1iation which have no excuse, because
the money for payment has been law
fully appropriated, and is now lying
idle in the treasury.
The available cash balance. includ-
ing the gold reserve, is officially re-
ported as S193, SIG, 592, and the govern
nent would have been in no respect
worse off if that balance had been S1O,-
DOC, 900 lower, while its creditors wcsnld
have been more honestly treated. The
official report makes the expenditures
for the year 1856, 100, 459, against $685.
525,2S the year before, and 1888, 477,-
)57 in the fiscal year 1929, the wrong
being that in June the treasury paid
less than So, 200, 900. when it actually
ought to have paid nearly $4,000, 900
more. The fact that one has TO look
oack four or FIVE years to find in any
month payments as small as those
made in the month just closed is suf-
fcient to disclose both the nature and
the motive of the performance.
Some disheartenment on the part of
officials whose elaborate calculations
are so largely responsible for the ex-
isting revenue law is not unnatural,
but it does not afford the faintest ex-
cuse for injustice toward public credit
ors. 1t will be remembered that
Secretary Carlisle himself called at
tention to the obvious fact that the in
come tax would not become available
to any great extent until after the
fiscal year had ended, but he estim-
ated in his official report of last De-
cembcr a revenue from customs of
$3.50. O0O, 900. which was nearly SS,0OO,-
300 more than the actual receipts. He
also calculated upon S165, 900. 900 from
revenue, which was nearly
SD 100000 more than the actual re-
cepits, aud comparison with his letter
20 Senator Harris last August shows
that his official estimates included
nothing for the tax on in
comes. The deficiency in internal
revenue, as has recently been ex-
planned, Is in large measure due to
the act for the enrichment and delec-
tatiOn of the whisky tfust, which the
secretary himself is understood to
have strongly favored. The customs
receipts fall short of expectations be-
cause, although imports are large, the
ld valorem duties opened the way to
heavy evasion by fraudulent invoices.
President Clev Gland came into office
in March, 1898, with cash balance in
the treasury OF SPA, l2S, OSs, and the
debt was $685., 900 900.
BY borrowing S1l7,000,00O by the two
ssues Of per cent. bonds and S62,-
100000 on per cents, the government
mas ra ised its bearing debt to
about S747, OOO, 900, and, by refusing to
pay debts overdue, has raised its
lash balance to S193, $50, 592. But all
.hese operations do not serve to hide
.he fact that the change in the reve-
hue system, to which the party in pow
IT sacrifices everything else, has left
he government without revenue
enough to meet its necessary expenses.
It is so often said that the republican
administration left the government in
Notwithstanding the cash
balance on hand, as above stated. that
t may be well to recur to the fact that
he actual revenue fell only $1,000, 900
,elow the expenditures for the eight
months of the fiscal year preceding the
of President Cleveland.
Under the old laws there had been for
ears no difficulty, and would have
,een none had those laws remained in
orce without the threat of a change of
,Olicv-N V Trihuna