The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-12-04
was die to his getting thoroughly tired

was due to his getting thoroughly tired
out.
Foreign affairs and the currency are
the two topics treated, but the country
gets very little new knowledge in
regard to the former. He thrusts upon
Congress again his advice to withdraw
from Samoa, and he informs us that he
has made treaty with Great Britain to
refer the Behring Sea claims to arbitra-
ton, if the Senate thinks it desirable.
He makes no recommendation in regard
to Cuba, further than to counsel the
people to refrain from fitting out filious-
tering expeditions, and those who
want active interference by our navy in
the Bosphorous will find nothing enccur-
aging in his remarks upon Turkey. He
assures us that Nicaragua was grateful
for our good offices in the Corinto
affair and has SO expressed herself,
which gives US assurance that N icaragu-
ans are very responsive to small favors,
and he manages to get in soma vicious
digs at protection Iinshis treatment of Ger
many's discrim ination against our food
products. There is one gratifying assur
ance in this department of the message,
which is that the administration seems to
have stood pretty scuarely on.the Monroe
doctrine in the Venezuela boundary ques-
reply to an inquiry il she is willing to
submit the question in it's entirety to ar
bitration-a question which England has
not yet answered There is statement
in this part Of the message of the measures
taken to reform the consular service by
the administration, and a rec ommenda-
ton that Congress supplement- these re-
forms. 1t is also suggested that official res
licences for our foreign ministers should be
provided by the government.
Part two of the message deals entirely
with the currency, and here the President
enters heart and soul into the exploita-
ton of his plan for the retirement of the
greenbacks. His argument in some re-
spects is quite impressive, but it could
have been made far more SO, by condensa-
tion and the elimination Of some of those
ponderous circumlocutions which he is so
fond of indulging in. Briefly summed
up, the Presidents plan is to exchange
the greenbacks for long time United
States bonds and TO supply the deficiency
in currency that might thus be created,
by empowering the national banks to issue
notes up to the full value of their bonds.
To stimulate the banks to issue notes,
he would reduce the tax upon them
from one to one-fourth per cent. He
would also provide for the establishment
of more banks or branches of existing
ones. This plan is elaborated at great
length and.with IN UGH circumstantiality OF
detail, and in the course of his treatise,
he saddles all the responsibility for the
present deplorable condition of the Treas
ury upon the Republicans, in spite of the
fact that there was never any trouble I'M
til it was settled that the government was
to pass into Democratic hands, and de.
tends his much criticized compact with
the acknowledgment syndicate. He also
makes long and needless argument
agai INST the free coinage Of silver.
There is not a word in the message in
regard to deficient revenues and no sug-
gestion that Congress should enact any
measure to increase the receipts of the
Treasury. The law which year ago he
refused to sign and pronounced "perfdy
and dishonor" he now regards as correct
in principle and has no complaint to
make of it though it fails to produce rev.
enue sufficient for the needs of the govern
ment The tariff mania which affected
him many years has subsidized and the
currency has taken its place. The tone of
this part of the message is that of man
who thinks he knows it all. Indeed that
is the tone of almost all of Mr.. Cleve-
lands deliverancies.