The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1895-08-22
g WHERE THE DIFFICULTY LIES.

ton is responsible for the exist
ing accumulation of the national
debt under the free trade admins
tration, says the American Econ
onlist. The Herald said that Htlle
expenditures were extremely
large OH account of the enormous
pension payments 1ecessitated by
reckless republican legislation"
Setting aside any discussion of
the ''reckless republican 1egisla-
ton" which provided for the pay
1nert of pensions to American
soldiers, we would remind the
Herald that the free trade major
ity i'll congress, which framed
and passed the existing tariff law,
were perfectly we'll aware to what
extent such payments had to be
made when they voted for their
tariff for deficiency. It was the
incompetence of the free-traders
in congress that led to this def
cheney, through not framing
revenue measure that would meet
the known expenditures of the
government.
The Herald speaks Of the
enormous drain on the treasury
under the Mckinley law" Let
us look at this "drain," using
only the figures given by the
Herald, and we find that the to-
tai amount OF money paid out for
pensions for the fiscal years 1890
to 1894 inclusive reached $685.
47o,7o2. This includes the year
of free-trade deficiency, when
the pension payments were $18,-
$50, 273 less than i'll 1893.
Next, let us take the excess Of
revenue figures as quoted by the
Herald, and we find that for the
fiscal years ending June 80, 1890
to 1898, they aggregated s124,-
1872, 900. If we even deduct the
deficiency during the free-trade
year of 1894, amounting to &c.,
o25, 900, we still have All excess
of revenue of $54, 1o7,oo3 in the
years quoted by the Herald, to
the credit of the protection ad-
1ninistration, over and above all
the pension payments made, and
even after loading the protection
lists up with the 1894 years de-
fcit of the free-trade party.
One point that the Herald has
entirely overlooked is that, dur
ing the period which it has re-
viewed, the administration of the
government under the policy of
protection reduced the interest
bearing debt of the country by
$244, 824,6oo. We thus find dur
ing the period of the Herald's re-
view, 1890 to 1894, that the pol
icy Of protection enabled the fol-
lowing payments and surplus:
Excess of revenue 54,1ozo 900
Reduction in debt 244, ,824, $50
Total 1855, ,4o2, ,562
The treasury department was
enabled to withstand "this enor-
nous drain under the Mckinley
law' without any difficulty, al
though we have charged against
it the $4,000, 600 of a deficiency
that arose during the first year of
the present free-trade ad1ninistra-
ton.
We sympathize with the Her
aid during its present trials and
Affections. For upward of 80
years it has been i1nbued with an
entirely un-American spirit; it
has been hostile to the advance
ment of American interests; it
has been hostile to the progress
of American industries; it has
been hostile to the prosperity OF
American labor. The pension
incubus" did not prevent the
policy of protection from provid-
ing a suficiency of revenue to
meet all its liabilities, besides
decreasing the public debt and
carrying over surplus. 1t was
the ''incubus" of a free-trade
policy and the 'incubus'' of the
fools who passed it that have
brought about the existing trou-
bles that are such thorns in the
Herald's side.
Why the New York (so-called)
Herald should be so intensely un-
American and so intensely un-
patriotic we are unable to con-
lecture. It's un-Americanis1n is