Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-01-31
The Emergency.

Withdrawals of $40. $780, 600 gold from
the treasury last week, exports of 81, 45O, :
600. and fall of the gold reserve to about
S5s. 0Oooo0 show where the Democratic
party has placed this country already by
its tariff for deficit and its state bank bill.
Seldom in all history have the finances Of
a great nation undergone so disastrous
and humiliating change as that which
the Democratic victory in 1892 has already
brought Little more than two years age
the proudest and most powerful OF
nations gaining more rapidly in wealth
than any other, with all its labor
we'll employed, this country enjoyed
a credit unsurpassed. Today it Is a
question with serious bankers whether
practical bankruptcy by forced sill
YER payments where gold has been prom.
ised can long be avoided Every
step of this frightful downward road has
been the direct result, first, of the tri'
umph of policy hostile to the nation in
dustries; next, of Secretary Carlisle's pro-.
posal to pay treasury notes in silver;
third, of the presidents refusal to call
an extra session of congress until it was
TOO late; fourth, of the enactment of a
whisky and sugar tariff which created a
deficit, and finally OF the wanton tamper-
ing with national credit and prosperity
involved in the currency bill proposed by
the administration and supported by q
great majority of the Democrats in the
house.
1t is about time for the president to ap'
peal to his political opponents, for the
publicly avowed reason that they have
proved they knew how to protect the ma.
TONS credit, and in 80 years of trouble
and trial have never suffered it to get into
such state as this. Too well he knows
that there is no hope of relief coming
from his party. To say that it is hope
Iessly divided is not enough. Divided it
Is. but with an overwhelming majority in
favor of measures which mean financial
ruin. Only by direct appeal of the pres-
dent and his personal friends to the Re.
publican minority for union on necessary
measures, without regard to Democratic
caucus or partisan interests, does it seem
possible to avoid more serious trouble.
Give government revenue enough and il
can always get gold. If it were possible
to give the country an active and prosper
Gus business Under the present tariff, tia,
law would probably yield nearly or quite
revenue enough after the effects of wanton
or corrupt gifts to the whisky and sugar
trusts had passed away. But with only
two-thirds of a normal consumption, reve
nue. must fall terribly short, and then the
government is forced to borrow again anG
again, every time seeing its gold reserve
drawn out by want of confidence in its
national policy and its ability to maintain
gold payments. 1t could not only borrow
at better rates. but keep the gold it Dor
bors, if there were adequate revenues and
general prosperity. Experienced business
men who will not face facts as obvious as
these, if they advise congress at all. are
atite apt to urge the passage of some bill
which cannot possibly be passed.
The remedy is not to be found in an OF
stinate blindness to the difference between
parties. 1t is not to be found in ignoring
The demonstrated fact that the Demo
cratic policy tends directly to ruin. Those
who seek for it with candor will find it
only in return to the Republican prin-
ciples of protection for labor and unfiinch-
ing defense of the national credit.-New
York Tribune.