The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-27
OF NATIONAL INTEREST
THE REpoAr OF THE WAYS AND
 MEANS COMAELITEE.

Ol ESeVshue anu buslhSSS bepress'Oh or
 the Last Two and Half Years-AIso of
 tne Necessity of Issuing Bonds-The
 "Endless Chain'' Case-The Measures of
 Relief as Proposed Considered-The Pro-
 posed Horizontal Increase of all Existing
 Duties.
 Washington, Dec. 26,In the house of representatives to-day the full program of the committee on ways and means, so far as it referred to the early preseH- tation of measures for revenue relief and for the issuance of bonds in aid of the exhausted condition of the treasury reserve. was carried out by MT Ding icy, chairman of the committee, rIe- sentin.g both tariff and bond bills as they have been agreed upon hY the ma jority Of the committee. The report accompanying the bills says the com mittee feels that the chronic deflcien- cy of revenue for the last two years and g half has been a mos, potent cause or the difficulties She N0reG States treasury has encountered, ard of the business difficulties and cn1ba r. rassments of that period. In the last two years and a half the insulficlency cf revenue has amounted to $133, 000. And even in the first half of the pres ent fiscal year the deficiency will reach S2C,000,000 and about $3,0OO,000 in this present month. No improvement is, moreover, in sight for the rest of the fiscal year. The insufficiency of rere- nue has made it necessary to use the reserved United States legal tender notes to pay current expenditures, and thus to supply additional means to draw gold from the greenback redemp- tion fund-in short, to create the "end- less chain" of which the secretary Of the treasury complains, and which has made it necessary to sell issue after issue of bonds to replenish the reserve,
 This will be clearly seen when it is remembered that the secretary 0t the treasury has issued and sold a little over $162, 100000 per cent. ten years and per cent. thirty years bonds, from which he has realized about $1S2,- 100000. and after redeeming $1S2,000,00O of United States legal tender notes with the proceeds, has been obliged to i'm mediately pay out $1S3,OOO,0O0 of these demand notes to meet current eXpendi- lures, and thus has furnished $1SS, 100000 of governmental demand notes to be again and again used to draw gold from the treasury. It is evident that so long as there is insufficient revenue this performance will go on, and bond sale after bond sale will be required It is also evident that if there had been sufficiency of revenue these redeemed legal tender notes would not have been paid out at once, and there would have been so much the less opportunity to draw gold from the treasury. Indeed, there is good reason to believe that if, in the first six months of the distrust which inaugurated the run on the re- demption fund, the treasury had been receiving revenue more than adequate to meet expenditures, So as to tempo rarily hold the redeemed government notes, the disposition to present these notes for redemption would have soon been overcome. That would undoubt- edly have been the case if the redemp- tion fund had been increased in the spring of 1893 and never allowed to fall below the $100,0000O0 minimum. And the necessity for more revenue from the point of view of maintenance of the re- demption fund is not taken away by the fact that we have $50,000,000 of cash in the treasury in addition to the $10O,- 100000 Dart go1d) required for the re- demption fund and the twenty odd mil lions required as a working balance.
 'This $50000,00 represents $50, ,0oO, 900 Of redeemed United State legal tender notes, for whose redemption we bor- rowed $50,000,000 in gold. If we con- tinue to pay them out to meet a de- ficiency of revenue, then presently they will come back again to draw $50, ,OO0, 900 more from the treasury, which we must eupply by selling $50,0OO,OOO more of bonds. The suggestion, therefore, that we need no more revenue because we have a cash balance of $50, 900 900 of government notes in the treasury that can be used to- pay any deficiency for the next six or twelve months, is in effect a proposition to issue more bonds to meet a deficiency which should be met at once by providing more revenue.
 In other words, those who oppose raising more revenue in such situa- ton, i'm effect-Whether they intend to do 50 or not-favor borrowing in pref ererce to paying as we go along.
 Your committee believes that it is the duty of the house of representa- tives, to which body the constitution commits the inauguration of revenue bills, to frame and pass measure that will yield not far from s4O,OOO,O OO0 suffi- cient to put an end to the deficiency and to do this without delay, too leaving to others whose cooperation is required to finally place such legisla- tion on the statute books to meet the responsibility in their own way. And the presidents special messa ge, setting forth so pointedly the seriousness of the situation and the necessity for the promptest action, only emphasizes the duty of the house.
 ''In response to the urgent call of the president your committee has felt inn pelled to act with all possible dis patch. Two facts have led your con- mittee to look to an increase of GUS toms duties as the most appropriate source of additional revenue. They are first, the fact that we are already rais- ing disproportionate amount from in