St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-29
4 HARD NUT TO CRACK.


The Republican organs find diff
Guilty in dealing with Mr.. Carlisle S
admirable statement of the situation
OF the treasury and of the only meth
cd of improvingit They can only say,
as the New York Tribune does, and
its Minneapolis nameSake and other
lesser lights parody the utterance,
that. for more than quarter of
century under Republican rule, while
the revenues were in excess of the
expenditure, the gold reserve was
maintained without any difficulty"
Any attempt to throw responsibility
for present financial conditions upon
either a Democratic administration
or q Democratic revenue law is an
effort that can find success only
among the ignorant. Let us see some
of the things that We're going on dur
ing that halcyon period of Republi-
can rule. The main item is that, in
the fourteen years between 1879 and
1893, this same Republican rule au-
thorized the issue of total of near
ly $500 0O0. 900 of paper money with
out increasing the gold reserve by
one dollar Thus the $100, 100000 of
gold, which was fixed as the mini
mum amount that could sustain in
circulation $346, 600 900 of legal ten
der paper, was required by Republi-
can legislation to sustain $685., 900, 900,
without counting national bank
notes. This is certainly something
with which neither excessive nor de-
f1cient revenue has anything to do.
If a bank is required to keep a re-
serve fund of % per cent, and let's
that reserve dwindle to less than 10
per cent, we know what is likely to
happen. The moment that the fact
goes abroad there will probably be
a run on that bank that will i'm
pair its credit if it does not destroy
its solvency That is what the Re-
publican party did for the United
States treasury, as far as financial
legislation is concerned.
1t is no happier in appealing to
its record in revenue legislation.
In 1890 the party had full control of
all departments of government.
There was then an abundant rev.
enue. and bonds We're being redeem
ed annually in excess of the require
ments OF the sinking fund. The Re-
publican congress, aided by a Re-
publican president, went to work
What it did is succinctly stated by
the New York Evening Post: by
1892 it had cut down the federal rev.
enue Is per cent, increased expenses
23 per cent, and expanded demand
obligations 20 per cent; imposing at
the same time an annual increase in
the floating debt of $4,000 O0O." So
efficacious was this that two wears
later the surplus had been practically
exhausted, and Secretary Foster, as
is we'll known, had made prepara-
tions FOR bond issue before the
Harrison administration went out Of
office. The charge Of diminishing
the national revenue below the safe
ty point is one that lies against the
Republican party. Let it not be for
gotten that the title of the Mckinley
bill declared it to be an act to re-
duce revenue. If, however, this had
not been done, if revenue had re-
mained adequate to meet all public
expenses and provide a handsome
surplus, the situation of the finances
would not have been improved.
Again, the big and little parodists
of the Republican party cry that, if
the governments revenues were suf-
1icient, the secretary of the treasury
might put the greenbacks into the
surplus fund as fast as they were
presented for redemption. An hon
est critic knows that this is an i'm
practicable method of maintaining
the solvercy of our currency sys-
TEN. Those who say that Mr.. Car
Isle should have held the green
backs in the treasury as fast as re-
deemed, and issued bonds to paw
current expenses, are like Mr.. Sher-
man in stating that federal Off
cial can act without warrant of law.
The law under which bonds must be
issued authorizes this only for the
maintenance Of specie payments. II
does not authorize the contracting
OF one Collar of debt for paying cur