St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-14
A LITTLE MATHEMATICS.

The Hon. Galusha A. Grow proves
years do not always bring wisdom.
The respect belonging to his age and
long service is not sufficient to Sc
cure him against deserved ridicule
for the speech that he made in the
house on Thursday. 1t is interest
Ing because it probably outlines the
Republican position. The telegraph
dispatch says: ''The emphatic state
ment by Mr.. Grow that the green
backs would not be retired was re-
ceived with demonstrations of ap-
proval by the Republicans" Mr..
Grow was not reckoning without his
host. He knew that a majority of
the Republicans in congress are
fully committed to the maintenance
of the worst form of fiat money that
this country has ever seen, and the
element of our currency which stands
as a menace to prosperity and public
confidence. He falls back, as all the
Republican organs have done, upon
the stale and false assertion that a
lack of revenue is the sole cause of
our troubles. Mr.. Grow says that
if the public revenue were equal to
the public expenses, the greenbacks
would not endanger the reserve
He says that the deficiency for 1894
was $S9,00O,0 900, and for the first five
months of the present fiscal year,
$lS,000.000. The total deficiency,
Since June so, 1894, he says, was $131,-
100000. He adds that the bonded
debt, under the present administra-
ton, has been increased $162, 200, 900.
Now, if these figures of Mr.. Crows
are taken exactly as he gives them,
it shows that there has been re-
ceived, from bond sales, over $50, ,O00,-
900 in excess of the treasury deficit.
If it is a simple question of re-
ceipts and expenditures, if the green
backs have nothing to do with it, if
the endless chain theory is incor-
rect, if the gold reserve is not af-
fected by our outstanding paper cur
rency, but rises and falls strictly ac-
Cording to the inflow of revenue,
then it is clear that the reserve should
have been increased by over $50, ,OOO,-
BOO during the period that Mr.. Grow
speaks of. The logic of his own ar
gument shuts him in to this con-
rlusion. 1t shuts in to the same con-
clusion all the others who are parody
Ing 1t from one end of the country to
the other. If we take their state
ment merely on it's face, and as
sume that bond issues were made to
obtain money to pay the treasury
deficit arising from an insufficient
revenue, then they must at least ad-
nit that the surplus of receipts from
bonds, over and above any deficit
that had to be paid, must have gone
into the treasury and been added to
that reserve. The excess of receipts
In gold for bonds disposed of over the
total deficiency that had to be made
up was, according to Mr.. Crows state
ment, over $4,000, 1000. If the green
backs do no harm, and if it is the
tariff and not the paper currency
that is affecting the gold reserve, why
is not that $9O,OOOOOO of gold lying in
the treasury? Is the gold reserve
today $30,OOOGOO larger than it was
before the first bonds were issued.
and before the present tariff went
into effect?
Mr.. Grow knows that 1t is not.
Every other Republican knows that
1t is not. There has been taken from
the gold in the treasury an amount
30 large that no revenue deficiency
will account for it. It has had to
redeem greenbacks over and over
again, as all these men very well
know. The singular thing is that
they should not perceive how their
sophistical and partisan argument
refutes itself. The gold reserve is
today some $25, 1000 to $50, 1000, ,00C