The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1896-01-15
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 15. 1886
SHERMAN ON THE FINANCES.

financial condition OF the government
points out nearly as many mistakes
committed by President Cleveland as
R. G. Ingersoll said were made by Moses
The greatest of these mistakes is the
presidents unwiIlingness or inability tc
see any peril in the continuous treasury
deficits, and his opinion that greenback
retirement is a sovereign remedy for the
governments financial ills. good
many Republicans, however, believe
that scheme of gradual extinguishment
of the entire demand-note debt would
be wise, but it is folly to overlook or ig-
more the revenue shortage. menace.
What the senator said about the danger
of the continuous treasury deficits is
gospel. OF course, the elimination by
the supreme court of the income tax
feature of the Wilson law is immedi-
ately responsible for the present deficit,
but the adoption of this feature was in
itself a blunder, which was often
pointed out by the Republicans during
the discussion of that measure.
The Ohio statesman had a still easier
task in pointing out the presidents mis-
take in saying that the Mckinley tariff
was ineffective for the purpose of rev.
enue. That law, in most of its features,
went into operation on October 6, 1890.
In the fiscal year ending June 80, 1891,
revenues exceeded expenditures $685.
SOC, GOO, and the excess was $4,000, 900 in
the year ending June 80, 1892, and $2,-
Al o. I,ok 1of1
in 1898. Then the turning point came,
and in the next twelve months the Gus
toms receipts dropped sharply, and there
was a deficit of $70,O00,OO0. But it is
very easy to see that the menace which
Democratic victory brought was the
chief cause of this shortage. The Dem
ocratic platform of 1892, the Democratic
candidates letter of acceptance, and
that candidates earlier record as presi
dent assailed the Republican tariff law,
and when Democratic victory came in
that year that laws days were num-
bered. This portentous fact unsettled
trade of all sorts, cut down importation
and brought the deficit.
That endless chain of greenback with
drawals of gold from the treasury did
not begin to take dangerous shape until
this administration and the congress
which went into existence with it cre-
ated the revenue shortage. The senator
had no difficulty In showing that coinci-
dence. In Republican days the endless
chain was so harmless that compare |
lively few persons knew that such a
chain existed. Another drawback at
tending Democratic government, one
which the senator did not mention, but
which, of course, he had in mind, is
that no considerable body of the people |
anywhere has any confidence in Demo-
cratic management of national affairs.
The Republican party, too, makes mis-
takes, as it did during the term of its
latest president, but with that party
are the exception, while with
the Democracy they are the rule. Most
of the men whose votes turned the scale
in favor of the Democracy in 1892 were
prompted by a temporary resentment
toward the Republican party, and !
doubtless regretted their act very soon
after they committed it. The business
in general have for many years
past had supreme distrust of the De-
and a triumph for that party
is thus reasonably certain always to
bring calamity to the country.-St. |
Louis Globe Democrat.