The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-01-02
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From Our Regular Correspondent

publlcans who could not agree with
what he did respected Mr.. Cleveland
because they believed him to be
conscientious and straightforward.
That time has passed MIR. Cleye-
land has shown himself to be a
trickster. And in nothing has he
shown it palmer than in that hys-
terical message appealing to Con
gress for financial aid. Although
that appeal was made when Con
gress was ready to adjourn for the
holiday recess - many mem bers
having started for home-the Re-
! publican majority at once gave up
the idea of a recess and worked
even on Christmas day to respond
to the appeal, by preparing a tariff
bill, not exclusively fer protection
hut to increase the revenues Of the
country to the extent of 100000
600, and u bill authorizing the sale
of 3. per cent. coin bonds to main
tain the gold reserve and of the
issue of 3 per cent. treasury certlf-
Gates to meet any immediate deficit.
These bills have been passed by the
House, though not few Republi-
can mem bers voted reluctantly for
the bond bill, rather than have it
said that the Republican House had
refuse to aid the President, and
forty-s seven of them voted against
it anyway.
1t is now clear that Mr.. Cleveland
did not want the aid of Congress.
That was plainly shown when he,
through Secretary Carlisle, declared
that the House bill would not help
the administration unless "coin"
was struck out and "gold' was
substituted therefor. That was
asking an impossibIlity, for Mr..
Cleveland knew perfectly well that
the House was stretching things to
agree to a bond bill at all, and that
a bill for gold bonds could not get
one hundred votes, let alone pass.
But that isn't all. 1t is now an
nounced that Mr.. Cleveland will
not wait to see if the Senate will
pass the House bills, but will pro
eeed to make another issue of bonds,
and that it will be large enough to
carry him through the remainder of
his administration and they are
going to that same old syndicate,
although pretense is to be made
of giving the public an opportunity
10 subscribe tor them.
The five reasons which Rcpresen-
tative Henderson, of Iowa. gave for
supporting the bond bill that passed
the House are welghty. First, the
bill does not require bond issue,
only authorizing it if necessary;
second, the bonds if issued would
bear lower rate of interest than
those issued by the administration,
and those it is now arranging to
issue under the old law; third, it
compels the administration TO give
our own citizens a chance to buy
any bonds issued before offering
them to foreign bankers; fourth, it
does not retire the greenbacks, but
empowers the Secretary of the
Treasury to keep them out of the
possession Of spectators when nee
essary; fifth, it prevents the admin
istration selling bonds to meet
Deficiencies in the revenues as it has
done. This bond bill is long
ways from representing what Re-
publicans believe ought to be done,
but it does represent what can
become a law if the Senate will
consent. and that is the principal
reason for its having been put
through the House. The admins
tration already has authority to
issue bonds and no secret is made
of its intention to use that author
ity. If those bonds could be issued
under the House bill many millions
of dollars in interest could be saved.
That's the long and short of it; it
isn't a question of principal so much
as of dollars and cents.
The House committee on Foreign