Omaha daily bee., 1896-01-02
TJJt DrTy on cONoprSS.

Under the constitution the sword and
nation to congress. and that body is
/ expected to discharge it's trust as 1t
may in It's wisdom deem most conducive
I to the public welfare subject only to
/ the veto power of the president. The
/ first duty of congress Is to provide the
necessary revenues to carry on the gov
ernment, and so long as congress does
not shirk that duty there can be no ex-
cuse for the president to exercise the
power of raising revenues indirectly by
borrowing under prctext of maintaining
the gold reserve.
The resolution introduced in the
United States senate by Senator Sher-
man, the salient point of which is that
the 800. .uOO.OOO of gold coin or bullion
shall be paid out only in the redemp-
ton of United States notes and treasury
notes, "and such notes will when re-
deemed be reissucd only in exchange
for gold coin or bullion" should receive
prompt and favorable consideration at
the hands of congress. The endless
chain financiering by which bonds are
exchanged for gold and gold for green
backs and the grccnbacks paid out to
meet the current expenses of the govern
ment, only to be used again for drain
ing the treasury of more gold, should
be at once and forever discontinued.
The original object, and the only OBJ
ject, of the gold reserve was to insure
the redemption of legal tenders and
thus keep this paper on a parity with
gold SO long as the gold reserve was
used for this purpose only 1t proved
ample for maintaining specie payments.
Even with nearly S60O,OOO,O0O of over
valued silver in circulation the parity
OF all our different kinds of money re-
mained undIsturbed. 1t was only when
the attempt was made to Use the gold
reserve to meet the deficit in the rev
cnucs that the endless chain system
which necessitates successive bond is
sues began to jeopardize the mainte-
nance of the specie basis for our ma
tiOual currency.
Unless an end is put to the unlimited |
issue of bonds by the president and his |
secretary of the treasury the national |
debt will again mount into the billions |
and the national credit will be corrc
Spondingly lowered. In fact it has al
ready been lowered and impaired by |
a 2h per cent United States coin bond
would have been snapped up ut par
in the European money centers. Today
4 per cent bond cannot be marketed
except at Il discount, and the current
interest rate is about 3R per cent.
The true policy and the rational pol
cy to pursue is to place the govern
nent in position to meet current eX
)cnses with the assured revenues of
he treasury, leaving a slight surplus
or the restoration of the gold reserve
md any possible emergencies. This
means an increase of federal taxation
II some form. The nation cannot for
'ver go on creating more debt in time of
)eace. However views may differ as
% the policy of paying off the entire
var debt, the overwhelming sentiment
If the country calls a halt on increasing
he bonded debt to meet the ordinary
expenses of government. The passage
,f Senator Sherman'S resolution by the
enate should be followed by the amend
nent of the law of 1879, under which
ecent bond issues have been made, so
hat in any event no mole bonds shall
,e issued by the treasury while con-
,ress is in session without special au
hority from the national legislature fix
NJ the amount and defining the char
cter of the bonds. Whenever the ext
ency for national loan shall arise
o congress will dare withhold authority
rom the president and treasury to pro-
ect the national credit and avert finan-
ial disaster.