St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-13
SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEM
SELVES


/ SELVES.
| The cuckoo members Of the RepubIi-
can press have settled upon policy
Of mere iteration and reiteration of the
statement that what the treasury needs
| is not more gold, but more revenue.
You will find it In the newspapers
which do not take the trouble to think
for themselves, or which do not dare
to say what they think, from one end
of the country to the other. You will
hear it uttered in every debate in con-
gress, as a false pretense under cover
of which Scheme for new tariff ex-
tortions may be advanced The diff
culties of the treasury, these reckless
ficient revenue. Give us ample re-
ceipts to cover expenditures, and the
gold reserve will take care of itself.
This is more than ordinarily foolish
and useless falsehood, because the dis
proof Of it is found in the current
statements of the financial condition of
the country.
The total receipts of the United
States treasury from customs, internal
revenue duties and miscellaneous
sources for the twelve months of the
calendar year 1895 were $317 ,047 683. The
total expenditures of every kind for
the same year were 1852, 142. lis. This
shows an excess of expenditures over
receipts for the last calendar, not fs-
cal, year. bringing the record up to the
first of January, 1885, of $35,000000, in
round numbers. On the most unfavor-
able assumption, even if this had to be
paid from the gold reserve, which is
not in the least true, then all that it
would have suffered during the last
year is a reduction in amount of $685.
100000. The net gold coin and bullion
in the United States treasury at the
end of December, 1894, was $S6, 244, 445.
In February, 1895, there was a bond
issue producing over $e2,000,o 900, to be
added to the gold supply of the treas
ury. Taking the sum of the gold in the
treasury or January 1st, and of the
gold obtained by this sale of bonds,
we have a little less than $3.50, 600, 0G0
the year.
AS we have just seen, the entire
treasury deficit for that year was $685.
100000. If. therefore, every dollar of
the deficit had been drawn from the
treasury gold supply, and if there was
no other draft upon it, it should have
contained, on the 1st of January, 1896,
between $4,000, 900 and $115, 100000 of
net gold The net gold in the treasury
on the last day of December, 1895, in
stead Of being, say $113,0 10000, was a
little over $63,O0OOOO. That is to say,
these statistics prove that there dis
appeared from the treasury gold supply
a total of $50,000O0O over and above
the amount that should have been
there, even if the government had not
received one dollar of gold in payment
Of customs duties, Or from the banks
in exchange for other forms Of cur
rency, or from any other source what
ever. ~
AS a matter Of fact, there was a
large contribution of gold from time
to time in these several ways; but we
are reducing the problem to it's simplest
elements. The gold in the treasury
January 1st. 1895, added to the gold
actually paid in for bonds during 1895,
and diminished by the entire excess
Of
receipts, is $5O,O0O,0OO more than the
amount actually in the treasury on the
LIST Of January, 1895. What has become
of the difference? Where has that $780,
600, 900 gone? The gentlemen on the
other side know perfectly we'll. It's dis
appearance is not explained by in
sufficient revenue, because the entire
treasury deficit has been accounted for
and supposed to be paid, every dollar
Of it, out of the gold fund. That
missing $50,000,O00 together with all
the other gold received by the treasury
from miscellaneous sources, and $780,
100000 more that has vanished since
the first Of the present year, making
000, 900. has been used to redeem green
backs that had to be paid out i'm
mediately and were presented over and
over again for redemption.
The men who want higher tariff
duties should at least be honest in their
arguments. The financial question is
too pressing and important to be ap-
preached by the methods of the dem
agogue and the ordinary campaign
falsifier of facts. We have shown that
if the revenue laws of the country had
been such as to bring in every dollar
that was paid out for all expenses, the
gold reserve in the treasury would to-
day. in spite of bond sales and all other
reinforcements, be about $25, 900, 900
short of the s1OOOOO,OOO limit Why not
admit the facts and tell the truth about
them, instead of parroting over and
over the obviously false charge that our
financial embarrassments arise from a
deficient revenue?