The Portland daily press., 1896-03-05
A PARALLEL.

There is curious parallel between this
financial operation and one that has
given our own state some notoriety. l
refer to transactions of the late suicide,
Judge Hale of Foxcroft. Mr.. Cleveland
was President of the United States, Mr..
Hale was Treasurer of Foxcroft. The
President borrowed more than a quarter
billion of dollars of capitalists and bank
ers, for which he gave the interest bearing
bonds of the United States. The treas
urer borrowed a considerably less sum of
local capitalists, for which he gave the
interest bearing notes of the town of
Foxcroft. Some of the town notes were
authorized by a vote of the corporation,
and are binding on the town, but the
most of them were issued without legal
authority in the discretion of the treas
urer. Some of the Presidents money
was used in redeeming United States
notes in actual existence March Z, 1895, to
the redemption of which the authorized
bond issue was strictly devoted. but
much of it-perhaps the most of twas
used to redeem notes given for silver bull
lion after 1890, for the payment of
which Congress had directed the silver
co ined from that bullion should be ap-
propriated. The treasurer is supposed to
have used the money he obtained for his
uUueS lOr uls persoual &FhI1uCaGlOn. NO
such suspicion attaches to the President,
who devoted his borrowed money to the
carrying out of financial crochet not in
itself immoral, but every way as illegal
The treasurer killed himself For that
matter SO did the President He has only
to consent to be nominated for third
term to find out how dead he is.
THE MONEY-BORROWING POWER.
One would suppose that Section Of
Article 1 of the Constitution which
reads:
'The Congress shall have power to bor-
row money on the credit OF the UniteI
States' had been amended thus:
The President shall have power to bor-
row money on the credit of the United
States.
But although no such amendment has
been adopted the President nvows:
81 have never had the slightest misgiv-
ing concerning the wisdom and propriety
of this arrangement, and am quite will
ing to answer for my full share of respon-
sibility for it's promotion"
What have been the comments of the
aforesaid commercial journals on these
enlarged executive responsibilities, for
which the President seems to think he
may be called to account. Nothing that
l have seen but adulation and dattery.
ity, this ignoring alike of the limitations
of the Constitution and of the oo-ordi-
nate power OF the legislature is by them
considered a stroke of craftsmanship, or,
as the French call it, coup 'etat, char
acteristic of great man and savior of
society.
The President has found Congress re-
fractory, and he has set aside it's initia-
tive and is running the political machine
alone. Congress may come; Congress
may go. 1t will not make any difference.
Congress is not in it. This cash. borrow
ing, the bond-issuing, will go on SO long,
as with, with his sieve of the Danaides
the President thinks it necessary to bale
gold into his Overlooking reserve.
HOW TO MANAGE OBSTINATE
LEGISLATORS.
There are various ways of squelohing
an inconvenient and obstructive legisla-
ture. Cromwell sent Major Pride with
company of soldiers to suppress his re-
fractory parliament. There were no Eng
lish commercial papers to commend him
for doing it, but Mr. Carlyle, who
thought our sacred war against slavery
in rebellion, the foulest chimney he had
seen burnt out in his day." has certified
his most emphatic approval. Louis Ma
POAOOAA3
dent, ordered his gems d'arms to seize in
their beds the opposition in the French
| Assem- bly, and ship them with care to
Cayenne. All the Posts, Journals, and
transcripts of Paris came out the next
morning with editorials thanking him
for his seasonable efforts to 'save socie-
| ty." Our President lets the opposition
| majority in Congress alone, and proceeds
| to execute laws they had repeatedly re-
| fused to enact. But he too has been a
savoir, and has saved US from q silver
basis, or a silver standard, or some other
| not-very- understood bugaboo. If
he had taken the more vigorous measures
of those historical prototypes. our com
| mercial journals would doubtless have
been just as profuse in their batteries
INDISCRETION OF THE MAsSA-
CHUSETTS SENATOR.
Uncle George Hoar's ingenious state
ment: "There are no gold mono-metall-
lists there" i. 9. i'll Massachusetts and
the six New England States, seems
grave indiscretion to the little knot of
CO spirators-numbering only two per
cent of the Republican party and ten
per cent of the American people, remem-
5er-who having brought our silver cur
rency to its present moribund condition,
are oeteThIHel, ttU tne CoS6 Ol tHe nablOn-
al, corporate, and individual bankruptcy
it must yet cost, to stamp the last spark
of life out of it. The Journal of Com
| MERGE, the World, the Times will open
upon him the flood gates of their finan-
cial wisoom, and he will be dashed by the
sarcastic tongue of the Evening Post.
The Boston Transcript was too dumb
founded to venture an editorial. but sent
one of its subs to interview several bank
| presidents to know If really they "be
| Iieyed in the continued and concurrent
use of silver as we'll as gold, not merely
as token of subsidiary money, but as
the worlds standard of value.'
THE BEWILDERED BANKERS.
The bank presidents, called away from
| their dinners perhaps out of THAR hede