Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-12-17
The Treasury Situation and the Appro-
priRtious


The secretary of the treasury in his re-
cent report stated that the estimated rev.
enue deficit for the present fiscal year end
ing June 30, 1898, would be S2S, 600, 900;
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1899, S21,
647,OOO Representative Dingley, chair
man of the ways and means committee,
and Republican leader of the House. said
to that body few days later, in the course
of the debate upon the subject of the
revenue: "If the expenditures for the
next fiscal year shall not rise above $780,
600, ,00C, then, on the estimate of the secre-
tary of the treasury there will be a surplus
of about S10,000,000." The apparent dis
| agreement between these two statements
or estimates arises entirely over the ques-
tion or probability as to what degree of
economy or extravaganza Congress will
practice.
1t is with the estimate for the year end
ing June 80, 1899, that we have the greater
interest, for that concerns both the appro-
priations to be made by the present Con-
gress and the amount of revenue to be
yielded by the new tariff law. For that
year Secretary Gage estimates the revenue
at S4S2, ,S74 ,6l737, including 5000, 100000
from customs and $16j, ,000,0 900 from inter-
nal revenue. The total estimated appro-
priati1ns exclusive of sinking fund, are
figured at $504 ,522, ,533. %, leaving deficit
of S21, ,647 $685.. This deficit, however,
is not any more a certainty than are the
estimated appropriations. Under man
date included in the sundry civil bill ap.
proved in June last the secretary of the
treasury must submit to Congress the esti-
mates for public works carried on by the
war department exactly as he receives them
and must include them in his own compu-
tations of receipts and expenditures. The
fact that this estimate, amounting to S65,-
OO,0O0 was overlooked, or was unknown
to Mr.. Dingley, when his statement was
made, accounts for the discrepancy in the
two statements. The New York Tribune
explains and characterizes the whole situa-
tion when it says:
"The fact remains that the responsibility
for the future, both as to sufficiency of the
revenue and as to possibility of strength
ening the monetary system, rests just where
President Mckinley placed it when he
urged in his message great prudence in ap-
propriations. 1t is obvious that Congress
has power to appropriate more money than
its revenue laws raise, and equally obvious
that deficit, so long as it exists, involves
more or less risk of distrust regarding the
monetary future. In plain words Secretary
Gage has shown Congress that it is asked
by the several executive departments and
Offices to appropriate $2l, ,600, 900 more
money than its revenue law will probably
yield next year, although that law will
yield in his opinion S13, 600 900 more than
the government requires for its expendi- |
lures this current year, and $34, 400, 900 |
more than it actually expended in the last |
fiscal year. Thus the whole question comes
to be one of appropriations-is the great |
increase asked, largely exceeding the prob |
able revenue, necessary for the proper sup |
port of the governments"
Under these circumstances it is a well |
come assurance which comes from Wash |
ington that Speaker Reed will maintain in |
this Congress the same attitude which he
did in the last-that of insisting that ap-
shall be kept down, and that |
no schemes under the familiar guise of |
''public Improvements" but which are
really for individual or local benefit, shall |
be allowed to come to the surface.