Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-03-25
M'KINLEY ON TARIFF.
NE TERSElY TELLS THE NA.
TION'S TROUBLES
eays More Revenue Is the Paramount
Necessity-Imp posts at scaports the
Favored Way of Raising It-Urges
Congress to Act.
His First Messag


The message sent to Congress by Presi
dent Mckinley Monday was as follows:
To the Congress of the United States:
Regretting the necessity which has re
quired me to call you together, feel that
your assembling in extraordinary session
10 indispensable because of the condition
In which we find the revenues of the
Government. Ii is conceded that its cur
rent expenditures are greater than its
receipts, and that such a condition has
existed for now more than three years.
With unlimited means at our command
we are presenting the remarkable specta-
Gle of increasing our public debt by b0r-
rowing money to meet the ordinary out
lays incident upon even an economical
and prudent administration of the Gov
ernment. An examination of the subject
discloses this fact in every detail and leads
inevitably to the conclusion that the con-
dition of the revenue which allows it is
unjustifable and should be corrected
We find by the report of the Secretary
of the Treasury that the revenues for the
| fiscal year ending June 80, 1892, from all
sources were $425, ,S6S, ,260.22, and the ex-
penditures for all purposes were $415,-
953, ,SO6.5O, leaving an excess of receipts
over expenditures of $9,914, ,453.66. Dur
ing that fiscal year $40, $40, ,467 ,9S was paid
lpon the public debt, which has been re
duced since March 1, 1889, $259, ,076, 800,
and the annual interest charge decreased
$11 ,6S4 $1,000. The receipts of the Gov
ernment from all sources during the fiscal
year ending June so, 1898, amounted to
$461, 716, ,561.94, and its expenditures to
$459, 1874, ,SS7.65, showing an excess of
receipts over expenditures of $2,341,-
674.29.
Since that time the receipts Of no fiscal
year, and, with but few exceptions, of no
month of any fiscal year, have exceeded
the expenditures. The receipts of the
Government from all sources during the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, were
1912, ,S92. .49S.29, and its expenditures
$442, sos, 1887, leaving a deficit, the first
since the resumption of specie payments,
of $69, ,S03, ,260.5S. Notwithstanding there
was decrease of SIG, T69, 12S.7S in the or
binary expenses of the Government as
compared with the previous fiscal year,
its income was still not sufficient to pro-
vide for its daily necessities, and the gold
reserve in the treasury for the redemption
of greenbacks was drawn upon to meet
them. But this did not suffice, and the
plenish the reserve.
In February, 1894, $50, 900, 900 in bonds
was issued, and in November following a
second issue of $50,000,0OO was deemed
necessary. The sum Of $117,171, ,795 was
realized by the sale of these bonds, but the
reserve was steadily decreased until on
Feb. 8, 1895, third sale of $62, ,315, 400
In bonds for $50, 1924 was announced
to Congress.
The receipts of the Government for the
fiscal year ending June 80, 1895, were
$500, ,373, ,203.30, and the expenditures
$433, ,17S. .426.4S. showing deficit of $42,-
800, ,223.1S A further loan of 500, 0,O00,-
600 was negotiated by the Government in
February, 1896, the sale netting SILL
1856, ,246, and swelling the aggregate of
bonds issued within three years to $262,-
315, 400. For the fiscal year ending June
30, 1896, the revenues of the Govern
ment from all sources amounted to $4O9,-
475, ,40S.7S, while it's expenditures were
$434, ,67S, ,G54 .4S, or an excess of expendi-
lures over receipts of $25, ,203, ,245.70. In
other words, the total receipts for the
three fiscal years ending June 30, 1896,
were insufficient by $137 ,S11, ,729.46 to
meet the total expenditures.
For the first half of the present fiscal year
the receipts of the Government, exclusive
Of postal revenues, were $157, ,507 COS. .76,
and it's expenditures, exclusive of
postal service. S195, ,410, ,00O22, or an ex-
cess of expenditures over receipts of $37,-
9O2, ,396.46. In January of this year the
receipts, exclusive of postal revenues,
were $24,316004.05, and the expendi-
lures, exclusive of postal service, $780,
269, $780, a deficit of $5,952, ,395.24 FOR
the month In February of this year the
receipts exclusive of postal revenues were
| $24, ,4OO, ,997.3S and expenditures, exclu-
sive of postal service, SOS, 796, ,056.6S, a
deficit of $4,305, ,O59.2S; or a total deficit
Of $1S6, ,O61, $50. "A for the three years and
eight months ending March !, 1897. Not
only are we without a surplus in the
treasury but with an increase in the public
debt. There has been a corresponding
increase in the annual interest charge
from 500 ,S93, $500 In 1892, the lowest
of any year since 1862 to $34 1897 ,297. go
in 1896, or an increase of $11 ,493, ,414. 40.
It may be urged that even If the rev.
enues of the Government had been suffi-
cient to meet all its ordinary expenses dur
ing the last three years the gold reserve
would still have been insufficient to meet
the demands upon it, and that bonds
would necessarily have been issued for its
repletion. Be this as it may, il is clear
ly manifest, without denying or affirming
the correctness of such q conclusion, that
the debt would have been decreased in at
least the amount of the deficiency, and
business confidence immeasurably
strengthened throughout the country.
Congress should promptly correct the
existing condition. Ample revenues must
be supplied not only for the ordinary ex-
penses of the Government but for the
prompt payment of liberal pensions and
the liquidation of the principal and inter-
est of the public debt.
In raising revenue duties should be so
levied upon foreign products as to pre-
serve the home market so far as possible
TO our own producers, to revive and in
crease manufactures, to relieve and en-
courage agriculture, to increase our do
nestle and foreign commerce, to aid and
develop mining and building, and to rem
der to labor In every field of useful occu-
patton the liberal wages and adequate re-
wards to which skill and industry are
justly entitled.
The necessity Of the passage of tariff
law which shall provide ample revenue
need not be further urged. The impera-
tive demand of the hour Is the prompt
enactment of such measure, and to this
object / earnestly recommend that Con-