The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-30
sENEsCENT AND sENILE.

SENESCENT AND SENILE.
John Sherman continues to furnish
evidence in support Of the rumor that
his senescence is accompanied with Sc
nifty. He has written a letter in aid of
Hanna instead of taking the stump, in
which he speaks of the feeble and in
defensible tariff law known as the Will
SON German act" and expresses a con-
fidence that the Dingley act will bring
in revenue ample not only to pay cur
rent expenditures, but a large sum
yearly in reduction of the public debt
and exports is given out from the
treasury bureau Of statistics, our
Dingleyites point with glowing pride
to the decreasing imports and the in
creasing exports, their enthusiasm but
slightly checked by the decrease of
revenue that Is an unpleasant accom-
paniment Of the falling off in imports
They are still in that immature condi-
ton Of mind when children would both
eat their cake and have it,
Mark Tapley prided himself upon his
capacity for meeting any condition of
life, no matter how depressing, with
a smiling face; and John Sherman
meets the continuing and increasing
deficits in the treasury, the excess of
outgo over income, with serene con-
fidence that this tariff for deficits only
will sometime supply funds to meet
all expense and leave something over
to be applied on the debt. Meantime
the departments are making up their
estimates of the amount of money each
will ask congress to appropriate, and
in none is there any decrease in de-
mand, and in some a notable increase
is asked This in face of the recent
assurance that the cabinet had agreed
upon a policy of extreme economy
Congress holds the purse strings but
the latest sessions give no assurance
that the hold will be any tighter
We recall the reports that went
out from Washington during the
fifty-fourth congress, telling how
Speaker Reed was sitting down on ap-
preparations and enforcing economy in
expenditure, and of the insurrection
that smouldered among the members
baked in their ambition to get some
thing for their districts. But we also
recall that, when Chairman Cannon re-
ported the appropriation bills, he was
+O ~
were beyond the legitimate needs and
expenditures of the government With
this record, dependence upon economy
in the appropriations of the fifty-fifth
congress is very unsafe staff for
the Dingleyites to lean upon.
Meanwhile the weekly returns of
revenue and expenditures fail to JUS
tify the hope expressed by Mr.. Sher-
man. The Dingley act took effect July
"a and emitting the intervening days,
the revenue from all sources from Aug
1 to the end of the third week in Oc-
tober, the 18th, was $57,S1S, 336, while
the expenditures We're $50, 057, 1862, leav-
ing a deficit of $25, 239,526. For the
same period in 1896, under the weak
and indefensible Wilson German act
the deficit was SIT, 299,5 19, and for the
same time in 1895, S1O,6S2,73S. 1t is
true, as the secretary says, that the
revenue from imposts is diminished by
imports in anticipation of higher rates,
but, in making comparisons, it is also
true. though never stated by the apoI-
ogists for Dingleyism, that the panic
of 1893 materially decreased imports
during 1S94-96. Making this allowance,
the comparison Of deficits shifts the
application of the terms used by Mr..
Sherman from the Wilson-Gorman to
the Dingley act.