The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-07

even the partial precaution that he
advises to the indefinite future. I'm
less congress cuts down appropriations
beyond all probability, revenue will
never be equal to expenditure until to
the Dingley act, reducing the nations
income, is added some supplement
that will increase it's resources.
AS we have said, in commenting upon
these suggestions, as foreshadowed by
the news dispatches of the last two
weeks, the scheme is temporary, par
tial and insufficient. It is not what
the country has a right to expect and
require of the party in power. 1t does
not even go to the modest length OF
retiring the dangerous greenbacks.
It would orly hoard these notes in the
treasury, to be released again by act
of congress upon the first pressure on
our finances. It it be a great advance
from Mr.. McKinley's former position
as an open sympathizer with the free
silver movement, it must be ire
mendous disappointment to those who,
as believers in sound money, helped
to place him in his present position.
The message outlines, we may as
sumo, the utmost that can be accom-
plished by the party, and more than
it's own leaders are disposed to ap-
prove. Yet, were all these recon-
mendations embodied in laws, we
should have made but one tiny, halt
ing step toward financial reform. Our
currency would be as chaotic and
heterogeneous as ever; the maintenance
of it's parity would be a task almost
as herculean; the business Of Issuing
money would not have been separated
from the rational and proper exercise
Of governmental power, and, in one
word, we should be left exposed in the
future to every danger of the past.
We can conceive that, for Mr. McKin-
ley, the positions of the message rep
resent a great advance. For the cause
Of sound money and financial reform
they are a poor achievement, petty
promise, mere sop to Cerberus. and
will neither satisfy the demand for
scientific monetary reform nor pacify
those who clamor for cheap money
and plenty of it.
The section of the message which
deals with the Cuban situation con-
stitutes the bulk of the document,
and is prepared with great care and
expressed with vigor and art. Presi-
dent Mckinley is to be congratulated
chiefly upon this portion of the docu-
ment. He has written there an I'M
answerable argument, the argument
upon our readers in the last two pears,
against the bellicose interference of
congress as expressed in resolutions
recognizing the belligerency of the
Cuban insurgents. Mr.. Mckinley
quotes with aptness and effect from
a message of President Grant on this
same subject. 1t is proved that, I'M
der the conditions actually existing in
Cuba, there is no propriety or advan-
tage in such action by congress.
The relation of the parties is not
that to which a declaration of bellig-
erency is germane. We should have
to violate the understandings and def
nitions of international. law in order
to express mock and empty sympa-
thy. Furthermore, and again as we
have pointed out repeatedly, the prac-
teal effect of such action would be
hurtful rather than helpful to Cuba,
to ourselves. To recognize the
existence of state of war between
two parties, one of which has absolute
possession of all seaports and total
mastery of marine communication,
would be to subject the commerce of
the United States to a hateful es-
pionage, and to invite an almost GER
tain collision, without comforting upon
the people of Cuba the slightest bene-
fit.
Much stress is placed by Mr.. Nc
Kinley. upon the meaning and con-
sequences of the change of ministry
in Spain. He asserts that the change
of policy toward Cuba is in good faith
and big with consequences. Speaking
from the informatio accessible
through the state department and his
agents in Cuba, he asserts that the
Spanish policy has been reversed since
the recall of Weyler; that the atroci-
ties which excited ungovernable hor-
ror have ceased; and that there is a
determined effort being made to restore
Cuban people to the soil, to protect
them in the exercise of their ordinary
employment and to bring peace about
rather by concession and political re-
form than by the@bayonet and the
stock The president, therefore, declares
positively that he regards "the recog-
milton of belligerency of the Cuban in
surgents as now unwise and therefore
inadmissible." He promises that, if such
a step should become proper in the fu-
ture, the executive will take it. He says:
ut is our honest duty to Spain, to our
friendly relations with Spain, that she
should be given a reasonable chance
to realize her expectation and to prove
the asserted efficacy of the new order
of things to which she stands irrecov-