The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-12-14
MeNNLEY'S MESSAGE.
INTERNATIONAL BIMRTALLIsM
NOT ,PROGRES SING.
Revision OF the Currency--Talks on
Tariff and Finance and Foreign Affairs.

WASH NOTION, Dec. 6.-President Nc
Kinley to day sent his annual message
to Congress congrRtulating it upon re
assembling under felici5ous conditions,
calling for grateful acknowledgements
to a beneicent Providence which has
SO signally blessed aud prospered this
nation. Peace and good will with all
the nations of the earth continue I'm
broken, he says. He also, expresses
genuine satisfaction at the growing
spirit of ~fraternal regard and the unfit
cation of all sections of our country,
upon the universal spirit of patriotism
and the lifting otgreat public questions
above party prejudice and sectional
differences.
Contrary to the usual custom which
has led to the treatment of matters of
foreign relations in the beginning of
the message. President Mckinley de
voted his attention first to the financial
question, of which he says:
THE extra session of this Congress,
which closed during July last, enacted
important legislation, and while it's full
effect has not yet been realized, what
it has already accomplished assures US
of it's timeIiness and wisdom. To test
its permanent value further time will
be required, and the people, satisfied
with its operation and results thus far,
are in no mind to withhold from it a
fair trial.
FINANCIAL OPERATIONS SINCE Sc RE
CALLED.
Tariff legislation having been set
tied by the extra session of Congress,
the question next pressing for consid
GRAFTON is that of the currency. The
work of putting our finances upon a
sound basis, diff ,ult as it may seem,
will appear easier when we recall the
financial operations of the government
since 1866 On the SOth day of June of
that year we had outstanding demand
liabilities in the sum of 1928 868, 447 II.
On the 1st Of January, 1879, these liza.
bilities had been reduced to SAB 889,
495 88. OF our interest bearing obliga-
tions, the figures are even more strik
ing. Ga July 1, 1866, the principal of
the interest bearing debt of the govern
ment was 50 332, 33I, 2O8 On the 1st
day of July, 1898, this sum had been
reduced to 1856. OBJ 100, or an aggregate
reduction of 81, 747, 1874 1O8. The inter
oct hooWinnSobf ~ thu IT oiknS OkoEoao an
the 1st day of December, 1897, was
$847, 1856, $40. The government money
no. outstanding December y, consists
of $346, 681, O16 of United States, $1O7,
793, $50 of Treasury notes issued by
authority of the law Of 1890, 1884 963
5O4 of silver certificates and SOL, $50, 761
of standard silver dollars. With the
great resources of the government,
and with the honorable example of the
past before us, we ought not to hesitate
to enter upon a currency revision
which will make our demand obliga,
tons less onerous to the government
and relieve our financial laws from
ambiguity and doubt.
REVISION POSSIBLE AND NEEDFUL.
1.-THE brief review of what was &C
complished from the close of the war
to 1893, makes unreasonable and
groundless any distrust either of our
financial ability or soundness; while
the situation from 1898 to 1892 must
admonish Congress of the immediate
necessity of sc ~legislating as to make
the return of the conditions then pre-,
vailing impossible.
''There r many plans proposed as
a remedy for the evil. Before we can
find the true remedy We must appre
ciate the real evil. 1t is not that our
currency of every kind is not good, for
every dollar of it is good-good be
cause the governments pledge is out
to keep it so, but that that pledge will
not be broken. However, the guaranty
of our purpose to keep the pledge will
be best shown by advancing towards
it's fulfllment.
THE evil of the present system is
found in the great cost to the govern
ment of maintaining the parity of our
different forms of money-that is,
keeping all of them at par with gold.
We surely cannot be longer needless Of
the burden this imposes upon the PEG
pie, even under fairly prosperous con
ditions, while the past four years have
demonstrated that it is not only an ex-
pense chsrge upon the government but
a dangerous menace to the national
credit.
PROTECTION AGAINST BOND ISSUES.
tCT+ 10 r,onifos, that ua m1st devise