The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1897-03-25
M'KINLEY ON TARIFF.
HE TERSELY TELLS THE Ma.
TONS TROUBLES.
Says More Revenue Is the Param
Necessity I'm posts at Seaports tho
Favored Way of Raising It-Urseu
Congress to Act.
His First Message.

The message sent To Congress hy PrfSi-
dent Mckinney 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 i'll extraordinary session
is Indispensable because of the condition
in which we find the revenues of the
Government. 1t is conceded that its cur
rent expenditures are greater than its
receipts. and that such q condition h.e
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 bor-
rowing money to meet the ordinary out
lays incident upon even an economical.
and prudent administration of the Gov
eminent. An examination of the subject
disclosos this fact in every detail and leads
inevitably to the conclusion that the con-
dition of the revenue which allows il 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 30, 1892, from all
sources were $425, ,S6S, ,2G0. %, and the ex-
penditures for all purposes were $415.-
953, ,S06.56, leaving an excess of receipts
ing that fiscal year $40, sc, ,467 ,9S was paid
upon the public debt, which has been re-
duced since March /, 1889. $3.50, ,016, 800,
and the annual interest charge decreased
S11 .6SI. $1,000. The receipts of the Gov
ernment from all sources during the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1898, amounted to
$461, 716, ,561.94, and its expenditures to
$459, ,374, ,SS7.6o, showing an excess of
receipts over expenditures of $2,341,-
614.29.
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 80, 1894, were
S312, S92. 1880, and it's expenditures
$442, ,605, 1881 leaving deficit, the first
since the resumption of specie payments,
of $69, ,S03, ,26O.5S. Notwithstanding there
was decrease of SIG, 769, ,12S.1S in the or
dinary 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
Government then resorted to loans to re-
plenish the reserve
In February, 1894. $50. .GOO, 900 in bonds
was issued, and in November following
second issue of $50,OO0,OO0 was deemed
necessary. The sum of Silt, III, ,I9o was
realized by the sale of these bonds, but the
reserve was steadily decreased until on
Feb. s, 1895, a third sale of S62 ,315, 400
in bonds for $50, 1924 was announced
to Congress.
The receipts of the Government for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, were
$390,3I3, ,203.30, and the expenditures
$433. 1TS, ,4264S, showing deficit of S42.
So, ,223.1S. A further loan of $1OO,00O,-
600 was negotiated by the Government in
February, 1896, the sale netting SILL
166, ,246, and swelling the aggregate of
bonds issued within three years to $685.
315, 400. For the fiscal year ending June
80, 1856. the revenues of the Govern
nlent from all sources amounted to S4O9,-
4I5, ,40S.IS. while its expenditures were
S434, CTS. Coils, or an excess of expendi-
lures over receipts of S25, ,203. .245.1O. In
other words, the total receipts for the
three fiscal years ending June 80. 1895,
were insufficient by $137, 81, ,729.46 to
meet the total expenditures.
Nor has this condition since improved.
For the first half of the present fiscal year
the receipts of the Government, exclusive
of postal revenues, were $151 ,507 ,6O3.T6,
and it's expenditures, exclusive of
postal service, $195,410, ,OO0.22, or an ex-
cess of expenditures over receipts of S37,
2.39G. As In January of this year the
receipts, exclusive of postal revenues.
were $24,3fG, ,994.0J, and the eypendi
lures, exclusive of postal service. $50
269, $500, deficit of $J,952, 1921 for
the month. In February of this year the
receipts exclusive of postal revenues were
S24, ,400,997.3 and expenditures. exclu-
sive of postal service, sos, ,196, ,05G.6S, a
deficit of 81 ,395, ,O59.2S: or total deficit
of S1S6, ,O6l 1904 for the three years and
eight months ending March 1, 1897. Not
only are we without surplus in the
treasury but with an increase in the public
debt. There has been a corresponding
increase in the annual interest charge
from S22, 500. $500 in 1892. the lowest
of any year since 1862, to $34. .3S1 ,23I. 60
in 1896. or an increase of S11 .493. .414.4O.
1t may be urged that even if the rev.
enues of the Government had been sutfi-
cicnt 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
repletiop. BE this as it may. it is clear
ly manifest. without denying or affirming
the correctness of such 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 anu en-
courage agriculture, to increase our do
nestle and foreign commerce, To aid and
develop mining and building, and to ren-
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 a 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 Il measure, and to this
object | earnestly recommend that Con
gress shall make every cndeavor. Before
other business is transacted let us first
nroyide sufficient revenue to faithfully
administer the government without the
contracting of further debt or the contln.
ued disturbance of our finances.
WILLIAM MKINLEY.