Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-03-20
NcKINLKHlS MENN4GE

ffebiaeht hchlhteyS ' message b0 l Congress convened in extra session is plea for protection. Itis a doc ument remarkable however for it's brevitv and iss husiness like prcsca tation of the condition Of the Treas ury. The President re1iews briefly the statistics of the national ex- cheqeer showing increasing deficits
 from year to year since 1891, which he estimates to aggregate at the , beginning of the present month the startling sum of $186, ,03l 580
 Tine deficit for 1894 was $69,713, 260j for 1895 the deficit was SIP ,805, 223, and for the next year $25, 203, 245, making q total deficit up to June 30, 1896 of S137, ,8l1, ,729
 This condition the President urges
 as an ample excuse for bringing
 Congress together in extra session,
 which he urges to promptly cor
 rect existing conditions. Ample
 revenues must be supplied, not only
 for the ordinary expenses of the Government, the President con
 tinnes, but for the prompt pay
 ment Of liberal pensions and the
 liquidation of the principal and
 interest of the public debt. Of conrse the pensioners must be paid
 that's what the Republican party is
 here for. One Of the financial
 difficulties of the Treasury and the
 cause of increasing deficits is the
 liberal pensions already allowed
 the pension grabbers. The G. A.
 R's are already costing the Govern
 mcnt about $140,000,0 GOO annually, which is a sum greater than the cost of the standing armies of France and Germany combined.
 The President concludes
 In raising revenue, duties should be so levied upon foreign products as to preserve the home market so far as possible to our own producers; to revive and increase manufac- tories; to revive and encourage | agriculture; to increase our domes l tic and foreign commerce; to aid | and develop mining and building, | and to render to labor in every field 1 of useful occupation the liberal | wages and adequate rewards to | which skill and industry are justly | entitled.
 This paragraph is an apparent antithesis. How are we going to raise revenue and at the same time preserve the home market?' If the home market is preserved by a | probitory tariff there can be no revenue raised because there is no market for imports from which to raise revenue, hence no revenue. The truth is that the Governmet derived more aeoeaue from the Wilson bill than the Mckinley bill. The Mckinley bill was simply pro- hihitery, hence q reduction of inn ports, and as anatural consequence, the ,ereuaeS were reduced And then, again, how are we going to incease our foreign commerce by Chinese wall of protection which shuts out foreign eommerce? Foreign nations will not send their ships here unladened When they can come ladened with their own products, they will return ladened with the products of the United States, thereby increasing our for eign commerce; otherwise not.
 It is not more revenue that the Government needs, but Q greater economy in public expenditures. It is not more money that the people need, but more equitable distriba- tioa of the money of the country. What we need is not a protective tariff, but a eeueqae taril. The one leyies tribute for the manufacturer and monopolist; the other levies regcaue for the Government IL is not the latter but the former that the President and his supporters want; and the contributors to the Republican campaign fund are al- ready itchingior return of their money by class legislation, and the are that they will get it in short order
 We desire to call attention to the fact, however, that in no one of the years fer which Pgssident Mckinley has recited deficit has that deficit amounted to Sso, O00, 900. It will be remembered that when the Wilson bill was before Congress it provided for an income tax. which 1t was estimated would raise SS0, lO0,000 annually, but by an adverse decision of the Supreme Court, q member changing his mind and casting the deciding vote, , this income tax was declared uncon- stitutional, notwithstanding the {