The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-08
The Deficit Grows.

We fail to find, in the columns of our
interesting contemporaries, any re-
marks, since the 1st of February, bear
ing upon the statement of the public
debt and the condition of national
finance that it reveals. We have to
remind our frierGs once more that they
told Us several times in the twenty
four hours, just one year ago, that the
first duty Of man, which had been as
signed by divine mandate to the Re-
publican party, was to stop the deficit
Currency reform, they admitted. was
important, but all our troubles, finan-
cial and industrial. had grown out of
a tariff law that wns Inadequate to
produce revenue equal to the nation
expenditures. This, they said, was the
first point of attack. The Republican
party was going to fill the treasury
first and look after other necessary
legislation afterward. Again, six
months later, the same heralds of Re-
publicanism told US that the thing had
been accomplished by the passage of
The Dingley bill. They laughed to scorn
not only the calculations of the Demo-
Gratis, but the estimates of their own
secretary of the treasury and their
chairman of the finance committee in
the senate, which showed that the
Dingley bill would widen, rather than
narrow, the breach between income
and CUtgo. The tariff was to be rails
ed, revenue was to roll in in great
and the LIST Of January was set as the
latest date when, by any possibility,
another deficit could be marked up on
the treasury books. After the begin
ming of the new year, when all the tariff
schedules were effective, they said that
deficits would become a thing of mem
CRY only.
We have waited for events to pass
upon the correctness OF this prophecy
and their oracle has spoken. The treas
TRY accounts for the first month of the
calendar year show an increase Of debt
less cash in the treasury, of $12, 5S9, I'll
They show that, if all receipts
and payments on account Of
the sale of the Union Pacific rail-
road be excluded from the reckon
ing, the increase in the treasury deficit
fer January was $7,9O1, 4S4. They show
the total deficit for the fiscal year, be-
ginning on the LIST of last July, to be
S51, 901, S23. We think that the most pa
tient of financiers or politicians would
admit that the time has come for those
now in charge of the government to
furnish some explanation and some de-
claration of future intention. The
Democratic deficit has not been cured
On the contrary, it is swelling at
rate unknown to our experience under
Democratic policies. Had the Repub
lican party set out professediy to re-
wise the tariff only with reference to
the alleged needs of industry, it might
claim that revenue had been impaired
III OlO0 70 lOOh ollSI the interests or
protection. It is estopped from that ar
gument by its unanimous proclamation
that the purpose of its tariff bill was
primarily to stop deficits and increase
revenue. What it has to show for
seven months of trial. with everything
its own way, with its new tariff in
operation and with an administration
entirely in sympathy with it, is total
dofo &C 80 00A.G"O.
The country has not suffered directly
from this. because of the Improvement
in its material conditions The hard
ships and economies Of previous years.
in which we were taking our securities
back from Europe and paying for
them, the happy fortune of a great
crop coincident with a higher scale
of prices, the increase of our ex-
port trade consequent upon this and
The subsistence of distrust and appre-