The San Francisco call., 1898-12-27
THE NEED OF A CURRENCY SESSION.

T is believed that unless an extra session of the | Fifty-sixth Congress is held next spring for cur
 rency legislation there will be no such legislation at the regular session. possibility of 1t there after
 In this situation 1t IS necessary to examine the dtions which exist and judge whether it is wise that the Republican party omit and avoid the first oppor- tunty it has had to affirm and accentuate its position sound money party. The opposition to an extra session declares broadly, that there is no need of financial reform, that protective tariff only is re- quired to protect the treasury against depletion by redemption of greenbacks, and that as long as we have such tariff specie payments will not be inl- periled.
 This view is not in accord with an experience SO recent that all should remember it.
 President Harrison inaugurated March 4, 1889. That day there was balance in the treasury of 348o6 Of this there in free gold exclusive of the $oo reserve and redemption fund $Io6 68o,6I4 A protective tariff was passed in I8oo-the Mckinley bill, which has been justly regarded as a model measure That tariff afforded all the protec-
 on to the treasury that be expected of the exist ing Dingley bil and equally safeguarded specie pay ments. But the close of the Harrison admnistra- ton the cash balance in the treasury had fallen to $I6245o577 including the gold reserve for greenback redemption. In the last three months of that ad- ministration $36 5ooooo in gold was withdrawn from the treasury by the presentation of greenbacks for demption It is history that during those three months preparations had been made by MT. Foster Secretary of the Treasury to issue bonds to replensh the gold reserve and safeguard specie payments, it is history that his successor was compelled to carry this policy during the administration that fol- lowed
 The last report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows deficit for the last fiscal year of $38o47247 and for the present fiscal year of SIP ooo making
 total deficit for the first half of this administration of $I5o,o47,247.
 The same report estimates a deficit for the fiscal year of 1900 of $3oo4378 or total deficit for three years of $I8o,oo5,625.
 Last June the free gold in the treasury had fallen to $I63474o57, $33215,557 less than at the begin ming of the Harrison administration Thereafter the free gold replenished by the protective tariff but by the sale of bonds and reached its highest point October 1898 when it stood at $245o637o5 but that exceeded the balance left by the first Cleveland administration by only $48,374I8I and that balance was the proceeds of revenue and not Of bond sales.
 We think that study of these figures will convince any reasonable that the treasury stands naked to financial storm as ever and that 1t is not pro- tccted at all by the existing tariff as it was not by the Mckinley bill In fact, neither the troubles of the treasury their originate in the tariff. Those troubles ebb and flow regardless of tariff. Their efficient is to be sought in financial and currency legislation which will take off the treasury forever its burden as a redemption agency, and by cutting the endless chain which can empty it at any tme as did during the Harrison and the last Cleve land administrations.