The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-10
The p.aois At Last Creates Alarm

and . Independent IN ATS eteOs Wv" 1853
sEssttons.
The Deficit At Last Creates Alarm
1t seems as if some of the Republican
8 leaders had at last become alarmed over
the effects of fnanciering on the Jackass
plan. In the Tribune this morning.
there is a long Washington despatch IN
which the Appropriations Committee
Chairman, Mr.. Cannon's speech IN the
House, yesterday, is described as a note
of warming. He goes one step further
than Representative Dockery, who es-
timated the deficit for the current fiscal
year at $3.50, 600, 900. Mr.. Cannon puts 1t
at s179, 100000. Withal. Mr.. Cannon aus
tinotly served notice that neither the
Nicaragua Canal nor the shipping sub
sidy bill could be passed by Congress this
year. If they went through, the deficit
would run up to countless hundreds OF
millions of dollars.
The finances of the Republican admin
istration are crazy at both ends. the
~extravagance of the public expenditures
Is insanity of the most frantic kind, the
method of raising-or, rather, of not rails
ing-revenue, is idiocy of the most alb
5ect species.
How our expenditures are to be cur
failed with the insurrection on our hands,
which Mr.. Mckinley purchased from
Spain for $40. 600, 900, is not easy to see.
On the contrary, the outlook is for more
ships. more men. more guns and more
embalmed beef than ever, to the hun
dreds of millions of dollars which even
Mr.. Cannon has not thought of comput-
ing. We may have a new rebellion IN
Cuba, also, almost any day. When the
Cubans finally realize that the Mckinley
combination intend to steal the island Tor
the benefit of a ring of contractors ana
concessionaires, they will be apt to grind
nm their old machetes, and dig their
Mausers out of the palm thatches OF their
huts. Then, with Mexico as a h~eadquar-
tiers for Filibusteros, they may make
things almost as pleasant for Us as they
did for Spain. 1t is true that our SOL
diers are somewhat different in fibre from
the Spanish recruits who were sent
against Gomez, but the "rebels' will have
the Alger-Armour-Eagan whitewashed
beef on their side, and it will be a far
more powerful auxiliary than the Amer
Jean Junta was, with all its tugboats
and cases of ammunition-in the cam
paigns of the last five years.
AS for the other side of the question,
the collection of revenue, it is hard to see
how any great improvement can be ex-
peeted while the Republican party re-
mains in power, Tt is true the Treasury
Department has ANONYMOUSLY Withdrawn
its baggage inspection rules, showing that
1t is not wholly ~insensible to the lash or
n,,hl;e Indignation. But the mass of sell
fishness and corruption which is behind
the protection policy in general Is TOO
powerful and too insensible to pubic
opinion or public rights to be disturbed IN
any way, n it's grip on the Republican
party is practically the only thing winch
holds that party together in National
affairs. In order to reach a. reform of the
tariff on a true revenue raising basis, the
return Of the Democratic party to the
control of the House of Representatives
Is an indispensable requisite.
No prohibitive system of imports can
ever succeed as a means of supporting
the government. To put money in the
Treasury, tariff paying imports must
come through the Custom House., and
they cannot come through the Custom
House if the duty which they have to pay
is too high to make them saleable- 1t may
be added that however much money we
may be able to raise by Internal Revenue
devices, the main source of the National
Income ought to be our foreign trade, n
no scheme of fnanciering is likely to
49,
succeed which does not seek to collect
fwo-thirds of the amount needed through
small duties on a vast mass of imported
merchandise. 1t is pretty certain that the
internal taxes now levied, under the name
OF war axes. cannot be materially in
creased. They are already irksome in all
cases and burdensome in many. A read
justment of the system under which they
are levied is a crying need. but there is no
reason to hope that their amount can be
increased to any extent worth consider
ing. The country is face to face with a
three pronged alternative. 1t must either
radically reduce expenditures, it must
make up its mind to an income tax, or it
must relax the present barriers against
the products of foreign countries.