New-York tribune., 1902-08-21
4 NEW PARAHOUNT ISSUE.

The veil Of mystery behind which Judge
Criggs and his lieutenants Of the Democratic
Congress Committee have been cioaking their
campaign is at last about to be lifted. The
secret of the committees delay IN issuing
speakers textbook. Of the mastery display
of inactivity il has encouraged about us wash
ington headquarters, is no longer a secret
Chairman Griggs has been on still hunt Tor
a new campaign issue. According to Washing
ton dispatches he has now found it. Imperial
ism. the tariff. trusts, free silver. the man
against the dollar. are to be hustled into the
background, and the belated party handbook
is to exploit as the overshadowing issue Of the
hour the "billion dollar appropriation record"
made at single session by the LN1Ith Con-
gress.
In selecting this issue Judge Griggs repu-
dates the pledge-"given first verbally and re-
newed in writing"-to the New-England Anti
Imperialist League that the Philippine civil
Government bill offered in Congress by the
Democrats Of the Senate Philippines Commit
tee and the House Committee on lnsular Al
fairs should be 'the platform for Democratic
candidates for Congress He risks IN conSe-
uuence the loss Of the leagues as yet uncom-
puted vote In the fifty or sixty close and doubt
full districts which he and his assistant tabu-
Iators have been industriously transferring to
the Democratic column He incurs. too, the
unmeasured scorn of the head Of the commit
tees literary bureau, Senator E. ". Carmack
who recently declared that any sidetracking OF
Democratic opposition to criminal aggression
would be not only "a crime against patriotism"
but IAN act of monumental stupidity. Yet at
all costs. apparently, Mr.. Griggs stands ready
to swap horses in the very thick Of the political
current, taking his chances Of reaching the
f,,-4 chr no
quality.
The Democratic committee we are told, will
startle the country with the announcement that
the LvIIth Congress spent at its first session
81 o63 395, ,961 out of the public revenues; and
will seek to spread the impression abroad that
Republican extravaganza" has doubled in ten
years the limit of the governments annual ex-
penditure. The falfaciousness Of such charge
is disclosed on the most casual inspection Of the
figures which Judge Griggs has ordered incor-
porated In the Democratic handbook. The grand
total Of appropriations for the last session was
actually $500 ga. 1876. But In this is in
cluded, In the first place, an appropriation OF
S13S,41659S for the Postofice service. which
almost maintains itself out of its own revenues
and makes no serious draft on the Treasurys
normal income. Then there Is added the $50
100000 appropriation carried In the Isthmian
Canal Act, not per cent OF WHICH may nave
to be disbursed within the current fiscal year.
Finally the judge throws IL as another make
weight an item of s1SOOOO OO0--the entire cost
of the proposed isthmian waterway-S50.o 900, 900
of which he has already counted, and the re-
naming S130,0o0000 of which is to be met by
8 future bond Issue and is not properly Charge
able to the expenditures Of any single year. The
Democratic statement. it is announced, will
make an equally misleading use OF the fact that
5,221 new civil Offices were created Dy Congress
at It's last session, to be an addltlonal and per
manent burden Oh the Treasury But 1900 OF
these new offices are In the postal service alone,
and their creation was forced by the natural
expansion Of that service to meet Its annual
growtl--a growth involving not only increased
expenditures but increased receipts.
Altogether, Judge Griggss new issue Will
prove as illusory and as pettifogsins as any OF
the other humbug campaign cries 1t forces to the