The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-12

THE RUSHED ADMINISTRATIONS. 1 Outspoken and even noisy as the
 Administration is on such subjects as the upbuilding of the Navy, the su-
 pervisiOn Of corporations and the con-
 struction of an inter-oceanic canal, something or somebody has completely
 silenced it on those still unsettled and
 important questions of domestic policy, the tariff and the currency. We may say silenced, because the only alterna- tive explanation would be that it either
 is unaware of the existence of these
 questions or has no views upon them,
 which a decent respect for our titular
 ruler cOmDels us to consider inconceiy-
 able.
 lndeed,if Senator Hanna, representing
 the protected manufacturers who
 must not be made restless for tine fry
 ing pan, and Senator Aldrich, as Chair
 an of the Senate finance committe with
 other duties annexed, both acutely
 mindful of the approach of a national
 election-if these influential party lead
 CTS had gone to the President and speci-
 fically ordered him to hush up all tariff
 and currency questions, the result
 would have been 50 precisely like what we now see that it is only with ex-
 treme difficulty that one can avoid
 thinking that that was just what hap pened.
 ''S-s-sh!' these eminent Senators and their associates ill party leadership
 may be conceived as saying in the inner OnnnPfl n nf ever the project of doing something
 with either the tariff or the currency or
 both has been mentioned to them. And i hushed the administration has certain ly been. "An election is close at hand;
 our party is not united on either of these
 questions: let us do nothing to stir up | trouble and expose our weakness" we may easily imagine them saying. And 1 if this advice was given and the Ad- ministTation had obedientIy accepted it We should have had just such annual communication to Congress, and through Congress to the country, as this week
 we have had. The last of them, the re- port of the Secretary of the Treasury
 was placed before the House yesterday; and it contains absolutely no discussion { or recommendation regarding the tariff .. and only the briefest and lightest pass
 ing suggestion that the currency is not
 perfect. Remembering that the Secre- l tary has a good knowledge of at least
 one of these subjects and pronounced
 views thereupon which he has been free
 to express publicly all through the past year, the reader of his report can fairly
 luSS s.I,f ,1,l.fr
 through its slumberous pares.
 1 MT. Shaw sees a surplus of only four teen millions for the current year. and l for next year his figures lead him to
 predict g deficit of twenty-three mill
 lions. He must know that continued insuficiency of revenue will make possi- j ble return of the peril from the silver element in the monetary system; yet
 he has not 8 word to say of the need of any consideration of revenue problems. l He recognizes that "our currency sys- { tenn is non-elastic" and that this defect
 should be remedied." But when and how? He gives not hint, even, on these points, confining himself to the
 sunerfiuous warning that we want no money that is not sound. This silence 1 is the more notable because from the times of Chase, McCulloch and Sher-
 man to those of Manning, Fairchild and Gage the reports of the Secretaries of ! the Treasury form an unbroken series
 of state papers on finance, comprehen- l sive in treatment often extremely able | in construction and earnestly and
 honestly intended to direct public
 thought and guide congressional action
 in the paths of sound economies. \ l That leadership in finance which has
 hitherto been proudly assumed by ad- ministrations of each party in the con- scientious, courageous and independent
 discharge of public duty has
 been completely abandoned by the Roosevelt administration. It is hushed
 into silence on the two most vital ques- 1 tions of domestic concern; and this sll- ence is apparently just what is desired ! by the most powerful leaders of the up- per branch of congress; one must stop
 thinking about the novel situation alto- gether to be saved from reaching the unwelcome conclusion that the Adminis- 1 tratton has abdicated leadership in this respect in favor of that 'overshadowing Senate" which has now come. through the facile submission of the President and his Secretary of the Treasury, to usurp some of the most important functions of even the Executive De- narfmant --0rnyyjdnoca Tnurpoi