Durango semi-weekly herald., 1904-09-12
REPUBLICAN VS.. DEMO-
CRATIC ECONOMY.

The Democratic candidate for Vice
President has discovered what he and
his party managers regard as proof
OF Republican extravaganza and Dem
ocratic economy This is in the per
capita expenditures of the Govern
ment under Republican and Democrat
ic administrations. 1t is far cry
from 1904 to the ante-bellum days OF
Buchanan but the Democrats make
II do service in this boast of Demo
cratic economy. They give the census
figures to show that the average per
capita expenditures between 1850 and
1880 was s2.01. while in the last four
years the average has been $40 per
capita. There was a Democratic tariff
in the days of Buchanan and a Dem
ocratic Congress and the Democratic
party and its policy of a tariff for rev.
enue only deserves the credit for the
economy of that day If there was
true economy. But economy does not
consist in penny savings and pound
expenditures. That is an old but true
saying.
At the close of his administration
the government and the people had
not prospered under a Democratic
tariff In his last message to Congress
in December 1860, he said: With un-
surpassed plenty in all the produc-
tions and all the elements of natural
wealth, our manufactures have sus-
pended, our public works are retard-
ed, our private enterprises of different
kinds are abandoned and thousands
of useful laborers are thrown out of
employment and reduced to want. We
have possessed all the elements of
material wealth in rich abundance
and yet, Notwithstanding all these ad-
vantages, our country in its monetary
interests, is in deplorable condition"
What was the cause of this lament
of the last Democratic President be-
fore the Civil War in the good old
days of a tariff for revenue only? The
table of revenues and expenditures
for that period give the answer. The
Walker tariff did not provide revenue
sufficient to meet the economic ex-
penditures of the administration. Not
withstanding the fact that there were
no expenditures for rivers and har
bors, and the defenses of the country
were allowed to fall into ruin, the
expenditures of the Government out
ran the receipts. and bankruptcy
threatened. In 1858 the total net re-
ceipts were s4G,655 900 and the total
expenditures s72,33O,OOO; in 1859 the
total receipts were s52,000,000 and
the expenditures s66.O0O,O0O
The same kind of economy was
practiced under the second Cleveland
administration when the Democrats
controlled Legislation as well as the
executive departments From 1893 to
1898 the four years of the last Demo
cratic administration the net expenses
were greater than the net revenues
for each years. In 1894 the net rev.
enues were $40 per capita and the
net expenses s5.43 per capita; for
1895 the net revenues were $454 per
capita and the net expenses $40 peI
capita: for the year 1896 the net rev.
enues were S4.65 per capita and the
net exepnses s5.01 per capita; for the
year 1897 the net revenues were $4S5
per capita. These were the only years
of peace since the Civil War. when
the expenses of the Government out
ran the revenues, and they we're un-
der the Wilson-Gorman tariff enact
ed by n Democratic Congress.
The Republican rule and the protec-
tive tariff result has been just the op-
spoite the revenues have exceeded the
expenditures and there has been a
surplus. In 1900 the net revenues were
s7.43 per capita and the net expenses
s6.39 per capita; in 1901 the net rev.
enues were s7.56 per capita and the
net expenses $3.50; in 1902 the net
revenues were $711 per capita and
the net expenses 1886: in 1903 the
net revenues were $693 per capita
and the net expenses 1926.
The Republican party has always
followed the good old fashioned eco
nomic principles OF keeping expen-
ditures within the revenues and lay
ing aside something for rainy day.
The Democratic party always worked
on borrowed capital