The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-04-28
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1905
FACING A DEFICIT


The national government has fallen
into those financial straits that were
clearly pointed out by the Democracy
during the last campaign, but were ig-
nored both by Republican leaders and
by the people For the first time since
the early days of the first Mckinley ad-
ministration the federal treasury faces
deficit. Last year there was a small
nominal surplus. This year up to date
the deficit promises to be anywhere
from $2O,OOO,OOO to $35, 100000. Beyond
nobody dares to measure.
This unwholesome condition of the
national finances is not due to acct
dent or to any temporary circumstance.
1t is the legitimate and necessary out
come of Republican policies of utter
extravaganza. All the figures to prove
that a such condition existed were be-
fore the last congress. In the face of
them it made appropriations far in
excess of the maximum possible rev.
enue, and left the treasury to battle
with its difficulties as best it might.
Exactly as the administration of Har-
rison closed with a financial crisis
which the Cleveland administration
had TO meet, and for which it bore the
blame, so the last eight years of Re-
publican rule closed with another crisis
less acute, but one with which the Re-
publican party this time will have to
grapple.
There are two perfectly obvious and
easy methods by which the situation
might be met and the difficulty cured.
The first is a reduction in expenditure.
That is the policy toward which any
safe business enterprise would imme-
diately turn. The country is spending
at least so per cent more money every
year than is necessary. Productivity is
the rule in every department. and in
every direction. Without the sacrifice
of single interest or the Gripping of
single agency, we could cut off from
$2OO,0Oe,00o a year upward from our
expense. account and the public service
would be all the better for it. If graft
were Weeded out, sinecures abolished
If whole army of supernumeraries at
Washington and elsewhere were dis
charged and obliged to earn their own
living, and if the Doodle bills were
held upsand done to death in congress-.
the country would have at the end of
the neSt-year bigger surplus than it
would know what to do with
The second remedy, though not so
proper and desirable, would be equally
effective in a different way. Even on
the present basis of extravaganza ex-
? penditure revenue equal to our enor-
NOUS demand might be provided by A
proper revision of the tariff. Receipts
from customs fall off constantly be-
cause importatiens are prohibited by
nigh duties levied for the benefit of
home trusts. The original Mckinley
act, raising the tariff wall higher than
1t had ever been built before, was prop
erly entitled "An act to reduce reve-
nue." AS raising the tariff reduces
revenue, so lowering it replenishes the
treasury. We might at the same time
relieve the home consumer, embarrass
the trust, help the people. suppress
favoritism and supply ourselves with
ample revenue by tariff reduction.
Neither of these remedies is the Re-
publican party able to apply. 1t is too
thoroughly saturated with corruption
TO reform expenses. 1t is too utterly
sold to the trusts, too entirely their