The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1908-07-23
DID CLEVELAND CAUSE 1T?
Mr.. Cleveland and the Financial
Markets of the Early Nineties
Did He Cause the Panic of

Mr.. Cleveland and the Financial
Markets of the Early Nineties
Did He Cause the Panic of
1893?-The Verdict of Histo-
ry on a Highly Interesting Pc
Rod.
New York Evening Post.
The death of eX-President
Cleveland has necessarily re-
vived discussion of the relations
of his administration to the coun-
try's financial history of the past
generation, and this discussion
has already illustrated the per-
sistency with which an unfound-
ed imuptation, believed by people
at the time because Of political
prejudice, will often cling to the
traditions of the period. "A
good man but he brought on the
panic" was the offhand
comment of hundreds of men of
at least average intelligence,
when they got last Wednesdays
news. Yet nothing is more
certain, as a matter of financial
history, than that Mr.. Cleve-
land did not bring on the panic
of 1893, that he did great service
in averting it's worst after-effects,
and that in so far as public
measures or public policies actual
ly hada hand inthe fnancialchaos
of that panic year and the years
which followed it, they were
measures and policies to which
he was openly opposed, and
which came upon the scene of
action when he was not in office.
CAUSE OF THE 1893 PANIC.
The familiar argument that
Mr.. Cleveland's tariff policy was
the cause of panic misses dates.
Whatevertheir theoreticalbeliefs,
most people now concede that
the plan of suddenly and radical
ly altering the entire list of i'm
port duties is unsettling to bust
ness, for the reason that import
ers must necessarily move slow
ly, when such changes are i'm
pending, in order to avoid loss on
their longer projects. A mer-
chant who should import goods
} under high duties, and who had
not disposed of them when the
duties were lowered or removed
and when his competitor had
imported the same goods on the
new basis, would naturally be
undersold.
This, though it would scarcely
| make for panic, would be ex
tremely apt to create dull anC
/ narrow trade. But the tariff
y policy of the Cleveland admins
tration was not considered unit
the last months of 1893, nor in
- troduced in congress until De
cember 18th, nor enacted unit
the middle of 1894, and the pan
ic began in May, 1893, ant
, reached it's climax in July. Thi
would no doubt leave open tn
theory that fear of what the lay
might be had created panic be
forehand; but the peculiar fac
in that regard is that nobody O
- the financial markets pal
any attention whatever to tn
tariff matter while the panic wa
N raging, but that all attentio
II converged on a very differen
If law, enacted in 1890, and the
operating directly and unmistak
ably to break down the publ
credit.
THE SECOND CLEVELAND ADMIN
ou IsTRATION.
m The position with which Nj
re Cleveland was confronted, Whe
en- his second term began in 189;
en was this: A revenue law ha
IN Just been passed which, by r.
moving the sugar duties, struc
off upwards of $50, 1000, 900 fro
the annual public revenue. Pul
. lie expenditure, which was $297
600, 900 in the year when the re-
enue law in question was passeC
had risen to 1888, 900, 900 in tt
- year when Mr.. Cleveland took Of
flee. Deficits in Treasury finant
Z werebeginning, and this happene
Y when the governments foatin
debt, in the form of notes issue
to purchase and store away 81
yer bullion, under the law (
1890, was in creasing at the ra
of $50, 600, 900 annually. A BAN
ing concern in the position occ1
pied by the Treasury in Marcl
S. 1893, would have stood on Il
! brink of insolvency. The go
K reserve for redemption of go
ernment notes, which the la
stipulated should be $10O, 900, 90
stood at $1OO, ,982,OO when Il
Cleveland administration to-
charge of it, and it had been ke
at that figure only through tt
n extorting of $7,000,O0O of gol
I in exchange for notes held
- the Treasury, from relucta
New York bankers.
Mr.. Cleveland dealt with tt
disastrous situation through 70
! distinct and important actor
- He personally declared that t
law, in his judgment, requir
that the notes of 1890 should
500 Reward. $40