Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1889 — Tanner and the “Surplus.” [ARTICLE]

Tanner and the “Surplus.”

During the last Presidential campaign one of the most serious arguments in favor of a revision of the “war tariff” was the menace which the resulting accumulation of idle money in the treasury offered to the commercial and industrial interests of the country. Reoublican organs urged in reply that this surplus should be used for the reduction of the national debt. They pointed to the honesty and economv of previous administrations which had shown millions of dollars’ decrease of the debt month after month, and advanced this record as reason against reduct ion of the war tariff on the one hand and for the election of Mr. Harrison on the other.

The public-debt statement for some months past—under the administration secured by this and similar arguments —shows an increase instead of a reduction. For the last month it shows an increase of over $6,000,000. But we are gravely told, in explanation, “that the debt statement, as it is made and as it appears from the bookkeeping of the treasury, is based on an artificial system—is misleading and fallacious. * * * The amount of cash on hand is sometimes more and sometimes less. In case of large payments it is rapidly reduced, as it was last month by the amount withdrawn for pensions.” Well, the same system of bookkeeping is in vogue now as during the last administration. Here aro the figures for July and August:

UNDER CLEVELAND. July, 1885 .Decrease $8,662,790 August, 1885. ..Decrease 2,879,052 July, 1860 Decrease 0,040,103 August, 1886... Decrease 1,910,090 July, 1887 Decrease 4,844,890 August, 1887... Decrease 4,809,475 July, 1888 Decrease 4,137,299 August, 1888... Decrease 7,324,675 UNDER HARRISON. July, 1882 Increase 1,317,312 August, 1889.. .Increase 6,076.692 With the same system of book-keep-ing under Cleveland as under Harrison there was a decrease of about $10,000,000 in the months of July and August of each year from 1885 to 1888 and an increase of over $7,000,000 in 1889. In default of other explanation we may congratulate ourselves that Tanner has “resigned.” He has “reduced the surplus” with a vengeance.—Chicago Daily News.