Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1895 — A YEAR’S COMMERCE. [ARTICLE]

A YEAR’S COMMERCE.

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS FOR TWELVE MONTHS. Returns Now Available, Makin* It Possible to Form Some Idea of the Course of Trade—Praise forthe President— Republican Debts. For the Fiscal Year. The returns of Imports and exports for the past fiscal year are now available, and it is possible to form some idea of the course of trade. For the year ending June 30, 1895, our exports were $808,059,419 and our imports $743,742,849, an excess of exports of $64,316,570. Our exports were less than in any year since 1889, and our Imports were less than in any year in the same period, with the single exception of 1894. That year showed the effects of the panic of 1893, which, by making money scarce, forced us to rush our products to the foreign markets and economize in our purchases. To see how much or how little Influence tariff changes have had on our foreign trade it may be w’orth while to give the figures from a time before the passage of the McKinley law: Exports. Imports. 1889 $742,401,375 $745,131,652 1890 857.828.654 789,310,409 1891 884,480,810 844,916,196 18921,030,278,148 827,402,462 1893 847,665,194 866,400,922 1894 892,140,572 654,994,622 1895 808,059,419 743,742,849 The years 1889 and 1890 were under the old tariff of 1883. Part of the year 1891 and all of 1892, 1893 and 1894 were under the McKinley act. The greater art of 1895 has been under the Wilson law. The abnormal exports of the fiscal year 1892 were due to the enormous crops of 1891, which sold at good prices in consequence of a scarcity in Europe. Aside from this, it will be observed that our export trade did not grow under the McKinley law. It was smaller in 1893 than in 1890, and even than In 1881. Our imports, on the contrary, increased under a tariff that was meant to exclude them. They were greater in the year from July 1, 1892, to June 30, 1893, than in any other year in the history of the country, either before or since. They were nearly $123,000,000 greater in that year than In the one just closed, when we were to have been overwhelmed by a “flood” of foreign pauper-made goods./ In 1893, under Mc|<inleylsm, the balance of trade “against” us, as the protectionists put it, was nearly $19,000,000, while in 181)5, under a low tariff, It was over $64,000,000 In our favor. We are just recovering from a period of depression such as it took us six years to get over under the high protective tariff of 1873. Short crops and stagnant manufactures last year limited our exports. But now we have the promise of good crops, and our manufactures are flourishing. We are freed from tlie apprehension of having our industries deluged by excessive imports. As in former low-tariff periods, our Imports have not been sufficient to keep up the revenues of the Government. The indications are that next year’s commercial returns will be the most favorable we have ever known.

A Short Session of Congress. It is intimated from Republican sources of intelligence that the session of Congress to begin next December will be much shorter than the first session of any Congress in many years. There is comfort in the sugge tion. It is as certain now as it will appear a year from now that there will be no material change in tariff nor in silver legislation. There is more than a twothirds Republican majority in the House—enough to pass a bill re-enact-ing the McKinley tariff over the President’s veto. But there is not even a McKinleylte bare majority in the Senate, and it is doubtful If any bill could pass that body reinstating the measure repealed last year. McKinley is too much of a Presidential candidate and too much in the way of ambitious rivals for any measure to pass Congress of which he would be the popular embodiment in a campaign. The friends of every other Republican candidate would unite to defeat a bill of which he would be the representative before the people. These considerations render it certain that no tariff legislation is possible in the next Congress. It is extremely improbable that the friends of different Republican candidates would unite on any tariff measure. The different factions will be suspicious of each other. The leaders of each faction will determine that it is better to let the Democratic tariff stand than to pass a Republican tariff bill of which some other leader of a faction might reap the benefit among the voters. The situation as to silver legislation is less complicated. With the certainty existing that neither the tariff nor the currency system can be disturbed, there is no reason why the session to begin in December, 1895, should extend beyond April, 1896. All routine and non partisan acts can be introduced, perfected and passed wlthina month after the holidays. There is absolutely nothing else to keep Congress in session. Even the dreary and exhaustive speeches of members In their “grand stand displays,” to use a local idiom, ought not to occupy many months. It is reported that ex-Speaker Reed, who expects to occupy the chair again, is completing his lists of committees that their names may be announced within a week or two after the session begins, instead’ of waiting until after the holidays. He evidently, of the short session scheme. Deserved Praise. The Washington Post is an independent journal with Republican fbclinations and deeply saturated with the spirit of jingoism that is more or less rampant in the land at the present time; hence no one would willfully suspect it of being in close sympathy with President Cleveland. Yet in an editorial discussing the third term bugaboo that has frightened so many timid persons of late, in which it expresses the opinion that Mr. Cleveland has no thought of accepting another nomination, the Post pays the following just and welldeserved tribute to the President: He has had all the honors that the nation could bestow, And he has requited the people’s trust with faithful and devoted service. We have seen him

impressing upon public sentiment bis conviction as to finance, the tariff and the organization of the ‘government Coming here a practically unknown man, from a provincial city, he has made himself the most conspicuous and striking figure of his generation. He can retire two years hence with a name that will embellish history long after his traducers shall have been forgotten. He will live In the world’s memory as one of the brilliant galaxy of onr greatest men. Republican Committee’s Debts. The matter of the debt of the Republican National Committee has become a national scandal. The affairs of that body for a dozen years have been managed by a lot of spendthrifts. At the close of each campaign since that of 1884 they have been Indebted to speakers whom they employed, to Individuals and local committees who provided halls and paid the expenses of meetings and for other obligations. National notoriety was given to the transaction In which the Republican committee repudiated its contract with Anna Dickinson in 1888, when she went to Indiana with an explicit agreement to make speeches for Harrison. They refused to pay her bills when the campaign closed and were sued for the amount. Doubtless her mental derangement was precipitated by this exasperating event Notwithstanding the Republicans carried the election in 1888, the committee’s bills were unpaid, and the total debj at the commencement of the campaign of 1892 was SIOO,OOO. It is now alleged, and not disputed, that the committee'auctioned off the convention of that year to Minneapolis for a secret bonus of enough money, in addition to the amount openly paid, to discharge the committee’s debt of four years' standing and growth and to redeem It from bankruptcy. It is said, however, that all the money contributed by Minneapolis to pay old debts was not expended for that purpose. The big hotel bills of the highflyer members of the committee were discharged, but not the indebtedness lncurred for other purposes. The disastrous campaign of 1802 left the committee worse off than it ever bad, been before. The present debt is not less than $250,000. Judging from these facts, there is no probability In a public allegation that the managing men of the committee are laying plans now to bld off the next convention to the city that will pay the committee’s debts, in addition to other legitimate expenses.

Morton la a Marvel. Secretary Morton, of the Agricultural Department, is one of the marvels of Washington. Though the oldest man in President'Cleveland’s cabinet, he is easily the most active. His own department, writes a correspondent, he manages with an ease and skill quite astonishing to veteran observers. There is not. a detail of its operations with which the Secretary is not familiar and which he does not keep an eye on from day to day. Let the Smallest cog lii the whole machine slip or a bearing begin to creak for lack of oil and the alert ear of the farmer statesman is sure to detect it. As for money saving, he is the worst crank on that ever seen at the capital. Ninety-nine cabinet ministers out of a hundred make a poor mouth and say they could do ever so much better If Congress would only give them enough money. Morton, on the other hand, actually covered back into the treasury last, year $750,000 which he di<J not need. Mortpn has cleared out the cormorants and the fifth wheels, and he can’t be fooled on the price of a lead pencil or the value of a wagon load of waste paper. At the same time the agricultural statesman keeps an eye on the other departments of the Government. He is well up on finance and diplomacy, especially finance, and if Carlisle and Olney were to fall ill Morton could easily run all three shops and still have plenty of time to gossip with his friends and carry on the largest private and semi-public correspondence in the business. As a business man, a theorist, a story teller and a letter writer Morton is simply marvelous.

Againat Wind and Tide. Republican papers are evidently beating up against a hdad wind; Not only Is the wind dead ahead, but the tide is running strong against them. Every sailor, every yachtsman, knows how discouraging sailing Is with both wind and tide against one. It compels a resort to all kinds of expedient?. One has to run on one tack as close into the wind as possible until shallow water lo reached and there is danger of going ashore; then veer around with the accompanying flapping of sails and start out upon the opposite angle. Judging from ffie rate of progress made, with the wind rising and the tide strengthening, it is more than doubtful that these craft will reach the port for which they are sailing in 1896.—5 t. Paul Globe. Vindicating the Democratic Policy. The opponents of Democracy won an ephemeral triumph by attributing the hard times to the party in power. The good times which have come under Democratic rule are as surely attributable 4o the Democracy. The clouds of discontent have blown away; business is booming all over the land; the policy which was predicted to ruin industry has set every mill humming and every furnace blazing; the .tariff which was prophesied to reduce wages has raised wages everywhere. The people are contented, prosperous, happy.—Boston Post. Sustain the Democratic Party, The Democratic party, being the party of the constitution and of the people, maintaining equal rights and privileges to all citizens and pfeherving the balance of power between the Federal government and the respective States, will continue while the nation endures and should command the support and fidelity of the men and women of Utah who have so many reasons for upholding intact the principles of the constitution and of the declaration of independence.—Salt Lake Herald. Which Knows Best? Benjamin Harrison has announced by his next friend that he will not be a candidate next year. But his son Russell, who is running a horse car railroad over at Terre Haute, says the old gentleman doesn’t know what he is talking about, and so an anxious public is once more left In doubt.—Springfield Journal