People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1896 — AS OTHERS SEE US. [ARTICLE]

AS OTHERS SEE US.

A Meciffl'l Rebuff o from Oar ffhhom. The people of the United States are on a gold basis; in other words, they are holding ud something like ?1,000,000,0<)0 of currency on ?92,000,000 of treasury grid rn.-rrve, a magnificent accomplishment a hich reminds one of a Japanese juggler sustaining a series of ladders by his teeth lying fiat on the ground. It is magnificent, but it is not finance. Mr. Carlisle, who knows so little of finance as to imagine, because the treasury issues notes, that it is in the banking business, is filled with awe as he contentplates the financial syiem of his country. We .do not wonder, for It inspires the same sentiment in the minds of ordinary men. And, being on a gold basis, the United Stales must have a prosperous government? That does not apparently follow. The government, in point

of fact, is }n straits, for the revenue does not keep pace with the outgo. Not since last January have the treasury receipts reached the average monthly requisite of thirty million dollars, the amount which must come in, if all the bills pf the nation are to be met. In August the receipts ran ur« to $29,258,000, but the average has been below $27,000,000 for the other months. It looks like another bond issue and if that is made the treasury will be easier. A loan is only a palliative, however; what is needed is permanently to increase the revenue. The throwing off of the sugar duties was the beginning of the foolishness; those duties were not felt by anyone and they kept the treasury in easy circumstances. It is beginning to be noted by the American people that their finances are in control of charlatans who know no more about the fundamental principles of financial administration than so many school boys. Any European finance minister, who should make such blunders'as have been committed in Washington, would be retired to private life for “keeps.” Fancy an English chancellor of the exchequer in such a mess as is Carlisle. A commission in lunacy would be summoned to sit on his case. And no European finance minister has such a rich country abounding in potential sources of revenue to operate in. An ordinary financial duffer ought to shine as finance minister in the great republic which is rich beyond compute.—Mexican Herald.

One good sign that the Democratic party is getting nearer to the common people, is that its present national chairman bears the good old-fashioned name of Jones.