Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1894 — IT HAS COST BILLIONS. [ARTICLE]

IT HAS COST BILLIONS.

What the Nalien Has Paid for Cleveland's Election. Decrease in General Business of $3,000,000 a Day and a Disaster "Whose End Is Not Yet In Sight. New York Press. It has been stated more than once, and almost as often denied, that the money losses suffered in the United States during the period of depression caused by Democratic tariff juggling have amounted to more than a million dollars a day. In hard, ?old facts the loss has been much in excess of the enormous sum suggested by that statement —just how much it would be impossible to conelude. Some figures have been gathered, however, and are given below. Their careful perusal will no doubt convincimthc' reader that the aggregate loss has been several instead of a comparatively insignifi-. can t sin gle in illibn dollars a day. For instance, take the bank clearances of fifty-five cities in the United States. The figures below were collected by Bradstreet's, the great commercial agency, and can, therefore, be relied on as being entirely accurate, unprejudiced and nonpartisan. The Democratic administrip tion came into power March 4, 1893, and the vear im med iately foilowi ng that date is therefore taken, as the first year of the country’s existence under Democratic domination, for comparison with the corresponding and immediately preceding twelve months, during which the Government was in Republican hands. In order that the reader may study the matter somewhat in detail, Bradstreet's figures for each monthin the years from and including April to and including March of 1892-3 and 1893-4 are given. Month ’ 1893, 1892 $5,066,679:409Mav. ... • 5244 502 329 5,011.020,107 June 4.524 606 767 4,915.758,398 Julv 1.137.669861 5.527,501.773 August 3.340,2’13.938 4.513 1(58.512 September. 3311.6:5 037 4.779.284,710 October 3.983 596 563 5.470,307.243 November 4.051.057.546 5.443.235.518 December 4.022 103 857 5.969.609,520 1891. 1893. January 4.029.847,098 5 920.159 631 February 3.188 430.434 5.056,076 352 March .... 3.728.682.71 1 5.391.187,000;

Totals 548.487,169.816 J 62.167.984.476 It will be seen that the loss of clearances in the Democratic year was and one-half billions. It will help to explain the baleful significance of this table to state that it represents the distribution of over S2OO less money throughout the United States for every individual man, woman and baby, native born, naturalized alnd alien, in the entire country. It means that considerably more than $1,000,000,000 less was circulated through business channels in this -R <? p u bite o very in ith tlt <> f tfrtr-frrst-year of Democratic, rule than was circulated during the corresponding month in the preceding year of Republican rule. It represents a loss, of itself, of several times more than $1,000,000 a day. for a billion is a thousand millions, and therefore the business men of the United States handled a thousand million dollars’ worth less of goods every month, or 830.000.000 less everyday during the year beginning April 1, 1893, than they did during the year beginning April 1, 1892.' Comparative figures for the three months of April, -May and June, in 1892, 1893 and 1894, will also be interesting. because they show that the clearances so far in 1894 have been even smaller than they were in 1893 —in other words we are living •in an age of cumulative disaster. Thus, the clearances for April* 1892, were $5,083,410,784; for the same month, 1893. they were 84,926,292,886, while for the same month this year they were but $3,097,845,428. The clearances for May, 1892, were' $5,029,964,325: for May, 1893, $5,259,329,352; for May* 1894. $3,859,809,661. 'For June, 1892, thev were $4,931,513,923; June, 1893, $4,529,538,-

341: .Tune, 1894, $3,576,315,339. The total for the three, months of 1892 was $15,044,889,037.; for the three months of 1893, $14,715,160,559; for the three months of this year, sll,133.970,328. .While the aggregate shrinkage of business for these three months in 1893 below the same period of 1892 was less than a billion dollars the business done during the same period of 1894 was almost four billions less than in 1892. Figures taken , from Bradstreet's concerning failures will doubtless be found quite as interesting and significant as those give of the bank clearances. These figures are from the reports of four years —1890, 1891, 1802 and 1893, the first three years of the McKinley law. In 1890 there were 10,673 failures, the tota liabilities being $175,042,836; in 189] there were 12,394 failures, with liabilities of $193,178,000; in 1892 there were 10,272 failures, with liabilities of $108,595,248. It will be seen that the tendency in amount of liabilities was so far downward. In 1893, however, the first year of Democratic domination, when it was evident that Congress and the chief executive had decided that the McKinley law must go. there were 15.508 failures, withliabilites of $382,156,076 — more than $200,000,000 more than was lost by failures in 1892, or about two-thirds of a million dollars a day. These figures seem almost incredible, but they are true and cannot be wiped out. Bradstreet's analysis of them is interesting but: cannot be given in full. It brings out these facts 7 proportion of thosefailing in 1893, reported in good credit, was 27 percent., more than | four times that in the preceding years. It further appears that those who failed in 1893, -while reckoned in very good credit or higher, numbered more. than three times us many as in 1892. Again, failures due to disaster precipitated by stringency, financial crisis and panic, numbered, in 1893, 3,463, the liabilities of this class being $173,542,090 —almost one-half of the total liabilities for the year, and more than six times the corresponding total in 1892.”

The decrease in value of live stock alone in the United States in 1893 below that of 1892 was almost a mil lion dollars a day. Only one class of stock, milch cows, increased in value, the detailed' figures being, according to the Department of Agriculture, as follows: Value Per Head Decrease Stock. 1893. 1891. in value Horsess6l 22 $47.83 $13.30 Mules... 70.68 02.>7 8.54 Milch cows 21.73 21.77 *.04 Oxen and other cattle 15.21 14.66 .58 Sheep 2.66 1.98 .68 Swine 6.41 5.98 .43 ♦lncrease. The entire loss to the farmers of the country in shrinkage of live stock values was $312,266,495. divided as follows: Horses, $223,000..000; mules, $18.500,000;oxen and cattle, $11,000,000; sheep. $36,700,000; .hogs, $25,000,000. The American Protective Tariti' League has gone carefully into the figures concerning the loss in value of sheep and wool, and they make the total loss in these twodirections nearly $50,000,000, or $58.65 hard cash lost on an average to each farmer in the country who was so unfortunate as to own sheep when the Government was given over to the party that favors foreigners and hates Americans. Here are the figures of losses in detail, based on reports carefully gathered and submitted ou Jan. 1. lf*93, and Jan. 1, 1894: ' Loss by Sections. Total Sheep. Wool. Loss. New England $1,805,824 $ Middle States 793 661 1.901,491 2.69>,152 Sth rn States 4.769.159 4.279.021’ 9,011?R<0 W sCrn States 9,793.710 7,386.074 17.179.781 Pacific State* 4.427.238 4.446.987 8,874.228 All others 4.070521 4,7u0.5«3 8.771.101 Total U. 5.W5..660,113 $23 073.596 $48.733 709 These really saddening figures might be carried through several columns, and those relating to losses of wages would be especially significant. "More than eight thousand less men are now employed’hl seven-ty-five Rhode Island factories alone than were in 1892. The men who work on buildidgs in New York

draw $7,000,000 less io wage I every three months than they | did in 1892. These are two isolated instances taken at random. Any one can see that if these figures were got together Mor the entirecountry the aggregate would be appalling. But enough has been given to make it clear to every reader that the statement that Uncle Sam has lost a million dollars a day since the Democrats came into power is an exceedingly moderate one.