Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1896 — Three Years of Grover. [ARTICLE]

Three Years of Grover.

J*he forth year of the Democratic admin strati on of Grover Cleveland is about two weeks old. In 1892 tbs country decided that it would like to have a political change and emphasized the decision by giving the Democratic ticket a larger, plurality than any Presidential candidate had re- ! ceived for twenty years. The change i was perfected on 1 the 4th of March, 1 1893, and lor three years past the I fact has been d uly persistently and TBntnpsicfully “‘impressed upon the ! people that, in the hands of a man ' avoirdupoisedly great, a public office is indeed a private snap. There was something ’ amusing at first m tne childish joy of the Democrats when they found they had won in 1892, and their extravagant demonstrations are vividly remembered. But the funny business was of short duration. The stern realities of a Democratic condition speedily confronted the men who wore roosters on their hats, and sad experience soon proved that it would have been wiser on their part if they had saved their money to feuy. bread and meat, than to have squandered B On high-priced Democratic poultry. In the first flush of victory, however, the future was pictured in colors as rosy as those in which they painted every city, town and crossroads hamlet in the country. Paradise itself would be no comparison to the Utopia into which the United States was to be converted. Taxation

was to be reduced to such beggarly figure that taxpayers would not only esteem it a pleasure to pay taxes, but would offer a premium for that privilege. The protective feature was to be eliminated from tariff legislation and the custom houses retained merely to collect a trifle of money “for revenue puposes only.” There were to be no diseases or doctors ’ bills, no domestic rows or divorces, and everbody was to be supremely happy, prosperous aud contented, while business was to boom as it never boomed before and smash all previous records for volume and profile. For three vears the Democratic party has had its chance. And what has it done? With the government completely at its mercy, it quarreled with itself about the tariff, and finally enacted one after eighteen months of free trade threats, which seriously affected all business interests and paralyzed the manufacturing industries of the whole country. It was not a free trade tariff, which had been promised, but it was bad enough. It was a hybrid affair, a cross between a jack rabbit and a kangaroo, heavy in some parts and light in others, but with the unmistakable earmarks of the animal which serves as the Democratic emblem. It made heavy reductions

in some schedules, * repealed the reciprocity legislation of the Republicans, and transformed the sheep walks of the United States into deserted and profitless fields. They passed an income tax which the Supreme Court knocked out in one brief round on constitutional grounds, and their President Refused to sign the Democratic tarriff, and “roasted” the Democrats who had framed it as men guilty, c? ‘■'paTty perfidy afifi "party dishoner” because they gave protection to iron and coaL The party that was going to show the country how to derive a big revenue from wind and bioonshine has developed an extraordinary ability ever since it has been in power to ereate deficits. There has been a deficit nearly every month during the Cleveland administration. So far this deficit for the current fiscal year amounts to about $20,000,000. This party of splendid financial management has also added some $350,000,000 to the public debt, inclusive of interest on bonds issued, and is likely to issue more bonds in less than six months in order to maintain the “gold redemption fund.” Democratic legislation has failed ta make the revenues equal to the expenditures by a good many million dollars. Democratic economic legislation has been a collossal failure. It has proved a very costly thing to the country, which has also suffered from the effects of prolonged hard times, due largely to the free trade policy of the Democracy during the campaign and after the election of 1892, resulting in enormous shrinkage in vines and the complete ruin of many buainess and manufacturing enterprises. To sum up the whole

matter, it can be said that three years of Grover present* an unbroken record of gigantic fizzles, and his administration affords an example of stupendous stupidity unparailed in history.