Richmond Palladium (Daily), 28 September 1904 — Page 12

DA A

STATE FINANCES

PARKER'S FAVORITE POEM, (Alton B. Parker is Tery fond of the txNo7e)f Whit comb 111 ley. correal Uncle David Bennett Hill' at Parker's house to stay. To help him fix his fences an to tell him what to say; David says: "Be keerful, now yen are a candidate. Or else they'll git the best of yen that's jest as sure as fate; Now don't send any telegram, ereatia further doubt. Or Roosevelt '11 beat you, ef you , don't watch oat! "Wunst they was a candidate at thought he'd have a chance If he'd tell the people what be kaew about finance; Went about th' country with a holler an a whoop When the votes was counted be was un-.

Democratic Extravagance and Waste Compared with Republican Business Methods.

ADDRESS BY GOVERNOR IV. T. DURBIN How the State Debt Was Increased by Democrats and How It Was Rapidly Ke duced by Republican Officials.

Gov. Winfield T. Durbin delivered a notable address at Anderson on the night of Sept. 17. It was devoted to State affairs, and showed that Democracy had been incompetent and extravagant in handling the State's finances, while Republicans always have handled the public funds with wisdom, ability and economy. The Governor said in his last message to the General Assembly: "Each individual taxpayer of Indiana is a stockholder in the great business affairs that so largely form the responsible duties of State administration." This is the view taken by the Republican party, and it has so endeavored to administer the State's affairs that the people would have commendation to bestow on the party, instead of censure and condemnation. The Governor said in part: "There never has been a moment during any period in the history of tfie State with the Republican party in complete ascendency in the capitol at Indianapolis when that debt was not being decreased. And in all the years of Democratic control of the State's legislative and financial affairs, there have been but two years in which the State debt was not a growing obligation. Taken as a whole, every period of Democratic ascendency in Indiana has resulted in an increase of Indiana's bonded indebtedness. When the Republican party first nssumed responsibility in Indiana, in 1SG1, it inherited a debt reaching the enormous aggregate of $10,197,167, a debt which, the population and resources of the State considered, would be equivalent to an obligation of thirty million dollars to-day. Within the next decade that debt was reduced more than six million dollars, during a period through which there was Republican control of the State's fiscal affairs. In 1870 the Republican State platform heartily endorsed 'the administration of Gov. Baker end his associate State officers,' and especially congratulated the people 'that the time is near when the State debt will be entirely liquidated.' It may be claimed that reference to all this is barred by the statute of limitations. So let us get down to recent history. The Debt Increased. "Between the retirement of Got. Baker and the inauguration of Gov. Porter, a Republican, with a Republican Legislature co-operating, the State debt was in creased a million and a third. In the two years of Republican control of every branch of the State government which succeeded, the debt was decreased $121,750. At no time between 1883 and 1895 did the people of Indiana give the "Republican party opportunity to continue Its debt paying policy, by investing it with fiscal and legislative responsibility. And during that period the State debt was increased from four millions and a half to more than seven millions and a half. During the decade ending with 1S90 only five States in the entire Union increased their bonded indebtedness. In these five States the aggregate increase was $1,310,425. In Indiana during seven years of this decade the debt rose more than four million dollars three times as much as the total increase of bonded Indebtedness in all the other States combined. During the same period thirtytwo States decreased their bonded indebtedness sixty million dollars. "I challenge any auditor of mine to rise and give one sound, business reason why the State of Indiana should not have decreased its debt during that period. I want to put emphasis upon the statement that there is no possible apology from a business standpoint for the maintenance, much less the increase, of a State debt in a commonwealth possessing Indiana's resources and her ability to meet every reasonable demand upon the State treasury by a tax levy commensurate with public expenditure. Why should a great business corporation like the State of Indiana, with assets running into the billions, be called upon to pay interest upon money borrowed to meet public expenditures by officials too cowardly to levy taxes commensurate with expenditures, and seeking to secure credit for a low tax levy by saddling a debt upon posterity." The Governor presented an array of facts, conclusively proving that the Dem ocrats, while in power, had ample oppor tunity to reduee the State debt, but had done little toward that end in compari son with the work of the republican ad ministration. Continaing, he said: "In order that you may be more fully informed of the regularity and consisten cy characterizing the progress of our debt-paying policy, the following state ment is submitted: Reduction Total debt. ...?7..",o.01.-.l2 ... 0.H2O.01.-.12 ... fi.2oo.01.-. 12 ... 5.M.fil.-.12 ... r..is7.(,.ir.i2 . .. 4.7o4.0n.l2 . .. 4.204. il.-. 12 . .. 2i7.i;tr..i2 ... 4::7.tu.-.i2 ... i.noj.015.12 for year. fioo.ooo 1897 1W3 lSlfJ liHK) ljxn VM2 1903 1004 (July 1) 720.OX) 40O.000 013.000 4S3.CKH ."mio.ooo 1,317.(HH) 4.1,(HH 533,000 Reduced S3SOO.OOO a Year. "Of this total payment of 53.G1S.OOO on the State debt since 1S!)3, $2,002,000 has been made since the beginning of the present State administration, a reduction of the debt from January, 1901, to July, 1904, averaging $800,000 a year. Of the total debt of less than a million six hundred thousand dollars which will remain at the time of Mr. Ilauly's inauguration as Governor, $18-1.000 represents a portion of the debt non-payable, being Purdue university and Indiana university five per cent bonds, on which the law requires the State to pay interest, representing simply a part of the support which the State accords these institutions. The payable debt will be l4fss than eleven hundred trmnsnd dollsfts.

and a decade of Republican control of State affairs will have resulted in a total debt reduction of nearly six and a half million dollars. We have been paying bonds due in 1909 and 1915, and the payments made on the debt under the next administration will have to be confined to the discharge of obligations as a matter of fact not due for a decade. "The cancellation of this indebtedness to the amount of nearly six million dollars is in itself very gratifying, and it is all the more pleasing when it is taken into account that the annual interest charges are now $172,135 less than they were when the Republican party assumed control of the State government, as shown by the following statement by years:

Annual Interest 1805 $243,725 18SW 224,225 1897 200,925 1898 18T,925 1899 170.505 1900 150,075 1901 141,075 190J 101.5H5 1903 87,805 1904 71,590 Reduction for year. 23.300 l.VXK) 15,3!0 14.41X) 15.OO0 su.nio 13,"K) 16,275 "The saving in interest alone amounts to $172,133 a year, $14,344.58 a month, $478.11 a day, $19.92 an hour! Tax Is Comparatively Small. "In addition to this debt-paying we have provided during this period for the payment of specific appropriations aggregating in round numbers more than a million and a half dollars. We have completed the soldiers' monument, we have established and built a State home for disabled veterans and their wives, in addition to the cost of institutional maintenance amounting to a million and a quarter annually. The revenues for meeting these obligations are raised from a comparatively small tax. The average assessment for State and local taxation is about $1.50; the State shares in this only to the extent of fourteen cents, with which to meet all the expenses of government, including the judiciary, supreme, appellate, circuit and superior judges, special judges, prosecuting attorneys, sheriffs' mileage, etc. The assessment of eleven cents for common school purposes is paid into the State Treasury, but this is simply for the purpose of securing an equit able apportionment, all such collections being returned to the eounties in due pro cess. Despite the allegations of the Democratic State platform I confidently declare the belief that there is no State in the Union where the burdens of taxation rest more lightly upon the people, where the public funds are disbursed under a stricter system of accountability, or where the taxpayer's dollar brings so large a measure of actual return. In order to understand how well off we are at home it is sometimes necessary to contemplate the condition of our neigh bors. 1 auote a newsnaoer disnatch which portrays the situation in a State controlled by leaders of the same party which has here in Indiana declared its ability to bring about an improvement in fiscal conditions in the Hoosier State: Jackson, Miss., Sept. 8. (Special.) The State of Mississippi has In Its treasury $1.50 and there is no relief in sight. Much doubt Is expressed in financial circles whether a firm of New York and Chicago brokers who recently purchased a bond Issue of $500,000 will pay for it and the banks of the State seemingly are unwilling to advance money for immediate use. No payments of taxes are due for thirty days and a proposed special session of the Legislature could not bring relief within that period. "If our adversaries are really so anxious to engage in a reform movement, why not go to the assistance of their colleagues and compatriots in a State that, by reason of misgovernment, has reached the crisis with which Indiana was threatened under Democratic auspices fifteen years ago? Summary of the Situation. "And now, to summarize the situation in a few paragraphs: "In nine years we have reduced the State debt $5,018,000, and the interest charges on the debt $172,133 a year. With an average collection into the gen eral fund more than a hundred thousand less annually than under the Democratic regime, we have saved from that fund and diverted toward the extinction of the State debt an average of nearly a hundred thousand dollars more annually than was used from the same fund for the same purpose during the era of Dem ocratic control. During the present State administration the payment of the debt has gone on with rapidity unprecedented even during the period of Republican control beginning with 1S95. And this the Democratic State platform de nounces as the result of 'extravagance and waste.' "During the period of Democratic control of State legislative and fiscal affairs from 1S91 to 1893. after the new tax law had brought about a vast increase in the aggregate valuation of property, the average 'State revenue levy was 11 cents on the $100. Upon the accession of Republican Legislature and State finance board in 1S93 it was reduced to 9 cents and has so remained. Reducing the tax ltvy 18 per cent, is what the Democratic State platform calls 'extravagance!' "The average tax levy for the maintenance of the State penal and benevo lent institutions during the Democratic period from 1891 to 1S93 was 5j cents; during the succeeding Republican period it has stood at 5 cents, and the State institutions have never been so well maintained as they are to-day. This reduction in the tax levy is what the Democratic State platform calls 'extravagance!' "The 'State school revenue levy remained at IZV2 cents on the $100 during

UNCLE SAM "I'm scrry, but I can't 1891 to 1S95. when the fiscal and legisla tive affairs of the State were in the same hands that wrote the Democratic State platform's pronouncement agaiast 'ex travagance.' The Republican Legislature of 1895 reduced it to 11 cents; it has since remained there, the public school system of the State has been caring for an increasing number of pupils without limitation of liberality, and this the Democratic State platform calls 'ex travagance: Pocketed by Democrats. "Durinir the Deriod from 1891 to 1893 Democratic State officials, under a Democratic fee and salary law. put in their own pockets fees, in additiom to their salaries, aggregating, on a conservative estimate, a half million dollars. The fees in the same departments have been ncreased tro hundred per cent during the period of Republican control that has succeeded, and under the Republican fee and salary law of 1895 every dollar of the amount went into the State treasury. And a Democratic State convention, pre sided over by a gentleman who, as a State official from 1890 to 1894, drew from the State treasury in fees, over and above his salary, $S5,000, denounces this as 'extravagance!' "The total tax levy for all State purDoses during the last period of Demo cratic control of the legislative and fiscal affairs of the State, continuing from 1591 to 1895, averaged 34 1 cents on the hun dred dollars. Under the period of Rennhlican control which has ensued the total State levy fer all purposes has av eraged 29.50 cents, a decrease of lo per cent this in a State which has increased in wealth, in population, in demands upon the activitres of the commonwealth during that period at least ten per cent; in n commonwealth in which, if Demo cratic orators and editors are to be be lieved, the cost of conducting every private enterprise has increased one-third. "SuDDOse you had a business enterprise within your keeping, a factory, a bank, a store: suppose back there in 1S93, when this country was on a starvation basis. if it ever was in all its history, you had discharged the manager or tnat estabiisnment for general incompetency and had in his stead a manager who, during the nine years succeeding, had done a larger volume of business on an expenditure decreased 15 per cent. And then suppose to-morrow the old manager should come around and sit down on a store box in front of your establishment and complain about the manner in which things were being managed, and 'allow' that there was extravagance going on inside and that unless he were placed in control again the institution would go to the dogs! What would you do iHvite him to come in and take charge, supersede the manazer who had increased results. while lessening the cost, with one whose own record argued his own incompetency or would you invite him to move on and ask the boys inside to keep an eye on the money drawer?" 'They the Democrats have occupied three entirely different positions on the Philippine question within fifty days. Which is the promise they real ly intend to keep?" Roosevelt't letter of acceptance. A Sicn of Prosperity. There is no better criterion of general prosperity than the postal business. When times are good the postal revenue increases, and vice versa. The report of the Postmaster General shows that for the year ending July 1, 1S93, the receipts from postal revenue were $70,171,000. For the year endiug July 1, 1002. they were $llt.958.229. an increase of 57 per cent during seven years of continuous Republican rule. During the year endiug lu!y 1. 1895. the receipts from" the money order business were $81.0.'JS; for the year ending July 1. 1902. they were $1.889.817. an increase of 133 per cent during seven years of Republican prosperity. The Postmaster General in his annual report for 1!K)2 said: "The increase in the postal revenues attests the wonderful prosperity of the people and the acr V... .J-. ?.. . .. -V

use anyth ng wLb a s ring tl. d to It."

the country." It would not have been proper for the Postmaster General in an official report to attribute this wonderful prosperity in 1902 to the operation of the Dingley tariff law and other Republican measures, but such was the fact. WHAT IS TO BE WILL BE Growth of the Asiatic Demand for Products of the United States. The Asiactic nations have lived upon rice stating things in a general way and the Teutonic races have for some generations lived upon flour. It has become standard within the last year or two, that at least one of the Asiactic nations has come to live upon flour. Those desperate little fighters, the Japanese, have taken to hard tack, as did our own American fighters during the Civil War, as a part of their subsistence, and the same regard as to whatever is made from our wheat has already extended, in a measure, to the more vast Asiatic empire of China. That clever correspondent, William E. Curtis, speaking of the extent to which our flour is already used by Japan, says: While the Imports of flour within the last year or so have been much greater than ever before on account of the prepa rations ror war, nevertheless there is rea son to expect a continued expansion of the market. Japanese families generally are beginning to use wheat flour for various purposes. Nearly every household is now using it to make the little cakes and sweetmeats which they use with their tea several times a day in larjre quantities. A still larger amount of a cheaper quality is used for paste by the manufacturers of screens, umbrellas, fans and other articles of that kind. Since the war began hard bread has been introduced into the army as an alternate ration with rice. The soldiers rriish the variety; hard-tack is easy to handle aud carry, the nutritive value of a pound of flour is equal to that of a pound of rice, and it costs less. The Japanese export their best rice to France. Kngland and China, where it brings big prices, being of the very highest grade. They import vast quantities of cheaper rice for the consumption of the coolies aad the laboring class from Korea, Burmah, China, Singapore and other parts of the East Indies. It is entirely practicable to substitute cheap brands of flour for this low-grade rice, and it will be easy t do so when the soldiers come home with their appetites for hard-tack and wheat bread. Could there be, under any circumstances or conditions, expressed a vaster idea of the enormous trade relations that must henceforth exist between America and the Asiatic countries! America produces bread. The Asiatics have learned to eat bread with the rest of the world. We are going to supply them with it. We have to ship it across the Pacific Oceaa over the commercial pathway which we have made and beneath which underlies our cable system. There is nothing in the world that can stop the Asiatic demand for the wheat products of the United States, and the wheat products of the United States have made this country, to a great extent, the tremendous power it is. They talk about "Imperialism!" There is no "Imperialism!" This continent is producing what the rest of the world needs, and the inhabitants of this con tinent, under the rule of Republican ad ministration, associated with other intel ligent governments on either side, propose to supply Asia with these prod ucts that Asia needs. The fact tha the United States has completed its pathway across the vast ocean and has its intermediate stations, and its posses sions close to the Asiatic coasts, is but an incident of events which are part of the industrial history of the world. Does anyone imagine that the present majority of the American people are go ing to neglect their ostensible duty, not merely to themselves but to another por tion of the human race? They will hardly dr it. Tht is but talking of the products of the wheat fields that Asia now demands. It has nothing to do with iron and steel and the thousand and one other prod ucts of all our fieMs and all our factories which they will otherwise demand. This is but referring to the simple af fair of one single product, but it is enough to afford an illustration. And vet they talk about "Imperial i .,, tvb - Tw.n(i! i;t W

are but brothers who are going to assist in feeding the rest of our brothers of the world; to give them the benefits of

it all and to reap ourselves the benefits of it all. To submit to anything else would be silly. It is but a problem of common sense. Export of Manufactures. Figures recently issued by the Depart ment of Commerce and Labor at Washington show that during the month of July last our exports of manufactures amounted to $40,000,000, against $31,000,000 of agricultural products. During June the exports of manufactures were nearly $42,000,000, against $37,500,000 of agricultural products. This is the first time in the history of the country that the exports of manufactures have ex ceeded those of the farm. This does not mean that the exports of farm products are falling off, but that those of manu factures have greatly increased. This is due to a protective tariff which, while it benefits American manufactures, also in creases the home demand for American farm products. Democracy's Bad Record. When the veterans of the Civil War were with Gen. Grant before Richmond r with Sherman marehine to the sen. n Democratic national convention declared the war a failure and demanded a dis honorable peace. When the business men, the wage-earners and honest men of all classes were battling for sound money ami the gold standard the Demo cratic party, as an organization, was ciamoring ror free silver at 1G to 1. W hen the Republican nartv was contend. ing for protection to American manufac turers and workmen, its opponents were advocating a policy destructive to both. v nat good thing has the Democratic party ever done, anyhow? Not the Only Important Question. Admitting that the gold standard is "ir revocably fixed," as Judge Parker says, though he did not help fix it, that is only one of many important financial ques tions tnat may come up in relation to financial matters. The question of the preservation and extension of our sys tem of banking and currency; the refund ing of our national debt as it may, from time to time, become due, and many oth er questions or use importance may arise. To place the settlement of these questions in unfriendly hands might re sult in such a disturbance of business as would shock the whole country. Personal Abuse Will Not Win. rrw ta : i . xun ueuiwiiauc yanj uas Deen 80 long in the opposition and its every dav work has so long been criticism, that it forgets that no battle was ever won by swearing at the enemy. Abuse of Mr. Roosevelt will make votes for him He is a very popular man. Personal criticism will not draw away from him any man who admires him, but it will stir his admirers to the more earnest sup port or mm. According to the Banker's Monthly for August there are 7.305.22S individual depositors in the savings banks of the United States, and it is safe to say that 7,303,000 will vote for the Republican ticket, at least all who are legal voters will. , "No more important question can en Sasre onr attention, and none should receive more earnest and thoughtful consideration, thanone which seeks to guard and preserve the high standard of onr population and citizenship." Senator Fsirbsnki in thaSenste, January 11, 1838, The passage of the National Irrigation Act marked a new era for the West. Its effect upon actual settlement may not unfairly be compared to that of the Homestead law. signed by President Lincoln in 1SG"2. , Under the Wilson low tariff exports in creased $94,000,000; in three years an der the Dingley tariff they increased ti?; onnnno

. in ..It. I 111. .--V .I'. Stick to what I tell you, or you'll amble

up the spout. Fer Roosevelt '11 beat you. ef you dou't watch out! "Wunst I wore a feather plume: 'I Am a Democrat, Till a cyclone from th' west jest blew "J III v u:ii When they -ast me what I was, I answered cool an' ca'm. With another feather plume which read: 1 vmess 1 m. Bet your life that David known test what lie w nHmit - An Roosevelt '11 beat you. ef you dou't watch out! 'Best be purty keerful how you talk about th' trusts If you want to roast one, better wait until it busts. ' An th' money question don't have very much to say As to plutycrats remember Henry Gassaway I Stick right to a whisper, don't yeu never dare to shout. Or x.oosevelt '11 beat you. ef you don't watch out! 'Have your picture taken out be keerfu) what you wear Put on all th overalls an look like 'county fair; Take your little plunge into the Hudson every day. Keep below the water when you've any- . thing to say. Mind your Uncle David his suggestion. never flout For Roosevelt '11 beat you, EF YOU DON'T WATCH OUT!" TRIBULATIONS OF A GREAT GRANDFATHER. (Over Teddy's Letter.) Elklns, W. Va., Kept. 15, 1004. Denr Sonny I've lust finished readln' Teddy's letter and haven't bad so much. run since I was toss d in a blanket the year that grand old rough rider, Andy Jack son, was elected for a second term. It tosses us up so high that It stems as IT we'd never some down. I never did see a paper so full of In terrogation points as that letter, and every denied one of them like a Jolt on the solar plexus that bteve is so fond or talkln about. "Nunky," said Steve, as I hobbled lnto breakfast this mornln, the first time slnceI posed as Methuselah pickla' the shoe strings out of his eyes, "Nunky," says he. "why does 1 eddy's letter remind you of a corduroy road?" "Kecause it s so full of bumps, says I, guessln his conundrum the first crack. . There s not bin like a few sharp Jolts on the spine to sharpen uu old man s Intel- ' lectuals. No wonder you thought it a mile lone. A short piece of road like that goes a longway when your wagon hasn't nny springs or straw on the bottom, an' your old ham lack fat like nili e. I tell you, Alton, that s the matter with us. The Democratic iana wagon nasn t , got any spring nor straw for cushions, sad I'm gettln' all fired tired furnlahin' all the-, axle grcas. This letter or Teddy s aoesn t run on rulber tires, lie may mean well, but what right has he pry In' Into our convictions? what business is it of lim ir we are lite the man stealin' a ride on the end of a train who never sees anything until It'spassed? If he wns as old as I am. he'd bless his stars if he cculd see anything, behind or before. This havin' foresight Is all a Republican clft. A Democrat haven t got It. Were always suckln' the hind teat. We never saw anything in infant indus tries till the Republican adopted the- . foundlln' aud brought it up on Protection, milk. We never saw that the Union had to bepreserved. If there were to be ciiohuU offices to fo round, nntll the Itepubllcnns saved it and filled the offices for nigh outo forty years. We never aw thnt two things coma not occupy the same place at the same tlrnuntil the Kepumu-ans aaopicfi tne goiu, standard and left us holding the bag between bimetallism and free and unlimited? 6ilver. I tell vou. we've no faculty for fore sightand. as far as I can see, mighty little for hind-sight, either. No wonacr tne donkey Is our party emblem. Do yon know, I've been Jokin in mothers Inoklu glass latelv. and I swan. If my chin whiskers ain't "grown like a goat's and my ear are gettln' po long they droop. Steve say It's only an optical hallucination, superinduced bv too much brooding over repub lican cartoons lint nay, Alton -on the quiet have yt consulted your jrlass since you made that speech to Charlie Knapp and the other Charlie horses? Donkeys Lave this advantage over men: they can get their ears to the ground without crawlin' on their bellies. Waitin to nee you put Teddy on the gridiron, your otd uncle. 1 ' ' HENRY OASSOWAT. Party Records. Tn everv national camoairn for forty years past the Republican party baa stood upon its record of things done, of laws enacted, of policies established un der which the country has progresses and prospered. The record of the Dem ocratic party made in two administrations was so full of disaster, of commer cial shipwreck, of industrial paralysis and business failures that its chief business in recent years has been to get a far away from its record as possible. Parker "W'onia Be Unsafe. Without questioning the sincerity of Judge Parker's expressions on the money question he was, by nis own uiaiexoeuts, more devoted to his party, ia ica: tdnn i. tfi tn his sincere con victions of right. That being the case, we nave a ngai to assume iu uugui, at an extreme moment, again surrender l.is principles fr the sake of his party. Such a man cannot be held up as a safe candidate for the highest position la tha

t rrvrnTOent.