Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1897 — All Depends. [ARTICLE]

All Depends.

Teacher—What is the difference be-i tween a fixed star and any other starn Pupil—lt depends a good deal luponi the advance agent.—Boston<TranscripL| Mrs. Winslow’s Soothixo Srxxrr for Children' teething: soitens the gums, reduces intlammatloa., allayH pain. cures wind colic. 25 cents a bottle.

Rigid economy in public expenditures is the watch-word on" the Republican side in Congress. This was the recommendation of President McKinley’s message, and has been re-echoed by Chairman Cannon, of the House Appropriate Committee, and Chairman Dingley, of the Ways and Means Committee, and there is reason to believe that the Republican party in the present Congress will make a record of economy 5f which members in all parts of the country will have reason to be proud.

Secretary of Agriculture Wilson is being received with marked attention in his tour through the South and there is reason to believe that his visit to that section will result in great advantage to its agricultural interests. There is a marked contrast between the attitude of this Republican Secretary of Agriculturel and his Democratic predecessor, who spent most of his time in frowning down the beet-sugar and other laudable industries and devising plans to prevent the distribution of seeds to the farmers of the country.

The people who were assuming a few days ago that the new tariff law would not probably produce sufficient revenue to meet the running expenses of the Government are beginning to change their minds. The present indications are that the December receipts will equal the December expenditures, and the Treasury officials estimate a large increase in receipts early in the coming year. There is every reason to’ believe that the new law will produce a considerable surplus in the next fiscal year without any additional tariff legislation.

Statesmen at Washington are devoting their attention largely to the question of the currency. Every man has his scheme for the improvement of the currency system, and each one feels that he must press his own views on the subject. It seems probable, however, that when these are all presented, Congress will fall back upon President McKinley’s simple but sensible plan of retaing in the Treasury the United States notes which are redeemed in gold, and permitting the national banks to increase their circulation in a way which will gradually transfer the bunking business from the shoulders of the Government to those of the banks. Notwithstanding the fact that the farmers of the country have disposed of large quantities of wool at greatly increased prices, the manufacturers are still calling for more and are now finding it necessary to send abroad for additions to their stocks, ’which are already I running low. The great reduction in the number of sheep in the country which resulted from Demo-

cpatic free trade makes it necessary for the manufacturers to draw a large amount of wool from abroad until the farmers are able to bring their flocks back to the’eopditions which existed under the protective tariff. President McKinley’s dignified and forceful utterances on the Cuban question continue to receive the commendations of the country. The splendid progress made by his administration in Cuban matters, not only in the release of all Americans confined in Cuban prisons when he. came into office, bj.it alse the. change in the attitude of the Spanish government toward the people of Cuba since the views of the administration have been expressed on the subject, have apparently shown to the people of the United States the wisdom of a course which combines conservatism with hunlanity.