The President has sent his first message to Congress. In it he says thathe is very sorry to call an extra session of Congress, but he feels it hisduty to do so, because he finds the money affairs of the country in a verybad condition, and thinks it is necessary for Congress to take someimmediate steps to find a remedy.
It would seem that since June, 1893, the yearly, and even the monthly,expenses of the country have been greater than the receipts.
We all know what a statement of that sort means in our own homes andfamilies. It means that bankruptcy is coming, unless something be done toprevent it. If a man spends more than he earns, he is obliged to borrow tomake up the difference; and when he can no longer borrow, he has to failand turn all he owns over to his creditors.
This means that the people to whom he owes the money—his creditors, asthey are called—will take his home and his furniture, and everything hepossesses away from him, and divide it all up between them, and that hemust begin life again as best he can.
Sometimes when a man has a good business that will enable him in time topay everything he owes, the creditors will allow him to keep his businessgoing taking the greater part of his earnings for his debts until he haspaid them all off. But whichever way his affairs are settled, the man whoowes money is the unhappy slave of his creditors until his last debts arepaid.
The affairs of a country are precisely the same as those of an individual,and President McKinley, understanding well what must happen unless somechange is made, is doing his best to save us from the unhappy position ofa poor debtor.
He is prudently trying to stop the trouble before it gets the mastery ofus.
A country is different from an individual in the fact that there arecertain expenses that are not exactly necessary, and yet which must beprovided for, for the honor of the country. A man who is in moneydifficulties can cut down his expenses to the mere cost of food, house,and clothes. In this way a man is better off than a country. But, on theother hand, a man can only earn just so much money; he cannot force peopleto buy his goods, or pay him better prices; he has to do the best he canwith what he can earn; while a country can, by taxes, force people to giveit the money it needs, and so it is better off than an individual.
Some of the expenses of a country that must be met are the salaries of allthe officers who preserve law and order, the judges, soldiers, sailors,and the police; the pensions of the old soldiers, and of their families;the building of forts and warships, and of the guns to arm them; themaking and issuing of money, and the handling and delivering of letters.
Enormous sums of money are necessary to meet these expenses, and they areraised by taxes. A country has no right to spend more than it earns, anymore than a man has, but there may come times in the history of a countrywhen extra expenses are necessary, and then the Government taxes thepeople to meet them.
This is what President McKinley proposes to do now.
The new tax proposed is to be a revenue tariff on all articles of foreignmanufacture that are brought into this country.
The extra session of Congress is to consider, and, if possible, pass theTariff Bill, which it is