Dingley's Deficit

The Dingley bilí was passed for the alleged purpose of providingsufflcent revenue to run the government and to bring an overplus of prosperity. Takingfrom the revenue account the money received from the Union and Kansas Pacific debt settletnent and from the sale of the war bonds prior to July 1, and deducting from the expense account the extraordinary war payments in the last three or four months of the year, the fiscal operations of the government show a deficit of 343,166,162. The economists who framed the Dingley bill are want to use some very disrespectful language when speaking of the Wilscn law which preceeded it. Yet their effort makes a very poor comparison with the showing of tne Wilson law for the preceding two years, considering that it was the free trade deficiency that the Diagley law was designed to overeóme. For the fiscal year 1896 the deficiency was $26,042,242, and for 1897 $18,623,108, better by $15,000,000, in round numbers, in 1896 and by $26,000,000 in 1$97.