A Republican's Answer

[The followingconimunication staken from the last Argus and hits the nall on the head so nictly, that we reproduce it in our own columns:]- Ed. Times. Editor of the Argus- The following item appeiired in the editorial column of your paper tn lts issue of the 12th hist: 'In 1800 the national dehr WHf f2, 784,000000. 1889 it was $1,692,000,000. Tuis looks as ifthe debt had been i'apidly decreased. Yet owing to a restricted currency and a restiicted market, the outcoiue of the tarift policy, it took more tlmn twice as mauy bushels of wlieat to pay the national debt than t (lid in 1860 In otber words, 1,000,000,000 bushels of would have paid the debt in 1G6, wliile it would have taken 2,156,250,000 bushcls in 1889." What a statement ! If I had not long ago ceased to bo surprised at the figures appearing (n free trade articles and journals, thla would amaze me. According to the official report, the net rtebl ut' the United States on December 31, 1889, was $1,052,952,911. Here, then, Hppears ati error in your statement of over $G10,000,(JOO. You say in 1889 it w.juld take 1,150,000,000 buahelaof whant. to pay this. According to your figures, the averag price of wheat would be 79 cents. Evidently you have not trieü to buy any wlieat lately. lt is now quoted in Chicago at $1.04, in Detroit at $101, and millers here are paying 95 and 96c. Ou an averajre, at these prices, it would taku now to pay the actual debt less than 1,100,000,000 bushels, showing another error in your statement of over a billion bushels. If you rcally desire to instruct the farmer and impart informallon to the people, wliy do you not, in place of sucli item?, publlsh more current news? Inforni them that wlieat at this season of tlu; year is r&nging hlgher than tor several ycars, with a deolded upward tendency ; tliat corn, oats and other farm products ure higher tliis yeiirthan in '87, '88 or '80; that the price of silver is higher than at any time since 1873, and tbal under the new law the volume of eurrency is increased over $5,000,000 permonthj that the deinand for money at all poinLs is active, showing a large increase in the volume of business, and the reci r 1 of bank clearlngs in all of the large cities Confirma Uiis. And you might add that the Hanieon admiuistration is rapidly wltbdrawing fïom the natlonil bunke the money deposita! by the Clevt-land admlnUtratlon and is using the funds to purebase and redeem outstanding bnnde, end according to the seeretary ( f the treasury there was $45,000,000 less id'e money in the treasury on Septcm'ier Í, 1890, than on tlie same date in 1889. A 1 of t li ia, uccomplisheil in eighteen montlis ander próteution and a lepubllcaa admini-tiation, can not f.iil to benclit not only the f'arming but every other interest in lilis gteat country. Cuas E. Bisoock, Ann Albor, Mlch., Sept. 15. li'M).