Deficit Still Piling Up

ïvvo and a liiilf years of the operation of the Wilson Revenue luw ended with Feb. 28. The story of tho.se thirty nionths told 11 a single Jine is a deficit of $130, 000,000, or au average shortage of $144,000 a day. President MeKinley will lind, on assumiug the duties of Iris office, a surplus of i linie more than $100,000,000 in excess of the gold reserve : but this has been obtained by the sale of bouda wbich brought into the treasury$293,454,286. ïhe montii of February was no exception to the general rule. The deficiency ior this munth is in round nunibers $5,000,000, biinging the total deficiency tor llie t v u and a half yeaiaol the Wilson law above $i:JO,OOU,oo"o. This ehowing is in niarked contrast to the MeKinley law, uiiieh, daring tlio lirst thirty mouths of its operation, produced a surplus of $25,508,515. Tne Wilsou law has been a failure in its production of reveiiue. Kedueing taritt' rates upou the assuuaption tliat redution would so stiinulate iinportatious as to increase the eustoins reveuues, it in fact reduced the net collections at the custom liouses. Increasing the internat revenue taxes, it bas eolleeted less internal revenue than the law which preceded it. In both the custouis and the iuternal revenue branches reeeipts have tallen below the receipts of the MeKinley law iu the eorrespouding period of its history. This is the more suprising because of the enormous increase in iinportations. The custoin recipts in the first two and a hali years oí the Wilson law feil $100,000,00o" in round nuinbers below the custoin receipts in the lirst two and a hall years of the MeKinley law. The internal revenue receipts under the Wilson law feil $75,000,000 in round numbers below the internal revenue in the first two and a half years of the MeKinley law. A study of the operation 01 the Wilson law in detail shows that tl. e assumption of its supporters in the earlier periods of its history, that it would increase its receipts and would in time come to meet the full running expenses of the governmeut, were not well founded. The customs collections under this law in ita first rnonth were $15,564,990, and during the first two years of its operations averaged about $13,000,000 a month . During the last six months tliey have average less than $11,000,000 per mouth. and in December 189o', dropped to $11,779,412, whilein November tliey reached the uuprecedented low figures of $9,930,385. In the totals of the iuternal revenue receipts the lawwasequally disappointing. The receipts of the last thirty months have fallen $75,000,000 below those for the corresponding period of the MeKinley law, despite the fact that the presei t law-levies a tax of H-lOa ga Ion on spirits, while the rate uuder the McKhdey law was 90 cents per gallon. The average monthly receipts from iuternal revenue under the MeKinley law during its first two aud a half years were nearly $13,000,000, while under the present law tliey have averaged $10,000,000 a month. Another curious development of the Wilson law is that, although its framers . asserted that it would relieve the people of the payinent of duties on imported goods, it collecte duties on a nmch larger proportion of the goods brought in than did the MeKinley law. Under the MeKinley law from 55 to to 60 per cent of the iinportations came in free of duty. In the fiscal year 1S92 the percentage of free importations was 56.31 per cent, and in 1894 59.53 per cent. In the fiscal year 1895, the first year of the Wilson law, the percentage of goods coming iu free of duty was 51.55 per cent, while in 1896 only 48.56 per cent of the total importations came in free. The followiug figures show the receipts under the MeKinley and Wilson laws during the first two and a half years of the operation of each : Wilson law. McKinlev law. Customs 139-2,731,977 $183,900,202 Internal 315,188,472 380,006,731 Total receipts 8762,934,685 $920,080699 Expeuditurts 894,üe3,856 894.572,184 The story of the two laws may be summarized in four lines as follows : MeKinley law, first two and a half years- Surplus, $25,508,515. Wilson law, first two and a half years -Deficit, $131,130,171.- X. Y. Tribune. Hé3 ! + ? , ■- , f ! 1 of our ing young village dudes walked home from church with his best girl last Sunday night, a Sisóme girl without a in this of country, at least so thinksour hero. The heaveus were y, and fair Luna shed lier pale beams o'er all the landscape, or snowscape, and actually seemed to painfully blush as the left duke of our dude stole softly and silently around the taper waist of the fair damsel. He was, uo doubt, about ,__ her. The shock of such a prcceeding almost paralized her, and for the space of 78 of a minute she was dumb. Then her Iii flashed fire and she looked ttt, and her tiny right S&" stole softly from beneath her seal skin sacque, and the next instant our dude saw thousands of tliat none of our modern or aiu-ient astronomers had ever discovered. With an involuntary ! of surprise he gave her 1 searching glance, from which all his fornier pathos had fled, then picked up his hat and cane and ad off down the street, and was soou lost from view behind a hitching post. Alas ! had he exercised a little caution, earefully compounded with discretsness and self control, this ir might not ever have seen day-light. We caunothelp but think of that wise man, Solomon, who prouounced all these pleasures fraught with "vanity and vexation of spirit."