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foresaw the probability of a war with Spain. There was a lull of nearly a month in the situation, during which the Maine disaster was under investigation, and business was not seriously disturbed. In March the receipts from customs rose to the highest figure yet reached, $15,450,432. But on March 28, the President sent to Congress his message transmitting the finding of the naval board, showing that the Maine had been blown up by outward causes, and war seemed inevitable. Early in April the situation had become so critical that Counsul Hyatt on the 3d left his post at Santiago de Cuba, followed by Counsul General Lee from Havana on the 10th; on April 18 both Houses passed the war resolution, and on the 21st war was formally declared.

With the opening of hostilities, the withdrawal of a large number of merchant ships of the regular lines and others, the canceling of large contracts, and the danger menacing American shipping generally, importations quite naturally fell off and revenues decreased. For the month of April they were $14,193,977, and there was a still further decline in May. But with the record of successive victories to the credit of the American army and navy, customs receipts again rose in June, and continued a steady upward tendency for July.

Table showing customs receipts under Dingley law by days and months:

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It may be pointed out that for the first three years of the McKinley act, the average monthly revenues from imports amounted to $15,883,781. This, with revenues derived from all sources, left a surplus. The Wilson bill for the entire thirty-five months of its operation, yielded only $13,837,389 per month from imports, and this includes the abnormal record of the five months closing its history, during which the importations were vastly in excess of any other months, for reasons already explained. Consequently

the revenues derived from imports under the Dingley act for the months of February and March this year were sufficient to equalize the expenditures, while as a revenue getter, when we include the receipts from internal revenue as well as customs, the Dingley act comes fully up to the expectations of its friends.

Compared with the Wilson act the revenues from all sources as follows:

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Dingley law has yielded

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This table does not include the money received from the sale of the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific railroads, as follows:

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As the war-revenue bill was approved June 13, 1898 (the eleventh month), a small increase in the revenues for June under the Dingley bill is to be credited to that source. The balance in favor of the Dingley law over the Wilson tariff for eleven months was thus $33,106,181. While the Wilson bill showed a spasmodic increase for the eleventh month of its operation, July, 1895, it dropped back to $28,952,697 in August following. The total revenues for July, 1898, under the Dingley and war-revenue acts combined was $43,847,108.58.

The Wilson bill was in operation nine months before it showed surplus revenue. The amount then was only $3,932,445, while the Dingley act yielded a surplus of $1,973,102.47 at the end of the

sixth month of its existence, in spite of the fact that it bore the burden of vast anticipatory importations, rushed through our custom houses during March, April, May, June, and July, 1897, to take advantage of the lower rates and defective appraisement under the Wilson bill.

Compared with former years the total receipts from customs, internal revenue, and miscellaneous sources, and expenditures for all purposes were as follows:

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For the same fiscal periods the excess of expenditures over receipts were as follows:

To

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It should be remembered that the war-revenue act is a thing apart from the Dingley law, and is intended to defray the heavy additional burdens made necessary by the war with Spain. Under this act the Treasury Department sold $200,000,000 in bonds. No bonds were issued to bolster up deficiencies accruing under the normal operation of the Republican tariff act, and no special taxes were levied for that purpose. Bonds and additional taxes were made necessary, however, to defray the increased cost of maintaining the army and navy; and this is shown in the following table of comparative expenditures since the first month of the Dingley law:

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Ineluding war expenditures and $4,549,368.26 on account of the sale of the Union Pacific railroad, paid out in November, 1897. For the year ended December 31, 1897, as distinguished from the fiscal year, the receipts exceeded the expenditures for the first time since the inauguration of the Democratic Administration. The amount was $17,916,973, according to the "Monthly Summary of Finance and Commerce of the United States" for June, 1898, p. 1999.

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For August, 1897, the expenditures for the army and navy amounted to a sum total of but $8,295,543; for July, 1898, they had increased to $43,298,432 or five times as much.

Up to the first of July the appropriations to meet the expenses incident to the war with Spain amounted to $361,788,095, as follows:

For the national defense, act March 9, 1898..
Army and Navy deficiencies, act May 4, 1898.
Naval appropriation act, May 4, 1898-amount of in-

$50,117,000 00

34,625,725 71

crease over preceding naval appropriation act...... 23,095,549 49 Fortification appropriation act, May 7, 1898—amount

....

of increase over act as passed by House. Naval auxiliary act, May 26, 1898.... Additional clerical force, War Department, auditors' offices, etc., act May 31, 1898.... Life-Saving Service, act June 7, 1898... Army and Navy deficiencies, act June 8, 1898.... Appropriations in act to provide ways and means to meet war expenditures, June 13, 1898...... Army, Navy, and other war expenses for six months, beginning July 1, 1898, in general deficiency act.... Expenses of bringing home remains of soldiers.....

Total

5,232,582 00

3,000,000 00

227,976 45

70,000 00

18,015,000 00

600,000 00

226,604,261 46 200,000 00

361,788,095 11

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