The Government should not be permitted to run behind or increase its debt in times like the present.  Suitably to provide against this is the mandate of duty—­the certain and easy remedy for most of our financial difficulties.  A deficiency is inevitable so long as the expenditures of the Government exceed its receipts.  It can only be met by loans or an increased revenue.  While a large annual surplus of revenue may invite waste and extravagance, inadequate revenue creates distrust and undermines public and private credit.  Neither should be encouraged.  Between more loans and more revenue there ought to be but one opinion.  We should have more revenue, and that without delay, hindrance, or postponement.  A surplus in the Treasury created by loans is not a permanent or safe reliance.  It will suffice while it lasts, but it can not last long while the outlays of the Government are greater than its receipts, as has been the case during the past two years.  Nor must it be forgotten that however much such loans may temporarily relieve the situation, the Government is still indebted for the amount of the surplus thus accrued, which it must ultimately pay, while its ability to pay is not strengthened, but weakened by a continued deficit.  Loans are imperative in great emergencies to preserve the Government or its credit, but a failure to supply needed revenue in time of peace for the maintenance of either has no justification.

The best way for the Government to maintain its credit is to pay as it goes—­not by resorting to loans, but by keeping out of debt—­through an adequate income secured by a system of taxation, external or internal, or both.  It is the settled policy of the Government, pursued from the beginning and practised by all parties and Administrations, to raise the bulk of our revenue from taxes upon foreign productions entering the United States for sale and consumption, and avoiding, for the most part, every form of direct taxation, except in time of war.  The country is clearly opposed to any needless additions to the subject of internal taxation, and is committed by its latest popular utterance to the system of tariff taxation.  There can be no misunderstanding, either, about the principle upon which this tariff taxation shall be levied.  Nothing has ever been made plainer at a general election than that the controlling principle in the raising of revenue from duties on imports is zealous care for American interests and American labor.  The people have declared that such legislation should be had as will give ample protection and encouragement to the industries and the development of our country.  It is, therefore, earnestly hoped and expected that Congress will, at the earliest practicable moment, enact revenue legislation that shall be fair, reasonable, conservative, and just, and which, while supplying sufficient revenue for public purposes, will still be signally beneficial and helpful to every section and every enterprise of the people.  To this policy