Evening Journal

Still Guessing Wildly
From the Boston Advertiser.

The general public has come to look with subtle suspicion upon any financial prophecy which the present management of the Treasury Department at Washington sees fit to make. This is not an altogether pleasant state of affairs; but the fault lies with the men who for nearly a year have been putting out manifestoes and statements which prove by experience to be utterly and thoroughly unreliable. As to the person upon whom the chief responsibility for this unreliability of figure lies, it matters little. The main point that the figures are worse than worthless has been proved repeatedly in the past few months; and it is no exaggeration to say that, if any prominent business house in Boston had employees whose "prognostications" in financial matters were as far out of the way as those of the Treasury Department officials, such employees would not be retained a day longer in their places. This admission is not flattering to any sense of patriotism. Mere partisanship should not enter into the financial affairs of the nation. The public should be entitled to know just where the nation stands, as well under one administration as another; and Republicans as well as Democrats regret sincerely the mismanagement and short-sightedness evident in the present administration of the Treasury affairs.