The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-01-04
Rev. Joseph Cook on Resumption orspe-
Gle PAYMENTS. f

ele Payments.
NEW YoRE, January 9,-Joseph Cook
gave prelude on resumption tonight. He
reviewed the progress Of public opinion
on the question in q very interesting fash.
ion, referring especially to the West, as
follows:
The colleges in the Mississippi Valley
were against the silver bill. was told In
the centre OF Iowa by President Magoun,
one OF the superb leaders and sound pol.
iticians In the West, that when tho Bland
silver bill was before the House twelve or
fifteen Western colleges sent petitions 70
Washington against It, and that the paper
was signed by nearly every Professor In
those institutions. We know what excel.
lent work the Hard money League Of Chi.
cago has been doing. 1 am not assail.
ing the West for her position as to
the silver bill. There were two parties In
the Mississippi Valley, and Il schools and
ministers were sometimes misled, the best
Of them were not. The best Of the news.
pepper press in the West were not misled,
although the best In newspapers Is q small
percentage there and here. The West
reads Western daily newspapers, and not
EaCtern. 1t Is easy 10 overestimate the
extent OF the influence OF our seaboard
daily newspapers, even in New York and
Boston. Your daily Is not daily three
hundred miles from the place where Il Is
published, but paper Of the second day.
We are not to attribute all turns Of political
sentiment in the United States TO the
peculiar inclinations the pens OF New
York editors may have. A few New York
monthlies and one or two weeklies reach
the whole nation, but the average citizen
OF Chicago rarely sees the New York
dailies. Our nation Is not like England,
where one newspaper can easily reach
every coast OF an island so small that
when IN American walks in his sleep
there he is in danger Of stepping of land.
Englishmen are proud OF the fact that the
very best discussions OF the London
dailies go to the remotest quarters
OF England and Scotland, and they
well may value this one excellent effect
OF their insularity.
1t is not a fact that the best American
daily newspapers go to all quarters OF our
immense territory. Therefore we must
give praise TO several vigorous newspa'
pagers that, in the West, stood right on
the financial question, and to any newspa'
pers in the South, and half dozen or
dozen statesmen there, that stood right on
that subject. 1t is not true that the sea.
board led the whole nation. The West Is
very naughty on financial topics, II asked
to accept without change the position Of
the seaboard, from which she has
borrowed so much. There is moth.
ing subtler, suppose, in the
reasons that induced part Of the West to
oppose the financial policy almost unani
mously favored by the seaboard, than til {
fact that so much has been borrowed by
the West from the East that it is often
supposed capitalists here have often inter
ested motives in all discussions Of tinan'
cial questions, Therefore, let US give more
praise to the Western press, SO far Us II
was right, and to the Western pulpit
and to any Western statesmen who were
not misled by popular clamor'