New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-09-22
PRpUBLICAN ADVANTAGES.

The Republican party will go into tie polIt-
zeal contest this fall with one great advan-
tage. The business and industry OF the
country are distinctly reviving. degree OF
stagnation which few were disposed to re-
cognize did, indeed, follow the partial failure
of crops last year. The worst OF 1t has been
felt this season, even after it had become GEL
tain that the yield this year would be large.
At that period there was a natural DISPOSE
ton to criticise Republican financial manage
ment. Failure to reduce taxation was plamed'
and persistence in silver coinage, and the new
disturbance of public creditors 10y rounding
at 3 per cent and excessive expenditures
Democrats found many listeners SIX weeks
ago, when they argued that all the evil con-
sequences of a short crop had been aggravated
by Republican errors in legislation. But the
situation is now very different. Commerce
sees an open sea before it. Industry can count
upon full employment at TAR wages. Inc
strikes have ended the war i'll Egypt has not
drawn much money from this side; the mis-
chievous effects of silver coinage are stlll
partly conce aIed and the month OF September
has neatly passed without serious disturbance
in the money market.
General prosperity always helps the party
that is responsible for legislation Nobody
can gain any votes By camoring against the
tariff or the internal taxes. when business IS
brisk and labor is well employed. The real
errors of Republican management, though
perceived by intelligent voters, are regarded
with comparative calmncss when 1T is realized
that in spite of all errors the country Is
wonderfully prosperous, and that the mistakes
4, loo mn N
able or proved as disastrous as many were
disposed 10 consider them Men can look at
the situation with cooler reason when they
have a certainty Of good breakfast the next
day. Business men are inclined to be less
cautious about minor faults when their daily
recepls bear witness that the Republican policy
has been on the whole wonderfully beneficial
to the country.
Hence it will be hard to win Democratic
votes from popular dissatisfaction this year
The prevailing feeling is just one-that
the Republican party means to &c ltS best, ana
has DONE on the whole, incomparably better
than any other the country has ever seen,
though it has not been entirely free from er-
rOrs 1t is well to remember that confidence
in Republican financial and industrial manage
ment has been for years the malnstay OF the
party 1t has dissatisfied many at times by Its
conduct in other respects, but the Capital and
the Labor of the Nation have both rallied to
sustain it in every emergency, because it has
made life easier and the rewards of effort
larger for every worker IN the land, with the
brain or with the hands. Capital has been pro-
tected by resOlute defence of public 1ath
and by stern rejection Of all cOmmunishc
measures. Labor has been protected by
tariff devised for that express purpose, by n
free homestead law, and by complete restora-
ton CT the currency to hard-money basis.
1t will be hard to convince the people that
they ought to throw the Republican party
away, so long as they are reminded of its real
merits every day by their profits and their
wages.
The Democratic party has difficult path
to tread. Its voters are largely hostile to the
policy which the Republicans have pursued,
and yet they are forced every day to confess
that Republican measures have given them
exceptional prosperity. The past year has
been one of unusual trial. The losses caused
by a single period of drOuth exceeded the
entire cost of some great wars. France paid
Germany thousand millions, and the whole
WOIlu WOhucIeu Indt lCS nuuSiIy anu uauc
were not Frustrated. This country lost,
directly and indirectly, more than halt as
much, and yet has been hardly interrupted in
career of the most wonderful prosperity ever
witnessed. These things have weight with
the voters. They come home to the private
interests of every citizen. 1t will not be easy
to obtain a vote for the overthrow OF the
Republican policy at a time when general
pre- sperity lights up the sky for every class