Arizona silver belt., 1888-12-01
''The Evils of a Presidential Election"
New York Herald. l

~'S ID pCl ud kJo hV aNOHSiAeJ NH
 this subject more worthy of respect
 than Chauncsy M. Depsw. He pre-
 sides over one of the largest corpora
 tions. He is brought into close and
 daily intercourse with all classes--the
 merchant, the laborer, the scholar, and
 man of leisure. Ills relation to poll
 tlcal events, bringing him, as it were,
 within the very shadow eff the Presi-
 dency, gives him special knowledge.
 "The cost to the country" says Mr,
 Depew, "ef Presidential election, is
 almost incalculable." Nor does MT.
 Depew consider in this mere disburse-
 ments of money, what IS needed fer
 campaign purposes, and so on. In
 that, as he justly observes, the money
 IS net lost, but distributed. It comes
 and goes, and Tn the long run cOntri-
 butsS to the general good. The act ual loss arises from the Stoppage of
 business and labor. Mill owners and
 merchants keep within necessary de-
 mandS. Enterprises either pause or
 are abandoned. Estimating the vol
 ums of business during the four
 months of Presidential campaign as
 five thousand millions of dollars, and
 the depreciation at 10 per cent. the country, in the opinion of NIT. Depew, endures loss of five hundred millions as the cost of a canvass. The estimate of MT. Dcpew is so large as to be start ling. It is good thing to have free government; but when Its machinery can enly be taken apart, oiled, repair ed, and set gong at quadrangle loss of five hundred millions of dollars when, to make the meaning entirely clear, the loss is a hundred and twen- ty-fve millions annually, the question may be well asked whether free gov ernment as financial investment is not a failure. In the course of the Herald inquiries all business interests have been queried, and the answers are the same. In real estate we hear of a complete paralysis of business, mortgages falling off 25 per cent, a general serious loss to dealers and operators. The bankers lose in the unsettling of values and the uncer- of new administrations The savings banks feel the shrinking of the deposits from the workingmen abandoning work. The business agen- cies report repose in trade, but in some cases this repose is accepted as an advantage, enabling as 1t does busi- ness interests which have suffered from extravaganza and imitation to eb- tain needed rest. The volume of evl- 1ence IS that business is unnecessarily The element ot uncertain 5y Is itself dreaded and in some cases ! fatal influence In society where Se much depends upon credit, where ouslness is really a question of uni rersal confidence, the chance of sud- len or radical changes will unaveida- ply lead to shrinking of values and a imitation of enterprise. This is true 'f such campaign as that new ended where the issues are purely fiscal, and l great parties separate as to the profits lpon iron and wool. Nc business man who was concerned in the provisions ,f the Mills bill or the Senate amend nents would care to make any experi- nents while the result of the election vas uncertain. As a consequence, therefore, we can readily understand lew the estimate of Mir. Depew may lot be far wlde of the mark. The gen. ,ral advice of the business men, as In- erviewed in the Herald, is that the Presidential term should be longer; bat, for instance, it should be one erm of six years, with the provision ,f insligibihty. This would lead to .wo results-a stable government with 10 upheaval in commerce. and finance. md the removal of the Presidency rom any temptation to use its pat 'onage for a reelection. These are problems worth considering.
 A New and Fascinating GaI.le.