New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-09-26
PROSPERITY OR CHANGE.

throughout the land men know the JOY OF
good times. The farms, the mills and the
mines find great demand for their products,
and the men who work them get their pay
without trouble. When they are paid fairly
and promptly, others are paid, and those who
serve them or sell to them are also glad. Mer-
chants find times good, for sales are large.
Railroads, bankers men Of all the professions
are glad because business is large and pay
ments are ready.
This Is the state of things when men arc
called to vote whether they will have change.
The Democratic party says all things are wrong.
The tariff is unconstitutional, and, besides, 1t
is robbery. Reciprocity is fraud; the Old
State bank notes ought to be allowed to circu-
late as freely as they did forty years ago !;
money all as good as gold ought to be changed
by free coinage into money no better than
silver; the building of new Navy should be
stopped, and foreign mails be no longer carried
under the American flag But above all, the
present tariff, to which all kinds of industry
have been adjusted, and under which they
prosper to a degree never before known, must
be broken down and destroyed. Here would
be a change indeed If the people desire it,
they are told that votes for Cleveland, Steven
son and the Democratic ticket will give them
their wish The land is prosperous. and these
votes will give us change. Labor is fully
employed, and at wages, on the whole, higher
than were ever paid before, but Democratic
votes will give us a change. Money is safe
and every dollar as good as gold, but Democ-
racy promises a change.
Do the people want change? Do they even
want that disturbance and uncertainty which the
proposal of change must produce? These
are questions which they alone can settle by
their votes, or by their neglect to vote. OF
one thing they may be sure, the people who
do not want change will have to get them
selves registered and get their votes cast and
counted, or the change will come whether they
want it or not. Men who are careless enough,
or selfish enough or ignorant enough, in this
self governing land, not to cast their votes
against the policy they dctest and fear must
expect that it will come upon them as right
eOus judgment.
Business men, employers and wage-earners,
as rule, like good times, and do not want a
change Yet many say. at makes little diff
ference, for Mr.. Cleveland and Mr.. Harrison
have both been in office and no crazy or revO-
lutlOnary CDdnpc OCCurTcu.' LdZlHeSS cheats
itself with that plea. Mr.. Cleveland argued
with great earnestness for radical change Of
tariff, but it was prevented only because tho
Senate was Republican. How the Senate may
stand next year depends upon the people. One
or the other, if President, would be forced in
the main, to uphold the policy of those who
elect him. President Harrison to uphold the
policy under which great prosperity has been
realized, and Mr.. Cleveland to uphold those
who demand a change. 1t is senseless counting
of peril to throw lighted match into powder
barrel, hoping that it will not explode, or to
elect a Democratic President, hoping that he
will stop the radical change for which the
Democratic party has fought SO long.
But the votes for that party, whether they
mean ruinous change in the end or not, at
any rate mean the danger of change. To every
business man, to every employer and every
wase-earner. such votes offer the prospect OF a
radical change in the policy of the Government.
That is, they offer uncertainty and doubt and
danger, in place Of prosperity and the highest
prospect of increasing prosperity in the future.