, 1896-12-16

0AL6uG Will In0 UlHSTIty cNGl1 AS
"Populism," TO put it briefly, has diminished
instead of increasing the strength of the
Democratic party which at the last election
seated its candidate, they will, We conceive,
throw it ove9 board, fall back upon the cid
ideas which have roots in their history, and
leave the economic question to be settled
slowly, as in England, without national up
hsavals. This is the more probable because
'ina1vidualism is in the very blood Of the
Tentonic section of the American people, -
still by far the largest, and if this is true the
election may prove quite as important as Mr..
McKinlsy's moathplsces and agents are now
claiming. The pivot of the strife will be
changed, and round my other pivot Americans
can contend without menacing the unity or
existence Of their country at every blow.
Social war ia like religious war; 1t snssrs
every household and has on society a more
SCATTERING effect than even the sectional war,
in.which complete conquest or complete SUB
mission may still IN the end I've attained.
The idea that such q struggle as that of this
week must leave disastrous fleets behind it,
is, of course, more or less true; but they will
not be half as severe as they would have
been if every Bryanite had voted as an insur-
gent against existing institutions. Millions,
we believe, judging from the sectional aspect
which the struggle assumed, voted not as
Brynnifes but as Democrats, and dreaded
negro ascendencv in their States much more
than they cared either about silver or about
Trusts,
The Americans are expecting a grand rush
of prosperity or as they phrase it, q "boOm
. in business" as q result; Of the election, and
their feeling is reflected over here; but they
are. we think, u little ovtr-sanguine. The
election, it is true, udS them of one cause of
disturbance. The curse of Election Mon
~archy-and their system is Elective Mon
arcby modified by Federalism-is the i'm
mense disturbance which ensues on every
vacancy in the throne, and this time The dis
turbance has been intensified by fears of a
social uprising; but except q restoration of
confidence, what has occurred that should
create prosperity? The dificnlti.s Of the
Treasury remain what they were, The huge
load of silver IN the Washington vaults Will
= still be unsaleable. The laws will still make
the Finance Minister Of the Union guardian Of
the :gofG reserve, and therefore the mark at
WHOM. every one who wants gold in qu4nti-
ties must aim his how, The evil Influence Of
Protection will still press upon everybody
who buys anything except corn. and will
still enable every combination" and ''riug"
10 secure monopolies Of necessary articles,
to fix prices at their own discretion, and
to ruin all competitors who refuse 10 yield.
Mr.MchlnIey h!mSelt wishes to push fr0-
lection further. and ::having been, supported
by the capitalists, his advisers will neither
attack the Trusts nc venture to modify the
= National Bank system. The railway kings
will suck ~p'much of the advance in coru,
and the great millionaires, secure from popu-
lar enmity for five years, will devise new
and successful schemes for taking the cream
off every industrious mans milk. The sha-
: dow ora Spanish war will be, if anything,
deepened, and there will be an increase in all
national expenditure, first, because the Re-
publican" aVe pledged to the lip to the nine,
hundred thousand pensioners, and secondly
becs- Use when one want to raise tariffs an
ovel-full Treasury is a parry nuisance. Great,
no doubt, is the power CT credit, which has
been partially restored; but after all, you
cannot get more hay than there is grass in
tho field, and where, apart from the great
danger a%verted, rs the irligating power in
this election? 1T will hardly be found in Mr..
McKinley's wisdom. The people of the
United States have twice elected a grand man,
Washington and Lincoln, and once a man
of great though destructive sbility, jefferson,
but like Switzerland and ike France, their
usual elective chiefs have been men with aver
age brains, average character, and deficient
originality. Mr.. Mckinley is certainly, by