The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-11-14
A RETURN OF CONFIDENCE.

VI tllC III 81 IllllC III louI NCdIS
the business interests of the cOun-
try feel some sense Of security from
the operations of hostile govern
mental policy Four years ago manu-
facturers were expressing the fear
that the tariff overJurning threaten
ed in the campaign then ended, would
be unfavOrable to business. They
acted in that belief, even in the
months that ensucd before the enact
ment of a lower tariff. Meantime
the financial apprehension that be-
gan with the Barring failure two
years before, was intensified by the
dilution of the currency of the United
States with cheap silver; and then
came the panic, the Wilson-Gorman
act, treasury deficiency, bond sales
and through it all, industrial de-
preston, with want to many work
ers and losses of unaccounted mil
lions to capital and labor.
Twenty-four hours after the clos
ing of the polls in the most memoir
able election of a generation find no
new tariff law or financial legisla-
ton in force. But the election has
brought to the business world
something that is more necessary to
prosperity than laws. 1t has
brought again to trade the magic
touch of confidence. and the response
has been quick. Freer trading and
the keenest interest in American
securities are the burden OF London
cables; advancing values are noted
for nearly all stocks on Wall street,
in spite of the fact that the long
interval of profitless and disastrous
business has sadly curtailcd the
buying ability of would, be investors;
and the first tricklingS have come
even thus early, OF a pent-up stream
of business that will at length break
forth and flow into channels all but
dried up.
For nearly four years now, want
of con idncc' has been in control in
the United States, and the result
has been multiplied disaster, unhap-
piness, discomfort, and the ill-sup-
pressed turbulence of men who
know they are in straits, but fail to
see the causes of their trouble.
Give the country a year of work at
fair wages and the Shouters for free
silver will fall away 50 rapidly from
that alluring falsehood that vote
in 1897 on the same issue would
cause wonder that the proposition
Of 1896 was ever taken seriously.
To the industrial revival of 1897 we
must trust to furnish all needed
antidote to the unceasing agitation
Tor 50-cent dollar that the silver
leaders have promised with their
admissions of defeat.
But all will not be well, even as
suming that senate is secured that
will aid in passing a new tariff act
and in maintaining the present
money standard We do not refer
now, to the necessity we are under,
OF revising our monetary system.
Oar point is that the confidence our
business men are beginning to feel
in one another once more must be
felt also by employees in their en-
ployers. A studied effort was made
in the late campaign to destroy such
confidence and to set employer and
employe at variance. The same is
sue was injected into the campaign
of 1892 to an extent. and many men
may attribute their bitter experience
since 1893 to their notion that they
could bring hardship upon shop
proprietors and themselves escape
unhurt. 1t has been preached in
the past few months that the in
terests of the two as regards the
free coinage of 50-cent silver dollars
are not identical. 1t has been as
serted frequently and bluntly that
the condition of the American wage
Garner, who, with his ballot. his un-
equaled wage, and his command of
the comforts of life, is a prince
among the wage-earners OF the
world, is being reduced to a con-
d'tion OF slavery The partisan
purposes OF these assertions has
been evident, and perhaps they
should not be taken too seriously.
But it is important, now that the
election is over, and proprietors
and men are both anxious to benefit