The Coconino weekly sun., 1896-05-14
BACK IN 1892.
Some Changes Since the Democrats Game
 Into Power.

| Into Power.
 This is fitting time to recall to mind
 Il passage of history The things which
 every intelligent man knows he may
 not always remember just when the
 recollection is most important for his
 guidance as q citizen, or as a manufac. turcr, merchant or banker. Four years
 ago it was quite fashionable in business
 circles to be indifferent about politics
 Many men of capacity and experience
 vent about saying to each other that it
 really did not make any difference to the
 country whether one sound man or an.
 other should be elected president. They
 were dead sure that Cleveland was
 sound" He had been tried for term,
 and had stood manfully against free
 coinage of silver, and men never cared
 to ask how far he would go toward de- struction of the greenback circulation,
 or the national banking system, in order
 to make room for state bank notes. Har-
 r:son also had been tried, men salt!, and
 he was unquestionably safe. Between
 TWO safe candidates business men were
 not called upon to spend time or give
 money or to get excited.
 Just then the clatter was all about the
 money question. It is apt to be in Wall street, among the people who deal in money and use it as the chief instru- ment of their business, and naturally think infinitely more about it than about the wages of labor. The city is crowded with importing concerns and agents of foreign manufacturers and merchants and bankers, whose interest is to belittle the tariff question in order that Americans may be the more easily persuaded to let down the bars and ad- init foreign goods with less restriction. The prevalent talk in many business ,ircles four years ago was that the tariff seally made very little difference with the prosperity of the country, and that :he Mckinley tariff was anyhow ex- treme and too high, and if it should be lowered little nobody would be hurt.
 With such cheap and superficial mo- lions as these, many thousand business men faced decision which involved for :hem and for 2O,OOO,OOO wage-earncrs of ,ais country the worst disaster known for 50 years. They were fond in those days of treating with superior air of contempt the earnest appeals of men who knew that protective duties, which mad been maintained without break for 31 years, could not be broken down or even seriously threatened without a great collapse of industries. The su perior business men were pleased to say that it was all nonsense to attach such importance to tariff anyway, and that the Mckinley Dill had been blun- der. and it was no wonder if some reac- lion in public opinion resulted. But Cleveland was very conservative and safe man, and if he should be elected he would rule his party and see that no violent or harmful change was made. SO it really did not matter, and the man of business was he who re- fused to waste money and time about things which concerned only the fel- lows who wanted office.
 That was the widely prevalent temper and the tone of conversation in many business circles in 1892. Before the elec- ton had been two weeks past gold be- g an to go out of the country in flood. Before MT. Cleveland had been a week in office he selected Mir. Carlisle, long time champion of free trade, state banks and silver coinage, as secretary of the treasury. Before he had been a month in office Carlisle's letter expressing doubt whether treasury notes should not be paid in silver precipitated the panic for which the closing of hundreds ,f mills and factories and mines, and the denial of employment to a vast army of workingmen, had been prepar- ing. After losses of several thousand what is the verdict of the people now? Their votes at recent cleo ions show that they know by this time hat it does make some difference which party succeeds. The choice of Mckinley delegates shows that they want a return o the republican principles which 'haped legislation and administrative sction in the years of unexampled pros- )erity, before men intellectually lazy r intellectually blind voted for Y. Tribune.