The San Francisco call., 1896-10-17
How BUSINESS MEN WILL VOTE.

As the campaign has proceeded it has
become a matter of increasing certainty
to the minds of impartial observers that
the business men and business interests OF
California are with the Republican Ma
tional ticket. The phrase business men
and business interests" does not embrace
alone bankers and manufacturers or
members of large corporations. 1t in
cludes also the merchants and the trades
men OF the cities and towns of the State.
A canvass of every section shows that a
very large proportion of those who COM
pose this class of voters will cast their bal
lots for the Republican electors on the
Sd day of November.
The reason for this is plain. No
body of men understand better the needs
of business and the conditions under
which alone it can thrive than do the
merchants, the tradesmen and the shop
keepers of community. These men are
the intermediates between the producer
and the consumer. They buy OF the
former and sell to the latter all kinds of
goods. The certainty of profit and the
exact calculation of its amount is essen
tial to their continuance in trade. They
buy and sell goods upon credit to con-
siderable extent, and as rule the term of
the credit upon which they sell exceeds
that upon which they buy. This is true
particularly as applied to the retail mer-
chants of the interior towns, who must
carry their customers from season to
season and from the time the crops are
planted until they are harvested and
sold.
These being the conditions under which
merchants must conduct their business, it
is clear that the money of the country.
which is the medium of their trade, must
have stability of value, in order that they
may correctly estimate their prices and
profits. They must know, for example,
when they buy goods upon credit, that the
value OF those goods will not materially y
rise or fall by reason of a difference in the
purchasing power of the money which
they have agreed to pay. On the other
hand, when they sell the same goods,
they must be equally assured that the
money which they will receive for
the articles at the end of the term of
credit which they have extended, will
have the same value which it possessed
when they bought the goods. Whenever,
sue is presented to them as to which
party promises to maintain stability in
our country's currency, its merchants will
be found arrayed beneath the banner of
the party which gives to them that
pledge.
There can be no question as to which
party IN the present contest is assuring
stability of value in our country's cur
rency. 1t is the Republican party which
gives that assurance. 1t is the Democratic
and Populist parties which expressly re-
fused to do SO, and unite in the declaration
that they propose to destroy it. 1t is for
this reason that the merchants and trades
men of California are outspoken in their
allegiance to the Republic party, and
from the wholesale dealer in the largest
cities to the retail storekeeper in its small
est village comes the assurance that this
year all are for Mckinley. From such assur-
ance springs the cheerful and we'll
founded prediction that California will go
Republican by one of the largest major
tiles cast for candidate and party dur-
ing its history as State.