El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-02-20
SMILING WASHINGTON.
Pleased at the Coming Change
of Administration.
AN EYE FOR BETTER LOCAL TRADE.
Rents Are Going Up, and SO Are Cham
payne and Terrapin-So the Shopkeepers
Are Happy at the Thought of Renewed
Business-A New Peacemeker.

WASHINGTON, Feb. ID Special. I'm n
little more than two weeks we shall have
il change of administration. L violate no
confidence in saying that the change will
be welcomed by a majority of the people of
Washington. This is IL Democratic city, as
one would expect from its geographical To-
cation, many of the Inhabitants having
come hither from Virginia. Maryland and
other border or southern states. But Wash
ington always prefers Republican adj
mnistration. There is no doubt about
this, and the fact is one of the anomalies
of life ut the national capital The secret
of it lies in business considerations. There
is no better settled tradition of the capital
than that Republican administration
makes good times in the political center of
the nation. Why this is so it would not be
easy to explain, but all the business men
say it is so, and we shall have to take their
word for it. Republican officials bring
more money to the city, they declare. The
guests who come here during Republican
administrations spend more money. The
fitting population during II Republican
regime rents Il better class of houses, pays
more money to the grocer, the florist, the
jeweler, the caterer, the wine merchant,
the carriage manufacturer, and so on, and
so on, than the same population does under
n Democratic regime These business men
must know what they are talking about.
Hard Times.
Just now Washington is smiling in an
Iteration of four years of Republican
rule Rents are going up a tride. shop
keepers are appearing more hopeful of the
future, unemployed people are thinking of
the glad days when they will receive wages
every Saturday night. For several years
the times have been hard in Washington.
Ordinarily you would not think CONNER
cial depression would make much differ
encc in city like this. There is little or
no manufacturing here. Commercial
houses are almost wholly for local trade
The government is the great employer
Hard as the times have been, notwithStand-
ing the number of closed factory doors and
reduced lists Of employees in commercial
and other establishments throughout the
country, Uncle sam has not neglected to
pay salaries, he has not cut off any en-
plOyces, he has not thrown any one out of
work. On the contrary, he has gradually
increased the number Of his hands in the
great departments here, and hundreds of
clerks have been promoted to higher rank
and better pay. Moreover. they have begun
to feel the more security in their places on
account of the spread of civil service no.
lions.
Yet the government clerks of Washing
ton have economical in their expenditures
just as people have economical everywhere.
Why they have done it l don't suppose they
could themselves explain, but the fact re-
mains. 1t must lie sympathy. Social
writers tell Us that when Il period of hard
times strikes the country all classes of peo-
pie economize, whether there is any ne
cessity for their doing so or not. They do
it through sympathy, through timidity
which becomes contagious; they do it, not
because they have not plenty of money,
but because they are not making as large
profits they once made. This is an I'M
fortunate tendency of human nature, for
it only serves to intensity he difficulty I'M
der which the mass of population labors in
Il period of industrial dullrcsS. The true
patriot is the one who, having surplus
in hank, is not afraid to spend it just as
10 ii in l1, +tL,r. Il