New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-05-04
SENATOR JONES, OF NEVADA.

More than twenty years ago new and till
that time quite unknown and comparatively OBJ
scure Senator from one of the new States made
a speech in the United States Senate on sub
feet about which great many speeches had been
made and great many volumes written, and
upon which so many Of the greatest intellects
in the world had expended their force that only
half-thinkers, whose assurance shrank from
nothing. or statesmen well known TO be thor
oughly equipped and profoundly versed in the
science Of political economy and finance vent
ured 10 grapple with IT, The subject was finance
ard the Senator was John +. Jones, of Nevada.
It exhibited such thorough comprehension Of
the subject. so wide an acquaintance with au-
thorites such firm grasp Of first principles, COM
bned with concise reasoning and luminous logl-
cal processes, that it at once arrested attention.
II had behind il unlooked-for learning in strong
combination with the simplest plainest, every
day comnon-sense. No speech of that period
and it was a period full of speeches of all de-
grees Of merit on what was then the absorbing
toplc-did so much to clear away the fog with
which the advocates Of unsound finance and
qualified Reputation had filed the political at
mosphere under the guse of redemption of the
National debt in greenbacks. Its great and i'm
Grant. to whose strong cOmmon-sense it APP
pcalcd and it doubtless had more than any other
one thing TO do with the veto of the imitation
measures which was the saving grace of Grants
Administration.
The Senator's colleagues who only knew him
as a self-made man-who from being a practical
miner had come 10 be the representative of
mining State in the United States Senate, with
i'm
no knowledge Of political economy or finance
through lack of advantages and training-rather
maryelled at his thorough acquaintance with
and his skilful handling of the subject. At first
they explained it upon the theory that somebody
had written the speech for him. But then the
mystery remained how any one who had the
euuipment the knowledge, the tact and the skill
TO make such presentation of the argument
should be content 10 do such work for another
and himself remain obscure II was not until
Senator Jones, in his ordinary intercourse with
his associates and his everyday, unprecedented
discourse impressed them with the fact that he
was a man Of wide observation, large expert
ence in affairs, unusual intelligence and thor
ougb student of the subjects in which he took
an interest that they settled down 10 the con-
viction that he was an Independent thinker, a
resourceful genius and, on the whole, factor
to be reckoned with in politics And yet lie
has done very little in the years that have
passed since the first sensation created by that
speech TO justify the promise it afforded OF n
commanding influence in National politics. He
IL now what he was then, simply Senator from
Nevada. no more and no less The disappoint-
ment is easily explained Partly because Of lack
of ambition and perhaps natural Incidence he
has not kept himself at the front, as he might
easily have done. Another reason not neces-
sary TO dwell upon may be found in the fact that
local conditions, and perhaps personal Interests