The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-26
Mckinley Is Doing
The Best He Can
Penn" in Philadelphia Bulletin.

the country has been productive of much
more private comment than the newspa-
pers, as rule, have printed. In Its stric-
lures on the conditions prevailing in the
state 1t Is pronounced by all dispassion-
ate observers of the trend OF events to be
well-grounded; but in It's somewhat sur
prising disposition to incite dissatisfaction
with the Mckinley administration, the be-
lief is that its points are not so well
taken, when considered either as business
criticism or political judgment. Not a few
of those who ordinarily have much faith
in the great merchants judgment are con-
strained to believe that he was not alto
gether just in the tone and character of
the speech when he declared that the
people, betrayed and disheartened. would
no longer have faith in the party, and
would turn to any leadership that offers
better times"
-:ll:-
Tho opinion Of politicians is that he
makes a mistake in an attitude Of distrust
and criticism toward the administration
at Washington. They look at the question
entirely from the assumption that it is
his intention to keep up his fight on Sem
ator Quay, as he has declared he will, un-
I'll he wins. and they cannot understand
why he should apparently, go out of his
way to ALLEVIATE the administration and
force it to regard Quay as a special pro-
tector of its interests in Pennsylvania.
They contend that 1t is Wana71aker's true
interest in Pennsylvania politics TO keep
Quay and the administration apart, and
that his speech will have n strong tenden-
cy to produce precisely the opposite effect
But dismissing the political phase OF the
question for the moment, and looking at
Mr.. Wanamaker's complaint oe tardiness
and of lack of results on the part of the
Mckinley administration, Is 1t justinable
and fairly put as a business criticism? In
the first place, Mckinley has been IN Of
flee only two and half months, or just
eighty days. But the eX-postmaster-gen-
eral notwithstanding his own experience
in the inner workings of a new eduIiris-
tration Just getting on its foot, declares
that the business Improvement expected
to follow the advent of Mckinley has not
yet come, and that the tide may soon set
against the Republican party in conse-
quence. Will he be able, however, to point
to any other administration which has
ever been more prompt to deal with an
ugly situation left to 1t as a legacy from
its predecessor? He will find not one, not
even Lincoln's, which waited four mJnths
before it had congress in session to meet
the gravest crisis of modern times.
-:ll:-
The fact is that the administration has
acted with unusual celerity. 1t had cor
gress in session within fortnight of the
Inauguration; a tariff bill was actually
framed for the most part by the gays snd
means committee in advance of the Ses-
sion; 1t was propelled through the house
with the massive energy of Tom Reed be-
hind 1t, and 1t was In the senate within
less than thirty days No Dther legislative
performance on so large n scale has ever
before been seen in Washington conducted
with such promptness. Nor has any tar
if bill in many years reached the stage to
which the present one has thus far ad-
vanced in the senate in a little more than
sixty days. ] am not discussing the point
whether the bill as a remedy is or is not
the right one, but simply Saowing as n
matter OF just comment that new tariff,
being a promise Mckinley and his party
made as the very first pledge they would
redeem, they have up to date gone about
its fulflment with exceptional rapidity. OF
course, II the tariff revised is aot he rem
edy then Mr.. Wanamaker's point that
monetary legislation has not been framed
is well taken. But the tariff, as the record
of the campaign viii clearly show, was to
take precedence when the panacea should
be applied; and with the extreme difficulty
of getting the tariff through the senate by
margin of one or two votes, II has at no
time been reasonably expected that cur
rency bill could be yoked with II without
killing both. That is where Mr. Wana-
makers argument is regarded by some
careful and practical reasoners as espe-
cially weak, untimely and unnecessarily
embarrassing to the administration.
-;II:-
The truth seems to be that all these
great periods of financial and trade de-
preston must run their course When the
events OF the spring and summer of ..JJ
ushered in the storm of which the clouds
still hang in the Skies the late President
Roberts, of the Pennsylvania railroad,
was one of the first who saw that IT was
out of the ordinary, and he predicted that
II would probably be from four to FIVE
years before we would again see daylight
Four to five years is, indeed, the duration
of TIE effects of a convulsion--the season OF
hard times" before the lean kline are sue
ceeded by the fat kline. The panic of 1887
lasted in its immediate consequences Ror
five years, despite all that either Van
Buren or Tyler could do to force the re-
turn of better conditions. The effects Of
the convulsions of 1857 had rot entirely
disappeared at the outbreak of the Civil
| War, or when Mr.. Wanamaker was just
| starting out I'm business. Jay Cooke failed
in September, 1873, and crash after crash
| followed with five years of Greenback agi-
tation, strikes and riots before the wheat
| crops were kissed by the golden suns OF
| 1879. 1t is now just four years since the
collapse of railroad corporations and
| banks ushered in the periodical season OF
| distress or stagnation that comes about
once in every twenty years. as regularly
| as the laws of nature change the seasons,
| With four years of murky conditions be-
hind us, there is strong ground reason
| ing from analogy, for the belief that the
worst is over and that the blue skies are
| not far of, since we have begun to get
within sight OF what hitherto has been
the time limit OF these depressions. Men
with calm intellects like the late President
Roberts and guided by the lamp OF expert
ence have had no thought of a bound or
| jump or a boom; they have been sa :