Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-04
the CYCLE IN POLITICS.

1t is really amusing to witness the eff
forts Of the democratic press to prove
the present prosperity enjoyed by
the country is due wholly to circum-
stances ov er which the policy of the ma
tional administration has no control.
Though our contemporaries nave with
drawn their original plea that prosper |
ity does not exist, and ia switched
around to a position where they are fore
ed to acknowledge hat times are much
better tina they were, they still insist
that accid entail conditions are alone re-
sponsible for the Improvement noted in
business circles all over the land.
The public is gravely informed that
periods of prosperity and depression run
in cycles, which is a claim of much merit
as an abstract proposition. But the
l%aughable side of it comes to the front,
when the statement is made that McTlin-
ley happened to land in the presidency
Just in time to meet the upward wave
set in motion by causes over which he
hdu no more coHtfOl imam ne ,nad over
the tides Of the seas" By parity of rea-
soning it Is presumed that Cleveland got
into the presidential boat just as the
wave aforesaid was sloshing the other
way. If so, he was no more responsible
for the bad times than Mckinley is for
the good a very happy way Of levelling
down the extremes that exist between a
democratic and a republican administra-
ton Of national affairs.
1t would certainly be unfair to accuse
Cleveland and withhold credit from Nc
Kinley, or visa versa, if this cycle BUSH
ness has taken charge Of all the prob
lens related to the prosperity and de-
ocracy, which would rob the man who
happens to be president of all credit for
contributing to the prosperity Of the
country, when one Of these cycles is
getting its work in. r%epudiated Cleveland
in 1896 on the sole ground that his adj
ministratlve policy had almost ruined.
the country.
The cycle idea had not been thought OF
at that time, and poor Cleveland was de-
nounced by his own party-and a ''new"
democracy constructed out of old ma
terials-fbr having been personally re-
sponsible for a condition or affairs that
made further democratic success IN I'M
possibility along old lines. So %pronounc-
ed was this feeling that the fat prophet
was not accorded courteous treatment by
a national convention Of the democratic
party. N othing afforded the new" dem
ocracy more pleasure during the mem
orable ca mpaign of 1895 han to attribute
all the ills of the country to the admins
@trative policy OF a president they had
repudiated.
But if he cycle theory holds good, and
prosperity is due to causes over which
a national administration has no control,
it must be equally true that it is not
responsible for periods of depression. II
this be true, the new" democracy did a
grave injustice to Grover Cleveland ir
1896. They ought to nave laid it all tc
the cycle.
Speaking of cycles, however, it is pass
ing stran sc that these things do not whir
around with any degree of regularity
when operating in American politics
!. Through some mysterious working in thu
c~og-wheels the nange devoted to pros
, perity seems to come on top when the re
publican party is in power, while de
preston pops up whenever the democrat.
takes &C ntrol of affairs. Perhaps SOM
of the bourbon inventors, Who nave beel
working on the cycle proposition sine
v Cleveland was unjustly condemned by hi
party, may finally figure all this out an
r get things into better working order
: The cycle is all right, but it stand i
: need of repairs. Il
Just at present the joke is one the anti
e Clark democrats. A Helena banker wa
y asked in court to name the members
IS the last legislative assembly WHO opene
up big accounts with him, making heav
It deposits of cash-the object being, {
course, to entrap some of the fellows VII
1t voted for Clark. The banker prompt
l. named two statesmen who made then
ii coJy,oo norcV;o,,o,,o G-I%;~~ C1o,1r ~