New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-21
LONDON.
BRITISH INTEREST IN THE AMERICAN
ELECTION
A REVOLUTION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT
PREPARATIONS TO WELCOME RE-
TURNING voLUNTEERS-NEw
BOOKS AND PLAYS.


Keen interest the momentous contest in America,
md wondering whether of their race will
take narrow and f1ighty view of their own
obligations and Of National policies. The Wash
ington and New-York newspaper correspondents
are supplying daily dispatches and the vagaries
and eccentrcties Of American electioneering are
made more prominent than the essential issues
OF the canvass, This is a source of consolation
to Englishmen. who have been constrained to
lament some evil tendencies Of their own cam
paign-defamation and the consequent lowering
of the standards of public life. But the curiosi-
ties and freaks of Mr.. Bryan's stumping tour
and Mr.. Croker's methods for advertising and
booming his candidate poor substitute for
comprehensive information respecting the real
nature and trend Of political forces. The Eng
lish press remains neutral and cautious in dis
cussng the probable results of the American
election. and refrains from expressing any pref
erence for either candidate. The financial jour
mails are more outspoken than the daily press,
but their candor is explained by the fact that
the condition Of the money market here will be
strongly colored by the decision Of the American
electorate. They assert that there will be gen
eral alarm If Mr.. Mckinley be defeated, and
great outburst Of activity in every direction IL
he be reelected. They reflect without doubt the
deliberate opinion of the commercial and mer-
camille classes here. President Mckinley as the
author of of the strongest protective tariffs,
can never be popular candidate here, but the
consequences of the interruption or reversal OF
currency and industrial policies in the last four
years are clearly discerned. Narrow minded
and selfish manufacturers and merchants WEo
are feeling the tremendous pressure Of American
and German competition would be relieved II
the transatlantic industrial revival were sud
denly arrested by the defeat of Mckinley. The
result of the election in any event is an i'm
/ n a mercantile financial
problems here. The strength Of the stock mar
kets in New-York and Chicago and quotations
on election betting from day to day are con-
sidered signs that the Administration will
triumph there, just Lord Salisbury and Mr..
Chamberlain have commanded confidence here
The transition from general to local politics
has been rapid in London. An important series
of borough elections win occur early in No
vember and this will he followed hX School
Bo&r5 mi County Ccupcit ,teetions, 81 the
ocu'ss ~ IKE w...leT. Iue c nservetfgs5. attar
carrying London by immense majortles in the
national contest. are disposed to drop the name
of Moderates and appeal for support in the local
struggle party lines. The Liberals. who have
been content to masquerade Progressives,
naturally denounce these tactics. and have sum
moned Lord Rosebery to London to sound &
bugle call for -partisanship In local politics.
The borough elections offer curious illustration
Of the conservative spirit with which great
changes in local government are wrought In
England. The metropolis has been divided or
reorganized into twenty eight cities each with a
Mayor, a Board Of Aldermen and a Borough
Council and orty-two vestries and District
Boards have been abolished, and the functions
of many as $50 minor agencies of local ad-
ministration have been absorbed and redis-
tributed This revolution in local government is
going on almost without observation, and will
be completed in a few weeks. Vestrydom has
received its deathblow. but oldtime BUNDLES are
likely to come up smiling members of the
Borough Councils and compete with
other for the honors of the Mayoralty. The
metropolis will have Lord Mayor and twenty
eight Borough Mayors, more than eighteen hun
dred Aldermen and Councillors, and I'm
mense swarm Of vestry clerks, inspectors. en-
gineers and medical officers will be converted
into borough officials 1t is far reaching meas
of decentralization. which is introduced at
a time when the metropolis needs a concentra-
tion of power in the London County Council 1t
is justified by ths Conservatives the ground
that the government of the metropolis has be-
come too great an undertaking for a single
municipal legislature, and that a redistribution
Of powers among coordinate local bodies is in
dispensable. It will at least leave the County
Council free to take up metropolitan problems
which have been neglected. That body has been
quarrel1ng for years over the purchase OF SUD
urban tramways, and doing nothing to carry
out comprehensive schemes Of electric transit,
either underground the surface, upon
which the future welfare of the metropolis de-
pends in a large measure.
Londoners, accustomed to long seasons Of fog
regard the China question as natural phenom-
enon in international relations. and do not at
tempt to understand what is going on. The
leader writer's only help to increase the general
mistiness OF the situation. and all discussion OF
the subject in the clubs has ceased Manches-
ter with its immense China trade, has been
moved through its commercial bodies to appeal
to Lord Salisbury for adequate protection OF
British trade in the Northern Middle and South
ern provinces, and an influential council of
Congregationallsts at Newcastle has taken up
the wrongs OF suffering missionaries; but else
where there are few signs OF public interest in
! the momentous questions OF the Far East.
| South Africa, where what is described by mill
! tary men as mosquito warfare" is still in
progress, holds the field The departure of Mr.
KRUGER is hailed as an indication that the strug-
gle has ended. and elaborate preparations are
being made for the reception in London of the
volunteers week hence. The fine Roman hand
| of Mr. Chamberlain is disclosed in the arrange
ments for all the imperial festivities. For the
Duke of York an imperial bodyguard will be
! provided in Australia and the Importance OF the
reception of the colonial contingent in London
viii be magnified. Mr.. Chamberlain has become
master of the imperial revels-a post which was
,-acar+ of+er Lord paaconsdeId's death At
tempts of the halfpenny press TO revive alarm
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