The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-23
Washington Day bYD Day

l
 Democrats in Washington are asking in
 view of the apparent probability that
 their party will elect a majority of the
 next House of Representatives.
 At the moment it is not by any means the unanimous agreement that we won't
 be happy till We get it." for most of the
 wiser and cooler party heads are agreed
 that there would be clements of great party danger in a Democratic majority
 in the House facing a hostile Senate and President
 In the first place, a business, or more
 properly, a trade reaction is held to be impending. Concerning this there Is lit- tie difference of opinion. The only ele-
 ment of doubt about this is as to when
 the reaction will become serious enough to cause general uneaslness
 What the bankfrs call book settle
 ment" is inevitable, and you may accept
 or reject as you will the opinion ex-
 pressed to a leader of Congress in my hearing by the head of one of the oldest and richest banks here that this final | book settlement" as he expressed him. self, cannot be postponed beyond eighteen
 months Venturlng to ask his reasons for l his views, the banker frankly said to me | that the country has over-traded itself,'
 and he voluntarily remarked that his own l bank had already begun its settlement" l There Is such a condition as too much
 prosperity. hurtful alike to nations and individuals," he continued
 Knowing that this banker was in close
 intimacy with the treasury-his bank during the past forty years having
 handled something like a billion of treas
 ury bonds and ver-drafts-his remarks | impressed me so deeply that I presumed to press upon him one further question did he anticipate commercial disaster as
 1esult of the country's too-great trade expansion?
 Not at all." he answered quickly and
 decisively. "I regard a panic as impos-
 sible-that Is to say, truly national ty-
 ing-dp of money. This country will not
 again in our time experience financial difficulties even remotely resembling those of 's3-'e4. Money is now too widely distributed, wealth, corporate and per
 sonal, Is too general; there are too many powerful banks all over the country cap-
 able of taking care of themselves Wall street panic will never again mean
 national disaster. But he Is short-sighted | and over-sanguine who expects this pres
 ent degree of prosperity to continue
 very much longer. We have got to short
 en sail. The country has got to take
 stock There must be a book settlement These views of one banker of Washing ton may be accepted for whatever value various individuals may place upon them but 1t does not require the most alert ob- server to perceive that such views are general. And the vast combinations of | capital, come within the past two years | to control every line of industry in this country, from little snuff mills to three billions of money in railroads, have yet | to be tried In a great financial or busi-
 ness emergency.
 But, however, all that may be, the | Presidential election in 1904 may be won | and lost the business situation then | existent Senator Hanna sounded the real
 note of the Republican campaign of this l year when in his Ohio speech the other | day he bade the country to keep on let | ting well enough alone" That was but | repeating in substance the Republican, | cry of 1900. a cry to which the people | hearkened
 That the state of trade and the general | condition of the country will be well | enough twenty-four months hence many | observant men do not believe, and herein | lies big politics. If a Democratic House | shall be elected the coming autumn, and 1 the expected business reaction takes place within eighteen months thereafter.
 the Republicans will immediately pro- | clam that even the partial Democratic | success of an off-year had alarmed the business interests and filled the people | with fear of certain forms of Kansas City platform legislation. And seeing that the people have twice refused to accept such l Legislation, the effect of the Republican | argument, baseless and untenable as 1t
 might be in this instance, can be read
 fly imagined. No serious-minded man an- | ticipates a re-adoption of the Kansas | City platform in 1904, but 1t will be held 1 to remain In all It's parts Democratic doc | Urine until in part 1t Is formally dls- | carded by another national convention of
 
 | that platform to be party law.
 Going back 10 what seems to be a prob 1 able Democratic House, which would as-
 semble or the eve Of the next Presidential campaign, and In the face of possible busi- ness depression. and we have condi- I tiCn to cause Democrats anxious thought. No purely Democratic legislation would | be possible In the end. and that end com | ing with the rising tide of the Presiden- | tial canvass. the House would be com | pelled to merely register the will of the | Republican Senate and the Republican | President
 | In that aspect 1t would be purely an | automatic body. while in other and purely | political respects 1t would be In position | to make many grave, even disastrous. | desirous of going on record' in favor l f this or that impossible proposition. The evar-presept issue of the tarifr is alone big with danger, as the party has | heretofore discovered to Its bitter cost. whilst every other Democrat in this coun- try has appeared at times to be faddist on the purely business issues of coin age and currency, the party has
 1iown, almost to its destruction. Thus we have some of the suggestions of danger in a Democratic House of Rep resentatives sandwiched between a Re