Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-10-18
FINANCIAL NEEDS
DOMINANT ISSUE
Politics Apparently Backed Off
New York Stage by ''Hu-
man Interest"
PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW
HOW TO MEET EXPENSES
Money Center and Its Collateral In
terests Depressed by the War
in Europe.

| in Europe.
BY N. o. MESSENGER.
| NEW YORK. October 17-Underlyine
the political story of this campaign in
New York is a human interest story
winch is far more absorbing than poll
tics Here comes your correspondent
over to New York, as of yore, for
many years. to give The Star readers
the gossip and news of the campaign.
We folk in Washington like to hear
of New York, of course. We like to
know what's going on in politics, in
society, and all that Some of US come
over to borrow money from Frank
Fanderlip, or the house of Morgan, or
Wherever we can get it: some come
over to the horse show, the opera or to
have good time on the White Way,
and all that kind of thing.
Heretofore at this season of the wear
politics has been the main thing There
is a campaign for the House of Repre-
sentatives, for United States senator.
for governor and legislature and state
offices in full blast.
In former years these questions would
absorb public interest, be discussed at
after page: would be talked about
heatedly in the cafes of the Waldorf,
the knickerbocker. the Astor, the Bel
mont, the Biltmore and other great
hotels.
Theme Most Prominent.
Are they doing that now? They are
not They are talking about pork and
Deans. mostly. They are discussing the
subject of how they are going to live
this winter, keep the son at college, pay
the coal bill and have a veal loaf or
some corn beef and cabbage, instead
OF the roast and the entrees of fatter
years.
The war has put the blink on this
town for fair. New York, being the
money center of the country, the heart
from which the circulating medium
goes and must return in financial as
well as physiological similitude, is all
but paralyzed.
You never saw anything like it. 1t is
absolutely terrifying. They never saw
anything like it and can hardly be-
heve ito have the export and import
trade stopped, Wall street close up, Sc
curfties without market for sale or.
buying, men out of work, incomes
stopped. no chance to borrow from the
banks. because securities have no
.
And in this state of things to have
Bill Sulzer and Col. Roosevelt and Gov.
Glynn and Mr.. Whitman and Mr.. Day-;
export paradfng forth, beating drums.
blowing baxoos and trying to get
everybody all 'het up in their per
sonal quarrels is not interesting. but
annoying, to the voters.
For instance: 1 meet my friend, Mr..
so-and-so. who is engaged in big bust
ness and big politics on the side. He
has done notable things in both lines
of endeavor. Se1fishly concerned in INV
own game. I asked him about the DO
litical situation.
Of No Interest to Him.
Who is worrying about politics." he
says Il went down to the banking
district today and they wouldn't lend
me money on government bond l
see that Roosevelt is calling every
body crook and liar: that Whitman
and Glynn are disputing as to who is
really the tool of Tammany; that Sui
zer claims to be the only real discovery
of Diogenes-but tell me. o, tell me,
where am 1 going to raise that loan?
What do you suppose I care about your
lot of cheap politicians?''
And SO it goes. Talk to the plain men
about town. who are not in the class
they don't give a rap about politics.
The tariff as an issue with them is lust
about as lively as old Rameses. They
don't even seem to appreciate that Sen
ator Burton and his friends after
long flibuster saved a few million dol
| lars on the river and harbor bill AS
matter of fact they would heap soon.
er have seen the money spent; maybe
they might have copped off a contract
But the people who feel this way are
old-fashioned republicans and don't
know what reform means. They don't
care whether Bensel was appointed
commissioner nor what he did with the
road funds-this being the sole issue at
present. They only hope that some de-
serving fellow got a good job and wish
they had it themselves.
Conjure With Wilson's Name.
So it comes down, in the last analysis,
to the platform of the very astute
democratic managers, who, appreciat-
ing the distraughtness of the proleta-
riat, say: Never mind. boys: let Will
son do it
And the voter. being obsessed by the
greater question of how he Is going
to pull through the winter, seems in
clined not to take on any additional
burdens. but to leave it to Wilson to
take care of the political en- dof 1t.
end of it, not a lot of high-brow
political dope Of what ought to be
and what might be. but just the plain.
everyday feeling as 1 sense it in my
contact with all kinds and conditions
| of men.