THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1904. THE PRESIDENTIAL ISSUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1904. THE PRESIDENTIAL ISSUE.

In six weeks more the great questions, both of home and foreign policy, that are involved in the American Presidential election, will have been settled, and already the echoes of the impending contest reach us in various forms. We hear of its effect on the foreign policy of the great Republic in the case of naval interference in the China Seas, and of the vast subscriptions of the trusts to the election expenses at home. The great meat packers' strike may also be looked on as an incident in the struggle, because such industrial disputes are recognised as very powerful _ weapons at a great political crisis. It is indeed one' of the weakest features of a purely Republican form of Government that it lends itself from time to time, with very short intervals, to so many things that have a distinctly demoralising tendency. Oncle in foun. years the whole American nation is convulsed by a great political contest to decide which party, and to some extent which man, shall have the control of the policy of the 'country, the right of nomination vo all its political offices, and the direction both of its lep-islaiion, and of the execution of its federal laws. The interests at stake are gigantic, and, as might be expected, the exertions made to obtain success are on a similar scale. For months beforehand the coming election overshadows all othei considerations in the domain of politics. Foreign and domestic policy are equally subservient to the question how they will affect the. polls. The steps to be taken by an admiral in Chinese or in Turkish waters are decided mainly with a view to this; and on the other hand the policj or impolicy of d great industrial strike is looked upon as largely dependant on its probable influence on the election.

As was to have been, expected the great combinations of capital, known generally as ''"the Trusts," have* com© forward liberally with money to support the Republican ticket. An American election is always a costly thing; but a Presidential election probably costs in cash on an average nearer three millions sterling than two. Some of the cost is legitimate, of course, but very much more is in its nature corrupt, and the corruption is of a sort which is hard to detect, and still harder to punish. That such large contributions are demanded from the great Trusts is not in itself a hopeful indication of the confidence which the leaders of the Republican party have in the success of their ticket; yet beyond doubt they will have their effect when November arrives. , At the last election it was stated with apparent truth that the election fund of the party was twice as great as that at the disposal of the Democrats, and it is suggestive that both sides regarded the fact as likely seriously to affect the issue. There can be no reasonable doubt that the same will be true this year. The funds at the disposal of the Republican leaders are likely to exceed those of their opponents by perhaps a million sterling, and so large a sum of money in hand at once so able and so unscrupulous cannot but produce an effect. On the other hand the advocacy of the Trusts is to-day very far from an unmixed advantage to any cause. The great packers' strike and the threatened strike of anthracite coal operatives may probably with justice be looked on as the set-offs provided by the opposite party; and they too will produce serious results .at the polls. In spite of all the personal popularity which Roosevelt's known hostility to the extreme influence of the Trusts has given him, his connection with the party which has the monetary support of the Trusts will arouse suspicion and create hostility.

To the world at large, no doubt, it seems as though the foreign policy issues raised by the approaching elections were the most important ones; the people of America may perhaps be pardoned if they take a different view of the matter. No doubt it is of great importance to America, as it certainly is to the rest of the world, whether the policy of annexation and colonisation represented by Roosevelt, or that of fraternal protection and assistance advocated by Parker, is to be the American foreign policy of the next four years; but it is even more important to them whether the domination of the Trusts, and the industrial unrest which seems its inevitable consequence, is to prevail at home. It may fairly be admitted that, taken alone, the foreign policy of the Republican party would command the sympathy of the majority; and if Roosevelt should be successful he will owe it largely to this fact; if, on the other hand, they sustain a defeat they will owe it to the conviction of the majority of the people that industrial peace at home, and the repression of the uncurbed influence of associated wealth, are even more important to the well-being of the country than a far-reaching and influential foreign policy which might make the Republic a leader among the nations.