The Next Presidential Election.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 36, 4 September 1902, Page 2

The Next Presidential Election.

The election for President in the United States is still a ong way off, but already party programmes are being formulated, and the names of probable candidates are being discussed. President Roosevelt has already intimated his intention ot seeking nomination as the Republican candidate. It seems to be generally understood, though it has not been explicitly stated, that Mr. Bryan will not be a candidate on this occasion, and the likelihood is that Mr. Grover Cleveland, who was President prior to the first election of the late President McKmley, will receive the nomination of the Democratic party. Mr. Bryan is a man of great eloquence and of fascinating personality, but his refusal to modify the veiws which he holds on the Silver question has always handicapped him, and it is probable that Mr. Cleveland, who is certainly a less brilliant man, would, by reason of his adherence to the gold standard, command a more general support.

So far as policy goes there are indications that the election will turn very largely on the attitude of the respective parties towards the Trusts system. The evil of this system is becoming daily more and more apparent and recent American papers are full of sketches and cartoons describing the tremendous hold which the various monopolies have on the trade and commerce of the country. The Democratic party are already in the field with a programme which pledges them to destroy the 1 rusts by removing the tariff provisions on which they depend. Here is the programme as formulated at a recent important meeting of the party : 'We are opposed, as the permanent policy of the Government, to the maintenance of dependent colonies to be governed outside the pale of the Constitution: We are agreed that the civil should always be supenor to the military power. We all favor freedom of commerce and genuine reciprocity with foreign nations. We stand for free trade in all articles controlled by the Trusts. There is no justification of the exercise of the power of legislation to make millionaires of one class of people and paupers of another. The whole system of Government favoritism which has been used to build up one man's business at the expense ot another s, by discriminating in favor of one industry as against another, is a vicious system which has long afflicted the country, and has grown more and more intolerable with years. Democracy will now stand for peace, free trade, and commerce, and honest friendliness with all nations, and entangling alliances with none.' The Republican party will probably reply with a platform in which regulation 'of the Trusts evil, which however is naturally fostered by the Republican policy of protection, will be a prominent plank. It is too soon to prophesy, but it is certain that in the present state of public feeling the party that is bold enough to declare * war to the knife ' on the Trusts system will command a very large measure of popular buppou.