All accounts from the - United States agree in the statement
that the Presidential election this year will be a most un- certain one. There is no probable candidate who excites personal enthusiasm, and the two great parties are both split by a transverse fissure. The Republicans, if they voted together, could secure a heavy majority, but they will not vote together. Jingoism is dead, there is no race question in front, and the tariff question can be compromised, but the "gold bugs" and " ailverites " are as opposed to each other as men of hostile creeds. The contest will be fought as a currency contest, and there is not a State or a partyin which the old issues are not partially obscured. The advocates of a gold standard think they have a majority, but acknowledge that among the masses of Western men, with whom the election really lies,. they will not feel certain of the result until the ballots have been counted. There is widespread distress in the West, and the belief of millions is that it is due to the demonetisation of silver and the persistent " sucking " of their resources by capitalists who are all advocates of a gold standard. Much of the irritation felt against this country arises from a belief that she owes her fortune to her steady support of a gold standard which, in the opinion of the silver men, robs every debtor for the benefit of his creditor. He ought to be able to pay, they say, in dollars, and if dollars are cheap so much the better.
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