Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1881 — Western Sentiment [ARTICLE]

Western Sentiment

There is no doubt that the present flurry over the funding bill will have an influence in shaping public opinion on other things, it illustrates the uei cessity there is for the clear expression I of \Y esteru Republican sentiment on fimiifcial and economic questions, of the ten Western States, nine are now Republican. Leaving out Missouri, there is a solid block of Republican states extending from Pennsylvania on the east to the Territories on the west. In these States there has been lapid increase iu population, great advance In wealth and prosperity, and a wholsome growth in Republican majorities.

During the four years of Garfield’s administration, the status of several important questions is to be fixedThe future of the silver dollar and nf j the greenbacks, and all questions incident to the rechsrtering of the national banks, must be definitely settled, imd in the settlement of these questions, and all kindred ones, why should not the great group of Western States have as mueli influence as tlie Eastern States? Why should Wall street, ruuuing to extremes this way and lh.it, bs more potent in legislation than the healthy conservatism and even-tempered moderation of the West? , The West has been taunted, within the last few years, with a tendency to extreme views on tlie financial questions, but iu the present crisis, when there is certainly a strong demand for well-con-ddered action, it is ndt the West that is runuing to extremes but the East. If this continues, is it not possible that Wall street may lose prestige, ana the East lose influence as a j>ower Iu legislation, while the West gains iu prestige and absolute power? At such a time as this, or in any crisis,

**y comparison between the two sections is favorable to the West. This esunot escape the observation of thinking men at Washington or elsewhere, and the ttiUnsate result will be that the lufiuenoe of the Republican Btatea which have so rapidly increased thsir capacity to produce the great trade staples will neutralise, if not overshadow, the influence of the East. Whether the funding bill becomes a law or not, the agitation has already turned public thought in the West in the channel above indicated. It is scarcely necsessary to sav that the grond gained by the West through the wrongheadedness of wall street will not be surrendered without a struggle, and it may afford a base for future operations in which the Srates tributary to Chicago will sustain new relations to the moneyed interests of the country. —lnter Ocean.