Depew's Mistake

That even rnillionaire railroad presidents soiaetirnes make ruistakes was olearly dernonstrated in uuiversity hall Satnrday night, by that scion of the house of Vanderbilt, Dr. Channcey Depew. Dr. Depew was advertised to deliver a leoture before the stndents' lectnre assooiation, on a literary topic. Relying npon the fa me of Depew as an orator and a soholar a large assemblage of people willingly paid tha price of admission ($1.00) to what was dently expected to be a rare treat, Bnt with the true -'public be damned" spirit of the Vauderbilts, Depew threw bis subject to the winds, laid aside the robes of the scholar for the mouth of the deniagogne and in defianoe of the estabJished precedents of that rostrum, and the rules established by the board of regents, fired a cheap political harangue at his surprised audienoe - the same argunieuts and the same jokes tbat the majority of his hearers had already read in the Detroit and Chicago papers. This breach of good faith was condemned by republicana and dein crats alike, as an injustioe to the university and the leoture assooiation and should be repudiated by Pres. Angelí and the offlcers of the association. The only point raised by Mr. Depew that bas not beeu talked threadbare on every street corner, was that of the propriety of making the finannial question a political issue. He contended that because snch questions are not discussed by the people of other countries tbat it is not proper to submit them to theVleliberations of the American people - that thcy ought not to become political questions, but should be turned over to experts - presumably like himself - for discussion and settlement. Upou this point the Argus takes issue with the learned doctor aDd railroad president. Thcre is no question which affects the welfare of the Arnericaa people that is not, and should not in the very nature of things, be a political question in the sense that it should be decided by the people at the polls after the fullest and freest discussion. In our systeru of government the only way in which the sentiment of the people may be impressed upon legislation is tbrongh the medium of political parties and it is emiuently proper that campaigns should be made npon such issues. Indeed it has been a common complaint of late years that there has been no real issue, but the offices dividing the great political parties. Now that we have a real issue and the electors are grappling with its subtleties and mastering its fundamental propositions as no other people on earth could do, along comes a representative of America's codfish aristocracy with the proposition that the question upou which the public mind is concentrated should not be submitted to the vulgar discussion of the common people at all - that it is a proper topic fór discussion only by such flnancial lights as Depew, Vanderbilt, Astor, Gonld, etc. But the people will hardly agree with Dr. Depew upon this point. They will probably conclude that if they are to preserve even the form of popular government they must do their own thinking and especially will they guard with zealous care a matter that has so important a bearing npon their prosperity as the standard of their monetary system. In this state they may even go so f ar as to insist that the coutrol of the New York Central ralroad, over whose destinies Dr. Depew presides when he is noo making gold bug speeches, is a matter of public concern and a proper subject for political action.