Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1908 — “MUCH SUFFERING THIS WINTER” [ARTICLE]

“MUCH SUFFERING THIS WINTER”

The Indianapolis News (Ind. Rep.) of Oct. 9, says: We have shown how the trusts by keeping up prices lessen the demand for their products and so throw men out of employment.- Fred Starek, writing from Wheeling to the Cincinnati Enquirer, for employment by closing plants at will. In Wheeling there is a branch of the National Tube Company, which is constituent part of the United States Steel Corporation. This mill was closed a year ago when the panic struck the country, and has been closed ever since. The result was that 4,000 men were thrown out of work and have been, most of them, unemployed <-ver since. Now it is not to be said that the trust is necessarily to blame for this. For It is quite conceivable that it found it possible to to produce more cheaply elsewhere. But stll there are 4,000 men out Of work. Other mills across the river have been closed since November last and as a consequence 2,000 more men, 500 of whom live In Wheeling, have nothing to do.

The other day we tyere told in an official report that “five thousand children who attend the public schools of Chicago are habitually hungry,” and that “ten thousand other children tn the city, while not such extreme cases, do not have sufficient food.” Commenting on the above facts the News says:

Undoubtedly there will be much suffering this winter, and many calls for relief. For the panic and depression have lasted m*ch longer than most people thought possible. There havo been few concessions in the matter ot prices, so that we have a most unusual combination —namely, hard times and high prices. Probably those people who have about as much a* they ever had, and who have not been forced to change their style of living, do not realise how much distress there is, especially in the manufacturing centers.

The. notorious political blackmailer, Mulhall, the creature of the Republican committees and VanCleave’s antilabor union association, came into the state originally to work for Watson’s nomination. Since his nomination he has solicited brewery support for Watson when his time was not employed with bls other schemes.