Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1895 — Vast Damage. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Vast Damage.

It will cost a million drachmas to put the Parthenon, the Temple of Thesus, and the other monuments in Athens damaged by last year's earthquake In a safe condition. An appeal for help will be sent out to all countries.' , r Hermann Boerhaave, the illustrious scientist and physician, who accumulated a fortune estimated at 2,000,000 florins, said the poor were his best patients, because' God paid him for them.

Greater Value of Our Factories to Capital-and Labor—Their Products Worth a Hundred Dollars Every Tear to Each Inhabitant.

Higher Wages in Mines.

According to the 1890 census report the total output of the gold mines was 1,590,869 ounces, of coinage value of $32,886,744. The total output of the silver mines reached 51,354,851 ounces, of a coinage value of i 566,396,988,th0ugh the value of all the silver at the mine’s mouth to the mine owner would practically be about the same worth as the value of the gold that was mined. Combining the coinage value of the gold and silver output in that year, It was slightly less than one hundred million dollars, as compared with the output of our manufactures, worth more than six and a quarter billions of dollars, as shown below: Gold and silver product: Ounces. Coin value. Gold 1,590,869 $32,886,744 Silver 51,354,851 66,396,988

—Total coinage value..... .$99,283,732 Value of manufactures... .$6,278,338,476 According to the census report the value of the gold and silver plants was $465,960,566, to which must be added the values of the mills and reduction plants, worth $20,362,772, making the total mining plant value to be $486,323,338. On the side of the manufacturing industries we have hired property worth $833,173,008 and direct cash Investment aggregating $3,996,705,734. Thus while the total gold and silver mining plant value of the Vnited States was worth four hundred and eightysix and one-third millions of dollars, the total value of the investments in manufactures was ten times as much, or nearly five billions of dollars. There were at the time of taking our , last census 180,000 more factories In the United States than gold and silver mines; the amount of capital invested reached nearly $5,000,000,000 In the manufacturing Industries, while It was less than half a billion dollars In the gold and silver mines. Where the gold and silver mines gave employment to 57,307 people the factories found work for fifty times as many, or 2,907.882 hands. Whefe the amount Of wages distributed to those who worked in connection with the gold and silver mines reached $43,180,696 a year it was nearly forty jtiines as much in the case of the factories, which In the same year paid out over a billion and a half of dollars In wages. With thirty times as many factories as there were gold and silver mines; with ten times as much capital invested In factories as in the mines, it Is still surprising to learn that the total value of the products of the factories was almost seventy times as great as the entire value of the product of our gold and silver mines, the latter reaching less than $100,00(7,000, while' the pro ; " duct value of the factories exceeded six and a quarter billions of dollars. In the item of miscellaneous expenses, too, where the mines disbursed $20,270,440, the factories disbursed nearly twentythree times as much, or $454,844,850. It must further be remembered that the factories paid out $3,363,177,034 for raw material purchased for their own use, whereas the gold and silver mines supply their own raw material, from which alone they can derive their product.

Now let us glance at the average output and earnings of both mines and manufactures per annum for each employe, and that this exhibit may be more interesting we give the average output and earnings of the coal miners and of the workers in the granite mines as follows: Average output and earnings: Per employee per annum. Output. Earnings. Sold and 5i1ver....... .$1,732 $729 Coal G 75 474 Granite 648 431 Manufactures 2,159 539 Naturally oue would anticipate that the average value of the output of the gold and silver mines would be more per man than the output of our factories, but we confess surprise at having discovered that such is not the case, the output of our factories exceeding that of our gold and silver mines by $427 per employe per annum. The output of the coal and granite mines, it will be noted, is but little more than one-third fit tha.t of the gold and silver mines. As far as the average earnings of the employes are concerned, the gold and silver mine workers have by far the best of It, receiving nearly S2OO a year more than the average earnings of each man In the factories, $250 a year more than the coal miners and nearly S3OO a year more than the workers in the granite mines. This gives an Idea of the relative values of the products per man. The product of our gold and silver mines was worth, at its coinage value, $1.58 per capita of our population. In the same year the products of our factories were worth over SIOO per capita of our population. For each $1.58 per capita of wealth added to the country through the gold and silver mines there were SIOO, more than sixty times as much, added through the products of our manufacturing industries. It should be remembered, however, that every dollar of the precious metals produced is an enduring addition to the world’s wealth. They aid the industries of the East and agriculture everywhere. The products of factories, on p thS other hand, are not generally of lasting value; being consumed from month to month and from year to year!

The Price of Wool.

The American farmer will be Interested in studying a comparison of the

1894. 1895. per Grade. Cents. Cents, lb. Indiana quarter blood unwashed 17# 16#“T“ No. 1 medium unwashed. 16 13 3 Fine unwashed 14 , 11# 2# Fine territory, 70 per cent shrinkage 10 9 1 It was thought that prices could not fall below the figures of a year ago, when it was hoped that the effect of free trade in wool had been fully anticipated. But the result Is even worwt Than the anticipation.

M. J. Dowling.

Elected Secretary of the National League of Republican Clubs at the recent convention In Cleveland.

A Farmer Learns a Lesson.

A few months ago a farmer friend shipped a carload of horses to Cornwall, Conn., and before returning vlslted Dalton. Mass. At .this point be made a partial bargain with a dealer to ship him several carloads of hay. His son, having occasion to visit Massachusetts, was Instructed by my friend to call on the Dalton man and close the hay trade. He did so, only to find that, after the passage of the Gorman bill, hay had gone off $2 a ton, which shut out Mr. S. L. Judd's Illinois hay, because the Dalton dealer was being stocked up from Canada. Mr. Judd has on bis hands a hundred tons of as fine timothy hay as was ever mowed away, and he now sees quite plainly how the McKinley bill aided him. " He lives a thousand miles from Dalton, yet, for all that, the effect of a Canadian hay sale In that little New England town is felt at a small way station on the Chicago and lowa Railroad, fifty miles west of Chicago. B. THINKEN. Another proof of the foregoing is found In the following business card addressed to a large feed establishment In Jersey City: “Montreal, Canada. Dear Sir: With the reduction in the tariff I am able to reduce prices on hay, No. 1 timothy, from $17.25 to $14.25.” How does this strike the American farmer?

A Monument to Free Trade.

Labor Seeks Knowledge.

A significant item of news comes from Columbus, Ohio, and one full of encouragement, Indicating as it does that the organized labor of this country is beginning to realize that free trade put In practice is the enemy of American Industry. This Item reads thus: “A delegation representing the Ill! nols Federation of Labor called upon Governor McKinley to-day and invited him to be present and deliver an address at the great Fourth of July celebration which Chicago organized labor purposes to give this year. The delegation was composed of Richard Powers, of the Sailors’ Union, W. C. Pomeroy, representing the State Federation, and W. M. Groves, secretary of the same body. The Governor was unable to make the delegation a definite answer at this day, but will try to make arrangements to attend.”—Sunday Inter Ocean.

Free Trade’s Foothold.

Vhat Oar Neighbors Are Do!nff -3f»ttm of General and Local Interest—Marriage* and Deathi—Accidents and Crimea—Pertonal Pointers About Tndlanlans.

Minor State News.

Ei. wood has located a big machine shop to employ 100 men. Albert Whetstoxe, a giant weighing 482 pounds, a native of Atlanta, Hamilton County is dead. Miss' Yißoixia Lcckridoe, recently injured in a runaway accident atGreencastle, died of her injuries. Charles Mclxtire, aged 4. fey from a fence at New Albany, and died in a few minutes from concussion of the brain. % Jacob Davis was cutting wheat near Delphi, when his team ran away, dragging the binder over him, causing tastant death. Fred Shafer, while riding on an L. 8. & M. 8. freight train, near Elkhart, was brutally assaulted ami robbed by tramps. The barn of Curran Bell, south of Elwood, was struck by lightning during* thunder-storm, and burned up. Loss $1,200. Tiie Union Steel Works, of Alexandria, employing 1,000 men, has increased the wages of their employes ten per cent, all around. The signing of the new tin-plate wage scale insures steady employment for the army of workmen is the American Tinplate Works at Ehvood. John Su ckhex bran d, a tinner, committed suicide at Boswell, Benton County, by hanging himself. He had been in the Insane Asylum several times. Albert Berry, the 14-year-old son of Prof. N. Berry, was drowned in Eel river at Loganspcrt, while bathing with two companions. The body was recovered. Eari. Lacey, aged 4, was drowned In a pit at Jeffersonville. The boy was missed from home, and he was located by the moaning of his big dog near the edge of the pit. Bee Ki iisb, who found a valuable bed of aragonite, or limestone rock, on his farm near Ingalls, has begun the construction of kilns, looking to the manufacture of commercial lime. Tiie Elwocd Oil Producing Company has drilled in another 100-barrel well on its land near Geneva, and six more wells will be put down immediately, as the field gives exceptional promise of richness. At Cowan in a runaway accident Mrs. George Keltner, of Muncie, was dangerously injured and her 6-year-old daughter had an arm broken. A Mrs. Voriee, who was in the carriage, had an arm broken. New wheat is beginning to come into market at Wabash earler, by nearly ten days, than was ever known before. The yield runs from seven to fifteen bushels per acre, and the quality generally is rather poor. The Marion Circuit Court has decided that the Adams Express Company can only be taxed on personal property in this State. The State Tax Commissioners had assessed the company on a mileage basis, and the company for an Injunction. The casSKvill goto the State Supreme Court, and probably to the United States Supreme Court for final settlement.

Hexbv Lucas, a farmer, aged 20, was probably fatally injured at Knigbtatown in a railroad accident. He attempted to cross the'track in frfffft of the Pennsylvania limited, when his vehicle was struck and demolished and the horse instantly killed. Lucas Vas hurled a distance of thirty feet. He is severely injnred and recovery is doubtful. At Mick McCarty’s saloon, Muncie, Thomas Rodgers was accidentally shot in the left groin by William Everett. The wounded man cannot live.. The two men are flint-glass blowers andjemployed at the Muncie flint-glass works. A crowd of men were in the saloon, and Everett was recklessly flourishing the self-acting gun, when it went off. Both were the best of friends, tut had been drinking. C'fr xcn bugs in large numbers have appeared in the eastern part of Bartholomew County, and are doing great damage to the growing corn. In some localities since the wheat lias been harvested these pests have become so numerous that the cornstalks are black with thenr. At Bumsbill a quart of the bugs was gathered and shipped to Prof. W. C. I.atta. of Purdue University, to be inoculated with chinch bug cholera. These bugs will be returned and scattered among the living ones with a hope of thus exterminating them. Wiiii.k Otto Logan was drawning off a barrel of varnish in the bam of W. A. Williams, Wabash, the fluid, from some unknown cause, exploded. Young Logan was burned about the face and hands, but hastened to turn in an alarm. The department responded quickly, but everything was very dry and the bam and contents were destroyed. Two valuable horses were lost. The flames communicated to W. R. Collins's stable, which was also consumed. Total loss, $1,200; insurance on Williams’s barn, S4OO. State Gas Inspector J. C. Leach has returned from Alexandria, wliere he has been trying for a week to conquer an obstreperous gas well owned by the DePauw Plate-glass Com pan). Three weeks ago the w ell was anchored, and soon thereafter the confined gas began blowing the water oat of all the water and gas wells in the neighborhood. . The gas evidently escaped through a b oken casing and found its way through the shale and clay to the surface of the . ground. Residents of the vicinity were alarmed to find their houses, cellars, wells and outbuildings filled with the fluid, and only utmost care prevented many explosions. To prevent accidents the officers ordered the well opened again, and it has for three weeks been blowing off 3,600,000 feet of gas daily. Three expert gas-well men refused to undertake the job of restraining the “runaway.” Contractor Decker was finally induced, and he has the machinery Wi the ground. Mr. I,each and D ePauw people hope to have the well under control soon. The escaping gas is boiling up in Pipe creek, half a mile away. The Union City Council has authorized the School Board to issue bonds to the amount of SIO,OOI to build a new' schoolhouse. The present forty-five-thousand-dollar school building, built in 1892, is overcrowded. Wm. 11. Aktman and Joseph Paxton, two life-time convicts in the prison south, died, the other day, within 15 minutes of each other, while lying side by side iu the prision hospital. Artman was the victim /.Ai&aitmuiiisik ii/hilo !)• ti Inn dia/l fwABl ©i c©ii3itiii|/ii*ni, wuUd i baiuii urou iiwm the effects of an assault by a fellow-convict. Artisan killed his wife and son, afc Tell City in 1893. Paxton murdered SjMmoer Bryant, at Jeffersonville, in 1888.