Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1897 — A DEADLY PARALLEL. [ARTICLE]

A DEADLY PARALLEL.

CLEVELANDISM AND M’KINLEYISM CONTRASTED. Conditions Daring First Two Months of McKinley Protective Tariff Somewhat Different from Corresponding Sixty Days of Cleveland Free Trade. Two Administrations. Special Washington correspondence: The ciose of the first sixty days of the operations of the new tariff law and the business improvements which fare visible in every direction during that time have suggested a comparison of the conditions during the two months in question with those of the corresponding date in the first year of the Cleveland administration, during which time the free trade Congress elected with President Cleveland was just beginning its attack upon the protective system which the Dingley law sixty days ago re-established. The two periods from July 24 to Sept. 24 in the years 1883- and 1897, respectively, present a marked contrast as to business conditions, and it is possible to obtain from Government records some data bearing upon this subject and now especially interesting. Sixty of Cleveland-Wilsonism. The following data gathered largely from ofliical reports presents a picture of the sixty-day period of the year 1803 with which the two months just ended correspond, both as to the portion ol’ the year and the period of the I’resi-

dential administration and also proximity to tariff legislation. Week ending July 24, 1893. —Failure of Bozeman, Mont., National Bank. Four Denver banks closed their doors. Bank suspensions in other Western cities. Two bank failures in Milwaukee and runs on numerous other banks. Commercial Bank of Denver fails, capital $250,000. Bank failures at Vernon, Tex., and Knoxville, Tenn., capital $200,000. Failure of Tacoma, Wash., National Bank, capital $200,000; also failures of banks at Great Falls, Mont., and Orlando, Fla., capital $200,000. Suspension of work in manufactories reported from all sections. Week ending Aug. 1, 1893. —National banks at Manchester, N. H., and Indianapolis, Ind., fail, capital $500,000. Failure of First National Bank at Spokane, Wash., capital $250,000. Ten banks suspend in one day (July 27), capital $2,000,000. Bank failures in South Dakota, Montana, Illinois, Kansas, Texas, Washington, New Hampshire, and correspondingly large number of business suspensions.

Week ending Aug. 8, 1893.—Collapse of Chicago Provision Deal and many failures of commission houses. Failure of National Bank of El Paso, Tex. Failure of National Bank of San Antonio, Tex. Failure of National Bank of Muncie, Ind. Fifty-third Congress meets in special session to begin its destruction of the McKinley law. Week ending Aug. 28,1893.—Encounter between the anarchists and socialists nverted by New York police. Meeting of anarchists broken up by New York police. Failure of national bank at Hindman, Pa. Failure of national bank at Tacoma, Wash. Suspension of manufacturing establishments in numerous States. Announcement by Comptroller of the Currency that 155 national banks and 560 private banks had failed during the year ending Aug. 28. Railroad receivers appointed during August for Northern Pacific, Philadelphia and Reading, New England, and Pittsburg, Akron and Western.

September.—Railroad receivers appointed. for Wisconsin Central, Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis, Cleveland, Canton and Southern, and Evansville and .Terre Haute railroads. The mileage of roads placed in the hands of receivers during the year 1893 was 25,375, nearly one-seventh of all the lines in the United States, and their indebtedness $1,212,217,033. During the year there were 16,115 mercantile suspensions, involving liabilities amounting to $346,779,889. During the bank suspensions of July, loans were made on call at the N. Y. Stock Exchange as high as 72 per cent. Sixty Days of McKinley-Dinglej-ism. The following statements of revival of manufacturing industries during the sixty days following the enactment of the Dingley law, the period corresponding with the similar dates in the first year of Cleveland’s second term, show the contrast between present conditions and those of the corresponding months of the preceding administration. The statements which follow are from Bradstreet’s Financial Journal: Week ending July 24, 1897. —Twenty thousand workmen resume work in the iron and steel industries. Bigelow Carpet Co., at Clinton, Mass., resume work, 900 hands. Packer Colliery at Rappahannock, Pa., resumes work, 1,000 hands. Columbus, 0., Buggy Co., resumes, 400 men. 0., B. &Q. Co. reports full complement of hands at work in its railroad shops for first time in several years. Chattanooga Tradesmen announces large number of iron furnaces in South resuming •work. McKenna Steel Works, Joliet, 111., resume, 400 hands. Spinners at silk mill, Paterson, N. J., receive increase in wages from sto 20 per cent. Pittsburg Plate Glass Co., Kokomo, Ind., resumes, 800 hands. Jones & Laughlin Iron Works, Pittsburg, resume, 3,500 hands. Maine Central Railroad increases wages of employes. Week ending July 31, 1897.—T0d furnaces, Youngstown, 0., resume workl Numbers of ‘manufacturing concerns in Connecticut and Pennsylvania resume work. Furnaces at Birmingham and Bessemer, Ala., resume work. Algonquin woolen mills, Passaic, N. J., increase grages 10 15 per cent Atchison Bail-

way Co. aaaouncM inability to supply new cars to meet demands of shippers. Week ending Aug. 7, 1897.—Ensign Car Manufacturing Co., Huntington, W. Va„ resumes work. Cleveland, 0., rolling mills resume, 2,000 hands. Sugar producers of Louisiana advance wages 16 per cent. Cotton mills at Lancaster, Pa., resume, 1,000 hands. American Watch Co., Waltham, Mass., resumes in all departments. Iron works at Mahoning and Lebanon, Ohio, and Birmingham, Ala., resume. Week ending Aug. 28, 1897. —Fall River Iron Works resume on full time, 2,700 hands. Fall River Printing Co. resumes on full time. Columbus, Hocking Valley R. R. shops increase from half time to 10-hour schedule. Illinois Steel Co. announces resumption of work. National Tube Works at McKeesport, Pa., announce increase of wages. Union Iron and Steel Co., Youngstown, 0., resume work after a long shut-down. Pennsylvania Railroad shopA at Altoona increase schedule to ten hours. Washington, Pa., Steel and Tin Plate Co. doubles working capacity. Birmingham, Ala., Railroad shops extend schedule to ten hours. Lawrence, Mass., Hosiery Mill resumes, 2,000 hands. Car works at Michigan City, Ind., increase schedule to twelve hours, with two years’ work engaged, 1,500 hands. Week-ending Sent. 18. 1897.—Cordflge_ mills at Isaia, 0., purchased for $500,000, to be reopened at once after several years of idleness. East Lake Woolen Mills, Bridgeton, Pa., resume after three years’ idleness. Wead Paper Mill, Malone, N. Y., resumes after two years’ idlaness. Large advance in wages of coal miners and conclusion of coal strike. A. B. CARSON. Wonderfully Improved. “While the newspaper stories have been somewhat exaggerated, it Is an absolute fact that the Western farm-

er’s financial condition is wonderfully Improved. During the past three years he practiced such economy that with a slight Improvement of wheat prices last fall and fair values of cattle, sheep, and hogs, the thrifty farmer gradually reduced his debts. With good prices this fall, he is indeed paying off the mortgage. The fall in the interest rate is as remarkable as the other features of the rising tide.”—American Agriculturist.

Brief Political Comment. Is there a “famine” in raw hides? There has been an increase of over thirty per cent, in the price of that article since the framing of the Dingley law. Those dreary and depressing statements showing the enormous dumber of business failures all over the country during the four years of the Cleveland administration are rapidly disappearing. The business failures during the second vroek of the present September were only 169, while those of the corresponding week of 1893 were 34G, and they range in that vicinity during the corresponding week in each year of the Cleveland term. The contrast between the gold surplus since the new administration came in and that during the Cleveland administration is very remarkable. Mr. Cleveland was compelled to sell hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bonds to keep up the “reserve,” while the Treasury Department has just notified the Subtreasurer of New Y'ork that It has all the gold it needs and that he need not make any effort whatever to add to the accumulation. The Ohio Democrats who are running away from their silver platform have plenty of company now. Chairman Jones has recommended to the New York Democrats that they drop silver, and Senator Gorman is also en-* gaged in the delightful occupation In his State of advising Maryland Democrats to perform the same act The proposition to make something out of nothing was too thoroughly tested last year to make It a safe one this.