Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1899 — RULE OF M’KINLEY. [ARTICLE]

RULE OF M’KINLEY.

IT IS MARKED BY THE RETURN OF PROSPERITY. The Long-Faced Misanthrope and Wild-Eyed Calamity Howler Have Perished from the Earth—General Increase in Wages in All Industries. Two years ago William McKinley was Inaugurated as President of the United States. He had been in obedience to the manifest will of the great majority of his party, nine months previous to such Inauguration. At the time of his nomination the country was in a deplorable condition. Unwise and unscientific legislation relative to duties on Imports had crippled manufactories. Pernicious assaults on the credit of the country and threats against the Integrity, of the standard of value bad driven capital at home and abroad into hiding. American securities had been thrown on the market in wholesale quantities by foreign investors. Fortunes were sacrificed in the mad scramble to sell, as lives are often sacrificed in the rush of a crowd to make exit from a burning building. Interest rates were high, and the best of security failed to induce loans/ Wages had been decreased and many great Industries were paralyzed, millions of wage earners were Idle, and the price of agricultural products was lower on the average than for a generation. Bad as was this condition, matters were made worse by the boldest assault ever made by a political party, on the currency of the country. The threat of free coinage, like the approach of a pestilence, had well nigh precipitated a panic. The convention which nominated McKinley declared emphatically for the maintenance of the gold standard of value and a scientific revision of the tariff. It assured the country that the endorsement of these propositions and the fulfillment of these pledges would restore normal conditions, and insure a return of prosperity beneficent alike to producer and consumer, the employer and the employed. The people by a majority of a million votes and by a preponderance of the votes of the electoral college gave power to the Republican party, on these representations. The wisdom of this decision was immediately made manifest. Confidence began to be restored the moment it was known that the gold standard of value was to be maintained, and that the tariff bill of 1894 was to give place to a more scientific measure. . The rush to sell American securities at a sacrifice ceased. Prices slowly began to advance. Business expanded gradually and healthfully. Not a moment was lost in taking the initiative in the line of the fulfillment of party pledges. Congress was convened tn extraordinary session and put in more hours of work than any other Congress since the dose of the war. The result is that in spite of all drawbacks incident to a war with a foreign power, all pledges relative to a return of prosperity have been made good. The official record is before us. The close of McKinley’s second year in the White House and the end of the life of the Congress elected on the same day was significantly marked by the publication on that day of the reports of the two commercial agencies which weekly chronicle the Industrial condition of the country. It was by all odds the most encouraging report ever promulgated by these agencies. It brought glad tidings to all branches of Industry and to all classes of people.

To the business world in general, it announced the greatest volume of business every known in February. The exact words of the report are as follows: “In all the years of weekly commercial reporting, there has been no other week In which the reports from all parts of the country have been on the whole so good as they are this week.” Manufacturers were encouraged by reports of unprecedented advance sales at Increased prices. Agriculturists are notified that stocks are the largest ever held on March 1, with prices away in advance of two years ago. Merchants are promised a prosperous season. Last, but not least, is the record that wages have advanced all over the country. In cotton industries there has been a ten per cent advance in wages, and an increase in the number employed of twenty-five per cent. In iron and steel mills there has been an advance in wages averaging from ten to fifteen per cent and an increase in the number of persons employed averaging from twenty-five to thirty per cent Similar conditions prevail in copper mining. In thf lumber industries there has been an advance of twenty per cent in wages and more men are wanted than can be obtained. Among machinists there has been a return to the old schedule, and It is reported that in building trades a strong tendency is manifested towards shorter hours, or an Increase in wages. The conclusion of the whole matter is that two years of McKinley have been marked by a return of confidence, a revival of business, unprecedented expansion in export trade, increased wages, enlarged opportunities for employment, the rehabilitation of agriculture and a new birth of freedom and a new era of glory for the republic. The long-faced misanthrope traveling up and down the land asking with a sneer, “Where Is your prosperity?” has perished from the earth.—Cedar Rapids Republican. Achievements of Protection. A prominent manufacturer in a recent speech said: "The United States to do longer th# world’s market-the

whole world is now out salesroom.” Everyone who has even glanced at tfcM flguies of our foreign trade for 1898 and for the first month of 189& ' who has noticed, as everyone j have noticed, the comparative jR of our import and our exports’ must feel the truth of this jK; And recognizing its truth, surely admit, if not blinded O dice, that the protective tariff has been justified by Its fruit® | remark quoted above puts In a nt 1 theachievementsof protection. Tht . | it we have secured to the Amef< ? producer the American market, 1 j best market in the world; wegbA-d ; given employment to Americaif laral s we have developed our home Industries and have cheapened the cost of prodnfl tion, until now we can, in a large and! constantly growing number Of casee»a undersell all competitors, and are in al fair way to capture the markets ot thofl world. I Advance in Wages. >-fl The last bulletin sent out by tbal Massachusetts Bureau of Labor sents In tabulated form the rate of l wages paid in 1870 and 1898, taking the fl average for twelve cities scattered,! through the United States. The lowing is the table: 1 1870. l«il Blacksmiths $2.43 $2,431 Blacksmiths’ helpers.... 1.42 Boilermakers 2.35 2 Boilermakers’ helpers. 1.41 UH Bricklayers . . 3.15 3.311 Cabinetmakers 2.14 Carpenters 2.36 2.52® Compositors 2.52 Hodcarriers 1.75 2.flgM Ironmolders 2.80 2.M8 Ironmolders’ helpers 1.53 LmH Machinists 2.30 Machinists’ helpers 1.34 LflM Painters 2222 2.801 Patternmakers 2.70 2.90® Plumbers 2.74 3-1 Q Stonecutters 3.07 MM Teamsters 1.58 LHH In two or three trades the wage® have been stationary. There has beefl an advance in all the others, an av«fl age of 7% per cent, approximately. ;| | This is somewhat surprising, as gowfl times prevailed in the ’7os until the! panic of *73. But these trades do nofl cover the entire field. Among them rolling mill workers and among tl|fl cotton operatives we think a large defl cline would be shown, and, posslblffl in other trades, but without regard tfl these the showing Is flattering, as therfl has been an impression abroad thafl labor in the last twenty years has snfl sered a great decline. These figunifl though they are limited, do not estabfl lish that impression.—Cincinnati Conafl mercial-Tribune Reads Like an Old Story. || Reports received by the New Yorfl State factory inspector from his depufl ties show that in the course of 9,601 fl inspections made by them during tifl months of December, 1898, and Janlfl ary and February, 1899, they founfl that 373 new firms had gone into bmflj ness, and that 100 old firms which formerly closed up had resumed btufll ness. It was- found also that l.lflfl firms bad ingreased the number of tiNK employes. It appears that the totaTtfll crease in the number of employes frotfl all causes is 13,352. The reports «hoflf that 27 firms are working overtime nnfl 20 working double time, and that ttofl extra number of hours worked wetfl 11,268. This is pretty good testimony to tbfl labor-supplying qualities of the Dlng-1 ley tariff law. The report reads litoll those to which we grew accustomefli when the McKinley law was in forefl and it tells of an industrial situattofl strangely different from that whldlfl prevailed during the intervening yeajfl of “tariff reform” and ClevelandisnaMHl The Rise in Wages. Very rarely has there been such Jfl general increase in the wages of woriflß ers as has been announced during thfl past week, covering many cotton millfl iron and steel works, and coal and in number probably more 100,000 hands, average advance belnfl apparently over 10 per cent. This ito® volves a large increase in purchas&flß power of the people, with encouragflj ment for all branches of business. Somfl strikes for higher wages are in prefl! ress, though none of large importan|jfl| but some negotiations to the same enfl are pending.—Dun’s Review. S Has Reached the Wage Earner*. S The reports of advances In wagfl| come from all parts of the country anflj include all important branches of tradMl —cotton mills, iron and steel mills, itun-fl ber mills, coal mines, copper mines and® skilled workers of all kinds. One the most gratifying features of the shfl nation is that prosperity has reachflH the wage earners.—lndianapolis (Infflfl Journal. fl Political Drift. fl The boom in wages Is one of the morifl hopeful signs of the times, and It wifll do much to counteract the effect of tlfl| trust-promoting craze. fl Bryan is just boarding areomH among the Democrats, who are glvinfll banquets in his honor. It is easy fofl some men to make a living, z fl Congress has decided that a msjfl ought not to be punished for takingjflS arms in defense of his country. eral Wheeler will continue to sit in tfl|| House. fl Mr. Cleveland’s name is occasfonattfl mentioned in connection with a thlrtjfl term. The mass of Democrats do isl like Cleveland, but he is the only mad they have been able to make Presides®! since 1856. In the closing months of Ctevelani||fl| second administration the balance ofll trade in favor of the United States