Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1862-10-30
Juan's Twenty Years Experience
in America.
CHAPTER ".

The city of Providence did not seem
to Juan very desirable as point for
him to locate at, so he concluded to
travel farther. In truth the New Eng
land States in the year 1912 were not
in very fourishing condition; what
with the Rhode Island war, and the de-
preston in manufactures, and the polit-
ical strifes which had been going on in
the nation generally for some previous
years, the country could not be said to
be in very prosperous condition any
where in those days. Gen. Harrison,
however, had been elected president
under the auspicies of the Whig party.
Congress had taken action on the matter
of tariff from which the manufacture
inc intrests of the nation expected to
derive some benefit in the way of home
protection for manufactures, and to-
wards the end Of the year business be-
can to be a little more stirring in GER
tain localities. and the New England
States assumed more and more activity
as gradually the manufactures Of cotton
fabrics and WOODEN fabrics were getting
into operation this furnished employ
ment to operatives Of different dcscrip-
tions and money, Gf pictured paper may
be called such) was getting into clrcula-
ton ;-"the country, as shrewd down
easterner then said sis looking up. -
One feature in this American country,
Juan thought, very remarkable: that IS,
it's wonderful elasticity to-day it may
be all down, business all stagnated,
money tighter than the pelt of a drum,
every interest dropping, melancholy,
forlorn the aspect frightful to-mor-
row all activity, hustle, go-ahead, "up
she goes" and one act of Congress has
amazing power to cripple or expand the
energies of the country. So it was
when General Harrison was elected /;
previous to his election hundreds OF
factories of one sort or other were stop
ped, and machinery rotting; there was
little or no employment for labor, hun
dreds of people in the manufacturing
dcstricts had nothing to do, and hun
dreds of immigrants who came to the
country with the expectation OF better
ing their condition, returned to the
homes they had left worse off than
when they went away, denouncing
America as a miserable poor place.
The Whig party, however, put forth an
effort-a strong effort, General HAIR
RIsoN was made President, and tariff
to encourage home manufacturing was
secured. and it is remarkable in what a
short time the country, New England
especially, began to show signs of life,
and ''two dollars day and roast beef
for an industrious mechanic was not a
mith, especially mechanic that knew
how to make, or operate cloth making
machinery
All this did not happen through any
prodigious capacity that General HAR-
RIsoN in himself possessed any more
than that he was the representative OF
the Whig party, and the intrest which
that party wished to sustain; and some
of the greatest statesmen that America
has yet produced were at that time lden-
tilted with the Whig party. HARRISON
was not by any means the greatest states
man but he was the most available can
didate for the Presidency that the par
ty could nominate, and Juan learned,
when the story of this Presidential elee-
tion was told him, that the policy of